We have elsewhere called attention to the reference of the
Lambeth Conference to the Thirty-nine Articles, which the Bishops speak of as a standard of faith, which it certainly is not. In fact, so far as these Articles have any distinctive meaning at all, they express a mild sort of half-and-half Calvinism, and doubtless they may be said to make out a case for the comprehension of that mild sort of Calvinism in the Anglican Church. If that be all that they mean, we have no objection, for we wish to see the Anglican Church as com- prehensive as possible, and are delighted that mild Calvinists should be encouraged to use forms of worship which are nothing if not anti-Calvinistic. But that any theologian should maintain that the doctrines characteristic of this document, —those which distinguish it from the rest of the Prayer-Book, —are really consistent with the teaching of the Prayer-Book, seems incredible. Laymen, at all events, have nothing to do with the " forty stripes save one," as Dr. Newman once called the Articles, and may be only too thankful that they may wash their hands of those not very successful experiments in doctrinal compromise.
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