PLEBISCITE ABOUT PREACHERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sfit,—I noticed in your issue of October 4th the extraordinary mistake about the five preachers who came first in the poll, but at the time I did not think of protesting, because readers of the Spectator are only too familiar with its complete ignorance of Nonconformists and Nonconformity ; but, as Mr. Pickard has pointed out that three of the five are Nonconformists, I beg leave to point out that no one of the three is a layman, except in the sense that ministers, disliking the unnatural division into clerical and laic, regard themselves always as laymen; but in that sense the three gentlemen in question—Mr. Spurgeon, Dr. Parker, and Mr. Maclaren--are all laymen.
I cannot imagine that you meant to convey a covert sneer at any of these three distinguished preachers ; I feel sure, there- fore, that you will give currency to this correction of the
October 11th.
[This is a strange misunderstanding, all the more strange be- cause it has been made by several intelligent persons. If "N." will look back at the article, he will see that the "five" were the five correspondents of the Contemporary Pulpit whose lists approached nearest to the general consensus, and among whom the prize was divided. And if he will further look at the October number of the Pulpit, he will see that three out of these five were, as we wrote, Anglican clergymen, one (pre- sumably) a Nonconformist minister, and one a layman. We mentioned this fact as showing the character of the constituency which voted. Does "N." really think that the "adjudicators selected the five [preachers] which stood nearest, and divided the prize among them." ?—ED. Spectator.]
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