Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/204

 than grateful for their work. As a result of it worship has become a greater reality to the people. Our services have been conducted in a more orderly and more reverent way than they were for centuries before that Movement began. The Tractarians brought to the front the essential teaching of the Church of England and saved the Church from falling away into a form of dissent. The first care of the Tractarians was, as we have seen, to teach the people the whole of the Faith of the Church. They chiefly desired to convince England of the Catholicity of the Anglican Church, and to bring into prominence those parts of the Prayer Book which had been neglected. They emphasized the observance of Saints' Days, showing how these taught some point of the Catholic doctrine. The Tractarians, I say, imparted a new spirit to the religious life of England and yet it was not new. It was the spirit which dominated our worship centuries ago, and which supported such men as Bishop Andrewes and Archbishop Laud. Since the "Tracts for the Times" were placed in the people's hands, we have made enormous strides for good in our method of conducting public worship. It was not until some years after the appearance of the Tracts that changes were made in the orderly way of conducting worship. What is now known as Ritualism was not then brought before the people's attention. Newman and his school did not go so far as to teach the nation the use of vestments and ornaments in daily worship. It was in their mind, however, to do this when they thought the time ripe enough for it. Dr. Pusey said that "They shrank from caring for externals at the outset of their work, from