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SERMON III.

Ritualism.

"The lust of the eyes

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II.

is not of the Father, but

is of the world."-1 JOHN II. 16.

Y unforeseen circumstances, I am enabled to resume my subject of last

Sunday at an earlier period than I

then contemplated. And this I regard as an advantage, inasmuch as what was then said. will be fresher in your memories. Let me first give a brief and rapid summary of it.

Our subject was Ritualism. And on the last occasion we dealt exclusively with the principle of it. We saw that its principle, as distinct from the degree to which it should be carried, was clearly recognized and ap

proved both by Holy Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer;-that the two Sacraments, which are the leading rites of our Religion, are instances of a divinely ordained symbolism, inasmuch as no one can deny that the Water employed in one of them is the symbol of the purification of the soul, conferred upon the duly qualified recipient; or that the Bread and Wine employed in the other, are symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ (indeed the ultra Protestant doctrine, first broached by Zwingle, but repudiated by all orthodox Churches, is that the Bread and Wine are mere symbols and nothing more); that the magnificent declaration of Our Lord, that God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, does not at all exclude the homage of the body, or the external circumstances of worship, but simply means that without the action of the conscience, will, and moral powers, there can be no worship at all; and, finally, that our Prayer Book sanctions the use of striking and significant Ceremonies in Divine Service, when it prescribes the crossing of the brow in Baptism, the giving of the ring in marriage, and the casting of earth on the body at a funeral.-The principle of

Ritual having been thus established, we then proceeded to point out that the principle might easily be carried to a vicious excess, and we proposed to consider in a subsequent Sermon what limitations must be put upon it. At this point then we resume our argument.

I. The first limitation which must be put on excess of ritual is found, by implication, in Holy Scripture itself. As far as the Christian Church is concerned, the only divinely authorized ritual is that of the two Sacraments—the symbolical immersion under the water to express the death unto sin-the symbolical breaking of bread, and pouring out of wine, to express the breaking of Christ's Body and the shedding of His Blood for us. But surely we must look at these Ordinances not only as giving a general sanction to ritual, but as indicating the great principles, which should guide the Christian Church in all her ritual arrangements. Great simplicity is one of these principles. There is nothing approaching to the elaborate, or the pompous, in either Sacrament; the immersion in water, the thanksgiving over food, are among the commonest and homeliest acts of our daily life. And, therefore, though both reason and rever

ence dictate that we should employ our very best and costliest in God's worship, and specially in His Sacraments, which are the Holy of Holies of His worship, still it must be admitted that any very complicated and elaborate ceremonial is not at all in keeping with what I may call the genius of the Sacraments. If Christian ritual is to be determined by that genius, there should be in it surely (however rich the exterior in wealthy districts) a grave simplicity; and every approach to excess of ornament should be removed as an unseemly

excrescence.

Plainness of meaning is another principle of Christian ritual, which the Sacraments teach. There is symbolism in them; but it is a symbolism which speaks for itself, and requires little (if any) explanation. "As the body of yonder infant is washed with pure water by the minister of Baptism, so his soul, in answer to the prayers of the Church, is washed from the stain of his birth-sin, and cleansed by God's purifying grace;"-"As yonder bread is broken, and yonder wine poured out by the minister of the Eucharist, so Christ's Body was cruelly pierced for us, and His Blood shed;"—these are very easy symbols, which

may be explained to children and rustics. A wonderful contrast indeed to many dark ceremonies of the medieval Church, which to the initiated in theological lore may have had some significance, but must have simply dazed and bewildered the people in general, without conveying to their minds any holy lesson, "whereby they might be edified."

And then, secondly, there is the Scriptural warning against "the lust of the eyes," which certainly (however little we may usually think of it in this connexion) may be imported into the externals of religion, and materially vitiate its spirit. By "the lust of the eyes" is meant that natural love of display, and that liability to be led astray by it, which moralists have so often exposed. It has a strong hold upon the human heart, this lust of the eyes, showing itself first in the child's fondness for new and fine clothes, in the woman's love of dress (which to many hundreds of women has proved the beginning of their ruin and degradation), and peeping out even in men, however serious or sacred their pursuits; for we all have in us a feminine element, as having been born of women, and a puerile element, as having once been children.-With this weak and foolish

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