words, the very things which find their warrant in their capacity and fitness to assist the work of inward worship, are particularly apt to be accepted by the individual himself as a substitute for inward worship, on account of that very

beauty and solemnity, of their peculiar and unworldly type. So that ritual, because it is full of uses, is also full of dangers. Though men may increase responsibility by augmenting it, they do not escape from danger by its diminution: nothing can make ritual safe except the strict observance of its purpose, namely, that it shall supply wings to the human soul in its callow efforts at upward flight. And such being the meaning of true ritual, the just measure of it is to be found in the degree in which it furnishes that assistance to the individual Christian.

for all times and persons, and to predi- tuation, not to say with what duplicity, of cate that all beyond the line must be intention we undertake the work, is it harmful; but it is impossible to fix a not too clear that in such a work we shall minimum, and say up to that point, we instinctively be too apt to remit our enerare safe. No ritual is too much, provided gies, and to slide unawares into mere it is subsidiary to the inner work of wor-perfunctory performance? And where ship and all ritual is too much, unless and in proportion as the service of the it ministers to that purpose. body is more careful, and the exterior If there be paradox in this assertion, decency and solemnity of the public asthe explanation of it is not far to seek.sembling more unimpeachable, these It will be found in the removal of a pre- things themselves may contribute to form vailing and dangerous error in kindred important elements of that inward selfsubject-matter. It is too commonly as- complacency which makes it so easy for sumed that, provided only we repair to us, whenever we ourselves are judge and our church or our chapel, as the case may jury as well as "prisoner at the bar" to be, the performance of the work of adora-obtain a verdict of acquittal. In other tion is a thing to be taken for granted. And so it is, in the absence of unequivocal signs to the contrary, as between man and man. But not as between the individual man and his own conscience in the hour of self-review. If he knows anything of himself, and unless he be a per-capacity and fitness, of their inherent son of singularly favoured gifts, he will know that the work of Divine worship, so far from being a thing of course even among those who outwardly address themselves to its performance, is one of the most arduous which the human spirit can possibly set about. The processes of simple self-knowledge are difficult enough. All these, when a man worships, should be fresh in his consciousness: and this is the first indispensable condition for a right attitude of the soul before the footstool of the Eternal. The next is a frame of the affections adjusted on the one hand to this self-knowledge, and on The changes, then, in our modes of perthe other to the attributes, and the more forming Divine service ought to be annearly felt presence, of the Being before swers to the inward call of minds advanwhom we stand. And the third is the cing and working upwards in the great sustained mental effort necessary to com- work of inward devotion. But when we plete the act, wherein every Christian is see the extraordinary progress of ritual a priest; to carry our whole selves, as it observance during the last generation, were with our own hands into that nearer who is there that can be so sanguine as Presence, and, uniting the humble and to suppose that there has been a correunworthy prosphora with the one full sponding growth of inward fervour, and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice, to offer it of mental intelligence, in our general upon the altar of the heart: putting aside congregations? There is indeed a rule every distraction of the outward sense, of simple decency to which, under all and endeavouring to complete the indi-circumstances, we should strive to rise vidual act as fully, as when in loneliness, for indecency in public worship is acted after departing out of the flesh, we shall see eternal things no longer through but without a veil. Now, considering how we live, and must live, our common life in and by the senses, how all sustained mental abstraction is an effort, how the exercise of sympathy itself, which is such a power in Christian worship, is also a kind of bond to the visible; and, then, last of all, with what feebleness and fluc

profanity, and is grossly irreligious in its effects. But when the standard of decency has once been attained, ought not the further steps to be vigilantly watched, I do not say by law, but 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 not indeed lead to a display as

If we consider the nature of Divine service altogether at large, the presumption is against alteration as such in the manner of it. For the nature of God and the nature of man, and the relation of the one to the other, are constant;

profuse in the embellishment of the services is governed among us to a great house of God, as in our own mansions, extent, especially in towns, and most of equipages, or dresses. Yet the wealthy, all in the metropolis, by fashion, taste, and as such, have a preference for churches liking: but no preference is really admisand for services with a certain amount of sible in such a matter, except the strict ornament and it is quite possible that answer of the conscious mind to the no small part of what we call the im- question, What degree and form of ritual provements in fabrics and in worship is it that helps me, and what is it that may be due simply to the demand of the hampers and impedes me, in the perricher man for a more costly article, and formance of the work for which all conthus may represent not the spiritual gregations of Christians assemble in growth but the materializing tendencies their churches? of the age. Again, there is a wider diffusion of taste among the many, though the faculty itself may not, with the few, have gained a finer edge; and, with this, the sense of the incongruous, and the grotesque cannot but make some way. Here is another agency, adapted to im-and in their solemn subject-matter, mere proving the face and form of our religious fashion, which is a principle of change services, without that which I would con- altogether questionable, and which may tend is the indispensable condition of all be defined as change for its own sake, real and durable improvement - namely, ought to have no place whatever. The a corresponding growth in the apprecia- varieties required by local circumstances tion of the inward work of devotion. or temperaments can be no novelties, But a third and very important cause, and will probably in the lapse of time working in the same direction, has been have asserted themselves sufficiently in this. The standard of life and of devo- the subsisting arrangements. tion has risen among the clergy far more But if we limit and regulate our congenerally, and doubtless also more rapid-sideration of the case by a careful referly, than among the laity. It is more than [ence to our own time and country, the possible that, in many instances, their presumption is much weakened, possibly own enlarged and elevated conception of in one sense even reversed. For we what Divine service ought to be in order to answer the genuine demands of their own inward life, may have induced them to raise it in their several churches beyond any real capacity of their congregations to appreciate and turn it to account. Even in the theatres of our day, the spectacle threatens to absorb the drama, and show, which should be the servant, to become the master. Much more is the danger real in the sanctuary, for the function of an audience is mainly passive, but that of a congregation is one of high and arduous, though unseen, activity.

have been emerging from a period in which the public worship of God had confessedly been reduced to a state of great external debasement. In this state of things a Reformation was necessary. Happily it came, and it surmounted the breakers and floods of prejudice. There was therefore a presumption not against, but in favour of change of some kind. When, however, the further question was reached of what kind the change ought to be, it remained true that each particular change required to be examined on its own merits, and to make its own case. The tests to be applied would be such as the following questions might supply:

1. Is it legally binding? an inquiry, in which the element of desuetude can hardly be excluded from the view of a clergyman or of his flock.

But it is time to draw together the threads of this slight discourse upon a subject very far indeed from slight. Whatever may be said of the merits of authoritative and coercive repression in matters of ritual- and I am not very sanguine as to its effects assuredly they never can dispense with the necessity, or perform the office, of the moral restraints of an awakened conscience. Some may dispute the proposition that their gripe is hard, where a tender touch is needed; but who can question that they will reach but few, where many re- 4. Is it conformable to the spirit of the quire a lesson? Attendance on religious prayer-book?

2. Is it in its own nature favourable to devout and intelligent adoration of God in the sanctuary?

3. Will it increase, or will it limit, the active participation of the flock in the service?

5. Is it agreeable to the desires of this particular congregation?

6. Is it adapted to their religious and their mental condition; and likely to bring them nearer to God in the act of worship, or to keep them further from Him; to collect or disperse their thoughts, to warm or freeze their affections?

It seems to me that, as a general rule, an answer to all these questions should be ready before a change in ritual is adopted and that, where law interposes no impediment, still, if any of them has to be answered in the negative, such changes can hardly be allowable.

:

I will, however, presume to express a favourable inclination towards one class

of usages, with a corresponding aversion to their opposites. I heartily appreciate whatever, within the limits of the prayerbook, tends to augment the active participation of the laity in the services as for example their joining audibly in the recital of the General Thanksgiving; or the aid they may give the clergyman (often so valuable even in a physical point of view) by reading the Lessons.

Again, if ritual be on the increase among us, ought it not to receive at once its complement and its balance in a greater care, fervency, and power of preaching? Nothing, in my opinion, is of more equivocal tendency than high ritual with a low appreciation of Christian doctrine. But if there be high ritual and sound doctrine too, these will not excuse inadequate appreciation or use of the power of the pulpit. If ritual does its work in raising the temper of devotion, it is a preparation for corresponding elevation in the work of the preacher : and if the preacher is able to warm, to interest, and to edify his hearers, then he

ual, and arms them against its dangers.

Except in the single case where the standard of decency has not been reached, I am wholly at a loss to conceive any excuse for contravening the general sense of a congregation by changes in ritual. If the clergyman thinks the matter to be one of principle, should he not instruct them? If he sees it to be one of taste and liking, should he not give way to them? Should he not be the first to perceive and hold that unsettlement in matters of religion is in itself no small evil and to reflect that, by making pre-improves their means of profiting by ritcipitately some change which he approves, he may prepare the way and establish the precedent for a like precipitancy in other changes which he does not approve? Especially, what case can there be (except that of decency, and such a case can hardly be probable) in which he will be justified in repelling and dispersing his congregation for the sake of his service? Doubtless it is conceivable, that Divine service may be rendered by careful ritual more suitable to the dignity of its purpose. But let us take, on the other hand, a church where a ritual thus improved has been forced upon a congregation to whom its provisions were like an unknown tongue, and whom it has therefore banished from the walls of the sanctuary. Is it conceivable that such a spectacle can be a pleasing one in the sight of the Most High? Did Christianity itself come down into the world in abstract perfection and in full development? or was it not rather opened on the world with nice regard to the contracted pupil of the human eye which it was gradually to enlarge, unfolding itself from day to day, in successive lessons of doctrine and event, here a little and there a little? The jewels in the crown of the Bride are the flocks within the walls of the temple; and men ever so hard of hearing are better than an empty bench.

But if self-will and want of consideration for others have been, and, in a diminished degree, are still, a snare to the clergy, have not we of the laity the same infirmities with far less excuse? Is it not strange to see with what tenacity many a one of us will, when he casually attends a church other than his usual one, adhere to some usage or non-usage perfectly indifferent, but with the effect either of giving positive scandal or of exciting notice, that is, of distracting those around him from their proper work? How is this like the Apostle's rule, who was all things to all men? Or have we found out that the rules of Scripture were made, as well as the discipline of the Church, for the clergy alone? But even if it be the layman's privilege at once to rule the Church and to disobey it, how is it that he does not respect the feelings of other laymen by decently conforming in all matters indifferent to the usages of the congregation to which he has chosen for the nonce to attach himself? It is much to be feared that when the clergyman has unlearned his own unreasonableness, he may still have to endure much from the unreasonableness of some handful of units among his flock. But if he be indeed worthy of his exalted office, he will see in the first place how little char

The

ity to the recalcitrant there will be in rarer gift in discerning and expressing the forcing on them even improvements harmony between the inward purposes of which to them can only be stumbling- Christian worship and its outward invesblocks. Next, if he put on the armour titure, and who then had gathered round of patience and of love, he will soon be-him a congregation the most devout and come aware of its winning efficacy. hearty that I (for one) have ever seen Lastly, there is an expedient which is in in any communion of the Christian world. his own hand, and to which he cannot be And now, for my last word, I will appeal prevented from resorting. Those defec- to high authority. tive perceptions of the outward manner In the fourteenth chapter of Saint of things, which I take to be national, Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians must often make their mark on the may be found, what I would call the code clergy as well as on us of the laity. I re- of the New Testament upon ritual. The member long ago hearing a clergyman rules laid down by the Apostle to deter(who left the Church of England a few mine the comparative value of the gifts days later) complain of a want of rever- then so common in the Church will be ence in his choir boys, with a demeanour, found to contain the principles applicable though it was in his beautiful church, fit to the regulation of Divine service; and for a tavern. The first, and last, and it is touching to observe that they are most effective article of ritual is deep immediately subjoined to that noble and reverence in the clergyman himself. wonderful effusion describing "charity," Nothing can supply its place; and it with which no ethical eloquence of Greece will go far to supply the place of every-or Rome can suitably compare. thing. It abhors affectation; and it does highest end, in the Apostle's mind, seems not consist in bowings and genuflexions, to be (v. 5) "that the church may receive or in any definite acts: nequeo monstrare et sentio tantum. The reason why this reverence is the most precious part of ritual, is because ritual in general consists ex vi termini in symbol; but reverence means, together with a sign, a thing signified. It has its being in a profound sense of the Divine presence, expressing itself through a suitable outward demeanour. But if the demeanour be without the sentiment, it is not reverence, it is only the husk and shell of reverence. The clergyman is necessarily the central point of his congregation. Their reverence cannot rise above his; and their reverence will insensibly but continually approach to his. If this be the key-note of the service, questions of ritual will ad-demand of the Apostle, " that the Church just themselves in harmony with it. And one reason why the point may be more safely pressed is, because reverence need not be the property or characteristic of any school in particular. It distinguished the Margaret Chapel of forty years ago, when the pastors of that church were termed Evangelical. It subsisted in that same chapel thirty years ago, when Mr. Oikeley (now, alas! ours no more) and Mr. Upton Richards gave to its very simple services, which would now scarcely satisfy an average congregation, and where the fabric was little less than hideous, that true solemnity which is in perfect concord with simplicity. The pipal Church now enjoys the advantages of the labours of Mr. Oakeley; who united to a fine musical taste, a much finer and much

edifying." At present there is a disposition to treat a handful of men as scapegoats; and my fear is not only that they may suffer injustice, but lest far wider evils, than any within their power to cause or cure, 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 Protestantism, so much of no less rank worldliness may lurk in the fashionable tendency not only to excessive but even to moderate ritual. The best touchstone for divining what is wrong and defining what is right in the exterior apparel of Divine service will be found in the holy desire and authoritative

may receive edifying," rather than in abstract imagery of perfection on the one hand, or narrow traditional prejudice on the other.

From The Cornhill Magazine. THREE FEATHERS.

CHAPTER IX.

THE RING OF EVIL OMEN.

ONE of Wenna's many friends outside the village in which she lived was a strange misshapen creature who earned his living by carrying sand from one of the bays on the coast to the farmers on the uplands above. This he did by

means of a troop of donkeys-small, to visit Mr. Keam-he was anxious that rough, light-haired, and large-eyed ani- Wenna should believe that he still remals that struggled up the rude and mained her pupil. So, with a good grace, steep path on the face of the cliff, with he went down the tortuous pathway to the bags on their backs that he had la- the desolate little bay where the sandboriously filled below. It was a suf- carrier was at work. He stood and ficiently cheerless occupation for this un- looked at the sea while Wenna was chatfortunate hunchback, and not a very ting with her acquaintance; he studied profitable one. The money he got from the rigging of the distant ships; he the farmers did not much more than watched the choughs and daws flying cover the keep of the donkeys. He sel- about the face of the rocks; he drew figdom spoke to any human being; for who ures on the sand with the point of his was going to descend that rough and cane, and wondered whether he would be narrow path down to the shore where back in good time for luncheon if this he and his donkeys appeared to be no garrulous hunchback jabbered in his gutbigger than mice with the knowledge tural way for another hour. Then he that there was no path round the precip had the pleasure of climbing up the cliff itous coast, and that nothing would re-again, with a whole troop of donkeys gomain but the long climb up again?

¡ing before him in Indian file up the narrow and zigzag path, and at last he reached the summit. His second effort in the way of charity had been accomplished.

Wenna Rosewarne had some pity for this solitary wretch, who toiled at his task with the melancholy Atlantic before him, and behind him a great and lonely wall of crumbling slate; and whenever He proposed that the young ladies she had time, she used to walk with her should sit down to rest for a few minsister across from Eglosilyan by the high- utes, after the donkeys and their driver lying downs until they reached this little had departed; and accordingly the three indentation in the coast where a curve of strangers chose a block of slate for a yellow sand was visible far below. If seat, with the warm grass for a footstool, this poor fellow and his donkeys were to and all around them the beauty of an be seen from the summit, the two girls August morning. The sea was ruffled had little fear of the fatigue of descend-into a dark blue where it neared the hoing the path down the side of the steep rizon; but closer at hand it was pale and cliff; and the object of their visit used still. The sun was hot on the bleak pasto be highly pleased and flattered by their ture-land. There was a scent of fern coming to chat with him for a few min- and wild thyme in the air. utes. He would hasten the filling of his bags so as to ascend again with them, and in a strange tongue that even the two Cornish-born girls could not always understand, he would talk to them of the merits of his favourite donkeys, of their willingness, and strength, and docility. They never took him any tracts; they never uttered a word of condolence or sympathy. Their visit was merely of the nature of a friendly call; but it was a mark of attention and kindliness that gave the man something pleasant to think of for days thereafter.

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"By the way, Wenna," said Mr. Roscorla, "I wonder you have never asked me why I have not yet got you an engaged ring."

Wenna does not want an engaged ring," said Miss Mabyn, sharply. "They are not worn now."

This audacious perversion of fact on the part of the self-willed young beauty was in reality a sort of cry of despair. If Mr. Roscorla had not yet spoken of a ring to Wenna, Mabyn had; and Mabyn had besought of her sister not to accept this symbol of hopeless captivity.

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Oh, Wenna," she had said, "if you take a ring from him, I shall look on you as carried away from us forever."

"Nonsense, Mabyn," the elder sister had said. "The ring is of no importance; it is the word you have spoken that is."

Now, on one of these occasions, Mr. Roscorla went with Wenna and her sister; and although he did not at all see the use of going down this precipitous cliff for the mere purpose of toiling up again, he was not going to confess that he dreaded the fatigue of it. Moreover, this was another mission of charity; and, “Oh, no, it isn't,” Mabyn said earnestalthough he had not called again on Mr. ly. "As long as you don't wear a ring, Keam-although, in fact, he had in- Wenna, I still fancy I shall get you back wardly vowed that the prayers of a thou- from him; and you may say what you sand angels would not induce him again like, but you are far too good for him."