IN CHURCH HISTORY. 2$ 



by the primitive believers upon every Lord's Day, 

 and probably even more frequently. 



Fifth, The observance of the first day of the 

 week, as the Lord's Day, a day of rest and of wor- 

 ship, became at once a feature of the Christian 

 society. It will be observed that nowhere in the 

 Scriptures do we find any directions for changing 

 from the seventh day to the first day of the week. 

 And yet it became essentially a part of the usage of 

 the early Church to celebrate the Lord's victory over 

 death on that day, and to make that day as religious 

 a day as had been the custom with reference to the 

 Jewish Sabbath. Who authorized the change? and 

 when ? There is no satisfactory answer, unless we 

 suppose that our Lord Himself sanctioned it, in 

 some directions not recorded in the New Testament. 



Sixth, The use of Liturgies, or precomposed 

 forms of worship, became at once common, if not 

 universal, in the Christian Church. 



We have traces of old Liturgical forms in quota- 

 tions made in the Epistles themselves. See Eph. 

 v. 14; i Tim. iii. 16. And the history of the primi- 

 tive days shows a Liturgical worship everywhere 

 prevalent. It must be remembered, however, that 

 Liturgical worship was not then a new thing, newly 

 introduced, for the Jewish modes of worship were 

 of that character. 



Here then we perceive six features which were 

 found wherever the Church was established. 



