Year: 1869

Bishop Bedell preached an evening
lately at the Church Of the Ascension,
corner Of Fifth avenue and Tenth.street
New York, his subjrct being "Ritualsm
and the Sins to which il Leads" Select
ing as his text the words of Christ, "But
if the salt has lost it8 SAVIOR, it is hence.
forth good for nothing but to be cast
out and trodden under foot" he showed
that the tendency of Ritualism in the
Protestant Church, as it has been in the
Romish Church was to bury the saving
spirit of Christianity beneath forms and
ceremonies. The first step of the Church
in her decline toward this point was the
mere formality of prayer, consisting Of
bodily and lip service only then the wor-
ship of saints, and lastly prayers TO the
Virgin. The worship Of saints and
alteration of the Virgin he characterized
as idolatry, as much so as was the wor.
ship Of any of the heather gods. On


most of the Catholic altarS, he said. the
Virgin had taken the place of Christ.
and many even intelligent Catholics ad-
nit that Christ is so far above them as
to make it unreasonable that he should
condescend to listen to their petitions,
while the Virgin mother, sympathizine
with human nature, may lend terder
and more willing ear. In the Church of
the Madonna at Rome he had beheId the
offerings Of the faithful, every one Of
which was hung before the shrine of
Mary, and not one before the crucifix.
He had been told by a gentleman that


while in Rome he had been struck by
the earnestness woman in the act OF
prayer before the image of the Virgin,
and afterwards learned that she was the


wife of a brigand who had just started
on a plundering expedition, and now, she


was praying that the Virgin would
grant him success in consideration of re-
ceiving part of the plunder. He, him
self had witnessed at the church of St.
Peters in Rome, the Pope, with all his
Cardinals and ecclesiastical attendants,


march in solemn procession to the bronze
statue of St. Peter, which had been cop
led from the statue of Jupiter, and, rev.
ereutly kneeling kiss the toe. He had
seen the Pope himself at prayer in the
midst of music sufficient to divert and
enchain any human attention, and won
dercd how he could remain so solemnly
distracted, but the whole matter became
clear to him when afterward he was in
formed that one of the first among the
male singers executed his part with more
than usual caution, knowing that his
Holiness was listening to every note.
He had seen bones and dust and other
relicts being carefully labelled for trans
L. e.; ;.hf ~
of the world for their worship, and most
solemn of all services he had ever wit
messed in Rome was the worship of a
handkerchief with which the Saviour Is
said to have wiped his brow as he stag
gered toward Calvery beneath his cross.
The use of candles on the altar, the
adornment of churches with pictures,
votive offerings, the worship of saints,
the alteration of the Virgin, and the
worship of sacramental elements as the
real body of Christ, he claimed to be the
legitimate offspring of ritualism. Bow
ing down before pictures or statues, the
alteration of saints or the Virgin, and
worship of the sacramental elements he
regarded as equally idolatrous with any
known form in which that sin can be
committed. Already the Ritualism in
the protestant Church have thrown off |
all garb of concealment, so that not
only in the lesser forms have they init
ated the Romish Church, but even in
the elevation of the Sacrament or Host,
the clergyman openly calls upon the
people to bow down in alteration of the I
real presence of the body of Christ,
Well may the simple and sincere Chris
tian, in looking into one Of these sepul-
chres Of Christianity, exclaim, "They
have ia ken away my Lord, and know
not VIII PRE- they have laid Him." In
conclusion he urged his hearers to stand
by their Prayer-book in it Christ is all
in all-and while Ritualism and its con-
sequent sins of idolatry have had their
advocatfs in the past as now, so also has
the word not been wanting in earnest
men to sustain the truth and simplicity
of the Gospel. He prayed God u make
all who heard him, whether in life or in
death, to abide in Christ cruciiel, and
in Him alone.