Those last words might be bent to his own sense
by a believer in Transubstantiation. The Consecration Prayer in the new Book makes the communicants pray that the consecrated elements "may be unto us the body and blood, of Thy Son." No assertion is made that the elements have been changed. The common-sense inter- pretation of the words " unto us" is that the efficacy of consecration depends upon the spiritual attitude of the recipient. In a letter to the Times of Wednesday, the Duchess of Atholl said that to her the new wording was less Romish than the old, and we think she is right. Perversity might stretch the sense of either, but at all events it could not stretch the new words more easily than the old. The Duchess of Atholl adds a fact of which probably most English laymen are unaware. Reservation for the sick only has been practised in the Scottish Episcopal Church for more than two hundred years. The expected statement by the Archbishops on their future policy has not been published when we go to press.
Previous page
