Transcribed from the 1866 William Skeffington edition by David Price. THE RITUAL MOVEMENT. Three Plain Sermons PREACHED AT ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST’S, HAMMERSMITH, * * * * * BY JAMES GALLOWAY COWAN, M.A. _Perpetual Curate_. * * * * * * * * * * “Let all things be done decently and in order.”—1 Corinthians xiv. 40. * * * * * * * * * * LONDON: WILLIAM SKEFFINGTON, 163 PICCADILLY. 1866. SERMON I. 1 CORINTHIANS xiv. 40. “Let all things be done decently and in order.” THESE words are a general precept about Church order following up a particular remonstrance. The Corinthian Christians, divinely distinguished by the number and excellence of the spiritual gifts and privileges bestowed on them, had, alas! distinguished themselves by anarchy, lawlessness, pride, self-will, self-sufficiency, uncharitableness, ecclesiastical and moral laxity of various forms and kinds. The Apostle deals with all these offences severally and particularly, and then he gives a general rule—a rule which was to cover and guide all their practice, and the practice of every other church: “Let all things be done decently (decorously) and in order” (according to system and appointment). Without further preface, I would, in all solemnity, read this precept as addressed to us, brethren, to the clergy and laity of the Anglican Church of this present day, and as one which for the glory of God, and the edifying of ourselves, it is most needful to fix in our remembrance and to observe with all strictness. And did I design my teaching to be merely general, I know no more useful theme to which to address myself; for as like the Corinthians we Anglicans have been distinguished by God, in that He has poured out upon us conspicuous and super-excellent gifts and privileges, so like them are we constantly distinguishing ourselves by strifes, irregularities, and miserable assertions of self’s importance and self’s wilfulness unparalleled, I believe, by Romans, Greeks, or dissenters. But I have a special purpose, as you have probably anticipated, in selecting the subject for consideration at this time.