LIGHTS AND VESTMENTS

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14289, 27 February 1912, Page 8

LIGHTS AND VESTMENTS

TO THE EDITOR OJ "THE TRESS," » Sir.-r-I was greatly interested in reading a letter which appeared in j "The Pressi" of. February 23rd. from the nen of "Old Churchman ,, on " lights and vestments." It was splendid and on the right lines, for nothing better than the searchlights of i criticism and public ventilation can so effectively clarify our current religion and morality. Truth ever courts the ! li"ht, while error and cant will for j shame hide away. "What the people J want and arc earnestly asking for in ; these days is not silly useless candle- j lights in our churches, but more intellectual and spiritual light, not mere | outside gaudy vestments but more. of j the practical unsullied righteousness , of Christ and his early followers to be shown now in living form. Not the bolstering up of sectarian dognia which separatee and divides and gives only a stone for bread, but the pure •unadulterated soul-edifying and lifegiving teachings of Christ and hjs holy apostles. If ever there is to be a true bond of union and fellowship brought about among our churches there must be a greater willingness to come out into the open light of truth, to court honest and fearless criticism, as nothing will more successfully uproot those many useless and needless excrescences and innovations that have fastened themselves to the old-time religion of the Early Church. And I for one would welcome the publication cf a few more letters similar to that which wo have had given by " Old Churchman."—Yours etc., OLD CHURCHMAN No 2. TO THE EDITOR OP "THE PHESS." Sir, —I wonder if your correspondent, "Old Churchman," lias ever chanced to light on these suggestive lines, which, by til© waj', are almost as subtle in their rhyme- scheme as those he cites from that attractive and justly admired writer, Ella Wheeler Wilco'x:— Seldom thero passes a day But soino blind counsellor Bays: "Folly they surely display TVTio will not walk in xuy ways!"" The same original thought, strangely enough, has occurred to an earlier disciple of the immortal Tapper; and been condensed into the- familiar and felicitous couplet:— liifferent people have different, opinions, Some like apples, and some like ihions. A similar latitude of choice might no doubt bo. claimed in the matter of "Lights and Vestments," and other ecclesiastical accidentals which appeal to some and repel others. Into the thorny question of what is and what is not primitive New Testament Christianity I do not propose to enter, mindful' of the warning of a poet possibly even more famous than Ella Wheeler Wilcox: — ■ Periculosao plenum opus aleae Tractas: et incedis per ignes Suppoeitos cineri doloso. But if the Rev. Hugh Leach (which I find it very hard to believe) really spoke of "such societies as the St. Friscan monks (sic)," and implied that they consisted of men and women (!) who shut themselves oftMrom the world, he has indeed "studied history to little purpose." But even "Old Churchman" nas rifte in his historical lute. And I should venture to remind him that the extreme course he advocates of "men and women putting off their garb" as a preliminary to Christian effort, has been tried on several occa-sions---notably by the Anabaptists of Monster and the l>oukobors —with no conspicuous success.—Yours, etc., A MIDDLING OLD CHURCHMAN. 10 THE EDITOR OV "THX PEWS," Sir, —I don't think your correspondent, "Old Churchman," can have had an up-to-dato y training in theological terms, nor mastered that rule which lies at their root, namely: "That if any old-fashioned person thinks that a word or any collocation of words means auything that it seems to mean, or used to mean, then he or she may be quito certain that ho or she or the word, or something, is in «a perilous state, and in need of revision, or suppression, or condemnation," and that a committee or sub-committee, union, society, or guild, be set up forthwith to deal, with the matter." If. which Heaven forfend in these inquisitorial days, a hundred persons, picked at random, were asked to send definitions of the terms "brotherly love" and "apostolical fellowship," how many of them would agree. And small blame to them. As to brotherly love-, the puzzle may be put. on one < side, on the grounds of insufficient evidence of its ecclesiastical existence. "Apostolic fellowship still proves, its doctruio orthodox by apostolic blows and knocks," though these not a la mode do St. Paul, who objected strenuously to "beating the air," and no less strenuously to the multiplicity of ec~\ clesiastical signposts and resulting j mystification of the unlearned. , May one commend to the attention of j "Old Churchman" the ultimate con-1 viction of Mr Pickwick, who benevo- . lently decided: that if Mr Tracy Tupman chose to appear in public in a velvet jacket with a two-inch tail, a sugar-loaf hat, and velvet sliorts, which. bo and the public were informed on the ) unimpeachable authority of Mr Solo-1 man Lucas to have been the customary attiro of a bandit from the earliest times, why, it was his, Mr Tupman's, affair! Had not Mr P. himself a weakness on occasion for speckled silk stockings, which Mr Winkle, when he found the matter a serious one, said were of a very pretty pattern. Let us pronounce our neighbours' two-inch tails and speckled stockings to bo of a very pretty pattern, and bo thankful the whilo for all'that in this dull day of a seriously-minded ration makes for the gaiety of nations — and, incidentally, of individuals.—-Yours, etc '' AN ONLOOKER. 10 THE EDITOR 01 "THI PBESS." Sir, —While approving in theory - of your now venture in iho shapo of a humorous column, is it quite fair to spring it on us as a surprise? And, moreover, to use it as cover for a personal attack upon a respected clergyman? Mr Leach is big enough to look after himself, but there aro certain other matters which call for comment in the letter headed "Lights and Vestments." If by the "St. Friscan monks" your correspondent means the Franciscan Order, the somewhat inane quotation from Mrs Wilcox is decidedly beside the mark. He twits Mr Leach with a lack of historical knowledge, while he himself displays the most abysmal ignorance. But again, St. Francis may bo left to look after himself, if one may quote one whose light- indeed wanes before the refulgent gleams of tho poetess of facile optimism: — "Swoel S. Francis of Assisi, w-;uld that he were here again, He that in his Catholic •wholeness used. to call the very flowers Sisters, brothers—and the beasts whose paina are hardly _ less then ours." —Tennyson. One other small criticism I wish to make, if I do not appear too captious. Theoretically, of course, a parson should wear nothing to distinguish himself from his fellow men. But the climate of New Zealand is net altogether equable.—Yours, in tho bond of j fellowship, JUNIPER. TO THE EDITOR Of "THE PBESS." Sir.—Kindly allow mc a small space to reply to ''Old Churchman." I am afraid ' that it is quite useless for Churchmen like your correspondent to object to the Rev. Mr Leach's doctrine, j

while so many of the clergy in this diocese uphold the vestments, etc., and aro being supported oven by somo Church people whe-do not believe in it, but have not the courage of their

. opinions to come away from those churches and help to stamp it out. Hundreds aro now gouig either nowhere or to Nonconformist churches, rather than uphold tho Church, of England services we aro jetting j now. which are of a mongrel stylo, neither the Roman Catholic nor "yet the Church of England that we have been accustomed to. Let thos© of the i clergy, if there aro any left, who are j not ritualists, come forward and lead | the laity to obtain Church of England j services without theso Roman imita- ; tions. If we had a few leading men jof grit, both of the clergy and the laity, and if men of all denominations, : who object to this growing typ© of I Romanism in Canterbury, would unite and form a big Protestant alliance, and fight these things down, it might do, moro good than anything else. But-no, they all seem perfectly indifferent, and stand by and see us driven out of old parish churches, and some of us are fast losing our faith, . because of theso things.—Yours, etc, ANOTHER OLD CHURCH MEMBER