Year: 1875




STONES VIEWS ON RITUAIIsM AND AGITArIoNs


WITHIN THE CHURCH


irRox AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF Tnr TRIpuSE'l
LONDON, July 1.-The latest contribution OF MI
Gladstone to periodical literature is his paper IN me
Contemporary Reriao for July, in which he us
cnsses in his happiest style, the question,
els the Church of England worth preserving !"
II is scarcely necessary to say that the article mas
already attracted vast amount of attention. any
thing that Mr. Gladstone writes or says especially
upon an ecclesiastical question: is sure to be eagerly
and widely read. but the present article derives
pecnlar significance from the 1act that
simultaneously with its appearance comes
into operation the act of last session
known as the Public Worship Regulation
Bill" but which Mr.. Disraeh, in the course OF
the Parliamentary debates on that measure, PLAINLY
termed an act t0 put down Rltualsm MI. "lau-
stones paper is powerful plea Tor tolcratloh OH al
sides in the contest which gave rise to that measure
and which the existence of the act on inc
British statute book may. at any moment
renew with increased intensity and vigor lie as
sumes an affirmative answer to the question when
he takes for his subject, and sets himself to prove
that the only way by which such an end IL
90 be attained is by mutual toleraton ana
forbearance. lie does not touch, as his question
would, to some extent, imply, the pOhtical
relations of Church and State in this country
(or at least, he only makes an incidental refer
encc TO them) and consequently much OF the ground
gone over is the that which was covered last
October in the same periodical IN his article upon
Ritual and Rituallsm.


Mr. Gladstone begins by mentioning that article,
which he says was received with many expressions
of interest and approval. and many also OF dlsap-
pointment. There seemed to be-" he says, " an eX-
pectaton that that essay might unite. or cut,
the knot of the questions which had been
so warmly if not hercely, agltatcd. But
it had no such ambitious aim. It's OBJECT
was simply to dispose men toward reflection and to
substitute for the temper of the battlefield, the
temper of the chamber where we commune with our
hearts and are still" The season is now tranquil
the furnace, no longer fed by the fuel of Parlla-
mentary contentious, has grown cool and may be
approached, if not with safety at least with dimin-
shed risk lie desires to say that he does not treat
the question a partisan Were II one between
historical Christianity and systems opposed to or
divergent from il, he could not honestly profess lie
did not take q side. But regards ritual, by
which he understands the exterior forms oi
Divine worship, he has never at any time
of his life, been employed IN promoting lis
extension never engaged in either its local or gen
eral controversies. He has been guided in his
attendance at any church by the abundance or scant-
mess of its ritual. To uphold the integrity
of the Christian dogma, to trace its working,
and to exhibit its adaptation in human
thought and welfare is, in Mr. Gadsones view.
perhaps the noblest of all tasks which it is given to
the human mind to pursue. But in respect to the
clothing which the Gospel may take to itself his
mind allows large margin Of indulgence, if not of
laxity, both ways. Much is to be allowed for ma
tional, sectional and personal divergcnces; and to
Mr.. Gladstone, it is indeed gievous to think that
any range Of liberty which was respected in the
storm of the sixteenth century should be denounced
and threatened in the comparative calm of the nine
teenth.


Mr. Gladstone then proceeds to address a very
earnest exhoraton to both parties in the contro-
versy of Rituasm to cease, al least TO reduce to
Its minimum, the practice of importing into questions
concerning the externals of religion the element of
devotional significance He says:


BY some mental process which it seems difficult for
an unbiased understanding TO eomPiehend a oontro-
raised on this matter 1t Of course transcendsindeed it
almost scorns-tbe bounds of the narrower question
may perhaps better bc said is more agre,ab to the
legal prescriptions of the ubres For is held and held
on both sides by persons not inconsiderable either in
weight or number that il the priest look eastward at
trines the Real Presence and the Eucharistic sacr
fee but that II on the contrary ne takes his place
negative on those doctrines. II the truth of
this contention be admitted, without doubt the





1t is idle TO hope that even judges preserve the bal
of their minds when the air comes TO be thcky
charG,d with storm We may say almost with certainty
that there many now reckoned as members OF the
ton OF those principles would distract and might dis
tate a schisn Of an enduring character


He goes OH to say that il seems to him quite evil
dent that, in the present instance the contentious
of each Of the two parties perfectly capable of
being explained and supported upon grounds having
no reference to the doctrines with which they
have been placed in connection. The Savoy
Conference laid down the principle as
one founded in general propriety and reason that
when the minister addresses the people, he should
turn himself toward them, " but when for and
with them he addresses himself to God
there is sOlecism and ncOngruty in his
being placed as if he were addressing them"
The proper idea of the position is not that he turns
his back the congregation, but that, placed at the
head Of the congregation acting for well with
them in the capacity of the public organ of the
assembled flock, he and they all turn in the same
direction, and his back is toward the whole only as
the back Of the first line of worshipcrs behind
his is toward all their -wOrshippers. The
prayer of conservation is a prayer not of petition
only, but of action In the course of it,
by no less than five parenthetcal rubrics
the priest is directed TO perform as many
manual acts; and quite apart from the
legal argument that the reference TO the principal
rubric to breaking the bread before the people re-
quires the action to be performed in Their view, he
may contend that for the better comprehension Of
the service 1T is well that they should have the
power Of seeing all that is required of the priest
respecting the handling of the elements, and
that this cannot be done if he faces eastwards.
Az (s1aASf ofRfpr prot. fhaoa tlrui,