Dr. Pusey, in a letter to Monday's Times, sets a
good example to his Ritualist friends, by expressing his own conviction that outward forms are not of the essence even of the High-Church faith, but matters of secondary importance, which should be adapted to the circumstances of the worshippers. "I do not think," he says, "that it is necessary to the proper declaration of the true faith that the celebrant should stand with his back to the congregation." "I have myself so stood only where it was the custom so to do, or when the congregation (I knew) wished or did not object to it." Again, "Very few clergymen will, I hope, be so ill advised as to make any grave changes, even though ruled to be lawful, without having first .won the confidence and good-will of their congregations." If Ritualists in general had acted on that principle, we should not have had the Church in danger from their antics, though we suspect that instead of patiently waiting,
as Dr. Pusey thinks, for certain victory, they would be patiently waiting for certain defeat.
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