ontinue to be the official representative of
religion in the nation. But I would urge that when these points are
discussed the question should also be considered whether, in a nation
the great majority in which profess to be Christian, the State ought not
to make profession of the Christian religion, which involves its
establishment in some form, and whether there are not substantial
benefits especially of an educative kind to be derived therefrom for the
nation at large; and if so how this can in existing circumstances be
suitably done. It should be remembered that in many cases the
forefathers of those who are now separated from the National Church did
not hold that a connexion between Church and State under any form was
wrong; but on the contrary their idea of a true and complete national
life included one. I think it is well to recall the view in this matter
of men of another time. It is desirable that we should make our
consideration of the whole subject of Church and State as broad as we
can, and that we should strive not to be carried away into accepting
some solution which at the moment seems the easiest, when with a little
patience some better and truer one might be found possible.

(2) The other barrier to which I have referred is the claim of the
Church of England to a continuity of faith and life with the faith and
life of the Church Universal from the beginning, maintained in the first
place through a Ministry the members of which have in due succession
received their commission by means of the Historic Episcopate, and,
secondly, through the acknowledgment of certain early and widely
accepted creeds. This continuity was reasserted when the Church of
England started on her new career at the Reformation, though at the same
time the necessity was then strongly insisted on of testing the purity
and soundness of the Church's faith and forms of worship by Holy
Scripture. These guarantees and means of continuity are valued in very
different degrees by different sections of opinion in the Church of
England, and some who attach comparatively little importance to matters
of organisation would attach great importance to the formularies of
belief. But there can be no doubt that any steps which appeared
seriously to compromise the preservation of the great features of the
Church of England in either of these respects would cause deep
disturbance among her members. On the other hand, it will be readily
understood by all