THE LIBERAL CLERGY AND RITUALISM.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR-1
Sin,—Mr. Oakley and Mr. Sargon see in the present ecclesiastical disputes " spiritual conviction and energy in conflict with the secular power" plus Protestant bigotry. Mr. Llewellyn Davies, on the other hand, regards the Ritualistic movement as " carnal" rather than spiritual. We are thus reduced to a question of facts, for both parties seem to admit that if the advanced " Catholic" party is really a spiritual element in the Church, it deserves the sympathy of Liberals when it is being persecuted.
Mr. Davies will scarcely deny that the Ritualistic movement has done much to deepen the feeling of worship — a purely spiritual feeling—in the Church. Neither will it be questioned that they have exhibited at least a fair share of that "pure reli- gion and undefiled" which consists in visiting the• poor and afflicted. In wider social questions the Ritualista are also taking their part. Without depreciating the value of the services of men of other parties, I think it may be said that neither the movement among the clergy for investigating the labour.question and de- ciding on the duty of the Church in trade disputes, nor that for promoting the opening of museums on Sundays, would have had even the small measure of success that has attended it, except for the co-operation of many leading Ritualists. Many, no doubt, would refuse to such work the title of spiritual, but surely Mr. Davies is not to be numbered among these? Can he not, then, understand how it is that so many of us who have learnt from Mr. Maurice or elsewhere the sacredness of secular life, persist in con- sidering Ritualism as a spiritual force, rather than a carnal move- ment?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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