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of late years have cast upon them . I anl happy to learn from the communication signed " John Jones , " in your last Number , [ XV . 716 , ] that a disposition to throw off the yoke of spiritual
bondage is evinced by the younger members of the Society : in all probability , the worldly , temporizing character which now marks some of their influential members will , erelong , be " disowned . " I . H . X .
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ago , may be very ill-adapted to the pre ~ serif state of intellect and manners . Dissenting ' chapels are springing up on every side , and when we visit the more respectable of them , we are struck with the simplicity , spirituality and brevity of their worship ; and who , for the sake of mere
antiquity , would travel in a waggon when he might Skim along in a light barouche ? If J know atiy thing of my own mind , I speak quite impartially when I say the Church prayers require both amendment and abridgments The whole service should be modernized , and every repetition in prayer carefully expunged , according to
the admonition of our Lord , ' in his Sermon on the Mount . Nothing is neglected by the Dissenters—the psalmody , the prayers , the sermons , are brought to the highest possible excellence , and to argue the contrary , would only betray ignorance of the subject . Where three services are performed on the Sabbath-day in one
church , some better plan might be devised than going through the whole of the prayers each time , which appears equally burthensome to clergy and people . If , while the Dissenters improve every tiling , the Church should go on improving nothing , it is easy to predict the consequence : instead of being in the front of
the religious institutions of our country , it must fall back into the rear , and soon we shall scarcely have any body to attend the Church but parish tradesmen , parish officers , and parish paupers . Do we not live in an age of incessant improvement , when knowledge is widely diffusing , and when every department of science is making astonishing strides towards
perfection ? Can antiquated buildings and ceremonies command superstitious veneration as formerly ? No ; nor do I think they ever will more . We must try other methods to gain the esteem of the present and future generations , and I think improvement , far from being an injury , would be an unspeakable blessing to the Established Church . I am well aware
that no officiating minister c&n legally alter any word in the Prayer Book ; but I have been glad to see some things iu Bristol and other places recently , which indicate a desire to keep pace with the Dissenters . Some clergymen encourage the practice of singing , and assist in it themselves ; others have a few verses
sung at the commencement and close of the worship , which is very becoming ; others have a selection of psalms and hymns from various evangelical authors , and are consequently able to direct the singing of one after the sermon , illustrative of the subject of discourse ; others , again , use great plainness and brevity in preaching , and quite dispense with read-
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Circncester , Sir , Ja ? iuai y 8 , 1821 . f 1 1 HE following letter , copied from _ JL the Bristol Observer of January 4 , 1821 , may deserve a place in the
Repository ; not as displaying any thing new or particularly striking on the subject , but as evincing a disposition which has long been suspected to exist among the members of the Establishment , to have a more rational and scriptural service . And tf when the charm is broken "—when once the
necessity of a reformation in the Common-Prayer Book is acknowledged by competent authorities—we may rest assured that something more will be done than the expulsion of obsolete phrases and doggrel rhymes , even the removal of such " eye-sores" as the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds .
F . HORSFIELD . cc To the Editor of the Bristol Observer . " Sir , c < As long as I am permitted to live , I hope I shall always feel a sincere respect for the Protestant Establishment of this
nation , as being an edifice reared by the pious dead , and the pillar and ground of the truth . From my infancy I was carefully trained up in its principles . I am somewhat familiar with ' the times which have gone over it , ' and I know many among the clergy and laity who , I
am certain , * are the excellent of the earth . ' Nevertheless , I cannot but deeply regret the want of spirit in our successive bishops , to which , I suppose , we are to impute the neglect of all improvement in what we call divine service , or the public ritual of the Church . If an individual
should take it into his head always to appear in the costume of a century ago , we should think but meanly of his understanding , and should be apt to imagine that he intended to insult the better judgments of all about him . Apply this to our National Church . What was considered supremely excellent 300 years
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Reformation in theChurch . 23
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1821, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2496/page/23/
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