[TO TI18 EDITOR Or TDB SPIICTATOR.1
Sin,—As you receive " Cymro's " suggestion (Spectator, November 16th) with so much favour, may I add a counter one, which many Churchmen, both lay and clerical, will welcome P Cultured Nonconformists are more and more yearning for, or adopting, well-written forms. We have long enjoyed these, and prize them more and more, as our time passes : if the choice lay between the one mode of worship or the other, our minds are made up. Yet we desire to combine our advantages with our neighbours' in some slight measure. Often we feel the need of a short form of prayer or praise, composed by the minister, to suit the present circumstances of the parish. It should be sanctioned and provided for in an effectual Revision. No doubt it should be straitly safe- guarded. Churchmen are for the most part conservative, and long use of the best has made cultured minds fastidious. Care should be taken not only that precious old forms should not be crowded out by extempore effusions, but also that incom- petent clergymen should not exercise the privilege. Any apply- ing for a license with the consent of the vestry should first be tested. It would be a very practical test if they were required at the quarterly R.D. Chapters to append to the usual devotions • one suiting the present experiences of their deanery. Those who received their brethren's approval by ballot would be pretty sure to possess the necessary gifts. Very few would approach the majesty and tenderness of James Martineau, strangely enough the peerless prayer-writer of the nineteenth century; but many, earnestly and reverently addressing the Divine Father, would voice the desires of a multitude of fellow- worshippers, whom our stately system leaves as dumb as they came. We should at any rate gain largely in reality.—I am,
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