The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-08-17

IA ANA6
land" was the emphatic statement
roundly a~pplauded.
One gentleman said that a great deal
of censure had been cast upon the
clergymen who had introduced cam
dies and incense into the ritual, while
the Bishop of Salisbury had been
treated with great ~leniency by the
speakers. What would England say
if one Of the Admirals Of the Royal
Navy should undertake to go over to
an enemy with all his fleet. guns,
stores, munitions and men? Yet that
was just what the Bishop was doingl
Ritualism was Rome in disguise. 1t
was nc. time for soft words or smooth
speeches. These sentiments were
heartily applauded. ..eg 44bnaerE
- .xgasH THE FUTURE. .seiH sa8hf
1t is a dark hour to those who are
attached to the simple forms of the
English church. 1t was evident from
the tone of the meeting that the Ritu-
alistic movement has made much
greater progress than has generally
been supposed. 1t is also evident
that large numbers are leaving the
fold of the church snd joining the
Nonconformists, and that others are
joining the Roman Catholic Church.
We are not warranted in assuming
that the Ritualists, as a body, intend
to become Romanists. though the
Low Churchmen maintain that there
is no hating place between Ritualism
and Popery, and that inasmuch as the
doctrines and practices of the Ritual
lists conform to the Roman Church,
they will soon acknowledge the Pope
as head of the Church rather than
the Queen of England.
The natural sequence to this is that
there will be a breaking up of the dis
tictive features of English society,
arising from the connection between
church and state, and so the London
Times, ~foreseeing the end, exclaims
that " Ritualism is the shadow of a
great calamity" And one of the
speakers of yes terday had reason to
say that England is on the eve of a
great revolution" rs
After the meeting / saw a plain
man, in a working suit, a farmer from
a rural parish, in conversation with a
What shall I do? We have can
dies and incense and all the new
notions in our service" said
the farmer Gae
tell your clergyman" was the
reply, that it is a grief to you-an
innovation-a practice not warranted
by the Scriptures nor by the Church."
But he won't stop for that. Do
you think that he will give any atten-
ton to a layman-he being a priest?"
Then. if there is a good dissent
ing chapel ear and a minister who is
not rejoicing in the troubles of our
church, go there; but if there is no
such chapel near, get together your
read the service yourself,
than countenance the mumer-
les of the Church of Rome"
Whether the disruption of the
Church of England has commenced
whether there is to be a breaking up
of some of the distinctive features of
English society-whether England in
day, after three hundred years of
p~rotestation against Rome, is about to
accept Popery, remains to be seen.
The question is already before Par
lament. Lord SALISBURY is an Anti
relation to CLERICAL Vestments." A
Iucctiu$ Was uClQ III LOuQOH LnISC
days ago in support of it, which was
numefously attended. One of the
speaker boldly accused the Arch
of Canterbury of making a
Jesu.tical speech. In that meeting
declared their intention of
the church if the ritualistic
practices were continued. From all
your readers will see, hat a ques-
is already before the English
people: which bids fair to make
great %0verturn in society. The
question is deeper than that of Re-
it takes hold of the ms
most convictions of men and of
most cherished opinions. 1t
elates to the present and the future
life. The questions are the old mes
Of their fathers-forY which they
and in which they t~riumphed.
The anti -ritualists have been asleep;
they had no conception of the pro-
gress which ritualism had made, but
now they are awake and the meeting
Of yesterday is but the precursor of
others-of an agitation which will be
felt from Lands End to JOHN
.'Groat's House. The result no one
see. | have no speculatIons, and
but one prediction to make: Whatever
else may happen, England is not going
over to RomelsA x CARLETON.