THE DECAY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.
[To THE EDrfOR OP TEE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your review of Mr. McCabe's book on "The Decay of the Church of Rome" in the issue of August 28th is sure to interest every reader of the Spectator. But it requires to be remembered that the Roman Catholic Church is not alone in the matter of declension. The Church of England, a body difficult to measure, yet tested by the numbers presenting themselves for Confirmation, by the dearth of curates, and by the testimony of her clergy, is declining. The Wesleyan Church for some years in succession has made a similar complaint, and has issued pastorals on the subject,—the complaint is general. On the Continent the position is still worse. I have it on the authority of two leading German pastors that only about four per cent. of the population of leading towns attend the Protestant churches. The cause of this general declension is not far to seek. Knowledge has vastly increased, the general public have become informed in advance of the clergy and the ministers of the Churches. These causes operate in two ways among Protestants : the most orthodox keep on expounding the Scriptures and theology after the twilight information of the Reformers; the advanced thinkers, equally ill-informed in modern knowledge, have adopted a system of criticism fatal to genuine religious faith. As the Rev. Archibald Brown has said, "even the man in the street has now heard that the Bible is not tree, and that is just what he wanted to hear, so there is an end of mis- sionising him." The conditions to which we are drifting are most terrible to contemplate. When a people lose all sense of moral obligation, of accountability to God, then Governments
and laws become themselves powerless for good, yea, even become instruments for evil. The Roman statesman con- fessed the great utility of even the gods.—I am, Sir. &c.,
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