I do not imagine that many Deans and Canons dome the honour of Yeading this column, but it ix none the fess a pleasure to see that the House of Convocation of Canterbury wishes to revise the Church Lection-
11 itis sad 10 revista dearly-loved hommes ts "doubly ade tore Dcecont att atate attroodings 'The Duke and Duchess. of Kent Who Have Jute spent a shor! Notay wih Prince Edvard and' Princes' Alex andre at Coppins, must be sorry. 10 part with their delightful country cently. ary about which T was writing Te-[home. His: tobe. sold before they Canon Anthony, Deane of Windsor said that 16 years' uso of the present Lectionary had revealed a number of blemishes which ought to be corrected, much that was read in church on Sunday was unsuitable, and many, noble passages were never read at all. The Dean of Winchester said that some of the now appointed lessons were "dull, unintelligible and in certain cases disastrous." And the Rev. M. 0. Hodson of Chelmsford said that "the clergy were often called upon to read verses which they could not Tead and which were certainly beyond. the congregation."
When I was a child the Old Testament Lessons at least (in respect of the New Testament greater latitude is allowed) were much more exciting than they are now, I do not think we ever get now the splendid story Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Some of the chapters chosen seem to convey a very bad moral, for example Jacob's cheating Esau out of hic birthright, And some books, Ezra and Nehemiah, for instance, which are particularly interesting "are hardly ead at all, while the fragments taken from the lives of notable characters ore unintelligible to many' readers without the context. remember one clergyman who! used (0 pick out characters from the Old Testament of whom most people have never heard and preach the most illuminating sermons about them. Might it not -be a good idea if the whole history of any particular char acter, Abraham, Saul, Elijah, Heze-Keiah,' ete, and' certainly Ruth Esther), were read continuously on, successive Sundays, with accompany ing comment in the auld probably encourage the ion to wider reading 0 eave for Australia in the autumn, the price the Duke ix asking for' the estate being £45,000.
Forty-five thousand pounds may sound a considerable sum for a country home, but the Duke has made of Coppins a muck more attractive place than it was when he took it fever. As well as improvements 10 the house itself, with only occasional assistance he has felled trees, cleared away shrubs and given the' gardens more air and sunshine, Australians will be impressed when they find how adept the Duke is at this sort of work. Both he and his wife know how 10 use the bushman's 3
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.