The more society perfects itself morally and physically, the more do intellectual and manual labours become subdivided. Thus, in the habits of life, the attention of men becomes fixed upon objects, having an interest more and more special, in proportion as the fine arts, the sciences, and industry progress.
Whence it follows, that the more society progresses, the more necessity there is that its worship be perfected; for worship has for its object to call the attention of men, regularly assembled on the day of repose, to the interests which are common to all the members of society—to the general interests of the human race.
The reformer Luther, and, after his death, the ministers of the reformed churches, ought then to have studied the means of rendering worship as effective as possible, in fixing the attention of the faithful upon their common interests.
They ought to have studied the means and the circumstances most favourable for developing the fundamental principle of the Christian religion, "All men ought to act towards each other as brothers;" to familiarize their minds with this principle, and to accustom them to make an application of it to all social relationships, in order to prevent them from ever losing sight of it during the course of their lives, whatever might be the nature of their daily pursuits.
Now, to command the attention of men to any kind of ideas, to push them zealously forward in any given direction, two great means are necessary. It is necessary to generate fear, by a display of the terrible evils which must result from pursuing a conduct different from that which is prescribed to them; or to present the attraction of enjoyment, resulting necessarily from following the direction which is given them.
To produce, under these circumstances, the most powerful and useful activity, it is necessary to combine all the means, all the resources, which are furnished by the fine arts.
The preacher, called upon by the nature of things
