ading the other day a book of essays by one of
our leading young latitudinarian divines, in which he was most
anxious to prove that Our Lord had all the graces of a well-bred
young man about town, including a pretty wit. He actually claimed
that the pun on Peter's name was an example of Our Lord's urbane
and genial humour! It gives away the latitudinarian position
completely. They're really ashamed of Christianity. They want to
bring it into line with modern thought. They hope by throwing
overboard the Incarnation, the Resurrection of the Body, and the
Ascension, to lighten the ship so effectually that it will ride
buoyantly over the billows of modern knowledge. But however lightly
the ship rides, she will still be at sea, and it would be the
better if she struck on the rock of Peter and perished than that
she should ride buoyantly but aimlessly over the uneasy oceans of
knowledge.

I've once more got a long way from the subject of my letter, but
I've always taken advantage of your patience to air my theories,
and when I begin to write to you my pen runs away with me. The
point I want to make is that unless there is a mother house which
is going to create a reserve of spiritual energy, the active work
of the Order is going to suffer. The impulse to save souls might
easily exhaust itself in the individual. A few disappointments,
unceasing hard work, the interference of a bishop, the failure of
financial support, a long period in which his work seems to have
come to a standstill, all these are going to react on the
individual missioner who depends on himself. Looking back now at
the work done by my father, and by Rowley at Chatsea, I'm beginning
to understand how dangerous it is for one man to make himself the
pivot of an enterprise. I only really know about my father's work
at second hand, but look at Chatsea. I hear now that already the
work is falling to pieces. Although that may not justify the Bishop
of Silchester, I'm beginning to see that he might argue that if
Rowley had shown himself sufficiently humble to obey the forces of
law and order in the Church, he would have had accumulated for him
a fresh store of energy from which he might have drawn to
consolidate his influence upon the people with whom he worked.
Anyway, that's what I'm goi