2 APRIL 1927, Page 16

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—It must not be assumed that the views of my friend the Rev. H. E. Brierley represent those of Free Churchmen generally. It is futile for Bishops and others to contend that no change is stated or implied in the new proposals for the Prayer Book. What is the meaning of the insistent demand for " Reservation " ?

It means that some magical result is achieved in the elements by virtue of the consecration," a result so momentous that many of the clergy and others desire to adore these elements as themselves divine. Judging by the past nothing is more certain, if these changes be passed by the Assembly and by Parliament, than that " the aumbry in the north wall," locked and guarded as it may be, will be the scene of such adoration, in spite of the Rubric, making an ominous and disastrous advance toward Roman doctrine and away from that of the Reformation and from a modern and scholarly view of the New Testament and the Sacraments.—I am,