[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.) .
SIR,—Your reviewer of Dr. Dearmer's book, The Legend of Hell, doubts whether Hell-fire is preached anywhere to-day. It is preached by the Salvation Army, the most active Christian propagandist organization in the world. Hell-fire is part of the creed of the Roman Catholic Church and I heard a priest say recently that an unbeliever in Hell-fire was a heretic, liable to excommunication. Many orthodox Protestant Churches never mention Hell-fire, but it is still embodied in their creeds and catechisms. The unchurched thirty millions in Britain do not believe in Hell-fire. For them, it is mostly a joke. But they still treat it as part of the permanent furniture of the Church. Again and again, at open-air meet- ings, the heckler has assumed that a person who wears a clerical collar believes in Hell-fire. If the Church believes that it is a legend, it is high time that it confessed its mistake in the past and made some reparation.—I am, Sir, &c., RICHARD LEE.
26 Abercorn Road, Earlsdon, Coventry.
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