[TO TIM EDITOR OP TH8 "SPBOTLTOR.]
SIE,—I have read with a fair amount of interest, and a good deal of sadness, the letters which have of late appeared in your valuable paper under the above heading. In my young days I lived a good deal in a little Dissenting village and amongst Nonconformists, and although too much attached to my own Church ever to wish to leave her, I could not but admire the sincere piety of my Nonconformist friends. Their hatred of all that was not true and Christianlike, and their willingness to help all in trouble and distress, made a lasting impression upon me. I have one or two Nonconformist friends, and I see amongst them many splendid examples of nobility and truth which they set to their Church of England brethren, who, unfortunately, are not always clothed with Christian charity or forbearance. What right has any man, without any just cause, to judge the life of another ? How, I ask, can any vicar or rector know whether all his own particular flock whom be weekly or monthly admits to Holy Communion along with strangers to his church and parish are leading good and wholly Chiistlike lives ? Yet because they profess to be Churchpeople be asks no questions, but allows them to approach the Holy Table. Yet if he hears that a Noncon- formist wishes to go to Communion, although he may know that this particular person leads a good and consistent life, he refuses him (or her) that great rite. Why, again, I ask, should these Christians be refused the right to join in the beautiful service of Holy Communion, the exquisite wording of the prayers, the altogether impressive service, with its humble cry going up from many souls to the throne of grace, "Lord, I am not worthy" ? All this and more appeals to them quite as much as to Churchpeople. Although in other respects they prefer their quiet and wholly different form of worship, still many of them would like to join in this one act of prayer and worship, and thus to find that peace which passeth all understanding, the peace they, too, feel they possess after having joined in the Communion Service. Catholics, Church- people, and Nonconformists, I take it, endeavour to imitate our Lord's holy life, and it seems to me that all of us should try to imitate in our relations to our neighbour His most perfect love, for such is the mystery of the new law,—the law of grace and of love. Communion with God is the greatest spiritual good a Christian can receive here below, and what right has any clergyman to refuse this good to his Noncon- formist brethren ? The same Lord who died on Calvary for all His sheep, whether inside or outside His fold, commanded that we judge not ; and Christians who are for ever holding up the finger of scorn, whether they be Ohurchpeople or Dissenters, are in God's sight not His true disciples, for they love not to keep all His commands. We are all His children, though not all choose to worship Him in the same way, yet all, I feel sure, desire to worship Him in the beauty of holiness. It is an example of Christian charity that the clergyman signing himself "Anglican Archdeacon" has set his fellow-clergymen. May many follow his example, then perhaps even in this life the day will come when all Christian bodies will be "one in faith, in doctrine, one in unity."--.I am,
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