Old Anglicanism and Modern Ritualism. By the Rev. Frederick 31eyrick.
(Skeffington and Son. 5s.)—Mr. Meyriek was doubt- less reckoned a High Churchman forty years ago; but the sig- nificance of the term has now greatly changed. It is applied to men who are practically not Anglican, but Roman, who consider the Reformation to have been a sheer loss in respect of doctrine and ritual, and who do their best to repair this loss by teaching. and practises what they are pleased to call "Catholic" and "Primitive." Mr. Meyriek gives in successive chapters a charac- teristic selection from the works of Hooker, Andrewes, Laud, Fosbi, Jeremy Taylor, and Bull. In chap. 7 he more briefly indicates the view held by five other prelates,—Beveridge, Bram-, Ussher, Ball, and Pearson. All this is of great interest and !alue ; but it would take us beyond any possible limit to discuss detall. We may, however, give one of Mr. lkleyriek's quota- tions from Jeremy Taylor that seems much to the- point. "By ' spiritually ' they mean present after the manner of a spirit '; we mean ' peesent to our spirits only '—that is so as Christ is not present to any other senses but that of faith or spiritual suscep- tion." Would it be too much to say that any ritual that is meant to symbolise more than this is foreign to Anglican worship ? Mr. Meyrick sums up in a chapter entitled "Old Anglicanism in Conflict with Ritualism," which we commend to the attention of our readers.
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