THE CHURCH AND THE PUBLIC WELFARE.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEE" SPECTATOR."] Sin,—There is much talk just now about Church Reform of one kind and another. It seems to me that if every Christian observed the two Commandments, to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself, there would be such a revival of the spirit cf Christianity as would make further controversy unnecessary. Mr. T. C. Horsfall made this point very well in an address the other day, which I have seen reported in the Manchester Guardian for April 26th. "Churches," he said, "could not be really Christian unless they co-operated strenuously with Parliament and the Local Authorities in creating and maintaining right conditions of life." He spoke of this as the "long neglected duty" of the Church. Ile quoted a letter from the present Lord Mayor of Manchester to the same effect. Loving your neighbour surely implies the duty of every Christian, individually and through his Church organiza- tion, to do what he can in his own neighbourhood for the improve- ment of social and economic conditions, instead of being content merely to pay his rates and leave all the voluntary work to others
more public-spirited than himself.—I am, Sir, &c., X.
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