AS TOMMY SEES US.*
CUE writer of this little book, who has had eighteen months' ex- perience as Chaplain to the Forces, has taken the opportunity to record his impressions, not so much of the men, though this comes out very clearly by the way, as of what the men think of the Church and its ministers. Mr. Gray is a Scotsman, and the men with whom he has been associated are men of Scottish regi- ments ; but what he has to say applies with very little change to Englishmen as well. He found that a small minority loved the Church of their fathers ; that a further and larger group main- tained a loose connexion with it, though it exercised no con- straining force on their lives ; but that the rest "had no use" for it. As he puts the truth bluntly :— "On the whole the average male Britisher of to-day has not much respect for the Church. He does not like or admire the Church. Ho does not belong to it, and does not want to. It is not among the national institutions that stir his pride. He does not take this attitude defiantly, knowing it to be wrong and yet choosing it. He regards the Church as a negligible quantity. He neithee fears new loves it, It has for him no voice of authority. He has never been impressed by its corporate seta, and its life in detail theme to him petty and dull. The men he most respects are often not in it. and a groat many men whom he despises are. To his virile nature it makes no impressive appeal."
That is to say, the writer finds that the Army reflects the general opinion of the nation. But there is this difference, that the con. ditione at the front have very largely broken down the old British reticence ; and in the intimate association with men arid officers which our Chaplain has enjoyed—the "delightful companionship," he calls it—ho has found them willing to put their feelings into words and to give their reasons for the distrust that is in them.
• du Tommy Soo Us Reap.- Chosen Folk. Boa. Herbert Orsy,0.1e. P. Arnold. 125. Od. net..1
The root of the matter seems to be a dislike of what is taken to be religion, as it is exhibited in what are called "religious" persons, especially in ministers of religion, and in the character of the services which they attend and conduct :— " They look at the religious life as they conceive it and soy' We could not stand that.' They look at religious ithople and say in their hearts : 'We do not want to be like them. The lives of Church members seem to them dull, narrow, and colourless. They often find Christian people censorious, and they hate that, for a generous' charity is part of their moral code They miss genial and unaffected good comradeship in Church circles, and that is one of the things they value most in life. Further, they think that if they became religious they would have to be willing to talk about their feelings, and they would rather live under shell- fire than do that. They feel that there is a suspicion of effeminacy about many religious people, and that religious men tend to be too like women. It is of their essentiai nature to be lively, and they still feel there is something sombre about the religious world." The idea of religious persons as "kill-joys," people who disapprove of things, who aro always saying" Thou shalt not," is certainly widespread ; and Mr. Gray is undoubtedly right in laying stress upon it as one cause of the antipathy they arouse. And of this spirit the parson is supposed to be the embodiment. His black uniform is regarded as a symbol of repression. "A baby or a parson," it I. said, will keep any railway carriage empty. But in the ease of the parson—allowing that there may be something unworthy in the resentment which recognises that in his presence swearing is bad manners and a certain type of story cannot be told— Mr. Gray finds a deeper grenuad of dissatisfaction in his pro- fessionalism :— "Our services, visits, and ecclesiastical duties have become our business and we are apt to acquire a business attitude to them. Certain sentiments are expected of us, end we often express them though it may be that at the time they do not correspond with our actual feelings. We are apt to aspire a certain fixed pro- fessional amiability, sometimes accompanied by a flxod professional smile. We often talk a peculiar clerical lingo, which is stilted and ponderous and peculiarly irritating to the natural man. . . . I am sure that many of us would be utterly amazed if we could know how many men feel even about our preaching that we simply say what we are paid to say—or what our Church expects us to say- er what it is our professional duty to say."
The cure for professionalism is not easy to prescribe. It pervades all professions alike ; but in none is it so disastrous, because so deterrent, as in that of the clergy. A man may dislike the manners of his lawyerorphysician, but he consults him none the less. To his parson, if he irritates him, he simply olosies his mind. Mr. Gray raises the fundamental question whether there need be any clerical profession at all, but concludes that It is unavoidable. The antidote must be to "live in such intimate and sympathetic relations with the people as to escape the vices of professionalism." The writer says nothing about clerical uniform. When one remembers what a task the Bishops had in mediaeval days to get their clergy to wear uniform, we may suspect that they would be willingly obeyed if they abolished it ; and perhaps their own humanity would be more readily recognised if they set the example.
There is a great deal more in Mr. Gray's book than we have indicated. He has some wise words on simplicity in teaching, on greater fellowship in the Churches, on the arrangement of services, especially as to the choice of hymns. And he does not forget the layman. He thinks he is often rather mean to his clerical brother in assuming that he is what he dislikes without troubling to find out ; and he reminds him that when he is a Church official, without being a Christian in his business relation's, he does more harm to the Church than any parson. Mr. Gray inscribes his book to all "Church folk " ; and we hope they will all read it.
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