Mass Vestments.

For the edification of our fellow churchmen, we find it incumbent upon us to refer at some length to the present trouble within the Church; and first of all, we purpose setting forth for their consideration a summary of information on the subject of the Mass Vestments, which form the most important element in the controversy of the present day. It is well that our people should have the fullest and most page 4 accurate information about their history and significance, and to that end it will be necessary that our remarks should assume a historical character. We hold that there is ample reason for entering on such a discussion, not only because of the attitude of indifference taken up by so many people to-day on the subject of unauthorised vestments, but because it has been quietly assumed in certain quarters that the Laity of our Church have tacitly acquiesced in their adoption. We have been recently told on high authority, that at the present time in England "No one cares a snap of the fingers about the subject of Ritual." Now, while we know this statement to be absolutely inaccurate as regards the Old Country, we are painfully aware that in our own land the subject does not receive the attention it should, owing to want of knowledge of the real significance of some Ritualistic practices. People frequently say, "What does it matter what the parson puts on or off during the Services in the Church? The extraordinary millinery they use is just a fad of the younger Clergy, and can do us no harm. Of course they look absurd, cutting such antics in such garbs; but if they choose to make fools of themselves, what is that to us?" This carelessness on the part of the Laity springs from want of information about the hidden meaning of these vestments; and their adoption is becoming more general, owing to the prevailing apathy of our people. If vestments had no doctrinal significance, indifference might be excused in the Laity. But, surely, it is no time for indifference when garments are being openly paraded which are typical of doctrines false to the principles of our Church. For the Clergy, who assume these vestments, do so because they hold that a priest so habited, instead of commemorating with his people Our Lord's death in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, is discharging the office of a sacrificing priest, who can, by power inherent to his Order, perform the miracle of transforming material bread and wine into the material Body and Blood of Our Lord, which he presumes to offer in sacrifice to God as a propitiation for the sins of the people.