RESERVED SACRAMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19891, 9 March 1928, Page 12

RESERVED SACRAMENT.

gi r _My attention has been drawn to the strange mosaic of truth and error contained in a letter over the* signatureof the Rev. G. Gordon Bell in your- issue of Tuesday last. Your correspondent is quite wrong in asserting : (1) That there are fundamental difference? between the doctrines of the Church of England and those of the Presbyterian Churcfr. a matter of fact, our beliefs on this point are practically identical. For proof of this compare the doctrinal statement o our position given in our °wn_ Sorter Catechism and the one given in the BlaoK Rubric of the Book of Common Player. The quarrel is not between our Cpufch and his upon this point. It » between your correspondent and the Book of Com mon Prayer, one of the official standards of his Church. (2) I have been accused of failing to realise the difference between the doctrine of Transubstantiation and that of the Real. Presence. As-it happens, the exact opposite is the case. X do distinguish between the.m. arm 1 assert, that no true Protestant beueves in Transubstantiation, and all true i rotestants believe m the Real p £es e nc _ Transubstantiation, that' is, the changing of the substance of the bread and the wine into the literal body and blood .of Our Lord, which is the doctrine of the Roman Catholics and of some AngloCatholics, was repudiated utterfy by the Reformers, and the great Anglican Church is historically committed to that position. Let me quote from the Black Rubrics "For the sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances and therefore may not bo adored that was idolatry to be abhorred by all faithful Christians). Mr. Bell should also know that while all true believers are agreed to what is meant by the Keat Presence." even devout Anglican divines of the same school of thought are no, agreed on this. The difficulties appear-to mo to revolve around two points: vVe must define what we mean by real ana we must explain in somo way how the blessings of Christ's presence are communicated to the soul. On those two points there are fundamental differences between the Roman Communions and the Protestant. I am very much surprised at the queor interpretation given by your correspondent in reference to Sc. Faui s phrase about "ability to discern the Lord's body." Surely Mr. Bell must know, that the word' "discern ' here used in the sense of "discriminating and to put it briefly, it means that the true believer, the worthy communicant is able by the exercise of faith to understand Christ's sacrifice on his behalf and to appropriate all the blessings of. rcdemp tion. Without such discrimination We can bo no real communion, according to Paul. Further, your correspondent says "Nothing which leads men to worship Him (Jesus) more really and "acerely can rightly bo called idolatrous. .Chat is one of the very points on which 1 wish to join issue, and it is. one of the crucial points that led ultimately to t.ie dramatic rejection of the Deposited Book bv the Commons. The devOut compilers of that book felt that there was a danger of idolatry if the worshippers looked upon the elements in a certain way. Wny of the bishops and thousanos of devout churchmen in England at present belie% e that, as a result of Anglo-Catholic irregularities, idolatry is being practised at present in many Anglican churches, in this connection I assert that the judgment gitfen in the Bennet case is altogether against Mr. Bell, and I am prepared to quote it if necessary. My general contention remains I think unassailable, which is;, that if no change takes place in the elements there is nothing left to "reserve." In any case, if there is reservation in the opinions of its advocates, it is not the reservation of the • sacrament, but the reservation of the elements which are part of the whole and not the whole. It may be true, as your correspondent asserts, that reservation has been in vogue for many centuries. All that I know .is that it is contrary both to the letter and the spirit of the recognised standards of the Church of England. As an outsider if docs not appear a statesmanlike process for the bishops of the Established Church to retain the Anglo-Catholics by legalising illegalities. Leonard H. Hunt. The Manse, Mount Eden.