[To the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—If, as Mr. P.
Kennard Davis suggests, the Rev. P. M. Gedge is going contrary to one of the 39 Articles by
advocating the doctrine of non-resistance in war, it by no means follows that he is contravening either the spirit or the letter of Christ's teaching. But no church—nbt even an established one—can serve both God and Mammon, nor should its clergy be expected to make the attempt. The honest course for a State church whose laws are contrary to the spirit and teachings of the religion which it professes to uphold is either to alter those laws or to insist on disestab-
lishrnent. Meanwhile a priest with a conscience may well consider that his allegiance to his professed religion, and that of his church, transcends his allegiance to the State. If he thinks otherwise he is no true minister of religion but a mere civil servant.
The doctrine of passive resistance to all force, like the Christian religion itself, is typically eastern and barely under- stood or appreciated by the west, but if all the western churches would preach it and attempt to bring about its literal acceptance, the thought of war, based as it is on neuroses or " devils," would soon become intolerable.—
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