PERIODICALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4020, 6 January 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

PERIODICALS.

The sixth edition of,the Contemporary, containing the celebrated treatise upon ritualism by Mr Gladstone, lies before ns. The editor of thafc serial may be congratulated upon having worked off his dullest aad most trite contributions upon tlie shoulders of this Sampson. Tl-.o other papera of the month are, without exception, dull, and the concluding one, by Matthew Arnold, entitled, " Review of Objections to {Literature and Dogma," is not only dull, but weak to a degree quite unexpected by those who remember what the author has been. We shall content ourselves with noting "Ritualism," and leaving the other papers to their natural fate of obscurity. As a definition of the word, we are told thafc Ritual is the clothing which, in some form, and ia some degree, men naturally and inevitably give to the performance of the public duties of religion. Beyond the religious sphere the phrase is never carried ; bufc the thing appears, and cannot bufc appear, under other names. Iv aU fche more solemn ' aud stated public acts of man, we find employed thafc investiture of the acts themselves with au appropriate exterior, which is the essential idea of ritual. The subject : matter is different, but the principle is tlio same ; it; is the use and adaptation of the outward for the expression of the inward. In further illustration, that One and the same principle, ifc need hardly j be _ observed, applies to material objects - which are produced once for all, and to matters in whicli, though the parts may subsist; i before and after, the combination of them is • for the moment only. The law that governed the desigu of ap. amphora or a lamp, governed alao the order of a spectacle, a i procession, or a ceremonial. It was not the Sacrifice of the inward meaning to the outward show: that method of. proceeding was a glorious discover}' reserved for'tho later, and especially for our own, time. Neither , was ifc the sacrifice even of tbo outward to the inward. The Greek die], not find it requisite. NatuVe had uot imposed upon him such a necessity. Ifc was tlie determination of their meeting-point; the expression of the harmony between the two. Ifc is in regard to the perception and observance of ths law that the English, nay, the British people, ought probably to be placed lasfc among the civilised nafcicjis of Europe. And if ifc be so, the first thing js to bring into existence and iuto activity a real consciousness of the defect. We need not, if ifc exist, set ifc down to natural andy therefore incurable inaptitude. It is more probably due to fche disproportionate application of our given store of faculties in other directions. To a great.exteut it may be true that for the worship of beauty we have substituted a successful pursuit of comfort. But are the two in conflict . Mr "Gladstone is no doubfc an authority, but we conceive thafc in these assertions lie goes somewhat beyond the truth. We do not think thafc we can be said to be so entirely blind to the "fitness of things," though a tendency that way is a besetting national crime. If from the work of creation we turn to the world of action, the same incapacity^>f detecting discord, and the sisnc tendency to solecism will appear. In what country except ours could (as I kjiow to have happened) a parisV. ball have been go; up in , crder to supply funds for procuring a parish hearse ? Much of the fault-finding which has been showered down upon the illustrious author of this paper has taken the form of abuse, because ho has dealt with his subject abstractedly, and not in the concrete form of Ritualism as it appears in the Church qf England. Rightly considered, this is a virtue and not a vice ; his paper will have a permanent, instead of a merely temporary value, for this very reason. The author does not shun a declaration when occasion serves, however, upon the ritu-' alistic question in the church, e.g. But of the general tone of the services in the Church of England afc that" time I do not hesitate to say, it was such as when care-fu-ly considered would have shocked nofc ouly any earnest Christian of whatever communion, but any sincere believer in God, any one who held thiit ther? yim a Creator

aud Governor of tho. world, and'that his creatures ought to worship Him. And that which I wish to press upou the mind ol the reader is, that this state of things was ouc with which the members of the Church generally were quite couteut. It was not by lay associations wifch long purses thafc the people were, with difficulty, and with much resistance, awakened out of thia state of things. Ifc was by the reforming j bishops and clergy of the Church of England. | And such an amount of effort "'could Hardly have been needed, had the faculties and life of ait been more widely diffused. Mr Gladstone does indeed go to the root and bottom of the whole matter, declaring that— The changes, then, in our modes of performing Divine service ought to be answers to the inward call of minds advanciug and working upwards ia the great work of inward devotion. Bufc when we see the extraordinary progress of ritual observance during the lasfc generation, who is there that cau be so sanguine as to suppose that there has been a corresponding growth of inward fervour, and of mental intelligence, in our general congregations ? There is indeed a rule of simple decency to wliich, under all circumstances, we should strive to rise—for indecency in public worship is acted ■'•'profanity, and ia grossly irreligious in its effects But when the standard of decency has once been attained, ought not the further st'ips to be vigilantly watched, I do nofc say by law, bufc by conscience ? There are influences at work among us, far from spiritual, which may work in the direction of ritual. The vast amount of new made wealth in the country does uot indeid lead to a display as profuse iv fche embellishment of the house of God, as in our own mansious, equipages, or dresses. Yet the wealthy, as such, have a preference for churches and for services with a certain amount of ornament; and it is quite possible fchat no small part of what; we call the improvements in fabrics and in worship may be due simply to . the demand of the richer man lor a more costly article, and thu3 may represent not the spiritual growth, bufc the materializing tendencies of the age. Again, there is a wider diffusion of taste among the many, though the faculty itself may uot, with the few, have gained a finer edge ; aud with this, the sense of the in congruous and the grotesque cauuofc but make some way. Hero is another agency, adapted fco improving the face and form of our religious services, without that which I would contend is the indispensable condition of all real aud durable improvement— namely, a corresponding growth in the appreciation of the inward work of devotion. But a third and very important cause, working in the same direction, has been this. The standard of life and of devotion has risen among the clergy far more generally, aud doubtless also more rapidly, thau among the laity. -Ifc is more thau possible that, iv many instances, tlieir own enlarged aud elevated conception of what Diyiue service ought to be in order to answer lhe genuine demands of their own inward life, may have induced them to raise ifc in their several churches beyond any real capacity of their congregations to appreciate and turn ifc to account. We have nofc space for more. The. perusal of the whole will do a great deal to clear up tho mists which passion and prejudice have raised up around the whole subject. probably a few yea:a hence the world will cave moro for this able essay upon Ritualism than they do now. The concluding passage is unanswerable. At present there is a disposition fco treat a handful of men as scapegoats ; and my fear is nofc only that they may suffer injustice, bufc lest far wider evils than any within their power to curse or core, should creep onwards unobserved. As rank bigotry, and what is far worse, base egotistic selfishness may find their account, at moments like this, in swelling the cry of Protestautisrn, so much of no less rank worklliuoss may lurk ia the fashionable tendency nofc only to excessive bufc even to moderate ritual. The best touchstone for dividing what is wrong and defining what is light in the exterior apparel of Divine -service will be found in the holy desire and authoritative 1 demand of the Apostle, -'that the Church may receive edifying," rather than in ab- - straefc imagery ef perfection on the one baud, I or narrow traditional prejudice on tlie other.