20 AUGUST 1954, Page 6

The Road to Heaven

'To those people who deplore the present generation's lack of religion 1 would commend a verse from a hymn by Dr. Isaac Watts, the early eighteenth-century theologian and author of ' 0 God our help in ages past.' It is evident from this that since Dr. Watts's day the Church has considerably altered its directives on how best to get to heaven, for this godly man suggests the following simple avowal of meekness as being all that is necessary: Though. I am but poor and mean I will move the rich to love me, If I'm sober, neat and clean And submit when they reprove me. This easy formula for acquiring heavenly status might with advantage be revived, It is pleasant to visualise flocks of sober, neat and clean people queuing up to be reproved by Sir Bernard Docker, and many who are bored or bewildered by the Church's more abstract recommendations might bo brought into the fold by such an attractive proposition.