Chapter I: Front Matter

THE
RITUAL MOVEMENT.

Three Plain Sermons

PREACHED AT

ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST’S,

HAMMERSMITH,

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BY

JAMES GALLOWAY COWAN, M.A.

_Perpetual Curate_.

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“Let all things be done decently and in order.”—1 Corinthians xiv.
40.

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LONDON:
WILLIAM SKEFFINGTON, 163 PICCADILLY.

1866.

SERMON I.

1 CORINTHIANS xiv. 40.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”

THESE words are a general precept about Church order following up a particular remonstrance. The Corinthian Christians, divinely distinguished by the number and excellence of the spiritual gifts and privileges bestowed on them, had, alas! distinguished themselves by anarchy, lawlessness, pride, self-will, self-sufficiency, uncharitableness, ecclesiastical and moral laxity of various forms and kinds. The Apostle deals with all these offences severally and particularly, and then he gives a general rule—a rule which was to cover and guide all their practice, and the practice of every other church: “Let all things be done decently (decorously) and in order” (according to system and appointment).

Without further preface, I would, in all solemnity, read this precept as addressed to us, brethren, to the clergy and laity of the Anglican Church of this present day, and as one which for the glory of God, and the edifying of ourselves, it is most needful to fix in our remembrance and to observe with all strictness. And did I design my teaching to be merely general, I know no more useful theme to which to address myself; for as like the Corinthians we Anglicans have been distinguished by God, in that He has poured out upon us conspicuous and super-excellent gifts and privileges, so like them are we constantly distinguishing ourselves by strifes, irregularities, and miserable assertions of self’s importance and self’s wilfulness unparalleled, I believe, by Romans, Greeks, or dissenters.

But I have a special purpose, as you have probably anticipated, in selecting the subject for consideration at this time.

There is just now a great agitation throughout the land about what is called “The Ritual Movement.” After many years of sluggish indifference to the Apostle’s precept—it would hardly exceed the truth to say of perverse opposition to it, in doing all things indecently and against order—men on all sides are waking up to a sense of their neglect, and to a desire to repair it; and, by consequence, those who have not gone with the movement have found themselves surrounded by what wears the appearance of strange and even dangerous innovation, and those who have gone with it—both teachers and disciples—have in some cases been hurried along without due care to consider, perhaps without time to consider, whither they were tending.

To both these parties—the standers still and the hurriers along—how wisely speaks the precept, “Let all things be done decently and in order”!

And first to the first—the standers still—the “old-fashioned,” the contented with things as they were. Consider, my brethren, what mean ye by the service of God in the sanctuary, the assembling of yourselves in Church from time to time. Why do you come? Who bade you come? what to do? You come to worship God in a building set apart for His worship; a place in which He may meet you by appointment. And who is God? The great and glorious Jehovah, in Whose sight the very Heavens are not clean; Who asks, asserting His dignity, “What place will ye build Me” (that is worthy of Me)? My brethren, if you duly regarded His Majesty, if you, in any adequate degree, appreciated His amazing condescension, would you consider any edifice too grand for His localised presence, any expenditure on its furniture and ornament too lavish, any care for its arrangement and for the reverent honour of its All Holy Tenant too elaborate, too scrupulously particular? You know what provision you would make, what anxious care would possess you to fit your house, to array and order your household, for the due entertaining of an expected guest _only just a little_ above yourselves in dignity and in claim to be respected. You can hardly imagine _what_ you would do if your Queen condescended to be for a while your guest; but you know that at least you would not err on the side of niggardliness, slovenliness, and indifference; that your provision would be as magnificent as possible, your service particular and constant, your reverence profound. This being the case—and you know it is the case—a lively belief that God does wondrously vouchsafe to dwell with you, that the Church is indeed His local habitation, that when you enter within its walls, you are in His available, His very tangible presence; that what you do or neglect there, is done or neglected to Him, would spontaneously beget in you the desire, and quicken the effort, to make the edifice worthy of Him, according to your natural notions of worthiness, to provide due accessories of worship, to order yourselves as real and most reverential worshippers.

But you are not left to spontaneity. When God chose for Himself a people to honour and serve Him, to be witnesses for His honour, to bring in due time all nations to serve and worship Him, He taught that people what kind of House they should build Him, and with what kind of ritual they should serve Him; treating the matter of such importance as actually to inspire the architects, to prescribe each article of furniture and every detail of ornament, to appoint precisely the ceremonies and observances. And what did He require? That the material of house and ornament should be of the best and costliest and most splendid; that every act, every feeling of worship should have its corresponding sign in some ritualistic observance; that among the accessories of worship should be attractions for means of enlisting men’s various senses; colour, and pattern and ornament for the eye, music for the ear, fragrant perfume for the scent.

This is God’s pattern of what is decorous: His prescription of order.

But you object: “No, this _was_ God’s pattern and order: but it was all appointed under a different dispensation from Christianity, for a rude and childish people, as pictures and types and carnal ordinances, to be exchanged when men were fit, when the Messiah should come, for inward and invisible realities, for purely spiritual things, which heart and mind alone could apprehend, which outward sense would rather obscure than discover.”

Now, of course, Judaism was in some respects a different dispensation from Christianity, and some even of its divinely appointed observances were merely temporary, and had a significance and use for Jews which they would not have for us. But it is quite an error to suppose that these Jews were a rude and childish people; they were rather the civilised and cultivated and most spiritual of the earth. Albeit, if we might dare to say so, for them more than for us, or for any other people whom God has since drawn near to Himself, an elaborate outward and sensuous worship (if it were not the right, the necessary, the permanent accompaniment of inward realities) was unsuitable and fraught with danger. They had just come out from the home of idolatry; they were going to dwell among the observers of carnal and idolatrous rites; they were themselves hankering after visible objects of worship; they would again and again make stumbling blocks for themselves out of the very things which God appointed for their edification in His worship. Now ascribing to God, as we must always do, perfect wisdom and clearest foresight, is it presumptuous to say that He would have kept these snares from the Jews, that he would have drawn off their minds from the external and the naturally magnificent, and rather would have _forbidden_ than _enforced_ minute ritual and much worship of the body, as things through which they were sure to err, unless there were in the things themselves intrinsic good, unless, in fact, they were not merely useful accessories of worship, but a very integral and essential part of the worship itself?

And then, again, my brethren, where are we told that Christianity is a _purely spiritual religion_; that its functions are all such as can be performed by mind and heart, without body; that, in fact, the body has no real part in them? The worship of the body is indeed no worship by itself, for: “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” But is it not Christianity that has redeemed and consecrated the body? Has not the second Adam taken away from it all but its _form_ of mortality? Has not the LORD purchased it for Himself, imposing upon it much work in His service; commanding by His inspired Apostle that it should glorify Him; promising it great excellencies and rewards in its future state; appointing for it a glorious worship in heaven? Assuredly, my brethren, as man is three-fold and has been redeemed in his three-fold nature, mind, heart, and body, so has each part of him its appointed, its bounden part, to take _on its own account_ in the positive worship of God. And were it not so, were the body merely the case of the soul—its link with the material; its tabernacle in the temporal; its agent among the natural and outward—still, is it not in these respects part of its office to exhibit what is in the soul? Does not the soul naturally move it when it is moved itself? Is not the body, as it were spontaneously, affected by all that passes within, and, unless unnaturally restrained or physically disabled, does it not always betray and manifest the inward affection?

The soul may worship God sufficiently (for the whole being) when the body is taking no part by reason of paralysis or prostration, or because the man, deeming it inexpedient at that time that sound or sign should escape him, is curbing and binding it down; but in health and left unrestrained, the body is such a spontaneous sympathizer and persistent co-operator with all within, that we are justified in saying of him who does not speak to God with his lips, and bow his head before Him, and clasp his hands, and kneel upon his knees, that he does not worship God in spirit and in truth!

We have reached thus far, brethren—if you have gone with me—that God has prescribed much ritual, and that man from his very nature must use much ritual in divine worship.

Of course God’s prescription is liable to much modification when it comes to be applied, not to one people, but to all the nations of the earth; not to a tabernacle in the wilderness or a temple at Jerusalem, but to every place in which men ask him to record His name and come unto them and bless them; not to dim and imperfect types, but to the glorious and perfect anti-types; not to Judaism, which was local and temporary, but to Christianity, which is universal and eternal. Of course, too, the _details_ of men’s spontaneous worship will, necessarily, be different according to the truth which they have to express by outward signs, according to their natural characteristics in a warm or cold climate, according even to individual temperament.

But this principle assuredly holds good for all time and for all men: that God having once pronounced Himself in favour of a certain kind of ritual, and His Church having consented to express its doctrines and its feelings by certain outward signs and rites of its own, the general rule and form of decent and orderly worship has been set and established, which should only be departed from by Divine sanction and appointment, unless, indeed, the doctrines and feelings which we have to express are so diverse from those of the elder Church that they cannot find an intelligent and real expression in the same ritual.

You will hardly need, brethren, that I should prove to you that our religion is substantially that which God gave to the Jews; that under the old dispensation as under the new, salvation is offered to mankind only through Jesus Christ, and that the general ways of seeking and keeping hold of that salvation—humbling ourselves before God, initiation into His covenant, constant prayer, supplication and praise, constant pleadings of His sacrifice, constant feeding on His grace, are the same for us as for them, unless God Himself has changed them. Now this we know that He has done in some respects, taking away circumcision, the daily sacrifice of animals, and the Passover, and various rites and ceremonies which, from the nature of the case, could be only temporary; or, at least, had real use and significance only for the nation of the Jews, or for an _expectant_ Church. But then He has given us other ordinances _in the place of those withdrawn_, and these we _naturally_ observe in the same spirit, and, as far as suits them, with the same form as He appointed for the older ordinances. God is still the same: man is still the same. The expression of worship which He once required, is that which He must surely still require in all its essentials, all its characteristics.

That the Christian Church accepted at once this rule of worship is evident from the fact, that the apostles and first disciples continued to take part in the temple and synagogue services as long as the Jews would let them; yea, and that they even still observed those ordinances which, in their necessary observance, God had abrogated; instead of which He had appointed other things. This, my brethren, is most worthy of note, because it shows that these men, full of the Spirit, discerned that they had still the same God to worship, and that, as far as circumstances would let them, the natural way—the right way—of worshipping was that which their fathers had followed; so much so that they might even still retain—as long as it could be done without injury, with edification—those very ordinances which, in their binding, their sacramental character, by God’s declaration, belonged not to Christianity!

But God left it not to this pious, conservative feeling to maintain the dignity and splendour of His worship. As in the Mount He had given Moses a pattern and a law of all things that men should make and do for His worship in the Church on earth; so in Patmos to the beloved disciple, to him who had drunk in most deeply the spirit of Christ, to him who was to teach men more than any other prophet of the real, the abiding, the spiritual, the heavenly—to him, I say, God opened a door in heaven, and showed the things that must be hereafter, the worship that is to be celebrated and perpetuated in His fullest Presence; and lo! it was full of visible glories and ceremonial observances.

“Yes,” men say: “but surely that must be allowed to be figurative—to be a mere pictorial way of describing inward and invisible truths and feelings.” We are not so sure of that, brethren. Heaven must be a substantial and tangible place; because those who are to inhabit it will have bodies to rest in it, and eyes, and ears and other senses to find gratification in it. And if it is such a place, and is full of objects which affect the body, and which the body may employ, then I see not why much of what the Apostle saw in vision may not be a literal representation of what shall actually be. But concede that it is only an image, a pictorial representation, nevertheless it is God who has chosen these things to symbolize His perpetual worship; and are we best preparing ourselves for that worship—best rehearsing it, best professing it, best honouring Him, doing all things decently and in order, if we set aside in His worship all that He once enjoined in letter upon His early Church, all that He has used—figuratively, if you will—as fittest to represent to us His perfect worship in the Church triumphant, and, I suppose, to enlist our present interest, and to kindle a hearty intelligent desire for a full share in it hereafter?

But here, again, men object. They will concede that, perhaps, there may be _something_ literal in this prophetical description; at any rate that it symbolizes faithfully and precisely the spiritual homage, the joy and adoration of souls which shall be in heaven. But they assert that it does not symbolize—that, in fact, it is in very contrast with all the state and feeling which belong to us poor wandering and afflicted pilgrims and prodigals on earth.

My brethren, if there were no other argument in favour of maintaining or of restoring where it has fallen into decay such a ritual as I am advocating, this one objection would furnish a most cogent reason for it,—a very necessity; for what does it show but that men have lost the truth which this ritual embodies and expresses—namely, that while indeed _in the world_ they are still pilgrims, still prodigals distant from home, though sighing for and seeking that home, beholders of promises _afar off_, yet in the _Church_ they are _at home_, having _obtained_ the promises. The Church is the ark of salvation, which God has provided to keep us safe in the drowning of the world. It is the kingdom of heaven, whose King is now in the midst of it. It is the bosom of the Father whereon each penitent prodigal now rests accepted, the Everlasting arms whose felt embrace assures of present peace and joy. It is the wedding feast whereat all the friends of the King’s son are decked with glories and feasted with good things; nay, it is the Bride herself, adorned for the Bridegroom, the King’s daughter, all glorious and full of joy!

What present comfort in the troubles of this lower life, what cheering in despondency, what stimulus in toilsome effort do we not miss, my brethren, by not realizing that in the Church we are come unto Mount Zion, unto the heavenly Jerusalem—unto the very throne, into the very presence, within the enfolding arms of the God who has saved us, Who loves to fill us full of peace, and joy, and benediction _now_.

And, alas! what do we not in our blindness or misconception withhold from God—of that most reasonable, that greatly due, that loudly-demanded service—the perpetual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the past mercies of our redemption, for our continual sustentation through the intercession of our Great High Priest, by the grace which He continually gives us; for the coming glory which, being promised, is sure on His part, and most certainly needs to be acknowledged with grateful, hearty, and adoring lives!

If, my brethren, it is the aim of “the ritual movement” to express all this grand truth, and to help men to live by it, then surely they are doing a great work who have originated and are carrying on the movement; and we are inconsiderately depriving ourselves of much that is helpful and edifying—that, I say, not withholding from God due and most acceptable worship—if we allow our prejudices to oppose the movement, so far as it is lawful, and either insist upon prescribing for ourselves a ritual, or labour to uphold and stereotype one that has no likeness in the Old and New Testament, in the Church of any age, in our own Book of Common Prayer.

Some of you may think, my brethren, that I have not chosen the fittest theme for Lent sermons. But recollect that this season is specially appointed for the self-discipline and growth in grace and in all godliness of those who are already in some sense religious; and then put it to yourselves whether the rooting out of you of stubborn prejudices, uncharitable and unworthy suspicions (with the many bitter, unchristian fruits that follow them), and that miserable spirit of formalism which delights in finding objections to a form and in refusing conformity, would not greatly help you to worship God in spirit and in truth.

There are dangers inherent in high ritual, it is being greatly abused, and of those who desire it many are wholly misconceiving its spirit and its use. To these I shall speak in turn, if God will, with the same affectionate boldness and desire to be faithful, which have influenced me in all that I have now said.

Meantime, beloved, remember that we are all brethren, saved from the same destruction, redeemed with the same precious blood, sanctified by the same spirit, called with the same calling, and to the same service, inheritors of the same heaven, worshippers of the same God. Strive not, then, with one another. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Do not exaggerate differences; try rather to lay aside differences. Seek each one what may edify others, and all what may honour God. Endeavour to take, each and all of you, your due part in _common_ worship. Ask God’s Spirit to show you out of His own Word, illustrated by the testimony of His Church, what _is_ common worship; and soon, if you do so, you will come to agree with and to join fervently and profitably in all that is really essential to the right adoration of our ever and all-glorious God.

“When to Thy beloved on Patmos. {13}
Through the open door in heaven,
Visions of the perfect worship,
Saviour! by Thy love were given,
Surely _there_ was truth and spirit,
Surely there a pattern shown,
How Thy Church should do her service
When she came before the Throne.

O the censer-bearing Elders,
Crowned with gold and robed in white!
O the living creatures’ anthem,
Never resting day or night!
And the thousand choirs of Angels,
With their voices like the sea,
Singing praise to God the Father
And, O victim Lamb, to Thee!

Lord, bring home the glorious lesson
To their hearts, who strangely deem
That an unmajestic worship
Doth Thy Majesty beseem;
Show them more of Thy dear Presence,
Let them, let them come to know,
That our King is throned among us,
And His Church is Heaven below.

Then shall faith read off the meaning
Of each stately ordered rite,
Dull surprise and hard resistance
Turn to awe and full delight;
Men shall learn how sacred splendour
Shadows forth the pomps above
How the glory of our altars
Is the homage of our love.

’Tis for Thee we bid the frontal
Its embroidered wealth unfold,
’Tis for Thee we deck the reredos
With the colours and the gold;
Thine the floral glow and fragrance,
Thine the vestures’ fair array,
Thine the starry lights that glitter
Where Thou dost Thy light display.

’Tis to Thee the chant is lifted,
’Tis to Thee the heads are bowed;
Far less deep was Israel’s rapture
When the glory filled the cloud.
O our own true God incarnate,
What should Christians’ Ritual be
But a voice to utter somewhat
Of their pride and joy in Thee.

What but this? yet since corruption
Mars too oft our holiest things,
In the form preserve the spirit;
Give the worship angel’s wings,
Till we gain Thine own high temple,
Where no tainting breath may come,
And whate’er is good and beauteous
Finds with Thee a perfect home.”

SERMON II.

I CORINTHIANS xiv. 40.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”