[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR .1
SIR,—In his article on "The Spirit of Orthodox Devotion" Professor N. Arseniey shows how the Johannine conception of the Incarnation underlies that spirit and also moulds the whole character of that Church. Now, as Canon Quick has pointed out in a recent work, St. John "dwells upon that aspect of the Church's nature in which it appears as continuing the Incarnation" under "the image of a family expressing the heavenly life upon earth." His conception is essentially symbolic and static, terms which are applicable to the Orthodox Church with her apparent lack of missionary enterprise and her "love of the brethren," which has proved stronger than death.
No one can deny the strength of the other-worldly appeal of this great Church "with her eyes fixed unceasingly upon the mystery of the Incarnation" and in them reflecting the beauty of the Divine Life ; but a living Church must needs be dynamic as well as static, the instrument for winning the world as well as the symbol of the heavenly life upon earth. But this militant feature of the Church's life, as Canon Quick has also pointed out, is largely the outcome of the Pauline conception of the Cross as the instrument of the World's salvation, and is, perhaps, the leading characteristic of the English Church with her increasing missionary activity and programme of social,. amelioration. However, the " in- strumental " value of our Church in the world is seriously impaired, as was that of the 'Church St. Paul founded at Corinth, by our divisions and party spirit, which arise owing to the lack of those elements which predominate in the Orthodox Church.
Surely facts such as these are further evidence of the urgency of the need for Reunion both for the sake of the Church and of the world ; for Mother Church, like Mother Nature, "while working as a machine, should sleep as a picture," if she is to fulfil her mission to the world.—! am, Sir, &c., (Rev.) W. H. OSWALD. Church Missionary Society, Northern Nigeria.
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