THE CHURCH'S DEBT TO NONCONFORMISTS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—With reference to the treatment of Nonconformists in the Enabling Bill, to which you have so often called attention, it strikes me forcibly that the Church wholly fails to recog- nize the great debt which it owes to Nonconformity, as a most valuable reservoir from which it obtains some of its best
supplies. To take as an illustration the See and the diocese in which I live, the Archbishop was trained as a Presbyterian, one parent of the Bishop was a Wesleyan (possibly both parents), the father of the Suffragan Bishop is a Plymouth Brother, whilst one of the Archdeacons' parents were Baptists. I do not look upon this as mere coincidence, but as. a proof that the training of a Godly Nonconformist home frequently lays a foundation of greater value than the " definite Church teaching " which our Church so frequently extols to the exclu- sion of other influences making for righteousness.—I am, Sir,
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