THE " GANGRENE IN CONGREGATIONALISM."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. 1
Sin,—Referring to your article under this title, will you permit one of the minority, whose numbers you have unwittingly under- rated, to point out that the majority in carrying the resolutions, raw and ill-chosen " as the terms of them were, have not attempted to perform the surgical operation of which you speak ? Some, at any rate, of our leading men, notably Mr. R. W. Dale, expressly pleaded for liberty in expressing the faith of the denomination, in order that they might be more generous in allow- ing men who had intellectually lost that faith still to remain amongst us. And this feeling was, I think, pretty prevalent in the assembly. At least, I know that some of the foremost advo- Cates of the resolutions thought that, if they passed, nothing more would be necessary. And I have not yet heard that any one has left the Congregational body in consequence of the action of the Union, and I am sure that any attempt to turn any one out of it will meet with a still sharper opposition.
That, under the influence of an unworthy panic, resolutions have been passed that will before many months are over be regretted by many who have supported them with enthusiasm, I have no doubt, but it is idle for us Liberals to complain that sometimes our very freedom allows the current of popular opinion to press hardly upon us. We can afford to wait ; and if some of us who have taken an active part in the controversy have to know a little of the bitter loneliness of being thought heretics by our fellows, it will do us no harm. The time will quickly come when our position will be vindicated. I, at any rate, still believe that Congregationalists will remain the freest of those Churchmen who have not lost their faith in the historic verities of Christianity. It is easy for those who feel that one doctrine is as good as another to be tolerant, but in such tolerance there is little virtue. —I am, Sir, &c.,
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