RELIGION OF THE VILLAGE 188 



live party are usually regarded as recognized 

 supporters of the Establishment. But when 

 grotesquely unjust Bills are brought forward 

 to evict and imprison the clergy by hundreds, 

 and replace the stone altar of Westminster 

 Abbey by a wooden structure, the attack is 

 led by the soi-disant champions of the Church 

 and repelled largely by the assistance of fair- 

 minded Gallios and reverent agnostics on the 

 Liberal and Labour benches. In our country 

 parishes a High Churchman is rarely under- 

 stood and frequently misrepresented. Many a 

 parish priest recites his daily matins and even- 

 song in an empty church. In other parishes 

 you will find the large church a quarter full 

 on Sunday morning while the rector walks 

 up the aisle behind a gilt cross and five little 

 boys in purple cassocks. There is real pathos 

 in this failure to be intelligible on the part of 

 the clergyman who from real conviction has 

 striven to invest his services with a measure 

 of beauty and diginity. 



In summary then, we see that the Church 

 of England is in a position, so far as outward 

 circumstances are concerned, of infinitely 

 greater influence than the Nonconformist 

 bodies. It has a representative in every 

 parish, charged with the care of every soul 

 within its borders. Its ministers constitute 



