The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-25 00:00:00

RITUALISM AND ITS REWARD.

In things spiritual the mind of England is
growing year by year coarser and more gross.
The supernatural is not in the line of its pro-
gress. The cultivated intellect stands aloof, or
trenches itself behind barriers of scepticism
and of half doubts, whose nearest approach to
faith is suspension of judgment as to the facts
of Divine Revelation. The political mind of
the country is also in its degree misled by the
false lights of the new seers in the land—the
philosophers and guides of the national intel-
lect. Politicians put theories into practice, and
the theory that religion at best is but a matter
of private speculation, about which the nation
in its corporate capacity has no concern, is but
too likely in the course of the next few years
to become the political creed of England. The
magnitude of such an evil in its immediate
and practical consequences is fearful to con-
template. The religious mind of England also,
split up as it ever has been since the Reforma-
tion into multifarious and minute divisions, is
now, in addition, affected in its degree with
the growing Rationalism of the day ; and if
we turn to the immense masses of men who
live and thrive in our great industrial haunts,
with their appetites for gain whetted by suc-
cess, or to the working men in our dockyards,
or in the mining or manufacturing districts,
or to the agricultural labourers, we shall find
in each class alike, though differing in outward
form, either utter ignorance or a gross and
coarse apprehension of spiritual ideas. Scep-
ticism, it is not too much to say, on the one
side, and a low material view of religion on the
other, have usurped dominion over the Eng-
lish mind. To resist such a usurpation, to
go against the current of such a stream, was
the aim and work of Tractarianism in its day,
and is now a work which fairly entitles the
Ritualists, the heirs of the elder Tractarians,
to the highest respect. Ritualism is a bold
and public protest against the spirit and ten-
dency of the day ; it bears its testimony in
favour of the supernatural in quarters where
the presence of Catholicism is not seen, nor
its influence felt. It is visited, consequently,
with some of the obloquy, and, we are sorry to
see, with some of the ribaldry which are the
tributes that unbelief is wont to pay to the
Catholic Church. For bearing the share of
contumely which the Church, in its supreme
Head on earth, in its priests and its monastic
orders, inherits from the Cross of Christ, Ritual-
ism will not be without its reward. Public
profession of faith, a spirit of self-denial, love
of souls and unworldliness, are tokens that this
latest development of Anglicanism moves in
the direction of the Catholic Church. The
result of this development is a clearer appre-
hension of Catholic doctrine, and a more pre-
cise teaching of the dogmas which the Ritual-
ists have learnt from Catholic definitions. And
these Catholic dogmas are popularized and
brought home to tens of thousands in the
Ritualist churches throughout the kingdom.
The results of this practical education in Catho-
lic doctrines are seen in the growth of more
supernatural life, and, in its necessary conse-
quences—the innumerable and increasing con-
versions to the Catholic Church. These are
the rewards of the spirit which Ritualism is
cultivating in the minds of multitudes in the
Anglican Church. The more the nation at
large, as represented by the intellect and the
masses of the country, is falling away from
the faith and practice of Christianity, the
quicker will those who hold to the belief in a
revealed religion be driven for support in the
tremendous conflict to the Catholic Church.
It is the cleard uty of Catholics, under these cir-
cumstances, to aim at removing obstacles
which may hinder the return of those who
hesitate and linger at the threshold of the
Church ; to stretch out a hand towards those
who are struggling in doubt. Many of them
look upon us askance, misjudge our motives in
refusing to abate one jot or tittle of Catholic
doctrine or Catholic practice on their behalf.
In Catholicism they have yet to learn that there
is no compromise possible with'error, however
near that error may be to truth. Eclecticism
is not Catholicism. It is of the essence of
heresy to desire to select such truths only as
are palatable, instead of accepting what the
Church teaches by her infallible rule and
her existing practice. But what it lies
upon the conscience of every Catholic to do, is
not to affront, not to embitter, not to turn
away those who are, perhaps, angrily demand-
ing, not explanations only, but the surrender
of certain portions of the Church's teaching.
On the contrary, it is our part to show, patiently
and kindly, 'and with the forbearance which
men are entitled to who are honestly seeking
after truth, the impossibility of such surrender.
The Catholic faith is not of our making. We
cannot palter with the divine gift. This im-
moveability of faith is what the Ritualists
have to learn from the Catholic Church ; all
that we can do in our controversy with them
is to make the lesson as easy as possible. The
momentous character of the issue at stake
should induce Catholics to realize to them-
selves more and more the difficulties which
beset those outside the Church, to throw them-
selves as much as possible into the habit of
mind of Anglicans who honestly believe in the
feasibility of the reconciliation of Anglicanism
with the Church. They will then be better
able to understand Anglican difficulties, or to
offer with greater effect explanations of the
insuperable obstacles which stand in the way
of such a reconciliation. To put the best pos.
giblo construction on ritualism, on its hopes