By the Bishop of London's dispensation, churchmen of that diocese who are serving with the colours are exempted from the Lenten rule of fasting. The rest of the diocese is dispensed from it except on Fridays. The vicar of a leading London Church very reasonably deprecates any resolution to abstain from concerts and theatres this Lent, so that people may be free to accompany soldier relatives on leave, The Bishop of Oxford assures his people that we never shall have better reason than that supplied by the present state of the world for keeping a good Lent. Dr. Gore has recently been in France, Alike in towns and villages, on weeks and Sundays, he has been struck by the way in which men, women, and children have responded to the call to prayer. Especially he noticied the increased emphasis which is being laid by the Church in France on frequent and daily communion. In many churches the notice runs that this is "the normal rule of the true Christian." The degree of preparation' for Communion must be according to each one's circumstances, and infirm people are dispensed from fasting before Communion. A great number of oommunicants are seen daily approaching the altars in France—a notable change in the usual practice.
Dr. Figgis' preaching before the University of Cambridge on "a new heaven and a new earth," said that conventional religion has long been dying; this war will bury it. All the compromises, the half-lights, and half-tones, the suggestive accommodations, the drab proprieties, the sentimental veneer, natural at one time, will be swept away. Because religion is the most poignant and far-reaching of human interests, the Church's influence is deep and penetrating. She is universal in her appeal, preserving a monizing all the values of religion.
Compulsory chapel is a thing of the past at the universities. But the Church is strong in the colleges. At Cambridge the Dean is nowadays less of " mere disciplinarian and more of a pastor. Trinity College now has on Sundays a late sung Eucharist. The new chapel for Bidney Sussex will have the significant feature of two side-chapels. Undergraduate choirs, chapels left open for meditation, or used for special services in preparation for Communion, are all customary.
An instructive discussion on the increasing neglect of Sunday evensong, at least in some parishes, has riginal fron 7
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.