The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1866-11-10 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER ON RITUALISM. On Sunday the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol preached a sermon on the ritualistic movement in the cathedral at Bristol. After some few introductory words, in which he spoke of the meaning of the words ' of his text, " Whose is this image and superscription?" as they were originally uttered, he proceeded to Pay that he intended to use the same words as the express sion of the anxieties which many true hearts are at present experiencing. He asked if the Church of England was still asserting the truths for which her eons had Plied their blood, or if she was —at any rate in the teachings of some who were within her pale— passing gradwilly into new combinations, and preparing to exchange her ancient fixity of principles for change and compromise. Long disused ceremonies and practices were being deliberately introduced. the simple service of the Church was constantly receiving novel and startling additions; and it was plainly avowed that throe usages were intended to be expressions of enhancements and developments of doctrine, if not of distinct changes. Whilst noticing thin, he could not but observe that there were to some extent countervailing consideration.. In the first place the movement was by no means restricted to the Spiritual teachers ; it urns shared in by the Christian laity. Secondly, the men who were looked to as the leaders were men of eminently pure and holy lives, and, in hours of deep need and trial, had elitism that they possessed true Christian courage and a deep love for the souls which Christ gave them to save. 'Co these two conoiderations he would add that the Church was indebted to the men of the new movement for giving a new tone to preaching—for making the sermon what it ought to he. not the mere doctrinal ePoay, not the mere outpouring of illoonnectod thoughts or of merely impassioned word., but home truths set forth and enforced in soul-searching language, and confirmed alike by the witness of Scripture and the inward experiences of the tinickeued spirit. Looking, on the one hand, to the growing disloyalty to the Prayer-book and the scarcely concealed dissatisfaction with the principles on which it is based, and on the other hand, to the coons tervailing considerations which he had specified, he asked what jugdment ought to be formed on the movement generally? Before forming any ' judgment at all, it was necessary to consider the origin and general tendency of the movement. He thought that in it might be seen a reaction from the coldness and neglect of the past, and a plainly defined antagonism to the still partially lingering influences of the oelf.patinfied Calvinism of a former day. There was also • righteous repugnancy to that disbelief in the supernatural which was ouch a serious and, he feared, a prevailing characteris•ic of the present tidies H noticed, too—and this with sympathy—that there was in the movement a loyal antagonism to the secretly pervasive Sociniantom of these sal days. But what seems to him the chief feature of this movement was due to the mysteriously increasing desire for nutty throughout Christendom. There was much in this desire for union which was noble and holy, but in the form in which it now appeared it involved and carried with it many serious and melancholy cons quenceil. Exactly in proportion as the desire for union increased, averoion to what was improperly considered an act of disunion —the English Reformation—would deepen and in. crease, until clear disloyalty to the protesting Church, long unconsciously felt, would become at last avowed and justified. In expressing his judgment upon the movement, he thought he might say, among other things, that there was • dear desire to supplement the Prayer-book, to rehabilitate the principles of the Reformation, and to mottlfy to some extent that everrecurrent reference to the personal and subjective faith of the individual Christian which was the principle which our forefathers in Christ solemnly Yiii. divided for us, which they illustrated by their lives and their teaching, and which they seated with their blood. In advieing him hearers, as their bishop, as to what attitude they tanned assume amid the perplexities which this movement was caused, he would have them take care and not offend by falling short of the plain teaching of the Church and the godly disc.illitonof the modification, they 7hilsout gig.totesnottintsoagerraintsyt way of defect. Whilst they had their churshee closed  For each obtaining a good "beau blanc," Mr. Lash, of the 2nd, and Ensign Walker, of the 4th Tower Hamlets, will each have six couvertt d'aryene a Pets, and the following will receive a leaser number of couverts—Lientenant Pixley. of the Victoria; Mr. Hooper, of the Queen's; Mr. Page, of Aylesbury; Mr. Alfield, of Sussex Mr. Haigh, of the let East York; and Mr. Cortis, of Worthing (the winner of the King's Prize). In the rale a rolonte, in which the competitor MIR IA enter as often m he liked, Lieutenant Pixley, Mr. Hsigh, of Hull; and Lieutenant Marriner, of the West Middlesex, each made 22 points. . The English who made " Llano;" and will receive small prizes, are Mr. Field, of Arundel ; Mr. Woolley. of Chester; Mr. Self, of Aylesbury; Mr. Gibbii, of Bristol ; Mr. Cooper, of Liverpool ; and Ensign Walker, of the 4th Tower Hamlets. Them prizes are to be ',resented in a few weeks' time at the church of St. Augustine at Brussels. ,  _ ' servant promised to marry her. A few days later, however, her body, bearing marks of death by strangulation, was found on • road at some distance from the farm, and had to all appearance been placed there during the night, as a medical examination showed that death had occurred three or four days before, and some children who had been playing at the spot on the tirevMus afternoon had seen nothing of the corpse. Simon on being questioned at first said that the girl had quitted his service; and on traces of the blood which had issued from her nose and mouth being discovered in a loft, the accused said that she had committed suicide after a quarrel with his father. Those statements were, however, proved to be false, and a verdict of guilty having teen returned, the man was sentenced to twenty years' hard labour. ' •