Ritual of the Altar. Edited by the Rev. Orby Shipley.
(Longman,) —This is a " second edition, revised and enlarged," and professing, according to the title-page, to contain " The Order of tho Holy Com- munion, with Introits, Collects, Epistles, Graduals, Gospels, Offertories, Secrets, Communions, and Post Communions throughout the year, accord- ing to the Use of the Church of England." It is scarcely necessary to say that, if this be so, the "Use of the Church of England " must not be judged by its authorised formularies, by its laws, by the decisions of its Courts, in fact, by what in every other institution is supposed to be binding. But no result is to be wondered at, if the liberty of rejecting anything and adding anything that the "Catholic-minded priest" may dislike or like, is granted. The very word " altar " is wholly foreign to the Church of England. However, these questions are not just now appropriate, and we may dismiss the volume with a commendation of its handsome appearance, only mentioning a curious, though not very important instance of rebellion against law in the replacement in the Calendar of ".St. Thomas of Canterbury."— We have also to mention a second edition of The Origin and Develop- ment of Belief, by S. Baring-Gould, M.A. Part I. Polytheism and Monotheism. Part IL Christianity. (Rivingtons.)—The author tells us in his preface that there is much in the book that he would like to recast and rewrite, but that he makes no change, in the hope that Blinds now in the same condition in which his then was may be the more benefitted. This is a curious reason, which might be pushed to strange consequences. Meanwhile, it absolves us from any duty of criticism on the present occasion.
Previous page
