"THE SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE OF THE CHURCH." [To vac Emma or
THE SPECIATOR.".1 Stn,—st propos of Dean Rashdall's paper read last week at the Conference of Modern Churchmen held at Cambridge, I wonder if the status of the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion can throne any light on this pressing subject.
It may come as news to many to learn that the great Wesleyan Methodist Church lately in session of Conference is a legally established Church! It has inherent power to alter its doctrine or vary its ritual without going to Parliament for power ea to do. as it already possesses such power. This power is legally vested by Act of Parliament in the " Legal Hundred "; and whatever this Legal Hundred ratify becomes thereby good law. In this tho Wesleyan Methodist Church has a practical advantage over the Church of England as by law established.
Could not some instrument of similar power and of like nate, be formulated to help and guide the Church of Englund in her present Divine unrest, so that the Church of England might keep in living touch with to-day's life? We do not went our Church of England to be broken on the rocks of controversy into a trio of warring sects—Broad, High, and Low—especially when the clear note from the front is the union and reunion of all Christiat
R.E.F., France.
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