CONCLUSION. 365 



I am not in mind to write of anything- else. You ask for my 

 health. I have nothing new to say. I suppose I am better, but 

 easily tired and puffed, and sometimes with a throat. 



To Miss Harvey, New York. 



4 Winton Boad, Dublin, November 23rd, 1865. 

 Some long time ago you wrote me about the Greek service 

 held at your Trinity Church, and asked me to say what I thought 

 of it. I am no theologian, but, like many persons in the present 

 day, I should rejoice to see Christians of all denominations 

 united so far as to be able to worship together, still allowing to 

 every man his liberty of conscience in smaller matters. There 

 is a prayer in our book (not in yours 1 believe) in the office for 

 the Queen's Accession (20th of June) called "a prayer for unity." 

 If you can get an English prayer-book just look at it. We are 

 so fond of it that we read it every Sunday morning in our 

 family prayers. It is a golden prayer, and so beautiful, you will 

 love it also and perhaps use it. As to the Greek Church, you 

 know that the only essential difference between her doctrine and 

 that of our own Church is in an article of the Creed — the proces- 

 sion of the Holy Ghost, which she declares is " from the Father," 

 we from the " Father and the Son." Is this a cause sufficient to 

 break the unity of the Church ? Nine-tenths or more of the 

 clergy, and a vast majority of the laity, would probably say it 

 is ; and if it be, it is irreconcilable, the Eastern and Western 

 Churches are severed for ever. So they are, so long as the pre- 

 sent dogmatic symbols are retained. But I trust and pray that 

 a day may come when men may see that doctrines which are far 

 above the grasp of the highest human mind are unfit to be made 

 tests of orthodoxy or badges of a party. To fight for the 

 Western view of the doctrine appears to us to be clearly taught 

 in Scripture. It does not appear to be so taught to the Eastern 

 mind. Each Church regards its opinion with equal reverence ; each 

 seeks equally to honour God in the view she takes. Who shall 

 judge between them ? Is it a subject which it is absolutely 

 necessary to form an opinion on, on pain of rejection at the 

 last day ? I cannot think it is, nor do I think that either party 

 (Western or Eastern) can with all their learning and skill, get 

 beyond the mere outer shell or husk of the doctrine. It involves 



