1 OCTOBER 1921, Page 14

MODERNISM AND THE CHURCH.

[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—A small child once said that there were no wild beasts left now " except in theological gardens." As an offset to this undoubted fact may I send you the noblest words on a contro- versial subject (Modernism) it has ever been my lot to read? The writer, speaking of the need of adaptability in the Catholic faith, says :— " It is a faith . . that will not suffer its guardians to sit still and satisfy their natural desire for some kind of infalli- bility, but (to use a metaphor of Mr. R. H. Lightfoot) ever bursts the moulds made to contain it, transferring itself to newer moulds almost before they are ready to receive it, leaving its true votaries to follow in increasing wonder, love, and awe. . . . Members of an old and unadaptable orthodoxy weave for themselves the robe of heresy if they sit and mourn by the grave from whence their Lord is risen . .. their grief- blinded eyes unable to recognize His new and living form."— Correspondence in Church Times, September 23rd.

—I am, Sir, &c., 31.