PRAYER-BOOK REVISION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE ..SPECTAT011.1
Suk—May I reply briefly P I quite agree with your plea that the ministry of the Church of England should be open to men of the views of Maurice and Stanley ; but most laymen dissent from our view, and, as a plain matter of fact, men of really broad views rarely feel justified in seeking Holy Orders because they cannot accept all the formularies in their plain and natural significance. Therefore, as long as the Prayer- book remains unaltered, the Broad Church school will main- tain only a feeble and precarious existence within the ministry, and sacerdotaliam must prevail until the whole Church will be abandoned, as in France, to superstition.—I am, Sir, &a., GBORON W. CLAIM. Beoley Vicarage, Bedclitch, Worcestershire.
P.5.—The following words of Professor Harnack seem to be very much to the point:—
"How often and often in the history of religion has there been a tendency to do away with some traditional form of doctrine or ritual which has ceased to satisfy inwardly, but to do away with it by giving it a new interpretation. The endeavour seems to be succeeding ; the temper and the knowledge prevailing at the moment are favourable to it—when, lo and behold the old meaning suddenly comes back again. The actual words of the ritual, of the liturgy, of the official doctrine, prove stronger than anything else. If a new religious idea cannot manage to make a radical breach with the past at the critical point—the rest may remain as it is—and procure itself a new body,' it cannot last; it disappears again. There is no tougher or more conservative fabric than a properly constituted religion ; it can only yield to a higher phase by being abolished."—" What is Christianity ? " Second Edition, p. 175.
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