The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-10-01 00:00:00

OUR PORTFOLIO.—No. 3

For all that Doctor Pusey and his learned associates can
do, we doubt if in this age the dispute about church cere-
monies, and the externals of public worship, will set the
world in flames, or that it will continue very long at its pre-
sent moderate and still moderating temperature. The fact
is, the question has been thoroughly argued aid acted out
long since, and the end at which we must arrive is so
thoroughly seen, that in engaging in the discussion, we are
like persons reading over a story the second time : the at-
traction of curiosity is destroyed—we are already acquainted
with the denouement. A good book, however, will generally
bear a second perusal, even after its pages have ceased to be
magnetised with this attractive property—and the high church
controversy may also be occasionally resumed in the same
way, and be found neither uninteresting nor uninstructive.
The mind of man oscillates between the unattainably pure,
and the superstitiously gross,, and he seeks at one time pre-
maturely to disenthral himself of mere material elements—
whilst at another he sits down hopeless of all attempts to
rise—a mere worshipper of sticks and stones. Popery is the
most elevated point at one extremity of this theological
sliding scale—the system of the Scottish covenanters, or of
English quakerism, may stand highest on the other. There
is, however, a vast difference between the two; both, in-
deed, are errors of excess ; but on the one side there is an
appreciation of what is right and pure, although it is un-
attainable ; on the other, the proper object to be desired is
lost sight of, and another totally and essentially different is
taken for it, set up, and established in its place. In the one
case a true spiritual worship is at least sought after; in the
other the mere excitation of the senses is absolutely used as
its substitute. The covenanters declared war against every
instrumentality which seemed to call in the aid of sense,
even in its lowest form, to the services of religion; it ap-
peared nothing less in their eyes than a remnant of heathen-
ism; or rag at least of the scarlet lady to do so ; the ceremo-
nialists, on the other hand, appealed to the beauty and
splendour of their rites—the impressiveness of their cathedral
worship—the mysterious complexity of their sacred edifices—
" the high-embowed roof,
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,

Casting a dim religious light ;
and the ceremonies, gorgeous and various, performed within
them. To want sensibility to be moved by such things, was
in their opinion to want a sense—to be deficient in taste and
refinement, and they denounced the iconoclests as Goths
and Vandals and barbarians. Meanwhile, moderate men saw
that there was a juste milieu between these extremes ; they
knew that " neither at Jerusalem nor in Samaria is the place
where men ought to worship"—that the spirit which gives
life to pure adoration is neither to be won by the most rigid
exclusion of all external appliances, nor by using them in the
profusest abundance, and they steered a course as evenly as
they could between the Scylla on the one side and the Charyb-
dis on the other. In this spirit the services and ordinances
of the Church of England have been constructed, and so long
as that just and temperate and judicious spirit remains, so
long will they be as little as possible departed from.
With regard, however, even to these services, it would
seem that there is a diversity of sentiment—and that there
are some who hold them to be almost necessary to, and an
essential of, true spiritual worship itself. Now this we think
to be a serious mistake. We fully admit their uses ; we ac-
knowledge almost their necessity in the common course of
things ; we uphold them as pleasing in themselves—so-
lemnising their effects—and gently preparative of those high
and holy frames most akin to the exercise of spirituality in
congregational devotion ; but we see them always as mere
creatures; we know that they are iu themselves nothing—
that true spiritual worship is not dependent upon them—that
by no necessary alliance of cause and effect can they produce
it ; that without their aid it can exist in its highest degree,
as with all their appliances, choirs, chants, and solemn tem-
ples—

" Where through the long-drawn aisle, and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise "
they may utterly fail to raise one atom of it. If such instru-
mentalities may be used in compassion to human infirmity-7
in tender regard to " mortal spirits" which "tire and faint,"
it is absolutely necessary to guard against the idolatry and
superstition which would convert them into ends, and rest in
than. " The hour cometh and now is," said the Saviour,
" when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship him"—
arid neither places nor ceremonies, neither times nor seasons,
are indispensable to such worship. To Him—

" whose temple is all space,

Whose altar, earth, sea, skies,"
such distinctions are unknown. He is himself the great
source of all true worship, and it is vain to think that we can
give him back any thing which he has not first given us.

To suppose that we can raise the Spirit of God by chant
or organ, by stole or genuflexion, by incense or procession,
is to believe in a species of witchcraft, and little less than
an insult to the Deity. There is no command given in the
New Testament for the use of such ceremonies, and of
course no blessing promised to their performance, however
sincere it may be; neither, on the other hand, are they—so
far as they come within the rule of doing all things "decently
and in order"—in anywise forbidden. They are a matter of
convenience—of discretion, and, we might add, of taste, and
will affect different men differently.

Into these reflections we were led a few day since by read-
ing, in the Morning Post, of September 22d, an account of
the new parish church at Leeds, at which the archbishop of
the province, the bishop of the diocese, and several other
prelates and church dignitaries assisted, whilst, as it is
stated, " the presence of from three to four hundred of the
parochial clergy, from all parts of the kingdom, in ecclesi-
astical costume, added much to the solemn dignity of the
occasion." The church, which has cost upwards of .Z 30,000,
owes its origin, says the account, " to the ardent zeal of the
vicar, Dr. Ilook, and the liberality and devotion of the
churchmen of Leeds and the immediate neighbourhood."
We come now to the remarks of the writer; and as they
have been suggestive of that train of thought at which we
have been glancing, we shall transfer them to this place :
" So grand an ecclesiastical display as this is not very re-
markable in England in these modern times ; but there is
good reason to expect that, under Providence, au impulse
has been given to the mind of the people which will lead to
many more such solemn and effecting occasions of doing
honour to God and His Church.

" We know that many will be disposed to sneer at what we
have been describing, as niece pomp and ceremony. Not a
few may perhaps be disposed to visit it with censure, as a
restoration of popish vanities and superstitions. We regard
such sentiments as mere prejudices, and we hope that such
prejudices will gradually wear away, and that the who:esoine
and comforting influence of the church will rise triumphant
over them. It is not thought absurd or unreasonable to
have pomps and ceremonies, magnificent processions and
heart-swelling music, when the object is to do honour to an
earthly potentate; why should we object to such natural
means of doing honour to the King of Kings ? A public
favourite, even in these days of rationalism, is saluted with
banners, and the sound of trumpets and flutes, and throng-
ing companies, cheering with their voices and applauding with
their hands. Why is this ? is it to make the object of all
this honourable notice wiser or better ? No ; it is the natural
outpouring of admiration or gratitude. It is the expression
of an inward feeling, and that sort of expression which
kindles by a common impulse the mind of the multitude so
that it leaps up in one bright blaze of sympathy. And shall
we neglect such natural means where the honour and glory
of the Deity are concered ? Common sense is sufficient to
assure us that we should not. As the object is higher and
holier, so should the ceremony be higher and holier—more
orderly—more solemn—more calculated to inspire the mind
with awe ; but this distinction being granted, we do not see
why the natural means of uniting many minds in one com-
mon feeling of exalted reverence should be neglected.
It is very true that some minds are capable of such lofty
abstractions, or they are so rich in the imaginative faculty,
without any suggestion through the senses, that they may
rise to the highest contemplations, and become wrapt in the
sublimest devotion, without any ceremonial or local asso-
ciation. But such' minds are exceptions to the mass, and
religion is not given for the sake of the philosophic few, but
for all who will bend their hearts to the simplicity of BE-
Ltuvr,G. Granting, then, that even sacred ceremonies may
be carried too tar, so as to become theatrical, (which is no
more than granting that an excellent thing may be abused by
carrying it to excess,) we contend that, to all the extent to
which Christian propriety can go, they are of great—nay, of
the greatest—practical value in elevating ordinary minds out
of the common track and beaten way of wordly impressions,
and warming the soul into animated devotion."
The mistake which this writer falls into is that of calling a
ceremony—(the mere opus operatum of an external form)—
" devotion ;" and such is the grand error of the Tractarian
party all through. He compares the homage which men
pay to a fellow worm—" earthly potentate" though he be—
with that which is due to the King of Kings, and he asks
why should we not resort to the same natural means of pay-
ing honour to both ?
The question is an extraordinary one ; but the scriptural
answer is at hand, and may be given in these words :—" Man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on
the heart." Our own Heber too has answered it :

" Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion,
Odours of Eden, and offerings divine,
Gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean.
Myrrh from the forest, and gold from the mine
Vainly we offer each ample oblation ;
Vainly with gold would his favour secure;
Richer by far is the heart's adoration ;
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor."

If what he saw at Leeds gave this writer such vast delight,
in what an ecstasy would he he with the magnificent displays
at St. Peter's, at Rome, during Easter? He does not seem
to us to have formed any scriptural notion at all of the spi-
ritual service which the God of the Bible requires. He ap-
peals to " common sense" as the tribunal to decide this
matter, and speaks more than once as if he thought that the
omniscient and heart-searching Being, whom the Bible re-
veals to us as the sole object of worship, could be satisfied
with " pumps and ceremonies, magnificent processions and
heart-swelling music," like an earthly sovereign, who can
see no further! This is miserable delusion.

DISAPPOINTAIENT.—Not long before the famous majority
of 91 drove the %chic-radical government from office, some
superannuations in the Bristol Custom-house were very
conveniently discovered to be advisable; whereupon two
Berkeley ducklings were sent down from Gloucestershire to
till the vacancies. On examination they were found too
young ; and, dire mishap ! ere the patriotic Lord Lieutenant
conld introduce another brace to place and pay, the whig
game was up—the conservatives held the honours, and his
lordship lost the odd trick.
The New York Mirro,. says that a Yankee down in the
Bay State has invented a kind of musical clock, and that he
has it attached to a cradle hung on pivots. The pendulum
rocks the cradle, and the musical department sings the baby
to sleep.