ITO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1
SIR,—I have sent my copy of the Spectator week by week to Australia, otherwise I should have sought to refresh my memory as to a previous article of A Student in Arms" with which, if my memory serves me well, I found myself in general agree- ment. I thought I was able to identify the writer as a well- known worker among workers, and to claim him as one of my friends. But the present article is perplexing. It reads as a medley of good intention, hasty assumption, and sweeping generalization. Even laymen may be as ignorant of the "lay mind" as some of the clergy are supposed to be, whose duty it is to know it. The fact is, the lay mind is a most elusive thing, and generally speaking is apt to be what every layman's own mind is, who discourses on it, whether he be an ecclesiastical or political or dissenting or " undenominational " layman. It is difficult to form an idea of what "A Student in Arms" means by "the average laity," with whom "the Churches are hope- lessly out of touch." That large numbers of men and women have absented themselves from public worship is as obvious as that the war is making most men and women think more seriously than before of life and its duties. If the clergy as a body are so utterly out of touch with the laity, how is it that the laity seek our co-operation on Committees of all kinds, and our influence in recruiting, and our help on Advisory Com- mittees? Is it not a fact that the clergy know the "average laity" better than most laymen do 1'
Personally, I agree with "A Student in Arms" as to the desirability, of the clergy being equally liable with the laity to military service, due regard being paid to the efficiency of the Church in our parishes and hospitals, in our home camps, and at the front. But the matter of "mobilization of the Church" is not such a simple matter as he represents. This time, when we have large numbers returning from the front, some on short leave and some wounded, and when our congregations are dotted with khaki, is not one either to close churches or to throw an excessive burden on the older clergy. Though many of us, who have passed our threescore years and ten," are able to take our three or four services on Sundays and to work long hours through the week, yet there is a limit to the strength of the most willing. Since the commencement of the war the numbers ordained, both in England and the Colonies, have been very small. I have personally refused to accept, for the Bishop for whom I act, any young man who has not first offered his services to his country.
We clergy have our faults, and "A Student in Arms" would not deny that the "average laity" have theirs. Do not let us discourage one another by hasty assumptions and aspersions, and place hindrances in the way of our learning, as we seek to do our duty in whatever state of life God is pleased to call us, what the war is teaching us all—namely, to think more carefully and to do our best as we seek to "do our bit" for the common good.—I am, Sir, &c., J. G. D.
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