It remains to say a few words to those whom at the outset I called “hurriers along;” to those who have gone with the movement without considering whither it was carrying them, or what would be the effect on others who are being left behind; to those who in their conformity to “high-ritual” are rather indulging their taste, than exercising their judgment, or are regarding as the soul of worship, that which is but the accessory, the expression, the body and clothing of worship. As I have warned you before, there are great and peculiar dangers inherent in “high-ritual;” its abuse became a snare to the Jews and led them into formalism and idolatry, even when they had inspired prophets and the very audible voice of God to teach them; it became a like snare to our forefathers, from which they escaped only by giving up the use as well as the abuse; it is a snare now to millions of eastern and western Christians; yes, and it is evidently a snare, a very dangerous snare to many of yourselves. Exaggerated in importance, regarded as an end instead of a means, followed out into very minute detail,—its forms and expressions unduly repeated and multiplied—it obscures the very truths which it was meant to exhibit; it distracts the attention which it should fix; it begets formalism, it mocks God with a worship which is not spiritual and true, and therefore is no worship at all; it leads its votaries to a pitiable self-ostentation, which confirms in their prejudices the anti-ritualists, which retards the restorers of ritual (who fear to give looser reins to those who are already running wild), yea and well-nigh frightens them, in their concern for souls, out of the continued observance of what they have already restored!
My dear brethren, this is sober, necessary warning. I pray you try to receive it and to regulate your worship by it. Take heed lest, being cumbered about many things you neglect the one thing needful; lest, following right observances in a wrong spirit you incur the Pharisees’ condemnation; lest, by an indiscriminate performance of all the bowings, genuflections, and crossings invented in mediæval or modern times, you destroy the emphatic teaching of pure and dignified Catholic ceremonial; lest indulging your own fancies and carrying out your own ritual, in the face of that which the responsible officers of the congregation by precept and example enjoin, you offend grievously and culpably against the apostolic precept: “Let all things be done decently and in order.”
GLORY BE UNTO GOD.
C. W. REYNELL, PRINTER, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
FOOTNOTES.
[13] Reprinted, by permission, from ‘Hymns and other Poems,’ by W. Bright, M.A. (Rivingtons).