The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-03-27

A considerable portion of the Christian
Church last week began the observance
of peiod which from a very early day
has been kept by the Christian Church
as time for special religious services.
Is there any reason why all Chistian
churches should not unite with their lit
urgial brethren in this observance? 1t is
| true that Lent has often degenerated into
mere Journalism: so has the Sabbath into
legal bondage to prohibitions, and fam
| lily prayers into pious etiquette,
and Bible reading into species of fetish
worship. This is reason for reform, but
not for abolition. To Ordain fast of
meat and indulge in feast of fish, to
wear sackcloth for forty days and pre-
pare for the pretense of asceticism by a
carnival of sensual and idiotic revelry is
enough to have brought Lent into dis
grace. But the children of the Pulitans
do not refuse to admit art to their homes
and fiction to their libraries because the
Cavaliers degraded both art and fiction;
why should they refuse to reinstate a
season of religious observance which
their fathers abandoned because formal
ism had made it irreligious? We have
welcomed Christmas; we are welcoming
Easter: why not receive back Lent and
the Passion week?
| There is distinct advantage in set
ting apart a certain season of the year for
special spiritual contemplation. The
non-liturgical churches have recognized
this truth by the artificial creation of
week Prayer But week is quite too
short. Many churches therefore endeav-
or to make the week to extend to month
or even more. But this substitute for
the older observance suffers from its arti-
fical creation. Lent is a growth; the
Week of Prayer is manufacture. SOci-
ETY. in our cities and large towns adjusts
itself instinctively to the Lenten season.
1t may not he a compliment to the Epis-
copal Church to say that Episcopalians
set the fashions; but they do. At all
events, the fashion is set; and season
in which society consents to reduce some
what its demands on the time and
thought of men and women is a season
lopportune for spiritual instruction and
devotion. History counts for something;
and history, extending back almost, if
not quite. to the Apostolic age, cOnse-
crates this season to the Church and its
service. Fellowship counts for some
thing: the church which utilizes Lent
for sacred services has the advantage of
entering into a communion of saints wide
as the world and nearly as old as Chris
tianity. Custom counts for something: {:
il is relatively easy TO adopt season of
religious observance which large num-
bers about us are accustomed to observe.
There lies before us as we write the pro-
gramme of one of the largest and wealth.
lest churches in one of our great cities I;
by no means High Church, but famous
for its Catholicity and evangelical spirit,
no less than for its wealth and numbers.
There is service for every day in Lent,
and on four days out of the six there are
two daily services. The first week in
Lent has opened in New York city by a
sermon to men il Trinity Church 10y the
Rev. Phillips rocks, given daily at noon.
Who can es, s,imate the value of having
such voice calnng the attention of the
men of the maTket-place to the eternal
and invisible verities? Other denomina-
tiOns are beginning TO share in the bene-
fits of the season. For two or three years
past clergyman of different denomina-
tions have united in Good Friday services
in the church of which DR.. Heber New
ton is rectcr. This year clergymen of
different denominations unite in Friday
services throughout Lent in the church
of which DIR. W. S. Rainsford is rector.
These are the beginnings let us hope
that they are.nOt the end; that the par
ticipation of few clergymen of non-lit-
urgical denominations will be followed
before long by the participation of their
churches; and that the time may not be
far distant when all the churches of
in America will join with their liturgical
brethren in keeping sacred to the service
of prayer, penitence, praise, and iustruc-
ton the period between Ash Wednesday
and characterization Union, February
tthe aTth