The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1874-12-23
Vol. lO.---NO. %.
secration in the communion service. If l
am priest, l must have an altar to stand
by and offer the sacrifice upon.

e secration in the communion service. If
: am priest, l must have an altar to stand
4 by and offer the sacrifice upon.
CHANGE THAT HAS COME OVER THE
r CHURCHES.
t And therefore this change has come over
! our churches. In nine out of ten that are
built now the communion table disappears
} and the altar takes its place. More than
} that, the man adds: 81 receive the power
at the Bishops hands to forgive SINS" If
have the power to forgive sins | must know
what they are. Therefore L must havecon-
fessions. Logically out of that one single
principle in the Prayer Book is developed
the whole system of Ritualism which has
grown so terrible and deadly in our day
And it is not these two or three fanatical
churches that do the mischief; it is not these
men with their mimicries and mummeries
that are doing the evil. 1t is behind them
in the Prayer. Book where this great system
of sacerdotalism is supporting the evil,
strengthening it. Therefore, how frivolous
and vain are all efforts of this late canon to
cure ritualism. You cannot purify the
stream when the fountain 10 corrupt. When
you can cure some terrible disease by put
ting fragrant ointments on the surface, then
you oan cure rituaism by commons like this.
They are only wooden guns like Robert Lees
guns at Manassas, that had no powder in
them. There is only one remedy, only one
cure. Take from the Prayer Book the word
Priest" Take from it the doctrine that
the ministry is in any sense priesthood.
Then and not until then will the Episcopal
Church of England and America become
Holy Protestant Church.
When l was in the College of New Bruins
wick the other day, in the city of st. John,
the last steamer brought the latest copy of
The London Times. 1t contained most re.
markable testimony to what have just al
luded to. | refer to speech that has re-
Gently been made in England at the anniver-
sary of both the great missionary societies,
when the Lord Chief-Justice of England,
the most eminent barrister in England, made
speech in which he took the very ground
that this Reformed Episcopal Church has
taken, justifying our whole course and start
ling the Church of England, l believe, as
it has not been startled for fifty years. He
says that in this Prayer-Book Of the Church
of England is this sacradotal principle
Here the preacher read extracts from the
speech of the Chief.J Justice. The only
remedy, he concluded, was for Parliament
to take the Prayer. Book and eliminate sac
radotalism, and my successor in Chicago,
who came to that church noted Calvinist
from the city of Montreal, told the General
Convention that he looked upon that miser-
able thing, the Reformed Episcopal Church,
without fear or favor; that he found warrant
for it in Scriptural antiquity; that every
body who was in debt, everybody who was
in distress, focked to David in the Cave of
Adullam, and that was the warrant for the
Reformed Episcopal Church. He forgot to
add that David came out of the cave, King.
ORGANIZATION OF REFORMED EPISCOPAL
CHURCH JUSTIFIED: ITS PROSPECTS.
Now tAe action of the General Convention
in refusing even to touch the Prayer Book
has justified our whole course. There is no
hope of true reform in that church. There
fore, dear Christians-and who can tell the
joy with which | stand before you tonight,
the first upholders of the movement in this
city--that 1 stand before you, God be
praised, able to lift up the standard again,
able to WELD sword in behalf of this cause,
and rejoicing unspeakably over the Reformed
Episcopal Church, that occupies the proud
est, the most magnificent position of any
Protestant church in this land Tonight
church holding out its hand of love to every
church-not excepting the Protestant Epis-
cOpal Church, church that would not re-
fuse to ask Protestant Episcopal ministers to
occupy its pulpit, or bishops either; a church
such as the 1000 elected ministers of 1872
would never have left; church such as
John Wesley never would have been driven
out of, and never would have left; church
such as the Pilgrims of New England would
have found no fault with; church, liberal,
Scriptural, Protestant, free; church that
knows no nationality; a church that is as
much at home in New Brunswick as in Gin
cinnati, in Ireland as in New York church
occupying position in which she can afford
to be patient and act Gods pleasure. AL
ready there is a glow of gold upon the tops
of the mountains. Thank God the signs
of promise are on every hand.
have just returned from visitation to
the Dominion of Canada, from the waters of
the bay of Fundy on the East to where Nj
agara sends up her eternal roar on the West,
and in that grent Dominion seven congre-
cations are already in union with this Re-
formed Episcopal Church, and the last news
that greeted me was that whole congrega.
ton, with the deed of the Church of Eng
land at their head-a congregation number
ing 400 people-had been added to our
ranks. In the State of Illinois there are five
congregations already; and Mr.. Tying says
that if we had the men, in ten years this
church would be the church of the Vest
For it is the second choice of every man in
the West; next to his own church he loved
this. In the State of Illinoise there are FIVE
already; in the State of New York, four;
in the State of Pennsylvania, four; in the
City Of Louisville, most fourshing con-
gregation, and in Pittsburgh another. So
they are springing, not with ostentation,
coming like the kingdom of God silently and
slowly but surely. Soon the fields shall be
green with the emerald verdure of the seed
that has been sown. We are no longer
doubtful, dear brethren. Beneath US is the
solid rock, around us the arm of Divine
Love; above US the sapphin armament; the
Ark of God is in our midst the martyrs Of
England are with us in spirit. All Evan
gelical Christiandom blesses US, and through
the coming years l hear the voices of future
generations chanting this song: "Thank
God for the Reformed EpiscopOl Church