THE EJECTMENT OF 1662.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15552, 6 September 1912, Page 8

THE EJECTMENT OF 1662.

TO THE EDITOR. Si.ii,-C'anon Cuizon-Siggcrs complains that my let-tor docs not answer his. I fail lo sco it. His ovident that his senso of proportion and mine aro different. Jlu makes much of details which are immaterial to the main point, whilo I endeavour to concentrate attention upon the broad facts and the great priniciplos in question. L can assure the Canon that it is consideration for himself and an iimvillingnca> to say anything more than is absolutely necessary for tho elucidation of tho principles for which tho Puritans contended and suffered that has prevented me from answering, as (hey might be answered, his strictures upon the severity shown by the Puritans to tho Anglicans. If a Scotsman woro to let himself go on this line, there would be somo sparks flying. My allusion lo the cloment in Iho Book 'of Common Prayer from Presbyterian sources was prompted by a desire to show that that admirable compilation is not so exclusively English and Anglican as a certain strange insularity leads somo persons lo assume. If the adjective I used was not tlm most appropriate, I might substitute two others, which, I think, will be beyond question: "considerable" and "important." . , The Canon continues to glory in the isolation of his Church and to cherish the hope that this isolation will make for ultiiimto comprehension. Well, I trust lam fully alive to the force of paradoxes and ready to admit the conccivablcness of excusiveness, under certain circumstances, proving the true wuy to satisfactory inclusivoness. In this enso, however, the test of the actual event so far points in a quite contrary direction. To begin with, no national Church has so conspicuously failed as has tin; Anglican to hold together iicr own people; and charity begins at homo. And, when members of the Anglican Church have gone further afield in the effort, to further Church unity, their efforts have been singularly futile. When tho Pope has been approached be has said (I quote, iis nearly"as I can remember Ihcm. his exact words), "Your orders are absolutely null and utterly void." Then the Eastern Churches have boon looked to for sympathy. It is true that the Eastern Churches are for the most pail deplorably lacking in vitality and associated with types of civilisation which mako the rest of Christendom blush; but then they have diocesan bishops claiming lo control tho channels of Divine grace, and thercforo it seems right to turn one's back upon tho brilliant scholarship and spiritual progrcssivencss and advanced civilisation of evangelical Christendom and approach those venerable, but senile Churches with overtures of friendship. Rut what say Ihc venerable Churches? The Patriarch of Constantinople has. never so much as heard of the Archbishop of Canterbury ! So, at least, he says. And the Holy Synod ol Russia, through its donuly rrocurator : plainly informs the Anglican petitioner that he must first reconcile himself to his own Patriarch, the Pope, before his communication can be even received.

Tlic Hob: Synod touched Iho spot. " Reconcile yourself lo votir own Patriarch." If the Cliurch of Kngland is determiner! to hold aloof from the rest of reformed Christendom, that is her logical courso of action. If. one tlie other hand, she is determined, in accordance with her 39 articles, to be a Reformed Church, sho canot but deplore the Act of Uniformity as n.n unfortunate inheritance from n troublesome chapter in her history and seek to have it repealed. That millions within her rale are. of the latter mind is a consolation to us who from other communions admire her many excellences—it may be. sorno even of her peculiar excellences—and long for closer fellowship villi hr-r in the, interest.? of that, fuller Church unity for which all risiht-mirided people pray.

Sacerdotalism and evangelicalism can never lileml. Tho ultiniivto Church must be either cdiisistcntlv facordotal or consistently evangelical. Home stands for the one position, the Reformed (or Presbyterian) Church (or the other.—l tun, clc,

W. Ghat Dixox,