INTER-COMMUNION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOB."] have noted some correspondence in your paper relative to the "Lambeth Conference," and especially that reference to the criticism of the Bishop of Zanzibar of a certain clergy- man who ventured to take communion with a minister of one of the Free Churches away in the wilds of Africa. I remember a painful experience which befell our family when homestead- ing in Saskatchewan some fourteen years ago, when it was our lot to settle in a district where the only church was Anglican. We had been zealous church workers in a Nonconformist church in England, and many a time had walked four miles each way in wind and rain to conduct a service at some out- lying mission station, besides labouring in the Sunday School, and our feelings can better be imagined than described when we were given to understand that our presence was not desired at the communion table, as we had not been confirmed. So lax was church discipline that men of notoriously profane language and loose habits held office in the same church, and partook of communion. I wrote to the Bishop of the diocese and asked upon what authority the local clergyman took the stand he did, and instead of being referred to some Scripture authority, I was told that Bishop So-and-so, in a certain cen- tury, had laid down certain rules in such cases, and provision had been made for a kind of " permit " to be granted allowing members of other Communions to partake of the Lord's Supper. How different the procedure of the Baptist churches in the West, who have wisely discontinued the practice of excluding other denominations from the Lord's table, and thus shown themselves capable of developing that broader spirit of Chris- tian brotherhood which is characteristic of this free country. I remember a rather amusing anecdote told me by the secretary of the Bible Society in_ Winnipeg. He had solicited the.presenoe of an Anglican dignitary at a united gathering in aid of the work of that society, but received the reply, "I can have nothing to do with those man-made institutions." Whereupon my friend replied: " That's too bad; there are the Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and many others; what are you going to do about it? " " I pray for the Lord to open their eyes." We have now many " Union" churches in the West, as at last folks had to realize the folly of four or five churches competing with one another in a small town, while some of the newer districts had no -service at all.—I am, Sir, &o., Montmartre, Saskatchewan, Canada. A. C. BROWNING.
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