238 THE VERY EEV. H. WAGE, D.D., ON AUTHORITY. 



long as it requires nothing of me which I may be persuaded on my 

 conscience is absokitely contrary to the law of God ! " The 

 authority in religious matters immediately over me is my parish 

 priest. Am I to submit myself dutifully to him? Is it to be to 

 the vicar of the parish in which I reside, or the clergyman of the 

 church to which I go, or am I wrong in going anywhere but to my 

 parish church 1 



Again, I am perplexed on pages 229 and 230. The English Church 

 and State are in conflict on the law of marriage. Is it suggested 

 that on such a vital matter there should be " reasonable mutual 

 deference"? Is the deference to be also shown in America, or are 

 the rules which are suggested for guidance only of local application 1 



I suggest with all deference to the learned Dean that more stress 

 might have been laid upon the necessity of private judgment when 

 dealing with the commandments of men, provided that we first 

 acknowledge our need for the personal direction of the conscience 

 by our Lord Himself. 



Lastly, I do not think that justice is shown to those churchmen 

 who, differing from the Dean, have opposed what they deem to be 

 State encroachments into the sphere of religion. They have opposed 

 the authority of the State because they conscientiously believe it to 

 be an usurped authority, and there is very little doubt that such 

 resistance on the part of churchmen must increase when we have 

 judges calmly informing us, as one did in the case of Banister v. 

 Thompson, that the law of God varied according to Act of Parlia- 

 ment. It is not likely that any churchman who believes in the 

 "Holy Catholic Church" of the Apostles' Creed will substitute for 

 it the Houses of Parliament. 



Bishop Thornton writes : — The Dean of Canterbury's paper on 

 authority is very timely and interesting. A special question it 

 raises is. What, for a Christian, is the supreme criterion of religious 

 truth and duty 1 The answer must be that which the paper 

 implies : the mind and will of God. He is bound to act on his 

 conviction of what that is. And the organ through which that 

 authority speaks to him is his own deliberate private judgment. 

 In the absence of miraculous manifestations of it, the ultimate right 

 to decide what God's mind and will is on any particular point of 

 truth and duty must rest with the individual, and cannot be 

 abdicated. " Him only shalt thou serve " : on questions of right 



