Punch: Punch (70.1876)

4

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[January 15, 1876.

J 1 \l I

A CATECHISER CATECHISED.

Me. Punch lias had the pain of perusing- certain extracts, in the
form of question and answer, declared to be taken from a little
hook, entitled, Some Questions of the Church Catechism and the
Doctrines Involved brxejly Explained, for the Use of Families and
Parochial Schools. Mr. Punch would fain believe this agreeable
compilation to be
apocryphal, and
hopes to find its
principles generally
repudiated. The
spirit which it mani-
fests, however, is
only too palpable a
sign of the times.
The extracts made
public have special
reference to those
sinful and idolatrous
heretics, "whogoby
the general name of
Dissenters." In the
view of the author of
this work, that gene-
ral name would ap-
pear to be a mere
alias of Antichrist.
The bearers of it are
explicitly said to
" Worship God ac-
cording to their own
evil and.corrupt ima-
ginations, and not
according to His re-
vealed Will, and,
therefore, their wor-
ship is idolatrous."
Dissent is declared
to be " a great sin,"
the sharers in which
are only saved from
excommunication by
the culpable laxity
of the law of the land
as opposed to that of
the Church. To enter
"a Meeting House"
at all is affirmed to
be "wicked," and
the quotation of
Church prayers by
Dissenting teachers
is denounced sinful
and presumptuous.

Mr. Punch is lost
in admiration at this
outburst of clerical
Common Sense, and
Charity. Admira-
tion naturally moves
to emulation, and he
is impelled to try his
hand at catechetical
composition. He
dares hardly hope
that, with his lay-
man's pen, he may
compete in charity
of spirit or in co-
gency of argument
with his clerical ex-
emplars ; but mind-
ful of the maxim,
that imitation is the
sincerest form of
flattery, he hopes, by

framing his on their '~~-------—' one of those places

to be delivered from the sins of ' envy, hatred, and all uncharitable-
ness.'

Q. Is, then, their form of worship a reasonable Service ?
A. No, because they worship according to their own fantastic
imaginations, strenuously denying to others the right to adopt a
simpler and more serious ceremonial; and, therefore, neither the
form nor the spirit of their worship can be said to be in accord with

sober sense or good
feeling.

" Q. Is Ritualism
great folly ?

" A* Yes ; it is in
direct opposition to
our duty towards
our neighbour.

" Q. How comes it
then, in the present
day, that, in some
par t e r s, it is
thought so highlv of ?

"A. Partly from
ignorance of its great
absurdity, partly
from men and
women being more
zealous for forms,
fashions, finery, and
the indulgence of
their own fancies,
than for serious, and
sometimes, arduous,
spiritual realities.

" Q. But why have
Ritualists not been
excommunicated ?

" A. Because the
wholesome law of
the land does not
allow the will of
ecclesiastical zealots
to be acted upon;
but many Ritualists
have virtually ex-
communicatedthem-
selves (or, in other
words, sent them-
selves to a sort of
clerical. Coventry),
by setting up a
standard of act and
speech which is
abhorrent to all per-
sons possessed of
courtesy, candour,
and Christian
charity."

. Mr. Punch does
not venture to follow
his priestly pioneers
further, having a
dread of presumptu-
ous profanity, which
they do not appear
to share. For ex-
ample, he hesitates
to declare, ex cathe-
dra, that the most
rabid Ritualist is
"not in a state of

TWELFTH-NIGHT ON THE BRAIN.

Evangeline (as the Offertory bag is coming round). "0, AtJNTYJ I do hope I shall get

the Queen

own lines, to conciliate the compilers of this catechetical '' Short
Way with Dissenters."

" Q. We have amongst us certain Dissenters from the accepted and
Established Church Customs of the Country, who go by the general
name of Ritualists. In what light are we to consider them ?

" A. People of sense prefer to consider them as little as possible.
Too many of them are vindictive, vainglorious, vituperative, and in
our Litany we expressly pray, as strangely enough do they in theirs,

salvation," to rigor-
ously limit the use
of any prayer to
priestly lips, or to
pronounce it wick-
edj though he may
think it unprofit-
able, to enter at all
pl

where "Mass in masquerade" is most elaborately "performed. But
he would call the attention of the compilers of the Brief Explanation,
to the fatal facility with which the catechetical form of dogmatism,
may be turned to what they would doubtless consider base uses ; and
would invite a reconsideration on the part of all reasonable Ritualists,
of the policy which finds issue in such impotent outbursts of malig-
nant bigotry as this Anti-Christian Catechism '' for the use of
Parishes and Parochial Schools ! "