life, and translations, as such, are never permitted.

The ordinary clerical costume is much the same as in England, consisting of a suit of black, and a white neckcloth. The usual dress of a bishop is in no respect different from that of any other clergyman. In regard to the vestments used in divine service, it may be remarked that they are not designed to indicate collegiate distinctions. A bishop wears the usual full dress, with lawn sleeves, when performing acts peculiarly episcopal. At other times he appears in the vestments of an ordinary presbyter. The latter consist of a surplice, with a black silk scarf, a pair of bands, a gown of black silk, and sometimes a cassock and a sash. In the diocese of Kentucky, the bishop has made a distinction between the dress of presbyters and deacons, by restricting the use of bands to the former.

The regular Sunday services of a clergyman consist of morning and evening prayer and two sermons. These are always expected, and nothing more is absolutely necessary. Most of the clergy, however, in their zeal, go beyond these limits. Some personally superintend their Sunday-schools, and some add a third service at night. The Communion is generally administered once a month, and a weekly lecture is very frequent. During Lent, and in some of the city churches throughout

the year, Wednesdays and Fridays are observed as days of worship. There is no place in America in which the service of the Church is performed daily, unless the General Theological Seminary at New York may be regarded as an exception.

As I have remarked in a former chapter, clergymen are more frequently tempted to exceed their strength than to become remiss. I have known a bishop request a clergyman to diminish his labours; but have never known a bishop stimulate to increased exertion.

In the performance of common prayer, the whole congregation join in the responses, and the psalms and hymns are given out by the clergyman. In the reading of the Creed a disagreeable confusion sometimes arises when a stranger officiates. In my own parish, on one occasion, a bishop performed the services in the morning, and two priests in the afternoon and evening. The bishop read the article on the descent into hell, as it stands in the English Prayer Book; the first presbyter read the substitute permitted in America, "He went into the place of departed spirits ;" omitted the article altogether.

and the second Very frequently

the clergyman says one thing and the congregation another; and occasionally individuals, disapproving of their pastor's choice, repeat with marked emphasis the phrase which he rejects. The practice of

turning to the east when the Creed is repeated has been entirely forgotten.

In the congregation there are few, if any, poor persons, so that it is often difficult to dispose of the communion-alms according to the regulations of the Rubric. The Episcopal congregations are generally composed of highly-intelligent and respectable people, many of whom have received an excellent education. Hence, intellectual sermons are held in great esteem, and elegant composition is duly appreciated. Common-place discourses are disregarded, and old or borrowed ones are never tolerated. Some oratorical genius is always necessary to clerical success in republican America. Yet it too frequently happens that ordinary sentiments are dressed in a florid and figurative style, approaching to the nature of bombast.

Sunday-schools are conducted on various plans. The American Sunday School Union has published books of instruction which are used by Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and some Episcopalians. On the other hand, the Episcopal Sunday School Union designs in its publications to illustrate the peculiar principles of the Church, as well as the general doctrines of the Bible. It has issued a number of catechisms explanatory of the Church Catechism, of the Prayer Book, of the Life of Christ, of Episcopacy, of the Evidences of Christ

ianity, &c. It has published also a course of Scriptural Study, Lessons on the Bible, Bishop Hobart's Liturgy for Sunday Schools, and various little religious books, adapted to a juvenile library. All classes of white children voluntarily attend the Sunday-schools, on terms of perfect equality. The instruction is almost wholly of a religious kind, reading and spelling being taught in the common or private schools. Still it too frequently happens that parents regard Sunday-schools as exonerating them from the pious instruction of their offspring, while the pastor devolves this important charge upon young and inexperienced teachers. These teachers also occasionally regard themselves as possessing independent powers, and forget that, although their labours are gratuitous, they act solely by the authority and with the permission of their pastor.

Baptisms are usually performed in the church in the presence of the congregation, and immediately after the second Lesson, as the Rubric requires. On account of the neglect into which infant baptism has fallen among other denominations, an Episcopal clergyman is frequently called upon to baptize adults. Both infants and adults are sometimes baptized by immersion, according to the Rubric. In one Episcopal church in Kentucky, the font is in the shape of a large bath, six or seven feet in

length. Several persons in Philadelphia have been baptized by Episcopal clergymen in the river Schuylkill. No fees are taken for baptism, nor, indeed, generally, for any occasional service, except matrimony.

In regard to confirmation, some satisfactory evidences of serious feeling and religious character are required by the pastor before a person is presented to the bishop. Hence, the candidates are usually of a riper age than in England; and the rite is rendered solemn and impressive in the highest degree. It is regarded as immediately introductory to the holy communion, and is performed in the parish church to which the candidates belong.

Marriages are generally performed by ministers when the parties are respectable, and when a clergyman can be obtained. They are sometimes celebrated in private houses, and sometimes in churches, although there is a growing preference for the latter. The laws of the different states, in regard to marriage are various. In some, the banns must be published for three successive Sundays. In others, licences are issued by the clerk of the county court. Young couples accordingly often elope from one state to another in which the laws are less severe. Too great a facility is permitted in regard to the granting of divorces. It