Untitled

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 222, 14 November 1874, Page 2

One day while in Melbourne, Major Ropata went to the Institution of Arts, and this is what he says of it: —•“ In this building there are some shocking things —images. Really the Pakehas are a most extraordinary people ! They are shocked if a button falls front a man’s shirt collar, and exclaim, ‘Mind the button of your shirt! It has fallen off ! The ladies will see your throat! ’ And yet they manufacture naked images of stone, and exhibit them to travellers ! Who can comprehend the mystery of their ways ?” L The Bishop of Waiapu, in his address to the Diocesan Synod, spoke against the use of “ Hymns, Ancient and Modern " in Episcopalian Churches on account of their tendency “in a Homeward direction.” He said: —“There is a covert attempt to bring in doctrines novel to the Church of England, and which promote a restoration of practices which were removed at the Reformation. I shall only notice a a few leading points. . . But the most serious objection against this book is its tendency to Mariolatry. In ‘ Hymns Ancient and Modern’ we find that the name of the Virgin is put forward with singular prominence. There we have the terms ‘ Virgin full of grace,’ ‘Mary undefiled,’ ‘Mother mild,’ ‘Motherßlest’ ‘Mother dear,’ ‘Virgin born,’ ‘The Virgin’s Son.’ We look to the Romish Breviary, and we see that these are the terms there recognised; and, in fact, no less than 123 of the hymns of this work are borrowed from the Roman, Sarum, and Paris Breviaries; but these expres sions would have sounded strange to the ears of members of the Church of England at the beginning of this century. Tlie object of introducing them now seems to be that those who use the book may be insensibly reconciled to unaccustomed words and phrases which are the symbols of superstition and idolatry."