ssence of religion is spiritual not intellectual, affirmative
not negative, and that the only measure of safety lies in a return
towards, if not actually to, the Catholic faith and practice from which
the old revolt was affected. It is a movement both significant and full
of profound encouragement.

Here then are two tendencies that surely show the way and demand
encouragement and furtherance; recovery of the sense of Christian unity
in Christ and through an united Catholic Church, and the re-acceptance
of sacramentalism as the expression of that faith and as the method of
that Church. I feel very strongly that wherever these tendencies show
themselves they must be acclaimed and cherished. The Protestant
denominations must be aided in every way in their process of recovery of
the good things once thrown away; Episcopalians must be persuaded that
nothing can be wrong that leads souls to Christ, and that therefore they
must cease their opposition to Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament
explicitly for adoration, to such devotions as Benediction and the
Rosary simply because they have not explicit Apostolic sanction, or to
vestments, incense and holy water because certain prescriptive laws
passed four hundred years ago in England have never been repealed. Above
all is it necessary that the Episcopal Church should declare itself
formally for the reinstitution of the seven Catholic sacraments, with
the Mass as the one supreme act of worship, obligatory as the chief
service on Sundays and Holy Days, and both as communion and as
sacrifice. In this connection there is one reform that would I think be
more effective than any other, (except the exaltation of the Holy
Eucharist itself) and that is the complete cessation of the practice of
commissioning lay readers and using them for mission work and clerical
assistance. A mission can be established and made fruitful only on the
basis of the sacraments, and chiefly on those of the Holy Eucharist and
Penance. It is not enough to send a zealous and well intentioned layman
to "a promising mission field" in order that he may read Morning and
Evening Prayer and some sermon already published. What is needed is a
priest to say Mass and hear confessions, and nothing else will serve as
a substitute. How this is to be accomplished, now when the candidates
for Holy Orders are constantly falling off in number, with no immediate
prospect of recovery, is a question. Perhaps we may learn something