{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_64741/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_64741","id":"gutenberg_64741","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64741","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Corinthians, 1st, XIV, 40 -- Sermons","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church of England -- Sermons -- 19th century","Ritualism -- Sermons","Sermons, English"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1866 William Skeffington edition by David Price.\n\n\n\n\n\n                                   THE\n                             RITUAL MOVEMENT.\n\n\n                           Three Plain Sermons\n\n                               PREACHED AT\n\n                        ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST\u2019S,\n\n                               HAMMERSMITH,\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n\n                        JAMES GALLOWAY COWAN, M.A.\n\n                           _Perpetual Curate_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n      \u201cLet all things be done decently and in order.\u201d\u20141 Corinthians xiv.\n                                     40.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                   WILLIAM SKEFFINGTON, 163 PICCADILLY.\n\n                                  1866.\n\n\n\n\nSERMON I.\n\n\n                            1 CORINTHIANS xiv. 40.\n\n               \u201cLet all things be done decently and in order.\u201d\n\nTHESE words are a general precept about Church order following up a\nparticular remonstrance.  The Corinthian Christians, divinely\ndistinguished by the number and excellence of the spiritual gifts and\nprivileges bestowed on them, had, alas! distinguished themselves by\nanarchy, lawlessness, pride, self-will, self-sufficiency,\nuncharitableness, ecclesiastical and moral laxity of various forms and\nkinds.  The Apostle deals with all these offences severally and\nparticularly, and then he gives a general rule\u2014a rule which was to cover\nand guide all their practice, and the practice of every other church:\n\u201cLet all things be done decently (decorously) and in order\u201d (according to\nsystem and appointment).\n\nWithout further preface, I would, in all solemnity, read this precept as\naddressed to us, brethren, to the clergy and laity of the Anglican Church\nof this present day, and as one which for the glory of God, and the\nedifying of ourselves, it is most needful to fix in our remembrance and\nto observe with all strictness.  And did I design my teaching to be\nmerely general, I know no more useful theme to which to address myself;\nfor as like the Corinthians we Anglicans have been distinguished by God,\nin that He has poured out upon us conspicuous and super-excellent gifts\nand privileges, so like them are we constantly distinguishing ourselves\nby strifes, irregularities, and miserable assertions of self\u2019s importance\nand self\u2019s wilfulness unparalleled, I believe, by Romans, Greeks, or\ndissenters.\n\nBut I have a special purpose, as you have probably anticipated, in\nselecting the subject for consideration at this time.\n\nThere is just now a great agitation throughout the land about what is\ncalled \u201cThe Ritual Movement.\u201d  After many years of sluggish indifference\nto the Apostle\u2019s precept\u2014it would hardly exceed the truth to say of\nperverse opposition to it, in doing all things indecently and against\norder\u2014men on all sides are waking up to a sense of their neglect, and to\na desire to repair it; and, by consequence, those who have not gone with\nthe movement have found themselves surrounded by what wears the\nappearance of strange and even dangerous innovation, and those who have\ngone with it\u2014both teachers and disciples\u2014have in some cases been hurried\nalong without due care to consider, perhaps without time to consider,\nwhither they were tending.\n\nTo both these parties\u2014the standers still and the hurriers along\u2014how\nwisely speaks the precept, \u201cLet all things be done decently and in\norder\u201d!\n\nAnd first to the first\u2014the standers still\u2014the \u201cold-fashioned,\u201d the\ncontented with things as they were.  Consider, my brethren, what mean ye\nby the service of God in the sanctuary, the assembling of yourselves in\nChurch from time to time.  Why do you come?  Who bade you come? what to\ndo?  You come to worship God in a building set apart for His worship; a\nplace in which He may meet you by appointment.  And who is God?  The\ngreat and glorious Jehovah, in Whose sight the very Heavens are not\nclean; Who asks, asserting His dignity, \u201cWhat place will ye build Me\u201d\n(that is worthy of Me)?  My brethren, if you duly regarded His Majesty,\nif you, in any adequate degree, appreciated His amazing condescension,\nwould you consider any edifice too grand for His localised presence, any\nexpenditure on its furniture and ornament too lavish, any care for its\narrangement and for the reverent honour of its All Holy Tenant too\nelaborate, too scrupulously particular?  You know what provision you\nwould make, what anxious care would possess you to fit your house, to\narray and order your household, for the due entertaining of an expected\nguest _only just a little_ above yourselves in dignity and in claim to be\nrespected.  You can hardly imagine _what_ you would do if your Queen\ncondescended to be for a while your guest; but you know that at least you\nwould not err on the side of niggardliness, slovenliness, and\nindifference; that your provision would be as magnificent as possible,\nyour service particular and constant, your reverence profound.  This\nbeing the case\u2014and you know it is the case\u2014a lively belief that God does\nwondrously vouchsafe to dwell with you, that the Church is indeed His\nlocal habitation, that when you enter within its walls, you are in His\navailable, His very tangible presence; that what you do or neglect there,\nis done or neglected to Him, would spontaneously beget in you the desire,\nand quicken the effort, to make the edifice worthy of Him, according to\nyour natural notions of worthiness, to provide due accessories of\nworship, to order yourselves as real and most reverential worshippers.\n\nBut you are not left to spontaneity.  When God chose for Himself a people\nto honour and serve Him, to be witnesses for His honour, to bring in due\ntime all nations to serve and worship Him, He taught that people what\nkind of House they should build Him, and with what kind of ritual they\nshould serve Him; treating the matter of such importance as actually to\ninspire the architects, to prescribe each article of furniture and every\ndetail of ornament, to appoint precisely the ceremonies and observances.\nAnd what did He require?  That the material of house and ornament should\nbe of the best and costliest and most splendid; that every act, every\nfeeling of worship should have its corresponding sign in some ritualistic\nobservance; that among the accessories of worship should be attractions\nfor means of enlisting men\u2019s various senses; colour, and pattern and\nornament for the eye, music for the ear, fragrant perfume for the scent.\n\nThis is God\u2019s pattern of what is decorous: His prescription of order.\n\nBut you object: \u201cNo, this _was_ God\u2019s pattern and order: but it was all\nappointed under a different dispensation from Christianity, for a rude\nand childish people, as pictures and types and carnal ordinances, to be\nexchanged when men were fit, when the Messiah should come, for inward and\ninvisible realities, for purely spiritual things, which heart and mind\nalone could apprehend, which outward sense would rather obscure than\ndiscover.\u201d\n\nNow, of course, Judaism was in some respects a different dispensation\nfrom Christianity, and some even of its divinely appointed observances\nwere merely temporary, and had a significance and use for Jews which they\nwould not have for us.  But it is quite an error to suppose that these\nJews were a rude and childish people; they were rather the civilised and\ncultivated and most spiritual of the earth.  Albeit, if we might dare to\nsay so, for them more than for us, or for any other people whom God has\nsince drawn near to Himself, an elaborate outward and sensuous worship\n(if it were not the right, the necessary, the permanent accompaniment of\ninward realities) was unsuitable and fraught with danger.  They had just\ncome out from the home of idolatry; they were going to dwell among the\nobservers of carnal and idolatrous rites; they were themselves hankering\nafter visible objects of worship; they would again and again make\nstumbling blocks for themselves out of the very things which God\nappointed for their edification in His worship.  Now ascribing to God, as\nwe must always do, perfect wisdom and clearest foresight, is it\npresumptuous to say that He would have kept these snares from the Jews,\nthat he would have drawn off their minds from the external and the\nnaturally magnificent, and rather would have _forbidden_ than _enforced_\nminute ritual and much worship of the body, as things through which they\nwere sure to err, unless there were in the things themselves intrinsic\ngood, unless, in fact, they were not merely useful accessories of\nworship, but a very integral and essential part of the worship itself?\n\nAnd then, again, my brethren, where are we told that Christianity is a\n_purely spiritual religion_; that its functions are all such as can be\nperformed by mind and heart, without body; that, in fact, the body has no\nreal part in them?  The worship of the body is indeed no worship by\nitself, for: \u201cGod is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him\nin spirit and in truth.\u201d  But is it not Christianity that has redeemed\nand consecrated the body?  Has not the second Adam taken away from it all\nbut its _form_ of mortality?  Has not the LORD purchased it for Himself,\nimposing upon it much work in His service; commanding by His inspired\nApostle that it should glorify Him; promising it great excellencies and\nrewards in its future state; appointing for it a glorious worship in\nheaven?  Assuredly, my brethren, as man is three-fold and has been\nredeemed in his three-fold nature, mind, heart, and body, so has each\npart of him its appointed, its bounden part, to take _on its own account_\nin the positive worship of God.  And were it not so, were the body merely\nthe case of the soul\u2014its link with the material; its tabernacle in the\ntemporal; its agent among the natural and outward\u2014still, is it not in\nthese respects part of its office to exhibit what is in the soul?  Does\nnot the soul naturally move it when it is moved itself?  Is not the body,\nas it were spontaneously, affected by all that passes within, and, unless\nunnaturally restrained or physically disabled, does it not always betray\nand manifest the inward affection?\n\nThe soul may worship God sufficiently (for the whole being) when the body\nis taking no part by reason of paralysis or prostration, or because the\nman, deeming it inexpedient at that time that sound or sign should escape\nhim, is curbing and binding it down; but in health and left unrestrained,\nthe body is such a spontaneous sympathizer and persistent co-operator\nwith all within, that we are justified in saying of him who does not\nspeak to God with his lips, and bow his head before Him, and clasp his\nhands, and kneel upon his knees, that he does not worship God in spirit\nand in truth!\n\nWe have reached thus far, brethren\u2014if you have gone with me\u2014that God has\nprescribed much ritual, and that man from his very nature must use much\nritual in divine worship.\n\nOf course God\u2019s prescription is liable to much modification when it comes\nto be applied, not to one people, but to all the nations of the earth;\nnot to a tabernacle in the wilderness or a temple at Jerusalem, but to\nevery place in which men ask him to record His name and come unto them\nand bless them; not to dim and imperfect types, but to the glorious and\nperfect anti-types; not to Judaism, which was local and temporary, but to\nChristianity, which is universal and eternal.  Of course, too, the\n_details_ of men\u2019s spontaneous worship will, necessarily, be different\naccording to the truth which they have to express by outward signs,\naccording to their natural characteristics in a warm or cold climate,\naccording even to individual temperament.\n\nBut this principle assuredly holds good for all time and for all men:\nthat God having once pronounced Himself in favour of a certain kind of\nritual, and His Church having consented to express its doctrines and its\nfeelings by certain outward signs and rites of its own, the general rule\nand form of decent and orderly worship has been set and established,\nwhich should only be departed from by Divine sanction and appointment,\nunless, indeed, the doctrines and feelings which we have to express are\nso diverse from those of the elder Church that they cannot find an\nintelligent and real expression in the same ritual.\n\nYou will hardly need, brethren, that I should prove to you that our\nreligion is substantially that which God gave to the Jews; that under the\nold dispensation as under the new, salvation is offered to mankind only\nthrough Jesus Christ, and that the general ways of seeking and keeping\nhold of that salvation\u2014humbling ourselves before God, initiation into His\ncovenant, constant prayer, supplication and praise, constant pleadings of\nHis sacrifice, constant feeding on His grace, are the same for us as for\nthem, unless God Himself has changed them.  Now this we know that He has\ndone in some respects, taking away circumcision, the daily sacrifice of\nanimals, and the Passover, and various rites and ceremonies which, from\nthe nature of the case, could be only temporary; or, at least, had real\nuse and significance only for the nation of the Jews, or for an\n_expectant_ Church.  But then He has given us other ordinances _in the\nplace of those withdrawn_, and these we _naturally_ observe in the same\nspirit, and, as far as suits them, with the same form as He appointed for\nthe older ordinances.  God is still the same: man is still the same.  The\nexpression of worship which He once required, is that which He must\nsurely still require in all its essentials, all its characteristics.\n\nThat the Christian Church accepted at once this rule of worship is\nevident from the fact, that the apostles and first disciples continued to\ntake part in the temple and synagogue services as long as the Jews would\nlet them; yea, and that they even still observed those ordinances which,\nin their necessary observance, God had abrogated; instead of which He had\nappointed other things.  This, my brethren, is most worthy of note,\nbecause it shows that these men, full of the Spirit, discerned that they\nhad still the same God to worship, and that, as far as circumstances\nwould let them, the natural way\u2014the right way\u2014of worshipping was that\nwhich their fathers had followed; so much so that they might even still\nretain\u2014as long as it could be done without injury, with edification\u2014those\nvery ordinances which, in their binding, their sacramental character, by\nGod\u2019s declaration, belonged not to Christianity!\n\nBut God left it not to this pious, conservative feeling to maintain the\ndignity and splendour of His worship.  As in the Mount He had given Moses\na pattern and a law of all things that men should make and do for His\nworship in the Church on earth; so in Patmos to the beloved disciple, to\nhim who had drunk in most deeply the spirit of Christ, to him who was to\nteach men more than any other prophet of the real, the abiding, the\nspiritual, the heavenly\u2014to him, I say, God opened a door in heaven, and\nshowed the things that must be hereafter, the worship that is to be\ncelebrated and perpetuated in His fullest Presence; and lo! it was full\nof visible glories and ceremonial observances.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d men say: \u201cbut surely that must be allowed to be figurative\u2014to be a\nmere pictorial way of describing inward and invisible truths and\nfeelings.\u201d  We are not so sure of that, brethren.  Heaven must be a\nsubstantial and tangible place; because those who are to inhabit it will\nhave bodies to rest in it, and eyes, and ears and other senses to find\ngratification in it.  And if it is such a place, and is full of objects\nwhich affect the body, and which the body may employ, then I see not why\nmuch of what the Apostle saw in vision may not be a literal\nrepresentation of what shall actually be.  But concede that it is only an\nimage, a pictorial representation, nevertheless it is God who has chosen\nthese things to symbolize His perpetual worship; and are we best\npreparing ourselves for that worship\u2014best rehearsing it, best professing\nit, best honouring Him, doing all things decently and in order, if we set\naside in His worship all that He once enjoined in letter upon His early\nChurch, all that He has used\u2014figuratively, if you will\u2014as fittest to\nrepresent to us His perfect worship in the Church triumphant, and, I\nsuppose, to enlist our present interest, and to kindle a hearty\nintelligent desire for a full share in it hereafter?\n\nBut here, again, men object.  They will concede that, perhaps, there may\nbe _something_ literal in this prophetical description; at any rate that\nit symbolizes faithfully and precisely the spiritual homage, the joy and\nadoration of souls which shall be in heaven.  But they assert that it\ndoes not symbolize\u2014that, in fact, it is in very contrast with all the\nstate and feeling which belong to us poor wandering and afflicted\npilgrims and prodigals on earth.\n\nMy brethren, if there were no other argument in favour of maintaining or\nof restoring where it has fallen into decay such a ritual as I am\nadvocating, this one objection would furnish a most cogent reason for\nit,\u2014a very necessity; for what does it show but that men have lost the\ntruth which this ritual embodies and expresses\u2014namely, that while indeed\n_in the world_ they are still pilgrims, still prodigals distant from\nhome, though sighing for and seeking that home, beholders of promises\n_afar off_, yet in the _Church_ they are _at home_, having _obtained_ the\npromises.  The Church is the ark of salvation, which God has provided to\nkeep us safe in the drowning of the world.  It is the kingdom of heaven,\nwhose King is now in the midst of it.  It is the bosom of the Father\nwhereon each penitent prodigal now rests accepted, the Everlasting arms\nwhose felt embrace assures of present peace and joy.  It is the wedding\nfeast whereat all the friends of the King\u2019s son are decked with glories\nand feasted with good things; nay, it is the Bride herself, adorned for\nthe Bridegroom, the King\u2019s daughter, all glorious and full of joy!\n\nWhat present comfort in the troubles of this lower life, what cheering in\ndespondency, what stimulus in toilsome effort do we not miss, my\nbrethren, by not realizing that in the Church we are come unto Mount\nZion, unto the heavenly Jerusalem\u2014unto the very throne, into the very\npresence, within the enfolding arms of the God who has saved us, Who\nloves to fill us full of peace, and joy, and benediction _now_.\n\nAnd, alas! what do we not in our blindness or misconception withhold from\nGod\u2014of that most reasonable, that greatly due, that loudly-demanded\nservice\u2014the perpetual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the past\nmercies of our redemption, for our continual sustentation through the\nintercession of our Great High Priest, by the grace which He continually\ngives us; for the coming glory which, being promised, is sure on His\npart, and most certainly needs to be acknowledged with grateful, hearty,\nand adoring lives!\n\nIf, my brethren, it is the aim of \u201cthe ritual movement\u201d to express all\nthis grand truth, and to help men to live by it, then surely they are\ndoing a great work who have originated and are carrying on the movement;\nand we are inconsiderately depriving ourselves of much that is helpful\nand edifying\u2014that, I say, not withholding from God due and most\nacceptable worship\u2014if we allow our prejudices to oppose the movement, so\nfar as it is lawful, and either insist upon prescribing for ourselves a\nritual, or labour to uphold and stereotype one that has no likeness in\nthe Old and New Testament, in the Church of any age, in our own Book of\nCommon Prayer.\n\nSome of you may think, my brethren, that I have not chosen the fittest\ntheme for Lent sermons.  But recollect that this season is specially\nappointed for the self-discipline and growth in grace and in all\ngodliness of those who are already in some sense religious; and then put\nit to yourselves whether the rooting out of you of stubborn prejudices,\nuncharitable and unworthy suspicions (with the many bitter, unchristian\nfruits that follow them), and that miserable spirit of formalism which\ndelights in finding objections to a form and in refusing conformity,\nwould not greatly help you to worship God in spirit and in truth.\n\nThere are dangers inherent in high ritual, it is being greatly abused,\nand of those who desire it many are wholly misconceiving its spirit and\nits use.  To these I shall speak in turn, if God will, with the same\naffectionate boldness and desire to be faithful, which have influenced me\nin all that I have now said.\n\nMeantime, beloved, remember that we are all brethren, saved from the same\ndestruction, redeemed with the same precious blood, sanctified by the\nsame spirit, called with the same calling, and to the same service,\ninheritors of the same heaven, worshippers of the same God.  Strive not,\nthen, with one another.  Judge not, that ye be not judged.  Do not\nexaggerate differences; try rather to lay aside differences.  Seek each\none what may edify others, and all what may honour God.  Endeavour to\ntake, each and all of you, your due part in _common_ worship.  Ask God\u2019s\nSpirit to show you out of His own Word, illustrated by the testimony of\nHis Church, what _is_ common worship; and soon, if you do so, you will\ncome to agree with and to join fervently and profitably in all that is\nreally essential to the right adoration of our ever and all-glorious God.\n\n    \u201cWhen to Thy beloved on Patmos. {13}\n       Through the open door in heaven,\n    Visions of the perfect worship,\n       Saviour! by Thy love were given,\n    Surely _there_ was truth and spirit,\n       Surely there a pattern shown,\n    How Thy Church should do her service\n       When she came before the Throne.\n\n    O the censer-bearing Elders,\n       Crowned with gold and robed in white!\n    O the living creatures\u2019 anthem,\n       Never resting day or night!\n    And the thousand choirs of Angels,\n       With their voices like the sea,\n    Singing praise to God the Father\n       And, O victim Lamb, to Thee!\n\n    Lord, bring home the glorious lesson\n       To their hearts, who strangely deem\n    That an unmajestic worship\n       Doth Thy Majesty beseem;\n    Show them more of Thy dear Presence,\n       Let them, let them come to know,\n    That our King is throned among us,\n       And His Church is Heaven below.\n\n    Then shall faith read off the meaning\n       Of each stately ordered rite,\n    Dull surprise and hard resistance\n       Turn to awe and full delight;\n    Men shall learn how sacred splendour\n       Shadows forth the pomps above\n    How the glory of our altars\n       Is the homage of our love.\n\n    \u2019Tis for Thee we bid the frontal\n       Its embroidered wealth unfold,\n    \u2019Tis for Thee we deck the reredos\n       With the colours and the gold;\n    Thine the floral glow and fragrance,\n       Thine the vestures\u2019 fair array,\n    Thine the starry lights that glitter\n       Where Thou dost Thy light display.\n\n    \u2019Tis to Thee the chant is lifted,\n       \u2019Tis to Thee the heads are bowed;\n    Far less deep was Israel\u2019s rapture\n       When the glory filled the cloud.\n    O our own true God incarnate,\n       What should Christians\u2019 Ritual be\n    But a voice to utter somewhat\n       Of their pride and joy in Thee.\n\n    What but this? yet since corruption\n       Mars too oft our holiest things,\n    In the form preserve the spirit;\n       Give the worship angel\u2019s wings,\n    Till we gain Thine own high temple,\n       Where no tainting breath may come,\n    And whate\u2019er is good and beauteous\n       Finds with Thee a perfect home.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSERMON II.\n\n\n                            I CORINTHIANS xiv. 40.\n\n               \u201cLet all things be done decently and in order.\u201d\n\nI ENDEAVOURED last Sunday to exhibit the principle and rationale of\nChristian ritualistic service.  I reminded you that God had Himself\nprescribed for Israel an elaborate and splendid ritual, and that,\nmoreover, He had shown in vision to the eagle-eyed Apostle, either what\nshould actually be His worship in heaven, or what would, in figure, most\nfitly represent it to us, and stimulate us to an interest in it, and a\ndesire and aim to prepare ourselves for a share in it.  I further urged,\nthat man\u2019s natural feeling, rightly enlightened as to its relationship\nwith God, would spontaneously have prompted him\u2014has, in fact, prompted\nhim\u2014to make such a manifestation of inward devotion, such an external\nhomage and worship, such an use in God\u2019s honour of the things which the\nsenses approve as costly, excellent, beautiful, edifying, joy-inspiring,\njoy-proclaiming, glorifying.  Hence I deduced the rule, that\u2014God being\nalways quite the same, and man being always much the same\u2014in the absence\nof any Divine reversal or modification; or, on man\u2019s part, of any\nrealised unsuitableness to altered times and circumstances; the same kind\nof ritual and service of body and offering of substance, must, to speak\ngenerally, be upheld and used by us as was actually imposed upon the Jews\nby God or by themselves, and has been foreshadowed, whether in figure or\nletter, of the Church triumphant in heaven.  It had to be conceded that\nGod has made a charge in the details by the absolute repeal of some\nservice, and by modifications and substitutions affecting Christians\ngenerally; and, moreover, that the service of different nations by reason\nof their various temperaments, and their peculiar ways of estimating and\nusing some of the things of which sense takes cognizance, _must_, to be\nnatural, differ in particulars from somewhat of that which Eastern people\nactually did and offered.  Making these concessions, I endeavoured to\nmaintain that such ritual as is prescribed in the Jewish law and pictured\nin the Apocalypse is to be regarded as appointed or approved by God for\nChristians; that its observance is necessary to the due expression and\noffering of intelligent hearty and acceptable common worship, and that it\nis very serviceable to the worshippers in kindling, guiding and\nsustaining the spirit of true devotion.\n\nChristendom at large has so judged, and has acted upon the judgment from\nthe very first Whit-Sunday; using these things with the Jews as long as\nit was allowed to do so, and providing them for itself as soon as it had\nliberty and means of providing them.  I need not occupy your time in\nproving this statement.  All of you probably are aware that at least as\nsoon as the Roman Emperors gave their protection and encouragement to the\nChristian Church, and ever since then, in east or west, in north or south\n(till some 300 years ago, when the rule began to be departed from _in\npractice_ by the Anglican branch), the Scriptural rule and pattern have\nbeen followed.  Everywhere, when possible, men have erected stately and\ncostly Houses of Prayer; they have adorned them with all the skill which\nart could exercise; they have furnished them with all the magnificence\nthat the worshippers could afford; they have observed in them a grand and\nelaborate ritual, whose outline, whose main features are to be found in\nthe Pentateuch and the Apocalypse.  They have employed the same symbols\nand furniture; the lamps or lights representing the Divine presence; the\naltar of memorial sacrifice; the holy incense, originally compounded\nafter God\u2019s own proscription and significant of that meritorious\nintercession of our Great High Priest which alone makes acceptable and\ncarries up into heaven our poor and unworthy service on earth; the white\nalbs or surplices of the officiating ministers\u2014the outward sign of the\npurity and righteousness which the worshippers, whose leaders these\nministers are, should possess; the splendid robe of the Celebrant, who is\nthe representative, in all his acts of intercession, absolution,\nconsecration, oblation, benediction, of our great and glorified High\nPriest.  Read Church history from the beginning, and where do you find\n(save among insignificant sects) anything different from this?  Go into\nany place of worship (out of England) belonging to the body Catholic,\nwhether of the east or west, and though it will possibly be among many\nadditions, many perversions from their original purpose, many\ncorruptions, and, alas! that it must be owned, often among many\nabominations, you will still be able to discern all the leading features\nof the same _one_ rule and pattern of Divine worship.\n\nI have said \u201cout of England.\u201d  You know that this would not be the case\nin England or in English dependencies.  Many of you rejoice in the\ndifference; you think you can give a good account of it; you are able to\njustify its origin; you are disposed to maintain, if you can, its\ncontinuance.  \u201cThe Reformation did away with all that.\u201d\n\n_The Reformation did away with all that_!  Is it possible that\nworshippers of Jehovah, men who owe all their peace, their privileges and\nblessings to their membership of Christ\u2019s Church, can for a moment allow\nand do not rather with horror shout down the fearful assertion, that\ntheir community has abolished for itself the ritual of Scripture, and has\ncut itself off from all the Church that went before it, and all that lies\naround it?  That is what the statement \u201cThe Reformation has changed all\nthis,\u201d implies!  Which of you my brethren would not repudiate and thrust\nit away thus nakedly exhibited?  Which of you would not feel that if it\nwere true the Reformation was a curse, and not a blessing, and that no\neffort must be spared to undo it?  Which of you would not sink to the\nearth beneath what would then be the righteous taunt of the\nRomanist:\u2014that we have no covenanted part or lot with Christ\u2019s Church?\n\nDo not start away from such a statement of the case.  I am not\nmisrepresenting the argument.  I am not exaggerating minor matters.  I am\nnot denying, I freely own and stoutly maintain, that each branch of the\nChurch has authority and power to change and change again and again many\nof her rites and ceremonies\u2014the details, perhaps, of every one of them\u2014so\nlong as all be done in accordance with God\u2019s word: above all I am not\nfoolishly alleging that altar lights, or incense, or chasuble, or any\nsuch thing is of such importance as to make or unmake a Church, or is\nreally necessary in the Christian Church at all.  I have mentioned these\nthings only as particular illustrations of a system of Ritualistic\nService, much of which was taught us by God, and which has been adopted\nby the universal Church and used everywhere and in all ages.  And I say\nthat if the Reformers had deliberately rejected all God\u2019s pattern and all\nChristendom\u2019s use, and had prescribed for themselves and for us things\naltogether not only different but _opposite_, then they would have\ninflicted a curse upon us, and it would be our bounden duty to repudiate\nthem and to undo their work.\n\nI have spoken thus plainly and openly in the earnest desire to awaken, to\na sense of what they are countenancing, those who carelessly, or it may\nbe deliberately, out of honest and zealous prejudice, represent the\nReformation as having made all things new.  If once men can be brought to\nfeel that it would have been wrong to make all things new, they will be\nat pains to inquire with all anxiety whether they have not misconceived\nthe Reformation, and so inquiring, they will come to see what it really\ndid or aimed at, and hence to believe that the Ritual movement of the\npresent day\u2014I am not, of course, speaking of the extravagancies and\neccentricities of individuals\u2014so far from ignoring, contravening, and\noverturning the principles of the Reformation, is the very carrying of\nthem out.\n\nWere I not convinced that it is so, God forbid that I should stand here\nas a vindicator of the movement.  For I am persuaded that the Reformation\nwas most righteous and necessary, and that God Himself specially wrought\nit for us.  However gently we should always speak in controversy, however\ncharitably we should think of and construe the acts and motives of\nothers, we must not hide from ourselves that the unreformed Church of\nthis country, in the sixteenth century, was in a very corrupt and ungodly\nstate.  The _form_, indeed, of all the essentials of Christianity was\nmaintained, but it was overlaid by man\u2019s idle, or even false traditions\nand man\u2019s corrupt practices.  The power of the priesthood was abused; the\nword of God was withheld from the people; the Holy Eucharist was\nmutilated and perverted from the purposes of its institution; in worship,\nthe creature was set side by side with the Creator, if not exalted above\nHim; the substitution of _form_ for spirit and substance, and in many\ncases of a wrong form, too, was generally sanctioned and encouraged.\nFrom all this the Reformers were stirred to rescue us, and by the grace\nof God they did it.  But theirs was no hot-headed indiscriminate work.\nThey laboured, with all the calmness that men in their trying\ncircumstances could command, to distinguish between right and wrong.\nThey wished to retain all that seemed edifying, or even merely harmless,\nthough it were of recent growth.  They sought to restore all things to\nthe primitive rule and pattern.  They would have counted it sin to have\nrejected anything that God had suggested to His Church or that the Church\nin former ages had adopted.  Let any one acquaint himself with the\ndoctrine, ritual, and practice of the unreformed Church, and then compare\nwith them the first Prayer Book of Edward VI., and he will find that\nthere is no unnecessary deviation from them; that there is a strict\nmaintenance of everything that it was possible to retain without\nfostering error or obstructing Christian edification; that the Reformers\neven went beyond, and revived and enforced what had been disused and\nforgotten\u2014if it had early sanction\u2014leaving nothing unrestored that had\nprimitive authority, save only the godly discipline of Penance; and how\nthey thought of that, how they wished to restore it, how they hoped that\nthe time would come when it would be restored, let the Commination Office\ntestify!\n\nThis was the principle of the Reformation.  And how was it carried out in\nthe matter of ritual?  Why! everything that was Scriptural or primitive,\nor, though recent, edifying, was retained.  There were the same Churches,\nthe same altars, the same symbols and furniture, the same vestments.\nEven the same services and the same ways of offering them were preserved;\nonly they were cleansed from corruptions, divested of things doubtful or\nunedifying, simplified by making prayers and lections more continuous,\nand by discountenancing those minuti\u00e6 of bodily worship\u2014numerous bowings,\ngenuflections, and the like\u2014which, however natural they may have been to\nthe foreign Priests who had ministered at our altars, however useful to\nthe people when, by reason of all being performed in an unknown and\nmuttered tongue, much dumb show and bell ringing were necessary, were\ndistracting to true worship by their multiplicity, and were unnecessary\nin an audible and intelligible service.\n\nI do not say that everything which this ritual movement seeks to restore\nis distinctly by name approved and retained by our Reformers; but in its\ngeneral features, in almost all its items, in the kind of worship and\nconfession of faith at which it aims, I am sure that it has their\nsanction and is the taking up of their work.\n\nHow is it that this ritual has never been the generally used ritual of\nthe Reformed Church?  Why should it now be revived?\u2014these are questions\nwhich, if God will, I will answer in detail in my next sermon.\n\nMeantime, my brethren, strive to make profitable and personal use of what\nhas been said, by carefully informing yourselves as to the real state of\nthe case; by trying to root out of you prejudices, and to keep yourselves\nfrom uncharitable suspicions of ritualists and rash and profane speech\nabout ritual; by cultivating respect for the motives of those who, in\ntheir labour to be loyal to the Church of the Reformers and useful to\nyou, have come under so much obloquy; by praying earnestly that those in\nauthority may have wisdom given them rightly to deliberate and determine\nin this matter, and that those under authority may have grace to render\nall due submission: that each and all of us may be animated by the pure\ndesire to enforce and observe the Apostolic rule, \u201cLet all things be done\ndecently and in order.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nSERMON III.\n\n\n                            I CORINTHIANS xiv. 40.\n\n               \u201cLet all things be done decently and in order.\u201d\n\nBY the good Providence of God, the Reformation was effected in this\ncountry with the sanction, under the immediate direction of the highest\nauthorities in Church and State; by men of sound faith, sober judgment,\nand calm temperament; on the righteous principle of maintaining as good\nand necessary whatever of doctrine or practice had universally prevailed\namong Christians, and of not differing unnecessarily, even in\nnon-essentials, from the medi\u00e6val Church.\n\nThe conservative and Catholic feeling which animated the Anglican\nReformers very soon, however, came into conflict with a radical and mere\nProtestant spirit.  I desire not to repudiate \u201cProtestantism\u201d as an\nattribute of the Anglican Church.  Our Reformers did most stoutly\nprotest\u2014by speech, by deed, by enactment, by suffering\u2014against prevailing\ncorruptions and superstitions; specially they protested against the\ntyrannical assumption of universal dominion by the Bishop of Rome, and\nthe capricious and lawless issuing by him of ecclesiastical prohibitions\nand indulgences.\n\nBut their Protestantism only asserted _what they were not_; and certainly\nthey never prided themselves in or contented themselves with the mere\nassertion of the _negative_ and the _diverse_.  In that they put away\nwhat was wrong, or corrupt, or unedifying or distracting or burthensome,\nthey were Protestant; but in their maintenance of the one faith in its\nintegrity and the due proportion of its several parts, in their strict\nadherence to the principle which had ever guided the service and ritual\nof Christ\u2019s Church, they were true Catholics\u2014much more worthy of the name\nthan those who henceforth claimed the exclusive right to it.\n\nBut growing up all around them, and fostered and strengthened by\nimportations from the Continent, (where the Reformation had unhappily\nbeen brought about in a very different spirit, and was in fact almost\nanother thing,\u2014not the reforming of the Church but the abandoning of it)\nwas a revolutionary and indiscriminate Protestantism which sought to\ndestroy, root and branch, whatever was old, and was intolerant even of\nthe most harmless conformity to the Church against which it was a\nreaction.\n\nLet us speak with all charity and fair allowance of those earnest and\nholy men.  Almost all the doctrines of the faith had been perverted or\nleavened with corruption; almost all the ordinances and ceremonies were\nassociated with gross abuses.  In the intensity of their awakened feeling\nagainst these things, it was natural that many among our own people,\nunable to distinguish between the truth and the corruption, the use and\nthe abuse, should think that their rulers had not gone far enough in the\nway of change; while the foreign Protestants, left to act as individuals,\ndriven to form communities of their own (as their Church would not reform\nitself) unguided by Catholic influence, directed by no intelligent\nprinciple (save that which would _anyhow_ get rid of false traditions and\ngross abuses) in the construction of their creed and the ordering of\ntheir services, determined, as the easiest and most congenial course, to\nreject the whole system from which they had come out, and to make all\nthings new for themselves.\n\nWhat wonder that such men were dissatisfied with the First Prayer Book of\nEdward VI., that they regarded it as a base compromise with Rome, that\nthey were horrified by the mention in it of \u201cpriests, altars and\nsacrifices,\u201d that they scorned as \u201cbadges and rags of popery\u201d the\nvestments which it prescribed; that they were loud and urgent in\ndemanding its immediate revision!  Not only had they no sympathy with,\nthey had no comprehension, no idea of the principle on which its\ncompilers had acted.  Their notion was that the only true and pure\nreligion was such an one as differed _in toto_ from what they had\nrepudiated.  They had been misled by _some_ traditions; therefore they\nwould henceforth recognise _no_ traditions.  The word of God had hitherto\nbeen withheld from them: therefore now that they were able to possess it,\nthey would handle it as freely as they pleased.  The priests had\ndomineered over them: henceforth they would have no priests.  Sacrifices\nhad been offered amiss; they therefore abhorred all sacrifices!  Such\nwere the feelings with which our Reformers had at once to deal.  Should\nit be a matter of much surprise or reprehension that they dealt very\nindulgently with them, that they re-cast the service which was objected\nto as \u201cso like the mass,\u201d that they dealt expressions which were\ninjuriously misunderstood, that individual Bishops ordered the removal of\nthe altar lights, that the celebrant was required to wear a surplice\nonly?  Recollect: it was a time of violent re-action; moderation was\ninterpreted as \u201ccompromise;\u201d names, ceremonies, and vestments represented\nto Protestant minds not the things to which they really belonged, but the\nabuses which had so long been associated with them.  In vain was it\nargued that the abuse does not take away the use.  In vain was it\nprotested that the Book of Common Prayer, as it stood, contained nothing\nthat was contrary to the word of God or to the teaching of the primitive\nChurch.  In vain was it maintained that the Christian Church has and must\nhave an altar, a priesthood, a continual sacrifice to offer; that, while\nit is most true that Christ\u2019s _one_ sacrifice was _once_ offered for\never, and cannot be repeated, and that He is such a priest as knows no\nequal, no successor, no partner, as alone in fact answers to the name of\npriest; still, as the Jewish Church had its _prophetic_ memorials of His\nsacrifice\u2014in its slaying and offering of bulls, and goats, and lambs\u2014and\nits priesthood representing in the various acts of its office what Christ\nwould do\u2014so have we, and by His own command, a _historical_ memorial of\nHis sacrifice: \u201cThis do in remembrance of me.\u201d  \u201cAs oft as ye eat this\nbread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord\u2019s death till He\ncome\u201d\u2014and must have a so-called priesthood, performing sacerdotal acts as\nHis representatives.  In vain I say was all this urged.  Doubtless many\nof the dissentients would have readily admitted much of it if they had\ncalmly considered it, if they could have believed that a _memorial_\nsacrifice and a _representative_ priesthood were what the Reformers\nclaimed to retain.  But they could not be persuaded to listen; they could\nnot calm themselves sufficiently to listen; the spirit burned within them\nto root out and destroy popery; and every theological term, every\nreligious ceremony, every ornament or vestment that had been used by\npapists, was regarded as of the very essence of popery itself!  I believe\nthat the reformers were justified in making temporary concession to this\nstate of feeling, particularly in modifying ritual and ornament, which\ncould only be useful so long as they were edifying, which were in fact\ndoing harm to the Church\u2019s cause and to individual souls while they were\ntaken as representing and recommending the very things which had been\nrepudiated.  They doubtless justified themselves by considering that\ntheir second Prayer Book still contained the doctrines which the\noffending rites and vestments were meant to adorn; they hoped that men\nmight come to understand and hold those doctrines when their prejudices\nwere disarmed; at any rate they feared, lest, by a stubborn maintenance\nor violent enforcement at that critical time of anything not really\nessential, they should endanger the best interests of the Church; or even\nprovoke and perpetuate among us a mere Protestant reformation.  It seemed\nwell then that they should make such concessions as the second Prayer\nBook of Edward VI contained.  You know what followed; how within a year\npopery was established under Queen Mary, and how both Churchmen and\nProtestants had to flee the land and seek a home among German or Swiss\nreformers; or, if they remained, were savagely persecuted to the death.\nIt might have been expected that the fact of Churchmen being treated as\ncapital offenders against Rome would have disarmed the prejudices against\nthem and their ritual which had hitherto existed, or at least that common\nmisfortunes would have begotten common interests and sympathies and so\nhave led to a truer appreciation of one another.  This was not exactly\nwhat resulted.  The Protestants retained and even strengthened their\nprejudices: the Churchmen who had lived in exile among them first of all\nfell in with their habits, their modes of worship, and their disuse of\nall vestments\u2014or the substitution for them of a black gown\u2014and presently\nthey also contracted their prejudices.  Accordingly when, soon after the\naccession of Queen Elizabeth, the old law about vestments was re-enacted,\nit remained except in a few solitary cases a dead letter; men either\nhated such things, or they were too indifferent to the way of performing\ndivine service to trouble themselves to wear them; or, if they had right\nnotions and right feelings about them, they were too poor to provide them\nfor themselves; and their parishioners did not care, perhaps objected, to\nprovide them.  I cannot but believe that it was the knowledge of this\nfact\u2014the adaptation of law to necessity\u2014which led to the framing in 1603\nof that Canon, (so often quoted of late) which requires parochial\nministers to wear the surplice only in their ministrations, but directs\nthat a cope shall be worn by the celebrant in cathedrals.  The\nConvocation, it would seem to me, knowing how generally the vestments had\nbeen destroyed, or rapaciously seized for the sake of the gold and\nprecious stones that adorned them, and how difficult it would be for the\nclergy generally to provide them afresh, appointed\u2014what had long been the\npractice, and could in fact quote something like authority for itself in\nthe Royal advertisements\u2014that as a _minimum_ of vestment in ordinary\nchurches a surplice should be worn, but in cathedrals, whose endowments\ncould provide it, the most costly and splendid of all vestments\u2014the\ncope\u2014should be retained.  Surely it could never have been intended to\n_insist_ that there should be a difference between the cathedrals and the\nparish churches of the same communion; far less to forbid as\nsuperstitious in the latter, what is positively enjoined in the former!\nBut if it were so, the Canons, though in their spirit a rule to the\nClergy and faithful laity, have no force by the law of this realm, and\nmoreover they were almost immediately followed by a revised Prayer Book,\nwhich contains the rubric ordering all the ornaments which were in use in\nthe second year of Edward VI.  While at the very last revision of the\nPrayer Book, nearly sixty years afterwards, when our Church was only just\nlifting her head above the politico-religious revolution which had so\nnearly overwhelmed her, when so many reasons cogently pressed her to\neliminate from her Book of Common Prayer all that was unnecessary, all\nthat was questionable, all that she did not use or intend to use; when\nthe Puritans put their finger on this very rubric, and required that it\nshould be left out\u2014for if it were retained it might bring back copes,\nalbs and such like;\u2014it was nevertheless deliberately determined that the\nrubric, made by verbal alteration more explicit than it had been before,\nshould continue to be the written rule of our Church!  _And_, _brethren_,\n_it is still the written rule_, _confirmed by Convocation_, _enjoined by\nthe Act of Uniformity_.\n\nIt is at length very generally being admitted that this is so; that the\nritualists have the written law on their side for much of their practice:\nbut then it is urged that precedent as to the observance of that law is\nutterly wanting, that in fact there has been a general consent of bishops\nand parochial clergy (for 300 years) that the law was not to be observed.\nI have shown you my brethren why it could not be observed, why it had to\nbe repealed in Edward VI.\u2019s time.  If you know anything of the Marian\npersecution, and the bitter animosity against suspected Romanism which it\nnaturally begat; of Puritanical infatuation and its superstitious horror\nat the sight of a surplice, its general disuse of the Holy Ordinance to\nwhich \u201chigh-ritual\u201d and glorious vestments peculiarly belong, its\nperversity in wearing black, simply because others wore white, in fasting\n(as on Christmas day) when others were feasting; if you know anything of\nthe worldliness, the apathy, the deadness to Evangelical truth, the utter\nignorance of it or utter indifference to it, which characterized the last\ncentury and the early part of this\u2014then you will surely be able to\nexplain to yourselves, why the Rubric in question has not been generally\nobserved, you will be surprised to find that any one has at any time\nobserved it.\n\nI could easily show that it has been, here and there, in part observed,\nalmost to our own time; that it was designed by those who first inserted\nit in the Prayer Book, by those who restored it, and by those who\ndeliberately confirmed and continued it, to be actually used, as soon as\ncircumstances would allow.  (Surely it is vain to argue on the other\nside, in the face of the repeated discussions about it, and the\npersistent maintenance of it; in the face, too, of the fact, that those,\nby whom it was defended and preserved at the last revision, were among\nthe men who have most distinctly taught the doctrines which it embodies!)\nBut were it otherwise; were they one and all, from first to last, in\ntheir own private judgments and by consent among themselves, against its\nactual use, or at any rate deliberately acquiescent in its disuse, are\n_we_ to be bound by their personal tastes and their private judgments, so\nas to yield up what at least they have preserved and solemnly handed on\nto us, what we have seen to have such full Scriptural sanction, so to\nharmonize with the dictates of true Catholic devotion, so to express _in\nact_, as, thank God! our Liturgy does many times _in word_, that we\nbelieve and confess that we have no way of access to God but through the\nVeil which Christ has consecrated for us, even His own flesh; that He is\nour only Sacrifice and the only sustaining Food of our souls; that He\ncondescends ever to plead for us that Sacrifice and to give to us that\nFood; that on the altar He makes for us, by the hands of His\nrepresentative, the Memorial of that Sacrifice and by the same hands\ngives us of the heavenly Food\u2014He Himself Priest and Victim both?  This is\nthe great, the glorious, the soul-thrilling truth which \u201chigh ritual\u201d is\nintended to picture to the eye, and so to bring home to the mind and\nheart; nor only nor chiefly this, but rather to express it in worship,\u2014in\nintelligent, open, adoring, thanksgiving, splendid worship, to the Lamb\nthat was slain, that sitteth upon the Throne!\n\nIf, my brethren, we believe this to be the rationale of such\n\u201chigh-ritual\u201d as our Church by rubric or service sanctions, then how can\nwe be patient under its non-observance, unless we feel ourselves to be\nhampered, like our ancestors, by surrounding prejudices and perversities?\n\nNow of course there are prejudices and perversities still existing and\nmany of them.  There are men who for the love of opposition resist and\ncry down ritualists.  There are others, who in their inmost soul are\nsmitten with a great fear, lest they should be beguiled of their reward\nin Christ, and turned into formalists and idolaters!  It was to be\nexpected that each of these classes would strenuously oppose itself to\nthe ritual movement and even that, though they really have little in\ncommon, they would readily make common cause against ritualists.  And\nwere it not so, did neither of them show any outward sign of resistance,\nmisconception, dislike, distrust or contempt; yet the righteous dread of\ncausing weak brethren to offend, of shaking their confidence in those who\nshould be their spiritual guides, of alienating their affections from\ntheir Church and their Prayer Book and of driving them into schism, would\nmake all wise and loving reformers very cautious and slow to introduce\neven the most desirable changes and to revive the most important\npractices, very painstaking in removing prejudices and enlightening\nignorance, very patient to wait long, if need be, for what they\nthemselves so much appreciated and so eagerly desired.\n\nNevertheless it is easy to see that there has never been a time since the\nReformation when men have been so able as they are now to discriminate\nbetween what is Catholic and what is Roman, when they could venture to\nconfess that they had made the discrimination, yes and to act upon it\nwithout inevitably leading themselves or others back into the bondage\nfrom which we have been delivered.  Wherever the experiment has been\nfairly tried it has thoroughly succeeded: it is only those who have not\ntried it who doubt of, or deny the hope of its success.\n\nAnd as there never has been a time when the ritual movement could be so\neasily effected, so has there never been a time when it was so loudly\ncalled for as it is now; first, by so many of the worshippers, who have\ncome to appreciate beautiful churches, musical services, frequent\ncelebrations, devout ceremonies and symbolizing acts and ornaments,\u2014and\nso to crave the perfect development of the system to which these things\nbelong; next, by the circumstances around us, the bold denial\u2014alas! that\nit must be said even by ministers of the church\u2014of the precious Sacrifice\nand alone-availing Intercession of the Incarnate God, which this ritual\nin its every part and phase asserts and exhibits; next, by the anxious\nlooking towards us of Eastern and Western Christians, yearning for the\nre-union of Christendom, expecting that somehow the re-union is to be\nbrought about by us; yet hesitating to give themselves into our hands,\nbecause they see not in us the due recognition of the Catholic doctrine\nof the Eucharist, the due rendering of objective worship to God.\n\nI have endeavoured my brethren in these sermons to set before you in the\nvery simplest way such a statement of the case as may disarm prejudices,\nand predispose to right thoughts about ritual and earnest endeavours to\nuse it duly where it is offered you.\n\nIt remains to say a few words to those whom at the outset I called\n\u201churriers along;\u201d to those who have gone with the movement without\nconsidering whither it was carrying them, or what would be the effect on\nothers who are being left behind; to those who in their conformity to\n\u201chigh-ritual\u201d are rather indulging their taste, than exercising their\njudgment, or are regarding as the _soul_ of worship, that which is but\nthe accessory, the expression, the body and clothing of worship.  As I\nhave warned you before, there are great and peculiar dangers inherent in\n\u201chigh-ritual;\u201d its abuse became a snare to the Jews and led them into\nformalism and idolatry, even when they had inspired prophets and the very\naudible voice of God to teach them; it became a like snare to our\nforefathers, from which they escaped only by giving up the use as well as\nthe abuse; it is a snare now to millions of eastern and western\nChristians; yes, and it is evidently a snare, a very dangerous snare to\nmany of yourselves.  Exaggerated in importance, regarded as an end\ninstead of a means, followed out into very minute detail,\u2014its forms and\nexpressions unduly repeated and multiplied\u2014it obscures the very truths\nwhich it was meant to exhibit; it distracts the attention which it should\nfix; it begets formalism, it mocks God with a worship which is not\nspiritual and true, and therefore is no worship at all; it leads its\nvotaries to a pitiable self-ostentation, which confirms in their\nprejudices the anti-ritualists, which retards the restorers of ritual\n(who fear to give looser reins to those who are already running wild),\nyea and well-nigh frightens them, in their concern for souls, out of the\ncontinued observance of what they have already restored!\n\nMy dear brethren, this is sober, necessary warning.  I pray you try to\nreceive it and to regulate your worship by it.  Take heed lest, being\ncumbered about many things you neglect the one thing needful; lest,\nfollowing right observances in a wrong spirit you incur the Pharisees\u2019\ncondemnation; lest, by an indiscriminate performance of all the bowings,\ngenuflections, and crossings invented in medi\u00e6val or modern times, you\ndestroy the emphatic teaching of pure and dignified Catholic ceremonial;\nlest indulging your own fancies and carrying out your own ritual, in the\nface of that which the responsible officers of the congregation by\nprecept and example enjoin, you offend grievously and culpably against\nthe apostolic precept: \u201cLet all things be done decently and in order.\u201d\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                            GLORY BE UNTO GOD.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n        C. W. REYNELL, PRINTER, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n\n{13}  Reprinted, by permission, from \u2018Hymns and other Poems,\u2019 by W.\nBright, M.A. (Rivingtons).","title":"The Ritual Movement: Three plain sermons preached at St. John the Evangelist's, Hammersmith","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":9627}