Mr. Mackonochie has been condemned by the Judicial Com- mittee
of the Privy Council to be suspended for three months, and to bear the costs of the application to the Privy Council, fur con- tinuing to elevate the consecrated bread and wine, and to bow during the prayer of consecration. Mr. Mackonochie tried to draw a distinction between elevating the bread and elevating the paten which contained it,—one of those quibbles of which we wonder that our High-Church party are not, from a religious point of view, ashamed. The one mischief, as it seems to us, amidst many advantages, of a legal interpretation of the formulte and ritual of the Church, is the organized attempt of the clergy to connect the use of non-natural meanings with religious words. Mr. Mackonochie is a good as well as an able and devout man. Is he sure that he does not do as much harm by setting the example of a quibbling inter- pretation of sacred words, as he can do good by the illegitimate meaning he teaches his disciples to import into them ? If we set ourselves to over-reach the law in our devotions, is it not very
likely to come to over-reaching ourselves, and trying to over-reach God ?
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