RELIGIOUS TEACHING AT OXFORD.
[To THE EDITOR OF TSR " SPECTATOR."]
Sia,—Your correspondent, " Oxoniensis," raises a larger ques- tion than he seems to know, and furnishes an answer which he seems not to observe. The question is, "How can a University,. national in the broadest sense, and, therefore, necessarily eman- cipated from the distinctive religious tenets of any denomina- tion of Christians, continue to be a teacher of 'true religion,' as well as of I sound learning'?"
The answer is given in the admission of " Oxoniensis " him- self. A certain party deplored the Act of 1871 as the death- blow to religion in Oxford; here is your correspondent saying, and saying very truly, that "parish churches have a more numerous attendance of Undergraduates than was ever known before." I can say the same of other Churches which are not parish churches. The Oxford of to-day, to some extent freed from the narrowness and exclusiveness which were once her pride, is incomparably more serious, more earnest, more pro- foundly religious, than the Oxford of undisputed clerical pre- dominance and artificial tests and subscriptions.
When will men of your correspondent's school learn that the Spirit of God is the guarantee of religion, and not a number of antiquated restrictions, er a series of Articles which represent.
mainly the deserted lines of valuable, but long-forgotten con- troversies P There is much which I should like to say in reference to a recent contest in Convocation, but your readers must be growing weary of that incredible "storm in a teapot." Of this larger issue, incidentally raised, they will not, I trust, grow weary, until English Churchmen, following your lead, have learnt that " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty ;" and, further, that " where the Spirit of the Lord is," there is the all-sufficient and the sole guarantee not only of religion, but of orthodoxy in faith.—I am, Sir, &c.,
New College, Oxford, January lit. Roszer F. HORTON.
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