SPURGEON ON THE QUACKERY OF CEREMONIALISM.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 289, 12 September 1874, Page 3

SPURGEON ON THE QUACKERY OF CEREMONIALISM.

Dr. Ceremonial has patented a lotion for producing regeneration in little children by the application of a few drops to their forehead. He puts his hands on the heads of boys and girls and by what he" calls occult influence, confirms theni in grace. He professes to be able to make a piece of a loaf and a cup of wine to be actually div-ine,-.and in themselves a channel of grace totthe souls of men. The substances are a material—a mouse may nibble at the one, them, bottle will hold theother;youcan touch taste them, smell them,' and yet fools adore them as divine, and immagine that .material substances can be food for souls Surely this Dr. Ceremonial flourishes all the more because ofthe monstrous absurdity | of his teaching's; his pills are huge, but men I have wide swallows, and can receive any- ' thing. Why, think for a minute, and then wonder for an hour; men are to be sanctified by gazing at genuflexions, mil • liriery, and'candles! The East is said-to "be a more gracious quarter of the heavens than the West, and creeds repeated with the head in that direction possess a peculiar efficacy. It appears that in spiritual operation certain coloif, are peculiarly efficacious ; prayers said or sung in white are far more prevalent than in black, and according.to the age, of the year, and the condition of the moon, puce, violet, scarlet, and blue are >oore acceptable to God. - I have no patience with these things , it is , hardly good enough "sport for laughter; i but so long as fools abound, knaves will l flourish; and this Dr. Ceremonial will get men to spend their substance in abundance, and laugh in his .sleeve to think that rational beings should be his silly dupes. I trust there are none such here. I hope none ot you are so befooled. "What can there be in crossings, bowings, and uttering over and over the same words ? What is any worship unless the reason and heart enter into it? What can ,theie be in one material substance to give it sanctity ? Is -it not as absurd as the" letishism .of the Bushman to beheve that bricks and mortar, and slate's arid boarding could make a holy place? That, indeed, any one place can be a jot holier than another; that any plot of ground can be holier than common ground; or that any inan, because certain "words have been said over his godless, graceless head, can be made a dispenser ol the grace of God, and a pardoner of sins! We are not so befooled, but still this quack drives a good trade, and is held in very high repute. — : " liev G. H. Spurgeon."