PRAYER-BOOK REVISION.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] BM—Bishop Knox's letter of June 28th invites two comments. (1) He agrees, with me that, in the opinion of the Members of Parliament who form the Ecclesiastical Committee—and they are not all of them Churchmen—the National Assembly does represent the Church of England.
-The Bishop says that " indirect representation is not true representation." This may be arguable. In 1902 when the County Councils became the education authorities in place of the old School Boards, most Nonconformists resisted the change on that very ground. But did the Bishop in championing church schools take that position ?
(2) We are on common ground when we " recognize with thankfulness the improved tone of more recent church assem- blies, and welcome the manifestation of the Presence " (of the Holy Spirit). No thoughtful Christian can expect or claim infallibility as the result of such guidance. But " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Ordered freedom is needed : this is Europe's problem and also the Church's problem in England. The twentieth century is not the sixteenth : and " the Church of England cannot always remain in the corner where good Queen Elizabeth placed us."
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