Free and Open Churches.--These words express the idea embodied in a movement in the American Church that has been making for many years to make the House of Prayer what it was originally, viz. _free_ for all people, no reserved or rented pews, but every seat free and unreserved, so that high and low, rich and poor alike shall be equal in the Father's House; and open not simply when there is a service, but open all the time for private prayer as well as public. This movement is growing rapidly so that to-day more than half of our churches are thus free, and a great many of them are kept open all day long every day in the week. It is found that many earnest and devout souls, homeless perhaps, or dwellers in hotels or boarding-houses where there is little or no privacy, as well as others, gladly avail themselves of this privilege of the _Open Church_ and find comfort in it. A society for the promotion of Free and Open Churches has been organized for many years with headquarters in Philadelphia. Frequent Communion.--The influence of the Puritans on the religious life of the Church was in many instances tremendous and far-reaching. While the Prayer Book provides for _frequent Communion_, that is, every Lord's Day and Holy Day at the least, yet under the Puritan influence _infrequent_ Communion became prevalent, and four times a year at the most came to be considered sufficient. When the Church began to pass out from under this influence we find that a _monthly_ celebration became the universal rule {116} in the Church, and even with this many seem now to be satisfied. But as the Church grew, as the study of the Prayer Book and of Church History became more general and the Church began to assert herself, to claim her heritage, we find a return to the ancient order and Scriptural rule. The Sunday and Holy Day Eucharist was more and more restored, so that to-day there are very few parishes where "Frequent Communion" is not the rule. On this subject the Bishop of Maryland, the Rt. Rev. William Paret, D.D., has remarked, "God's Word and all history show that receiving the Holy Communion every Lord's Day was the _old way_ and receiving once a month entirely a modern custom. In often receiving we are copying the whole Church of the first three hundred years."