A great many readers of The Times must, I am
certain, have been profoundly impressed by the letter on " The Message of Easter " from Canon H. K. Luce, the headmaster of Durham School, which appeared in that paper on Tuesday. A leading article in The Times on Saturday included the statement that " the significance which Christians attach to the Crucifixion is due to their belief that it was followed by the Resurrection [the writer, rather curiously, does not say " the fact that it was followed by the Resurrection "], and it is at this point that secular idealists part company with believers, and that here lies the." divide between believers and others." On that Canon Luce comments: " I think there are today a good many who would wish to call themselves Christians, and yet would not find themselves on the Christian side of the ' divide ' as you define it. Their estimate of the significance of Good Friday does not necessarily depend on any subsequent event in space and time, much less on any particular interpretation of such event." This broad- minded recognition of the fact that the evidence for the Crucifixion and the evidence for the Resurrection are not entirely of the same order, and that many who do not hesitate to profess and call them- selves Christians make some reservation about the literal acceptance of the Resurrection narratives (which are in some respects discrepant) will no doubt provoke sharp criticism But very many will be deeply grateful to Canon Luce for his challenge to The Times' virtual excommunication of reverent students of the Gospels whose con- clusions may be less dogmatic than The Times' own. * * * *
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