LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.]

THE CLERGY AND MILITARY SERVICE.

[To THE EDITOR OF TUE " SPECTITOR."1 SIE,—I must own myself one of those who regretted the exemption of the clergy from military service, and who finds himself confirmed in his regret by all that has happened since the point was determined. But I have hitherto held my peace on the subject, because as myself too old for service in the ranks, and therefore personally untouched by the decision, I have shrunk from entering into its discussion. Now. however, I begin to hope that the whole subject may be reconsidered, and therefore I beg leave to offer a few considerations.

The late Bishop of Exeter states the case for exemption as well as it could be stated, and I am quite willing to allow that it is a case which from some points of view may well be thought

irresistible. Nevertheless I think it fails when closely considered. The analogy with the medical profession is more plausible than just. Doctors and surgeons can only use their hardly won skill

in the case of the sick and wounded. Therefore their place is

where the sick and wounded are to be found—namely, at the dressing-stations and the hospitals, not in the firing-line. The clergyman is in another case altogether. The technical part of his equipment is trivial enough. Any man of average intelligence can master it easily in a week. It may be doubted whether the life of a military chaplain is any more favourable to theological study than life in the ranks. The pastoral efficiency, which is the mark of a good clergyman, can only be slowly gained in the school of experience; and that school may well be more amply provided

in the ranks than elsewhere. The clergyman's service must be rendered to men wherever they are, and best when they are in situations of danger and stress. Therefore his chief desire, and

the only privilege he can rightly claim, is to have contact with men. Anything that bars him off from contact is hostile to his ministry. "The work of the clergy, whether at home or at the front," says the Bishop, " is to win souls to God, and that is no light task." True. but is it rendered lighter by placing the clergy iu a position of invidious privilege? A Church which has pressed on its lay members the duty of fighting cannot possibly hold that there is any real inconsistency between military service as such and the Christian ministry. There cannot be two moral standards, one for the laity, and one for the clergy.

Contact with men is the primary condition of spiritual ministry; their respect is hardly less than primary. Both conditions are secured by the service of the clergy in the ranks. One is endangm'ed, the other is destroyed, by their exemption. It is significant that those chaplains who wield the most considerable spiritual influence appear to be precisely those who insist on going outside the conventional limits of chaplain's work, and sharing frankly the risks and hardships of the troops. No Church can be indifferent to the prestige of its clergy. It seems to me quite evident that the exemption of the clergy from military service has dealt a heavy blow to their prestige at home, whatever may be the ease at the front.

That the military authorities desire to maintain the existing isolation of the clergy proves nothing, but only provides another illustration of the well-known reluctance of military authorities 0 depart from the grooves of tradition. Such isolation may have been harmless enough when there was no civic obligation of

military service, but its whole meaning and character have been changed by the Military Service Act. It cannot surely be main- tained that the clergyman's civic duty is less than the layman's, or that the standard of his self-sacrifice for the country is lower.

What impresses the people at home is the statutory exclusion of the clergy from the burden and danger of military service.

This invidious distinction becomes ever more invidious as the strain of the war extends the claim of the State to classes and categories of men on whom military service hears hardly. The position of a healthy clergyman of military age in his parish is certainly very uncomfortable, very questionable, very difficult to justify. He represents the religion of self-sacrifice; he presses the duty of service; he proclaims the moral significance of this tremendous conflict; he preaches a crusade; but all the while he himself stands apart, ignobly exempt from the loss and hardship and danger of the conflict. How can the paradox be made toler-

able? " Take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men," said St. Paul. I must needs think that if the Apostle's injunction had been heeded by the leaders of the Church of England, they would not have brought the clergy into such an embarrassing situation.

We older men who are unfit for service feel sometimes as if we were, in spite of ourselves, immersed in the shame of an unworthy failure; but at least we have no choice, and we form no exception. We stand with our lay contemporaries, claiming no exemption; and provoking no protest. We must do what we can as opportunity offers, and, for the rest, silently dedicate ourselves to a more generous self-surrender to public service when the war ends, and peace restores to us the normal opportunities of our work. .Far different is the case of the younger clergy, who find themselves, even in spite of their wishes and in the teeth of their convictions, coerced into a situation of humiliating privilege, compelled to "abide uith the stuff," when " the battle is in the gate," and the good cause needs champions.

I cannot help thinking that a grave mistake has been made, and a formidable obstacle to spiritual work added to the many which now perplex and sadden the English clergy. I suspect that anew and potent factor adverse to recruiting for the ministry has been brought on the scene. Why should the clergy be legally certified as the only Englishmen who need not be ready to die for England in the hour of England's danger? What generous youth aflame, with patriotic sentiment will be able to endure such an exclusion from the national life ? Is it too late to reopen the question, and, perhaps, amend a too hastily drawn Act?—I am, Sir, &c..