13 MARCH 1886, Page 18

inn ESSENTIALS OF CHURCH UNITY.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SmTATon."1

Sia,—Mr. Moggridge's letter expresses a half-truth with much ability. Following after Christ is indeed essential to Christianity but it will be held by most Christians that it is at least equally necessary to believe in him. Between the man who thinks that Christ was God upon earth and the man who regards him as merely a greater Plato, there is a great gulf fixed.

The faith of the one is the mainspring of his life in this world, which he lives as a preparation for the world to come. On what basis rests the purpose of the other's life ? The Laureate tells us that,—

" Faith and unfaith can ne'er be equal powers."

Surely the line should apply especially to any national worship,