11 DECEMBER 1942, Page 13

SIR,—II is not universally true that Christianity means ethics to

laymen and doctrine to clergymen. Many laymen who believe the Christian doctrines desire to hear them supported and expounded from the pulpit, and are disappointed when they hear only moral exhortation. I do not think this desire is confined to educated laymen, for I have been present when an airman who had heard a lecture on the historicity of the Gospels exclaimed "That is the first time I've heard any one advance a reason for believing the Bible might be true." In my experience we laymen are often more easily shocked than our clergy by clerical disbelief or