[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—While thoroughly endorsing the
spirit of your article on the power of the laity in religious education (Spectator, November 8th), one cannot help feeling some surprise at your statement that the laity do not believe that ordination " can convey any supernatural gifts." Presumably ordination and confirmation in their essence are identical, though different in degree. The writer of your article would, one feels convinced, regard confirmation as conveying some spiritual gift and power,—the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is this gift, is it not? which gives the layman his status in the government of the Church. If ordination similar in form, but different in intention, conveys no supernatural power, for all spiritual power is supernatural, surely the fact of ordination assuming the appointed form of laying on of hands is a valueless ceremony, the act of " setting apart of candidates for a noble profession" being more truly performed by the vows temporal and canonical which the clergyman makes in the presence of the Bishop. While one deeply regrets the attitude of certain of the Church papers towards the Kenyon-Slaney clause, one cannot but think that your article will only give another reason for them to object to laymen apparently seeking to diminish the value of "supernatural gifts" by claiming a more complete management of the schools of the Church. Since this letter appears to be self-contradictory, may I again repeat that I do thoroughly endorse the spirit of the article, but regret the incidental expression, and sign myself, for such I
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