having seen the earthquake, and the things that were done, were sore afraid, saying, Indeed this was the Son of God' (Matt. xxvii. 54). 'And all the multitude that were come together to that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned, striking their breasts' (Luke xxiii. 48).

A lecturer against Ritualism lately said in a published sermon: All the tendencies of Roman Catholic worship are to produce a sensuous religion, not a spiritual. The glittering processions, the rich array of vestments, the low soft music, the incense-clouds filling the church with fragrant fumes; all this is of the earth, earthy. If men analyse their thoughts after visiting those places, they will find that if these be of Christ, their thoughts are ever about the Man who is suffering, bleeding, dying a sensuous thought-rather than about the grand idea of the Atonement.' Alas, well would it be if the crowds who, in England, go on Good Friday to hear a Protestant sermon on 'the grand idea' would return home 'striking their breasts' with compunction, like the crowds who in the Catholic churches have kissed the feet of the Crucifix, and who, while meditating on the grand fact of the Passion, have by no means lost sight -how could they ?-of the Atonement thereby accomplished.

The circumstances of the Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord are of the same sensational character (if the word may be taken in a good sense) as those of the Nativity, Baptism, Transfiguration, and Passion. We read, again, of a 'great earthquake,' of an angel with a countenance as lightning, and raiment as snow, the fear of whom makes the guards become with terror as dead men (Matt. xxviii. 3, 4); of 'two angels in white, sitting' in the sepulchre, 'one at the head and one at the feet' (John xx. 12); of 'two men in shining apparel' (Luke xxiv. 4); of a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe' (Mark xvi. 5). So, too, at the Ascension we are told of the apparition of 'two men in white garments' (Acts i. 10).1

Some kind of answer might, perhaps, be attempted to the preceding arguments on the plea that the disciples of Jesus

1 This symbolic character of vestments and their use in divine worship will be considered later on.

Christ were still carnal, and that the Holy Ghost had not yet come. But to do away entirely with this evasion let us examine whether the day of Pentecost introduced any change in the method by which God had hitherto sought out true worshippers. Jesus Christ is about to found a Church whose worship shall be in spirit and in truth. Let us see if there is any ceremonial in its dedication. When Solomon dedicated

his Temple, 'fire came down from heaven, and the majesty of the Lord filled the house.' According to the Protestant theory, such a display well befitted a temple built for a carnal religion, but would be entirely unsuitable to usher into the world a spiritual worship. Was, then, the descent of the Spirit accompanied by purely spiritual phenomena ? No; the day of Pen tecost has a Ritual of its own, not inferior in splendour to those of the Nativity and Resurrection. It is enough to refer to the 'sound from heaven as of a mighty wind,' and the 'parted tongues as it were of fire' (Acts ii. 2, 3). Never were deeper impressions made on the soul through the senses than on that day, when pure spiritual worship was finally and fully established. On that day, too, St. Peter quoted the prophecy of Joel, in which the nature of the Church of Christ is sketched from Pentecost to the end of the world; and those must read Scripture very carelessly who fail to observe that immediately after God has said, 'It shall come to pass, in the last days, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh,' He adds, 'And I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath-blood and fire and vapour of smoke' (Acts ii. 17, 19). Sensational elements certainly!

That these wonders, these striking appeals to the senses, are not reserved merely for the terror of unbelievers at the last day, is proved by the events of Pentecost, and by a thousand histories recorded in the annals of the Church. Several examples occur in the Acts of the Apostles. On one occasion, when the Disciples prayed, 'the place was moved wherein they were assembled' (Acts iv. 31). On another, the shadow of St. Peter heals the sick (Acts v. 15). On another, the face of St. Stephen appears 'like that of an angel' (Acts vi. 15). On another, a light from heaven, above the brightness of the

sun, shines round about Saul, and those in company with him' (Acts xxvi. 13). On another, a light shines in the prison, and the chains fall from the hands of St. Peter (Acts xii. 7). On another, a great earthquake shakes the foundation of the prison while Paul and Silas are praising God (Acts xvi. 26). I pass over, with a mere allusion, the signs which shall precede the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has Himself drawn out what I will again venture to call the Ritual of the Day of Judgment, in a picture that no one can forget. He has told us that, 'plain and simple' as was His first appearance, He will then come 'in the clouds of heaven, with much power and majesty' (Matt. xxiv. 30).

After this rapid summary of the history of the Son of God, I will simply recall the statement of Dr. Vaughan: 'Nearly all the pictures of our Lord's public life place Him before us under lights which are moral and spiritual, rarely ever in connection with anything simply of a Ritual nature. Who can imagine Him as taking a part in such garish pageantries as are now presented to us by men who would be accounted eminently reverential and Christian in their doings?' Were I an infidel, I should reply, 'Your Gospels, at all events, are filled with "garish pageantries!" But being a believer, I answer in the name of the Catholic Church, Search the Scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of Me' (John v. 39). For, to apply, in a few words, all that we have been reading to the question of Christian worship, I may ask, is it reasonable to suppose that 'the last days'-the days of the knowledge and worship of Jesus Christ should open with such emphatic and multiplied Ritualism as that which glorified our Lord's first appearance on earth, and should close with such ceremonies as those which shall usher in and accompany His second advent; and that, during the whole intermediate period, rites and ceremonial, art and splendour, should be considered as the attributes of 'a sensuous religion, not a spiritual'?

Without going beyond the pages of the New Testament, we have found that God Himself made use of appeals to the senses and imagination far more striking, more splendid, more

gorgeous than any which have been at the command of the Catholic Church, in the grandest function that was ever celebrated beneath the dome of St. Peter's. What, indeed, are silken vestments, jewelled mitres, peals of the organ, blaze of tapers, clouds of incense, or any other means used to impress the worshipper in the richest cathedral of Christendom, compared with the bright clouds, glistening raiment, heavenly voices, dazzling splendours, splitting of rocks, great earthquakes, and mighty winds, which are some of the elements of God's own Ritual of the New Testament ?

I can well understand that any one weighing this subject. thoughtfully and dispassionately might object that, if our ceremonial is founded on such a model, it is too insignificant, too mean, too unworthy of the Majesty of Jesus Christ. But I do not understand how any one who believes in the Gospels can complain that our manner of worship sins by excess, by appealing too much to the senses and imagination instead of the pure reason.

To the former objection I would reply by admitting that Catholic worship is indeed, even under the most favourable circumstances, too insignificant; and I would call upon the objector to help us to offer worship less unworthy. But I would also remind him that the Catholic Church by no means seeks to emulate the pageantry of God.

When a review is held on the anniversary of a great victory, the terrible or splendid battle-scenes are not literally reproduced; but a certain military display is made in harmony with the event which is commemorated, and which may serve appropriately to recall it. This is all that the Catholic Church attempts or desires. Her memory is full of our Lord and of the Majesty of His Person, and the mysteries of His Life. Wishing to set before her children those mysteries, she employs not words only, but pictures and pictorial actions. The Catholic Ritual has only such relation to the supernatural scenes of the Gospel, as a sunrise or a sunset painted on canvas bears to the rays of light which tinge with beauty the mountains and the clouds. Say, if you will, that the picture is a mere daub, or but a poor attempt to represent the loveli

ness of nature; but do not find fault with the artist, because with the gross materials of his palette he seeks to recall and render permanent that transitory loveliness. Do not find fault with the Church because, with such appropriate means as she can command, she seeks to keep fresh the memory through all time of the heavenly splendours of her Lord.

SECTION II. APOSTOLIC WORSHIP.

BEFORE I proceed farther in my subject, I must remove a difficulty, the fundamental difficulty in the whole matter. It is Carlyle, I think, who says that an argument is not complete until we have not only refuted the error of our opponent, but also shown how he came by it.

How, then, in the very teeth, so to say, of all that I have related from the New Testament, did Protestants come by their theory of Simplicity?

I have already indicated the answer in the preceding chapter. They have taken a very partial view of our Blessed Lord's life; they have considered Him as a worshipper only, not as One worshipped; and they have forgotten that He was a worshipper under entirely exceptional or abnormal circum.

stances.

Why will not Protestants allow us to draw any conclusion from the nature of the worship our Divine Master offered in the Temple, or the ceremonies at which He then assisted? Because, they say, all this was transitory. Our Lord, and even His Apostles, lived in exceptional times. The old law was not yet fully abrogated. He was made under the law that He might set us free from the law. Even after it ceased to be obligatory and was dead, it was not at once deadly. Therefore Jesus Christ might attend the feasts and celebrate the Passover. Peter and John might go up into the Temple at the ninth hour of prayer (Acts iii. 1). Paul might shave his head in Cenchreæ because he had a vow (Acts xviii. 18), and make oblations and purifications in Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 26). But it