The Times of Tuesday contained a very striking letter on
the education question from Canon Hensley Henson, in which he draws a parallel and a contrast between the situations in England and France. In France the "case for Christianity has been presented without the fatal error of undenomina- tionalism," and the Church has had an unchallenged monopoly. To-day the majority of Frenchmen have ceased to desire Christianity, since, the Church having become intolerable, "it is assumed that Christianity is politically impossible." In England, unlike France, the movement for establishing full public control over elementary education is accompanied by a complete repudiation of secularism. But bow long will this repudiation last if the Church continues to deny that there are any common undenominational elements in Christianity ? If such instruction is impossible, then the only result must be secularism, and, as in France, our citizens may be led by their weariness of denominational conflicts to a distrust of Christianity itself. If Mr. Balfour's view is adopted, and the State assumes the same attitude to the Christian Churches as the Indian Government to the various alien religions under its control, then it will be impossible to maintain any national recognition of Christianity. We commend Canon Henson's wise words to the attention of all thoughtful men.
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