(To TIM EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] s1 In connection with
your very welcome article (Spectator, November 9th), can you find room for a quotation from "the most analytical mind in Europe," furnished with an unrivalled knowledge of the Bible, i.e., John Ruskin P—" Obedience inits highest form is not obedience to a constant and compulsory law, but a persuaded or voluntarily yielded obedience to an issued command; and so far as it was a persuaded submission to command, it was anciently called, in a passive sense, per- suasion' or lvv;, and in so far as it alone assuredly did, and it alone could do, what it meant to do, and was therefore the root and essence of all human deed, it was called by the Latins the doing or fides, which has passed into the French foi and the English faith. And therefore because in His doing always certain, and in His speaking always true, His name who leads the armies of Heaven is ' Faithful and true; and all deeds which are done in alliance with those armies, be they small or great, are essentially deeds of faith, which therefore, in this one stern, eternal sense, subdues all king- doms, and turns to flight the armies of the aliens, and is at once the source and the substance of all human deed, rightly so called." One cannot but remark upon the singular neglect of Ruskin as an interpreter of Scripture.—I am, Sir, &c , A. ALLEN BEOCEINGTON.
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