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week, I see why the Lord has called me to leave London-first, to learn self-denial by learning contempt; and, secondly, to feel my want of Christ, in solitude, without being diverted by outward works. I see my soul a bottomless pit of self-righteousness as well as sin, and I plainly discover that, to this day, I have taken the advantage of God's grace for Christian faith, and some rays of light reflected from the means of grace, or the children of God I conversed with, for the Sun of Righteousness itself; and, consequently, I go to the throne of grace for a revelation of Christ in my heart. Oh, may I never rest short of His life, light, and power abiding in my heart! May I come to Him as the blindest of all unbelievers, till my life is hid with Him in God! May I trample under foot with horror all notions of sanctification, till I have learned to live constantly at the feet of the Lord my righteousness! May I look upon all my morality, good-nature, self-denial, works of piety or mercy, as dung, till they are besprinkled with the blood of Christ-till nature is swallowed up in grace!

I am greatly indebted to your Ladyship for what light I have into the nature of the foundation of Christianity; and though I have great reason to be ashamed of the little use I have made of it, I hope it will work its way, by the power of Christ's Spirit, through the thick darkness of my self-righteous, unbelieving heart, and then to be a close follower of you, as you are of Christ.

The fear Mr. Hill has lest I should lessen his interest at Shrewsbury against the next election, the shyness of the neighbouring clergy, and the want I feel of an ordination from the Great Shepherd and Bishop of my soul, will probably prevent my preaching at all in the country. Oh, may the Spirit of God preach in the meantime the Gospel to my heart!

Generous as you are, Madam, I believe you would have saved me the shame of receiving the present you made me at Padington, had you foreseen what uneasy thoughts it raised in my heart. Is not this making godliness a gain? Can I in conscience receive what is devoted to the poor when I am not in actual want? &c. I am not ashamed of iving upon charity; but to receive it without being an immediate object, s what gives me more uneasiness than want could possibly do. And now I am deprived for many months yet of the unspeakable advantage of living upon Providence, and must live upon a stock as well as the rich of this world! Is not this a lesson? And does not your generosity, Madam, bid me look to Jesus for poverty of spirit, without which all outward displays are nothing but pride, sin, misery, and hell?-I am, with gratitude and shame, your Ladyship's unworthy servant,

J. FLETCHER.

If I knew where to apply to know how your Ladyship got into Yorkshire, I would not presume to beg the favour of a line from you, Madam,

or, if more convenient, from Mrs. Bateman at your desire. It will come to me under cover to Thomas Hill, Esq., M.P., at Tern, near Salop, Shropshire.

DIRECTIONS TO INQUIRERS.

Amidst the present and excited state of the Church on Ritualism and other erroneous tendencies, it is pleasing to meet with the good old Puritan doctrines so plainly taught by the estimable Bishop M'Ilvaine, who for so many years has adorned the Episcopate in America. How opposite to what is so generally taught in the present day, are the following instructions, to all who are earnestly inquiring the way of life! In dealing with minds recently affected by Divine truth and seeking after God, let me counsel, he says→

1. That you aim at a deep and broad foundation in a thorough conviction of sin, and ruin, and condemnation. "To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much." He who feels that he is very sinful, will feel that Christ is very precious. We see the Saviour through our necessities. We can know Him only as we know our need of Him. Defective conviction is defective conversion. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin, and thus to lead souls to Christ. Seek, therefore, to bring the mind into such a state of self-abasement and selfrenunciation, under a sense of utter sinfulness and condemnation, that the way of the Lord may be prepared, the mountains of self made low, and the preciousness of Christ as a refuge and only hope exalted.

2. Aim at drawing away the mind from seeking hope and comfort in its own experiences and feelings, and of centring it in Christ. Seek such a frame as will desire, not so much to get hope and consolation, as to be a Christian, and to be a Christian simply as that consists in coming to Christ and being his, and striving to be his more and more. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Just as we are to lift up Christ before the world, so must He be exalted in each heart. All affections, hopes, desires, motives, must centre there.

3. Display the freeness of Christ, his tender and boundless love, his perfect salvation; that is the heavenly strain that draws the stony heart, and in which is manifested the power of God unto salvation. "We preach Christ crucified," nothing else will do. The heart knows that preaching to come from God, just as the demoniac could not help recognizing Christ.

4. Be careful of the proneness of those recently awakened to lay too much stress on obtaining a hope. I mean, not that a good hope is not

* This letter was directed to the Countess, at Lady Margaret Ingham's, Aberford, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire.

very precious, but that great care must be taken lest the object be more valued than the evidence-the consolation than the basis. It is good to be self-distrustful, to suspect one's feelings-to be afraid of self-delusion -to feel how deceitful the heart is how natural sympathies and emotions, under certain excitements, may easily seem like religious affections. Urge self-examination, and walking carefully.

5. Exalt the office of the Holy Ghost. Great is the truth involved in the text, "By grace ye are saved." Grace to make alive; grace to continue life; grace to consummate life; grace to send a Saviour and a Sanctifier; grace to enable us to receive them. And what else? All of grace! Beginning and ending, every step of the way; and in the administration of that grace-the Spirit of God! We must exalt His work in us for Christ, just as much as we must exalt Christ's work for us with God. The Spirit will enrich the soul that makes much of Him as the author and sustainer of all spiritual life. He testifies of Christ to the soul; He takes of the precious things of Christ and shows them to the soul that cries

Worcester.

"Come, Holy Ghost; Creator, come!"

THE PRESS.

(From the Times of October 19, 1866.)

T. D.

[*** We tender our thanks to the Times for unfurling the flag in the face of the foe. By its timely voice it has done the State service. We enrich our pages by the celebrated article which opened the conflict on Ritualism, a conflict which we believe to be the most serious of the day, involving in its results the Protestant Reformation, and the Church of England founded upon it.-ED. F. C. E. M.]

RITUALISM.-Notwithstanding the remonstrances of Archbishops and Bishops, the Ritualists still continue and even increase their extravagancies. These gentlemen maintain one convenient exception in their general enthusiasm for ecclesiastical practices. They exhibit a profound disregard for the ecclesiastical virtue of obedience, and refuse the slightest respect to the admonitions of their superiors in the Church. We do not believe there is any other profession in which such a unanimous opinion as has been expressed by the highest authorities against these practices would have been so contemptuously disregarded by those to whom it was addressed. The churches which were so notorious last spring are equally notorious still, and a visit to such a place as St. Alban's, Holborn, on the occasion of what is called the "High Service," is still sufficient to startle even the most tolerant of ordinary Churchmen. Priests, as they delight to call themselves, in defiance of the most judicious of English divines, are conspicuous in dresses unknown to the English eye for three hundred years. Three of these personages, bedizened with green and gold and yellow, and covered with black stripes and crosses, stand with their backs to the congregation on the elevated steps at the east end of the church. The altar is overladen with gorgeous ornament, and illuminated at noonday with two great lighted candles.

Pyramids of tapers, such as are seen in Roman Catholic churches, are placed at each side; the chancel is emblazoned with tinsel banners, and the white surplices of the choristers are the only things in the gaudy spectacle which could remind one of the customary ritual of the English Church. Here, across an atmosphere which is faint with the odours of incense, the green and gilded priests are dimly discerned performing unintelligible manœuvres, bowing and bending, and turning and crossing from side to side, until the recitation of the words of the service becomes the smallest part of their functions. Two white-dressed attendants carry a silver censer, from which the fumes of the incense are incessantly tossed, now over the altar, now over the book from which the Gospel is read, and now into the faces of all the performers in the chancel. A fine organ and excellent singing, in which, where it is allowed, the congregation join with impressive effect, supply the only legitimate element in the ceremonial, and the performance culminates in a series of flexions and genuflexions which can only be fitly described as the Elevation of the Host.

Such a spectacle as this in an Anglican church at the present day is not a little perplexing to a common spectator. There is something we don't understand in the notion of grown-up men deliberately introducing such practices, and taking a share in such a performance. These gewgaws and flaunting dresses, and candles, and odours, and gesticulations have in them something almost nauseous to an ordinary English stomach. There is, to say the least of it, a vulgarity of taste in this ostentatious display of gorgeous finery and oppressive perfumes. The aversion we feel does not arise from any prejudice against a musical service, or against a somewhat fuller ceremonial than bas hitherto been usual in parish churches. On the contrary, there is no doubt that the general introduction of music and of a more impressive ritual has greatly increased at once the decorousness and attractiveness of Church services. But there is a total difference between the musical service which was the extreme limit of Anglicanism a few years ago and the recent Ritualistic innovations. Such a ceremonial as that at St. Alban's stands in the same relation to an ordinary cathedral service as the green and gold dresses of the priests to the plain white surplices of the Anglican ministers. It might be hard to draw an exact limit, but the Anglican service is on one side of the limit, and the St. Alban's ceremonial at the opposite extreme. It should be observed, moreover, that it is one of the most offensive features in such ceremonies, that they are innovations on established customs. If these dresses had been continuously used since the time of the Reformation, we should probably have thought no more of them than of Judges' wigs and Lord Mayors' robes. But if the Judges had left off their wigs and their ermine three centuries ago, it is impossible to conceive the members of the English Bar deliberately proposing to restore these ornaments, in order to add to the solemnity of judicial proceedings. These glaring dresses and elaborate ceremonials are simply the relics of less civilized times, and the very vestments in which these ecclesiastical performers flaunt, and to which they attach such ridiculous importance, have been shown to be nothing but ornamented varieties of the usual garments of the time of the Roman Empire. To make a point of re-introducing these gilded adornments three centuries after they have been disused would

in any other profession be despicable childishness; but to force them into prominence and make them of importance amid the solemn realities of religion is simply revolting to a reverent mind. It is common to say that such things are at least not worse than the cold and bare formalities with which public service was often conducted some years ago. But the frigid proprieties of a Puritanic service were at least honest and unassuming, whereas these Ritualistic antics are essentially affected and unreal. To Englishmen who have been brought up in a simpler atmosphere, it is impossible that such ostentation as we have described should ever be natural, and to introduce what is unnatural and ostentatious into Divine Service is to commit the highest offence against reverence and good taste.

It would, however, hardly have been worth while to characterise these innovations in fitting language if vulgarity and irreverence had been the only evils with which they are connected. They would soon have disappeared before the rough reprobation of English common sense. But their promoters have now definitely connected them with a system of doctrine which, however abhorrent from English Protestant teaching, has always possessed a considerable attraction for a certain class of minds. A letter from a correspondent, who narrates the instruction which he heard given in St. Alban's to a class of children, will sufficiently explain what we mean. That there is a profound antagonism between the teaching of the English Church and Roman Catholicism, is a plain, broad fact, which no refinements can be sufficient to explain away. Englishmen are essentially Protestant, and whenever their religious feeling has been thoroughly roused, they have reiterated their protest with continually-increasing strength. Now, it would be idle any longer to disguise the fact that these Ritualists are openly teaching doctrines which are barely distinguishable from extreme Roman Catholicism, and are in flat contradiction to the most cherished tenets of Anglicanism. Archbishop Manning, in an address which we recently published, congratulated his audience that they were relieved of the necessity of maintaining the controversy about Transubstantiation, because the English clergy had adopted that doctrine, and were diligently inculcating it among their people. The statement, it must be admitted, was scarcely any exaggeration. The sermon preached at St. Alban's last Thursday morning by a well-known leader among this party was, if possible, stronger than the language quoted by our correspondent. If that sermon, like Dr. Pusey's, had been preached before the University of Oxford fiveand-twenty years ago, the preacher would unquestionably have been promptly called to account. It is with this outrageous teaching that excessive Ritualism is now identified. The all but avowed object is to make the English Communion Service as like the Roman Catholic Mass as possible; and, in point of fact, any one who has seen High Mass in a Roman Catholic Church has seen the "High Service" at St. Alban's. This "giltgingerbread" school, as it was long ago described by Dr. Newman, is developing a systematic revival of that Romanizing movement which was checked by public indignation more than twenty years ago. The other objectionable practices of Roman Catholicism are naturally introduced along with its leading tenet. Even the celibacy of the clergy is beginning to be openly advocated. The neophytes of this school are, of course, required to

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