Bishop Cummins "secedes."

New York, November 10, 1873. To the Rt. Kov. Benjamin Boswortli Smith, D. D., Bishop of the Brotestant Episcopal Clmrch in the diocese of Kentucky : Et. Eet. ajíd Dear Bishop - Under a 8olemn sense of duty, and in the fear ot' God, I have to teil you that I am about to retiro from the work in whioh I have been engaged for the last seven years in the diocese of Kentucky, and thus to sever the relations which have existed so happily and harmoniously between us during that time. It is due to you, and to my friends in the diocese of Kentucky and elsewhere, that I should state clearly the causes which have led nio to this detormination. 1. First, theu, you kuow how heavy has been the trial of having to exercise my office in certain churches of the diocese of Kentucky where the services are conducted so as to symbolize and to teach the people doctrines subversivo of the " truth as it is in Jesus," and as it was maintained and defended by the reformers of the sixteenth century. On each occasion that I have been called upon to ofHciate in these churches I have been most painfully inipressedby the conviction that I was sanctioning and indorsing by my presence and official acts the dangerous errors symbolized by the services customary in ritualistic churches. I can no longer, by my participation in such services, be " a partaker of other men's sins," and must clear my own soul of all complicity in such errors. 2. I have lost all hope that this systera of error now prevailing so extensively in the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church of this country, can be or will be eradicated by any action of the authorities of the church, legislative or executive. The only true remedy in my judginent, is tho judicious yet thorough revisión of the prayer book eliminating from it all that gives countenance, directly or indirectly, to the whole system of sacerdotalism and ritualism ; a revisión after the model of that recommended by the commission appointed in England under royal authority in 1689, and whose work was indorsed by the great names of Burnet, Patrick, Tillotson and Stillingfleet and others of the Church of England - ablessed work, which failed, alas ! to receive the approval of the Convocation, but was taken up afterward by the fathers of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, and embodied in the prayer-book of 1785, which they set forth and recommend for use in this country. I propose to return to that prayer-book, sanctioned by William White, and to tread in the steps of that saintly man, as he acted from 1785 to 1789. 3. One other reason for my present action remains to be given. Ón the last day of the late conference of the Evangelical Alliance, I participated ia the celebration of the Lord's Supper, by invifcatioa, in the Kev. Dr. John Hall's church, in the city of New York, and united with Dr. Hall, Dr. William Arnot, of Edinburgh, and Prof Dorner, of Berlin, in that precious feast. It was a practical manii'estation of the real unity of " the blessed company af all faithful people " whom God " hath knit together in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of His Son Jesús Christ." The results of that participation have 3een such as to prove to my niind that such a step cannot be taken by one occupying the position I now hold without aadly disturbing the peace and harmony of " this church," and. without impairing my influence for good over a large portion of the same church, very many of whom are within our own diocese. As I cannot surrender the right and mvilege thus to meet my fellow-Chrisians of other churches around the table of our dead Lord, I must take my place where I can do so without alienating ihose of my own household of faith. I therefore leave the conimunion in which I have labored in the sacred minstry for over 28 years, and transfer my vork and office to another sphere of labor. ', have an earnest hope and confidence ;hat a basis for the union of all Evangelcal Christendom can be found in a communion which shall retain or restore a )rimitive Episcopacy and a pure Scriptual liturgy, with a fidelity tothe doctrine f justification by faith only - Articvstus tantis vel cadentis Ecclesia' - a position ,oward which the Old Catholics in Euope are rapidly tending, and which has already taken a definite form in the Church of Jesus " in Mexico. To this blessed work I devote the reemaining years of life, content, if I can nlysee the dawn of that blessed day of tie Lord. I am, dear Bishop, faithfully 'ours in Christ, GEOKGE DAVID CUMMINS. My address for the present will be No. Bible House, New York.