Litchfield enquirer., 1868-02-27

cOIuuou uuiAdAIIJ UT SpiT1EuaLGV. lheN
 know this; and knowing it, they manifest
 grotesque species of honesty. Clear-sigh!
 ed in their self-criticism, .thev. recoeniz, the impossibility of their be ming orator.
 They acknowledge to themselves that the,
 are without the consciousness of oratorica
 inspiration, No doubt they feel that the,
 could make themselves what legions o
 speakers are who pass in provincial circle
 as orators; but with Q pride@of intellec
 which equals their discrimination between
 impassioned thought and inflated nothing
 ingness, between eloquenca and sound they disdain the unatistic discourse which the uncritical multitude applaud and wl1icl
 prevails nightly in enlarging the member i ship in same churches. "A barren service all unproitable extemporaneous prayer ! sleanness of soul. ," is the horrid taunt ut 1 tered by Morgan Dix as he casts his cle,ll look over the religious world and observes the scantiness of oratory. He would seem to say, "Jesus and his apostles, you assert
 were eloquent. So they were. Their pow CT, you say, lay in consci(s*s spirituality and impassioned utterance; sot in gold and cathedrals and ritualism; rat in compelling religious awe by display and mystery Sup. pose We Anglo-Catholics grant all this what then? Show us men gifted thus. Can you. Mo- Or few, perhaps measu- rably gifted. We look over denominations and see, almost only intellectual attempt. Evidently it was not the design Of God to hand down his truth by oratory. Ritual ism is necessity. The truth is to be preached in symbols; oneness is to be man. ifested through rites. If Gods design had been to hand down his truth in a spiritual way. should we not have orators burning to utter the truths of Christianity, on fire to voice the spiritual emotions and thought of the people. the social petitions and ador- atlon which to the people themselves are unutterable? All is voiced in our Prayer Book and symbolized in our ritualism. For this reason the PrayerBook IS called the Book of Common Prayer. and the ritual catholioity requires that every eye should turn in allegiance; and the design of pulpit discourse is not the mere preaching of Christianity, but to render this allegiance among the people secure. But you have lusted exceedingly after release from the wholesome restraint of the comfortable mystery of the church, and have tempted God to give you liberty, and he has g1ven you your request, but has sent leanness to your soul"
 Dr. Dix is the leading exponent of ritual ism in America. As Pusey was in England so is Dr. Dix here, the sincere and jealous advocate of the dogma. He speaks of the ritualistic movement as the indication of 8 disposition to return to common sense. At St. Alban's Church they claim him as a "good catholic" He has ill the pulpit an anxiously jealous and haughtily cumulative look; which has come to mark his face from long thinking and feeling upon his special theme. The points of contrast between him and his associate, Dr. 4Haight, are marked. The latter appears t3 be uncon- cerned either at the opposition to the ritp- alism which he oountenanoes, or at it's de- velopement. He continues to have an un- troubled, fatherly, and rather patronizing look. He appears to have made up his mind to make the best of everything. While Dr. Morgan Dix would be speaking with occa- sional displays of feverish eagerness for & recognition of his views, Dr. Haight would continue in the unbroken calm of discus sion upon some point of Christian duty or perhaps upon the condition and occupa tions of the angels. Dr. Ogilby, of Trinity Church, is another contrast to Dr. Dix. He alone, in this cluster represents the old fashioned and anchoretic school of preach CTS who assume that men are in direful need of their proclamations of the Gospel: and who have sense of need of earnest ness, without having consciousness of earnestness, and wbo seek to supply the need, honestly enough, with show. An inn itative and doleful solemnity of tone is the result, a tone most unlike the natural tone indicative of zeal which marks Dr. Dix and let us say Dr. Vinton in their delivery, Neither Dr. Haight, Dr. Ogilby, nor Dr. Vintop IS pioneer. Dr.; Dix pioneers, and they fall in. Dr. Ogilby breaches, in the main, the scholastical theology; while Dr. Vinton is pioneer. Dr. Dix has this striking particular, that he portrays with extraordinary accuracy the dark side of hu ness and transgression. The accuracy is- quite poetic. The discourse is so far as it goes, simple truth-telling. The experience is presented for it's own sake, and vet the voice of warning sounds through in tone that is likely to excite awe. The view these preachers take of our nature is the pitiful or the misanthropic one. They perceive goodness in mans nature but do not seem to regard 1t ss probable in the mans character. This may help to explain their advocacy of fritualism. Spirituality of mind, which is another name for goodness. is, in their view, perhaps, state heartily to be desired, but not to be expected in sui fcient power to regulate men in their thoughts and deeds. How then can there be spiritual worship? Formal worship is the alternative You will look for fatness, perhaps, they say, but you will find lean ness. You may work for it, talk for it, cry for it; but after all, you will find only beg gary and hypocrisy. You must return with us to ritualism, which is Gods way. These men display an extraordinary command over words Words, in their service, come to the nearer with much of the metaphori- cal force in which they were originally con- ceived. The words live again after their condition as used in ordinary talk They are stories suggested; glasses your mind; pictures vivid with reality. They are fit, keen, brilliant, hexi- ,, ble, powerful, searching. When put to- gether in sentences, they portray the thoughts, the emotion, the vision of the speakers mind, so that you see too, and seeing acquiesce. An artistic comprehen- siveness of view also marks the discourse of these ministers; & view which takes in the minute as we'll as the expansive, which present a fitness of suggestion and associa- tion, and produces an exquisite thorough ness. G
 Father Morrill's discourse, at St. Alban s Church, displays some of these marks of