A PLEA FOR MODERATION.
[To THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR"] Sin,—The letter which you published last week with reference to evening communion, and also the condition of the Welsh Church Bill when the House of Commons rose, indicate a desire for simplicity in religion and for political moderation where religious questions are concerned which, I venture to say, is by no means exceptional. Take first the Welsh Church Bill. Many moderate men on the Government side have all along hoped that, assuming the case for disestablishment, the proposals for disendowment would be as generous as was consistent with all-round justice. On the Opposition side, too, the moderate man has been sorely tried. The chorus has been so loud the gentler notes could not be heard. Is it worth while to record a personal illustration of the penalties under which certain religious friends of the Government have laboured ? In the early stages of the controversy the Free Church Councils were exhorted to crusade on behalf of the Bill. This writer, a lover of Free Church Councils, urged that it would not be seemly for Nonconformity, as such, to join the fray. The Bill was the business of the Government. But the plea was not appreciated by the zealous ! A satis- factory settlement seems to be at hand, but it will always stand as one of the deplorable aspects of a movement, whose main contentions I take liberty to approve, that there was too much justification for the mistaken charge that it was Nonconformity jealous rather than nationalism just which inspired the campaign.
Then as to the sacred question of evening communion. Let me say that I am a minister in a church the majority of whose members enjoy of necessity evening communion— after ordinary and general worship. Yet many of them have to face the conviction of their Church of England friends that their practice is scarcely pardonable. Believe me, many of your Nonconformist readers will rejoice in your correspondent's reasonable and catholic appeal. Not one of us is satisfied with the pace at which Christianity is leavening the national life. Will not a brighter day dawn when, allowing always for differences of form and observance, we are all nearer the central simplicity and sublimity of the last Supper of our Lord P—I am, Sir, &c., 30 Cauldwell Street, Bedford. J. EDWARD HARLOW.
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