To the Editor of the "Norra-Curxa Darty News."
Sir,—There is a statement in the last Cathedral Notes which, uncorrected, may give a very wrong impression.
The writer says, "It is certainly a fact that so far as the substance of his faith is concerned one wem-ber of the Church of England has no chance of guessing within miles of accuracy what his fellow churchman feels himself pledged to believe."
If such a state of things really exists in the Church of England, it is quite inexcusable, and must be traced to some most extraordinary defect of knowledge or of conscience.
Everyone who is admitted by baptism into the Church of England is asked whether he believes in the Articles of the Apostle's Creed, and answers to this re-hearsay, "All this I steadfastly believe." He is then asked whether he is "willing to be baptized in the faith," and replies "That is my, desire."
The sponsors are enjoined to see that, "'so soon as he shall be able to learn," the baptized infant is taught "what a solemn profession he has made" by them.
A Catechism. is provided for this purpose, in which the child asked, Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe as they promised for thee?" and the child is taught to reply, ''Yes, verily, and by God's help, so I will," and to thank God for the saving knowledge, and to pray for grace to continue in it to life's end.
At Confirmation he renews "in the presence of God and of the congregation'"' the solemn promise made in his name at Baptism, and "acknowledges himself as bound te believe and do all those things" which his godparents then undertook for him.
What possible question can there be when a member of the Church of England is ''pledged to believe?" And further, lest he forget, and so that he may always "'feel himself pledged," he is called upon at every occasion of Common Prayer to repeat his baptismal confession faith.
But perhaps it may be urged that while all use the same words to confess their faith, it is impossible for anyone to "guess within miles of accuracy"' what others may mean by those words.
Now it may_be very true that when "men who are accepted as scholars and hold eminent positions in the Church" in this twentieth -century "endeavour to preserve the-one true faith in terms of modern thought and in a manner congenial to the modern mind," the result is that "the average Churchman is hopelessly at sea in the subtleties of their language."
But the Apostle's Creed was framed originally to express those convictions which led ordinary men and women to forsake all and follow Christ. That supreme crisis in their lives called not for subtle ties of language, but for plain
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.