The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-17
TIE CITY PULPIT.
RlTuALISM:

NV Rev. DIR, watson, at the Church Of
tho AtOnemsnt, Seventeenth and SUM
ner atrests, last Evening"
st John ,17,-For the law was given by Noses but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ A. Ao
1 The two parts of this declaration seem 70 DC
act the one over against the other; Inc law
was given by Moses, but grace anu IruOh t oaho az
by Jesus Christi (The WORD 'Dpc Is s,rnDsiv nUs 10
I'M mnIies IL; and SO our translators understood.)
s,Moses was faithful in all his house, as a SER
want for testimony Of those things wnlch WeIe
His own house, What can be more evident
than that the first ceases TO command Wnen
the authority of the second beginsY. Mnat can
he more evident than that the business OF
witness is over when his testimony mas Oeen
given in? Moses was faithful In all MS mousse,
as a steward, while the heir and successor was
yet absent. But CHRIST Is Sne Sohi nr snS 70
subordinate position. Elezer, the steward Oh
Abrahams household, was his heir, until Isaac,
the promised seed, was born. Moses was tQ,,a t4[
testimony of future things; but when those
things were accomplished, by the coming oI
Christ, Moses must stand aside HE taketh
away the first, that He may estaollsh the
But what law does the text refer to? 1t has
been attempted to be shown (by what some
esteem as high authority that the law thus
superseded by Christ was simply the moral laWi
as the condition of our justification with God,
leaving the ceremonial, to some extent at least
in force; Just the opposite of those undervaluers
moral law yet stands the ceremonial alone
having been done away. But from the view
Just presented, must 1t not be the whole law
that has been either abolished or absorbed IN
Christ? OF the entire system which was thus
denomnated Moses is declared to have been
the Mediator; therefore to it, IN its entireness,
reference must be made when it is said, THE
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christi
The law in its moral provisions, passed away,
as a law, when Christ came, because thence
s,.sffG xuoc f0 h M mr. Of Wn
but of grace To this so many of the inspired
arguments Of st. Paul are directed. Against
this he so often holds up faith, as the means and
condition of our justification, the law, in which
we were once held, being now, as he says,
''dead." Not the law, but grace and truth, as
coming by Jesus Christ Grace, as that Divine
favor by which sinners were accepted for His
sake, and truth, as distinguished from law as
that power by which they were to be governed.
There is a vast distinction between law and
truth. Law is a compulsion from without; truth
an influence working from within. Law is an
obligation, whether we acknowledge its reason
ableness or not, force pressing upon us, aud
demanding obedience. Truth appeals TO the rea-
son and the conscience; it convinces and per-
suades before it obliges; and then the power is
an inward one, from which obedience flows
voluntarily. The law says, do this, and thou
in, all its majesty and beauty, and
taking possession of it. turns the principles
iHto the way of life. That truth was first the
revelation of the grace of God in Christ, and
relations to His earthly creatures. No doubt
many of the provisions of the law remain in
this new aspect, as the truth, and so are OF
force III the Christian system. But as law,
they do not rest upon the Christian, he to
whom Christ has come, as his Redeemer from
sin, and the Author and Giver of everlasting
lite.
The law, in its ceremonial provisions, as
''the shadow of good things to come," passed
away when Christ, the very image of the things"
appeared. Indeed, the whole Episte to the
" taken the
truth, the resolving of all the rites and cere-
monies of Judaism into Christ, and their COM
plete abrogation by His sacrihclal death and
glorious mediation in heaven. Symbolically
the overthrow OF the Temple-the only place
where those ceremonies were fully enacted
was significant OF their termination, never
again, in any aspect, to be revived. AS 1t lies
in desolation-yea as the very foundations OF IL
have been ploughed up-so has that gorgeous
ritual of which it was so long the theatre,
passed away, departed glory, to linger only in
the memory of the world
Now, have not the slightest doubt that out
of an obliviousness OF this truth the whole
system of that which is denomnated Ritualism
has sprung. 1t arose with the corruption of
the Church, with the development of that error
which st. Paul so largely combated, as show
ing itself in his day, the error of the Judaizing
teachers. They insisted on circumcision and
the other rites of Moses necessary to justi6ca-
tion: respecting which he asks believers:
S'WheTefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the
rudiments Of the world, why, as though living
in the world, are ye subject to ordinances ~
And then adds, by way of caution and denun-
citation, "Touch not, taste not, handle not,
which all are to perish with the using" Those
of later day, indeed, did not insist on Jewish
ordinances as such, but they substituted sacra-
ments and a priesthood in their place, and then
adapted the old and abrogated ritual to suit
them. For Just as the Jewish ceremonial clus =
tered around the Sacrifice, so the corrupted
Christians clustered around the Lords Supper,
which they delighted TO call the Christian sacri-
fee. And here i take my stand, that the
foundation of this system is perverted views of
that Sacrament, regarding it as a sacrifice, and
its ministers as priests, who offer thus propitia-
fion for the sins of the people,. Hence comes
that superstitious Yeneration for the sacra-
mental board: the bowling before 1.-THE reluc-
tance to touch 1t, even in the attitude of prayer
Its prominence In the sanctuary-the placing
of lights and crosses upon 1.-THE decking il
with flowers and symbolcal embroidery, and
the term by which it is designated-the Atar.
Hence comes The elevation of the elements, or
the nearest approach to it that is Ventured on,
and, by childish scrupuloslty, of their profana-
ton Hence the gorgeous robing of the oficia-
ting ministers and the estimation In which they
would be held, as separated from all others by
fhe aWfulness of their functions. Against this
last how decisive are the words of Scripture:-
s'Iet man so account of US as of the ministers
of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God; :
understanding by "mysteries" (which Is its
only sense in the New Testament) something
which, having been hidden before, is now re-
Vealed to men. And where do the Apostles ever
speak of ministers as priests or a priesthood
Christ is the only Priest, and they are but ambas
sadors for Him. Against the others our OWL
Church has sufficiently expressed herself when
she speaks simply of "the table," and orders that
il shall have "a lair whies linen cloth upon 1t,
saying nothing of altar-cloths of various hues tC
symbolize the several seasons, of which the
Ritualisis and Ecclesologists make so much; o.
V1acinp IL tindiscriminatelV ''in the body of the