to some discussions, but neither it nor Dr. Schafer's utterances on the origin of life (British Association, Dundee 1912) stirred the waters to any extent. The general position of biblical scholarship is well illustrated by Peake's Commentary on the Bible, to which not only Free Churchmen but several Anglicans contributed. Dr. Buchanan Gray has (continuing the work of Dr. Driver) provided a monumental commentary on Job. Per- haps the outstanding work on theology is Dr. R. S. Franks' History of the Doctrine of the Work of Christ (1918). Popular clamour during the war against German theological works had no echo among scholars. The younger men were becoming busily concerned with the application of the Gospel to the conditions of the post- war world; their activity is illustrated in The Christian Revolution series and the publications of the Student Christian Movement. Two books by Dr. T. R. Glover, of Cambridge, The Jesus of History and Jesus in the Experience of Men, have had a wide circulation.
There is no disposition among those churches that dispense with formal creeds to introduce anything of the kind, and where confessions are already in existence the tendency is to modify and adjust them, or to regard them as declaratory rather than binding. Thus the English Presbyterian Church has revised the statement of Church principles made at the ordination of ministers, and the form of the questions put to the candidate, the aim being to lay more emphasis on the minister's message and less on his theory. Similar steps were being taken in 1921 by the U.F. Church in Scotland. On the other hand, proposed unions of Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the dominions involve the last-named denomination in a confession or creed, or at least a statement of faith which in most cases would be accepted for the sake of union. The war gave rise to some discussion on prayers for the dead, and it may be said generally that the old rigidity has given way here to a more open-minded spirit. It is sufficient merely to mention other discussions raised by the war providence, patriotism, conscience, reprisals, eschatology which found expression in books and still more in pamphlets.
Union and Federation. Looking for a moment to the over- seas dominions, which in so many ways have developed their impact on the home land, far-reaching movements had come by 1921 into operation. The Baptists, indeed, stoutly maintained their distinctive witness, and were disinclined toward schemes of amalgamation. But both in Australia and Canada Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists were steadily approximating. The first-named Church, not so unanimous as the others, did not give a sufficiently decisive vote in Australia in the autumn of 1920, but negotiations, accompanied by a large measure of cooperation, still continued. In Canada also the Presbyterians had been the most cautious, but in June 1921, by a majority of about 400 to 100, they agreed to union with the other two bodies. In New Zealand Congregationalists were being absorbed into the Presbyterian Church. In the mission fields, especially in South India and to some extent in China, the movement was much more successful, and included Episcopalians. In East Africa the Kikuyu controversy (in which the Bishop of Zanzibar dissociated himself from his brethren of Mombasa and Uganda for their fellowship with non-Episcopal missionaries in an attempt at union in face of Moslem aggression) created some unpleasantness, but a modus operandi was found. In Great Britain, apart from Scotland, it cannot be said that any new organic union was in 1921 actually in sight. For some years past the three next Methodist connexions (Wesleyan, Primitive and United) had been exploring avenues to union. Among the difficulties were the proportion of lay to clerical representation in Conference, and the relative priority of representative and pastoral sessions. Some Wesleyan leaders felt that the con- templated union might prejudice the case for the larger union. It seemed possible that Primitives and Methodists might come together apart from Wesleyans, but probable that patient con- tinuance would secure the triple bond.
Meanwhile the overlapping of Free Churches in smaller towns and villages made for weakness, and caused concern to the
leaders of the different denominations; and it was with the design of securing closer cooperation that Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, when president of the National Free Church Council at Bradford, 1916, propounded a scheme for federating the Evangelical Free Churches of England, which was afterwards accomplished. The federation differed from the National F.C. Council in that its executive members were appointed by the conferences or assemblies of the different communions, and its aims and objects were specifically moral and spiritual. Alongside this there was increasing cooperation in the mission field, in social service and in the training of ministers, especially in the theo- logical faculties at London and Manchester. One of the most impressive demonstrations of the Free Church unity was the thanksgiving service after the Armistice, in the Albert Hall, London, at which the King and Queen were present.
Relations with the Anglican Church. In spite of some tension caused by the question of Welsh disestablishment and the com- memoration in 1912 of the ejectment of 1662, there was between 1910 and 1920 a decided growth of sympathetic and amicable feeling between the Anglican and the Free Churches and no small amount of cooperation. British Nonconformists still believed that they were entitled to more real recognition at State fes- tivals, and valued the fellowship exemplified at the installation of the Prince of Wales at Carnarvon in July 1911. In the academic world, churchmen of all denominations worked together in harmony and full trust on the theological boards of the newer universities; and the removal of the restrictions on divinity degrees at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham was warmly appreciated. The placing of a Bunyan memorial window in Westminster Abbey, and its joint dedication by the Dean and representatives of the Free Churches, was a happy sign of the time. During the war, chaplains of both sides learned to appreciate each other and worked happily together, and the same stress did much to bridge the chasms at home. United services of intercession and thanksgiving were frequent, and created a new sense of fellowship. The action of the Bishop of Hereford (Percival) in inviting Nonconformists to a coronation commun- ion service in the cathedral in 1911 was in advance of common Anglican sentiment, but the fact that Dr. Jowett preached in Durham cathedral in 1920 (at the invitation of the bishop, Dr. Moule), and Bishop Welldon, Dean of Durham, in Westminster chapel in 1921 was significant. The Lambeth proposals indeed rather deprecated any such pulpit exchanges, though it might seem, as Dr. Wallace Williamson intimated to the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Church of Scotland Assembly in May 1921, in the light of Scottish experience, that they pave the way to union more surely than theoretical discussions.
The Lambeth proposals were discussed in nearly all the " supreme courts " of the Free Churches and by the Federation of Free Churches, and received sympathetic and friendly con- sideration. Free Churchmen were not slow to indicate certain ambiguities of utterance in the proposals and to assert the impossibility of accepting reordination. But in 1921 they were coming to see that the Lambeth proposals were not an ultimatum so much as an appeal to " come and reason together." It was possible that along the line of this idea of " extended com- mission " the difficult question of reordination might be avoided. It was great gain that the proposals did not contemplate the absorption of non-Episcopal communions in the Episcopal fold, but the Anglican leaders had hardly yet made that detailed study of the history and principles and genius of nonconforming Churches that seemed essential to any realization of their sug- gestions. Many Nonconformists would require a readjustment of the relations of the Anglican Church to the State, and many more looked askance at any proposal involving relationship with the Roman or Greek Churches. Meanwhile there were abun- dant opportunities for united service which did not entail the least abandonment of conviction and principle on either side. In the mission field, in theological study and in social service, there was already manifest in 1921 a degree of cooperation and fellowship which was full of promise for the consummation of a unity that need not be confounded with uniformity.
