If, my brethren, it is the aim of “the ritual movement” to express all this grand truth, and to help men to live by it, then surely they are doing a great work who have originated and are carrying on the movement; and we are inconsiderately depriving ourselves of much that is helpful and edifying—that, I say, not withholding from God due and most acceptable worship—if we allow our prejudices to oppose the movement, so far as it is lawful, and either insist upon prescribing for ourselves a ritual, or labour to uphold and stereotype one that has no likeness in the Old and New Testament, in the Church of any age, in our own Book of Common Prayer.
Some of you may think, my brethren, that I have not chosen the fittest theme for Lent sermons. But recollect that this season is specially appointed for the self-discipline and growth in grace and in all godliness of those who are already in some sense religious; and then put it to yourselves whether the rooting out of you of stubborn prejudices, uncharitable and unworthy suspicions (with the many bitter, unchristian fruits that follow them), and that miserable spirit of formalism which delights in finding objections to a form and in refusing conformity, would not greatly help you to worship God in spirit and in truth.
There are dangers inherent in high ritual, it is being greatly abused, and of those who desire it many are wholly misconceiving its spirit and its use. To these I shall speak in turn, if God will, with the same affectionate boldness and desire to be faithful, which have influenced me in all that I have now said.
Meantime, beloved, remember that we are all brethren, saved from the same destruction, redeemed with the same precious blood, sanctified by the same spirit, called with the same calling, and to the same service, inheritors of the same heaven, worshippers of the same God. Strive not, then, with one another. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Do not exaggerate differences; try rather to lay aside differences. Seek each one what may edify others, and all what may honour God. Endeavour to take, each and all of you, your due part in _common_ worship. Ask God’s Spirit to show you out of His own Word, illustrated by the testimony of His Church, what _is_ common worship; and soon, if you do so, you will come to agree with and to join fervently and profitably in all that is really essential to the right adoration of our ever and all-glorious God.