: Rites and Ritual: A Plea for Apostolic Doctrine and Worship by Freeman Philip Phillpotts Henry Contributor - Rites and ceremonies; Church of England Customs and practices; Sacraments; Church of England Liturgy; Ritualism

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RITES.--Importance of them above Ritual--Serious departure of the English Church from primitive practice--Abeyance of Weekly Celebration--Proofs that Weekly Communion is part of the Divine Ordinance--Practical advantages of restoring it--Origin and history of the present unsound practice--Vigorous protest of the English Church against it--Difficulties in the way of a reformation, how to be met--Recent Eucharistic excesses--Worship addressed to Christ as enshrined in the Elements--Proof that this was not the primitive doctrine or practice--Recent origin of it among ourselves--Non-communicating attendance unknown to antiquity.

RITUAL.--Law of the English Church about it, how ascertainable-- Vestments--An alternative recognised--The Vestment Rubric preserved--The Surplice permitted--Ritual advance at the present day--Choral Festivals--Church Decoration--History and rationale of the Eucharistic Vestments, and of the ordinary ones--Position of the Celebrant--Two lights on the Altar--Incense--The "Mixed Chalice"--The Crucifix--Minute ceremonial disallowed by the English Church--Suggestions as to the present controversy--Hopeful circumstances, and grounds of union.

RITES AND RITUAL,

The position of affairs in the English Church, at the present moment, is such as may well call forth from her children such counsel as their affection may prompt, or their experience justify. And, whatever be the intrinsic value, if any, of the suggestions about to be offered here, the writer can at least testify that, though called forth by a particular conjuncture of circumstances, they are not the hasty or immature thoughts of the moment, but rather an outpouring of the anxious musing of years over the condition and prospects of a beloved and honoured Mother.

And this is what the present writer, with all humility, undertakes to make good. He is indeed far from denying that, "by the good Hand of our God upon us," great things, of a certain kind, have been accomplished in our day.

"Stately thy walls, and holy are the prayers That day and night before thine altar rise."

Our churches have grown to be, to a great extent, the perfection of earthly sanctuaries. Our Services are nobler and heartier. Our church music is more worthy of the name. Better still than this, and more to the present purpose, our communicants have increased in numbers, our Communions in frequency. Our clergy, as a rule, are devoted, beyond the example of former times, to their duty, according to their conception of it. Schools are diligently cared for, and are fairly efficient; foreign missions grow; the home circle of charities is daily widened and rendered more effectual. And this is "progress," or "improvement," undoubtedly. And, were the Church a mere Machine, or a mere System, it would be perfectly reasonable to point with satisfaction to such progress or improvement. But the Church is neither the one nor the other. She is a Divine Body. And what if, while some operations of that Body are being performed with a certain increase of vigour, her very constitution, as divinely organised by God Himself, is being suffered to fall into habitual and chronic unsoundness?

Can. 21. It is referred to by Hosius at the Council of Sardica, A.D. 347.

See the 'Churchman's Diary' . Another return makes the number only 328. See the 'Kalendar of the English Church.'

See this admirably worked out in Dr. Moberly's Sermons on the Decalogue.

"Easter Day in every week."

Nor are there wanting more positive and distinct intimations of the Will of God in this matter, over and above the general presumptions which have been adduced hitherto.

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