14 MAY 1921, Page 12

AN EXCELLENT SPIRIT.

[To THE Entree or ma " SPICCUzoU.") SIR,—I know nothing of the authorship of The Glass of Fashion, nor whether, pursuing, if I may, the closing sentences of the invigorating review in the Spectator, it is probable that "praise will be perfected" out of his mouth. But I feel that he and your reviewer have revealed the thoughts of many hearts in what they say about " a new birth of the human spirit." I am a minister of religion. A Church—the beet Church I know—provides my "livelihood," but I confess that I am sometimes left wondering whether the Church remembers always, even more than " Society " remembers always, that it "exists for the sake of life." Indeed, is not that at once the hardest and the highest thing that all of us—journalists, authors, preachers, and " plain " folk, too—have got to learn? Daniel was first in the kingdom of Darius because " an excel- lent spirit" was in him. I think the most hopeful sign of the times is that the spirit of an individual or of an institution is becoming the final test and standard of value. Does not Whit- suntide point along that road? The Churches, with all their faults, are trying to follow. Honestly, do they not lead the visible forces? Their many tongues do not matter if the Spirit gives them utterance.—I am, Sir, &c.,