REGULATION OF PUBLIC WORSHIP AND REVISION OF THE RUBRICS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'SPECTATOR.']
SIR,—You look with dismay (p. 712) upon "Lord Shaftesbury's- Bill " (late Archbishop Tait's), if it is to be passed without Bishop. Magee's rider. But may it not be argued that nothing but the pressure resulting from a rigid enforcement of all rubrics will ever bring about the needed revision of the Rubrics themselves? need hardly point out the extreme difficulty of defining any "neutral zone." If the Evangelicals were to undergo a ten-years' persecu- tion in the Law Courts, we might learn what points of ritual that party considers vital ; at present, it is vain to guess. But let the 300 out of 305 clergy of this archdeaconry, for instance, who dis- obey the Rubrics as to twice-daily prayers, announcement of saints" day, placing the elements upon the holy table by the priest, &c., —let these men, and the thousands elsewhere who do likewise, be- rigidly prosecuted, and the common-sense of the nation will soon find a way of deciding which of the Rubrics are obsolete, and to- be modified or rescinded altogether.-1 am, Sir, &c., A RURAL Dicax.
[Our correspondent forgets the dangers of his recipe.—ED, Spectator.]
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