THE CHURCH AND THE WAR.
(To vu EDITOR OP TER " SPECTATOR."l Sra,—It is always interesting to read the letters that appear in your columns from time to time dealing with this very vital topic. It is equally interesting to hear the things that are said upon the subject on this side of the water; but I confess that it is generally very depressing. If the clergy can only get to the root of the matter, then the laity that have been waiting and longing will join in the responses. I have no sympathy with Ruskin's dictum that a clergyman wants to become a Bishop firstly that he may be called " My Lord." It was a bitter gibe; but there should never have been cause for it. The command of Christ was clear enough upon addresses such as " Father " and " My Lord." Both were absolutely condemned on the grounds that there is but one Spiritual Father, even God; and but one Lord, even Christ Him- self. Then all the abominable paraphernalia of those formalities 11 hereby the leading dignitaries of the Church are hedged about and rendered inaccessible—these must go as soon as the Bishops understand what God requires of them. Then, the " fear of man " that hinders so many from openly denouncing evil, and deadens ministry. The " Law and the Prophets " are very clear as to what is evil, and " not a jot or tittle of the law shall fail." And finally the objective. It is lamentable to find such indefi- niteness of hope and ideal. Everywhere I find that the Kingdom of God is a hazy ideal of gradual improvement; a sort of spiritual evolution, wherein the man Christ Jesus has no lot or part. The " promise of His coming," as an event to look for above all others, is but a myth that modern thought has ousted. The " hope of Israel," for which the great Paul eaid, "I am bound with this chain," is clouded about so as to be invisible. And so it is that the power of the ministry has waned, and that the vision lacks. And so it is that the people perish from lack of knowledge. And so it is that "drink and the Devil " have still such accursed power over the rank-and-file, and that " women and wine " still turn our splendid youth aside into the byways of death. At a time like this it is well to remember that He said : "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."—I am,
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