28 SEPTEMBER 1912, Page 16

(To Tire ED1TOR 0/ TIM "SFacrATon."}

Si,—Ia it not well if the blood boils as one reads of such " religioua " exclusiveness as that given by your correspondent "Presbyter" ? I have personally known during a fairly long life several similar experiences. In all these cases essentially the same un-Christian spirit is exhibited which through the ages has done more to prejudice the cause it professes to serve than any other attitude whatever. However it may have been in the past, it is certainly true in this country to-day that the Church of England is not only the chief nursery of this most mischievous spirit, but that it, far more than any doctrinal difference, jeopardizes that Church's existence as an establish- ment. I know, Sir, that you will plead that manifestations like those described by your correspondent are very much the exception, that the Church which you defend is as a whole of a broader mind. Also you will say that disestablishmcnt would prove no remedy, would possibly magnify the offence. And you may be right ; but men are human after all, and having suffered from an arrogant intolerance which is more and more out of date they will surely mark their displeasure in the way most natural and open to them. The world believes, and to all appearance will believe, less and less in the exclusive revelation of the oracles of God to any Church or sect, or that ultimate religious truth is certain to be found in any of their destruc- tive creeds or books. And it believes more and more in. the sincere and resolute endeavour to seek for religious and all other truth in wholesome comradeship at every likely source. In the meantime let us be intolerant only of intolerance, to which, as it seems to some of us, little or no quarter should be