[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—Surely we are queer folk. On matters touching Institutional religion we are aflame in a moment, but on • matteis, for the sake of which it exists, we wisely show the *utmost tolerance. Thus as regards the spirit of man, some think that it is created for everyone at birth, others that it existed from all eternity, others that it is inherited ; as regards the dead, some think that they will sleep till the Judgment Day, others that there will be no Judgment Day, because we are daily being judged ; some hold with St. Paul that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, others hold with the Church that they can ; as regards inspiration, we criticize freely the Old and New Testaments, the creeds, the councils, . the doctrines of saints and Fathers for nearly two thousand years ; on all these matters we agree to differ with the utmost friendliness ; but once touch the doctrine of
• the Sacraments or the Real Presence, then you touch the Institution, and the flame arises.
We all know that the Institution was made for man and not man for the Institution, and yet there is no subject on which we hurt each other's feelings more than on this. Alas !-
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