Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/205

 Ritual before doctrine had taken possession of the hearts of the people. It was like giving children flowers which would fade, wither, and die immediately. They had laboured rather to plant the bulbs which in good time would send forth their flowers flourishing abundantly and lastingly."

He said further: "There is not the slightest difference between the Ritualists and ourselves. The sole practical difference is that we taught through the ear, and the Ritualists teach also through the eye."

For some time after the Tractarian Movement the services of the Church were very cold and unattractive. The growth of Ritual brightened them. The Rubric in our Prayer Book states that the services might be either said or sung. Choral services were therefore revived, and music was made a means of offering worship to God. The due observance of another Rubric was also brought before the people's notice. This Rubric ordered that the same vestments and ornaments should be used in Church as were in use in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI. It was, therefore, discovered that our Prayer Book orders that the clergy should wear the surplice and the hoods peculiar to their degrees in their ordinary ministrations, and that other vestments peculiar to the offce should be used in the celebration of the Holy Communion. The result of this was that a movement was started to abolish the black gown from our services and to put the surplice in its place. Greater attention was paid to the order of celebrating the Eucharist. Every part of the Church building was put to