The service began with the hundredth psalm, according to the version of Sternhold and Hopkins; and then we can easily image the pastor beneath the huge sounding-board, standing erect--portly in form, dignified in mien, comely in face, his person set off to advantage by a curled wig and a flowing gown--offering prayer and next expounding a lesson in the Old Testament. The matter and manner may be learnt from perusing his _Commentary_, where, in the picturesque quaintness of his thoughts, he aims not at singularity, but at fixing Divine truth in people’s memories and hearts. Another psalm and a longer supplication succeeded, and judging from his book on prayer, he must have excelled in that form of spiritual exercise. Then followed a sermon full of useful practical thought, arranged in singular devices, after Puritan precedents; for Matthew had great reverence for the ways of his father Philip, and of his father’s friends. What is said of the sire may be said of the son: “Many a good thought has perished because it was not portable, and many a sermon is forgotten, because it is not memorable; but like seeds with wings, the sayings of Henry have floated far and near, and like seeds with hooked prickles, his sermons stuck in his most careless hearers. His tenacious words took root; and it was his happiness to see, not only scriptural intelligence but fervent and consistent piety spreading among his parishioners.”[518] Singing and praying wound up the service, after it had lasted some three hours. This protracted worship would be deemed sufficient for one day; but in the afternoon the same thing was repeated, the exposition of the New Testament being substituted for that of the Old. We are apt to pity men who performed or endured such lengthened duties, but really the duty cannot be regarded as having involved much hardship for them. Such long services were their own choice. Some might fancy that under the weight of these prayers, these expositions, and these sermons, every Sabbath regularly for twenty-four years, the pastor’s strength would break down; yet the good man seems to have borne the wear and tear of it all remarkably well. [Sidenote: NONCONFORMISTS.] The Lord’s Supper he celebrated monthly, remarking that “among the Jews, the beginning of the month was esteemed sacred; and although he did not consider the Jewish law as to the new moons still in force, yet from general reasoning he thought the conclusion a safe one, that whatsoever may be our divisions of time, it is always good to begin such divisions with God--seeking first His kingdom and its righteousness.”[519]