only, but in all the principal accessories of its constitution and government, was stereotyped in forms which could not be departed from without heresy or schism.  There was scarcely any margin left for self-adaptation to changed requirements and varied modes of thought, no ready scope for elasticity and development.  As Christianity had been left in the age of the first three councils, so it was to remain until the end of time.  The first reformers had reformed it from its corruptions once and for all.  The guardians of its purity had only to walk loyally in their steps, carry out their principles, and not be misled by any so-called reformer of a later day, whose meddling hands would only have marred the finished beauty of an accomplished work of restoration.

Such opinions, when rich in vitality and warmth of conviction, have a very important function to fulfil.  Admirably adapted to supply the spiritual wants of a certain class of minds, they represent one very important side of Christian truth.  Good men such as those who have been the subject of this chapter are, in the Church, much what disinterested and patriotic Conservatives are in the State.  It is their special function to resist needless changes and a too compliant subservience to new or popular ideas, to maintain unbroken the continuity of Christian thought, to guard from disparagement and neglect whatever was most valuable in the religious characteristics of an earlier age.  Theirs is a school of thought which has neither a greater nor a less claim to genuine spirituality than that which is usually contrasted with it.  Only its spirituality is wont to take, in many respects, a different tone.  Instead of shrinking from forms which by their abuse may tend to formalism, and simplifying to the utmost all the accessories of worship, in jealous fear lest at any time the senses should be impressed at the expense of the spirit, it prefers rather to recognise as far as possible a lofty sacramental character in the institutions of religion, to see a meaning, and an inward as well as an outward beauty, in ceremonies and ritual, and to uphold a scrupulous and reverential observance of all sacred services, as conducing in a very high degree to spiritual edification.  Churchmen of this type may often be blind to other sides of truth; they may rush into extremes; they may fall into grave errors of exclusiveness and prejudice.  But if they certainly cannot become absolutely predominant in a Church without serious danger, they cannot become a weak minority without much detriment to its best interests.  And since it is hopeless to find on any wide scale minds so happily tempered as to combine within themselves the best characteristics of different religious parties, a Church may well be congratulated which can count among its loyal and attached members many men on either side conspicuous for their high qualities.