EITUALISM.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3505, 6 August 1898, Page 4

EITUALISM.

TO THE EDITOE. _ ] Sik, Your correspondent, " AntiRitualist,” in the letter which appears in your issue of to-day, has not given the real reason why young clergymen are being imported from Home, instead of employment being given to o’ergy who have been in the colony for year*. Most of the older colonial clergy have had an evangelical training, and are not prepared to join the Ritualistic “ conspiracy/’ Most of the young clergy at Horne have had a .Ritualistic training. Bishops appear to give a preference _ to Ritualistic clergy. The work of R.tualists is thus truly described in “ Essays on the ;Ee-union of Christendom” (p. ISO). “We are teaching men to believe that God is to be worshipped under the form of bread, and they are learning the lesson from us which they have refused to learn from the Roman teachers who have been among ns for the last 300 years. W » are teaching men to endure willingly the pain of confession, which is an intense trial to the reserved Anglo-Saxon nature, and, to believe that a man’s ‘ I absolve thee ’ is the voice of God.”

The following verses from Ritualistic hymns embody the above teaching; — “ I worship Thee, Lord Jo-üb, Who in Thy love divine Art hiding here Thy Godhead In forms of bread and wine.” (From ** Children at the Altar,” p 41.) “ How shall I get my sins forgiven? How oleansed from every stain — Baptismal purity brought back— My soul restored again ? “ First to confession I must go, And tell out all my shame ; My list of sins, all one by one, In penitence must name. “ And Jeans, acting through Sis priest, Absolves and makes mo tree ; For He hath said they are forgiven Whose sins thou dost forgive. (From a hymn sung in a Yorkshire village ohuroh school.) I am, £o., X Lay Member op the Wellington Diocesan Synod. August Ist, 1898.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Theological controversies are invariably disappointing, but I should feel obliged if you will allow me to refer to the letter signed “ Anti-Ritualist," which appeared in yesterday’s “ Times." It is apparent from the tenor 'of the epistle that a Ritualist or a Romanist is as foul as the Te Aro Destructor in the nostrils of your correspondent, and I should fancy from his old-fashioned prejudices that he has just had a severe attack of jaundice. The grave manner in which he insinuates that Ritualists and Romanists aro the same reminds me of the African negro who lumped all white men together, and thought they belonged to the same nation, and it is quite evident that “ Auti-Ritualist " is deficient in the power of discrimination.^ A similarity exists between all Christian creeds and ceremonies which differentiates them from non-Christians, but to argue that Anglican Catholics are Roman Catho lies because both happen to use similar emblems is nonsensical in the extreme. The introduction of a more ornate ritual in saying matins and evensong is but a revival of some of the ceremonies that were carried out in the English Church in its infancy, generations before St. Augustine landed in England, and consequently the “ innovations ” that are worrying your correspondent are not copied from the ritual of the Latin Church, neither are they inconsistent with the Book of Common Prayer. But I venture to assert that English churchmen generally would be doing a good work if they imitated Roman Catholics in their self-sacrificing efforts to give their children a religious education, instead of postponing the question indefinitely, because it is one that touches their pockets. It is to be hoped that the signs of a requickened devotion to the Founder of Christianity which are becoming manifest among some thoughtful church people will be supplemented by the introduction of guilds, sisterhoods and other organisations, to revive a living faith in the thousands who have adopted the creed of indifference, but judging by past results X do not think the worthy old clergy referred to by “Anti-Ritualist” could successfully undertake a crusade of this kind. They have their wives and families to look after, ambitious sons to educate, and charming daughters to launch into society, and, therefore, it would be asking too much to require them to devote the whole of their time to any outside flock entrusted to them. In conclusion, I may observe that although I am fairly regular in attending the services of the Church of New Zealand, and have been so for over 30 years, “ the wily parson has never tickled my fancy, with any new or strange device," nor have I ever seen an Anglican priest “wandering about his church in a Popish garb,” and in spite of his protest to the contrary, “ AntiRitualist” must surely be trying to excite the risible faculties of your readers. —I am, &c, St. Michael. George street, Thorndon, 2nd August.