The Irish Church Conference seems to be doing pretty well.
It has rejected the proposition to have ex officio members in the Con- stituent Church body by a large majority—by 107 to 29 ;—and still better, it has rejected a resolution of Archdeacon Lee's, excluding the laity from any influence on questions of doctrine, also by a large majority. There was a genuine cynicism in the mere proposal of such a resolution in a Protestant Church. The Roman Catholics hold, we believe, that the special grace inherent in the priesthood gives them a doctrinal illumina- tion not granted in the same degree to the laity. But that is certainly not a Protestant dogma, and if larger opportunities for theological study and meditation be the only advantages of the clergy over the laity for doctrinal purposes, those advantages are at least balanced, if not more than balanced, by the intel- lectual dangers incident to esprit de corps, early pledges, and a somewhat narrow field of moral experience.
