ABSTRACT
THE average layman of the present day is often accused of being indifferent to religion. But the allegation as worded seems to me untrue, unless by 'laymen' is understood the masses weighed down by extreme penury. With full enthusiasm for religion, a reformer might say to professional Churchmen:-You really cannot continue to expect people to wade continually through so much mediaeval and ecclesiastical lore. The American Church has modified some of the features characteristic of the Anglican Liturgy; and its authorised Prayer Book contains interesting minor variations; all of which are devised in the interests of elasticity and freedom, yet subject to a commendable spirit of conservatism. The fact is, the conventional English Church Service, or eclectic admixture of combined services, is too long; and, as I think, too mechanical. To Ecclesiasticism people are in different, and they do not in any great number go to church.
