they are only to a modified degree limbs of the great English Church.
If they go on in quiet, which is possible, their doing so may be but a proof of that relaxation of order which is not the least alarming token of the present condition of the English Church, Possibly the strain which saves them from molestation may be itself a wrench to the already weakened cords, while they owe their own impunity to a frame of mind which tolerates and applauds priests of our Church joining with hot-headed laymen and nonconformists, preaching in Antinomian rhapsodies, upon the stages of the minor theatres and in the orchestras of dancing saloons. No break of order, no dodging with the spirit or the letter of an existing regulation can ever be perpetrated, without thereby affording a precedent to those who desire to break that order and dodge those formularies in another direction. Nor can we blame them if from their own stand-point they recognise and take an advantage which ought to be impossible to the party of order.
It is far from our wish to counsel any timid repudiation of ritualism. It is because we believe that ritualism is the natural law of the English Church's worship, and because we believe that Englishmen are coming round to that conviction far more extensively and far more completely than we could have thought possible some years since, that we regret the blindness of those who would drive back this happy tendency by overlaying the legitimate ritual of our Church with a mass of startling observances, which to the common mind speak nothing but Rome. What we desire to see in general use would be a code of ritual, of which the salient features should be (1) the adoption of musical modulation (we use the term in its largest sense) as far as practicable in all parts of Divine Service which are not lections or exhortations, as the most congruous accents wherewith to approach the footstool of Heaven; (2) the antiphonal method of performing the choral service, involving of course surplices, and the use of the chancel as the 'clerks' place; and, (3) at the Eucharistic celebration, the eastward posture of the celebrant, with due subordination in the place of his assistants—the whole encased in churches to any degree (for Englishmen will gladly accept substantial æsthetics) beautiful in architecture, rich in material, ornate with fresco, mosaic, carving, and stained glass.
Such a ritual as this, so framed in the pile which is consecrated to its use, is a worthy offering of man's devotion to his Lord. Such a ritual shows forth completely, though not elaborately, that Incarnation, of which the Sacraments, in their full significance, fully recognised, are the appointed complement. More than that may be beautiful, may be symbolical, may be touching, may be popular with the few, but it is not essential,
