26 AUGUST 1916, Page 3

If Dr. Field tries to un-Church any of his. parishioners—i.e.,

denies them the right to take their legitimate part in the services of the National Church—and an aggrieved parishioner takes the case into Court Dr. Field will find that our view is the correct one. The only exception we can think of would be that of a man who had openly depraved and denied the Royal Supremacy in causes eccle- siastical—but he would be far more likely to be an Anglican Extremist than a Nonconformist. We are interested to note that Dr. Field cannot conceive of a Church that does not exclude some- one. It is the fault of all bureaucrats lay and ecclesiastical. A wit once said that no French official ever felt happy unless he could stand at the end of a passage and bawl out, "On as passe pae." Every "good Churchman" believes he has the keys of Heaven and yet apparently longs "to shut the Gates of Mercy on mankind." We are no learned theologians, like Dr. Field, but mere ignorant laymen, yet we cannot so read the Gospel of Christ.