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K.
NATIONAL I.IBUAUY
CANADA
BIBLK) I Jl 0^'E NATIONALE
I
The Church of England
^^^ in Canada.
KXTRACTS FROM THE FIRST CHARCiB OF
His Grace the Late Archbishop Sweatman
UHLIVBRBD AT TORONTO, JDNB 10 I87y
CA/.L/:i> /v > ///.v
"MY DECLARA TION OF FAITH"
A.\J> /I) FA'AAdlJ./CAl.S
''OUR MAGNA CM ART A"
A true standard set for all Evanjcelical Church-
men and Women throughout the Dominion of
Canada.
" //(>/(/ ./r/.s7 t/idf zvhic/i //ion //(/s/, that no iiiiiii
take thy rnr.L'//." A'rz'. .v."//.
A
*• -t li-
1
1
I
]
\
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
IN CANADA.
Extracts from the first charge of His Grace the late
Archbishop Siveatman, delivered at Toronto, June lOy iS^g,
CALLED BY HIM
• MY DECLARATION OF FAITH"
AND BY EVANGELICALS
#
' OUR MAGNA CHARTA"
A true standard set for all Evang^elical Churchmen and
Women throughout the Dominion of Canada.
Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy Crown.''
— Rev. yri
It is not well that the remembrance of this states-
manlike utterance should pass away. Its calm, judi-
cious, uncompromising words, containing the promise
and guarantee of times of refreshing, were the fitting
beginning of an episcopate of over thirty years' dura-
tion, in which much of good was wrought for our Church.
The needs of the present day call for a diligent recon-
sideration of this' document, hailed by Evangelical
Churchmen when delivered as their Magna Charta. It
should be studied and spread broadcast throughout our
Dominion. Let not the good that these words of wisdom
accomplished, when delivered, be forgotten at a period
when they are as much wanted as when tiicy were first
uttered.
4*-*«Wt»^i«|*«******* ■
1.— GOD'S RULE IS DIVERSITY, NOT UNIFORMITY.
"That there should be divergences of opinion on points
of doctrine and practice among those who are yet sincere
8onn of the Church of England, we must concede to be in-
evitable and allowable — inevitable, since it has pleased God
to endow the human mind with so wide a diversity in its
views of truth and its processes of thought; and allowable,
because the authoritative standards of our Church have been
wisely framed with a sufficient comprehensiveness of range
as to their construction to embrace such diversity.
"Unity is, without doubt, a necessary mark of the true
Church of Christ — may we strive with all our hearts to
attain to it! — but I do not believe that to realize that unity
for which He prayed and taught us to pray, it is necessary
that we should wait until our own visionary dream of uni-
formity is fulfilled. Indeed, a study of all God's works in
nature goes to demonstrate that not uniformity, but diver-
sity, is His rule — in the works of man it is the latter fea-
ture that is recognized as pleasing; the former is, by com-
mon consent, avoided as offensive to instinctive taste; and
we feel that the truest, most complt o unity is that which
is attained by the harmonizing of diversities into a con-
sistent, agreeing whole."
2.— THERE ARE PARTIES, AND EACH HAS THE
RIGHT TO EXIST.
"It is fruitless for us to deny, brethren, it would be
unworthy for us to apologize, that there are parties in the
Church. I trust we have learned enough wisdom from the
past frankly to accept the position; and that each party
is willing honourably to concede to the other the right to
exist and to claim a just recognition — so long, of course, as
its doctrines and usages are within the legitimate limits of
a fair and honest interpretation of the formularies acknow-
ledged by both. Constituted thus, as our Church is, he could
never be a true Bishop of the Church who allowed himself
to be the Bishop of a party."
3.— NO COMPROMISE— BUT TOLERANCE.
"I am compelled, of necessity, to tread upon dangerous
ground; and feel the greater need that therefore is for pre-
\
caution in guarding myself against misconstruction. I am
not advocating compromise, which is a weak and futile ex-
pedient for evading difficulties, but tolerance. I am not
contemplating a surrender of principles, which would be a
betrayal of the truth; but I do propose to myself, as the
essential of a good, an ideal Bishop, a heart large enough
to embrace within its syinpathies, and a mind unbiased
enough to honour with its confidence all godly, sincere, earn-
est Churchmen, though they may belong to different schools
of thought; an impartiality that will mete out to each his
due, uninfluenced by motives of party ; a tenderness in judg-
ing and a gentleness of dealing that is ready to make an
allowance for errors that are of the head only, and a firm-
ness of hand that will hold the reins of power evenly with a
strict justice that is undeviating, and will steer a straight
course of equity and right, without fear or favour."
4.— HOLDS WITH PROTESTANTISM AND AGAINST
SACBEDOTALISM.
"And here, again, let me not bo misunderstood. I do not
mean to imply that a Bishop has no right to have any
opinions of his own; that his views must be colourless; that
he must agree with everything and anything with a kind
of latitudinarian indifferentism ; that his mind must be
emasculated of vigourous activity, and divested of all in-
dependence and individuality.
"I claim that I hold views; and views of a very distinct
character — views which I prize most highly, which are to
me as the apple of the eye, and which I would refuse to
part with at the price of any place of dignity in the
Church. I hold most strongly the Protestant Evangelical
views of our Reformed Church, as opposed to the Sacer-
dotal and Sacramentarian views which are characteristic of
Eomanism. ' '
5. DOES NOT APOLOGIZE FOB THE REFORMATION.
"There are those who have grown to be ashamed of the
honest name of Protestant, and think it necessary to speak
quite apologetically of the Reformation. But, I would ask,
what existence have we as a Church duly constituted, with
a polity of its own, with prescribed liturgy and authorized
standards, except through the Reformation t It is true that
w6«Kj;.^«^*'fN^*'' *'^A rt
^s^^' - x!^r^'^rrK^ii^frm^?v>'p^-rp:y^is^^v:f:r^
we trace back the independent autonomy of our branch of
the Church Catholic far beyond that struggle which was as
the throes of a second birth; beyond its subjection to the
Papal primacy; beyond the accession to it of the Saxon con-
verts of Augustine, and its consequent first connection with
t>.e See of Rome, back through the persecutions and de-
pressions of the British Christians, who also had their Bish-
ops and their liturgy, to the very Apostolic age.
> >
«— OUR CHURCH REFORMED FROM THE ERRORS.
IDOLATRIES AND SUPERSTITIOUS CERE-
MONIES OF ROME.
"Our Church of England dates from thence, and not
from the Beformation; the separation from Rome was not a
schism from the body, but a self-emancipation from an
imposed yoke, a return to original independence; the re-
nunciation of the errors, the idolatries, the superstitious
ceremonies of Borne was the purging of the ancient Church
from the accretions of defilement, through the mediaeval
period, that had dimmed her light and sullied her purity.
And therefore, although with just pride we claim for oui
Church that she is no new Church, but the oldest of
Churches, cleansed, remodelled and restored nearer to the
pristine purity and the primitive pattern of faith and prac-
tice than any other Church, we cannot deny, if we would,
that what we are as a Church to-day was the work of the
Protestant Beformers. To these noble, holy and learned
men, even if they were erring, who shed their blood to pur-
chase with it for us the priceless heritage of a pure faith
enshrined in a form of worship that is sublime in its dig-
nity, venerable for its antiquity, and glorious with the
beauty of holiness, we owe a debt which we cannot over-
estimate, a debt which it were the climax of base ingrati-
tude for us to repay, as some who call themselves Anglican
Churchmen have done, by casting opprobrium upon their
blessed memory."
7 THE SPLENDID HERITAGE— BIBLE— BOOK 07
COMMON PRATER— THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.
"The heritage they have bequeathed to us is indeed a
rich one — a faithful version of the Holy Scriptures in our
own tongue, that the unlearned may h: ve free access to the
Words of Life and 'the Book of Common Prayer and Ad-
ministration of the Sacraments and other rights and cere-
monies of the Church.' The Thirty-nine Articles of Re-
ligion, forming a complete summary of the Reformed faith
on the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, and especially on
those points which were matters of controversy with the
Church of Rome, although of somewhat inferior authority,
we acknowledge as the standard of reference for the
Church's teaching and subscribe *in their true, literal and
usual meaning, not drawing them aside any way nor put-
ting our own sense or comment to be their meaning, but
taking them in the literal and grammatical sense.'
"We are all agreed in the recognition of these three great
standards as the tests to which we are willing that our
Churchmanship should be brought. The first, the Bible, if
we believe in its divine inspiration, must ever be to us the
SBpreme, sole, final appeal ir matters of faith and practice
of life, so that in the words of the Sixth Article, 'What-
soever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is
not to be required of any man that it should be believed
as an Article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necea-
sary to salvation.' "
8.— AN EVANaE?/:iICAL PRAYER BOOK CHURCHMAN
WHO PREACHES THE GOSPEL.
"And herein I profess my unfeigned assent and con-
sent to its teaching as thoroughly scriptural; my deep love
and reverence for its form of sound words as those in which
my fathers have found spiritual comfort in worshipping for
three hundred years; and my unswerving allegiance to its
authority as the exponent of the Reformers' doctrine. J
claim that in avowing myself a Prayer Book Churchman I
vindicate my title to be held a Protestant Churchman; for
the Prayer Book is, as I regard it, the very bulwark of
Protestant principles.
"I have laid claim to the further character of being an
Evangelical Churchman. It is much to be regretted that so
unexceptionable a definition should have been narrowed down
to the designation of a party. I hold that the chief glory,
the very raison d'etre of the Reformed Church of Eng-
land, ia that she is an Evaugelical Church. The very pur-
pose of her purgation from Romish traditions was that
she might be the depository and dispenser of the pure, un-
adulterated Gospel of Christ. It is the accord of her teach-
ing, her formularies, her rites, her Prayer Book, with that
Gospel as revealed in Holy Scripture that constitutes their
claim upon our acceptance. I know of no duty wliich our
Church lays upon her ordained Ministers paramount to that
of fulfilling her Lord's commission to preach the Gospel to
every creature, of none she enjoins upon her children other
than in all things to obey the Gospel of Christ their Saviour.
"It shall be my one aim in all my ministrations, as it
has been in the past, to know nothing in my preaching but
Jesus Christ and Him orucified, to set forth sacraments,
ordinances, creeds and ceremonies, not in the place of the
Gospel, but as means to bring men nearer to Christ and
Christ nearer to men. This is what I understand by being
an Evangelical Churchman, to be thoroughly loyal to tho
Church from a conviction that she is based upon the Gosj^el
as her authority, pervaded by tLe Gospel as her Spirit
and conformed to the Gospel in her teaching. ' '
9.— AN EVANGELICAL PEAYEE BOOK CHUECHMAN,
GLADLY ACCEPTING THE WOEE OF THE EB-
FOEMEES AS IT STANDS.
"A sound, conservative Churchman, conservative of the
Evangelical doctrine and Apostolic order as they have been
bequeathed us by the Refprmers, is what I aim to be, for
I am one of those who are satisfied with what the Reform-
ers have done, regretting nothintr which they have abolished;
and not wishing to see anythiug abolished which they have
thought worthy to be retained."
10.— THE LAITY AEE STAUNCHLY PEOTESTANT
AND MUST HAVE CLEEGYMEN OF SOUND
PEOTESTANT VIEWS.
((
If any apology is needed from me for trespassing at
such length upon your time and in such plain simplicity of
language, with what may be called ray Declaration of I'aith,
6
I tind it in the present condition of our Church in this Dio-
cese, which must be to all of us nia'^ter of deep distress
and concern. It is useless for us, t'lrough feelings of false
delicacy, to attempt to conceal frou ourselves the fact that
there are a large number of our country missions in which
the Church is dying out, and that there has been a holding
back of the means which are necessary to the support and
extension of our missions, and that both these symptoms of
declining prosperity are, to a large extent, a^'tribntable to
a want of sympathy and confidence on the part of the Laity
in the teaching of the Clergy. I fully recognize that, in
the administration of the Diocese, the task to which I have
to address myself is, to endeavour to restore this lost con-
fidence. Without it it is impossible that we can regain a
state of strength, vitality and progress.
' ' There can be no question in t)ie mind of anyone ac-
quainted with the reiisriouB aspect of the country, ILat the
heart of the great bulk oj our Laity is staunchly, jealously
Protestant. I thank God ior it. And in the endeavour to
fulfil the difficult tt ,k thnt lies before me, my firs! and
most earnest eflforto will be dire :ed to supply the misaions
of the Diocese with Clcrgvmen of sound Protestant views."
11.— ^HABxTUAL OONPESSION AN ERRONEOUS AND
STRANGE DOCTKINE FOREIGN TO THE
TEACHING OF OUR CHURCH
"Among such erroneous and strange doctrines, which have
unhappily found their way into our Church, but are wholly
foreign to her teaching, are notably those of habitual con-
fession and Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ
in the consecrated elements. On the first of these the
Bishops of our Church have pronounced with the consensus
of unqualified condemnation. The very limited time at my
disposal forbids my entering at any length upon this or any
other of the important questions which agitate the Church.
I would say, briefly, that the claim which has been put for-
ward by some Presbyters to a right to demand and receive
the confession of penitents before giving them absolution,
icdicates and would seem to spring from exaggerated views
of Priestly authority which are alien to the whole spirit of
our Cbarch's teaching, have no warrant whatever in the
»?iiKSi5>fl!SIP,''-J«S-r*^i'i:W '■f "'^ ^
Word of God and are justly regarded by Protestants at
the reproach of the Church of Rome.
' * The instruct' ..ns given in our Prayer Boot to the Clergy
as to receiving voluntary confessions, are very slight. The
Archbishop of Canterbury, in his primary charge as Bishop
of London, remarks, *The silence of the Church of England
formularies as compared with the fulness of the Church
of Rome in treating of systematic confession, is itself, to
my mind, an irrefragable argument to show that the mind
of our Church is quite against the practice.'
"The progress of our Reformers' views on this subject
may be traced by comparing the Second Prayer Book of
King Edward Sixth, in 1552, with the First Book of 1549.
The Rubric in the visitation for the sick in the first book
stood thus:
I i i ■
'Here shall the sick person make a special confession^
if he feels his conscience troubled with any weighty mat-
ter. After which confession the Priest shall jibsolve him
after this form; and the same form of absolution shall be
used in all private confessions.' In the second book thi^
last clause, 'the same form of absolution shall be used in
all private confessions,' was expunged; thus clearly taking
away the authority for using a form of private coufessiou.
Again, at this same revision, in the Cooinmatoa olRce, the
passage was struck out from the address to the Communi-
cants, 'Requiring such as shall be satisfied ^utll the general
confession not to be offended with them that do use
to their further satisfying the auricular and secret confes-
sion to the Priest.' Here is another unmistakable indica-
tion of the intention of our Reformers to abolish private
confession from the Church system.
"The three passages in the Book of Common Prayer
which bear upon this subject are: First, the exhortation
which calls upon us to confess our manifold sins and
wickedness, with a humble, lowly, penitent and obedient
heart, and that, not only at all times in humble acknow-
ledgment before God, but most chiefly in our daily assem-
bling together in public, before we receive comfort from
hearing the declaration, which the Minister is authorised to
pronounce, of God's willingness to pardon and absolve all
them that truly repent and unfeignedly believe His Holy
8
Gofiprl Second, the invitation which concludes the first
form of warning for the celebration of the Holy Com-
munion, 'Because it is requisite that no man should come to
the Holy Communion but with a full trust in God's mercy,
and with a quiet conscience; therefore if there be any of
you, who by this means (i.e., confession to God, repentance
and restitution) cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but
requireth further comfort or counsel, let him eome to me, or
to some other discreet and learned Minister of God's Word,
and open his grief, that by the ministry of God's Holy
Word he may receive the benefit of absolution, together
with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting of his con-
science, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness.' The
third passage I have already quoted from the order for
the visitation of the sick, wherein the Pastor is directed to
move the sick person to make a special confession of his
sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty
matter, 'that if he seems truly penitent he may have the
consolation of hearing from his Pastor's lips before he dies
that God of His great mercy in Jesus Christ is ready to
pardon him.'
"The first of these passages enjoining the confession of
sins publicly before the congregation gives no countenance
whatever to the practice of the confessional, and as to the
other two, it is sufficient to point out that they plainly, in
their honest interpretation, have reference solely to the
ordinary pastoral intercourse of the Clergyman with his
people. This intercourse should be of the most sacred char-
acter, dealing with the spiritual condition of those entrusted
to his care, as well the sick as the whole, as need shall
require and occasion shall be given. It is to be feared that
we are not generally faithful enough to our duty and our
opportunities in this respect ;. a good deal of plain speaking,
admonition, remonstrance, searching into the state of the
heart, is, no doubt, necessary on the Pastor's part, if he
would lead his people individually to repentance and the
seeking of God's pardoning mercy; but this is a very dif-
ferent thing from what some have attempted to introduce
into our system as habitual confession to the Priest."
mU Kiwr M
MSliM
12.— HABITUAL CONFESSION IS AN OUTBAQE TO
OUB CHUBCH TO BE LOATHED BY PUBE-
MINDED PEOPLE.
* * I will not dwell upon the moral and social aspect of this
question; the terrible scandals, the injury to morality, the
mischief in *?imilies which have resulted from this practice
as carried to its ultimate issues in the Church of Borne, and
have made the very name of the confessional to be indig-
nantly spurned and loathed by every pure-minded, indepen-
dent man; what I insist upon is that it is an outrage to
the Reformed principles of our Church, a practice that can-
not be tolerated with any sa iction from her authority. I
close this subject with another quotation from the Charge
of Bishop Tait in 1858: 'If,' he says, 'any Clergyman so
preaches to his people as to lead them to suppose that the
proper and authorized way of a sinner's reconciliation with
Ood is through confession to a Priest and by receiving
Priestly absolution — if he leads them to bellove that as the
Greek Church has erred by neglecting preaching, and the
Church of Rome by not encouraging the reading of the
Scriptures, so our Church has hitherto been much to blame
for not leading her people more habitually to private, auri-
cular confession — if he thus stirs up the imagination of
ardent and confiding spirits to have recourse to him as a
mediator between their souls and God, and when they come
to seek his aid receives them with all the elaborate prepara-
tion which is so likely unduly to excite their feelings, and
for which there is no authority in the Church's rules of
worship — taking them into the vestry of his church, secur-
ing the door, putting on the sacred vestments, causing them
to kneel before the Cross, to address him as their ghostly
father, asking a string of questions as to sins of deed,
word and thought, and imposing his penance before he con-
fers absolution — then the man who thus acts, or— even if
some of these particular circumstances are wanting — of
whose general practice this is no exaggerated picture, is,
in my judgment, unfaithful to the whole spirit of the
Church of which he is a member.' "
to
13.— THE REAL PBESENOI: IS ALSO AN ERRONEOUS
AND STRANOE DOCTRINE FOREIGN TO THE
TEACHING OF OUR CHURCH.
"With regard to the other 'strange and erroneous doc-
trine,' which I have here instanced — that of the Real Pres-
ence — we cannot but remember that in its extremeat form,
as Transubstantiation, it formed the chief point of issue
with the Church of Borne, the centre around which the
strife raged the fiercest, the crucial test which cost many
faithful and true men their lives. Probably no member of
the Church of England, however extreme his Sacramentarian
views, holds this doctrine, in its full import, and undis-
guised repugnance; no Anglican Priest would venture to
assert it openly, in defiance oi' Article Twenty-eight, which
declares, 'The Body of Christ is given, taken and eaten in
the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner.'
'And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and
eaten in the Supper is Faith.' But there is a manner of
speaking of the mystery of the spiritual Presence of Christ,
in and under the outward symbols, and of the effects which
follow the act of consecration, which tends to inculcate
views of the Holy Sacrament, very closely approaching those
which this Article strongly condemns. For example, in the
Manual of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament I
find such language as this, 'O my beloved Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, I firmly believe, because Thou hast said, "this
is My Body; this is My, Blood," that in this Blessed Sac-
rament Thou art truly present. Thy Divinity and Thy
Humanity, with all the treasures of Thy merits and Thy
grace; that Thou art Thyself mystically offered for us in
this Holy Oblation; and dost through Thy Own Presence
communicate the virtues of Thy most precious Death and
Passion to all Thy faithful living and departed.' And
again, 'I adore Thee, O Lord my God, whom I now behold,
veiled beneath these earthly forms. Prostrate I adore Thy
Majesty.' In the 'Litany of our Lord present in the Holy
Eucharist' in the same Manual, amongst many like allu-
sions to a corporeal Presence, occurs this suffrage, which
seems to symbolize with the heresy of the sacrifice of the
Mass, 'That by this adorable sacrifice we may acknowledge
our perpetual dependence upon Thee'; and again in the
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'Litany of Reparation,' *0 Sacred Victim, consumed on
the Altar by us and for us; have mercy upon us.' Once
more, in the 'Office for Spiritual Communion,' the direction
is given, 'Here meditate devoutly on the Passion anJ Death
of Jesus Christ; or on the Real Presence of His Saered
Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, or on the Holy
Sacrifice of Himself therein continually offered before the
Father.' It is, of course, possible, by the exercise of an
extreme charity, to believe that persons who hold such lan-
guage may persuade themselves, by some ingenuity of rea-
soning, that they mean nothing more than is taught by
our Church; but it seems to me that no plain, simple folk
could understand from it anything else than the assertion
of the bodily presence of the crucified Christ, in the con-
secrated Bread and Wine, and of the repetition in every act
of eoamunion of that atoning sacrifice of Himself, which
Scripture tells us was made once for all."
14.— THE PRACTICES, ATTITUDES AND GESTUBES
WHICH TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF THE REAL
PRESENCE CONSIDERED.
"But it is not teaching only that may suggest this doc-
trine of the Real Presence — there is a serious danger of lead-
ing unstable minds into the same error, by the practices, the
attitudes and gestures which have been introduced into the
act of communion. Those who, no doubt from a sense of
deep reverence, have adopted the practices I refer to, verge
very closely upon the violation of the last clause of the
Article already quoted: 'The Sacrament of the Lord's Sup-
per was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about,
lifted up or worshipped.' The consecration of the elements,
with the celebrant's back turned to the people so that they
are unable to see what is done, the elevation of the conse-
crated Bread above his head, the prostration of the com-
municant before the Holy table, the receiving of the elements
with every manifestation of a profound obeisance to them
as possessing an imparted virtue by the act of consecration,
and non-communicating attendance — all these practices,
neither enjoined in nor deducible from the Rubrics, have the
semblance ef a superstitious adoration of the sacred symbols.
13
They may be innocent in it tent, but their danger is lest
they lead on the worshipper from step to step to the fatal
error of believing that by virtue of the Priest's act the very
Body and Blood of Christ are offered up afresh on the
Altar, an oft-repeated sacrifice for sin.
"You will remember how careful the Church has been
to guard the reverential posture she enjoins on recipients
against this misconstruction. At the first revision of the
Prayer Book in 1552 the Royal Council added a declaration
concerning kneeling at the communion, which, having been
omitted since the reign of Elizabeth, was again subjoined,
with certain modifications, in its present form, at the last
revision in 1661. *It is hereby declared, that hereby no
adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the
sacramental Bread or Wine there bodily received, or unto
any corporal Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood.
Por the Sacramental Bread and Wine remains still in their
very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored,
for that were idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Chris-
tians. '
"By all means let us inculcate upon our communicants,
both in precept and by example, the utmost devotion of
heart and reverence of demeanor in approaching these Holy
mysteries; in drawing nearer to the Spiritual Presence of
our adorable Saviour than in any other ordinance; but, as
we love the Truth, let us shun everything that savours of
or conduces to superstition."
15.— CLERaYMEN IN SUCH A CONSPIRACY TO UN-
DERMINE OUR REFORMED CHURCH WILL
NOT BE LICENSED.
"So utterly subversive of the Protestant doctrine of our
Church on a matter of vital importance do I consider such
teaching, that I will never knowingly grant my license to
officiate in this Diocese to any Clergyman who is a member
of this Confraternity — or conspiracy, as it has been called
— to undermine our Reformed Faith. And I earnestly hope
that in preaching or teaching concerning the Sacrament of
the Lord's Supper our Clergy will carefuly guard against
all such language as may ^ive colour to a belief that is so
repugnant to the spirit and teaching of the Church."
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16.— THE RULE IN "RITUAL" IS ''THAT WHICH IS
GOOD FOR THE USE OF EDIFYING. "
"I could have wished, had space permitted, to address
you fully on the subject of Ritualism. For the preaent but
a few words will suffice. Our Church is distinguished above
other Reformed Churches in possessing a Ritual which is
essentially grand, decorous and beautiful, and has througn-
out her history not thought it unworthy to call into her aid
the hand-made arts of music, architecture and decoration, to
render her services of prayer and praise, at once promotive
of devotional feeling in the worshipper and becoming the
glory and majesty of Him worshipped. For my part, I
Ehould grieve to see our beautiful Liturgy robbed of all
that makes it impressive as the service of the sanctuary, and
reduced to the barren coldness of a cheerless, Puritan
worship. A comely, well-appointed house of prayer, with
all the furniture and vessels for the use of God's service,
designed with taste and kept in scrupulous cleanliness and
order, good music of a church character, and a hearty, re-
sponsive service, I believe to be not only calculated to attract
worshippers, but profitable to interest their hearts in the
worship. In all these matters the rule should be, 'that
which is good for the use of edifying.' "
17.— THE DIGNITY AND BEAUTY OF SIMPLICITY AS
OPPOSED TO THE TAWDRY TINSEL AND
MIMICRY OF ROME, WHICH DRIVES SO
MANY OUT OF OUR CHURCH.
"The one only plea for the improving of Ritual must bb
the promoting of reality, earnestness and spirituality in wor-
ship. And of our Reformed Church, as contrasted v/ith
idolatrous Rome, the character of her Ritual should be the
dignity, genuineness and beauty of simplicity, as opposed to
the frivolous, tawdry tinsel of outward pomp and pageant.
Simplicity should be the glory of all our services, simplicity
that is tho natural expression of sincerity — not that bald
and dull simplicity which is begotten of indifference and
slovenliness. But unhappily some, in their fondness for the
externals of religion, or their leanings to symbolism and
\
a3stheLic modes of worship, or their excessive zeal for cere-
monial, have far oxccedcil this rule of simplicity, and by
their introduction of excessive decorations, floral and sym-
bolic, continual bowings and genuflections, candles lighted
in broad day, peculiar shaped vestments and many-coloured
stoles, and otherwise what has been called 'the mimicry of
the outside of Rome,' have given serious offence to the sober
common sense of their people and aroused suspicions in
them that something dangerous lurks behind. Indeed, while
these practices find favour with a few of extreme eccles-
iastical tastes, it cannot be concealed that they have been
the means of alienating the affections of great numbers of
the plain, simple people from the Church, and driving them
into schism, to join themselves to dissenting communions.
'Why,' it has been asked, 'should any Clergyman wish to
make his church such that a common man placed suddenly
within would not be able to say whether he was in a Church
of England or a Romish place of worship'!
18.— AVOID INNOVATIONS.
''Our Church has provided in her Rubrics a Ritual which
gives ample scope for a solemn, beautiful, chaste and hearty
service; the vestments sanctioned by long presumptive usage,
the decent white surplice with sleeves, the black stole and
hood belonging to the degree, furnish a priestly garment
sufficiently expressive of the holiness of the office and of
a simple dignity and comeliness to satisfy the purest taste;
the music that has been created by the Church of England
through three hundred years, and is the exponent of the
genius of her service, offers a repertoire extensive and varied
enough to supply the demands of the most cultivated and
critical taste, and possesses compositions of sacred and sol-
emn beauty that have justly made themselves dear to the
hearts as well as the ears of Church-going people; and all
these may be legitimately made the most of to render the
service a real help to the soul's spiritual emotions. Every-
thing beyond these must be regarded in the light of an
innovation; and innovations in Ritual and' worship it is my
duty to set my face against, and as far as my authority
extends, to check and resist."
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19.— OFFEND NOT OUE BSOTHEB WITH DECORA-
TIONS.
* ' With regard to church decorations, which may be in-
nocuous in themselves, I must earnestly warn my younger
brethren of the Clergy especially, against pushing them to
dangerous extremes. To take one familiar example, the
emblem of the Cross, which is unquestionably the most an-
cient and appropriate of Christian devices — suppose that
the use of it is the cause of offence to a weak member of
your flock. What is our duty, as a Christian man and a
Pastor of the flock? To insist upon the ornament as unof-
fensive and retain it to gratify your taste, and so alienate
your brother or wound his weak conscience, or to yield
your predilections to his scruples? You admit that no prin-
ciple is involved; no law of the Church or precept of the
Gospel enjoins that crosses should be set up over the holy
table or on the wall; and surely the spirit of tender charity
that was the rule of the large-hearted Apostle will prompt
you to decide, 'I will set up no cross while I live, lest I
make my brother to offend.' "
Let us thankfully accept this message as giving us
the true position and teaching of our Chuich. Let
UH preserve it and use it as a shield of defence ag; inst
the fiery darts of the Romanists and Anglo-Romanists.
It will enable the faithful to give from a high author-
ity—one of the Fathers of our Church— a reason con-
cerning " the hope that is in you *'— 1 Pet. 3 : 15.
S. H. B.
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^02 y'otij;e Street
Tot onto, Canada