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diff --git a/42716-0.txt b/42716-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..363c1c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/42716-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8383 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Recollections of a Long Life, by John +Stoughton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Recollections of a Long Life + + +Author: John Stoughton + + + +Release Date: May 16, 2013 [eBook #42716] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE*** + + +Transcribed from the 1894 Hodder and Stoughton edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org. + + + + + + RECOLLECTIONS OF A + LONG LIFE + + + * * * * * + + BY + JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D + + AUTHOR OF “ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND,” “STARS OF THE EAST,” + ETC., ETC. + + * * * * * + + London + HODDER AND STOUGHTON + 27, PATERNOSTER ROW + + * * * * * + + MDCCCXCIV + + * * * * * + + * * * * * + + Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. + + * * * * * + + THIS VOLUME OF RECOLLECTIONS + IS DEDICATED + TO MY LIFE-LONG FRIEND + THE REV. JOSHUA CLARKSON HARRISON, + WHOSE WISDOM HAS AIDED ME IN PERPLEXITY, + WHOSE SYMPATHY HAS CHEERED MY SORROWS + AND ENHANCED MY JOYS, + AND WHOSE CONSTANT FRIENDSHIP HAS BEEN + THE PRIVILEGE OF MY FAMILY + AS WELL AS MYSELF. + + J. S. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT + + +MORE than forty years ago I edited the autobiography of the Rev. W. +Walford. This book, which fully answers to its name, is a remarkable +production, entering into the secrets of the author’s soul, unveiling the +struggles and sorrows of a mysterious experience. + +The work now published is of a very different kind. It really relates to +others more than to myself, and brings within view some incidents of +religious history and aspects of personal character more interesting than +any confined to my own experience. It presents associations during a +long period spent in various work, in distant journeys, and in friendly +intercourse with many distinguished persons. + +I enter into no theological discussion, or any relation of spiritual +conflicts, the results of such introspection, as the autobiography of my +departed friend describes. I only give recollections of what I have seen +and heard, especially in relation to those whom it has been my privilege +to regard as more or less intimate friends. + +It was just after retirement from Kensington that I began to gather up +the following reminiscences, with a permission that my family might +publish them after my decease. They were then put aside, and not looked +at for years. + +Within the last few months it has struck me that so many likely to feel +an interest in my Recollections have passed away, and others are so far +advanced in life, that if the publication be longer delayed, few indeed +will be left likely to feel any interest in my narrative. + +Conscious of failures in memory at my advanced age, I have availed myself +of memoranda made when travelling, long before any book of this kind was +contemplated. + +I have been greatly helped in this volume by my dear daughter, with whom +I reside, who has frequently accompanied me in my travels, and been my +valued secretary at home. Without her aid I could not have brought these +Recollections through the press. + +TUNBRIDGE WELLS, + _January_, 1894. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I + 1807–1828 + PAGE +Birth and boyhood in Norwich—Education—My mother—Early 1–18 +tastes—First sight of the sea—Public events—Early +studies—Roman Catholicism—Friendships—Religious +change—The Christian ministry—College days + CHAPTER II + 1828–1832 +Fellow-students—Public excitements—Old House of 19–38 +Commons—William IV.—Popular preachers in London: Daniel +Wilson, Rowland Hill, James Parsons, Irving, Dr. +Chalmers—Monthly lectures—Work amongst the poor—Political +excitement + CHAPTER III + 1832–1837 +First sight of Windsor—Anecdotes of George III.—Rev. A. 39–58 +Redford—New chapel and ordination—Bishop Selwyn—Funeral +of William IV.—Queen Victoria’s coronation and +wedding—Chaplainship to a Highland regiment—Eton +Montem—Windsor Auxiliary to Bible Society—Queen’s +patronage—Windsor a century ago—Eton Institute—Early +friendships + CHAPTER IV + 1837–1843 +Sir Culling Eardley and tent preaching—Case of 59–75 +conscience—Public questions—Missionary tours—Newstead +Abbey—Byron and Scott—Royal visit to Edinburgh—Up the +Rhine—The Rev. W. Walford—Bagster, the publisher—Radicals +a century, ago—John Bergne, of the Foreign +Office—Tractarian controversy, and No. 90 + CHAPTER V + 1843–1850 +Removal to Kensington—Life of Dr. Arnold—Ladies’ schools 76–100 +at Kensington—Kensington friends—Archdeacon +Sinclair—British Schools and Duchess of Inverness—British +and Foreign Bible Society; London Missionary +Society—Young Men’s Christian Association—Evangelical +Alliance—Sub Rosâ—Tractarianism and Dr. Pusey—Political +excitement—Visit to Geneva—Cæsar Malan—Notting Hill +Chapel—Father of Rev. F. D. Maurice—Visit to Newport +Pagnell and the haunts of the poet Cowper + CHAPTER VI + 1850–1854 +The papal aggression—Discourses on the Romanist 101–119 +controversy—Palace of glass—Evangelical lectures in +Exeter Hall—Memorial of Dr. Doddridge—Visit to Germany +and Switzerland; thence to Milan, Verona, and +Venice—Intercourse at Kensington with remarkable people + CHAPTER VII + 1854–1862 +Visit to Rome: Holy Week, Pio Nono and the feet-washing, 120–137 +Catacombs—Naples—Vesuvius—New chapel at +Kensington—Commencement of the Congregational +Union—Algernon Wells—The “Rivulet” controversy—Visit to +Berlin, Dresden, Schandau, and Prague—Affecting sudden +death at Kensington—Family bereavements—Tour in the +Pyrenees—St. Sauveur, the Emperor Napoleon, and Empress +Eugenie + CHAPTER VIII + 1862–1865 +Bicentenary of Bartholomew ejectment—Family 138–161 +bereavements—Commencement of friendship with Dean +Stanley—His sermon on “The Feast of the Dedication”—His +sermon when the American President was present—My Eastern +tour: Alexandria, Cairo, the Desert, Approach to the Holy +City, Communion in the Episcopal Church, Dr. Rosen, Story +about the Sinaitic MS., Hebron, Eshcol, Solomon’s Pools, +Monastery of St. Saba, the Dead Sea, Jordan, Across +Olivet to Jerusalem, Journey to Bethel and onwards to +Damascus, Reflections crossing the Mediterranean, Rhodes, +Storm, Smyrna, Ephesus, Constantinople—Home by the +Danube, Germany, and Belgium—Reflections + CHAPTER IX + 1865–1872 +Church history—Visit to Dr. Hook, Dean of 162–200 +Chichester—Anecdotes of Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford—The +Dean’s life at Leeds—Extracts from his +letters—Acquaintance with Dr. Swainson—At Cambridge when +the announcement of wranglers occurred—Disraeli’s +school-boy days—Social gatherings to promote union—The +Archbishop of Syra at Westminster—Acquaintance with +Matthew Arnold—Publication of “Ecclesia”—Friendly +intercourse with Bible Revisionists—The Right Honourable +Cowper Temple’s bill for opening Church pulpits to +Nonconformists—Extension of Oxford University—Debate in +the House of Lords—Dinners at Mr. George Moore’s house +after the annual Bible meetings in Exeter Hall—Death of +Dean Alford and of Sir Donald Macleod—Party at Lambeth +Palace—Bishop Wilberforce’s extemporary power—Dr. +Guthrie’s social habits—The education question—Athenæum +Club—Academy Dinner—“Ecce Homo,” and Lord Shaftesbury + CHAPTER X + 1873 +Voyage to America for the General Meeting of the 201–229 +Evangelical Alliance—Hospitality of the President, the +Honourable Mr. Dodge—Visit to Sunnyside, where Washington +Irving lived, and to the Mountain House overlooking the +Hudson—The Niagara Falls—Four days spent on the +banks—Description of scenery—Montreal, Boston, Andover, +New Haven, and New Plymouth—New York—Proceedings at the +Conference—Reception of 600 guests by Mr. Dodge—Meetings +at Princeton, Philadelphia, and Washington—Note from the +poet Longfellow—Letter of Abraham Lincoln to Mr. Gurney + CHAPTER XI + 1874–1875 +Death of Dr. Binney—His opinion respecting the exclusion 230–250 +of liturgical worship—Unveiling of Bunyan’s statue at +Bedford—Unveiling of Baxter’s statue at +Kidderminster—Anecdote of Fletcher’s preaching at +Madeley—Meeting at Kensington on my retirement—Dr. +Stanley’s speech—Kensington friendships—Results of visits +to the poor—Methods of preaching + CHAPTER XII + 1875–1879 +Luther celebrations—Death of Lady Augusta Stanley—Her “At 251–284 +Homes”—Anecdotes of Lamartine, Guizot, and Lord +Russell—Touching words—Funeral in Westminster Abbey—The +three benedictions—The Dean’s account of the Royal +Marriage at St. Petersburg—Breakfast at Lambeth with +Archbishop Tait, and conversation relative to a +conference between Conformists and Nonconformists: The +plan, The meeting, Subject discussed—Character of the +Primate—Visit of the Queen to Mrs. Bagster, who was +nearly 100 years old—My pilgrimages to Ban de la Roche +and Broad Oak—Days at the Deanery with Dr. Stanley—My +lectures at Edinburgh—Scottish society—Singular discovery +of lost MSS.—Conference at Basle—Addresses of President +M. D. Sarasin—Death of Mrs. Stoughton + CHAPTER XIII + 1879–1883 +Conversation with a distinguished nobleman upon ideas of 285–313 +religion amongst the upper classes—Days at Spezzia, Pisa, +and Florence—Introduction to Cardinal Howard, who sent an +invitation to visit him—Conversation with a friend of +his—The Cardinal’s reception very cordial—Offers of a +special introduction to the Vatican Library +authorities—Successful day in consequence—Protestant +brethren in Rome—Christian antiquities—Dr. Somerville’s +mission—Drive to Subiaco—Home through Venice—Revisit to +Italy in 1881—Special work in library at Florence amongst +memorials of Savonarola—Death of Dr. Stanley—Character +and habits—Cromwell’s skull—Tour in Germany—Sir William +McArthur’s mayoralty—Death of Archbishop Tait—Excursion +to the Grande Chartreuse + CHAPTER XIV + 1883–1885 +Journey to Spain in preparation of book on Spanish 314–337 +Reformers: Through France to Figueras, Barcelona, +Tarragona, Poblet, Valencia, Cordova, Granada, Seville, +Madrid, Escorial, Toledo, Valladolid, Burgos + CHAPTER XV + 1885 +Third and last visit to Rome—Changes in the city and its 338–360 +surroundings—Where did Paul live during his +captivity?—Evangelical Alliance meetings at Edinburgh and +Glasgow—Death of Lord Chichester—Mr. Cheetham, +M.P.—Visits to Dr. Magee, Bishop of Peterborough—Lord +Ebury and Moor Park—Friends in Norfolk—Increase of Roman +Catholics in Kensington—Chapel openings at +Hastings—Autumnal meeting in 1886 at Norwich—Bishop’s +palace + CHAPTER XVI +I. Church of England—II. Presbyterians—III. 361–391 +Baptists—IV. The Friends—V. Methodists—VI. +Congregationalists + + + +CHAPTER I +1807–1828 + + +I WAS born in the parish of St. Michaels-at-Plea, Norwich, November 18th, +1807. My father was in some respects a remarkable man. For his great +integrity, he won the name of “the honest lawyer”; he would undertake no +cause, if unconvinced of its justice, and declined the office of coroner +because its duties would have shocked his feelings. Of strong +understanding, and fond of reading, after living a thoughtless life, he +became an earnest Christian, and worshipped with Methodists, chiefly from +circumstances—still regarding himself as a member of the Established +Church. Two elder sisters and an elder brother of mine were baptised by +the parish clergyman; so was I, the Archdeacon of London being my +godfather. I have been told that I “was intended for the Church,” and +some Episcopalian friends have amused themselves with speculations as to +what might have been the result. + +My mother before she married was a Quakeress, and used to tell of eminent +“Friends” she knew in her girlhood, especially Edmund Gurney, who +preached “with great power” in the Gildencroft Meeting House. She was +brought up a Quakeress by her mother, but her father was, at least in +later life, a staunch Methodist. She remembered John Wesley, and used to +tell how he took her up as a child and kissed her. + +My father died in my fifth year. Of him I have but a faint recollection. +My grandfather, at a distance now of seventy-five years, visibly stands +before me—a tall old gentleman with flaxen wig, large spectacles, a long, +blue, bright-buttoned coat, and big buckled shoes. He was Master of +Bethel Hospital, an institution for the insane, in my native city; and, +as I spent much time with him for a year before his death, I saw and +heard a good deal of the patients under his care. “Master,” said one of +them, “I want to propose a toast—may the devil never go abroad or receive +visitors at home.” “What brought you here?” somebody asked an inmate. +“The loss of what you never had, or you would not ask such a question,” +was the prompt reply. A man who fancied himself King of England drew on +his cell wall pictures of ships which he called his fleet, and would +never speak unless he was addressed as “Your Majesty.” I once narrowly +escaped severe injury from a woman, who seized me as her child and +squeezed me so hard, that no violence could induce her to relax her +grasp; but gentle words, and a promise that I should be taken care of, +secured my release. Alternate severity and indulgence, at that time, in +the treatment of patients led to a sad tragedy in the case of my +grandfather, who was killed by a man employed as gardener. He was +thought to be harmless, and used to mow the lawn. One morning he drew +the scythe across his master’s body and nearly cut him in two. + +My mother had a dream the night before, and saw in it her father lying on +a bed, pale as ashes, which she interpreted as meaning something terrible +would happen to him. When, at breakfast time, she was told by a +gentleman of what had occurred, she coupled it with what she had seen in +her sleep. + +We were living at the time in a very old house with diamond-paned +windows, a brick-paved entrance hall, and some rambling passages. I well +remember the little bedroom in which I slept. There resided with us an +old lady, widow of a Norwich gentleman, who had been a friend of the +famous George Whitefield. She used to tell anecdotes of the popular +preacher—how he called himself Dr. Squintum, and, when supping off +cowheel, a dish he liked, would say, he wondered what people would think +of his being so employed. + +My mother had a strong verbal memory which her son has not inherited; and +it enabled her to instruct and entertain me by reciting long extracts in +prose and poetry. She was a great reader and did much to instruct and +cultivate my mind by her frequent recitations. My education owes more to +this, and other circumstances, than to schoolmasters under whom I was +placed. However, of course, rudiments of knowledge fell to my lot in the +usual way; but my culture in chief resulted from devouring books, from +instructive conversation, and from the delight I felt in observing +nature, and looking on what was ancient. When other boys were at play, I +liked to get by myself and read; biography and history having for me +pre-eminent charms. Lord Nelson had been dead only a few years at the +time I speak of, and what I learnt about him as a Norfolk man immensely +gratified my curiosity. His aunt was a friend of my grandmother, and +great was my delight to see and hear such a distinguished lady; the +gratification being enhanced by a bright shilling she slipped into my +hand. The river Wensum, old trees by the water-side, the picturesque +village of Thorpe, Whitlingham White House and woods, the uplands of +Mousehold, walled-in gardens all over the city, wild hedgerows, sheltered +nooks and corners under weeping willows, cattle feeding in green meadows, +and swans swimming on the river—these objects afforded me an æsthetic +education. + +From a child I took an interest in historical tales, and felt delight in +listening to my mother’s memories of early days. She recollected the +American war, and spoke of a family dispute amongst her elders, which +lasted just as long—ten years. Excitement in William Pitt’s day she +brought vividly before me; and she told how Thelwall, the orator, +delivered revolutionary harangues, and being attacked by a mob, he was +glad to escape by clambering over the roofs of houses. The trials of +Horne Tooke, Hardy, and others, and Erskine’s famous speeches in their +defence, were in my boyhood modern incidents. Objects in the city +excited archæological tastes. The Norman keep, Herbert de Lozinga’s +Cathedral, Erpingham Gate, the Grammar School, the Bishop’s palace, with +ruins in the garden, dilapidated towers on the edge of the river, Guild +Hall, St. Andrew’s Hall, and the Old Men’s Hospital—these had for me a +mighty charm, creating fancies by day and dreams by night. The East +Anglian city had not old houses such as Prout found on the Continent, but +it contained picturesque, tumble-down tenements, and other “bits,” +sketched in “Highways and Byeways of Old Norwich.” The sight of these +created a habit of looking after ancient quaint remains, which has never +forsaken me. + +Guild day, with its triumphal arches, carpets and flags hung out of +windows, Darby and Joan sitting in a green arbour, the Mayor’s coach +attended by “Snap,” and the “whifflers”; the rush-strewn cathedral +pavement, as the Corporation marched up the nave—all this gave birth to +boyish enthusiasm for the picturesque. Every Guild day, on a green baize +platform near the west door of the cathedral, the head boy of the Grammar +School delivered a Latin oration before his Worship. What envy that boy +aroused in my bosom! Elections, too, were objects of intense interest to +me as a childish politician, when Whig candidates were carried in +blue-and-white satin chairs, on the shoulders of men who tossed them up, +as the Goths did their heroes upon battle shields. + +As to another part of my education, I loved to read the lives of eminent +people, and devoured a good many memoirs of men and women in religious +magazines. Norwich was at that time distinguished for literary, +artistic, and benevolent celebrities; and I felt proud as a boy to think +of them as pertaining to my own birthplace. The appearance of several +amongst them I have still, after the lapse of seventy years, vividly +before me—Mrs. Opie, the Taylors, the Martineaus, Joseph John Gurney, and +Bishop Bathurst, with several beside. + +May I add, the first sight of the sea at Yarmouth I can never forget. It +was a November morning in my ninth year. The sky looked angry; the +wind-swept waters and tall billows broke furiously on the beach; the hulk +of a stranded vessel lay on the sands—emblem of life’s shattered hopes. + +Public excitements prevailed in my boyish days beyond what the present +generation has witnessed. After the battle of Waterloo, and the +consequent peace, which was coupled with an idea of plenty, large loaves +were paraded on poles as symbols of abundant food, mistakenly supposed to +come as a natural consequence now that Buonaparte was conquered. There +arose, instead of this, much distress amongst the lower class, greatly +owing to corn-laws enacted for the protection of agricultural interests. +Bread riots followed, and I now catch glimpses of a mob in 1816 marching +to the New Mills to sack a granary, and shoot into the flushes of the +river Wensum, loads of grain and flour. Such tumults were surpassed in +breadth and depth of feeling, amongst the upper class, by the excitement +attending the return to England of Queen Caroline after the accession of +George IV. in 1820. Never have I known such agitation in private +circles, as when society split from top to bottom on the question of her +Majesty’s character and wrongs. For months there were almost incessant +processions from London to Hammersmith in honour of the lady, who was +sojourning at Brandenburgh House. Unnumbered addresses were presented to +her, and whenever her carriage appeared, it evoked rapturous shouts. +During her trial things were done and said startling beyond parallel. +Documents full of abominable details were deposited in a “green bag,” +which called to mind the words in Job xiv. 17; and when filthy evidence +was furnished on the king’s side against his wife, counsel on her side +attacked him as a second Nero, and compared him to the infernal shadow in +Milton, which “the likeness of a kingly crown had on.” Round the +hearthstone families and friends were divided on this absorbing subject; +and such word battles as Home Rule now occasions were then far surpassed. + +My school days over, I entered a lawyer’s office. He put into my hands +“Blackstone’s Commentaries,” which interested me less in what was said +about real and personal property, the rights of things and the rights of +persons, with the law of descent and entail, than in what appeared +touching legislation, and the principles of government. De Lolme on “The +Constitution,” I read with avidity. Having to attend the Law Courts at +times, I listened to forensic eloquence with great interest; a love for +oratory being further gratified by hearing speeches at public meetings +when Lord Suffield and Joseph John Gurney advocated negro emancipation +and other reforms. + +Theological discussions interested me immensely. The lawyer in whose +office I was became a Roman Catholic, and, finding me an inquisitive +youngster, talked on the subject, explaining the doctrines and ceremonies +of his Church. Whilst the information he gave me was worth having, I +determined to read Milner’s “End of Religious Controversy,” and other +Catholic books; and beyond my interest respecting matters of an +antiquarian flavour, I felt the importance of ascertaining true grounds +for Protestant beliefs. My master took me once a week to North Walsham, +and in cold winter nights, as the moon shone on the snow-sprinkled +hedges, plied me with arguments for transubstantiation, purgatory, and +the like. I ventured humbly to dispute his positions, and to contend for +truths on the opposite side; though the match was unequal between a boy +of fifteen and a man of forty, primed by the priest to whom he owed his +conversion. Those night drives were useful, and led me to see some of +the better aspects of Roman Catholic faith and character, whilst they +aroused inquiry, and led to clearer convictions than I might otherwise +have reached respecting principles in debate. Here let me observe that +early intercourse with friends of different denominations has in the best +sense broadened my habit of looking at questions, and inspired a +tolerance, not of error itself, but of persons holding error, because +they are often better than their creeds, and have in them a great deal +that is good, as well as something of another quality. Quiet intercourse +in early life with members of various denominations I find to have been a +school for the culture of Christian charity. + +Removed when about sixteen to another office, with the idea of entering +the legal profession, I met with fellow-clerks of education and taste, +who proved very helpful; one in particular became an intimate friend. He +had been a favourite pupil of an eminent classical schoolmaster, and was +well up in Horace. We had much talk on subjects of common interest. His +temperament had a melancholy tinge, owing to his state of health, for he +was in a slow consumption, but behind dark clouds there lay a sky full of +humour, and his conversation often sparkled with unaffected wit. He +could be a little satirical at the expense of juvenile follies, in which +he did not share; whilst amiability kept him from giving pain to the most +sensitive. Our friendship continued until his early death, when he +passed away “in the faith and hope of the Gospel.” + +Amongst early educational influences which I enjoyed may be reckoned the +opportunities I had of listening to public speakers of different +kinds—lawyers at the bar, preachers in the pulpit, orators on the +platform, and candidates during elections; for Norwich was contested most +earnestly in my boyhood. Moreover, the city was remarkable for musical +culture. It had weekly concerts. Festivals also occurred; these I +attended again and again with much enjoyment. My friends who know my +ignorance of music will smile at this. + +It might be when I was about seventeen that on a Sunday morning I took a +walk into the country with a volume of Chalmers’ sermons under my arm. I +read one of them on Rom. v. 10. The perusal deeply affected me, and on +the evening of the same day, I heard a Methodist minister preach upon +John iii. 16. These two impressions commenced a lifelong change in my +experience and character—a change so great, that it led to the +abandonment of my former occupation, and issued in the consecration of my +after-days to the Gospel ministry. + +About that time a journey to London on legal business gave me an +opportunity of hearing distinguished preachers, Dr. Adam Clarke and Dr. +Collyer amongst the rest—a privilege which deepened my religious +convictions. I may observe in passing, as regards my visit to London, +that the first sight of it, on a dull morning after a night in the +Norwich mail, I have never forgotten—Bishopsgate-street, the Old Post +Office, and all round the Mansion House—how different the neighbourhood +appeared in 1826 from what it does now! In Waterloo-place, Pall Mall, I +spent more than a month, and I can now see George IV. descending the +steps of Carlton House (where the Duke of York’s column stands), leaning +on a page’s shoulder on the way to his carriage. + +On returning to Norwich, my thoughts fixed on the subject which had +previously engaged my attention. A few years ago, when conversing with a +friend in the coffee-room of the House of Commons, a report was mentioned +of a certain Dissenting minister’s intention to enter Parliament, if a +seat could be obtained. My friend remarked emphatically, “That would be +a come-down.” He himself at that time held office, and was on the way to +become a Right Honourable; and when I expressed my surprise to hear him +talk so, he rejoined that he considered the Gospel ministry as the +highest employment on earth when a man really “_was called to it_.” I +felt, sixty years ago, exactly in that way, and only wished to know that +such a call awaited me. I spent some months in coming to a conclusion, +and at length felt convinced that it was my duty and privilege to spend +life in Christian preaching and pastoral work. + +Then arose the question, In what ecclesiastical connexion? My relation +to Methodism had arisen from circumstances, but now some study of +ecclesiastical principles was necessary. I began to read what I could on +the subject, acquainting myself with different sides, and being open to +conviction one way or another. I had no predilections, and was ready to +be either a clergyman or a Dissenting minister. I arrived at the +conclusion that Congregationalism, _on the whole_, as far as I understood +it, came nearest to New Testament teaching; but that probably no existing +connexion corresponded exactly with Churches of the first century. What +I thought then has been confirmed by studies in after-years, devoted +largely to the New Testament and the history of Christendom. I have +learned to distinguish between principles lying at the basis of religious +beliefs and existing organisations through which they are worked out. +The former may be true and sound, whilst the latter are defective, and in +some points mistaken. + +It is curious that at the time I first made up my mind I knew socially +next to nothing of Congregationalists as a body; my chief associations +having been with Methodists, Quakers, Church-people, and a few Roman +Catholics. I joined the venerable society of Christians assembling in +the Old Meeting House, Norwich; its fathers and founders having been +gathered into Church fellowship, during the seventeenth century, under +the teaching and influence of William Bridge, who resided in Yarmouth; +some of the members being Norwich folk. When I expressed my desire for +the ministry to two Dissenting ministers—the pastor of the Old Meeting +House and his friend who occupied Princes-street pulpit—I met with +different opinions, the former advising me to pursue the study of law, +the latter encouraging my desire for the ministry. In the end these two +friends concurred in advice, the consequence being my introduction to +Highbury College, London. + +I had from the beginning cautions against forsaking in after-life the +pulpit for any other post. William Godwin, the famous author of +“Political Justice” and other works, also W. J. Fox, the Anti-Corn-law +lecturer, a distinguished public character at that time, had been +intended for the Dissenting ministry, and, indeed, entered it. By a +remarkable coincidence, both these distinguished men were connected with +the Old Meeting House, where I then was accustomed to worship. Their +abandonment of an early faith and a sacred calling for the sake of +literature and politics, was held up to me as a beacon, to warn me off +dangerous rocks. + +Before noticing my entrance into college, I may be allowed to mention +that the congregation which I joined contained some noteworthy people. +Mr. William Youngman was a hard-headed, intelligent, and inquisitive man, +much given to theological argument and incisive criticism of current +opinions. He tried the patience of orthodox religionists, and was the +terror of neophytes. Once, when I dined with him, he commenced talking +about original sin as I was hanging up my hat, and went on in the same +strain to the end of my visit. He found his match at book meetings in +Mr. Thomas Brightwell, F.R.S., an eminent naturalist, whose name is +perpetuated in a memoir of a plant called after him, to be found, if I +correctly remember, in the Transactions of the Royal Society. He was a +diligent student of the Bible, and published notes on the Old Testament, +drawn chiefly from the Scholia of Rosenmuller and Michaelis. + +In 1828 I entered Highbury College, afterwards merged in New College, St. +John’s Wood; the professors—or tutors as they were called in my +time—being Dr. Henderson, Dr. Burder, and Dr. Halley. Dr. Henderson had +been engaged in foreign missionary and Bible work, spending much time in +St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, where he became acquainted +with the languages of Northern Europe. He drilled us in the languages of +the Old Testament, initiated some small study in Syriac, and delivered +elaborate lectures on the evidences and doctrines of Christianity. He +suggested essays to be written during the vacation on subjects demanding +research, and he regularly required the careful preparation of comments +on the original Scriptures, to be delivered _viva voce_ in class. Dr. +Burder was son of George Burder, once well known as the author of +“Village Sermons.” He lectured on mental and moral philosophy, and +employed as text-books the works of Reid, Stewart, and Brown having +himself graduated in a Scotch university. Exceedingly careful, +conscientious, and precise, he opposed all bold speculations, and was +incapable of sympathy with mystical thinkers. He had a clear +apprehension of whatever he taught, and used to lay down as a canon of +composition. “Express yourselves, not so that you _may_, but so that you +_must_ be understood.” Dr. Halley was a good classical scholar, +impulsive, unsystematic, and by no means a severe disciplinarian. He +enthusiastically admired Demosthenes and Cicero, and to hear him give +extempore versions of these orators was an immense treat. We read with +him some Greek tragedians and Latin poets, and he delivered lectures on +history and antiquities. Mathematics came within his department; but, +certainly in my time, he never turned out a wrangler. His influence, +however, was very stimulative, and he inspired when he did not instruct. + +Defects in the Nonconformist educational system were apparent to me at +that time, much more so have they become to me ever since; but, to a +considerable extent, they arose from uncontrollable circumstances, so +many students having had few advantages in their boyhood. I have lived +to witness a great improvement in Nonconformist college methods. + +It should not be omitted that during the latter part of our term a few of +us attended the mental and moral philosophy class of Professor Hoppus in +the London University College, Gower Street, that institution having been +established by friends of unsectarian education, and numbering on its +councils, and amongst its officers, several Nonconformists. + + + + +CHAPTER II +1828–1832 + + +MY most distinguished fellow-student for intellectual power and literary +attainment was Henry Rogers, afterwards a large contributor to the +_Edinburgh Review_. Some of the articles he wrote for that periodical +have been published as essays in three volumes. His feeble voice stood +in the way of his being an effective preacher; but his learning and +ability eminently fitted him for the duties of a professor. In that +capacity he rendered high service at Spring Hill, Birmingham, and next, +at Lancashire College, Manchester. He was highly esteemed by Lord +Macaulay, and Archbishop Whately; excessive modesty alone prevented his +introduction to the highest literary circles. + +He was a clear-headed, acute thinker and reasoner, delighting in Socratic +talk, trotting out an unsuspicious conversationalist, until he entangled +him in inconsistency and contradictions, the remembrance of which might +be afterwards useful. Rogers, to the end of life, was a humble and +devout Christian. Our intercourse in after-days was pleasant, and to me +most encouraging. + +William Drew, who became a devoted Indian missionary, was another of my +contemporaries, and, from sympathy with him, I caught a portion of his +spirit; had I possessed the needful qualifications, I could have devoted +myself to a similar enterprise. + +Samuel Bergne, for many years an able and much-appreciated secretary of +the British and Foreign Bible Society, was another of my fellow-students. +With him I became extremely intimate, owing, in part, to an extraordinary +family affair, which I have been requested to relate. My father, before +he married, had living with him a sister, to whom he was strongly +attached. After their separation, she went to reside in London, and +dropped all correspondence with him; to the day of his death he could +never ascertain what had become of her. Methods were adopted to find out +her residence, but all in vain. More than thirty years had elapsed since +she disappeared, when one day I met Bergne, who had been visiting his +mother at Brompton. “Have not you a relative there?” he asked. “Not +that I know of,” was my reply. Then he told me that an evening or two +before, as he was sitting by the fire, it flashed upon him how he had +heard that an old friend of his mother’s, before her marriage, bore the +same name as mine; that she came from Norwich, and that her brother was a +lawyer. I was taken aback by what my friend said, and then related what +I had heard in childhood respecting my father’s long-lost sister. +“Depend upon it,” he exclaimed, “I have found for you the lady your +family have been seeking in vain.” I soon received a request to meet the +stranger at Mrs. Bergne’s house, when something like a scene occurred, as +the separated relatives stood face to face. Yet neither then nor +afterwards did she shed any light upon the mystery. She had a husband +who proved to be no less a mystery. We never could learn anything about +his connections; but, at the time of my introduction to him he was +engaged on _The Morning Post_. We afterwards learned from himself, as +well as others, that he had been employed in this country as an agent of +the Imperial French Court; certainly he had in his possession a key to +the cipher-writing, used by the first Napoleon. He showed me relics of +that extraordinary man, and had much to say of several notabilities at +home and abroad. What of fact mingled with fiction in his strange +disclosures I cannot say; but, after his death, I saw some of his papers, +including an unintelligible correspondence between Mr. Canning and +himself; also letters relating to private scandals of great people, only +fit to be thrown into the fire. He lived in an imaginary world, and used +to say that Napoleon Buonaparte was still living. To his influence, I +suppose, the mystery which shrouded my aunt’s life after her marriage, +might be ascribed. + +The four years I spent at Highbury were marked by much political +excitement. In 1828 the Corporation and Test Acts were repealed. The +Catholic Relief Bill was carried in 1829. In 1830 William IV. succeeded +his brother. The “three days of July” the same year occurred in Paris: +the abdication of Charles X., and the accession of Louis Philippe, +swiftly followed each other; and a fresh impetus was thus given to the +cause of English liberalism. The Duke of Wellington’s protest against +reform, the defeat of the Ministry on the Civil List, and the +introduction of the Reform Bill the next year, produced an excitement +which I do not think has been equalled since, though for passionate +discussion in the homes of England, it has been surpassed by what +occurred during the trial of Queen Caroline. Earl Grey, Lord Brougham, +and Lord John Russell were popular idols, their names in everybody’s +mouth, their portraits looking down from innumerable shop windows, their +busts set up in house after house, their likenesses printed on +handkerchiefs and stamped on pipes and jugs, and all sorts of ware. They +were mobbed and hurrahed wherever they went, and their carriages were +dragged by the populace through streams knee-deep. + +At that period the old House of Commons was standing, and went by the +name of St. Stephen’s Chapel. Within its walls the Reform battle was +fought; and there still lingered round it memories of Pitt and Fox, Burke +and Sheridan. I had a great curiosity to see this English forum, and +when I obtained admission, with my tutor, Dr. Halley, who explained the +building and what was going on, I seemed to be in an old Presbyterian +meeting-house, with galleries on three sides, the Speaker’s chair, with +its wooden canopy, resembling a pulpit, at the farther end. Members were +“cribbed, cabined, and confined.” The forms of the House were +interesting to me, and afforded a framework in which to insert images of +men in the reign of George II. I had but to put Court dresses and cocked +hats on the members, and forthwith the age of Walpole came back to view. +A messenger from the Lords, the bowing of an officer as he approached the +table, with its wigged clerks, and other matters of ceremony illustrated +my readings of Parliament business in olden times. + +One figure especially I now recall—that of Sir Charles Wetherall, a +fierce opponent of reform. Up he rose, violently gesticulating, his +shirt very visible between his black waistcoat and dark nether garment. + +The coronation of William IV. and Queen Adelaide indicated a change in +that august ceremonial, which showed how reform touched royal pageantry. +Though an instance of a double coronation, it came short of the elaborate +display when the previous monarch sat alone in Edward’s chair. I saw the +procession going down to Westminster, along a narrow street at Charing +Cross—old-fashioned shabby shops standing where now you catch sight of +palatial hotels—old Northumberland House, with its gardens, occupying the +space now become a broad avenue. The beefeaters, the trumpeters, and the +footmen in attendance upon the gaudy state-coach, with its royal +occupants, were very picturesque. And what a crush there was to avoid +the mob streaming down from the Haymarket! + +All sorts of reports were afloat, tending to make the new king popular. +It was said, that immediately after his accession, he came to town in the +dickey of his carriage, and invited, after an unceremonious manner, his +old naval friends to come and dine with him. A story went the round with +rare applause that, after the defeat of the Reform Bill, when he wanted +to dissolve Parliament, he said if the royal carriages could not be got +ready, he would go in a hackney coach. How far such tales were true I do +not know; but a nobleman, present at one of His Majesty’s dinner-parties +at the Brighton Pavilion, told me that, on that occasion, the king +toasted some of his guests in sailor fashion, and remarked that his +seafaring pursuits had scarcely fitted him for a throne. Then, pointing +to the queen, he added that for any improvement in his ways he was +indebted to that good lady. The story raised him in my estimation and +that of many others. + +I must now turn from politics and royalty to what was more in my own way. + +The Rev. Daniel Wilson, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, stood high amongst +London Evangelicals as Vicar of Islington, and I sometimes heard him in +his crowded church; but my great delight was to walk down to Camberwell +to listen to Henry Melvill, then in the zenith of his popularity. His +manner was peculiar—he had a curious shake of the head, and a strange +inflection of voice at the end of a sentence, which kept up attention. +As to style, he was artificial in the extreme; every paragraph seeming to +be planned on the same model, ending with the words of his text as a +well-turned climax. The preacher swept his auditors along with the force +of a torrent from point to point. I heard him at Barnes, when he was +advanced in life, deliver one of his old discourses, I should judge +little, if at all, altered; but it lacked the fire of early days, and the +congregation evinced little of the sympathy which seemed to quiver in +London churches at the sound of his voice twenty or thirty years before. + +Rowland Hill, though a very old man in 1830, continued to fill Surrey +Chapel with a crowded audience. I listened to a sermon in which he +recommended young people when they set up house-keeping to secure one +piece of furniture especially—_i.e._, the looking-glass of a good +conscience, so that husband and wife, keeping it clean, might see +themselves in it, with joy and thankfulness; “for a good man is satisfied +from himself,” and, he added, “so is a good woman.” John Angell James, +of Birmingham, was one of the most popular preachers at that time, and he +occasionally occupied Surrey Chapel pulpit; but William Jay, of Bath, was +a more regular “supply,” and echoes of his sonorous voice I still catch +as I read his pithy and impressive sermons. When he came to preach +Rowland Hill’s funeral sermon I had left college, and he honoured me with +an invitation to preach for him at Bath the Sunday following. In 1886, +when I occupied the same pulpit in my old age, a lady told me that she +remembered my being there more than fifty years before, when the people +wondered at their pastor’s sending “such a boy to take his place.” A +similar occurrence had happened when Jay first preached for Rowland Hill. + +James Parsons, of York, was a frequent visitor to London, and used to +occupy for several Sundays in the year the pulpit of Moorfields +Tabernacle, and that of Tottenham Court Chapel. Congregations gathered +an hour before service to listen to this youthful preacher. He had been +educated for the law, and, with a strong taste for rhetorical efforts, +had cultivated, by the study of English authors, his own extraordinary +gift for public speaking. Almost inaudible at first, his voice would +gradually rise into tones shrill and penetrating; and after repeated +pauses, when people relieved themselves by bursts of coughing, he would, +during his peroration, wind them up to such a pitch of excitement as I +have never witnessed since. He was thoroughly evangelical and devout, +and did an immense deal of spiritual good. I became intimately +acquainted with him in after-years, and found in his friendship a source +of much enjoyment. His conversations in the parlour were as full of +anecdote and humour as his sermons in the pulpit were of pathos and +power. I have heard a member of Parliament, one of his deacons at York, +say that Mr. Parsons’ eloquence in early days was perfectly electrifying, +and that, as he listened to him at that time, he felt as if he must lay +hold on the top of his pew to prevent being swept away by the force of +the preacher’s appeals. + +Edward Irving occupied the Caledonian Church in Hatton Garden, a retired +and ugly-looking Presbyterian meeting-house; but the nobility flocked +round him, and it was picturesque to see Scotch schoolboys in Highland +kilts placed in front of the pulpit. As I was trying to get in at a side +door, up walked the gigantic orator, with his black locks and +broad-brimmed beaver, as if an old Covenanter had risen from the dead. +An infant lying in the arms of that strong man added to the effect of the +picture. His manner at that period was grand. His sermons were +carefully prepared and read, every word, but with a blended majesty and +pathos which no extempore utterance could exceed; and his reading of the +twenty-third Psalm, Scotch version, was inimitable. His favourite word, +“_Fatherhood_,” quoted by Mr. Canning with admiration, and now so +hackneyed, impressed religious people wonderfully by its freshness. A +fellow-student took me some time afterwards to call on him at his house +in the then New Road. He was unwell and sat by the fireside wrapped in a +blue gown. He talked to me for some time on the subject of baptism, the +right understanding of which, he said, was a key to many theological +questions. I could not assent to all he said, nor indeed understand it, +but did not dare, at my age, to make any reply. When he had ended he +slowly rose from his chair. It seemed as if he would never finish +rising, he was so tall. When erect, he waved his hand to a nursemaid, +who was walking across the room with a babe in her arms, and then, +placing his hand on my head, he offered a solemn intercession, suggesting +the idea of a Hebrew prophet blessing a young Israelite. + +At a later period he took up peculiar views on prophecy, and on some +ecclesiastical points. Then he became wild and incoherent. I heard him +preach outside Coldbath Prison to a few bystanders, very differently from +what he had done in Hatton Garden. He seemed to have lost unction as +well as thoughtfulness and eloquence. On a cold winter morning, before +breakfast, several students and myself walked down to his new church in +Regent Square to witness “the gift of tongues,” which, amongst other +imaginations, he believed had been miraculously bestowed. The building +was dark, for the sun had not risen, and the mysterious gloom heightened +the effect of the exhibition which followed. First arose inarticulate +screams, then exclamations of “He is coming!” “He is co-m-i-ng!” drawn +out in marvellous quavers. What appeared to me inarticulate and +incomprehensible sounds, were regarded by him and many people as Divine +utterances. They deemed them the return of Pentecost—a gift of tongues. +At London Wall Church I saw him afterwards arraigned before the +presbytery for heretical opinions touching the Lord’s humanity. He +fought his battle manfully; and whatever people might think of his +sentiments, they could scarcely fail to be impressed with the sincerity +and earnestness of the man. The trial issued in his expulsion from +Regent Square—poor fellow! It is touching to think of his history; +popularity was his snare. It turned his head; yet, after all, he +sacrificed that very popularity to sincere convictions. His latest life +was an instance of martyrdom for conscience’ sake. Those who condemn his +opinions must honour the man. + +Dr. Chalmers came to preach at Regent Square. After the benefit derived +from his printed sermons, I might well desire to hear his voice. The +pitch of excitement to which he wrought himself up surpassed everything +of the kind I ever witnessed. His vehemence was terrific, yet all seemed +natural. He was John Knox over again—John Knox in manner, more than John +Knox in thought and eloquence of expression. He moved on “hinges,” as +Robert Hall said, or rather, “like a cloud, that moveth altogether, if it +move at all.” The fact is, he felt what he was saying. It went down to +the depths of his own soul, and hence it reached the souls of others. +The crowd in the church was immense, numbers standing all the time; yet +it was curious to learn that the sermon was already in print—in print, I +believe, years before. He often redelivered his discourses, even after +publication; and Dr. Wardlaw of Glasgow told me his distinguished +neighbour informed him, that he tried to lessen the crowds at church by +announcing that next time he meant to deliver what they had heard +already. “Yet,” with a childlike simplicity the old man added, “they +come in still larger numbers than before!” Not many preachers are +troubled in that way. + +At the time now referred to, religious services were not multiplied as at +present; hence great interest was taken amongst London Congregationalists +in what were called “Monthly Lectures,” given by ministers who carefully +prepared what they delivered. Three come back to my recollection now. +The first, in Jewin Street, was delivered by Dr. Collyer, a popular +divine, who attracted the notice of royalty, and had the Dukes of Kent +and of Sussex to hear him. I knew him well in after-days, when he spoke +of friendly intercourse with him, vouchsafed on the part of Queen +Victoria’s father. The subject of the doctor’s lecture was “Our Colonial +Empire,” and a felicitous text was selected from Ezek. xxviii. 14–16. He +urged on his audience the claims of distant colonies, then much +neglected; and he painted vivid pictures of England’s commercial wealth +and vast possessions, insisting strongly on our national +responsibilities. The second I remember was in Claremont Chapel, from +the lips of my tutor, Dr. Halley, on the importance of intercessory +prayer, showing its place in Church history, as a pivot on which turned +events of unutterable importance. A third, at Bermondsey, was delivered +by a minister of great pulpit gifts, named Dobson, who discoursed on the +topic of the final resurrection. I am not in the habit of saying the +former days were better than these, yet I may be permitted to express my +opinion that those three lectures would bear favourable comparison with +the best productions in Nonconformist homiletics at the present day. +Among venerable forms present at these lectures, to officiate or listen, +were Dr. Winter, of New Court, now covered by buildings sacred to the +law, a man of high repute, stout in figure, and strong in opinion; and +Dr. Pye Smith, spare, attenuated, ethereal in presence, Melancthon-like +in spirit, and as full of learning as Melancthon, with scientific +knowledge which entitled him to the place he held by the side of +accomplished geologists. I may also mention James Stratten, of +Paddington, who had an eagle’s eye, and a combination of face, voice, +thought, and style which rendered him unique amongst preachers,—like +Rembrandt amongst artists—rich in lights and shadows. Nor should Dr. +Fletcher, of Stepney, be forgotten, whose purity of thought, felicity of +diction, and depth of evangelical sentiment attracted large audiences. +The Claytons were well-known members of this goodly fellowship. How +these and other names are passing out of remembrance! + +Looking back to “sixty years since,” I am struck with the difference +between certain aspects of Metropolitan Nonconformity presented then, and +others familiar now. Indeed, a similar state of things is obvious when +we turn to the religious history of other great cities. Citizens then +for the most part _lived_ in London. Westminster and the opposite side +of the Thames saw, on Sundays and week days, in the same neighbourhood +both the poor and rich. Thus pious families exerted an immediate and +constant influence where they lived, and my remembrance of Metropolitan +domestic life then is intensely gratifying. There were happy homes in +London where now want and misery abound. Organised district work goes +on, but it is a poor substitute for the presence of godly and +philanthropic people in their own homesteads, coming in constant contact +with those who needed sympathy and help. + +Efforts were not wanting for the benefit of London on the part of +Christian people in general. The City Mission had then been recently +founded, and students in Highbury College lent a hand in work amongst the +poor. I remember a district in existence, called Saffron Hill, full of +old tenements now swept away. Some fellow-students went with me to the +spot on a Sunday afternoon, and we preached from a doorstep, while women +looked down from their windows, and perhaps men below were smoking their +pipes. Drury Lane was a dirty, neglected neighbourhood; and, in a room +hired there, we conducted a service on Sunday nights. Sometimes +disturbances arose, but the work went on. Nor were certain districts in +the country round London neglected. There we preached and visited the +aged sick, praying by the bedside, and ministering such instruction and +comfort as we were able. + +Public religious meetings in those days were comparatively rare, and the +style of speaking was different from what it is now—more ornate, with +apostrophes and appeals of a kind which has vanished away. The annual +Bible gathering was held in Freemasons’ Hall, the floor covered with a +closely-packed audience. A passage was partitioned off on the left hand +side for the access of speakers to the platform, who were eagerly +watched, and loudly applauded, as they approached, their heads amusingly +bobbing up and down as they quickened their pace. The diminutive William +Wilberforce, eye-glass in hand, his head on one side, came skipping +along; Dr. Ryder, Bishop of Gloucester, with big wig, and smooth apron, +followed at a more dignified pace; Cunningham, Noel, and other +evangelical celebrities were sure to be present. Rowland Hill, by his +quizzical look, and humorous tongue, could not fail to make a mark; and +Burnet of Cork, who afterwards became pastor of the Independent +Congregation, Camberwell, was a vast favourite, his rising to speak being +a signal for loud cheers. There he would stand, calmly extemporising +sentences which exactly hit the occasion, and the audience—all eyes +turned towards him—upturned faces seeming, as he said, to resemble “a +tesselated pavement.” He liked to compare North and South Ireland with +one another, as showing the contrast between a Bible-reading and a +Bible-ignoring population. + +After Exeter Hall had been opened there arose a tremendous controversy +about Unitarians and the Bible Society. Some well-known speakers could +not get a hearing, and the scene on the platform was terribly confused, +until Rowland Hill rose and put the assembly in good humour, by remarking +that he “would accept the Bible from the hands of the devil; only he +would keep him at a distance, and take his gift with a pair of tongs.” + +In the same place anti-slavery meetings were held. I remember one in +particular when, besides Buxton and Mackintosh, O’Connell and Sheil were +present. Mackintosh spoke with philosophical calmness. O’Connell was +full of invective, satire, and pathos; one moment terrific in +denunciation, then heart-melting in tones of sympathy; now stamping with +his foot, and laying hold of his scratch wig, as if he would tear it in +pieces; next, with gentle whispers, drawing tears, or creating laughter. +Sheil, in a torrent of declamation, was carried off his legs, borne along +by his own impetuosity, completely overmastered by himself; whilst his +Irish friend never lost self-control amidst most violent storms of +passion. + +Some time afterwards, I listened to Lord Brougham in the same hall on the +same subject. He was then past his best days, but flashes of oratory, +full of satire and invective against the party he had left, burst forth +in a long speech, which, as chairman, he delivered in the middle of the +proceedings, to the interruption of previous arrangements. It was, I +suppose, by no means equal to his earlier efforts, but enough remained of +thunder and lightning to remind one of his eulogised resemblance to +Demosthenes. + + + + +CHAPTER III +1832–1837 + + +WHEN I first saw Windsor in the winter of 1830–31 how different the town +appeared from what it did afterwards! All about Thames Street and Castle +Hill was crowded with old houses and shops on both sides of the way, and +the walls bounding Lower Ward were hidden from view, except where the +Clock Tower, which stood in advance, looked down upon the passers-by. A +large plain brick mansion, called the Queen’s Lodge, long since removed, +occupied the right hand of the road leading to York and Lancaster Gate, +while old-fashioned tenements lined the approach to the royal precincts. +On the night of my first arrival patches of snow covered the roofs, and +dotted the pediments of doors and windows; over Henry VIII.’s gateway +hung a gorgeous hatchment in memory of George IV., who had not long +before left this life. It was slow travelling from London to Windsor in +those days, especially when the waters were out, and the roads were +heavy, and thick fogs rendered the leaders invisible to the coachman; +whilst deep ruts clogged the wheels and now and then an icy flood came up +to the axles. In the town I heard a great deal about “Windsor of the +olden time,” when highway robbers were rife, and gentlemen who took to +the road would lie in wait under cover of a plantation, and, galloping +over a field, stop the traveller and lighten him of his purse. According +to one informant, a tradesman in High Street, at the latter part of the +eighteenth century, kept a swift-trotting nag, which he mounted after +dark to do a little business on the road, and then returned richer than +he went. People at that time, as I heard some of them say, did not think +of riding or driving over Hounslow Heath alone; but, when approaching +that ill-famed spot where gibbets lingered by the roadside, were careful +to wait till a number was formed able to defend themselves against the +attack of thieves. The sobriety of many inhabitants in the royal borough +did not stand high, and at mayors’ feasts the guests did not think they +sufficiently honoured the hospitalities of the evening, unless they drank +so much as made it difficult for them to find their way home. + +Anecdotes of George III. were rife. I heard that he used to rise early, +take a walk before breakfast, and sit down in a certain bookseller’s +shop, looking at publications on the counter. But one morning he saw a +book by Tom Paine lying there; after that he paid no more visits. +Sometimes he said very shrewd things. A Bow-street runner, named +Townsend, liked to attend early prayers when His Majesty was present, and +to make himself heard in loud responses. One day he was running about +after service looking for something he could not find. “Townsend, +Townsend, what are you after?” “I have lost my hat, please your +Majesty.” “You prayed well,” was the monarch’s rejoinder; “but you did +not watch.” The king had a wonderful memory; and once, as a troop of +yeomanry rode past in review, he pointed out a man amongst them of whom +he had bought a horse twenty years before, and whom he had not seen +afterwards. + +An old inhabitant, who became my father-in-law, vouched for the truth of +some of these stories; and bore testimony, not only to the condescension +and familiarity of George III., but to the kindness and consideration of +George IV. One remark which my friend and relative used to make as he +was walking through the apartments of the castle, produced a startling +effect. Stopping before the picture of Charles I., he would say: “He +looks just as he did when I last saw him.” The fact was that my relative +was present when Sir Henry Halford superintended the exhumation of the +beheaded king; and he first caught a glimpse of the royal face, because +he assisted in cutting open the coffin lid. The face was perfect, and +exactly resembled Vandyke’s famous portrait of Charles I. When exposed +to the air the dust crumbled away. + +After preaching at Windsor, as a student, several times, I received an +invitation to become co-pastor of the Congregational church. The Rev. A. +Redford, a man of singular consistency of character, who by his conduct +as a Christian minister won the respect and confidence of the town +generally, as well as of his own little flock, had been in office for +many years, and needed assistance in his sacred calling. He won my +heart; and as a son with a father I laboured with him in the gospel. +George III., who had a domestic or two in his household attending on this +good man’s preaching, was heard to say: “The clergy are paid by the +country to pray for me, but Mr. Redford’s praying is without pay.” + +In the prospect of my becoming co-pastor, the congregation in 1832 +determined to build a new chapel, the one in existence being not +sufficiently large; and as a sign of the honour in which the senior +minister was held, I may mention, that Church-people, as well as +Dissenters, contributed to the fund. The late Earl of Derby, then Mr. +Stanley, who represented the borough, subscribed £50. The other member +gave a like sum. The vicar and almost all the leading inhabitants were +found on the list. The fact is now mentioned to indicate the good +understanding between different classes of religionists which then +existed in Windsor. + +I was ordained the day after the new chapel was opened, at the beginning +of May 1833. It was a service long to be remembered. Such services were +thought more of in those days than they are now. Ministers and friends +came from a great distance, and a large congregation was sure to +assemble. Generally the spirit was devout. An introductory discourse +illustrated the grounds of Nonconformity. After this several questions +were answered by the candidate, as to his Christian experience, doctrinal +sentiments, and reasons for believing he had a call to the ministry. A +deacon of the Church related the steps which had led to the present +choice, and, afterwards, the ordination prayer was offered with a solemn +laying on of hands. In my case, my venerated co-pastor fulfilled this +duty; and it was interesting to me that, in like manner, he had been +ordained by Rowland Hill. A charge to the inducted minister followed; +then came a sermon to the people, pointing out their duties. The holy +influence of that day rests on me to this hour, after the lapse of more +than fifty years. + +The fresh impetus now given to our religious work served to stimulate +friends in the Establishment, who had so helped us in our department of +the one great cause. A Sunday evening service was commenced in the +parish church, and a new Episcopal place of worship was erected in Eton, +where it was much needed. In addition to the vicar of Windsor and his +curates, some of the masters at Eton College came forward in parish work, +rendering help by sermons at a third Sunday service then recently +commenced. The Rev. T. Chapman, afterwards a Colonial bishop, took the +lead, and did much to revive religion in the town. But the most +distinguished labourer at the time was the Rev. G. A. Selwyn, then +connected with Eton, who was afterwards one of the most heroic missionary +bishops of modern times; with him it was my privilege to co-operate in +the establishment of the Windsor Infants’ School. + +lie would fain have induced me to enter the Establishment, but though he +did not succeed in that respect, he ever treated me with a brotherly +regard, which I sincerely reciprocated. Before he embarked for his +distant field of labour he wrote a farewell note in which he said: “On +the few points in which we differ, I thank God we have been enabled to +dwell, often at some length, without one particle of that acrimony which +often discredits controversy, and proves it to proceed rather from human +passions than from zeal for the truth of God. I cannot recollect, +throughout all our intercourse, one single word which can be considered +as a breach of charity between us. For this I am especially thankful, +that when I go to offer up my gift upon far distant altars, I shall have +left no brother at home, with whom I ought first to have been +reconciled.” + +I had a ticket for St. George’s Chapel when William IV. was interred. +The interior of the building was dark, except as illumined by torches in +the hands of soldiers who lined the nave, and by numerous lights within +the choir. When the procession drew up about nine o’clock, at the south +entrance, the blaze of outside torches was seen through the stained +windows; then the appearance of heralds in their tabards followed: next +the slow march of mourners close to the coffin, the Duke of Sussex being +most conspicuous; afterwards a funeral dirge echoed from the fretted +roof. The silence was further broken by the Burial Service and the +repetition of royal titles. “Sic transit gloria mundi” came last, and +left an ineffaceable impression. + +I was further favoured with a ticket to see the coronation in Westminster +Abbey. When the procession entered the nave, officers of state and +foreign ambassadors appeared in rich costume. Diamond-decked coats and +rich mantles made a grand show, yet they chiefly served to set off the +simple dignity of the queen in her early girlhood, whilst a spell of +loyalty touched spectators looking down from lofty galleries. The +coronation shout of “God save the Queen” needed to be heard that it might +be fully understood. Afterwards, a stream of dignified personages, with +mantles and coronets, issued from the choir and covered the nave with a +tesselated pattern of rich colours. + +To the coronation succeeded the royal marriage, honoured at Windsor by +extraordinary festivities; and at night the cortége of the bride and +bridegroom, on their way to the castle through decorated and illuminated +streets, evoked a rapturous welcome from assembled thousands. But what +above all other incidents of that occasion lives in my memory at the +present moment is the sudden view which I caught a day or two afterwards +of the wedded pair in a pony carriage, driven by the bridegroom as his +bride nestled beside him, under his wing, with simplicity which gave +exquisite finish to the chief pictures which passed before me that +summer. + +Another incident may be mentioned. At a town meeting it was proposed +that an address of congratulation should be presented to Her Majesty by +the mayor and others. The presentation followed at a levée. It was +interesting to see notabilities assembled in St. James’s Palace at the +first public reception by Her Majesty after the royal marriage. Amongst +a crowd of noblemen in the ante-room were pointed out, in particular, Dr. +Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, with an eagle eye indicative of his +intellect, and Joseph Hume, the sturdy economist; both of them much +talked of at that period. Others I have forgotten. After waiting we +were ushered into the presence, the Queen, with Prince Albert at her +side, occupying a place near a window not far from the entrance door. +Since that I have knelt before Her Majesty more than once, but how great +the difference between the first and last occasions—the girl become a +matron, the sparkling bride a sorrowful widow, and the newly-married wife +a mother with sons and daughters standing round in reverence and +affection. + +If I may here anticipate a Windsor ceremonial of later date, let me +mention the royal presentation of colours to a regiment of Highlanders to +which I acted as chaplain. The colours were bestowed in the quadrangle +of the castle on the day when the christening of the Prince of Wales took +place. The Prince Consort, the King of Prussia, and the Duke of +Wellington, with several other grandees, formed a group under the shadow +of the castle porch. As chaplain to the regiment I was allowed to stand +near, and was struck with the Prince’s German accent, which he seemed to +conquer in later life, when he spoke almost like a born Englishman. The +Duke addressed the soldiers in his accustomed plain style, giving them +very good advice. Preparations for the banquet in St. George’s Hall, +which a number of people were allowed to see, were very magnificent, +tables being covered with gold and silver plate. Some antique pieces +brought from the Tower were of special interest. In the evening I joined +the non-commissioned officers, to whom a dinner was given, and I was glad +of an opportunity to recall to their minds the Duke’s address. This +Highland regiment while in Windsor attended worship in our chapel, when +the band accompanied the singing, and Highland bonnets hung round, +outside the galleries. I visited the barracks, conversed and prayed with +the sick, and baptised the children. My relations with the colonel and +the officers were pleasant during the whole time that the Scotch remained +in Windsor. + +Going back a few years, let me notice “Eton Montem,” then witnessed in +all its splendour. Approaches to the college were guarded by boys in +fancy costumes: coloured velvet coats, yellow boots, caps decorated with +graceful plumes, appeared on the scene. The youngsters levied a tax on +all comers, calling it “_salt_,” which they deposited in bags suspended +from their necks. As royal carriages swept across Windsor bridge, +picturesque sentinels received handsome donations from royal hands. The +gifts, together with a large number of others, formed a fund for the +captain of the school to defray his expenses at Cambridge, whither he was +sent in prospect of a fellowship. The procession of boys to Salt Hill, +where the captain waved a flag after a prescribed fashion, excited +immense interest, and was witnessed by multitudes. The sight in the +college gardens as the day closed, afforded perhaps the best of the +pageant, for these lads, attired in Turkish, Greek, Italian, and other +showy garbs, mixed with their friends so as to form a picture of animated +life, with old trees and old buildings for a background. + +I had not been long in the town before I became intimately connected with +the British and Foreign Bible Society, which laid a strong hold on my +affections as a boy, and to which I firmly adhered, after I became a man. +Our auxiliary was a flourishing one. Some relatives of Lord Bexley, +president of the parent society, lived in our neighbourhood, and used to +come over to our annual gatherings in the Town Hall. One of them, the +Rev. Mr. Neal, of Taplow, was a constant visitor. He typified a class of +men now almost extinct. They loved the Establishment, and, judging of it +by its formularies, identified it with the cause of evangelical religion. +They knew much less of Anglo-Catholic theology than of Puritanical works. +Owen and Baxter occupied a conspicuous place on their literary shelves, +by the side of Latimer and Calvin. The Evangelicals were nevertheless +faithful to their own ecclesiastical order, preferring episcopacy to any +other form of government. Not on social or literary grounds had they +sympathy with Dissenters, or from what is now recognised as “breadth of +opinion,” but they cultivated union, on purely evangelical grounds. + +At our Bible Meeting, with good old Mr. Neale, other evangelical +clergymen were present, also one of our borough members, Mr. Ramsbottom, +M.P. (who always took the chair), and Sir John Chapman, a strong +conservative Churchman, was sure to be on the platform. I cannot say +that the speeches were brilliant, though the deputation from London +interested us much. First came Mr. Dudley, who had been a Quaker, but +was then an Episcopalian; and, to the facts he detailed, there were added +peculiarities of utterance, which gave a flavour to what he said. He +slightly stuttered; and once, as he described how the blind were taught +to read with their fingers the pages of embossed Bibles, he said it +reminded him of the words, “That they should seek the Lord, if haply, +they might _feel after __Him and find Him_.” Hesitation of speech made +the quotation increasingly effective. After him came Mr. Bourne, who +had, I believe, been formerly a stipendiary magistrate in the West +Indies; and he had a singular _click_ in his voice. He told a story of +some ladies who had coloured their maps so as to distinguish, by a pink +colour, the countries where the Bible was circulated—thus “_pinking_ the +world for Christ.” The good man’s click told curiously on his +pronunciation of words; and I used, sometimes, to make my Bible Society +friends smile, by inquiring whether they offered a premium for agents +with a “_diversity of tongues_.” The Rev. Sydney Godolphin Osborne—the +famous “S. G. O.” of _The Times_ newspaper—had at that period a living +near Windsor, and took great interest in our auxiliary. He was a fine, +tall, aristocratic young man, of straightforward character, strong common +sense, and a racy style of utterance. He made capital speeches, and in +many ways helped on our work; in one way especially, which deserves +distinct mention. He thought it would be a good thing to obtain royal +patronage for our auxiliary, though Her Majesty’s name was not identified +with the parent society. He wrote to Lord John Russell, then a Cabinet +Minister (whose brother, Lord Wriothesley Russell, after he became Canon +of Windsor, lovingly supported our cause). When Lord John laid the +request before Her Majesty, she graciously gave her name as local +patroness, and sent a donation of twenty guineas. It is worth mentioning +that this occurred at a time when party politics were running high. Two +letters communicating the Queen’s kindness may be here inserted. + +The first was addressed to the Honourable Godolphin Osborne. + + “SIR, + + “I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter + respecting ‘The Windsor Auxiliary Bible Society,’ on which the Queen + was last year pleased to bestow her patronage, which I have submitted + to the Queen, and though Her Majesty does not usually grant a + donation to those institutions to which Her Majesty’s patronage only + has been given, yet, the Queen, taking into her consideration that + the establishment in question is in the immediate neighbourhood of + Windsor Castle, has been pleased to direct me to forward twenty + guineas as a donation. I beg to enclose a draft for that sum, and + request you will have the goodness to acknowledge its receipt. + + “I have the honour to be, + “Your most obedient servant, + “H. WHEATLEY.” + +This letter was conveyed to me by the person addressed, who added the +following note:— + + “I wrote to Sir H. Wheatley about a donation from the Queen to the + Bible Society. I have received a satisfactory answer, and a draft + for twenty guineas. If it meets your approbation, I would wish that + the fact should not be known to any but ourselves just now. At the + present moment the country is so _party-mad_, and there is such a + determination to catch at anything for party purposes, that I am + anxious to avoid giving a handle of any sort to either side in a + matter which has no real reference to politics. I only wrote last + week from Wales, and got an immediate answer, which I have + acknowledged, saying, at the same time, that at the anniversary + meeting a more official acknowledgment will be sent. + + “I remain, + “Yours truly, + “GODOLPHIN OSBORNE.” + +This letter sheds light on the state of public feeling existing at that +day. + +In connection with the town of Windsor, let me mention two or three +traditions I received from the lips of my beloved wife, who became the +light of my dwelling on May 12th, 1835. Her good old father, Mr. George +Cooper, had long been a sort of Christian Gaius, receiving as guests +under his hospitable roof several men and women of renown. Often would +she speak of Rowland Hill, who repeatedly visited her home on his way to +Wotton-under-Edge, where he spent the summer months. He delighted to +preach in our little chapel in High Street, where the Eton boys would +attend to see and hear the eccentric old clergyman, who in his youth had +been one of their predecessors as a schoolboy. He would tell Mr. Cooper +how he used sometimes to steal at eventide beyond Eton bounds, to attend +a prayer-meeting in a cottage, which he could reach only by leaping over +a ditch with the help of a long pole. He allowed the good woman who +lived there an annuity, which Mr. Cooper used to convey as long as she +lived. Rowland Hill liked to hear at High Street Chapel the Hundredth +Psalm in Watts’s Hymn-book, and the youngsters who came used to alter the +last verse, shouting: “When _Rowland Hill_ shall cease to move.” + +I remember hearing how Charles Wesley, the son of the great hymn-writer, +visited the town, accompanied by his sister, and spent an evening in Mr. +Cooper’s house, greatly to the joy of my wife as a girl. They arrived in +a sedan chair, dressed in Court costume. His execution on the piano was +surprising; and those who watched his thick, short fingers, as they swept +over the keys, said it was miraculous how he played. + +Before I conclude what I have to say of my life in Windsor, let me advert +to attempts I made to promote intellectual and literary improvement, +according to methods then beginning to be popular. There was an +Institute formed in the adjoining town of Eton for the encouragement of +reading amongst such as had not enjoyed the advantages of early +education. A room was opened, furnished with a few books, where +inducements to what is termed mutual improvement were provided, and there +the famous astronomer Sir J. F. W. Herschell delivered an inaugural +lecture, which gave it at once a character of distinguished +respectability. I was invited to join in the infant enterprise, which I +did with pleasure and satisfaction, and felt it an honour to become one +of its lecturers. The effort made at Eton was followed at Windsor. I +threw myself into the enterprise, and worked on its behalf as long as I +remained in the town. The committee honoured me with an invitation to +lecture in the Town Hall, where my effort was kindly accepted by a large +audience; a short course on the History of the Castle and Town followed. +This, by request, was published in a volume dedicated, by permission, to +the Prince Consort. In its preparation assistance had been furnished +through books, documents, and advice, by residents in the town, and by +officials in the castle. + +In concluding this chapter, I am constrained to notice some friendships +which were enjoyed by me during my Windsor residence. Poyle is a small +hamlet on the Great Western road not far from Windsor, near Colnbrook. +Sixty years ago a long line of mail coaches passed every night the +turnpike-gate, as cottagers heard the blast of the guard’s horn, and +stepped out to see the coachmen, in like livery, handling the reins which +guided their teams. Hard by the spot there was a paper mill, spanning a +pretty little river, the Coln, which kept the machinery in motion. The +whole formed a picture common in the early part of this century, not so +common now. Close to the mill were two goodly residences, occupied by +two brothers named Ibotson, of an old Nonconformist stock, who could +trace back religious ancestors to Puritan days. What pleasant gatherings +of congenial friends I met with at Poyle!—neighbouring pastors, and the +Rev. Joshua Clarkson Harrison, born not far off, and at the time building +up a goodly reputation in London and its environs, were of the number. + +In contrast with these bright circumstances, I must notice incidents of a +far different kind. My dear wife lost about that time two brothers in +early life by what we call accidents; but, worse still, while I was from +home one summer, my beloved mother, who lived with me, set fire to her +muslin dress, while the servant was absent, and immediately became +enveloped in flames. Some one passing by endeavoured to render +assistance, but it was too late, and the next morning she expired. +Bright summer weather was for a long time after that, to my eyes, covered +with a pall of darkness; and to look on the blue sky and the gay summer +flowers only made me more sad. + + + + +CHAPTER IV +1837–1843 + + +BEING disposed beyond immediate pastoral duties to help in religious work +outside, I found ample opportunities for doing it. Sir Culling Eardley +was at that time zealous in the furtherance of village preaching. Coming +to Windsor, he offered to help us in purchasing a tent for services in +the neighbourhood. It was procured and employed, but with less success +than had attended his enterprise of the same kind in Hertfordshire. I +undertook, at his request, a fortnight’s tour in that county, and one +evening preached near a wood, where John Bunyan, in days of persecution, +addressed the neglected peasantry. + +Revivalism at the period now referred to, attracted attention in England, +in part owing to the circulation of American books, and the preaching of +American divines. A great awakening occurred at Reading, Henley, +Maidenhead, and Windsor. Streams of people might be seen on dark winter +mornings, lantern in hand, on their way to the place of prayer. Chapels +were thronged, ministers were in full sympathy with each other; all +worked with a will. Looking back on the whole, I believe genuine good +was done; yet in some instances the effect was transient. Conversion was +insisted upon, and peace with God through Jesus Christ was offered; but +whether moral improvement in the details of human life was proportionally +emphasised, and practically carried out, I am not prepared to say. +Certainly, appeals respecting holiness in general were not wanting. +Rightly to adjust the balance, so as to guard against self-righteousness +on one hand, and the neglect of personal responsibility on the other, +requires vast wisdom. To induce people to look at themselves and to +Christ also, cannot be accomplished without thought and discrimination in +promiscuous gatherings. Whatever might be defects in the movement, +assuredly they did not come from artificial arrangements. No one can be +said to have “got up the thing.” + +At all times in the course of our ministry “cases of conscience” occur. +One in particular I may mention. I was once sent for to visit a dying +person. The home, the people, the surroundings, excited revulsion, as +well as a determination to improve a strange opportunity. I found a +young woman on her deathbed, and another sitting by, who used phraseology +indicative of evangelical sentiment. She offered to leave the room that +the patient might unburthen her mind to me. It was obvious some secret +of guilt lay on the sufferer’s conscience. I had no wish to be a father +confessor, and pointed her to the _only One_ who can pardon sin. At last +the dying creature uttered a piercing exclamation, which seemed to me an +acknowledgment of sin. What the secret was she did not disclose. +Presently she entered “the silent land.” When I called again, I +intimated to her attendant my surprise at what she had said, for I could +not doubt that she was leading an immoral life. She frankly confessed +she had fallen into vice, after expressing a belief that she had been +converted, and _had_ been a “child of God.” The incident was affecting, +instructive, and admonitory. + +Public questions interested me much, and I took part in those which +belonged to philanthropy and religion. Amongst them at the time I speak +of, negro emancipation stood foremost. From boyhood it laid hold on me. +Speeches at Norwich, by Joseph John Gurney and others, had left an +abiding impression; and when the great controversy became ripe for +settlement, I threw myself into the struggle. The excitement throughout +the nation was intense, and it laid hold chiefly of the religious section +of the British public. Missionaries had been at work amongst negroes, +and had seen the horrors of the system. The persecution of Smith, a +missionary in Demerara, who died in prison, evoked passionate sympathy; +and the appeal of Knibb, another missionary, who came over as an advocate +of emancipation, struck the nail on the head, and drove it into the +centre of this colossal wrong. Nothing is more manifest, to those who +witnessed what went on in England half a century ago for slave +emancipation, than that, however manifold the arguments employed, however +numerous the methods and agencies in motion, it was Christianity which +lay at the heart of the movement. Quakers were amongst the most zealous +co-operators in this advocacy for freedom, and I much enjoyed the +fellowship into which I was brought with followers of George Fox, early +family associations strengthening bonds of friendship between us. +Deputations went up to London to wait upon Mr. Stanley, Colonial +Secretary, afterwards Earl of Derby, and I well remember the crowd +gathered in a large room in Downing Street, to strengthen the hands of +that gentleman in his chivalrous enterprise. The history of steps which +led to the final victory it is not for me to tell in these pages, but I +may mention the third reading by the Lords of the Emancipation Bill in +August 1833. It filled multitudes with joy; and on August 1st, 1834, the +Act took effect, when a solemn celebration of the event occurred in +England, as well as the West India Islands. That day I preached at +Windsor from Jer. xl. 4:—“And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the +chains which were upon thine hand.” + +In 1839 the Anti-Corn Law League took shape. I distinctly recollect the +scene presented at a great bazaar in Covent Garden Theatre, in aid of +Free Trade, when there was a wonderful gathering of notabilities and +other folks. Stalls, articles, and ornaments, were varied and imposing; +and as that exhibition appeared before the present age of bazaars was +fully inaugurated, it had a more dazzling and bewildering effect than +efforts of the kind can have now that they have become so common. + +Dissenters’ grievances, too, were exciting subjects in those days. +Certain disabilities had an irritating effect on those who felt them, and +legislation was sought for their removal. No doubt, in the heat of the +conflict things were said on both sides which, on calm review, cannot be +justified; and I am in my old age more than ever convinced that union of +the _suaviter in modo_ with the _fortiter in re_, is the best method of +conducting controversy. + +My holidays, whilst I was a Windsor pastor, were spent in preaching; but +there were two exceptions, when I broke ground as a tourist. Travelling +in Nottinghamshire and the neighbouring counties, I visited Newstead +Abbey with a fresh remembrance of Washington Irving’s description of the +place. I had a gossip with an old domestic, who told me stories of Lord +Byron, whom she knew as a boy, and used to carry on her back on account +of his lameness. He pricked and otherwise tormented the patient +creature, so as, on one occasion, to provoke her so much, that she boldly +ventured on a rather amusing act of retaliation. Leaning over her +shoulders to look into an old chest full of feathers, she, to use her own +words, “copped him over, and he came out for all the world just like a +young owlet.” What I then heard of his early days gave me an +unfavourable idea of that child of genius, so caressed and tormented, so +flattered and persecuted, so early thrown into unfortunate circumstances, +and altogether so badly brought up. What a contrast between two poets, +whose memories came vividly before me during this tour!—Byron and Scott, +both of them lame for life; one a stranger to the other’s purity. Years +afterwards I heard Dean Stanley preach a sermon to children, in which, +with his characteristic felicity of thought, he spoke of the contrasted +influences of physical deformity in these two instances—how the club foot +of the first was an occasion of mortified pride and ill-nature, and the +club foot of the second was borne with patience and contentment. The +story of Byron’s club foot is now treated by some I hear as a popular +delusion; but, at all events, he had something the matter with his foot +which irritated his temper and made him disagreeable. Therefore the +Dean’s moral lesson remains untouched. In connection with good humour +and kindness, a physical defect may be only a foil to set off moral +excellence. + +After passing through Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland in company +with my dear friend Harrison, we reached Edinburgh by coach at midnight +to find ourselves in the morning amidst grand preparations for the +Queen’s first arrival in the Scottish capital. The view at noon from +Calton Hill, as the arrangements for receiving royalty had reached their +acme, was most magnificent. Princes Street, from end to end, presented +multitudes of people in holiday attire, military uniforms, tartan, kilts +and feathered bonnets, gave rich plays of colour. The crowd waited and +waited, but no Queen appeared. Night fell, and the expectants went to +bed disappointed. Next morning every one was taken by surprise, for Her +Majesty, having been detained at sea, landed at Leith, whilst the Lord +Provost was still asleep. My friend and I afterwards went to Stirling, +and identified historic points which dot the field of Bannockburn—then to +Perth, Dunkeld, Killiecrankie, and Blair Atholl. + +In the course of numerous journeys I had opportunities of seeing the real +state of Nonconformity in rural districts. It was then much better than +some people suppose. There were then families of influence identified +with country places of worship, who have not left behind them sympathetic +representatives. The revival of religion in the National Church has +produced a considerable change in the relative position of ecclesiastical +parties. Sunday evening services in cathedral and parish church, and the +pastoral activity of incumbents and curates, with numerous missionary and +other organisations, have produced effects very visible in the eyes of +old people, who can look back on the religious condition of England +during the first quarter of the present century. + +My first Continental tour occurred before I left Windsor. I visited a +family at Rotterdam into which a fellow-student had married, and had +pleasant insights into Dutch life. After peeps at the Hague, Leyden, and +Amsterdam, abounding in a gratification of antiquarian and historical +taste, slowly proceeding up the Rhine, I felt all the enthusiasm incident +to a young traveller as he first gazes on castle-crowned hills which line +the river. Many and many a ramble since on those romantic banks have +increased rather than diminished my admiration of the Rhine. + +Friendships have through life been essential to my enjoyment, I might +almost say to my existence. Intimate acquaintance with people of +remarkable character in my Windsor days was a source of intense +gratification. + +The Rev. W. Walford, for some years minister of a Congregational Church +at Yarmouth, then classical tutor at Homerton College, and finally pastor +of the old Meeting House, Uxbridge, was one of the most remarkable men I +ever knew. I see him now, with his handsome face, bald head, well-knit +form, keen eyes, compressed lips, rather tottering in gait, and brusque +in manner. What walks and talks we had! In conversation he expressed +himself with singular accuracy on theological and metaphysical subjects. +He had Butler and Jonathan Edwards at his fingers’ ends, and could pack +into a few words some of their most abstruse definitions and arguments. +He had a habit of turning round when you walked with him, and standing +face to face, when he would, in a most luminous style, state his +propositions and adduce his proofs. He read Sir William Hamilton with +immense admiration, though he did not in all respects adopt his views; +and, at a period when looseness of religious thought was becoming +prevalent, it was a treat to see him make a stand, figuratively as well +as literally, for a distinct utterance of what people believe. From no +man’s conversation have I derived more instruction and advantage. I can +never forget his reading to me, with tears in his eyes, a translation he +had made of Plato’s “Phaedo.” + +One day an old gentleman called to say he was about to reside at Old +Windsor, and intended joining our worship at William Street Chapel. He +had a cheerful, lively expression of countenance, with a few short grey +locks on each side of his bald head, and showed in his gait signs of +paralytic seizure. Full of humour and kindness, he made a pleasant +impression. Thus began my friendship with Mr. Samuel Bagster of famous +Polyglot memory. Notwithstanding his lameness, he could at that time +walk from Old Windsor to our house with the aid of a stick, only asking a +helping hand at the commencement of his pedestrian attempts. Thus +started off he would steadily pursue his journey dressed in a short cloak +and wearing a very broad-brimmed hat. He was one of the chattiest, most +amusing friends I ever had. He possessed a large fund of anecdotes, +which he knew I liked; and from time to time, as I visited his house, he +doled them out with no niggard hand. He had lived on books, and books +were his delight. Many choice editions in handsome bindings lined the +walls in his rambling, quaint sort of residence, where also flowers, +gathered in his little garden, formed conspicuous ornaments. There he +would sit nursing his foot, complaining of pain in his great toe, and +would launch out for a pleasant sail over the lake of memory, and take me +from one point to another. The old books he had bought and sold, the +circumstances connected with the origin of his Polyglot and Hexapla, the +fire which occurred on his premises in Paternoster Row—these he would +narrate in a characteristic way. + +He often talked about the French Revolution and events connected with it +in our own country. Clubs of a more than questionable description were +established, and he told me that, invited by a person of his own age to +attend a meeting held in an obscure street, he was surprised, on his +entrance, to find a number of men ranged on either side of a room, +sitting by long tables, with a cross one at the upper end. There sat the +president for the evening. Several foaming tankards were brought in, +when the president calling on the company to rise, took up one of the +pots, and striking off the foam which crested the porter, gave as a +toast: “So let all . . . perish.” The blank was left to be filled up as +each drinker pleased. The avowed dislike to kings entertained by these +boon companions suggested to Mr. Bagster the word “kings” or “tyrants”; +and at once he gladly left the place, not a little alarmed, lest he +should be suspected of treasonable designs. With characteristic caution, +he took care not to observe the thoroughfare through which he passed on +his way back, that he might be able conscientiously to declare he did not +know the situation of the place. He also related that his father had a +workman in his employ, whom he knew to be a disaffected subject. He +expostulated with him on the horrors of a revolution as illustrated in +France, and dwelt upon the confusion which would ensue upon outbreaks on +established order. The man lifted up the skirt of his threadbare coat +against the window, and significantly asked: “Pray, sir, what have I to +lose?” My friend was no Radical, no Whig, but a Tory of the +old-fashioned type, who approved of things as they were, without, +however, any consciousness of wishing to tyrannise over other people. He +was a great admirer of Izaak Walton, and had made a collection of +drawings illustrative of his “Compleat Angler,” of which he intended to +publish a new edition, with a life of the author. When he had completed +his “Comprehensive Bible,” which, by permission, he dedicated to George +IV., he was allowed personally to present it to His Majesty; and I have +heard him say that on that occasion he was introduced to the royal +presence by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The publisher was already +paralysed, and could walk only with a tottering step; but the Primate +gave him his arm, and led him up to the so-called first gentleman of +Europe, who received him very graciously, and accepted at his hands the +handsomely-bound volume. + +There were other people I met with at Windsor whom I may mention. At the +house of Dr. Ferguson, a Scotch physician of good birth and high culture, +I met with his son-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Moultrie, Incumbent at Rugby, and +friend of Dr. Arnold. He was a man of genius and piety, and gave a +conviction of personal goodness, which made me value his volume of poems +even more than I had done before. I like to look at authors through +their books, and then again at books through their authors. In some +cases the personal damages the literary judgment; but in many cases I +have enjoyed works much more after knowing the worker. + +Mr. Jesse, the naturalist, was another of my acquaintances. He held an +office in connection with royal parks and palaces, and I spent pleasant +hours as he drove me in his little pony gig from Windsor to Hampton +Court, in the restoration of which he felt great delight. An amiable +disposition, gentlemanly manners, and large information, made him an +excellent companion. From the account he gave of his early life I found +his father was a clergyman, a friend of Lady Huntingdon’s, and an +occasional preacher at Spafields Chapel. Mr. Stark, the eminent +landscape artist, was one of my hearers, a man of decided religious +convictions, and conscientious in art as in other things. He and Mr. +Bristow, the animal painter, were amongst my friends; and in Windsor +Forest they found subjects for their united skill, Stark putting in the +trees, Bristow dogs and horses. + +Amongst London friends at that time, and long afterwards was John Bergne, +brother to my fellow-student Samuel Bergne, already mentioned. Clerk in +the Foreign Office, he rose to the superintendence of the Treaty +Department. Full of knowledge respecting European affairs, he often +amused me by his taciturnity whenever they came on the carpet,—abstinence +from communication of office secrets having become to him second nature. +His mind was rich with information on various subjects; and in the +science of numismatics he was well skilled. His collection of coins was +of great value, including examples of English money from the earliest +time, and valuable portions of “great finds” in Greek states. His +affluent conversation, overflowing with humour, his rapid utterance and +command of language surpassed what I have heard from many good talkers, +whom it has been my fortune to meet with during a long life. + +With other remarkable persons, I became intimately acquainted after my +removal to Kensington. These I shall notice in their proper place. + +In 1833 arose the Puseyite or Tractarian controversy as it was called. +Of this a full account is given by Dr. Newman, in his “Apologia”—an +account, of course, proceeding from his own point of view. The strife +both inside and outside the University of Oxford, where the masters of +the Tractarian movement lived and worked, was of the hottest kind; and +those engaged in it on both sides, under the influence of party feeling, +failed to appreciate each other’s position, and to estimate correctly the +tendencies involved. The Anglo-Catholics did not believe they were so +near Rome; the staunch Protestants did not calculate on the wonderful +effect which the controversy would have in stirring up the latent +energies of the Church, and in modifying forms of worship, even amongst +Evangelical parties. An amusing story I remember hearing when the famous +Tract, “No. 90,” was published. The then Bishop of Winchester (I think) +wished to see it, and wrote to his bookseller to forward a copy, but from +illegibility of penmanship “_No_ 90” was mistaken for “_No go_”; and the +poor bookseller, after inquiring in the Row for a pamphlet with that +title, wrote to inform his Lordship, that there was no such tract in the +market. The story ran its round, and the Evangelicals pronounced “_No._ +90” “_No go_.” + +Dr. Newman condensed within the space of a few years the Romeward +tendencies of Christendom during successive ages: starting with +Tractarian doctrines, it was consistent for him to become a Roman +Catholic in the sequel; and Dr. Pusey, in pausing where he did, never +explained the grounds of his practical inconsistency. I felt it my duty +to point out the unscriptural character of the Tractarian movement in a +course of lectures, afterwards published under the title of “Tractarian +Theology.” + + + + +CHAPTER V +1843–1850 + + +I WAS quite satisfied with my position at Windsor and had no thoughts of +leaving it, when Dr. Vaughan of Kensington accepted the principalship of +Lancashire College, and at the same time overtures were made by his +Church to me that I should succeed him in the vacant pastorate. I can +truly say that my desires were on the side of remaining where I was. I +only wished to know the Divine Master’s will. I felt unwilling to accept +what looked like preferment; but after visiting Kensington and preaching +there, the path before me appeared pretty plain. I accepted the call I +received. “It seems like a dream,” I wrote to my predecessor. “Yes,” he +replied; “but it is like Joseph’s—a dream from the Lord.” + +It was a curious coincidence that the Church at Windsor and the Church at +Kensington were both in their origin connected with a coachman in the +service of George III. His name was Saunders, and he enjoyed his royal +master’s confidence. They used to talk together about religion, and, +encouraged by the King’s good opinion, the servant put tracts in the +carriage pocket; and when His Majesty had read them he asked for more. +As the royal residence was sometimes in town, and sometimes at Windsor, +the home of Saunders varied accordingly, and he felt an interest in both +neighbourhoods, especially as it regarded the humbler class. He probably +caught the revivalist spirit prevalent a hundred years ago, and did what +he could to gather people together for religious impression. In this way +a room called “The Hole in the Wall” came to be the cradle of Windsor +Congregationalism; and a “humble dwelling,” mentioned by the Kensington +historian, was birthplace to the congregation which afterwards assembled +in Hornton Street. “When the faithful servant begged permission, on +account of age, to retire from His Majesty’s service, that he might +reside at Kensington, it was not without an expression of regret on the +part of the monarch; but the request was granted, and as often as the +King afterwards passed through the place he took the most kind and +condescending notice of his coachman.” {77} + +In “Poems by John Moultrie,” there occur these lines— + + “I have a son, a third sweet son, his age I cannot tell, + For they reckon not by years and months where he is gone to dwell.” + +During the first three years of my Kensington residence, there were three +little children taken from us, and translated to that mysterious world, +where our time reckonings are lost in an incomprehensible eternity. +Altogether six children were brought with us from Windsor; and to these +were added five more in the first few years after our removal—making the +domestic flock at the time I speak of eleven. Of that number only four +remain on earth at this time, {78}—a fact which tells of joy, and of much +sorrow, at the hands of our Heavenly Father. Three were taken from us +between 1843 and 1849. + +During my Windsor life I began to take a deep interest in the writings of +Dr. Arnold, and afterwards, when his Life appeared, written by his +admiring pupil, Dr. Stanley, that interest increased. As I read these +memoirs I little thought that I should share in the Biographer’s +friendship; and my admiration of the two men was so deep that I attribute +any improvement in my mind and character since, greatly to their combined +influence. Through life I have been more than ordinarily benefited by +their works, and as to the Master of Rugby School, I have always been +eager to learn what I could from any Rugby pupils I happened to know. At +this moment there comes to my recollection an anecdote related by a +friend who had been a Rugby boy. He told me that some accident happened +at chapel in the upsetting of Bibles or prayer-books, and their fall from +the gallery created much disturbance. Boys who were suspected of having +a share in causing what happened were called up by the Master, and my +informant was of the number. He told me that Dr. Arnold _trusted_ a boy +who denied any offence of which he was accused until clear proof appeared +to the contrary. This was designed to keep up mutual confidence. In the +instance under notice the boy accused felt sure that Dr. Arnold was not +satisfied with the denial; yet he allowed the matter to pass, because he +would promote confidence between master and pupil. The anecdote confirms +what I have since read. He was never on the watch for boys, and he so +encouraged straightforward and manly action, in trivial as in great +things, that there grew up a general feeling, that “It was a shame to +tell Arnold a lie, for he always believed one.” {80} + +Kensington, at the time of which I speak, was famous for its number of +ladies’ schools, and in them several daughters of Nonconformist parents +were receiving their education. They formed an interesting part of my +congregation, and my pastoral relation to them prepared for lifelong +friendships. Of this group of families were the Dawsons of Lancaster, +the Rawsons of Leeds, the Cheethams of Staleybridge, and the Sharmans of +Wellingborough. With all of them I became intimate, and their +friendships have proved no small comfort to me in later life. Parents of +these families were distinguished by usefulness in many ways. Mr. Rawson +was the well-known gifted hymn-writer; and Mr. Cheetham was M.P., and +took an active part in the repeal of the Corn Laws. Daughters of these +gentlemen were under my ministerial care while pupils at Kensington, and +afterwards became earnest Christian workers in different ways, and their +continued affection is a comfort to me in my old age. A son of Mr. +Dawson married a daughter of Mr. Rawson, and immediately they went to +China for mission work; but the broken-down health of the husband +compelled his speedy return to England. He is now doing good work as one +of the London City Mission secretaries. + +In connection with Kensington, I would further mention other helpers: Mr. +and Mrs. Coombs of Clapham were so. Mr. Coombs helped me especially by a +large donation to the fund for building my new chapel. In other ways I +was brought into relation with him. He was Treasurer of New College, and +an active member of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious +Tract Society, and the London Missionary Society. His intelligence, +aptitude for conversation, and kind-hearted intercourse made his +friendship a privilege of more than ordinary value. It was intensified +by his family relationship to some of my Kensington flock, the Salters +and the Talfourds, whom I shall mention elsewhere in these reminiscences. +Amidst preaching and pastoral work, it was a relief to spend a short +holiday under Mr. Coombs’ hospitable roof at Clapham, where I found a +large collection of books. He died before I left Kensington, but my +friendship with his wife and daughter continued till they died. + +Archdeacon Sinclair, who had accepted the vicarage just before I removed +to Kensington, paid me a visit of welcome, and thus laid a foundation for +subsequent intercourse. He was son of the well-known Sir John Sinclair, +and brother of the authoress, Catherine Sinclair. All the family were +remarkably tall. The Archdeacon was a man of eminent culture, and of +extensive aristocratic connections. His great-grandmother, though a +loyalist, was the noted lady who aided in the escape of Prince Charlie, +after the battle of Culloden. This same ancestress lay buried in +Kensington Church, in front of the pulpit. Archdeacon Sinclair was well +read in theology, widely acquainted with the controversies of the day, +and a thoroughly orthodox Churchman; also rich in family and Scotch +traditions. He told me the MSS. of David Hume came into his hands, and +from perusal of them he was confirmed in his suspicion, that the +celebrated historian and philosopher had no deep convictions of any kind, +but only played with subjects he handled, doubtful about his own doubts. + +Returning to the notice of my ministerial life, it comes in chronological +order to mention that we had at Kensington, in 1843, British schools, +which, being undenominational, received help from Church-people and +Dissenters. They had long been patronised by distinguished personages, +and not long after I had become resident in the neighbourhood application +was made by the committee to the Duchess of Inverness, widow of the Duke +of Sussex, to become patroness of the schools. This circumstance led her +Grace to invite me to call on her, which I did. I was shown into an +old-fashioned drawing-room, furnished in the style of the last century, +the walls being decorated with portraits of George III. and members of +his family. Entering the apartment was stepping back, as it were, to +“sixty years since.” An old lady of diminutive stature, in black silk +and a small cap, presently appeared, who entered into pleasant +conversation about her late husband, and Mr. Ramsbottom, M.P. for +Windsor, whom I knew very well. Both of them were zealous Freemasons. +Her Grace had caught their spirit, as far as a lady could do it, and +inquired of me whether I was a Mason. No doubt, could I have answered in +the affirmative, I should have risen in her estimation. My visit was +fruitful in reference to our schools, for she sent a donation of £20, +apologising for not doing more at that time. Kensington Palace was then +inhabited by other distinguished persons; and one of the secretaries of +the Propagation Society, I think, at that time performed the duties of a +chaplain to those resident within the walls. + +It is appropriate in connection with the early part of my Kensington life +to mention religious societies with which I closely associated myself. +There is no doubt some truth in the lines that, + + “Distance lends enchantment to the view, + And clothes the mountain with an azure hue.” + +In looking at benevolent work, remote in time or place, we are apt to +paint it in fairest colours; but of the great importance of the religious +work going on fifty years ago in London and the neighbourhood, there can +be no question whatever. + +The _British and Foreign Bible Society_ I always regarded as lying at the +very foundation of our religious activity. It had a comprehensive +Auxiliary in the West End from the commencement of the society’s +operations, and annual meetings were held in the Haymarket, under the +presidency of royal dukes. This Auxiliary was broken into parts, and +Kensington had a leading place amongst them. Traditions of earlier days +were cherished when I began to live in the royal suburb, and they +invested our local gatherings with some dignity, as families when divided +derive honours from their common ancestry. + +The Missionary Society, as it was originally called—the _London +Missionary Society_, as it was afterwards named—had from the beginning +been supported by our Church; indeed, fathers and founders of the one +appear amongst early workers in the other, and through the ministry of +Mr. Clayton, Dr. Leifchild, and Dr. Vaughan, foreign missions found +zealous supporters at Kensington. The London City Mission, then in its +early age, had engaged my sympathies at Windsor. There we had a town +missionary, who brought us into connection with work going on in the +Metropolis. Consequently, when I came to Kensington, I took much +interest in the annual meetings of the society, and was brought into +intimate relations with its officers and supporters. Annual gatherings +were held in Freemasons’ Hall, Queen Street, where signs of the Zodiac, +and portraits of Grand Masters, adorned the ceiling and walls, suggesting +to speakers allusions, obvious or far-fetched, till they became rather +threadbare and wearisome; but, from the beginning, narratives by the +missionaries formed a chief source of interest. + +The Young Men’s Christian Association was formed soon after I came to my +new charge, and with it I had connection from the beginning, being first +on the list of lecturers in the City, before the annual courses at Exeter +Hall commenced. + +The Evangelical Alliance was founded in 1843, and as a desire for union +has ever been with me a “passion,” I joined the Alliance from the +beginning. There was great simplicity in the earliest gatherings, and an +air of novelty gave additional charms. However, some members professing +catholic sympathies on the platform pursued an exclusive line of conduct +on other occasions, and this circumstance provoked unfavourable comments. +Plausible objections, moreover, were made to the society’s +constitution—the platform, too wide for some, being too narrow for +others. I could have desired a wider basis and the furtherance of +Christian unity apart from all controversy with those who differed from +us. On the whole, however, it was a move in the right direction, and the +gatherings of its early friends in town and in other parts of the country +were of an eminently joyous description. Sir Culling Eardley and others, +in private as well as public, promoted the interests of the Alliance. At +that time several influential clergymen and leading Dissenters used to +meet, not only on the platform, but in the homes of distinguished lay +members, who threw themselves very heartily into the movement. + +Brought into the neighbourhood of London, and already known by some +brethren there, I soon found myself surrounded by many friends. For more +than a century there had been in existence an association of Dissenting +ministers, who took the title of _Sub Rosa_, from the confidential +character of their intercourse. There were some of the most +distinguished London Congregational ministers in the brotherhood at the +time now referred to; and they discussed points of importance, and for +the most part, as to denominational matters, acted in harmony. Some of +the departed were men of great ability, conspicuous in the pulpit and on +the platform; but the remembrance of them by the public is being +gradually crowded out by new names and new questions of religious +interest. + +To turn to a very different subject, which synchronises with the period +under review; let me notice that the month of October 1845 witnessed the +stirring event of Newman’s secession to the Church of Rome. It was an +event of singular importance. I have noticed on a previous page that the +Tractarian Movement was regarded by many as distinctly tending in the +direction of Romanism. For a considerable time such a tendency was +denied on the part of its abettors generally; yet, even as early as +November, 1835, Dr. Pusey, who had such confidence in Newman, wrote to +his wife: “I almost see elements of disunion, in that John Newman will +scare people”; {88a} and, in 1836, Newman himself incidentally wrote: “As +to the sacrificial view of the Eucharist, I do not see that you can find +fault with the formal wording of the Tridentine decree. Does not the +Article on the sacrifice of the Mass supply the doctrine, or notion, to +be opposed? What that is, is to be learnt historically, I suppose.” +Besides the question of Eucharistic doctrine, Pusey’s correspondence at +this time gives clear evidence of other questions, more or less +difficult, in respect to doctrine, practice, or terminology, arising out +of a more general appreciation of Church principles and order. {88b} +That which was called Puseyism prepared for Popery; and this was obvious +to most people, though Pusey himself could not see it. Inconsistently, +as I think, he remained where he was; and, now that he declined to follow +his friend, it is surprising he took no steps to satisfy the public as to +grounds on which he himself remained in the Church of England. His +attachment to what he deemed the Church of his fathers, however, was very +strong, and he thought well of those who remained in that Church, though +holding opinions different from his own. For instance, he wrote: “Ever +since I knew them, which was not in my earliest years,” “I have loved +those who are called _Evangelicals_. I loved them because they loved our +Lord. I loved them for their zeal for souls. I often thought them +narrow, yet I was often drawn to individuals among them, more than to +others who held truths in common with myself, which the Evangelicals did +not hold, at least not explicitly.” {89} There is a ring in these words +which shows the sympathy which Pusey retained for those who loved the +Saviour, though, in ecclesiastical matters, widely differing from High +Churchmen. It appears to me that, if Pusey had been as _consistent_ with +his Tractarian principles as Newman was, Pusey would have followed Newman +to Rome, but, happily, his loving spirit for Christian _goodness_ kept +him in communion with a Church where he saw piety beautifully manifested +by some who differed from him in ecclesiastical opinion. I cannot make +this reference to Dr. Pusey without saying that, with all my repugnance +to his ecclesiastical opinions, and the conviction I have, that while he +never became a Romanist, he greatly helped on the movement which carried +many in the popish direction, the perusal of his memoirs has given me a +high estimate of his personal piety. His devoutness, his love to Christ, +his unworldly habits, his affectionate disposition, and his self-denial +in the ordering of his domestic affairs, so as to enlarge his pecuniary +contributions to religious purposes, are worthy of their imitation who +regard with sorrow his High-Church peculiarities. Might not domestic and +social ties, as well as strong attachment to the Church of England from +his childhood, have had something to do with his final course? + +The Revolutions of 1848 brought with them an immense amount of excitement +in this country, as in others. The month of April in that year can never +be forgotten. An outbreak was feared in London. Special constables were +sworn in. On the Sunday before the 10th of the month my friend, Mr. +Walford, preached a remarkable sermon in Kensington Chapel. His text was +Isa. xii. 2—“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be +afraid.” Having unfolded the sentiment of the passage, he applied the +principle to passing events, and spoke of the political excitement in +this country at the time of the French Revolution, which he well +remembered. He assured us that the excitement then surpassed anything +which existed at the time when he spoke, and expressed his confidence in +the rectitude and love of the Almighty, who maketh the wrath of man to +praise Him. The preacher’s age, and his vivid recollection of what he +had witnessed, gave force to his exhortations, as tears were falling from +his eyes. + +Trust in Providence, touchingly enforced by personal recollections, was +honoured by what occurred on the following day. The meeting on +Kensington Common, so much dreaded, broke up in confusion. Ringleaders +were alarmed, the mob was scattered without the interference of soldiers +who had been provided against an outbreak, but were concealed in public +buildings, through the Duke of Wellington’s wisdom. A day which opened +in fear was spent in peace and confidence. + +During a visit abroad in that year, 1848, I reached Geneva, with letters +of introduction to Cæsar Malan, Gaussen, and M. St. George. Merle +D’Aubigne was from home. In company with friends, on the Sunday +afternoon, I attended at Cæsar Malan’s little chapel. We had mistaken +the hour, and, on our entering, he recapitulated the early portions of +his sermon. Then, in his own pleasant parlour, he engaged in fervent +discourse on his favourite tenet of Christian assurance. On parting he +singled me out for the privilege of a double French kiss, and on my +expressing a hope that we should meet in the Father’s House, he rebuked +me for using the word _hope_. With him it was a matter of assurance. +Then I reminded him of the difference between present and future, and +quoted St. Paul: “For we are saved _by hope_: but hope that is seen is +not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope +for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” + +I parted from relatives, who had been my fellow-travellers, and made my +way next morning alone by boat to Vevay, thence travelling to Basle and +Strasburg. Traffic was interrupted, and relics of revolution were seen +in marching troops and handcuffed prisoners. + +In 1849 a movement occurred for meeting religious needs in Kensington. A +chapel was much needed on Notting Hill, and one of my deacons, who lived +there, promised a large donation for the purpose. A few friends met in +Hornton Street vestry, and opened a subscription list, which at once +secured £1500. With that we went to work. + +At first, there was some notion of incorporating members of the two +congregations in one Church, with a copastorate; and Dr. Vaughan, I +think, indicated willingness to become my colleague. I should not have +objected to such union, but feared lest the moral effect of our movement +should be thereby impaired. The scheme might have been looked upon as +one of self-aggrandisement, while it was meant as an act of +self-sacrifice. The latter it proved to be, for we drafted off about +fifty members, as the nucleus of a new Church. Also we missed about two +hundred seat-holders, who took pews in the new edifice, and, of course, +there arose a certain _éclat_ around Notting Hill which left Hornton +Street a little in the shade. But soon things revived; our chapel became +as full as ever. Funds recovered, liberal things were devised, and one +morning I found a handsome cheque on my library table. Everybody seemed +to be growing in kindness, and Hornton Street rose to more than its +previous prosperity. It was an illustration of the principle—true of +communities as well as of individuals—“There is that scattereth and yet +increaseth.” + +In connection with my early residence at Kensington I may mention a +circumstance which interested me. I observed several times, sitting near +my pulpit, an old gentleman. Upon inquiry, I found it was the Rev. +Michael Maurice, father to the Rev. F. D. Maurice, then at the height of +his influence as author and preacher. I never had the pleasure of +conversing with my venerable hearer, but I learned from different sources +much relative to his character and career. Though descended from a +thoroughly orthodox family, he was educated for the ministry under Dr. +Abraham Rees, Dr. Kippis and Dr. Savage—the first two being Arian +divines, and the last a moderate Calvinist. He became afternoon preacher +at Dr. Priestley’s Meeting House; and after officiating in other +Unitarian places of worship, retired from pulpit work altogether. But he +habitually associated with orthodox Nonconformists during the time he +lived at Southampton. He also joined the British and Foreign Bible +Society, and spoke for it on the platform. I wondered he should worship +in Hornton Street, but information subsequently obtained served to +explain the circumstance. He appears to have been a devout man with a +large measure of Evangelical feeling. I mention him as a type of no +inconsiderable class of sincerely religious people. + +I knew but little of his distinguished son, only having met him a few +times at Dean Stanley’s, and at Baldwin Brown’s. I used sometimes, on a +Sunday afternoon, to hear Mr. Maurice preach at Lincoln’s Inn, and was +much struck with the earnestness with which he repeated the Lord’s +Prayer. The difficulty he felt in making himself understood is amusing. +Some of the principles, he said, which his friends attacked, were those +he strongly objected to himself, and those which they held as against +him, were just those on which he rested his own faith and hope. “I could +not make them the least understand what I meant,” he went on to say; “and +if I did they would only dislike me for it.” It was not obscurity of +style, as many thought, which made him unintelligible; but obscurity or +confusion of thought arising from complexity of perception. He saw so +much that it puzzled him how to express it. I respected him greatly as +an honest thinker, more anxious to commend himself to the Searcher of +hearts than to his fellow-men. + +It must have been, I think, in 1846 or 1847 that I received an invitation +to preach the annual sermon on behalf of Newport Pagnell College, and +thither I went in the month of June. The Rev. Thos. Palmer Bull, +president, and his son, the Rev. Josiah Bull, were living under the same +roof, their house and garden full of comfort and convenience, beauty and +fragrance. The old gentleman had a good library, and in nooks and +corners were MSS. and relics of Cowper and Newton, friends of his father, +the Rev. William Bull. The father was the “Taurus,” and his son the +“Tommy,” immortalised in Newton and Cowper’s letters. When I had +fulfilled my public duty I intensely enjoyed conversation with my elder +host, as he showed me letters written, and relics possessed by the two +celebrities so closely connected with his father’s name. He told me how +he used, when a boy, to accompany his father to Olney, where he dined +with the poet; that when grace was said, Cowper would play with his knife +and fork, to indicate he had no share in acts of worship; that he would +cheerfully converse on a variety of topics, but shunned all reference to +religion. Notwithstanding, he would sometimes join in an Olney hymn; and +then check himself as one who had neither part nor lot in the matter. He +would kindly talk with little Tom, who accompanied his father on those +visits, and they, on their way to and from the now world-known town, +would join in singing a psalm or hymn, to a familiar tune. The old +gentleman, I was informed, sometimes indulged in the use of a pipe, as he +drove along the accustomed road. Full of such memories, I made an +excursion to Olney, stopped at the house near the park of the +Throgmortons, saw the room in which the poet slept, traced his writing on +a pane of glass, and thought of the despair to which, in that chamber, he +was so pitiable a victim. Then I was taken to the unpretentious abode in +the main street of Olney, where he cultivated a close intimacy with John +Newton, and kept rabbits in his little garden,—which garden, at the time +I think of, remained much in its former state. The summer-house, +described by the bard, was still in existence. Here, pausing for a +moment to gather up another memento of Cowper, I may mention, that a +relative of mine pointed out a house in East Dereham, which was Cowper’s +residence; and told me that he remembered when a boy peeping through the +keyhole of a door, and seeing him sitting in his chair. Cowper died at +the residence of his kinsman, the Rev. Mr. Johnson. A friend of his gave +me a leaf, in the poet’s handwriting, from the translation of Homer. + +Soon after my return from this excursion I was chosen to fill up a +vacancy in the important Nonconformist Trust of William Coward, a London +merchant, who appointed Dr. Watts, Dr. Guyse, and Mr. Neal, author of the +“History of the Puritans,”—with another person who was a +layman,—administrators of property which he bequeathed for charitable +purposes. Much of it consisted of Bank stock; that having risen, the +revenue had become very considerable. + +Dr. Doddridge was a special friend of Mr. Coward’s, and had under his +care several ministerial candidates, supported by that gentleman. +According to tradition, the merchant was very punctual, the minister less +so; and when the former invited the latter to dinner, if he did not come +exactly at the hour, the footman was ordered not to admit him. A +gentleman who lived opposite was aware of this peculiarity, and his +footman arranged with Mr. Coward’s footman, that when Dr. Doddridge had +been invited to dinner, mention should be made of it to the servant on +the other side the road, that a dinner might be prepared for his +reverence there. Other curious stories were told of our founder, which I +have forgotten. The perpetuation of Dr. Doddridge’s academy in different +places, and under different forms, led to a transfer of the institution +from Wymondley in Hertfordshire to Torrington Square, London, where, in +association with London University College, it existed at the time of my +accession to the trusteeship. For about two years I assisted in +conducting the business of Coward College, as a separate institution. +Then came a change. There were at the time three independent academies, +as they were then called, in London and the neighbourhood—Homerton, +Highbury and Coward. There were three sets of tutors, three boards of +administration, three distinct buildings, and three distinct sources of +expense. Previous attempts to accomplish the union of these institutions +had failed; but at the time to which I now refer, an opportunity arrived +for accomplishing the union. After conferences between “Heads of Houses” +for some months, it was determined to sell the three buildings, then +occupied by the students, and to erect one large new edifice, where they +might be instructed together. The erection of New College St. John’s +Wood, was the result. In the negotiations connected with this change, +Dr., afterwards Sir William, Smith zealously co-operated with the Coward +trustees. My dear old friend, the Rev. William Walford, took a great +interest in the accomplishment of this business, but he died before it +was completely effected. + +He spent his last days in writing an autobiography, and after his death I +found it was written in letters addressed to myself, with a request that +I would edit the publication. This I did with a melancholy satisfaction. +He had suffered acutely from mental depression, and the malady returned +with violence shortly before his death. My last visits were most +painful. He refused all consolation, and passed away under a cloud, like +that which attended the sunset of Cowper. There were gleams of light, +followed by dense darkness. Then he sank into silence, if not torpor. +Days and nights rolled on, so different from their “tranquil gliding” +which he described in his letters; but it was the happy confidence of his +friends, notwithstanding his own fears, that the angry billow, no less +than the gentle wave, was bearing the weather-beaten barque to the +celestial shore. He died on June 22nd, 1850. The poor body looked like +a wreck, but faith could see at rest the soul which had such hard work to +pilot the vessel beyond reach of storms. A post-mortem examination +proved that his depression arose from the condition of the brain. He was +a good Greek scholar, and delighted in reading Plato. + + + + +CHAPTER VI +1850–1854 + + +THE year 1850 opened with a storm of religious excitement, owing to a +division of England by Papal authority into Roman dioceses, at the +suggestion of Dr. Wiseman. It came to be called “The Papal Aggression.” +Some thought more was made of it, at the time, than circumstances +warranted; but, looked at through the medium of history, it seemed to aim +at a territorial authority over England, inconsistent with our +repudiation of Papal supremacy. The way in which it was taken up by some +good people was not wise, and there was an anti-popish commotion amongst +some of my friends—a few only. The commotion was unreasonable, but was +overruled for good, as the incident led some Protestants to look into +their professed principles, which doubtless, in our country, lie at the +basis of civil and religious liberty. + +From one end of the island to the other, Nonconformists as well as +Churchmen took an opportunity for expressing attachment to the +Reformation. In two ways I became connected with what went on. The +Presbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist ministers of London, +representing the three denominations, resolved, in common with other +ecclesiastical bodies, to approach Her Majesty with a protest against +“Papal Aggression.” The three denominations—like Convocation and certain +English corporations—have a right of presenting addresses to the +Sovereign; and on this occasion, the audience for accepting the +addresses, was appointed to be at Windsor Castle. When the ceremony in +the Royal Closet for receiving representatives of the three denominations +was over, we were invited to lunch in the equerry’s apartment. Covers +were laid for two or three gentlemen, in addition to our party. “Pray, +can you tell me their names?” I whispered to one of the servants, who, +from my previous residence in the town, happened to know me. He could +not say, and at the same moment the strangers, who proved to be Roman +Catholic noblemen, felt a like curiosity to know who we were. I +proceeded to explain the origin of the three denominations, which was +quite a revelation to the gentlemen; who informed us that they had just +presented a loyal address from 250,000 Catholics. They proceeded to say, +that English Protestants had quite misapprehended the meaning of recent +arrangements; and, after receiving a courteous explanation, we sat down +with them, and had a pleasant chat. + +At that time I delivered at Kensington a short series of discourses on +the Roman Catholic controversy. I went over some of the main points in +that controversy, avoiding misrepresentation and uncharitableness. I was +not violent enough to please some ultra-Protestants, but I had the +gratification of hearing, that two young Catholics ultimately became +Protestants, and were helped by the lectures. I have met in the course +of my life with several members of the Romish Church, who have appeared +to me estimable characters. I had in my congregation a young lady, one +of a family which ranked a Cardinal amongst its members, and whose mother +remained a Catholic; in her dying illness she clung to Christ as her +Saviour, saying, in the words of Solomon’s Song: “I held Him, and would +not let Him go.” + +In the same year, as I have said, the Palace of Glass was opened; and, +being a Kensington resident, I had opportunities of watching the edifice +rising out of the earth as a beautiful exhalation. On moonlight nights, +in the previous winter, how often, on my way home, it revealed itself, +amidst floating mists, as a kind of ethereal structure! + +There was a moral atmosphere created by the enterprise, which those who +do not recollect it are unable to appreciate. It inspired thousands of +people with expressions of charity and goodwill. The opening day can +never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The _Times_ newspaper had +a leader, which made one feel that a new era in history had arrived; that +war and strife were approaching an end, and a millennial age of goodwill +had dawned upon mankind. When, that day, we saw crowds, not jostling and +pushing against each other; for almost every unit of the mass seemed +willing to make way for a neighbour; when we witnessed the opening +service, and beheld the royal procession moving through the stupendous +aisles,—representatives of “all people that on earth do dwell,”—those +present seemed to feel as they never did before. As the poet Montgomery +conversed with me on the subject, he remarked that, looking down from the +galleries upon the throng which passed before his eyes, it “reminded him +of flowing waters gently gurgling through some broad channel.” The +people, thronging here and there round corners, seemed like eddies in a +river with lofty banks. + +In the Exhibition year efforts were made for the religious improvement of +the people. The Press was in different ways employed for this purpose; +and amongst other methods there appeared, as distinctively +characteristic, a series of evangelical discourses in Exeter Hall. They +attracted crowded audiences. The sermons were carefully reported and +widely circulated. About the same time several similar methods were +employed for the promotion of religion; services were held in theatres +and other places of amusement. Having been engaged in these efforts, I +can testify to the crowds gathered together, and the general decorum of +their behaviour. Some to whom these buildings belonged took an interest +in the proceedings, as I knew from conversation with dramatic managers, +who expressed interest in the addresses delivered. Afterwards, services +were planned to be conducted by Episcopal clergymen in Exeter Hall, but +the plan was frustrated by opposition of parochial authority. After +this, Dissenters undertook to supply the lack of service, and the first +Sunday night, an Independent minister officiated, reading parts of the +Liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer, and an English nobleman acted as +clerk, leading the responses. + +The same year (1851) it fell to my lot at the autumnal meeting of the +Congregational Union to read a memorial paper on Dr. Doddridge, who had +died just a hundred years before, and had been pastor and Divinity +Professor in Northampton, where the assembly met. We occupied the old +meeting-house in which he preached; there in the vestry stood the chair +in which he sat. From the pulpit which had been his, the centenary +tribute to his memory was delivered. Mr. Bull, of Newport Pagnell, +presented the original MS. of a funeral sermon which the doctor preached +for his little daughter, partly written upon her coffin. A common +sympathy, amidst deathlike silence, pervaded the audience, as if the +divine who was commemorated had only just left the world, and we had +assembled to honour his remains. The _genius loci_ of the place, and +traditions of the good man, passed away so long before, contributed to +the occasion more impressiveness than it derived from other +circumstances. + +In 1852 my beloved wife travelled with me to Elberfeld to see our eldest +daughter. We had, from an early period, formed the plan of sending our +children abroad for part of their education, in order that they might +learn a foreign language and see other forms of society besides our own. +Therefore we placed our firstborn under the care of Pastor and Madame +Schröder,—two very excellent persons, whose character and influence +answered the high expectations we had been led to form. Pastor Schröder +succeeded Dr. Krummacher as one of the pastors of the Evangelical +communion. We enjoyed his society and that of his excellent wife, and +saw something of German habits, which interested me much; they presented +aspects unfamiliar to us. For instance, one Sunday afternoon we took a +walk in the woods with our friend the pastor, and, on the way, he +gathered into a large company one after another of his people, until it +formed quite a procession; and, finally, we rested in a pleasant nook +encompassed by trees, where the people drank coffee, and sang hymns. + +After we had spent some days at Elberfeld we started for Switzerland, +where I planned my wife and daughter should spend two or three weeks, +whilst accompanied by a Kensington friend, I proceeded on a journey to +Italy. We started from Zurich, crossed the lake, reached Coire and the +Via Mala, and over the Alps, came down to the Lake of Como; thence we +reached Milan, where we stayed three days. I then became acquainted for +the first time with the Duomo and other churches. We spent a Sunday in +the city, and felt deeply interested in schools founded by Cardinal +Borromeo, carried on at the time with exemplary care; and we found at +eventide, in a church, groups of worshippers, led by a layman, who knelt +in front as they chanted responses. I was struck then, and have been +oftentimes since, with the adaptation of Scripture passages on church +walls, pointing to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. One thought, +too, of Ambrose, who forbade the approach of Theodosius, wet with the +blood he had shed at Thessalonica. Speaking of the adaptation of +Scripture in foreign churches, I may mention other passages inscribed on +their walls in other places, for example, at Treves, where under a +picture of “The Nativity” we read “Verily Thou art a God that hidest +Thyself,” as applied to the Incarnation. Again, at Nismes, if I +recollect aright, under the fresco of a captive rejoicing in his freedom, +the words “Thou hast loosed my bonds”; and under another, representing +martyrs and virgins at the portals of heaven, “With joy and rejoicing +shall they be brought: they shall enter into the King’s palace.” After +all, the kernel of the Gospel continues in Roman Catholic Christendom, +though too often concealed under manifold innovations. Still there it +is, if you look for it. + +My reference to Milan brings before me other recollections of that +wonderful city, as revisited again and again since 1852. Amidst manifold +associations of art, archæology, history, and religion, one image, +indelibly impressed on my mind, is that of Augustine under the fig tree +in a garden, listening to a voice which cried, “Tolle lege”; at the +hearing of which he sat down, took the Testament in his hand, and read +Rom. xiii., and thus became a new creature in Christ Jesus. Wandering in +quiet old streets, I have paused near some fig tree in a little enclosure +of grass and flowers, to think of him who became the grandest father of +the Latin Church. + +From Milan we proceeded to Verona, and thence to Venice, where I felt +“one of the greatest emotions of life.” I have seen it again and again, +but the first charm was greatest of all. Then Titian’s “Peter Martyr” +adorned the walls of SS. Giovanni e Paulo. Wonderful picture that! but +it does not, to my mind, eclipse his S. Jerome in the Brera at Milan. + +Let me return to Kensington. Perhaps this is as good a place as any, for +saying a few words about people there, and others with whom I was brought +into contact, during my pastorate. + +Under the ministry of my predecessor, Dr. Leifchild, there lived in one +of the stately houses in the neighbourhood, a gentleman—commanding in +person and polished in manners—who was drawn towards the Dissenting +pastor, though he had no affection for Dissent; if he smiled at the +system, he liked some of the people. He lost largely on the Stock +Exchange, but he bore it with much magnanimity. I was acquainted with +some of the family, who were in prosperous circumstances, and who became +my kind friends. I once met at their house with an old general—uncle to +the Duchess of Gordon—who related a singular anecdote. He had been at +the Eglinton Tournament, and, as the castle was crowded with guests, he +and another person shared the same bedroom. That person was no other +than the future Napoleon II. He kept his companion awake with talk about +the French Empire and his uncle, declaring, that he was sure one day of +sitting on his uncle’s throne. The ambitious dream filled his mind, and +overflowed in his abundant chat; though then it seemed a most improbable +imagination. The incident was related some time after the tournament, +and before the Republic was established; and when I afterwards heard of +Napoleon’s election to the presidentship, I saw it was by no means +unlikely that the daring prophecy he had ventured, would come to pass. I +have heard from other people that he often, when residing in London, +talked in society of his coming elevation, as imperial ruler of the +French. The uncle had seen beforehand the dazzling star of his destiny. +His nephew did the same. There were people who fancied something +supernatural in this, but it may be accounted for on natural principles. + +Another story, of an amusing kind, I heard at a Chiswick garden party, to +which I was taken by the kind friends at whose house I met the old Scotch +soldier. Amongst personages of rank present at Chiswick were certain +bishops, who had not dropped the old episcopal costume of a big wig, a +most decidedly broad-brimmed clerical hat, and a conspicuous apron. +Right Reverend brethren are still somewhat distinguished from other +people, though some of them reduce the distinction within very restricted +limits; forty or fifty years ago it was quite otherwise. They appeared +then commonly—to use an undignified expression—in _full jig_, and as some +occupants of the Bench passed by, in unmistakable array of the kind just +noticed, a clergyman at the garden party now mentioned, told me of a +prime minister, who used to remark, he thought, “Bishops well deserved +all they got” (and it was much more then than it is now), “for allowing +themselves to be dressed up, as such regular guys.” + +Literature and art were pretty well represented in Kensington, at the +period I speak of. Contributors to _Punch_—Mark Lemon, Gilbert a Becket, +and others—were my neighbours, and with one of them I spent a pleasant +evening. Gilbert a Becket during a few weeks, when the parish church +underwent repairs, used pretty regularly to attend our chapel, and I was +struck by his attentiveness and devotion. He expressed his readiness to +spend a few hours with me, at a friend’s residence, only he stipulated +that it should not be on an opera night; and when it was proposed to me I +stipulated that it should not be on one of my service nights. +Preliminaries being settled we accordingly met, and got on exceedingly +well. What amuses me, as I think of it, is that, though I am not at all +given to pun-making, the presence of a brilliant punster so inspired me, +that I perpetrated one or two hits, which Becket pronounced very fair. +Perhaps I may be forgiven by those who achieve pleasant things in that +way, if I remark that there is something contagious in the practice; and +it is difficult not to catch it, when in company with those who are +imbued with the habit. + +With another celebrity I came in contact through intimacy with his +family, and his early connection with our place of worship. I allude to +Justice Talfourd. When a young man he used to attend on Dr. Leifchild’s +ministry, his father and mother being members of the Congregational +Church at Kensington. His mother, whom I knew well, related anecdotes of +his early days at home, and at Mill Hill School, where he had +schoolfellows who afterwards distinguished themselves in the walks of +Dissent. He wrote home about his companions and told his mother of +prayer-meetings amongst the boys; and of one boy in particular, very +imaginative, and florid on such occasions. This schoolfellow became +afterwards an eloquent minister, well known as Dr. Hamilton of Leeds. +The Judge told me of his early attachment to that gentleman, and how, +during the doctor’s last visit to London, he went to hear him preach, and +stepped into the vestry afterwards, to talk of old times; but the +preacher had left, which was a great disappointment. + +There was a strong religious side to Judge Talfourd’s character, and he +used to speak with much enthusiasm of my predecessor, Dr. Leifchild, +whose preaching he said came up to his idea of the Apostle Paul’s +ministry. + +Amongst artists living in Kensington were two Academicians, Uwins and +Philip, who both belonged to our congregation—the first a regular, the +second an occasional, attendant. Philip’s wife—a beautiful woman, whom +he introduced into some of his pictures—was a communicant with us at the +Lord’s table. I often visited the artist’s studio, and listened to his +picturesque description of Spain, and also to his accounts of family +afflictions which elicited my sympathy. + +From my boyhood I had taken an interest in art, and the friendship of +several men distinguished in its cultivation was exceedingly instructive +and pleasant. My travels on the Continent, which enabled me to visit +most of the principal picture galleries,—rich in specimens by great +masters,—educated and purified what little taste I had; and prompted me +to somewhat extensive studies in artistic literature. These, blended +with other habits of reading, I find an immense enjoyment in the leisure +of my old age. + +Mr. Theed, the sculptor, and his family, who attended Kensington Chapel, +were our intimate friends; and he told me much about Gibson, his +companion in art, and intimate acquaintance for many years, when they +resided at Rome. With the latter gentleman I became acquainted slightly +when I was in Italy, and had a long talk with him once about tinting +sculpture,—which he advocated with zeal, and practised with skill. I +felt there was force in what he said. Another Kensington name,—that of +Edward Corbould, the water-colourist,—may be coupled with my friend +Theed’s. Each was connected with the other in artistic service to Her +Majesty and family. I remember on the Sunday morning after the Prince +Consort’s lamented death, missing both these gentlemen at Divine worship, +in consequence of their being summoned to Windsor—one to take a cast, and +the other to make a drawing of the good Prince’s face. + +There was another group of hearers during the latter part of my +Kensington ministry, to whom I was much attached. One of them, Cozens +Hardy, M.P., who has won eminence in the legal profession, is son to the +oldest friend I have. All now referred to are distinguished, not only by +professional position, but by continued study in classical learning. + +I must not pass by “annals of the poor.” When I first went to +Kensington, I was requested to visit an old shoemaker, crippled, and in +humble circumstances, but with a good deal of natural politeness, the +more striking from its surroundings. He had been a wild young fellow, +daring to the last degree, and this was the cause of his incurable +lameness. He was converted under the ministry of Dr. Leifchild. The +preacher, in the course of a sermon, related an anecdote of Mr. Cecil, +who previous to his becoming decidedly religious narrowly escaped with +life, when thrown by his horse across the track of a waggon, which in +passing only crushed his hat. The incident struck the listener. It +resembled his own experience, and riveted his attention, preparing him to +listen to the preacher’s appeals. He became an exemplary Christian; and +I often sat by his bedside to hear him describe the wondrous change +wrought in his character, by Divine grace. “I am a wonder unto many,” he +used to say; and then, with faltering voice, would sing the old hymn— + + “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, + That saved a wretch like me! + I once was lost, but now am found; + Was blind, but now I see.” + +This was not the only case in which the humbler members of the Church +were a comfort to me. Often my heart was cheered by communications made +by them, touching spiritual life. Such communications were perfectly +artless, and arose from the absence of that reserve which, in the upper +class, is the result of educational refinement. This circumstance often +prevents a free revelation of what cultured people think and feel on the +subject of religion. I have frequently noticed it, and never inferred, +from delicacy touching soul secrets, any want of that which rises to the +surface, and overflows in ready words, when uneducated people speak of +their Christian experience. + +I cannot omit a reference to the Gurney family, with some of whom I came +into pleasant connection during my Kensington residence. As a boy, I had +some knowledge of their ancestral relatives; and now I came into close +friendship with Mr. Bell, brother to Mrs. John Gurney, who was mother to +Samuel Gurney, the renowned London Quaker, and also to Joseph John +Gurney, of Earlham, near Norwich—an equally renowned banker, and also a +_Public Friend_, as preachers of that denomination then were wont to be +called. Mr. Bell had become one of my hearers and a communicant, much to +his spiritual benefit, as he and his family informed me. He was a chatty +old gentleman, and used to talk of his sister, Priscilla Wakefield, of +Miss Schemmelpenninck, and of Samuel Taylor Coleridge—whom he met at the +house of his friend Gilman, resident in Highgate. Through frequent vivid +references to these celebrities, whom I knew by their writings and by +report, I came to have a sort of personal acquaintance with them. Thus +they became, more than ever, living realities. Besides this, I came to +have a slight personal knowledge of Mr. Samuel Gurney, just mentioned, +the well-known bill-broker, and also of Mrs. Fry, his sister, who did so +much good as a prison visitor. Mr. Gurney was a stately person, with a +benign countenance, and a musical voice rich in persuasive tones. The +mental anxiety he felt during money panics, not only on his own account, +but also from sympathy with others, was such, that he was known to spend +sleepless nights pacing his chamber. Mrs. Fry was as dignified as her +brother, and I now in imagination see her in her becoming Quaker garb, as +she talked to me about her nephew Bell, and spoke gratefully of the +benefit he had derived from my ministry. The younger Mr. Samuel Gurney +came to live at Prince’s Gate, Kensington, and used to worship with us +occasionally. At his table I met with the Bunsens, and other remarkable +friends and relatives of his. He told me that at any time when I needed, +in Christian work, pecuniary help, I might apply to him without +hesitation. The crash on “Black Friday” was a terrible trial, as it made +him, after being one of the richest of London citizens, dependent on his +relatives. I wrote to him words of condolence, to which he beautifully +replied, saying that he trusted the tribulation which had befallen him +would be for his spiritual welfare. His excellent wife bore up nobly, +and the two afforded admirable instances of Christian patience and +resignation. + + + + +CHAPTER VII +1854–1862 + + +ON April 4th, 1854, I started the first time for Rome, provided with +letters of introduction to Gibson, the sculptor, Penry Williams, the +landscape painter, and two Roman Catholic dignitaries, one a Monseignor, +the other president of the English College. All these gentlemen were +polite and helpful to me. + +My companions were Dr. Raffles, Dr. Halley, the Rev. Spencer Edwards, and +another friend. The first of them was wonderful for relating stories, +which he always told _secundum artem_. He kept us awake one whole night +with his amusing anecdotes; but, as we were travelling through France at +a time when espionage was prevalent, he would not allow us to make any +political allusions. I was surprised at the retentiveness of his verbal +memory; whilst he repeated long pieces, in which the amusement consisted +of odd words, connected with no rational meaning, when put together. + +It was Holy Week when we reached Rome. On Thursday there was the +feet-washing at St. Peter’s, and the supper afterwards: the Pope, as +“servant of servants,” ministering to the poor, but with great pomp on +both occasions. We arranged to see the former, and found a transept on +the right hand, fitted up for the occasion. Rank, fashion, beauty, +arrayed in mourning, found accommodation in galleries commanding a good +view. Ladies were veiled, gentlemen wore evening dress. Admission to +that part of the edifice could be obtained on no other conditions. Pio +Nono, a pleasant, genial-looking old man, who won a good opinion as soon +as you looked at him, did his part well. He read the Gospel (John xiii.) +in tones wonderfully musical and distinct, and then washed the pilgrims’ +feet with grace and reverence. The whole was artistically and solemnly +done. “One can laugh at these things, as described in books,” said Dr. +Raffles—a staunch Nonconformist—“but _not_ when witnessed, as now, in +this magnificent place.” Still, on a calm review, nothing like _worship_ +appears in any part of the ceremony. Then the _Miserere_ in the +afternoon! Those who did not witness it years ago can have no idea of it +now; or of the gorgeous procession, amidst a blaze of light, to the altar +of S. Paulo, and the prostration of the Pontiff and his Cardinals on the +floor, in the midst of darkness, candles having been extinguished, one by +one. The scene on the grand staircase was striking as the dignitaries +returned, varying in appearance and character—an ascetic monk, a man of +the world, another looking studious and reflective, a fourth keen and +statesmanlike. Nobody could deny the Italian scenic skill in such +matters. I have been at Rome in Easter, since then, much struck with +subsequent changes. When all was over on my first Easter in Rome, I went +to the English Episcopal Church, where the Lord’s Supper was administered +according to Protestant rites, and I could not but be impressed by the +contrast between the two services. It illustrated the change effected by +the Reformation. I mentioned this once to the Rev. Frederic Denison +Maurice, who, of course, agreed with me; and, talking of Rome, he +happened to relate an anecdote which I do not remember having seen in +print. Pio Nono, after the suppression of Latin nunneries in Poland, +received a visit from the Emperor of Russia. “You are a great king,” +said the former to the latter, “one of the mightiest in the world. I am +a poor feeble man, servant of servants; but I cite you to meet me before +the Judge of all, and to answer for your treatment of helpless women.” +There was the old assumption of authority; but there was a touch of +grandeur in the words. + +I saw the catacombs, following my guide, taper in hand; and in one of the +strange passages was accosted by name. “Who could have expected to be +recognised in this dark underworld?” I exclaimed. It turned out to be a +person who had lived at Eton, and been a hearer of mine at Windsor. +Other recognitions have occurred to me of an odd kind, when visiting +several places. + +I became so attracted by what I saw in Rome, and drank so deeply into the +spirit of Arnold’s letters, written there, that my last day was spent in +pensive leave-takings of ruin after ruin, church after church. I have +been there twice since, each for a longer time than the first; but not +with quite the impression which I felt in the first instance. + +We proceeded to Naples, stopped at Cisterna, at Terracinia, at Gaeta, and +at S. Agata. Whoever has travelled the same road must long remember the +fragrance of the orange-groves and the coloured dresses of the peasantry. + +We had no trouble at custom-houses on the way, for my two companions and +myself travelled in humble fashion. Otherwise did the two doctors, +already mentioned, fare. Large sums were demanded of them on the +Neapolitan frontier; and when they refused to pay, their luggage was +searched, and a coloured pen-wiper being found, the officials declared it +was a _revolutionary cockade_, and that books in their portmanteaus were +no doubt full of treason and heresy. There was no alternative but to +stay where they were, or to allow a soldier to accompany them in charge +of the suspected articles. All this trouble was followed by apologies on +reaching Naples, after an appeal had been made to the English Consul. + +We saw the picture galleries and museums in Naples, and explored the city +as well as we could during our short stay. Religious services of a +special kind were being held in one of the churches; and I remember +entering it on an evening when it was crowded with people, listening to a +friar, who was earnestly preaching. Next morning, on revisiting the +place, it was crowded as the night before, and the same priest occupied +the pulpit. We drove along the old coast road, by the so-called Tomb of +Virgil to Castellamare, Sorrento, Posilipo and Pozzuoli (the Puteoli of +the Acts), and had dreams of the luxurious life once spent on these +shores, and of Paul’s disembarkation on his way to Rome. We also spent a +day at Vesuvius, where clouds of vapour were rolling upward; and I, with +one of our party, crawled down to the crater, as near as we could, much +to the dismay of our senior companions. On our way back to Naples we +tarried as long as possible at Pompeii, looking at the wonders of that +memorable spot. + +An important step was taken at Kensington on my return from Italy. The +“swarm” sent to Notting Hill did not permanently reduce the numbers of +our congregation. On the contrary, they considerably advanced. The old +chapel became more than ever inconvenient, and we resolved to build a new +and much larger one. + +I must now pass from local and personal affairs to notice a movement in +Congregationalism at large. Independency leads to isolated action on the +part of local Churches. It is unfriendly to cohesion and co-operation. +It provides for freedom, and nothing else. Old Independents saw this, +and checked the evil by maintaining local fellowships between Church and +Church, by the employment of “messengers” one to another. {126} + +About 1830 the wiser heads amongst us had clearly seen the evil, and +endeavoured to overcome it. They concluded that centrifugal tendencies +should be met by a centripetal force. Mr. Binney used to say, we were a +collection of limbs—legs, arms, feet, and hands—all in motion, but not an +organised body. To frame a body out of so many members, was the design +of the Congregational Union. Algernon Wells may be regarded as its +founder. He was one of the most beautiful characters I have ever +known—intelligent, well read, sagacious, with extensive knowledge of men +and things, and a profound attachment to evangelical truth. He had a +rare order of eloquence, and wove pleasant tissues of thought in his +sermons and speeches. If his speeches were not always sermons, his +sermons were almost always speeches. There was a great charm in his +conversation, and it often overflowed with wit. Though a decided +Congregationalist, he was full of charity, and cultivated harmonious +intercourse with other denominations. His policy as to the newly-formed +organisation, was to make the meetings fraternal rather than +controversial—a brotherly society to promote edification rather than an +ecclesiastical army to fight with soldiers outside, or a council to +settle disputes inside. The early meetings were held in the +Congregational Library, and did not muster more than a hundred members. +“Business” received at times a look askance: spiritual edification +excited desire, and stimulated expression. Now and then came touches of +humour, as when after talking about the state of the denomination till we +were hungry, one brother rose and gravely asked “whether any intelligence +had arrived from the Sandwich Islands.” + +Good Algernon Wells died in 1851, and soon afterwards I was requested by +a sub-committee to meet them in conference on an important matter. It +was to propose my election as Mr. Wells’ successor. Now, secretaryships +have always been my aversion—from an instinct, I suppose, such as guides +inferior animals to shun what they were never made for. The +secretaryship of the City Mission had been pressed upon me soon after my +arrival in London, but I steadily refused it, from a conviction of utter +incompetence; and, for the same reason, I declined to entertain the +proposal just mentioned. He who proposed the office for me accepted it +for himself, and we worked together pleasantly through several years. I +was elected chairman of the Union in May 1856, amidst much excitement. +There have been strains on its strength more than once, but this first +was the greatest. + +Dr. Campbell had been for some time a prominent member. Hard-headed and +hard-handed, of a bold, open countenance, and with a habit of planting +his foot pretty firmly on the ground,—the outer man well indicated the +inner; kind-hearted and affectionate at home, but not the same on a +platform, or with an editorial pen in hand. He then gave no quarter to +anybody who opposed him. “You are a good fellow,” it was once said to +him by a loving spirit; “but I don’t like that great club you carry.” +That great club he swung about, much to the terror of many, and +consequently he exercised a despotic sway, to which they were indisposed +to submit. He held the doctrines of Calvinistic theology with a firm +grasp, and looked with alarm upon certain opinions springing up amongst +his brethren. He considered that there was looseness of sentiment, and a +range of thought too free, existing amongst younger men, which imperilled +the evangelical soundness of the Churches. He gave it the name of +_Negative Theology_. The name took, and was bandied about to the +annoyance of persons to whom it was applied, many of them holding +positive truths as firmly as Dr. Campbell himself. It happened that in +1856 Mr. Lynch, a man of genius and sensibility, with a mind cast in a +mould the opposite of Dr. Campbell’s, published a small volume of poetry +entitled “The Rivulet.” Some of the hymns it contained excited +admiration, and are now extensively used; but the book, as a whole, +aroused Dr. Campbell’s wrath beyond measure. He wrote a criticism upon +it, which awakened indignation in those who had read “The Rivulet” with +approval. Fifteen brethren drew up and signed a protest against this +style of review. + +There existed, no doubt, a tendency on the part of a few brethren to give +up certain theological expressions long held sacred, and also to throw +into the background, if not to question, points of doctrine deemed +perfectly Congregational. In the opposite quarter there appeared a +tenacity of diction and an emphasis of opinion on old lines, accompanied +by ungenerous reflections respecting those whom they deemed innovators. +Very naturally, personal feeling was thus stirred up, and the Union +seemed threatened with disaster. + +“We men are a mysterious sort of creatures,” said John Howe to Richard +Baxter. No doubt we are, and that in more ways than one: in this +especially, that whilst discussing theories of God, Christ, and the Holy +Spirit—all fountains of love—we are apt to be found drawing water from +the wells of Marah. + +The controversy, now spoken of, related to old and new aspects of +theological thought. Looking back, I can but say, the balance sheet of +past and present, in respect to what is now noticed, shows both gain and +loss. All the gain, it strikes me, might have been secured without +incurring loss at all; and, in making up the whole account, there should +have been more charity in judging individuals, and more justice in +discussing principles. + +I wished, in my address, to combine the two, and so render the whole a +sort of Irenicon. + +A personal correspondence followed between two good men, which is now, I +hope, buried in oblivion; but no secession of members from the Union took +place, that I know of. The two tendencies still exist, but they call for +no criticism in these pages. My views on the subject I have often +expressed. + +Before the close of my Windsor ministry I had begun to indulge in foreign +travel, and in 1854, when I had spent some time in my Kensington +pastorate, I ventured on a trip to Rome, which I have described already. +After that, visits abroad were numerous, and from amongst them I select +one paid in 1856, when I spent a few weeks with my two sons, who were +then being educated in Berlin. My dear wife accompanied me through the +greater part of the tour, as she was anxious to see how the lads were +getting on. We made our way to the Prussian capital through Hanover, +and, on reaching our destination, found all well. After spending a +little while in Berlin, seeing the sights and becoming acquainted with +some excellent people, we made an excursion to the South, and spent a few +days at Dresden, where antiquities, pictures, and drives in the +neighbourhood greatly delighted us. We proceeded to Schandau, a pretty +little village, and there took lodgings, initiating ourselves into +amusing details of German life. We attended the parish church on Sunday, +taking interest in the clergyman, who was expounding to his people the +history of David. We witnessed some of life’s joys and sorrows, +especially a funeral, which was very picturesque—bright flowers, red +roses and green leaves, relieving the darkness of death, the hope of +Heaven shedding light on the sorrow of bereavement. Excursions in the +neighbourhood added to our family enjoyments of this sojourn, and one day +we came in contact with royalty. The King of Saxony, the Queen, and a +few of the Court, climbed up a hill which we had selected as a +resting-place, commanding views of the Elbe. Their Majesties’ servants +in livery (who, by the way, were very civil to us) paid the royal +reckoning to a humble châlet-keeper, as any of his subjects might do. We +watched the King and attendants as they embarked in a boat for their +Dresden home. My boys and I pushed on to Prague, where the bridge and +St. John Nepomuk, the Hradschin, and the thirty years’ war, John Huss and +his house in the Bethlehem platz, the Jews’ town on the banks of the +Moldau, the Jewish burial ground, and the old synagogue, inspired +historical memories of deep interest. We joined mamma and returned to +Dresden the way we came; and there, after long gazings on the picture +gallery, especially at Raphael’s “Madonna and Child”—opposite to which +people sat reverently, as if engaged in devotion—father and mother parted +from the dear boys, and we wended our way homewards; not without +lingering in Lutherland to look at homes and haunts of the great +Reformer. + +To return to my Kensington flock. In the year 1857, one Sunday night, +after I had retired to rest, I heard a loud ringing at the door-bell, and +immediately rose. On opening the window, there stood a carriage; and the +coachman, as soon as by gaslight he saw my face, cried out, “Oh, sir, my +mistress is dead!” His mistress was Mrs. Jacomb, residing with her +husband and family at Notting Hill. They had all been at Divine worship +that morning in their usual health. The carriage had been sent to take +me back to the mourners. I immediately rose and went. On reaching the +house I witnessed a scene of domestic distress such as I never witnessed +before. My deceased friend had in the morning worshipped with us, in her +usual delicate health, and, as I learned, in more than her usual +cheerfulness. She was preparing for evening service, when she was +suddenly seized with illness, and in a short time expired. The husband +and family were in deep distress, but they had a blessed knowledge of Him +who brought life and immortality to light. She was a woman rich in +spiritual sympathy, and had been no ordinary friend to me and mine, in +our early married life. We had a large family, and, though favoured +above many, had our domestic trials. How often I thought of what Paul +said of “Phœbe, our sister”: “She has been a succourer of many, and of +myself also.” I never knew any one who had more tender sympathy in +trouble than Mrs. Jacomb, or was more swift in expressing it. Her +husband was worthy of her, and her children “rise up to call her +blessed.” Those who survive are cherished friends. He was of an old +Puritan stock, descendant of Dr. Jacomb, a renowned ejected clergyman +after the Commonwealth; and the family genealogy is rich in noted names +and memories. + +In this chapter I cannot refrain from recording my own domestic sorrows. +In 1853 a sweet child had died—little Catherine, born shortly after we +left Windsor; and in 1858 another, more advanced in life, a boy named +Arnold, full of energy and promise, was taken from us by our Heavenly +Father. His illness was brief; but beforehand my dear wife had been +anxious for his spiritual welfare, and her conversations were followed by +the Divine blessing. His joyous, winning ways had won the hearts of +visitors, and his death widely affected my congregation, awakening +sympathy to a degree which inspired my liveliest gratitude. Our friend +Joshua Harrison preached a funeral sermon for the dear boy, full of +pathos and power. + +In 1859 a friend accompanied me to the Pyrenees. Travelling by French +railways, we reached Bayonne at the end of August, and then crossed the +Spanish frontier in a Spanish diligence, which had all the lumber and +shabby trappings of French ones. We reached San Sebastian at night, and +next morning took a walk on the promenade, where the ladies in mantillas +and veils flourished their fans with grace and dignity; and if there be +something gay in French solemnity, there is something grave in the gaiety +of Spaniards. We again climbed up a diligence, and travelled through the +Lower Pyrenees to Pau, where, from the Grand Terrace, we saw peering out +from the haze of a hot summer sky the mountain range—not near, as many +imagine, but many miles off. Of course we saw the old palace where Henri +IV. was born and wrapped up in his shell cradle. Along roads bordered by +woods and hills, reminding one of Wharfedale, we reached an elevation at +Sevignac, overlooking the valley of the Gave, with magnificent mountains +in front, Pic du Midi coming into full view. Eaux Bonnes, with all the +luxuries of a French watering-place, was then reached, whence we +proceeded to Eaux Chaudes, where the mountains become awfully +precipitous. We looked down from zigzag roads, cut out of declivities +buttressed by rocks and embankments, with boiling torrents at the foot, +roaring like thunder. The Pic du Midi, streaked with snow, rises up so +as to remind one of an Egyptian pyramid. + +We determined to visit Pantacosa, and passed through a romantic defile, +crossed the Spanish frontier again, and halted at a village, where the +houses seemed walls without windows, the outlook being altogether from +the back. Glimpses of Aragon’s broad plain were caught, as we looked +south, and crowds of Spanish muleteers passed us, laden with merchandise. +The baths of Pantacosa occupy a gloomy region, shut in by rocks, and +there I spent the Sunday as an invalid, my strength being overtaxed; but +next day I rose in the enjoyment of health and vigour. Then we made our +way to Luz. The church of the Templars built there is half fortress and +half sanctuary. You enter through a machicolated gateway, into a church, +the gloomiest I ever saw. Through a little door, the _Cagots_, a +proverbial race weak both in body and mind, used to enter for worship. + +Near to Luz is St. Sauveur, a narrow valley, richly wooded, with a tiny +village jammed in among the rocks. At the time of our visit, the Emperor +Napoleon and the Empress Eugenie were staying there. The house they +occupied was small and plain; nothing distinguished it but the two +sentinels at the door. All was silent and solitary, and nobody seemed to +notice the royal residence, besides ourselves. In the afternoon, we saw +their Majesties returning from a drive in open carriages with outriders. +Napoleon sat on the box, Eugenie was chatting with her lady attendants. +On alighting she remained at the door of the house, playing with her +walking stick, and receiving a letter-bag. The Emperor came out, lighted +a cigar, smoked and then walked on to inspect some men at work on a new +road. + +We made an excursion to Gavarnie—a shady defile with precipitous rocks, +overhanging woods, and a river foaming and roaring four hundred feet +below. Beyond is the Cirque, a basin-shaped valley of semicircular +rocks, with steps and stages, whilst a drapery of water fringes them all +round. We ascended the Pic de Bergons, tarried a day at Bagnères de +Bigorre, a central spot for tourists, with the usual appurtenances of +such places. We proceeded to Bagnères de Luchon, by a romantic drive, +commanding a view of the Maladetta with its snows and glaciers. + +In the course of our rambles in the Pyrenees we were struck with Eastern +customs. An unmuzzled ox went round a heap of corn. Sheep were not +driven but led, and wine was kept in leathern bottles. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII +1862–1865 + + +THE year 1862, being the Bicentenary of the Bartholomew ejectment, was +largely given by English Nonconformists to a remembrance of the +confessorship and heroism which marked the ejectment of ministers in +1662. A meeting was held in the spring at St. James’s Hall, Piccadilly, +when papers were read, bearing on the commemoration. The preparation of +one of them fell to my lot; but I was taken ill at the time for its +delivery, and it had to be read by my friend, the Rev. Joshua Clarkson +Harrison. A story is told of Garrick’s reading a poem of Hannah More’s, +before a party of friends, when the effect produced was by Garrick +attributed to the lady’s composition, and by the lady to the reader’s +elocution. Whatever might be the impression made at St. James’s Hall on +the reading of the paper, it was divided between my friend and me, after +the same fashion. In this address I advocated a Bartholomew celebration, +on the ground, that it was good to remember sacrifices made for +conscience’ sake, and therefore professed my readiness to honour Jeremy +Taylor as well as Richard Baxter. This brought a letter from the Bishop +of Down and Connor testing my sincerity by an appeal on behalf of an +Irish cathedral restoration in memory of Jeremy Taylor. I sent a small +contribution, which brought back a pleasant response, such as I highly +valued. Afterwards I met him at the Athenæum, when he invited me to +visit him, with a view to Christian union in Ireland. I should add that +the Bishop’s scheme for the cathedral restoration failed, and he politely +returned my small contribution. + +In the autumn of 1862, I read a paper to the Congregational Assembly, in +which I advocated certain methods of improvement. This subject I took up +afterwards, with no result, however, that I could discover. The faults +of other systems are always more welcome than the reformation of our own. + +In 1863 we were visited by a family bereavement which was one of the +heaviest sorrows of my life. John Howard Stoughton, born at Windsor in +1842, was a lad of extraordinary character, witty and artistic beyond his +brothers and sisters, who loved him with no ordinary love. His love of +art led us to place the youth under Mr. Thomas, a distinguished sculptor +and decorator, largely employed in works at Windsor Castle. Our boy +devoted himself to his pursuits with an assiduity which created much +anxiety in his mother and in me, for it evidently injured his health. In +the spring of 1861 we took him to Hastings, and Dr. Moore, an eminent +physician there, carefully studied his case, and, as the result, advised +that his artistic pursuits should be for awhile suspended, and that he +should travel abroad, where he would see and learn much, without tasking +his physical power. Accordingly, in the summer of 1861, he visited the +Continent with his elder brother and me, went up and down the Rhine, and +saw pictures, statues, and decorations, which interested his mind without +overtasking his bodily strength. In the following autumn he was better, +and under medical advice we arranged that, in company with one of his +sisters, he should spend the winter in Rome. They did so accordingly, +and our hopes were raised; but in the spring he had an attack, which +rendered it advisable that he should remove from Rome to some other part +of Italy. He did so, and paid a visit to friends in Leghorn. I left +home with another of my daughters and two nieces, joining my children +where they were staying; thence I accompanied them, on a pleasant tour +through Florence, over the Apennines, and, by way of Bologna, Milan, and +the Alps, to Geneva. Thence we came home through France. We returned in +good spirits; but, as winter approached, fears reawakened. Gradually the +invalid became weaker; but faith in the Invisible and Divine Father grew +stronger and stronger. The youth spent with us a cheerful Christmas; but +in spring it was obvious he was not long for this world. As the end +approached he talked calmly on the subject with his beloved brother, the +two being united in bonds of Christian faith, as well as natural +affection. I can never forget the Holy Communion we—mother, father, +brother, and sisters—enjoyed in a room overlooking our garden, when +bursting buds told of nature’s returning life, and the dear sufferer bore +unmistakable signs of approaching death. But he was calm and cheerful, +and took deep interest in the gracious ordinance. It was administered +with solemnity by our dear friend Harrison, who loved Howard as though he +had been his own son. He expired on March 31st, 1863, and on the +following Sunday evening my brother just named preached a memorable +funeral sermon in Kensington Chapel. + +In 1864 Dr. Stanley became Dean of Westminster, and on his expressing a +wish to be introduced to some Nonconformist brethren, Dr. William +Smith—editor of so many valuable dictionaries, and with whom I was then +associated in the business of New College—kindly gave a dinner party to +which he invited me. The Dean afterwards finding there was between us +some similarity of taste in literature, and sympathy in desires for +union, invited me to the Deanery; and so began a friendship with him and +Lady Augusta, which lasted as long as they lived, and proved one of the +most precious privileges vouchsafed to me, by the providence of our +Heavenly Father. On December 28th, 1865, “the Feast of the Holy +Innocents”—the Dean preached a sermon in Westminster Abbey. The sermon +was in commemoration of the Abbey’s foundation by Edward the Confessor +eight hundred years before. The text was felicitously chosen from John +x. 22, 23,—“It was the feast of the _Dedication_, and it was _winter_, +and Jesus walked in the temple in _Solomon’s porch_.” “Feast of the +Dedication” corresponded with the character of the service; “winter” was +the season of both celebrations; the northern porch—a main entrance to +the Abbey—is called “Solomon’s porch.” The sermon was not less +appropriate than the text. It sketched the history of the venerable +edifice, and contained marked allusions to Nonconformist ministrations +within its walls during the Commonwealth. Being present on the occasion, +I wrote to the Dean afterwards in reference to his allusions, when, in +reply, he said, “It gave me additional pleasure to deliver them, from the +reflection that there was at least one person present capable of entering +into them.” In the sermon, as delivered, he spoke of the Westminster +Confession as the only one ever _imposed_ in the _whole Island_, and on +my calling his attention to this statement, and pointing out the +distinction between the _doctrinal_ and ecclesiastical part of the +Confession, he answered, “I was not ignorant of the distinction, nor did +I mean to say it was _imposed_ in any offensive sense. For I was anxious +not to say a word that could be offensive to any of my brethren, and +merely wished to call attention to the fact, that a document, which had +received in part a wider legal recognition than any other since the +Reformation, came from Westminster Abbey.” In the sermon, as _printed_, +are the words “_sanctioned by law_ for the whole Island,” and in a note, +“The doctrinal Articles of the Westminster Confession of Faith (were) +sanctioned by the English Parliament in 1647, and the whole Confession by +the Scottish Parliament in 1648.” + +In further illustration of the Dean’s ingenuity when turning Scripture to +account in the improvement of events, I may here repeat what he once +related to me. He happened on a Saturday to be preparing a sermon for +the Abbey, on some occasion when he was to plead for _two_ objects, and +had chosen for his text Gen. xxvii. 38—“And Esau said unto his father, +hast thou but one blessing my father? Bless me, even me also, O my +father.” As the Dean was writing his discourse, some one stepped in and +told him, the American President, General Grant, intended to be at the +Abbey the next day, and suggested that it would be gratifying to +Americans if some allusion was made to the incident. Immediately it was +turned to account by the Dean in this way—that God had many blessings +which He distributed amongst his children; that bounty to one did not +mean denial to another; that Great Britain, for instance, had been +blessed, but God had rich benefactions for America as well. + +For years I felt an earnest desire to visit the East, and thus to become +personally acquainted with Bible lands. A meeting was held in 1865 to +present me with a purse of £400, and a pledge that expenses incurred +through my absence from Kensington should be met, without any pecuniary +responsibilities on my part. The friends who accompanied me were Dr. +Allon, of Union Chapel, Islington, Dr. Spence, of the Poultry Chapel, +London, Dr. Bright, minister of the Independent Chapel, Dorking, and two +young lay friends—Stanley Kemp-Welch and Thomas Wilson. The Dean of +Westminster gave me introductions to people he knew in Palestine, and +afforded valuable assistance in other ways. + +We started in February 1865. I kept a journal and sent home long +letters. We visited Alexandria and Cairo, and then proceeded through the +desert of Sinai to the monastery at the foot of Jebel Mousa. Turning +north, we made our way to Gaza, thence to Ramleh, and so onwards to +Jerusalem. The members of our little party, as we approached the city on +horseback, rode at a considerable distance from each other. I knew that +we should cross some ridges, before we caught sight of the city, and I +happened to be in the rear of my fellow-travellers. I watched the +foremost of them till I saw him pull up his horse, pause awhile, then +take off his hat. I knew what that meant, and the feelings awakened I +can never forget while I live. I eagerly, and I may say reverently, +followed the foremost horseman, and as soon as I caught sight of the +walls and the gate, I am not ashamed to say, my eyes were full of tears. + +As we entered the Holy City the bustle was very great. Bedouins with +yellow scarves round their heads, and striped robes on their shoulders; +Syrians with snowy turbans, short jackets, and flowing trousers; Turks +wearing the crimson fez; a rich man “clothed in purple and fine linen,” +mounted on a smartly caparisoned white ass, and a poor man on foot, +ragged and tattered; camels and donkeys carrying loads of timber and +brushwood, to the peril of wayfarers; Egyptian, Copt, Armenian, Greek, +the black Nubian, the white Circassian, with groups of veiled women, +shuffling over the stones in gay slippers—all these made a motley +picture, which dazzled the attention of pilgrims from England. At length +we reached our hotel, and had to make ladder-like ascents, and mount on +roofs, story after story, before we could get to our apartments, whence +we caught our first view of Mount Olivet. + +We met with Christian friends in the Holy City, and were kindly invited +by Dr. Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, to spend an evening at his house, when +he gathered together a party consisting of the principal foreign visitors +at the time, most of whom were English. For two Sunday mornings we +worshipped at the church on Mount Zion, near the Episcopal residence, and +were glad of an opportunity to partake of the Communion. I have always +delighted in fellowship at the Lord’s table with Christian brethren of +different churches, who, under different forms of administration, worship +and adore the same Lord. Not only when travelling on the Continent have +I received the Lord’s Supper at the hands of Episcopalian brethren, but +in England, on a few occasions I have availed myself of a similar +catholic privilege. + +Before proceeding further, let me relate a story I heard from Dr. Rosen, +the German consul, respecting the famous Sinaitic MS. Tischendorf had +reason to believe a precious treasure was hid in the monastery at Sinai. +He obtained letters which he thought would assist him, but, on further +consideration, declined to employ them. He found in the library part of +his coveted prize; and, it happened at that moment, the office of +Okonomos was vacant, and a keen contest for it was going on between two +monks. He joined one party, and promised to use influence with the +Russian Emperor in favour of their candidate, hinting that the present of +a valuable MS. would promote their object. After a good deal of +diplomacy this plan prospered. The MS. coveted by the scholar was +secured, and the once hopeless candidate was installed in office. This +was not all. The MS. was incomplete, and the missing part was found by +Tischendorf in the possession of a Greek merchant. The promise of a +Russian title proved more effectual than gold, and Tischendorf carried +off his prize to St. Petersburg in triumph. I jotted down the story the +evening Dr. Rosen related it, and here in a few words have I given the +substance. + +Of course we explored Jerusalem as far as our limited time allowed; and, +under the guidance of Dr. Rosen, I had the privilege of visiting certain +spots where recent discoveries had been made. I remember seeing what +looked like indications of a well, from which, it was easy to imagine, +people, in our Lord’s time, used to draw water. Nor can I forget rambles +on the line of walls commanding views of the city and neighbourhood. I +can now distinctly recall my visit to a sepulchre outside the city, where +a stone, like a large millstone, was lying at the door, as if recently +“rolled away.” I studied (as well as time, and what I had read on the +subject, would allow), the question as to the place of crucifixion, and +where our blessed Lord rose from the dead. Points still remain to be +settled, as to the direction in which the city wall ran in the time of +Christ. I cannot adopt any modern theories on the whole subject, which +have made way in America and in England. It appears to me after long +study, that grounds can still be maintained in support of the old +tradition in favour of the spot where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre +stands. We made a memorable excursion to Bethlehem, by way of Rachel’s +sepulchre, and descended the cave where, it is said, our Lord was born. +We next proceeded to Hebron, where I stood by a flight of steps leading +to the tombs within, longing to ascend and explore those hallowed resting +places. Returning northwards, we stopped at the traditional oak, by +which Abraham sat in the heat of the day—and at the vineyards of Eschol +where old stocks are thriving still—and at Solomon’s pool and gardens, +not far from David’s hiding-places. Then, after a long and exciting day, +we found rest in the old monastery of S. Saba, from the terrace of which, +we caught a view of the Dead Sea. We rambled on its melancholy shores, +dipped in the Jordan, and then spent a night by the ruins of Jericho. + +The order of our journey followed Dr. Stanley’s directions, that we might +have the advantage of crossing Olivet, so as to come suddenly on the +point where our Lord “beheld the city and wept over it.” From Jerusalem +we proceeded northwards by Bethel, Sychar, Samaria, Esdraelon, and +Nazareth, to Tiberias and the Lake. Thence by Safed we travelled over +the hills of Galilee to Banias (“the Syrian Tivoli”), Damascus, and +Beyrout. Banias is a charming spot. With the scenery from a hill +overlooking Damascus I was charmed beyond measure, and was intensely +interested in the antiquities of that grand old city. Dr. Allon, Dr. +Bright and Mr. Wilson visited the ruins at Baalbec, but Mr. Kemp-Welch +remained with me in Damascus to take care of Dr. Spence, who was very +ill. He had to be leisurely taken over the mountains to Beyrout, +approaching which we had never-to-be-forgotten views of the beautiful +Mediterranean. + +After leaving Palestine I wrote in my notes the following impression as +to the Bible, which had been a constant companion and guide in our +travels:—It is the Book of the Holy Land—the gospel of Palestine. It is +Oriental; it is Syrian; it is Samaritan; it is Galilean; it is Jewish. +It paints the scenery of the Land of Promise from end to end, and the +wilderness too. It echoes the voices of the people. We hear in it the +murmur of towns and villages, we pass through; it breathes the pure, +fresh, bracing air of the desert; everywhere as I opened the Divine pages +I found them reflecting surrounding scenes. Even the brilliant +Frenchman, who has tasked his genius to demolish the authentic life of +Jesus and to build out of the ruins an imagination of his own, virtually +admits the truth of what I have now advanced, for he points out the +minute accuracy of the Volume; which shows how true in detail are the +Gospels, how faithful to rock and stream, river and lake, tree and wild +flower, is the entire narrative. Thus, after all he says to the +contrary, he really raises in the reader’s mind a fair presumption of its +fidelity in higher matters. + +One circumstance struck me as very noticeable—that is, the compression, +within a small compass, of a number of stirring incidents related in Holy +Writ. Dothan, where Joseph sought his brethren and their flocks; the +plain of Megiddo, the battle-field of Israel; the river Kishon, “that +ancient river,” so fatal to Sisera’s army; the valley of Jezreel, with +its wide panorama, where Ahab had a palace; the heights of Gilboa, where +fell Saul and his sons, with the well of Harod at the foot, where +Gideon’s three hundred men stooped and lapped the water; the garden of +the Shunamite, opposite to Mount Carmel; the city of Nain and the cave of +Endor; Tabor and Nazareth—all these spots come within a few hours’ ride. +Well might Issachar think “that rest was good, and the land that it was +pleasant.” + +Our party began to separate at Beyrout. Dr. Spence, accompanied by Mr. +Wilson, returned direct to England; the rest of us came home through +Europe. + +In crossing the Mediterranean with Dr. Allon and Kemp-Welch we touched at +Cyprus. The coast looked flat and uninteresting, but the bright morning, +the sparkling sea, and the manifold associations attaching to the islands +inspired great curiosity and deep interest, though I felt by no means +well. I began to be conscious that my appetite for travelling had +somewhat palled, if not become almost dead. We landed at Larnaca, and +found it a very poor place. The Greek churches were somewhat curious, +from the circumstance of old columns with characteristic capitals being +built into the walls. I noticed Greek priests sitting in wine shops, and +some of them occupying places of traffic, selling different articles in +huckster-like hovels. These men indicated the social degradation of +inferior orders in the Eastern Church. However it may be with the +dignified clergy in Russia, certainly priests in Palestine, Syria and the +Mediterranean Isles afford low types of civilisation. After dwelling on +what is related about Cyprus in the Acts of the Apostles, the conversion +of Sergius Paulus, and the conduct of Elymas the sorcerer, became very +real narratives; and with these memories in our minds we re-embarked and +had a pleasant evening as we sat on deck. I fell asleep with the +prospect of reaching Rhodes the next day. + +The harbour, with its well-known mole and adjuncts, is very picturesque. +We climbed up narrow streets, full of houses once occupied by the +knights, and from the fortification, had an extensive view of the island +and the Mediterranean. The Church of St. John, blown up by gunpowder, +and shattered to fragments, seized on my imagination for a good while, as +I wandered, and sat down on a spot, so rich in romantic story. We then +returned to the interior of the town, and at the harbour watched the +boatmen, busy at the seaside. As we were doing so, one of my companions +exclaimed, “Stoughton, you’ve got the jaundice!” and, sure enough, when +we reached our steamer, the looking-glass proved this was true. When I +rose next morning my limbs were of a saffron colour. + +The weather changed. The sky was dark, and the views we caught of Asia +were by no means inviting. At night there came a storm; and a storm in +the Mediterranean is no trifling matter. Wind roared through the +rigging; the vessel lurched and laboured, groaning as if the timbers +would burst. Lying in my berth I could feel the dashing billows. Tables +and stools were sliding about. The suspended lamps swayed to and fro, +like the pendulum of a clock. Overhead confusion was terrible. Horses +were kicking, and the sailors were swearing. We had a pasha with his +harem on board, and, as might be expected, they were exceedingly +terrified. Crowds of pilgrims returning from the Eastern celebration at +Jerusalem, were lying on deck resembling herrings in a barrel, and the +noise they made was terrific. Waves beat over our boat, till the poor +creatures were almost drowned. Beside we had horses, bears and monkeys +on board, and, of course, they added to the inharmonious concert. I rose +from my hammock early, and with my companion, Mr. Welch, sought comfort +from a cup of tea. Reaching the deck, I talked with one of the +engineers, an Englishman, and asked what he thought of the storm. “Is +there any danger?” I asked. He replied, “This has been a very queer +night, and we have made no way. If it had lasted, that would have been +serious.” We safely reached Smyrna harbour in the afternoon. + +Of course, I thought as we approached land:—There, on one of the hills +yonder, the martyr, Polycarp, by death sealed the truths which he had +proclaimed in life. As we landed, I thought myself in an Italian port, +so European at a glance everything looked—houses, shops, and people—but, +entering the town, the scene changed, for there the streets, bazaars, and +costumes told of Oriental manners and customs. The next day a party was +organised to visit the ruins of Ephesus. It can be reached by railway, +and when we entered the station, we might have fancied ourselves at home; +for there we met with English guards, and railway porters, like our own. +We had a special train to convey us to the far-famed ruins. We visited +what is left of the forum, the theatre, and the stadium, but it is +difficult to identify anything; and it seemed to me, a definite idea of +what Ephesus was in its glory is impossible. The view from the loftiest +eminence is magnificent, including the vast plain, the winding river +Cayster, and what, in Paul’s day was the harbour of Miletus. At the time +of our visit, Greek Christians were celebrating the Festival of St. John, +on a lofty hill, the church there being a rude-looking structure. The +cave of the seven sleepers was pointed out, on our way back to the +railway station, and by the cave is a beautiful mosque of the fifteenth +century. + +On Saturday morning we embarked at Smyrna for Constantinople. We faintly +discerned in the far distance, as we crossed those classic waters, point +after point closely connected with ancient story. Of course, all the +way, amidst Homeric scenes and associations, we called them to mind by +Homer’s help; but the thought of St. John’s labours, his epistles, to the +seven churches in the Apocalypse, more prominently occupied one’s mind on +the Lord’s day, when we had worship in the saloon, and I preached, as +well as I could, to a few sympathetic fellow-passengers. + +On Monday morning early, we reached the Golden Horn, filled with +shipping. Caiques were quietly gliding over still waters; but we were +troubled at the Custom House by an ignorant soldier, who laid hold upon +my “Homer” and detained it for two or three days. + +Kemp-Welch was the only member of our party left, the rest proceeding +homeward by another route. I made the most of what was possible during +the four days spent at Constantinople. My friend and I followed the +circuit of the city on horseback; through Stamboul, which appeared very +Oriental, ruinous and dirty—through lines of cypresses, near cemeteries +with turbaned headstones; and so, all round, till we reached the sweet +waters. There we tarried a while, looking at the gardens, and their +summer houses, called kiosks. The place is a resort like Hampton Court. +Thence we returned to the city. Next day we crossed the Golden Horn, and +saw the Sultan’s seraglio, attached to which are more gardens and more +kiosks. The place contains a library full of Arabic MSS., and a throne +room, with the Sultan’s divan, surmounted with a baldacchino. There His +Majesty used to hold his court, attended by janissaries, and was screened +from the view of subjects, except that his hands were visible. The +Sublime Porte is the grand entrance to the room of audience for +ambassadors from other courts. + +We visited the arsenal with its ammunition, muskets, and swords. The +building, it is said, was in the fourth century a church—the Church of S. +Irene, where Chrysostom preached some of his wonderful sermons—and it has +still in the apse an antique cross. But the grand ecclesiastical edifice +of Constantinople is S. Sophia, with columns brought from Ephesus, and +representations of four cherubim with their faces obliterated. A legend +is preserved to this effect, that when Constantinople was taken by the +Turks, a priest was saying mass—immediately a chasm opened in the wall +and received him. There he still remains, chalice in hand, waiting to +finish the service, when Christians recover the ancient edifice. + +But I must not enter into further details of what I saw and heard during +my short stay at Constantinople. I was now left alone, as my only +remaining companion was obliged to return home by a different route. + +Let me add in closing this part of my story, that the banks of the +Bosphorus on which I gazed, as I left Constantinople, surpassed previous +imagination. The gardens and kiosks by the waterside, looked +paradisaical; and as we steamed along I was enchanted, one instant after +another, by objects on the shore. All the way to the Black Sea was +delightful. Then surroundings changed. Travellers, landed to find +themselves amidst indescribable confusion. Thence we proceeded by rail +across a dreary district, without trees, and abounding in shallow sheets +of stagnant water, with plenty of storks, Egyptian geese, and other wild +birds. Still, within the region crossed, there were fields of grain. We +reached our steamer on the Danube, between six and seven o’clock on +Friday evening. + +We found the great river improve as we ascended it. At first we had low +banks dotted with mosques and minarets, showing we were still in Turkey. +On board the boat I was treated as an invalid, and the attention shown by +captain, crew, and servants, was such as to inspire the warmest gratitude +on my part. + +The scenery on the banks of the Danube, in the earlier part of our voyage +up the river, was very magnificent—rocks rising loftily from the water’s +edge on one bank, but low on the other. We passed richly wooded scenery, +and caught glimpses of pleasant glens, with running streams and +picturesque bridges. Further on were comfortable farm-houses and smiling +villages. We reached Pesth on Tuesday, travelling by rail, and then +proceeded, in the same way, to Vienna, where I tarried for a couple of +days—seeing the magnificent cathedral, the vaults of the Capuchin Church, +the Prater, the Royal Palace, and the Picture Galleries. Travelling +across Germany by rail I reached the Rhine, thence to Brussels, where I +was entertained by my nieces then on a visit there. At last I found two +dear daughters waiting at the Victoria Station, and at Fairlawn House, +Hammersmith, there was a loving welcome. + +At the conclusion of my narrative of Eastern travel, let me remark. What +one sees in travelling through Palestine gives vividness to the +narrative—makes what before were pale outlines, pictures of glowing +colour and dazzling light. I do not forget the danger there is of being +too much engaged with what is outward in Biblical studies—tarrying in the +porch instead of worshipping in the temple—lingering by the hedge to +gather flowers instead of pressing into the field to cut down +corn—playing the geologist, instead of working as spiritual +miners—finding out what is curious as to literature, instead of +appropriating “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” But still, what I +gathered in the East is precious, and may minister to spiritual +edification, as well as to mental enjoyment. How marvellous it is that +whilst the Bible is so Eastern—while Oriental manners, customs, and +scenery are photographed there, it is nevertheless an universal book! +The Koran is not so Eastern as the Bible; at least, so it struck me, as I +read it in the East; yet the Bible is the Englishman’s book as the Koran +could not be, even if we were all Mussulmans. + +Specially forcible and beautiful were the impressions we derived touching +the life of Christ; we felt how toilsome were his journeys as He _walked_ +along the rough and rugged pathways from Jericho to Jerusalem, over which +we _rode_. How humiliating must have been his intercourse with the poor, +who, no doubt, then lived in wretched mud hovels, such as we saw, not +only in Palestine, but in Egypt; types of domestic habitation for the +lower classes in ages past! We thought: Through such collections of +“houses of clay” did He pass! Here did He tarry, and within such abodes! +Not one of them was His own; He had not where to lay His head. + + + + +CHAPTER IX +1865–1872 + + +IN the year 1867 I published the first volumes of my “Ecclesiastical +History of England”; this calls for explanation of what preceded and +prepared for it. + +Immediately after I left college, and settled at Windsor, I commenced the +study of Church history with much earnestness; and the first fruit was a +course of lectures on the subject to my congregation, delivered on week +evenings. When I had completed them they were sent by me to my revered +tutor, Dr. Henderson, for criticism and advice. He encouraged me to +pursue my studies in that direction, with the hope and intention of +making use of them in after life. I followed his advice, and during the +remainder of my Windsor ministry devoted all the time I could spare from +pulpit and pastoral duties to researches into early annals of +Christendom. In my investigations I was kindly allowed to use the Dean +and Chapter’s library. After I left Windsor, I turned attention to +ecclesiastical affairs during the Puritan period. This happened just as +I was about to pay a visit to my native county—Norfolk—where I commenced +studying original records in Norwich. Proceedings _against +Nonconformity_ and other records there came within my reach, that part of +England being somewhat rich in this department of history. “Spiritual +Heroes” was the title of my first volume, which not long after was +revised and enlarged in a second edition. The Congregational lecture on +“The Ages of Christendom,” was delivered and published in 1856. This +led, in 1867, to the “Ecclesiastical History of England, from the Opening +of the Long Parliament to the Death of Oliver Cromwell.” “The Church of +the Restoration,” forming two volumes, appeared in 1870, and “The Church +of the Revolution” in 1874. To complete the list of works on English +Ecclesiasticism, there followed other volumes on the reigns of Queen Anne +and the Three Georges. Afterwards came “Religion in England from 1800 to +1851.” I state all this, because some confusion has arisen from a +fragmentary publication of the original works and of successive editions. + +In 1867 correspondence and personal intercourse commenced between a +distinguished Episcopalian and myself, of an interesting character. In +that year I received an invitation to Chichester from Dean Hook. He was +much talked of, on account of his High Churchmanship, and his pre-eminent +activity as Vicar of Leeds. Dissenters counted him amongst their bitter +foes; and I should have been much surprised, years earlier, had I been +told I was to be a guest at his house. Yet so it was. Historical +sympathies brought us together, and each found that the other wished to +be fair in dealing with men who held opposite opinions. Both believed in +a spiritual brotherhood reaching beyond denominational bounds. Soon +after my arrival at Chichester he asked: “What shall we talk about? If I +thought I could make you a Churchman, I would try to do so; and if you +thought you could make a Dissenter of me, you would make the attempt.” I +replied: “Nothing of the kind; let us leave out ecclesiastical +controversy, and talk of literary and religious matters, on which we are +pretty well agreed; and when we have exhausted them we will take up +points of difference.” He went on to say, that his great friend Lord +Hatherley, then High Chancellor, differed from him politically, and yet +they had walked up together to the polling booth to record opposite +votes, without any breach of friendship. “And so,” he said, “you and I +can unite to a certain extent; and when we come to the parting of the +way, we can each take our own course, with mutual good will.” I entered +into the compact. On historical and social subjects, and as to religion +in its spiritual and experimental aspects, we were of one accord, and +felt no inclination to unsheath swords. + +We had pleasant drives in the country and cheerful chat at the +dinner-table, when he included within his party members of the cathedral +body. Plenty of anecdotes were related, some about Dr. Wilberforce, when +Bishop of Oxford. The Bishop, I heard, used to tell a story, which +showed how a man might, unconsciously, make a good pun. He had engaged +to dine with somebody whose name was _Hunter_, a cattle grazier, and on +his way, as was his wont, the Bishop bethought himself: “What topic of +talk can we have together?” At the railway-station his eye caught an +advertisement of “Thorley’s Food for Cattle.” That would suit very well. +So the bishop asked the grazier his opinion of such provision for beasts +of the field. The host replied: “It might do very well for _Oxen_, but +not for a _Hunter_.” He did not know he was quoting the diocesan name of +his right-reverend guest (Oxon.), and forgot at the moment he was also +repeating his own. The Dean gave a conundrum, invented by the Bishop, +for the amusement of a young lady:— + +“What part of your dress resembles two popular preachers in the Church of +England?” + +“Give it up?” + +“Hook and I.” + +The Chancellor of the Cathedral, I think it was, spoke of Wilberforce’s +power of adapting himself to people whom he met. He liked to know +beforehand who he was to see. Introduced to a Yorkshire-man, he began to +talk in the county dialect. Visiting a screw manufactory, he won the +confidence of workmen by showing some knowledge of their business. Once +at the Earl of Derby’s (grandfather of the present Lord) he met gentlemen +of the turf, and surprised them by giving the pedigree of a celebrated +racehorse. On being asked how he came to be “well up” on such a subject, +he said he had gleaned knowledge of that kind as a boy, in the stables of +a trainer, near his father’s house. He scarcely ever forgot anything he +had heard. + +The Dean was an early riser; and retired early to bed. We had family +prayer in the library about nine o’clock, the family and the guests +standing and kneeling together. He read the Psalms for the day, and used +parts of the Morning and Evening Service. Once, about half-past ten in +the evening, I said to Mrs. Hook—a charming woman, “light of the +dwelling”—“I must bid the Dean good-night. Where is he?” + +“In bed and asleep the last hour,” she gently answered. + +He told me that early rising had been his habit during his residence at +Leeds, and was so still; that demands on his time, from forenoon to +night, were such at Leeds as would have prevented all literary work, had +he not secured hours for study before breakfast. Then it was he wrote +his books. He worked hard all day when vicar, and adopted unusual +methods of usefulness, holding something like Methodist class-meetings, +which took strong hold on his Yorkshire parishioners. Familiar +devotional gatherings he kept up at Chichester; and a poor old woman was +so delighted with them, that, by an odd association of ideas, she +compared them to feasting on “lamb and salad.” These meetings he would +humorously call by that name. I had a good deal of talk with my kind +hostess about clerical incomes, and the demands made on them; and so I +became disabused of false notions common amongst outsiders. From what I +heard of large outgoings, payments on promotion, and so on, I am able to +form a more correct estimate of pecuniary affairs in the Establishment, +than I could before. + +Considerable correspondence passed between us. A friendly intercourse +was also maintained by subsequent visits. In a letter dated June 4th, +1867, he says:— + + “I like a companion who will look out for points of agreement, and + then coze upon them. I never court the society of those who love an + argument, and look out for topics on which we disagree. You will, + perhaps, infer from this, that I want vigour of mind; but I really + believe that many minds are drawn out and strengthened by cozing + instead of arguing, and I am sure that this conduces to brotherly + affection. My wife and I after many years of hard work—and what is + worse than work, worry—came here to retire from the world. We see + little of general society, and confine ourselves to pleasant cozy + intercourse, with our large and united family, and old friends. We + cannot, therefore, offer you any gaiety when you come amongst us, but + if you take us as we are, we shall hope to have some pleasant cozes.” + +In a letter, dated March 1868, he remarks: + + “In the Peninsular War the pickets of the two armies were accustomed + often to meet on the most friendly terms, and enjoy each other’s + conversation. But when the trumpet sounded each man was at his post, + ready to do his duty. So it is with us. I have always acted on this + principle of refusing to admit the assertion, that our differences + are on nonessentials—and of offering, nevertheless, the right hand of + friendship in private to those whom in public I might oppose, or + rather by whom I was myself opposed. I was freely censured at one + time for this; but when I left Leeds my Nonconformist friends rallied + round me to bid me farewell, and several of them saw I had pursued + the right course.” + + “The great thing which you and I have to do is to guard against the + deadly sin of too many of our contemporaries—imputing motives. If we + can discover a good motive, we may rejoice, even though we condemn + the action to which it may have led. But no words can express, or + thought conceive, the indignation I experience, when men seek to + attribute good actions to bad motives.” + +The Dean was not one of your modern correspondents. The last of these +extracts is from a letter on quarto sheets, which covers _sixteen_ +closely written pages. + +Dr. Hook was a delightful talker, English to the backbone—“a thorough +John Bull,” as an Oxford don once said to me. There was a strong dash of +humour in his constitution, and he was ready to tell amusing anecdotes of +himself. He was no ritualist, no Puritan, certainly no Erastian; but a +godly, warm-hearted, Christian man, whom it was a privilege to know. + +During visits to Chichester I became acquainted with one of the canons, +Dr. Swainson, then Norrisian Professor at Cambridge, afterwards Master of +Christ’s College in that University. He rendered me essential service +whilst I was writing my volumes on “The Church of the Restoration.” Some +of the books and MSS. in the library of the cathedral were of great use; +and when I visited him afterwards at Cambridge he rendered me further +valuable aid. I had the pleasure of meeting some Cambridge dons at his +dinner table, and I remember being interested and instructed by a long +conversation on the rendering of names given in our version of the Bible +to ancient instruments of music. In 1869 I was present at the +announcement of wranglers for that year. I stood side by side with my +friend in the gallery, close to the gentleman who held in his hand a +paper big with the fates of university competitors. It was a dark +morning, and at eight o’clock, amidst breathless silence, the personal +secrets so many waited to learn, were publicly proclaimed. It was a +grand piece of living mosaic which lay before me, as upturned eager +countenances were fixed on the spot where I was standing; and the +announcement of the new senior wrangler raised applause which seemed +enough to lift the roof. + +My friendly relations with Dr. Swainson continued through after-years; +and his laborious investigations into Church creeds were frequent topics +in our conversation. His inquiries into the date of the Utrecht MS. +containing the “Quicunque vult,” etc., were extraordinarily extensive, +minute, and careful, as I can bear testimony from repeated accounts he +gave of Continental journeys and inquiries. I apprehend that nobody ever +spent so much time and labour on the inquiry, as he did; therefore his +conclusions ought to carry much weight in the settlement of a controversy +touching historical theology, as well as an archæological question. + +On the occasion of my visit to Cambridge I went to see my friend, Mr. +Fordham of Melbourne, who possessed a valuable collection of paintings; +and I mention him here, for the sake of what he related respecting Lord +Beaconsfield, who had been a schoolfellow with Mr. Fordham’s +brother-in-law, the Right Honourable Russell Gurney, Recorder of London. + +They were educated at an academy in Walthamstow, kept by Mr. Cogan, a +Presbyterian minister, whose son I knew well. Young Dizzy, as people +called the politician, was famous at school for two things. He delighted +in forming parties and getting up cabals—there was an embryo politician; +next he excelled in telling stories, and would keep the boys awake at +night by his romantic inventions—there was an embryo novelist. He had +early dreams of future greatness, I think; and my friend informed me that +he had talked to his schoolmates of being one day Prime Minister of +England. + +In the winter of 1867–68, Dr. Alford, Dean of Canterbury, delivered and +printed a lecture on “The Christian Conscience,” which was followed up, +in _The Contemporary_ by an article expressive of kindly feelings towards +Nonconformists, and a desire for more friendly intercourse with them. I +felt it a duty to respond to this overture, and did so, both privately +and publicly. This prepared for a friendship which I highly valued. +About the same time, Archdeacon Sandford, father of the Bishop of +Gibraltar, made a move in the same direction. I spoke to brethren in +sympathy with myself, as regards union, and we thought of inviting a few +clergymen to meet us—when, on my acquainting Dean Stanley with what we +had in our minds, he expressed a wish to take the lead by getting several +friends on both sides to dine with him at Westminster. Accordingly Dean +Alford, Archdeacon Sandford, Prebendary Humphreys, and other clergymen, +met my friends Binney, Allon, and others, at our good friend’s hospitable +board; and the party proved most agreeable. Other gatherings of the same +kind followed, and at Fairlawn, where I lived, a long conversation took +place, when, in addition to those just mentioned, Lord Ebury, Henry +Winterbotham, M.P., Dr. Angus, Dr. Rigg, Dr. Roberts, and my intimate +friend, Joshua Harrison, interchanged views in reference to Catholic +intercourse. Dr. Alford, the Dean of Canterbury, afterwards invited Mr. +Binney and myself to one of his garden parties, and soon afterwards he +presided at the Cheshunt College Anniversary, when he uttered sentiments +which were followed by a pleasant response from ministers of different +denominations. On another occasion he met the Professors of New College, +by invitation from the Coward Trustees; thus, and in other and similar +ways, brotherly intercourse was considerably advanced. + +If I may be permitted to trespass a little on what was at the time in +futurity, I will, for the sake of preserving connection between incidents +at that period, mention other circumstances which brought together, in a +friendly way, members of different religious bodies. The first was of no +great importance. I think it was in 1870, the Archbishop of Syra visited +England, and made some little stir. Dr. Stanley entertained him in the +Jerusalem Chamber, and invited a larger party to meet him afterwards. +The host was not likely to lose such an opportunity for bringing together +people of different opinions. Several were introduced to this stranger, +who occupied during his visit, perhaps, a position above his usual one. +The simple fact of this introduction was magnified, by newspapers, even +the _Times_, into a sort of submission to Greek Archiepiscopal +superiority; for the few whose names were mentioned were represented as +receiving his formal benediction, and I wrote to explain the nature of +the interview, which really amounted to nothing more than a respectful +bow on the part of an Englishman to a foreigner, and the return on the +foreigner’s part of an accustomed Greek salutation. The intended effect +of private civil reciprocities is often spoiled, by attributing to them +meanings never intended and utterly absurd. Reports of them in quite a +ridiculous way get into newspapers. + +It was owing to the circumstance of my being “capped” in Edinburgh at the +same time with Matthew Arnold, that I became acquainted with that +remarkable man. He was by no means popular with Dissenters, owing to +what, in some of his books, he said with reference to them. They +appreciated his ability, but censured the spirit which appeared in some +of his criticisms. My acquaintance with him convinced me that in some +respects he was misjudged. When I came to know him pretty well, I +playfully referred to some things he had written, which stung people whom +I knew. “But I am not such a bad fellow,” he rejoined, “as Dissenters +think.” “No,” I replied, “but Dissenters look at you through your books; +I look at your books through you—and that makes a great difference.” I +always found him kind, gentle, tender-hearted. He sympathised with me in +domestic sorrows, and was pleased with some things I had written. + +The publication of “Ecclesia,” a volume by Dissenters, about the same +time that another volume appeared written by Churchmen, was the means of +bringing the editors and writers of the two works together at the house +of a common friend, the Rev. H. S. Toms of Enfield. The Rev. W. D. +Maclagan, editor of “The Church and the Age”—incumbent of a neighbouring +parish (afterwards Vicar of Kensington, then Bishop of Lichfield +{176a})—and Dr. Reynolds, of Cheshunt College, were present. Each editor +proposed success to his brother editor on the other side. + +This was an instance of mutual recognition and charity, worthy of being +known; standing out, as it does, in pleasant contrast with bitter ways in +which ecclesiastical controversies have been too often waged. Nor did +that single interview end the intercourse thus begun, as I have had a few +opportunities since of kindly intercourse with Dr. Maclagan, both as +Kensington Vicar, and as a distinguished Bishop, earnestly doing his +Episcopal work. + +Another event occurred about the same time, in favour of union. The +question of Bible Revision ripened to a practical issue in 1870. {176b} +A committee was formed by Convocation to carry out the project, and I had +the privilege of being present during a part of the discussion. I heard +the Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Alford, make an eloquent speech in favour of +the design he had done so much to initiate, and for the accomplishment of +which he laboured to the last. That speech was pronounced by some +members as the most effective he ever delivered. In the evening of the +same day, I came across Archdeacon Denison, at a clerical meeting, to +which I was invited by an old Kensington neighbour, the Rev. J. E. Kempe, +Rector of St. James’, Piccadilly. There is nothing like private chat +with men of pronounced opinions, who in public are accustomed to speak +with vehemence. Judging from newspapers, one regards them as repulsive, +whereas a little _tête-à-tête_ in a quiet corner, makes a marvellously +different impression. It was so in this instance, and the fiery +Archdeacon, as I had thought him, proved a genial, humorous old +clergyman, joking me on misconceptions of character formed by reading +outside critics. + +I must say, after all his antecedents, I found him a thoroughly hearty +and kindly disposed Englishman and Christian. “The Revision,” had a +powerful and permanent effect in the relations of several distinguished +Churchmen and Nonconformists. Some of my scholarly brethren, I need +scarcely say, were chosen on the committee, and nothing could be more +harmonious than their co-operation on both sides. Having enjoyed the +friendship of some, and the acquaintance of more, I can testify to their +mutual regard and affection. Some High Churchmen—as I know from having +seen notes in their handwriting—expressed thankfulness to Almighty God +for having brought them into this new relationship. It evidently removed +prejudices, and inspired a feeling of religious oneness, where there had +been before estrangement, if not alienation. At the same time Dissenting +scholarship rose in estimation; and I found from conversation, that +Churchmen held their fellow-revisers in high respect as critical students +of the sacred volume. Some betrayed their possession of an idea, that +Nonconformist learning in our day had risen far above what it was of old; +an idea I endeavoured to correct, by maintaining that, whilst there has +been a wider _diffusion_ of knowledge amongst our ministers, it may be +questioned whether the attainments of living men amongst us have not been +exceeded by those of a past generation. Distinguished Hebrew scholars, +such as Drs. Boothroyd, Pye-Smith, and Henderson, famous in the early +years of the century, are dropping out of notice in the present day. + +Social intercourse went on between the revisers and their friends. +Reunions were held at New College, and Regent’s Park College, and also in +private residences. + +An attempt on a bolder line to promote Christian union, came into +prominence about the time now under review. I allude to a proposal for +what has been called an “interchange of pulpits,”—more properly an +interchange of preaching officers. A hundred years ago it was not +altogether uncommon for Incumbents of the Establishment to preach in +Dissenting chapels, especially those of the Countess of Huntingdon’s +Connexion; in a few instances a Nonconformist occupied a parish church +pulpit. Such irregularities died out early in this century. But twenty +years since there appeared a willingness on the part of several clergymen +to revive the practice. Conferences were held with reference to the +subject, and discussions occurred as to what measures should be taken to +secure legally, what seemed desirable to many. The Right Honourable +Cowper Temple, afterwards Lord Mount Temple (now deceased), took an +interest in the matter, and prepared a Bill to remove legal impediments +out of the way. He sent me the following note:— + + “My desire is to give power to the Bishop and Incumbent to allow any + minister of any denomination, or any layman, to preach occasional + sermons without requiring the person who preaches to do any of the + things required of a Priest or Deacon. + + “I shall not touch the Act of Uniformity, but provide for a case + which is not included in its provisions—that of preaching sermons + which are not part of the daily Church Service, though they may be + delivered at the same time. All that is wanted is the admission that + preaching in a church belonging to the Establishment is not + exclusively a function of the Established Church.” + +I insert a copy of the Bill which he sent me. + + “A BILL + + “To enable Incumbents of Parishes, with the approval and consent of + the Archbishop or Bishop of the Diocese, to admit to the Pulpits of + their Parish Churches persons not in Holy Orders of the Church of + England, for the purpose of delivering occasional Sermons or + Lectures. + + “Whereas it is expedient that facilities should be given for the + occasional delivery of Sermons in Churches of the Church of England + by persons not in Holy Orders of the Church of England. + + “May it therefore please Your Majesty, + + “That it may be enacted, by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by + and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, + and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the + authority of the same, as follows (that is to say):— + + “1. It shall be lawful for the Bishop of any Diocese in England, on + the application of the Incumbent or Officiating Minister of any + Church or Chapel belonging to the Church of England within his + Diocese, or for the Ordinary of any Collegiate Church or Chapel, to + grant, if he shall think fit, permission under his hand to any + person, although he is not in Holy Orders and has not made or + subscribed a Declaration of Assent in the terms set forth in ‘The + Clerical Subscription Act, 1865,’ to preach occasional Sermons or + Lectures in such Church or Chapel; and thereupon it shall be lawful + for the person mentioned in such permission, on the invitation of the + Incumbent or Officiating Minister, to preach an occasional Sermon or + Lecture in such Church or Chapel without making any subscription or + declaration before preaching. + + “2. The preaching of an occasional Sermon or Lecture, in pursuance + of this Act, may take place in any Church or Chapel either, after any + of the Services in the Book of Common Prayer, or at a time when no + Service is used, as may seem best to the Incumbent or Officiating + Minister of such Church or Chapel.” + +This Bill did not propose liberty for an Episcopalian incumbent to preach +in a Nonconformist edifice—that object could be sought afterwards—and the +limited freedom contemplated by the proposed measure failed to receive +parliamentary support. The fact was, Members of Parliament, who were +Dissenters, did not take up the question with any zeal, and some were +decidedly against the proposal. They felt no more desire to see +Nonconformists in Church pulpits than the Established clergy and laity +did; though, of course, they took a different ground of objection. Lines +of division remained strongly marked, and those who aimed at +Disestablishment were bent on a more sweeping change. The time had not +become ripe even for so small an alteration, and as there seemed no great +willingness in any party to promote the proposal, it came to an +unfortunate end. All kinds of means for promoting union have been +suggested, and I have supported some very earnestly; but, in my old age, +I am persuaded there is truth in the remark: “The more we grow in +knowledge and advance in love, the more we should strive to preserve that +simplicity, which is so peculiarly the characteristic of the Gospel, and +the more we should guard against _the uncharitableness of supposing that +every other view_, _except our own_, _must be useless or erroneous_.” +{183} + +The year 1871 was marked by an educational measure, opening Oxford to all +denominations more fully than it had been. The Bill met with opposition +from the Marquis of Salisbury and his friends. Some time before I had +been requested by Lord Ebury to draw up for the Ritual Commission an +account of Nonconformist modes of communion. The account is printed in +the Report for 1870 (p. 139). Now I received a note from the Marquis, +who had obtained a committee for collecting information, asking me to +give evidence with regard to matters referred to them. Accordingly I +attended. After listening to what Dr. Jowett, Master of Balliol, had to +say, I took my seat, to answer their Lordships’ queries. {184} I had +looked forward to examination as somewhat formidable, but found it far +otherwise. It turned out to be a pleasant conversation. + +When the Bill came under discussion in the House of Lords, I felt an +interest in the debate, and consequently attended as a listener. After +Lord Carnarvon had spoken, he stepped over to the spot where I stood, +saying that his desire had been not to say anything discourteous to +Dissenters. I received from him afterwards a note, written in the same +spirit, and expressing a desire for the maintenance of friendly +relations. About the same time it happened that a course of lectures was +given on “Christian Evidences,” in which bishops and other clergymen took +part with Dissenting ministers. + +The British and Foreign Bible Society is a bond of social, as well as +religious, union. A dinner at Mr. George Moore’s house, Palace Gardens, +was, at that time, an annual institution, and after the Exeter Hall +meeting in May, the committee, speakers, and other friends, met under his +hospitable roof. The host appeared at his very best, frank, generous, +and kind—no affectation, no assumption; only a rich vein of English +geniality. On his right hand at such occasions, usually sat Lord +Shaftesbury, on the left perhaps the Archbishop of Canterbury. Without +flattery, but in homely ways of recognising service, the master of the +table would call up one after another of his guests, and after we left +the dining-room, we had family prayer together, a bishop and a Dissenter +taking part in conducting the worship. + +In 1871 the Dean of Canterbury was suddenly taken to his rest. The +tidings gave great sorrow; and I felt it was due to his memory that some +Dissenting brethren should attend the funeral. Harrison, Baldwin Brown, +Newman Hall, and others did so; I was invited by the family to be one of +the pall bearers. Dr. Stanley, Dr. Merivale, Dean of Ely, and others, +met in the good man’s library, where his picture of St. Michael’s +Mount,—on which he had spent some of his last hours—stood upon the easel, +and Walton’s Polyglot lay open at the Book of Exodus, where Dr. Alford +had been reading just before his death. Slowly and sadly we walked into +the cloisters, where places were assigned us, and the procession moved +into the cathedral. There Mrs. Alford, with wonderful composure, joined +in the solemn service. Shops were shut, and the streets lined with +people, as we were conveyed to St. Martin’s Churchyard, where we joined +in singing one of his hymns, “Ten thousand times ten thousand,” etc. He +had expressed a wish to be interred there, and wrote the following +memorandum: “When I am gone, and a tomb is to be put up, let there be, +besides any indication of who is sleeping below, these words only: +_Deversorium viatoris Hierosolymam proficiscentis_—_i.e._, the inn of a +traveller who is on his way to Jerusalem.” + +In a letter which I received from Canon Robertson, he said, in reference +to this inscription: “Perhaps Mr. Bullock may be able to tell you, that +some one has discovered the source of the words engraved at the bottom of +the tombstone. My own inquiries have been fruitless.” I have not been +able to ascertain their origin. + +A committee was formed to raise some testimonial to the Dean’s worth, and +they invited me to join them. They acted in correspondence with the +Chapter, and it was determined that a painted window should be placed in +the cathedral, and that it should contain symbols of the evangelists, and +the scenes of our Lord’s Temptation, in the larger circles; whilst the +four smaller ones around, were to contain subjects showing that He +exercised miraculous power of the same kinds, in which He refused to +exert it, at the Tempter’s suggestion. + +In the following year I lost a valued friend, member of our Kensington +church, Sir Donald F. Macleod, C.B., K.C.S.I. He had occupied the +position of Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub, and met his death from a +railway accident in December, 1872. He possessed a rare gift for putting +himself into kindly fellowship with those he ruled, whether rich or poor, +entering into their feelings and cultivating their regard so that he +acquired a widespread influence in the Indian province, which might be +called the country of his adoption. All the people loved him as a friend +and father; hence it was said, that if the natives had to choose a +prince, he would be their choice. In a leading journal, the remark of an +Indian gentleman was preserved to the effect, that, “If all Christians +were like Sir Donald, there would be no Mahomedans or Hindoos.” His +private life was of a piece with his public career. He had the power of +making numerous friendships through the happy blending of religion with +an affectionate disposition. “Wherever he went,” said a relative, “his +presence was like sunshine, and the sunshine was the reflection of +another presence, even of Him of whom it is said, ‘In Thy presence is +fulness of joy.’” As he communed with us at Kensington, and was a +personal friend, I can bear testimony to his cheerful manners in company. +His tall, commanding figure attracted attention, and his calm, pleasant +utterances won all hearts, especially those of the young, who would +gather round him, attracted by the magic of his sympathy. This Indian +gentleman visited the Cripples’ Home; this Oriental scholar addressed a +class in the East of London; this ruler, who might have died a rich +nabob, gave away the surplus of his income in acts of charity. + +In 1872 an incident occurred of an amusing description, which, as it has +some significancy, is worthy of notice. A paragraph appeared in a +religious newspaper to the following effect: “The Revs. Dr. Binney, Dr. +Allon, and Dr. Stoughton have been, it seems, presented to His Grace the +Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, by that consistent advocate +of comprehension, Dr. Stanley, Dean of Westminster. It remains to be +seen whether the Archbishop will invite either of the Doctors to preach +in any of the Metropolitan churches, if not in the Abbey, or in the +Cathedral. The Act of Uniformity will have to be repealed.” If anybody +who read this announcement had been acquainted with the circumstances, he +would have seen its absurdity. The visit arose from an informal +invitation to a party at Lambeth—from Dr. Tait, who was well acquainted +with all the three persons. They needed no “presentation,” such as the +newspaper imagined. It is a curious fact, that, while some people +complain of Dissenters being ignored or repulsed by the upper classes, +when, instead of it, there is friendly recognition, the complainants +imagine that, if the two classes do meet, there must be obsequiousness on +the one side, and patronage on the other. It is supposed an impossible +thing, for a Dignitary and a Dissenter to meet as gentlemen, without any +professional design; on the occasion referred to, ecclesiastical objects +no more entered the head of the host, as he welcomed us with cordiality, +than it entered the heads of his guests. It was an affair of social +courtesy, in which politeness on the one side, I hope, was returned on +the other. By the way, at a Lambeth reception, after mingling with +friends whom I had known for some years, I heard Mr. Binney say to Bishop +Wilberforce: “Are you not surprised to see us here?” + +“Surprised! Why, if you were not here, who should be here?” + +This rejoinder puzzled my friend, when I ventured to add, “I understand +your compliment, my lord, but at least you will acknowledge, it is +something new.” + +“No, not new,” he rejoined, and laying his hand on my shoulder, proceeded +to say, “What is right is not new: is not righteousness as old as the +creation?” + +“Then you consider it is right for us to be here,” I ventured to remark. + +“Certainly; delighted to see you.” + +Some one overhearing this colloquy, observed in a whisper, “He will talk +in a different way in different company.” Possibly; but I believe there +is force in what I have heard his friends say—he was a man of many-sided +sympathy, thoroughly good-natured, fond of approbation, wishing to stand +well with everybody, and for the moment _sincerely_ meaning what he said. +But he was changeful and inconsistent, saying one day, under an amiable +impulse, what it was difficult to reconcile with his conversation another +day in different company. I knew little of him personally as a man; but +as a preacher, and author, I must say I have derived no small advantage +from his sermons and addresses. + +Further, in reference to Bishop Wilberforce, remarkable stories were +current showing what a marvellous gift of extemporary eloquence he +possessed. Archdeacon Sinclair told me that once the Bishop came to a +meeting of the National School Society, totally unprepared, and whispered +to him: “What points had I better take up?” The Archdeacon mentioned two +or three. Wilberforce a few minutes afterwards rose, and delivered a +speech on those very points, as if he had spent the morning in +preparation. Dean Stanley told me that when the Bishop held a +confirmation in the Abbey, he asked, as they walked together up the nave, +whether there was any particular subject he would like to have +introduced. One was mentioned. Forthwith the Bishop took it up in his +address to the confirmed, in a way which led his hearers to suppose he +had carefully prepared what he said. + +Dr. Guthrie was one of the most genial men I ever knew; full of anecdote +up to the brim. Indeed his conversation almost entirely took that form, +and his racy way of telling a story gave what he said an irresistible +charm. He was far more catholic than many of his brethren, and though he +had respect for his ecclesiastical party, his sympathies went far beyond +his own circle; and with reference to the Established Church of Scotland, +though himself a _Free_ Churchman, he cherished no animosity, and was not +_indisposed_ to preach occasionally in the old parish pulpits. His +attachment to Evangelical truth was very strong, and for any deviations +from it he would listen to no excuse. He visited some of my people at +Kensington, and that brought me frequently into his society. How he used +to talk of his visits to Mr. Disraeli and the Countess of Beaconsfield, +of the wedding of the Marquis of Lorne, when he escorted the children of +the family to Windsor Castle, and was especially noticed by Her Majesty, +and was addressed as “My Lord” by somebody who thought him a bishop; and +of a dinner-party at Argyle Lodge, when he met Mr. Bright, and could +hardly get in a word himself, because the great orator would talk so +much! The last time I saw him was at breakfast with me at my house, when +I think he was more brilliant and merry than usual. He knew I was +entertaining thoughts of retirement, and he strongly urged me to +relinquish pastoral duties and become an occasional preacher. Moreover +he said, “It is better to be too early than too late in this respect. +‘Why do you give up so soon?’ one of Her Majesty’s Ministers once asked +me; ‘you have all your wits about you.’ ‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘and if I were +to wait, as some do, till my wits are gone, I should never give up at +all.’” + +An important crisis in the summer of 1872, had occurred in the history of +New College. Dr. Halley from age and infirmities, retired from the +principalship. Dr. Newth was chosen successor, and to fill up the chair, +left vacant by my old friend and tutor, the services of three London +ministers were called into requisition. Mr. Binney undertook the +Homiletic Class, Dr. Kennedy became Theological Professor in the +department of Apologetics, and I was invited to conduct instruction in +Historical Theology. My hands were pretty full, but this was an +engagement congenial to my taste, and for which I felt I was better +qualified than I had been at the time when an invitation was given me to +accept the office of principal. {193} + +The question of my retirement from the pastorate occupied my thoughts at +a later period, and I indicated this in a communication to the Church +through my deacons. That communication was met by a warm and earnest +request that I would continue at Kensington Chapel a little while longer. +I consented to tarry till the end of two years. + +About the time just noticed, education in reference to public schools +assisted by Government grants was keenly discussed. Those amongst +Nonconformists who were disposed to accept State aid in support of +schools in which religion was taught were regarded as acting +inconsistently with their principles in opposition to State endowment of +Christianity. Into that question it is unnecessary to enter here, but I +repeat what I urged at the time referred to, that Government aid and +Government inspection were co-extensive; that if Government assisted a +school, and inquired _exclusively_ into the _secular_ instruction of +pupils, the aid bestowed was to be regarded as in aid of that alone. The +separation in a school of religious from secular instruction, appeared to +me inconsistent with our duty _as Christians_. In guiding the intellect +of the young, an infusion of Gospel truth is, I believe, of essential +importance. A declaration to the effect that the Bible should be used in +public schools was signed by several hundred Christian ministers, and in +that declaration I most cordially joined. The severance of revelation +from other fundamental grounds of youthful knowledge was, in my +estimation, very mischievous. + +Mr. Forster was condemned severely by a large number of Dissenters as +being opposed to the interests of Nonconformity. I have good reason for +believing that he wished to deal fairly between Church and Dissent. The +opinions of all parties had to be consulted, and it was no easy thing for +any man in his place to give universal satisfaction. I conversed with +him at the time on the subject of his measure, and am persuaded he was +honest throughout the whole business. When the strongest feeling against +him existed, I know, from what he said to me, that he gave full credit to +his opponents for good intentions. Of some friends we both knew, who +differed from him widely, he spoke in the kindest terms. When he was +regarded as an enemy by some Nonconformists, I was informed he attended a +Nonconformist chapel in the country during a summer holiday; and I know +he helped the pastor by pecuniary assistance,—that very pastor being my +informant. Mr. Forster never lost sympathy with Quakerism. Our common +friend, Mr. Braithwaite, a well-known member of that denomination, spoke +at his funeral; and an eminent Baptist minister told me of his pleasant +visits to Mr. Forster’s residence. + +Matthew Arnold proposed my name for election to the Athenæum Club. The +usual mode is vote by ballot, which, on account of the number of +candidates, occasions delay for many years. But the committee have power +to choose annually nine members by special vote. I did not know fully +until the secretary wrote to me, that I had been so elected—an honour to +which I felt myself by no means entitled. The influence of Dr. Stanley, +Mr. Matthew Arnold, and other kind friends, secured for me this great +privilege, which has been a source of literary advantage and pleasure to +me ever since. And I may here mention, from what occurred in the +proceedings of the committee, as I was told, Nonconformity was, in my +case, rather a help than hindrance; as the club, in a catholic spirit, +desires to have representatives of different classes and opinions +included on its rolls. On the same principle not long afterwards Dr. +Martineau was introduced to the Athenæum. + +I was surprised a few weeks after my election to receive an invitation to +the Academy dinner, and was pleased to learn from one of the Academicians +that this compliment, as well as the preceding, arose from the same +spirit of catholic sociality. Nothing but presence at one of these +banquets can give an adequate idea of their remarkable magnificence. A +sudden burst of light, just before speeches commence, has a magical +effect. Mr. Disraeli, then Prime Minister, delivered a highly finished +oration, after sitting silent and sphinx-like for an hour before. + +At an early part of the period to which this chapter belongs, the famous +volume entitled “Ecce Homo” was published. It excited much controversy. +I read it with interest and attention. It has long been my habit, in +perusing works unfavourable to orthodoxy, to search in them for admitted +principles which, by a fair application, may be employed in support of +truths to which the author is regarded as being opposed. In the work +just mentioned there is a chapter on what is called “Christ’s Royalty!” +{197} Christ is represented as having established in the world a new +theocracy in describing Himself as King of the kingdom of God; in other +words, as a King representing the Majesty of the Invisible Ruler of a +theocracy. He claimed the character of Founder, of Legislator, and, in a +certain high and peculiar sense, “of Judge of a new and Divine society.” +Whatever might be the views of the writer with regard to the nature of +Jesus Christ, such a position as he reached, seems to me to involve +Christ’s true and proper Divinity. In other words, it is tantamount to +saying that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” + +I remember that at the time, whatever might be the tendency of the work +on the whole, I thought there were in it admissions of such a nature as +to afford a basis for convincing arguments in favour of Evangelical +Christianity. + +One evening, at that time, I met Lord Shaftesbury at a friend’s house, +and had a conversation with him on the subject of the book. It is well +known that, with the impetuosity which was so natural to that great and +good man, he was swept along by a hurricane of indignation, which led him +to pronounce “Ecce Homo” a work of most pernicious tendency. Of Lord +Shaftesbury it might be said that he was like a cloud which moveth +altogether, if it move at all. He could do or say nothing by halves; and +however minds of a different order might judge of his acts and +utterances, there can be no doubt that by the enthusiasm of his advocacy +he carried beneficial measures which otherwise might not have succeeded. +When I was talking with him after the manner just indicated and pointing +out arguments which I conceived might be constructed out of some of the +writer’s admissions, he was evidently very restless, and expressed his +strong conviction, that the book deserved to be strongly reprehended, in +order to warn people against being led away by its contents. In the +course of conversation he manifested, that he had not read what he so +severely condemned. This habit of condemning books without reading them, +it is to be feared, is too common in the present day. + +Here let me add Lord Shaftesbury’s manner was not always the same. At +times he was gentle and exceedingly affable, of which I remember an +amusing instance. We were travelling together from Peterborough, after a +jubilee meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society in that city. +He was speaking of the profound ignorance of the upper classes respecting +the character and habits of Nonconformists; and I ventured to relate to +him, in illustration of what he had said himself, a story which I had +heard respecting his father, who was Chairman of the Committee of the +House of Lords. A solicitor waited upon him to confer respecting a Bill, +which was coming before the Upper House, in reference to matters which +affected the rights of Dissenters. The old Earl said to this gentleman, +“I hear a good deal about these Dissenters, and some things very strange. +I have been told they are people _who go about without clothes_.” The +Earl laughed, and said, such a thing as I related was just like him. + + + + +CHAPTER X +1873 + + +THE sixth General Meeting of the Evangelical Alliance had been fixed for +the year 1870, in New York; but, owing to the war between France and +Germany, it was postponed to the autumn of 1873. Canon Leathes, Mr. +Harrison, and myself, received invitations from the American committee, +to attend the assembly; and, accordingly, we started for our destination +in one of the Cunard steamers at the close of the month of August. With +the exception of rough weather in the earlier part, we had a fine +passage. Going out we touched on the Irish coast, and, it being Sunday, +we landed and spent the day on shore. We were on the coast of Waterford, +and found the country very pleasant. We attended church in the forenoon, +and afterwards took walks in the neighbourhood. I had spent a week or +more in Ireland some few years previously, and had then seen spots in the +Green Isle, which created a desire to see more. The city of Limerick on +the Shannon had given me delight. Dublin is a magnificent city, and the +object of my visit there had been to preach on a special occasion in Dr. +Urwick’s church. I saw at that time something of Irish society, and +found controversy rife between Protestants and Papists. I took an +opportunity of visiting the Killarney lakes, and found them all, and more +than, I had imagined. Nor could I fail to be amused with the humour of +carriage-drivers and other Irish people. Returning to our steamer on +Sunday afternoon, we started for New York, and had, in the course of our +voyage, rough weather and smooth. For some-time it was +unfavourable—“four-fifths of a gale” somebody said; but in the latter +part of our trip we had charming weather. Where the whistle at night had +sounded like a wail of distress, it was now felt to be means of safety. +Flag signals and rockets now and then relieved the tedium; so did the +gambols of porpoises. Moonbeams in a mottled sky, were pleasant +variations, as we steamed along at a rapid rate. The night before we +landed in New York harbour, the sun went down like a ball of fire, the +sea was intensely blue, whilst alive with little billows, like children +at their sports; the bow of the steamer was crowded by passengers looking +out for the pilot–a capital subject, I thought, for some clever pencil. +The next morning when we reached Sandy Hook, I could not help comparing +the coast scenery near us with some views I had seen on the Bosphorus. + +“For the _first_ time I am in America,” I said to a Yankee +fellow-passenger. + +“Yes,” he replied; “you are now, sir, in the land of the brave, the home +of the free.” + +Mr. Harrison and myself were guests of the Hon. Mr. Dodge, President of +the American Evangelical Alliance. On our arrival he conducted us to his +country seat on the banks of the Hudson, near Tarryton. + +We were in the midst of charming scenery, immortalised by Washington +Irving; near the glen of “Sleepy Hollow,” and the haunts of Ichabod +Crane. By the little Dutch church in the neighbourhood lies a cemetery, +where “the American Goldsmith” is buried. + +We were driven to Sunnyside, where he lived and died, in an old-fashioned +Dutch-looking house, with picturesque gables, bearing a +seventeenth-century date. It is embosomed amidst trees which so +overshadow the lawn and walks, that “Sunnyside,” even when unclouded, can +suffer nothing from the blaze of day. Miss Irving, niece of the author, +and a friend of our host, welcomed us to this sylvan abode, and showed us +her uncle’s library, writing table, and shelves of books, just as he left +them. + +We should have been glad to remain longer at Mr. Dodge’s villa, but were +anxious to reach Niagara, as soon as possible; therefore, on the second +morning after our arrival, Mr. Harrison, with Newman Hall, who had +accompanied us to America, embarked on a steamer for the Catskills, on +our way to the Falls. We arrived at the Mountain House in the evening, +having, in our river voyage, been struck with the Hudson, as resembling +in some parts, a succession of lakes full of Italian-like beauty. We +spent a Sunday at our capacious resting-place, which could accommodate +four or five hundred visitors, and engaged in united worship with Bishop +Bedell, successor to Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio. He preached in the +morning, and at his request, I occupied the desk at night. + +We did not reach Niagara till late on Monday, and heard the roar of the +cataract some time before our arrival. + +Niagara is a grand study, and we spent the greater part of four days over +it—the first in taking general views, the other three in gathering up +details. I sat down on the rocks, and wrote my impressions from point to +point. From the suspension bridge, below the Falls, you have an inclined +plane of troubled waters. From the south side of Goat Island, you have a +still more striking view of the rapids, like an arm of the sea, two miles +in width, and in front it dashes down the Horse Shoe Fall. Just at the +edge it is a ridge of emerald, tinged, or rather lined, with white. Then +it goes on in rows of streaks, white, white, white; at the bottom, the +flood vanishes in vapour. In the forenoon under sunshine the picture is +crossed by a rainbow. Beyond the mist the river is a shifting floor of +variegated marble. At a right angle with the Horse Shoe, the American +Fall is seen in profile, from what is called, I think, “Prospect Park.” +The rapids below are finer than those above the Falls. Those below are +hemmed in by rocks; those above are bordered by open country on both +sides. Further on, below the Falls, there is an enormous whirlpool. + +Instead of a unity, I found Niagara manifold, varying as one wanders +about the banks. The channel here is worthy of the stream. It is cut +into precipitous cliffs, picturesque rocks, forests of trees, bridges, +hotels and other houses. In photographs and engravings, there is often +but a tame outline, with which the reality does not correspond. Of the +upper and lower Rapids, I prefer the former in one respect; it gives good +views of the foliage which fringes the water. Emphatically, one may use +the word _beauty_ in reference to the landscape as distinguished from the +Rapids. Colours are charming—greens of all tints; at sunset streaks of +pink, violet, lavender, lilac, along the edge of the Falls; azure tints +in the river; sky with crimson and purple flushes at eventide. + +At the expense of repetition, I will quote the words I find in my +notebook written on a rocky bank:—“Opposite, looking west, is the Canada +side, skirted by thick trees, forming a continuous border—the Horse Shoe +form of a rocky ledge, crossed by the sweep of water, would measure the +third of a mile. It still resembles a ridge of emerald, tinged, or +rather lined, with white. Then the flood plunges down, to rise again +from the bottom in columns of vapour. In sunshine the whole is crossed +by a wonderful rainbow. Then, afterwards, it appeared to me like an +altar of frosted silver, spanning the end of a temple choir, sending up +incense for ever and ever! Looking down into the precipitous gulf, +formed by the Canadian and American shores, one sees the river flowing on +steadily like a shifting floor of variegated marble,—green, streaked with +white. I shift my position, walking under the trees of Goat Island, +about a quarter of a mile from the Horse Shoe, and sit upon a bit of +tableland, forming what is called Lunar Island,—dividing into two unequal +limbs the watery flood. At the bottom appears another rainbow. I shift +again, walking up the Goat Island, and cross a bridge over Rapids, and +then enter the grounds called (as just said) Prospect Park; and there one +faces both cataracts—the American in profile, the Horse Shoe full face.” + +A suspension bridge crosses the whirling waters on which it makes one +giddy to look down. Then occurs a turn, where a whirlpool is formed, and +pieces of timber are swept round and round by enormous eddies. Four days +I spent at these never-to-be-forgotten spots filled with marvels of +Divine creation. + +My visit to Montreal was very short, but we saw enough to indicate the +city’s prosperity; it underwent great reverses afterwards. We were +invited to the handsome dwellings of several wealthy citizens, and +witnessed much zeal in the cause of religion. + +On our journey from Montreal to Boston we passed through glorious +scenery, some of it Swiss-like. There were many tempting nooks furnished +with hotels, winding roads leading up to forests on the hills, groups of +white houses with green shutters, and a pretty church amidst them with a +lofty spire. There is a wonderful charm about New England villages. + +At Boston a cordial welcome was afforded by Dr. Dexter, who hospitably +entertained us. My first impression, derived from what I saw of the +city’s less modern part, was that it had an English look; but on further +acquaintance, after seeing its modern edifices, one receives the idea of +a Continental capital. I was delighted with what delights everybody—the +broad green common, adorned by goodly trees and goodly mansions. Some of +the public buildings in Boston are very imposing: a Gothic church, built +by Congregationalists, cost, I was told, £50,000; but since I was there I +understand a much nobler Episcopalian edifice has been erected. On the +Sunday morning I preached in a large Congregational church, where the +music and singing were of a very superior kind, and the choir, I was +told, cost a large annual sum. On the Sunday evening I went to a Baptist +chapel, and, after sermon and prayers, a large number of the congregation +adjourned to a schoolroom, where something like a Methodist love-feast +was held. I met in the town with a nephew of Thomas Carlyle, who related +to me that, while on a visit to England, he called on his uncle, and was +told it was impossible to see him; Mrs. C. resisted as long as she could, +but submitted at last. The nephew was admitted to his uncle’s study, and +the two relatives had a long talk to their mutual satisfaction. + +Dr. Dexter planned an excursion to Andover, where we were received by the +Principal of the College, the Venerable Dr. Park, a celebrated scholar +and divine, who took me a drive round the neighbourhood, and pointed out +the house of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the homes of people described in +her books. We had a delightful visit to a ladies’ school, where Mr. +Harrison and I received a cordial welcome. Our kind host took us to his +residence several miles off, at New Bedford, and the next day conducted +us to Harvard University, on the other side the Boston river. There we +were entertained by Professor Abbot, who took care to show us a hall, +built by a namesake of mine. Best of all my associations with Dr. Dexter +and the neighbourhood was a most memorable day spent at New Plymouth +where he pointed out the localities of the Pilgrim Fathers. + +We proceeded to New Haven, where we found at the station, Dr. Porter, +Principal of Yale University, waiting for us; we were conducted through +leafy avenues to the college buildings, and there introduced to the +famous American theologian, Dr. Bushnell, with other celebrities. The +students then assembled, and listened to an elaborate speech by Dr. +Dorner, the German scholar and divine, who happened to be there on a +visit, having come as a delegate to the Alliance meetings. Yale College +is a venerable institution, standing among the foremost Universities of +the New World. The neighbourhood is interesting, and we should have been +delighted, had time allowed, to explore the region where two of the +regicides, Walley and Gough, concealed themselves for two or three years +in a cave, to which they gave the name of Providence. One of them, +Gough, suddenly appeared, when a Puritan congregation was attacked by +Philip of Pokanoket, and delivered them out of his hands. He then +disappeared like the twin brothers at the battle of Regillus. + +Having had our glimpse of New England, we hastened to Philadelphia, to +spend a quiet Sunday with a kind English friend, Mr. Yarnell. +Philadelphia is magnificent, redolent of William Penn’s memory, who +amongst colonial founders, stands unique as a man of peace. He did not +sweep away aboriginal savages with sword and shot, but entered into +treaty with them, under the shadow of a spreading elm, which came to be +held in great veneration. Views in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, +vie with noble monuments, visible on every side, of commercial +civilisation and prosperity. The grand Masonic Temple had, when we were +there, been recently opened; and it is amongst the finest structures in +the city. But the Hall of Independence, architecturally unpretentious, +has greater attractions for historic travellers. We were entertained in +German Town, a charming suburb, by the Wissahickon—“fit haunt” for +Shakespeare’s fairies, Peas-blossom and the rest, flowing through tangled +brakes, wealthy in wild flowers. Drives by the “wedded rivers” as +Whittier calls them, the Schuylkill, and the Delaware—are enjoyments for +high days and holidays. One view of the city I caught from a hill +embosomed in trees. A long line of foliage from the tops of which rise +cupolas and steeples, reminded me of Damascus, with its groves and +gardens, mosques and minarets. + +We saw something of private social life in German Town. Several families +in the neighbourhood were invited to spend an evening with us. It +resembled a party on the Continent, where eating and drinking are not of +much interest. The marked feature of the whole gathering was extreme yet +tasteful simplicity. Some ladies were sumptuously dressed, and there, as +in other places, appeared an eye for harmony of colours—a special +American endowment, which struck me pleasantly. Manners were agreeable, +and there was ease in conversation—a rare enjoyment. The ladies were +self-possessed, and could hold their own, yet not rudely; and their +kindliness indicated personal interest, which made their visitors feel at +home. + +We arrived at New York at the beginning of October, and were entertained +by Mr. Dodge at his princely residence in Madison Avenue. Sir Charles +Reed was guest there at the same time, and the arrangements for our +reception betokened a cordial welcome. + +In a “History of New York,” it is stated that “when Henry Hudson +discovered the river, now bearing his name, and Hendrick Christiansen, +and Adam Block, followed up the discovery, the island of Manhattan was +made the chief depôt of the trade, and Christiansen received the +appointment of agent for the traffic in furs during the passage of the +vessels to and from Holland. He immediately set about the construction +of a small fort, with a few rude buildings, on the southern extremity of +the island, thus laying the foundation of the future city.” + +“In May 1626, Peter Minuet arrived at New Netherlands, as +Director-General, and immediately effected the purchase of the island of +Manhattan, from the Indians for goods and trinkets to the value of sixty +guilders or about twenty-four dollars.” “In 1628 a church was organised +with fifty communicants under the auspices of James Michaelius, a +clergyman from Holland.” From these feeble beginnings sprang the wharfs, +the quays, the avenues, the squares, the warehouses, the stores, the +halls, the libraries, the museums, the hospitals of New York. When shall +we stop in the enumeration of riches belonging to this Queen of the West? +Hence, too, we may say came the churches, the congregations, the +colleges, the schools, the reformatories and the religious institutions, +without number, which form the glory of that Western Metropolis. The +first meeting of the Alliance Congress—for the expenses of which twenty +thousand dollars had been subscribed—was held in the hall of the Young +Men’s Christian Association. The hall contains fifteen hundred sittings, +and was decorated with flags, flowers, and mottoes. It was crowded in +every corner, and the spectacle from the platform was imposing, the +audience being composed, to a large extent, of representatives from the +States, and the principal nations of our Eastern Hemisphere. + +Dr. Adams of New York, an eminent Presbyterian pastor, delivered an +address of welcome. Elaborate yet unaffected, scholarly yet not +scholastic, fervent yet not rhapsodical, fluent yet perfectly finished, +pious without a particle of fanaticism,—it laid hold on people present, +and made an impression talked of to this day. I have heard many a +courteous speech at the opening of large assemblies, but never any thing +like that, before or since. + +The address of welcome was acknowledged in a hearty, but inferior style, +by English, French, Dutch, and German delegates. “I am glad,” said +Professor Christlieb, the German, grasping the hand of Pastor Fisch, the +Frenchman, “I am glad to see as the firstfruits of this gathering, that +we Germans can clasp the hands of our French brethren.” + +The next morning we assembled in Steinway Hall. After prayer by Dr. +Hodge of Princeton, Dr. Woolsey, Ex-President of Yale College, a +distinguished student of International Law, took the chair. The Dean of +Canterbury, Dr. Payne Smith, read a sympathetic letter from the English +Primate, and immediately after prayer, he solemnly repeated the Apostles’ +Creed, in which the whole assembly followed in audible tones. + +The Conference then began with the reading of papers, which, with +addresses, were continued morning and evening at sectional meetings. The +interest was kept up, attention never seeming to flag. When Sunday came, +large churches were crowded to excess. The Holy Communion was +administered in the afternoon, when Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, +Moravian, and Indian brethren took part in the service. + +Besides the sectional conventions, an enormous general meeting was held +in Brooklyn, when extempore addresses were delivered in free and easy +style. But perhaps the most deeply affected audience was a crowded one +in the Academy of Music the last Sunday night, for prayers and short +addresses. A prima donna, I heard, was present: certainly there was one +voice of pre-eminent sweetness and power in that vast congregation. + +All the newspapers gave reports of the proceedings as fully as _The +Times_ does of our parliamentary debates. One afternoon two gentlemen, +who had been clergymen, spent some time beforehand in preparing a report +of what I meant to say in the evening. There was no other way, _they +said_, of getting the report ready for the next morning. The interest +taken in our proceedings by all classes greatly surprised me. +Newspapers, representative of churches out of sympathy with our +proceedings, noticed and criticised what went on: the secular press also +took up the matter, and conveyed abundant information. What appeared in +New York papers was transferred to others all over the States, and thus +religious news of that week spread far and wide. + +The whole report, published afterwards, was a curiosity for size and +cheapness; but such voluminous accounts of a conference must not be taken +to mean more than this—that Americans like to know whatever is going on, +in every circle. It appeared to me that our transatlantic brethren are +so fond of hearing public speakers, and of reading what they say, that +they do not confine their thoughts to such discussions as are germane to +their own convictions and tastes. They are curious to hear what anybody +has to utter, if he speaks to the purpose, no matter what the topic may +be. We should be mistaken, if we measured religious belief in New York +by popular attention given to the Alliance. + +The President, Dr. Woolsey, was a distinguished constitutional lawyer, +consulted at times about international claims by European authorities; +numerous professors of erudition and power, authors, orators, +politicians, merchants, gathered round him in 1873; the European +continent contributed such men as Dorner, Christlieb, and Krafft from +Germany, Prochet from Genoa, Carrasco from Madrid, Bovet from Neuchatel, +Stuart from Holland. Some of our own distinguished countrymen have been +already mentioned. Ward Beecher delivered a wonderful oration in Dr. +Adams’ church on the subject of preaching. He was like a man stopping +you in the street, and getting “hold of your button” so as to compel +attention. I met him several times in America, and received acts of +kindness, when his face was lighted up with an expression of rare beauty. + +Nor were churches and halls the only “pleasant places.” One evening Mr. +Dodge had a reception to which eight hundred persons were invited, and at +one moment, he told me six hundred were actually present. Introductions, +handshakings, recognitions, questions, answers, observations and stories +were incessant; whilst a band of musicians played at one end of a suite +of apartments, it could not be heard at the other. + +On Monday, all the delegates were conveyed by special train to +Philadelphia. On the way we stopped at Princeton. Students of colleges +assembled at the station, and uttered their characteristic cheers—in +imitation of ascending and descending rockets—followed by such huzzahs as +we do not hear in England. We marched in procession through the streets +to the church, where a crowded congregation awaited our arrival. + +We reached Philadelphia about three o’clock. There a long train of +carriages awaited our arrival to convey delegates to the Hall of +Independence. The city authorities represented by one of the judges, +expressed a welcome, after which we were escorted to the Continental +Hotel capable of containing the whole party. We all started next morning +for Washington. + +On the way we were delighted with surrounding scenery, especially when we +came to Chesapeake Bay, into which the Susquehanna pours its waters. +Woods were clothed with autumnal tints, crimson maples flashed their +fires amidst manifold hues of decaying foliage; and the sunny prospect, +as we skirted the bay, was beautiful beyond description. At the +Baltimore station brethren from Washington invested us each with a white +ribbon badge; then on we swept past homesteads, recently the abodes of +slaves, many a hut serving as an original illustration for “Uncle Tom’s +Cabin.” + +We talked in the train with a black bishop, who entertained us with +descriptions of negro excitability. He said coloured congregations would +exclaim in church, as the preacher proceeded with his discourse, “That’s +true, Massa”; and a man once shouted, under the influence of what he +heard, “Massa, that’s like going up Jacob’s ladder.” + +A distant view of the Capitol is not unlike that of St. Peter’s at Rome, +as seen from the Campagna. We saw a few city lions—the Capitol and +Smithsonian Institute being chief; and we found this metropolis, not +without form, for it is artistically laid out in thoroughfares radiating +from the Capitol; but it is certainly “void,” for nominal streets were +there, but at that time without houses. We drove a long distance, across +an open country, suggesting the idea of a city which _is not_, but only +_about to be_. How it looks now, I do not know. Yellow dust was blowing +in clouds, and lying in thick drifts on the steps of the Hall of +Assembly. + +General Grant carried in his face the signs of an indomitable will, and +without any personal assumption behaved as one conscious of +representative power. After my return home, Dr. Adams, who was then in +England, told me that he acted as chaplain to the forces at the time of +the great war, and rode by the General’s side, when he reviewed the +troops. As illustrative of his memory for little things, I may refer to +the General’s conversation with his old chaplain, when they met in +England, and he alluded to the colour of the horse, the latter used to +ride, informing him of the animal’s death, which had just occurred. The +General seems to have possessed the royal gift of not forgetting those to +whom he had been once introduced. Let me add, he was proud of having +commanded such an immense army as he did, and said to the Duke of +Wellington—who repeated this to Dr. Stanley, my informant—“Your father +was general in chief of only forty thousand men; I led as many as _half a +million_.” + +We visited a great number of institutions in New York—colleges, schools, +hospitals, and reformatories. Colleges, architecturally, were not +imposing; but the libraries and scientific apparatus possessed by some of +them, were of a choice and costly kind. I was told of one gentleman who +had contributed £100,000 to educational objects. Schools are immense +buildings; and at New York and Philadelphia it was a sight indeed, to +behold pupils, gliding to their appointed places, and then upturning some +eight hundred happy countenances towards the visitors come to see them. +The examination of classes was most satisfactory, and the resources and +adroitness of the teachers most admirable. Hospitals in the city are +abundant, beyond what the necessities of the population seemed to +require, and the reformatories afforded encouraging examples of +discipline and improvement. + +Parks and cemeteries are on a scale of such magnitude, and are so +picturesquely laid out, that English visitors surveyed them with +surprise. As to American scenery in general, justice had never been done +to it. + +We felt gulpy in taking leave of friends, and ending a visit so +memorable. + +The sea was calm, and the weather bright, as we steamed out on our voyage +home, but a gale followed, and we had violent storms during several days. +Serious accidents occurred in consequence, which gave a maimed appearance +to some of the passengers. My dear friend Harrison had a serious fall. +Waves rose many feet high, and they supplied a key to some of Turner’s +sea pictures, and also to Ruskin’s eloquent language in describing the +“truth of water”—the power, majesty, and deathfulness of the open, deep, +illimitable sea. + +A friendship I formed in America deserves a notice here, on account of +the person’s eminence and the obligations under which he laid me by his +subsequent handsome gifts. Dr. Sprague had the largest collection of +autographs in the world. The number was immense, amounting, I am told, +to about 100,000. He was living at Flushing at the time I was in New +York, and I had charge from a friend in England to call upon him. Though +having never met him before, yet from previous knowledge of each other, +we were at home, immediately after I had crossed his threshold. It is an +American characteristic to treat as friend any one who has been known by +kindly report beforehand, or who can present credentials of character. +Dr. Sprague’s wife and daughter received us at once as if we had belonged +to the family. We crowded an immense deal of talk into a short space, +and before we parted he made reference to his huge collection of +autographs. As we had little time to spare, I had covenanted with my +companion, Mr. Harrison, that I would avoid that tempting topic, as it +would detain us too long; but the ice being suddenly broken, there was no +help, and I found myself plunged—I must say not unwillingly—into a +subject which prudence had decidedly proscribed. Dr. Sprague found that +I was one of the craft, but a minor member; and forthwith he profusely +offered assistance, asking whether there were any letters of his +countrymen I particularly desired to possess. What an overture! I +modestly replied, I should be glad of a few lines written by Washington +Irving. Before I left America there came a most interesting letter from +Irving to his publisher, respecting a new edition of his works; and after +my return to England, post after post brought most valuable contributions +to my store of autographs. The very first included a letter signed by +General Washington of historical value. It relates to the close of the +War of Independence, and gives direction for cessation of hostilities +immediately after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, in 1781. Letters in +the handwriting of Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and a number of other +celebrities, came to England from time to time, enriching my stores, +almost to the period of Dr. Sprague’s death. He was a popular preacher, +a distinguished divine, a prolific author, and a man of widespread +influence in the States. + +In closing this account of American friends, I must say a few words about +members of Harvard University. I had met with the Greek Professor at the +Mountain House, on the Catskills, who spoke much of the principal, Dr. +Peabody, for whom I felt a high respect. My friend, Mr. Harrison, and I +were most courteously received by the Doctor at his residence, and were +shown over the University buildings, especially that bearing the name of +Stoughton, a Governor of Massachusetts. I was anxious to see the poet +Longfellow, who resided in an old-fashioned house not far from the +college. Unfortunately he was not at home, and I could not refrain from +dropping him a line. I received the following reply:— + + CAMBRIDGE, _October_ 7_th_, 1873. + + “MY DEAR SIR, + + “I have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your friendly + note, and hasten to say how much I regret that absence prevented me + from seeing you when you were in Cambridge. + + “We should have lived over again that bright summer afternoon at Mrs. + Fuller Maitland’s, which I so well remember, and you would have told + me of many friends whom I should like to hear of again. + + “Perhaps I may still have the pleasure of seeing you before you + return to England. If not, I beg you to present to Mr. and Mrs. + Maitland my best regards and most cordial remembrance of their + kindness and hospitality. + + “With greatest esteem, + “I am, my dear sir, + “Yours truly, + “HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.” + +Mr. and Mrs. Fuller Maitland, members of a well-known old Nonconformist +family, were members of my church at Kensington; and at their house I +used to meet distinguished and interesting people. The occasion referred +to in the foregoing letter made upon me a most pleasant impression. A +large company had assembled to greet the American poet, and there was +plenty of handshaking, which I feared would rather weary him, especially +as so many of us were total strangers; but he assured me that I was quite +mistaken, and that it gratified him much to be surrounded by so large a +party, composed of those whom he regarded as English friends. Americans +are in some respects more cosmopolitan and genial in new society, than +Englishmen, and I was struck with this repeatedly in my transatlantic +trip. I was quite affected with the kindness met with everywhere. Among +those who showed special courtesy were some of the well-known Abbot +family, and other professors at Yale, Andover, and Princeton, as well as +at Harvard, and Mr. Winthrop, of Boston fame. Before I conclude this +account of my American tour, one more incident remains to be mentioned. +At some of the meetings in New York, I met with an intelligent and +interesting Quaker. I found he was acquainted with Friends in England, +and in the course of conversation mention was made of the Gurneys, when +he informed me that Mrs. Gurney, widow of Joseph John Gurney, of Earlham, +was residing in the vicinity of Burlington, in New Jersey. She was an +American lady who became the wife of the Norwich philanthropist, and +retired to her own country after her husband’s death. Finding that I +knew Mr. Gurney, his widow was informed of the circumstance, and +presently I received a kind invitation to visit her at her own residence. +My friend and I, after a pleasant journey, reached the outskirts of +Burlington, and were welcomed by our hostess at a handsome house with +picturesque surroundings. We had much conversation about Earlham, and I +was shown into a comfortable library stocked with books, brought from the +Hall which I had seen in my boyhood. She told me about a visit which Mr. +Forster, father of the distinguished politician, had paid her, not very +long before,—a visit speedily followed by his death, and interment in the +neighbourhood. On the walls of the drawing-room I noticed a facsimile of +the famous letter written to Mrs. Gurney, by President Lincoln, +respecting the great war going on, in which the question of negro slavery +was so inextricably involved. She and some other ladies had been +favoured with a special interview on the subject of emancipation, and it +was to this interview, and its associations that the facsimile referred. +She asked, if I should like to have a copy of it, and then not being able +at the moment to find what she sought, she took down the framed copy and +presented it to me as a memorial of my visit. I carefully brought it to +England, and as it is not known here, as it is in America, I subjoin the +contents, showing the importance which Abraham Lincoln attached to the +conversation of the zealous Quaker on the occasion mentioned. + + “WASHINGTON, _Sept._ 4_th_, 1864. + + “ELIZA P. GURNEY. + + “MY ESTEEMED FRIEND,—I have not forgotten, probably never shall + forget, the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends + visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor has your kind + letter, written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten. In all, it + has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much + indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their + constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them more than to + yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, + though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in + advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long + before this, but God knows best and has ruled otherwise. We shall + yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. Meanwhile we + must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so + working, still conduces to the great end He ordains. Surely He + intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no + mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. + + “Your people—the Friends—have had, and are having, a very great + trial. On principle and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, + they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard + dilemma some have chosen one horn, and some the other. For those + appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, + the best I could, and can, in my own conscience under my oath to the + laws. That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall + still receive, for our country and myself, your earnest prayers to + our Father in Heaven. + + “Your sincere Friend, + “A. LINCOLN.” + + + + +CHAPTER XI +1874–1875 + + +IN the year 1874 I lost my old friend, Thomas Binney. His pre-eminent +position amongst Dissenters was attested by copious notices in +newspapers, and, by the scene at his funeral. That position arose from +several causes—his character, abilities, pulpit popularity, and personal +appearance, manifold and far-reaching sympathies, and a genial nature, +characteristic of the best Englishmen. His influence in the +Congregational denomination throughout the country was aided by the +central position of the Weigh-House when London was different from what +it is now; {230} by strangers from the provinces who flocked there as to +a centre; by visits to various parts of the country at Nonconformist +festivals; and by the transfer of so many members of his Church to other +congregations throughout the land. Nor do I forget how his name came to +be known, beyond that of any other of our ministers, throughout the +British colonies, owing to his being the father and founder of the +Colonial Missionary Society, and the guide and counsellor of many youths +going to seek their fortune in America or the South Seas. Still further +was his popularity owing to a visit he paid some years ago to Australia. +Also, when I was in Canada, I often heard of a less public visit paid to +that country at an earlier period. + +Amongst the many subjects in which my friend felt interested, was that of +improvement in conducting Nonconformist worship; he gave his views +respecting it in an appendix to a work on Liturgies, by the Rev. E. H. +Baird of New York. I refer to this subject particularly, because to a +considerable extent I sympathised with him; not, however, in consequence +of his arguments, but from previous convictions, which, during late +years, have become stronger than ever. The authority for excluding all +liturgical worship from our places of assembly, neither he nor I could +ever understand. I see nothing in Scripture which ties a Christian down +to this perverse one-sidedness. On the contrary, both methods are +sanctioned in the Old and New Testaments. My experience since retiring +from the pastorate has strongly confirmed my previous impressions. When +leading public worship, as I did for so many years, my utterances of +devotion were spontaneous, and I am sure imperfect; but what was obvious +enough before, though sometimes overlooked, came home to my feelings when +listening to words in public devotion, often unadapted to inspire or +guide supplication and praise. Further, extempore words, though _free_ +to the speaker, are, to all intents and purposes, _a form_ to the +hearers; and if a form in extempore speech, when thoroughly suitable, be +proper, why is not a form in written language? Since I have become deaf, +and often cannot catch a brother’s supplications, a form which I can +_read_ must obviously be preferable to one which I am unable to +understand. Extempore public devotion, under many circumstances is of +priceless value; but under some circumstances so is liturgical service. +Attempts amongst Dissenters in the latter direction, I am aware, have in +some instances failed, owing largely to prejudices handed down through +past generations; until those prejudices melt away—some day perhaps they +will—an alteration, such as to others like myself, seems quite hopeless. +{233} + +In the years 1874 and 1875, I took part in commemoration of two +world-known Nonconformist celebrations. + +The first was the unveiling of Bunyan’s statue at Bedford. I went down +with the Dean of Westminster, Lady Augusta Stanley, and Dr. Allon, who +all did wisely and well the parts allotted them. Her Ladyship gracefully +unveiled the bronze figure of the wonderful dreamer; and her husband +uttered immediately afterwards the following effective words:—“The Mayor +has called upon me to say a few words, and I shall obey him. The Mayor +has done _his_ work, the Duke of Bedford has done his,” (he gave the +statue,) “and now I ask you to do yours, in commemorating John Bunyan. +Every one who has not read the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ if there be any such +person, read it without delay; those who have read it a hundred times, +read it for the hundred and first time. Follow out in your lives the +lessons which the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ teaches; and then you will all of +you be even better monuments of John Bunyan, than the magnificent statue +which the Duke of Bedford has given you.” + +The Dean and Dr. Allon delivered elaborate addresses at the Corn +Exchange, and it was allotted to me, to propose, after a public dinner, +“The Memory of John Bunyan.” The thought struck me, that his genius was +equally imaginative and realistic. People rise from reading his dream, +with impressions of character, as lively as those derived from perusing +Shakespeare or Scott. They see in his delineations just such folks as +walked the streets of Bedford, and plodded through Midland country lanes, +two hundred years ago. I heard gentlemen at table say they thought +Bunyan took his conceptions of scenery from neighbouring places. But I +said I did not think so. He had never beheld hills like “the Delectable +Mountain,” nor a vale or plain like that of “Beulah.” In fact, he took +his scenery from Scripture, and gave it reality by allusions such as we +employ, when touching on objects of every-day life. He was “Christian,” +“Evangelist,” “Greatheart,” all in one—a pilgrim to the Heavenly City and +a preacher of the Gospel. + +I may here add that two years afterwards brazen doors were given to +Bunyan meeting by the Duke, and were opened with due solemnities, the +Mayor and Corporation attending on the occasion. + +The unveiling of Baxter’s statue at Kidderminster occurred in July 1875, +when Dr. Stanley represented the Church of England at the request of the +town authorities; and, at the same time, they requested me to speak on +behalf of Nonconformity. It was a gala day; shops were shut, flags were +hung out, people wore holiday clothes, and a procession of the +Corporation, the Bishop, and the speakers marched to the spot where the +statue was placed. + +Soon after the Kidderminster celebration I visited a worthy friend of +mine at Bridgenorth, the Rev. Daniel Evans. Whilst there I received a +letter from Dr. Stanley saying that he had heard me mention a design I +had of visiting Madeley. He said he found in his interleaved Bible, +opposite Dan. iii. 19–27, the words “Fletcher of Madeley,” and asked if I +could discover at Madeley a key to this enigma, as it seemed to him. Mr. +Evans and I had visited Madeley together, and in conversation recalled to +mind an anecdote in Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.” A man threatened to +burn his wife if she went to hear the vicar again. She went +notwithstanding, and the preacher chose for his sermon one of the lessons +for the day, instead of the text he had thought of previously. The +lesson was in Daniel on the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and +Abednego from the fiery furnace. The man followed his wife at a distance +to find out what it was in Fletcher’s preaching that so attracted her. +When the poor woman returned she found her husband on his knees praying +by the side of the fire he had prepared for her martyrdom. I wrote to +the Dean and told him the story, as recalled to my mind by my friend +Daniel Evans. The Dean sent back his kind regards and thanks to +_Daniel_, “who had discovered his dream and the interpretation thereof.” + +I have brought the Bunyan and Baxter celebrations together because of +their similarity; and the Madeley incident because it became connected +with the last of them. + +In 1874, the year between the two celebrations, I resigned my charge at +Kensington, when a meeting was held to present a testimonial, to which +Archdeacon Sinclair contributed, and the Dean of Westminster, with other +Churchmen, besides Nonconformist friends in large numbers, uttered loving +words I can never forget. + +The following report appeared in _The Times_:— + + “DEAN STANLEY AND THE NONCONFORMISTS. + + “On Thursday evening, April 15th, 1874, the Rev. J. Stoughton, D.D., + an eminent Dissenting minister at Kensington, retired from the + pastorate of his congregation there, after a connection with them + extending over the long period of thirty-three years, during which he + has had the reputation, while upholding the principles of + Nonconformity, of maintaining the most kindly relations with the + neighbouring clergy, and is understood to have enjoyed the respect of + the whole community of Churchmen as well as Dissenters. The ceremony + of last evening was held in Kensington Chapel, a handsome building in + Allen Street, Kensington, where Dr. Stoughton has long ministered, + and his congregation attended in great numbers on the occasion. Mr. + Samuel Morley, M.P., acted as chairman, and there were present, among + others, the Dean of Westminster, Sir Charles Reed, Sir Thomas + Chambers, M.P., Mr. James Spicer, the Revs. W. H. Fremantle, M.A., J. + Angus, D.D., W. M. Punshon, D.D., Donald Fraser, D.D.; F. J. Jobson, + D.D., Henry Allon, D.D., Samuel Martin, and J. C. Harrison, the + last-named of whom, on being called to address the meeting, took + occasion to say that their reverend friend, Dr. Stoughton, though + acquainted with every form of religious thought, had ever held fast + to the Gospel; that, as a minister of religion, it had been quite a + passion with him to be thoroughly fair and impartial; and that he had + all along panted for union among all religious denominations. Later + in the ceremony, the Dean of Westminster, having been called upon to + speak, presented himself to the meeting, and was much cheered. He + said there might perhaps be several reasons why he had been asked to + address them. He could not plead the same long acquaintance as the + previous speakers had claimed with their venerable pastor; but still, + during the last few years of his acquaintance with him, he could + truly say that there had been no occasion of joy or sorrow in his + life on which he had not received some kind sympathy from him. There + was another reason for his addressing the meeting. As a Churchman, + and as a minister of the Church of England, he felt called on to + express his gratitude towards one, not exactly of his communion, who + had never once let fall from his lips a word of bitterness against + the community to which the Dean belonged, and through whose heart he + verily believed the destruction of Westminster Abbey would send a + pang. He only trusted that when the twenty-first century arrived, + and some future pastor of the chapel should write the history of + Queen Victoria’s reign, he would treat his communion with the same + courtesy and appreciation as their present pastor had treated, alike, + divergent ministers and pastors of the Church of the Commonwealth. + He felt he had come there that evening not so much as a personal + friend or as a minister of the Established Church, but rather as her + representative of common friends through the writings of Dr. + Stoughton and himself. He came there to express obligations which + dear old friends of them both, who lived two hundred years ago, would + have wished to express on an occasion such as that—Chillingworth, + Jeremy Taylor, Sir Matthew Hale, and many more whom his friend had + brought to one common platform. They had had before his time + histories of the Puritans, where they heard of nothing but Puritans; + they had also histories of the Church of England; but the work of Dr. + Stoughton was the first that had brought those famous men together. + There was, he knew, a charge brought against his friend and himself + that they were not sufficiently good haters. However that might be, + he was sure that Dr. Stoughton hated, as he did, party spirit, the + want of candour, all untruthfulness, and insolent vulgarity, whether + in Church or Nonconformity. All these the Dean hated with a + detestation so complete that, if it were possible, he would be + willing to curse them thirteen times a year. He could not part from + that assembly or from that occasion without saying one word on the + peculiar aspect of the farewell on which the previous speakers had so + touchingly dwelt. Surely it was a transition of life which all of + them might envy as they approached the term of their allotted + existence, to be able to secure for themselves a margin of life and + of comparative quiet before the great end came at last. There was a + custom in old monasteries—he trusted it would not be altogether + inappropriate to mention it at a meeting of Congregationalists—that + when any of the ancient monks had served a term of thirty or forty + years—he forgot which—they were then to be relieved altogether from + their arduous labours; they were to be called by a gentle name which + meant ‘playfellow’; and one condition of their existence was that + nothing that was disagreeable should ever be named in their company. + Such to their friend Dr. Stoughton was the tranquil period through + which he was now passing; and although they might still anticipate + for him long years of active usefulness, whether by pen or by voice, + there must be a delightful sense on his part in looking forward, + having accomplished one period of his existence, to a more + undisturbed time in which he might look back on what had been, and + forward to what was to be to him and all alike. The Dean’s speech, + of which this is necessarily a summary, was repeatedly cheered during + its delivery. A valedictory address, expressed in flattering terms, + and reviewing the long connection between their pastor and the + congregation, was afterwards presented to Dr. Stoughton by Mr. R. + Freeman, on behalf of the Church and congregation, accompanied by the + spontaneous gift of a purse containing £3000.” + +Besides others who were present on the occasion, as noticed in _The +Times_, let me mention my excellent friend and neighbour the Rev. J. +Philip Gell, formerly Vicar of St. John’s, Notting Hill. He referred to +the well-knit efforts of pastor and people, which had constituted the +strength of the Church at Kensington, and remarked that it was little +known how the force of public opinion acts and reacts on the life of a +large permanent congregation. “The love which was thrilling that night +was the Church’s strength, and so long as that lived and flowed on the +part of the people, and was sustained by the pastor’s wisdom, so long +would the Church live and prosper.” + +Dr. Morley Punshon, President of the Wesleyan Connexion, travelled from +Leeds, where he had preached that morning. He trusted that the Church +would be Divinely guided in choosing a successor. It was encouraging to +witness such a presentation as that just made, the like of which many +present had never seen before. + +The years I spent at Kensington were very happy. I can say from +experience that the life of a Congregational minister, in connection with +a large and liberal Church—when full play is given to the social +affections, elevated and purified by culture as well as religion—is an +enviable lot, and calls for the devout gratitude of any one who has +enjoyed it. + +The friendships formed with many of my flock, a very few of whom are +still living, have been amongst the choicest privileges afforded me by +Divine Providence. Loving memories of them linger in my heart, amidst +sweeping obliterations of names and faces incident to an age of fourscore +and more, and those who survive me will, I trust, accept an +acknowledgment of obligations deeply felt as these lines are written. I +took special interest in some, now goodly matrons, who were school girls +at Kensington in my time, and whose happy fortunes I have sympathetically +followed through life. If they read these lines, they will understand +the fatherly feeling with which they are written. Their parents, now at +rest in the eternal home, were no small joy to me, and as they passed +away, one after another, they left blanks not to be filled up in this +world. + +Two deceased friends I may here notice. At an early period in my +Kensington pastorate, a gentleman called upon me in the vestry with a +transfer to our Church from a communion he had joined in Manchester. At +the time he was a rising engineer, and afterwards took part in the +construction of railways over the Alps and in South America. He was a +botanist, and came to possess a large garden and conservatory where he +lived. He received the honour of knighthood, and as Sir James Brunlees +became well known. He took a deep interest in our Congregational +affairs, and after his change of residence from Addison Road, Kensington, +still continued, with his family, to worship with us on Sundays. He was +an intimate friend of John Bright, both of them being anglers; and I was +entertained by stories of their success, as brethren of the rod. I often +spent a few restful days at Argyle Lodge, where he and his kind-hearted +lady made me as much at home as I felt at my own fireside. She died +suddenly, after my retirement, when she was visiting a friend. I was +immediately summoned to meet and comfort the mourning family. Another +friend—George Rawson, of Bristol, the gifted hymn-writer—also died after +my retirement, leaving memories of intelligence, humour, and affection, +which I shall fondly cherish as long as I live. His beloved wife, +daughter of the Rev. John Clayton, one of my predecessors in the +Kensington pastorate, died some years before at Bristol. The touching +memory of her funeral, and of the company then present, passes before me +as I write these lines. + +When I wrote this chapter, I asked my dear daughter Georgie to give me +some results of her own experience whilst visiting the poor. She +returned the following notes:— + + “Instances of unselfishness are sometimes very touching. I knew a + Christian woman who suffered for years with weak sight, and had + several operations on both eyes, so that she could only distinguish + outlines of different objects. She heard of two little children, + distant relations of her husband, being left orphans, and as she had + no children of her own, she suggested that they should adopt these + little girls, and lead them in early years to a knowledge of Christ. + The husband was so touched at his wife’s readiness, with failing + sight, to take this burden upon herself that, though a common + labourer, he was willing to incur the extra expense, and ever since + that home has been one of the brightest I know. + + “A poor woman expressed a strong desire that some one would speak to + her sailor boy, who was wild and unmanageable. An opportunity + occurred not long after, but the lad manifested great disgust at + being talked to, and afterwards whenever I called he left the room. + When about to start upon a voyage, I went to bid him ‘Good-bye.’ On + leaving I said, ‘The time may come when you will feel the need of a + true friend; remember that Christ is ready to receive you, for He has + said, “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” These + words may fill your heart with gladness some day.’ I did not hear + anything of him for a long time, but one evening I received a note + saying he was lying ill in a hospital, and would I go and see him. I + complied, and found he had never forgotten the Saviour’s words which + I had quoted. He resisted, he said, the voice calling him to forsake + his sins and cleave to Christ till he could bear it no longer. At + last he yielded, and the change produced in him was remarkable. + During a long illness he manifested patience, unlike his old self, + and the lad’s cheerfulness and readiness to help his mother were very + beautiful. He died in her arms, singing ‘Safe in the arms of Jesus.’ + + “Many of the poor have seen days of prosperity, and have forgotten + God; but, when adversity comes, like frightened children, they rush + to the Father’s arms. One man, possessing at one time over £20,000, + with a hundred men under him, lost all. Then, when reduced to the + greatest distress, he listened to the Divine voice. + + “I remember that on Lord Chichester’s library table there always + stood a large card, with the words: + + ‘Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me + A living, bright reality.’ + + “And such words unite the rich and the poor. One of the poorest + women I ever met, had a strong realisation of Christ’s constant + presence; and it so beautified her life, that all who entered her + humble home felt such a prayer had been answered in her experience. + I never talk to her but my mind is carried back to the Stanmer + library.” + +At the end of this chapter, which closes my Kensington ministry, I +venture to speak of my methods of preaching. + +The main object of my ministrations was the illustration of God’s Holy +Word. Archbishop Whately preferred “to set his watch by the sun”; and, +therefore, tested the results of his own thinking, and other teachers, by +a comparison of them with the decisions of Scripture. When Scripture was +plain, the subject on which it pronounced a distinct judgment was +regarded as fixed for ever. That method it was my desire habitually to +pursue. I made it my aim, not only to interpret the meaning of a +particular verse taken by itself, but to catch, and fix in my mind, the +_drift_ of Apostolic thought in particular instances. It has been said, +irreverently, that some expositors, when persecuted in one verse, flee to +another, and the connection between the several parts of a paragraph is +overlooked and lost. + +It was my desire to look at long _trains of thought_ in the writings of +St. Paul as a sacred landscape, in which here and there a verse occurs as +a lofty hill, which serves as a commanding point for surveying a +landscape of thought round about. A single verse is often a key to an +entire paragraph. + +It was my habit to go over now and then a large extent of +Scripture—doctrinal, biographical, historical. “Stars of the East, or +Prophets and Apostles,” formed a series of personal sketches in the Old +and New Testaments, afterwards published by the Religious Tract Society. +Another course, called “Lights of the World,” were illustrations of +character, drawn from records of Christian experience and action, such as +“William Tyndale, or Labour and Patience”; “Richard Hooker, or a Soul in +Love with God’s Law and Holy Order”; and “Robert Leighton, or the +Peacefulness of Faith.” + +Besides such methods I did not scruple to lay under contribution to the +pulpit, condensed summaries of Puritan works, such as Baxter’s “Now or +Never”; also I may mention that a course of Sermons on “Pilgrim’s +Progress” excited much interest, and three or four of these I repeated at +the close of my pastorate. + +As to the real value of a sermon, form must never be confounded with +substance. It is vain to vote the mantle into majesty. A royal robe +depends for effect on the richness of the material, not on the adjustment +of its folds. Toller’s “Sermons” {248} so eulogised by Robert Hall, +depend for their impressiveness, not on a careful selection of words—in +this respect they are open to criticism—but upon the intrinsic majesty of +such thoughts as they express. + +There is an obvious contrast between French and English preachers in this +respect. They are more attentive to form than we are. I have witnessed +effects in Parisian, and in Italian churches as well, produced by modes +of delivery, such as I never saw in our own country. Young preachers in +England might make their sermons more effective than they are, by greater +attention paid to a mode of delivery. + +Let me add a word or two as to preparation from week to week. At the +beginning of a week I chose subjects for the following Sunday; and then +gathered up from day to day, in reading and talking, arguments and +illustrations suggested by books, scenery and conversation. One’s mind +may be brought to such a state as to gather together what is valuable and +useful from time to time, as the magnet attracts to itself grains of +precious metal over which it sweeps. And, let it not be forgotten, we +may sometimes _build_ up a sermon by adding one thought to another; and +at other times _plant_ a sermon through an idea which takes root and +grows into a goodly tree. My method then was, on a Saturday evening, to +_review_ and revise what I had prepared, to criticise its substance and +arrangement, and alter it in matter and form, so that on Sunday morning +it could be poured out to the people in freshness and force. + +On week-night services, I sometimes took up Church history, or +archæological illustrations of the Bible. Bible-classes, of course, were +held; but in the latter part of my Kensington pastorate, I was greatly +helped in this, as in other respects by my worthy friend, the Rev. J. +Alden Davies, who was for a few years my assistant minister. {250} + + + + +CHAPTER XII +1875–1879 + + +IN my last chapter I brought together two celebrations—one in honour of +John Bunyan, the other in honour of Richard Baxter. Another celebration +now claims attention, not of an English Nonconformist, but of a +Protestant Reformer, whose fame covers the world—Martin Luther. English +commemorations of his character and work were held late in 1875 and early +in 1876. + +Before I mention any particulars respecting the Luther celebration, I +repeat what I have said elsewhere: + + “There is no other man of a similar order whose fame touches so many + topographical points, and sweeps over so wide a surface. The local + reminiscences of Shakespeare and Milton, even taken together, are + few, and cluster round a metropolis, a provincial town, and two or + three villages. But how many cities, castles, and houses there are + in Germany scattered far and wide which may be said to have Martin + Luther for their presiding genius! Guide-books call attention to + some spot where he went, some fortress or tenement which gave him + shelter, some church in which he preached, some locality which his + name has made famous; and there are scenes and houses unmentioned in + guide-books, over which lingers the spell of his memory. One comes + across mementoes of Charles V. in divers directions; but even they + are fewer, less interesting, and less honoured than those of the monk + who gave the emperor so much anxiety, and who by his devotion, and + energy accomplished the reformation of the Teutonic Church. + Certainly no king, no kaiser, can vie with him as to the place he + occupies in the thoughts of his own people, and indeed of the whole + Christian world.” {252} + +Washington Irving concludes his essay on “Shakespeare and +Stratford-on-Avon,” by remarking it would have cheered “the spirit of the +youthful bard that his name should become the glory of his birthplace, +that his ashes should be guarded as a most precious treasure, and that +its lessening spire, on which his eyes were fixed in tearful +contemplation, should one day become the beacon towering amidst the +gentle landscape to guide the literary pilgrim of every nation to his +tomb.” + +It is no depreciation of Shakespeare’s genius to say that above his +aspirations after fame, whatever they might be, rose the aims and desires +of Luther—a man absorbed in zeal for the salvation of souls, and for the +glory of his Saviour; but it would have filled him with wonder, could he +have foreseen the place he was to occupy in the history of the world, and +how the double tower of the Stadt Kirche, in which he preached, would +become a beacon to guide tens of thousands from both hemispheres to the +Augustinian monastery, where he lived, and to the Schloss Kirche, where +he lies buried. + +The Luther Commemoration in England was enthusiastic. + +Soon after I left Kensington an immense assembly gathered in Exeter Hall, +to take up points in Luther’s character and work. If I remember rightly, +I dwelt on that occasion at some length on his domestic life, often +assailed by his opponents, but held in admiration by Protestants all over +the world. In lectures and addresses, delivered at Norwich, +Peterborough, Bedford, and elsewhere, I dwelt on his manifold excellences +and achievements, at Leipzig, at Worms, in the Wartburg, and his +Wittenberg home. My remarks accorded with those I have now introduced. + +After the close of my pastorate in Kensington, Ealing became my home. +The professorships at New College were continued. Sundays were spent in +preaching the Gospel. Literary studies were pursued to a larger extent +than they had been when pastoral duty claimed chief attention. + +In 1876 I was grieved by the death of Lady Augusta Stanley, for she +manifested towards me kindness which could not fail to inspire my warmest +gratitude. I never knew any other person who had so much dignity and +sweetness of demeanour, one who, with many-sided sympathy, could make her +numerous guests feel how sincere were her friendly demonstrations. It +often surprised me, as it did others, how she paid marked attention to +all her guests, however numerous they might be. Her tact was admirable. +Nobody could leave the Deanery with the idea of having been neglected. + +Her “At Homes” were extraordinarily popular, for every one was sure of +meeting with notabilities of Church and State, literature and science. +Her husband was in full sympathy with her in all these respects. + +She was intimately acquainted with foreign celebrities, and her +conversation about them was of much interest. She and her mother, Lady +Elgin, spent some days in Lamartine’s house at Paris, when violent mobs, +during the Revolution, assembled in front of the residence. The +President behaved bravely, but expressed fear lest any insult should be +offered to English ladies under his roof. Mother and daughter, if I +remember right, had been offered refuge by the President when the utmost +peril filled the French capital. Lady Augusta related interesting +anecdotes of Lamartine; and I gathered that he habitually indicated no +small confidence in himself, feeling that he was the greatest man in +France, as no doubt, at the time, he really was. + +Her Ladyship and the Dean were well acquainted with M. Guizot, and gave +interesting accounts of that distinguished statesman, and of his habits +and studies after retirement from public life. I happened once, when +talking of Earl Russell, to make the remark, that I had heard of his cold +manner to political acquaintances. Her countenance lighted up, and she +spoke with enthusiasm of what he was in the bosom of his family, and the +circle of intimate friends. Bishop Thirlwall was a great favourite with +her, and she related interesting anecdotes of that distinguished man, +indicating a warm heart, in union with a keen intellect. + +Lady Augusta’s visit to St. Petersburg with the Dean, at the marriage of +the Duke of Edinburgh, proved too much for her strength, and at Paris in +the following autumn serious illness set in. From time to time amendment +and relapse excited hope and fear, until all prospect of recovery +vanished. She spoke of friends, sent kind messages, and talked calmly +and with humble confidence of the other world, saying, “Think of me as +near, only in another room. ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions.’” +I had a touching note from the Dean asking me to be a pall-bearer at the +funeral. All chosen for that office indicated causes, classes, and +places in which she felt an interest. Religion, literature, and +philanthropy, the neighbourhood in which she lived, and Scotland—each had +a representative. + +The assembly of mourners in the Jerusalem Chamber; the spectacle in the +Abbey; the procession up the nave whilst the Queen occupied a little +gallery not far from the western door; the calm submission of the +bereaved husband, as he sat by the coffin; the solemn entrance into Henry +VII.’s Chapel; the ray of sunlight falling on the coffin as it sank into +the vault; and especially the words, “I heard a voice from Heaven,” sung +by choristers invisible at the moment, as if music came from the Upper +Temple—these incidents can never be forgotten. + +It was by royal command that this lady, descended from the royal Bruce, +was buried in a chapel reserved for royal persons; and immediately after +the interment wreaths from the Queen and her children were strewn over +the grave. The three benedictions—the Mosaic, the Pauline, and the +Ecclesiastical—which the deceased loved to hear were pronounced, at the +close of the service, by the Dean from a desk in the nave. She had said +to him, “Think of me as you repeat the holy words.” He did, when she was +gone as when she was living. + +The Dean sometimes referred to his visit to St. Petersburg in company +with her ladyship, and spoke of his having before him, as he tied the +nuptial knot on that memorable occasion, no less than four princes, each +of whom was expectant of a crown—the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince of +Prussia, the Crown Prince of the Netherlands, and the Czarevitch; and he +also mentioned this circumstance—that after the wedding party had passed +in state through a magnificent hall, where no provision for a banquet +could be seen, within an hour and a half they sat down to a feast of +sumptuous splendour, reminding him of Belshazzar’s, not in point of +excess, but in point of regal display. The fact was, the side-tables had +been concealed behind screens and drapery. The middle one had in that +space of time been fixed and adorned. + +I may here mention that one day, during a visit to the Deanery, I had +much conversation with Miss Stanley, the Dean’s sister, an agreeable +companion, who freely indulged in some common recollections of dear old +Norwich, and some friends whom we had both known. She told me a great +deal about her good father, the Bishop, dwelling with admiration upon his +exceedingly simple habits, and his determination never to give at the +Palace _grand dinners_, but only such as combined hospitality with +Christian unostentation. + +Two or three days previous to Lady Augusta’s funeral, I breakfasted at +Lambeth, when Archbishop Tait, amongst other things, spoke of his desire +for some union with Protestant Dissenters as far as it was possible; and +this led to proceedings which, as they have not been reported in any +fulness, may be recorded here. + +It was a delicate question who should first move in the matter. The +Archbishop wished to invite brethren to Lambeth, but what reason was to +be assigned for taking such a step? At length it was arranged that some +communication should be made to him, indicative of a disposition on the +part of Nonconformists to confer with Episcopalian brethren. On such a +ground the Archbishop considered he might bring together bishops, ready +to join in a conference. I undertook to prepare a letter and get it +signed, so that Dr. Tait might feel he had sure footing for what might +follow. It was based on a recognition of pleasure felt by +Nonconformists, in consequence of passages in his recent charges touching +religious union. The letter went on to express willingness to meet +brethren for consultation respecting co-operation in religious service so +far as it might be possible and wise. It was signed by well-known +ministers, and was acknowledged by the Archbishop under the term of +“memorial,” an expression which, if I remember rightly, had not been +employed by us. + +Four Nonconformist ministers accordingly went down to Lambeth to converse +on the subject. Previous to this interview, it was my conviction that to +discuss the subject of _union_ by itself was by no means desirable, as it +might raise questions which would defeat the end in view. In harmony +with this, the following opinion was expressed by a friendly +prelate:—“Such a neutral subject as the progress of irreligious thought, +would do well as a basis for a friendly meeting.” + +In a note received from the Archbishop before we met, he said, “I beg +leave to assure you that all the bishops whom I have consulted agree in +the extreme importance of this movement, and in an earnest desire that by +proper preliminary arrangements your proposal for a conference may be +brought to a satisfactory result.” The proposal for a conference, I +think, did not _originate_ with me, though I quite approved of it, and +was glad the Archbishop had kindly arranged for its being held. + +I subjoin the following record, received from Lambeth, respecting a +conference which the ministers named held with the Archbishop +beforehand:— + + “May 24th, 1876: The Archbishop of Canterbury saw the Rev. Dr. + Stoughton, the Rev. Dr. Angus, the Rev. Newman Hall, and the Rev. Dr. + Aveling. + + “The gentlemen present having heard from the Archbishop what had + passed with the bishops who met at the Ecclesiastical Commission, it + was the opinion of those present that there was ample room for united + efforts to stem growing infidelity and ungodliness. + + “1. Therefore that a united conference as to the best means of + attempting to spread the knowledge of the answers to materialistic + and atheistic sophistries might be attended with very beneficial + results. + + “2. That such a conference might with great advantage consider the + lamentable ignorance and indifference as to religion which prevails + amongst masses of the community, and the best modes of meeting these + evils. + + “3. That such a conference might also with advantage consider what + efforts are needed to rouse the classes above the artisan class to a + greater appreciation of the realities of religion. + + “4. That it would be desirable that at such a conference those + present should come prepared to state their experience as to the + difficulties to be met, and the proposed remedies. It was agreed + that a day after the first week in July would be suitable for such a + conference. + + “The result of this was reported by the Archbishop to an informal + meeting of certain bishops at the Room of the House of Lords: + present, the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Winchester, + St. Asaph, Llandaff, Gloucester and Bristol, and Carlisle; and + Monday, July 4th, at twelve noon, was fixed for our gathering.” + +We assembled accordingly on July 4th, and there were present besides the +Primate, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Peterborough, Gloucester, +Bath and Wells, Drs. Allon, Raleigh, Punshon, Rigg, Aveling, Angus, +Cumming, Robertson of Edinburgh (an old schoolmate of Dr. Tait); the +Revs. J. C. Harrison, Newman Hall, Josiah Viney, and several others whom +I cannot call to mind as, unfortunately, I have not kept a list. + +The Archbishop presided, read the Scriptures, and offered prayer. He +opened the proceedings by an appropriate address, and then requested me +to give some account of the steps which had led to our meeting together. +I could not help referring to some remarkable gatherings in the Jerusalem +Chamber, March 1640–1, convened by Dr. Williams, at that time Bishop of +Lincoln, and also Dean of Westminster, when several other dignitaries met +certain Presbyterian divines. “This,” I remarked, “was done by order of +the House of Lords, with a view to settling points of difference between +ecclesiastical parties of that day. A scheme of comprehension was +contemplated. It came to nothing, though the intercourse seems to have +been pleasant, and they were hospitably entertained by the convener.” +“This was the last course of all public Episcopal treatments,” said the +witty Thomas Fuller, who added: “The guests may now soon put up their +knives, seeing, soon after, the voider was called for, which took away +all bishops’ lands.” I emphasised the fact that we had assembled for a +very different purpose, not to discuss any plan of comprehension, but to +see how parties, remaining ecclesiastically as we were, could, +notwithstanding, _unite_ in defence of our common faith against those who +opposed it. + +“We have a common cause,” it was added; “and let us aim at extending the +influence of our common Christianity—this would bring us into spiritual +and practical fellowship, the most enduring of all bonds.” The Bishop of +Bath and Wells followed and spoke on the specific point—how we should +meet doubts and difficulties in reference to religion. The Bishop of +Peterborough discussed the subject generally, with great eloquence and +force. The Bishops of London and Winchester made practical suggestions +as to guarding Christians against scepticism, and rousing people at large +from indifference and neglect. Drs. Rigg, Angus, and others, combatted +infidel objections and enforced attention to the subject before us. A +spirit of harmony pervaded the meeting. + +We broke up the morning conference at two o’clock, and then lunched +together; reassembling at three o’clock, when the Bishop of Gloucester, +Dr. Punshon, and several besides, resumed the conversation. No +representatives of the press were present, and no report, that I am aware +of, was taken and preserved. We wished to prevent the controversial +treatment of what took place. Two of those who were there, together with +myself, received and complied with a request to prepare some brief +statement for _The Times_, on the character and purpose of our meeting. +Of course, the whole matter was criticised afterwards, chiefly however in +private. I do not remember that it was taken up controversially in +religious periodicals. To correct some misapprehensions—expressed in a +Dissenting newspaper—I, at the request of an esteemed brother, wrote a +short letter of explanation. + +When we separated, gratification was expressed by those who were present. +Some Nonconformists did not enter into the movement; others did, and that +most heartily. From several Episcopalian friends we received assurances +of approval and sympathy. It issued in no united action; no fresh +organisation had, as far as I know, ever been intended. The purpose +designed was accomplished by interchanging thought, collecting +information, and encouraging one another in ministerial work. + +For Archbishop Tait I had great respect and affection. He was singularly +kind and conversable, without affecting any official superiority. Under +his grave countenance, and habitually serious demeanour, as one who lived +ever “in his Great Taskmaster’s eye,” there were veins of cheerfulness +and humour in his familiar intercourse—I felt deeply, his gentle +sympathy, expressed in a letter of condolence, on my dear wife’s death; +and the last time we talked together, being interrupted by another +person, he broke off in the opening of what seemed an amusing tale. He +appreciated the relative position of Church and Dissent, better than any +other dignitary I have met with. He would say that Nonconformists had +their traditions, organisations, endowments, and influence, which gave +them a status they were not likely to surrender by bringing over what +belonged to them, into an Episcopalian organisation. A fraternal _modus +vivendi_, he regarded as the object to be aimed at, not an absorption of +Dissenting bodies into the Establishment. He, no doubt, would have +preferred to see _One Great Church_ in England, under a moderate +Episcopacy; but he seemed to cherish little hope of any such object being +accomplished. + +On a former page allusion was made to Mr. Bagster, of Polyglot fame. In +the year (1877) his venerable wife, at the age of 100 _within a few +hours_, died at Old Windsor; and her accumulated years attracted the +notice of Her Majesty, who honoured her with a visit just before her +decease. I called at the cottage in which she expired, after the royal +visitor had been there, and there heard the particulars of the interview. +Her Majesty I was informed, brought with her the Princess Beatrice; and, +on their entrance into the bedroom, where the old lady was lying, she at +once expressed her gratitude for the signal favour bestowed by her +Sovereign, saying that “she was looking forward to her own speedy +dismissal to the immediate presence of the Saviour, where she hoped +hereafter to meet Her Majesty.” Pleasant conversation followed, in which +Mrs. B., at the Queen’s request, related her memories of George III., +Queen Charlotte, and the Royal Family, as they used to walk on the Castle +terrace, in the presence of a large number of loyal spectators. The +Queen manifested interest in particulars respecting the good old lady, +related by her daughter; and in consequence of the report she gave on her +return home, Prince Leopold, as I was told soon afterwards, paid a visit +to Old Windsor, and wished for a rehearsal of what had been communicated +by his Royal Mother. Repeated gracious inquiries from the Castle +followed. At the funeral service a note was put into my hands, written +by the Duchess of Roxburgh to Miss Bagster, tenderly touching on that +lady’s sorrow, for her late bereavement; and concluding with the words: +“The Queen begs you to convey to all the members of your venerable +mother’s family, the assurance of Her Majesty’s condolence.” This note +was read to the mourners. + +In 1877 I made two pilgrimages which left memorable impressions. All my +life I have been an enthusiastic shrine-seeker, loving to trace out spots +sanctified by footsteps of heroic and holy men. I heartily adopt the +words of Dr. Martineau, “No material interests, no common welfare, can so +bind a community together, and make it strong of heart, as a history of +rights maintained and virtues uncorrupted and freedom won; and one legend +of conscience is worth more to a country than hidden gold and fertile +plains.” + +At different periods I have visited the birthplaces of Shakespeare and of +Raleigh, of Cromwell and of Wesley; the homes of Knox, Hampden, Milton, +Baxter, and Howard; the haunts of Johnson, Goldsmith, Watts, and Cowper; +the graves of Bunyan, Burns, Scott, and Chalmers have all had attractions +for me. + +The pilgrimages I made in 1877 were the following:— + +The first to the Vosges district in France, searching for Ban de la +Roche, the scene of Oberlin’s labours, and the resting place of his +remains. {268} From Strassburg my daughter and I went to Mutzig, +situated amidst a theatre of red sandstone hills mantled with woods and +vineyards. Then from Mutzig we proceeded to Fouday, through valley after +valley, if not exactly picturesque, yet really pictorial, and finally +approached the parish of the model pastor. In the heart of the village +of Ban de la Roche, are the church hallowed by his preaching, and the +grave where he sleeps. Three broad slabs lie on the green turf, side by +side, the middle one inscribed with the words, “Il fut 60 ans père de ce +canton.—‘La Mémoire du juste sera en benediction.’” An iron cross bears +the name “Papa Oberlin.” We were surprised to find the spot, though +highly situated, so rich in beauty as summer waned; an afternoon sun +warming the crisp air, and lighting up objects with varied tints. At +Walderbach, a Swiss-like village, full of cottages and fruit trees, we +found the parsonage house in which the good man lived and died. We were +welcomed by the present clergyman’s wife, whom we had met before, without +knowing her. The good lady took us over the rooms associated with her +husband’s predecessor. There was the study where he worked, and the +bedroom in which he slept. Some of his furniture is preserved, with a +collection of toys he made for children, and a large jar full of still +fragrant rose leaves, a few of which were gratefully accepted as a +memento of the visit. + +The other pilgrimage was in England to Broad Oak, Shropshire, where +Philip Henry resided and where his son Matthew was born. It stands where +the Wrexham Road is intersected by a lane leading to Whitwell Church. It +is a small farmhouse, part of a larger one, with heavy beams, and a broad +chimney corner, like what one sees in Anne Hathaway’s cottage near +Stratford-on-Avon. When in its primitive state, it must have been +spacious, for, says the famous Puritan, “I have room for twelve friends +in my beds, a hundred in my barn, and a thousand in my heart.” Here he +resembled “Abraham sitting at his tent door, in quest of opportunities to +do good. If he met with any poor near his house, and gave them alms in +money, he would, besides, bid them go to his door for relief. He was +very tender and compassionate towards poor strangers, and travellers, +though his candour and charity were often imposed upon by cheats and +pretenders.” + +The mention of Broad Oak occurs repeatedly in the Life of the father, +written by his affectionate son. The latter tells of his father’s +removal to Broad Oak, and the providences concerning him there, of “the +rebukes he lay under at Broad Oak,” and of the last nine years of his +life, in “liberty and enlargement at Broad Oak.” At a time when +ministerial engagements were by no means so numerous and diversified as +they are at present; when habits of home study, quiet visitation of the +flock, and catechising the children, rather than preaching on public +occasions, attending large meetings, and travelling to and fro along the +length and breadth of the land, distinguished both town and country +clergymen; when those who were connected with the Established Church, and +had no restraints put upon their activity, spent what would be now +considered very retired and monotonous lives; what must have been the +secluded and stationary position of an ejected minister between the +Restoration and the Revolution! No wonder, then, that almost every +incident and effort belonging to Philip Henry’s career belonged to the +farm at Broad Oak, where he lived and died, and wrote and suffered, and +walked and taught, bringing up his children, and receiving his friends, +and paying visits to his neighbours, under the shadow of the umbrageous +trees which gave a name to his pleasant homestead. + +I drove over to the house, or rather that part of it which still remains, +a part of the kitchen, as I suppose, in which the good man used to +preach. The people of the house showed me some relics—the pulpit +cushion, and, I think, the pulpit itself, or some portion of it; also +some buttons which belonged to Philip Henry’s coat. + +At Whitwell is a chapel containing Philip Henry’s monument, which once +stood in the parish edifice of Whitchurch. + +At the end of the Whitwell epitaph are the words, “In dormitorium hic +juxta positum demisit June 24, Anno Dom. MDCXCVI, Ætatis LXV.” Was it in +imitation of this, that the words were introduced in Matthew Henry’s +monument in Holy Trinity Church, Chester, “Confectum corpus huic +dormitorio commisit 22 die Junii, 1714, Anno ætat 52”? + +Dr. Howson, Dean of Chester, who was staying with me at Crewe Hall when +this visit was arranged, intended to be my companion, for he was a great +admirer of the Henrys; but illness prevented him. + +In 1877 I was invited by Dr. Stanley to deliver a missionary lecture in +Westminster Abbey, one of a series he had arranged, in which some friends +of his, not clergymen in the Establishment, took part. + +In 1877 I gave a lecture in the room of the Society of Arts on the +prospects and perils of modern civilisation. One of the audience was a +native gentleman attached to the Chinese Embassy—a very intelligent +person, speaking English well, and showing by his conversation how +clearly he grasped points of the address he had just heard. It was a +singular circumstance that a representative of the largest empire of the +world—which not long ago counted all other nations as barbarous—should +listen to a barbarian as he represented the good and _evil_ of European +civilisation. + +Just before Christmas (1877) two or three days were spent at the Deanery +of Westminster, and on the Sunday afternoon Dr. Stanley walked with me on +the terrace of the Parliamentary Houses, where we had some interesting +talk. He pointed to the palatial edifice at our back as we looked across +the river, and said, “This is the palace of the nation”; turning +attention to St. Thomas’ Hospital, he remarked, “That is the palace of +the poor”; and next, looking towards Lambeth, he added, “There is the +palace of the Church.” We discussed the state and prospects of the +Establishment, and he, as a staunch advocate for its continuance, +propounded schemes of reform, which, looking at the state of parties, +seemed to me quite impracticable. He was filled with an idea of +comprehension, if not within wide Episcopalian limits, then by a State +union of different denominations—for example, thus: He would have been +glad to see a Presbyterian Moderator, a Congregational Chairman, and a +Wesleyan President sitting in the House of Lords on a bench with the +bishops. He further thought that, as Charles II. was willing to have +Nonconformist chaplains, after the Restoration, so an English sovereign +might now, without any impropriety, do the same; and if the Uniformity +Act were modified so as to allow a Dissenting minister to enter a pulpit +of the Establishment, there would be no legal bar in the way. My friend +had the widest sympathies possible, and union, with him, was a passion. + +In some respects I have a feeling like the Dean’s, but I hold theological +and ecclesiastical principles such as he did not adopt. One fundamental +difference between us was that he overlooked the exercise of Church +_discipline_, to which I attach great importance. The study of State +organisations has convinced me that the “union of Church and State” +creates insuperable barriers in the way of ecclesiastical discipline. If +the Church be linked to the State, so that a subject of the State becomes +thereby legally entitled to membership and communion,—that forms a strong +bar to a faithful correction of moral misconduct and fundamental +disbeliefs. It was a great difficulty under the Commonwealth. The +devoted and holy Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, found it so in +carrying on his diocese. He said in his famous “Ecclesiastical +Constitutions” that his desire was “We may not stand charged with the +scandals which wicked men bring upon religion, when they are admitted to, +and reputed members of, Christ’s Church; and that we may, by all laudable +means, promote the conversion of sinners, and oblige men to submit to the +discipline of the Gospel.” But for myself, let me say I have not found +any difficulty in the maintenance of discipline in Congregational +Churches. Whatever might be the basis of Dr. Stanley’s far-reaching +comprehension, it appears to me there might be a much broader range of +religious sympathy and co-operation between distinct religious bodies +connected with the maintenance of well-accentuated beliefs, and the +exercise of ecclesiastical discipline. + +In the early part of the following year I visited Edinburgh to lecture +for the Philosophical Society of that city. My subject was “The Great +Rebellion”; and I made a double attempt, first, to vindicate the +Parliament policy as against the despotic unconstitutionalism of the +infatuated monarch; and secondly, to criticise the proceedings of some +eminent men on the Puritan and popular side. The society invited me to +lecture again, when different historical ground was taken, and a sketch +was presented of English and Scotch life in the days of Queen Anne. + +My old friend, and large-hearted host, the Rev. George D. Cullen, +favoured me with the company at dinner, of Dr. Goold, Moderator of the +Free Church; Dr. Hanna, son-in-law to Dr. Chalmers; Dr. Alexander, and +others—and we had earnest talk about topics of the day. Scotch and +English elements of thought, blended so as to bring diversities into +view, without any portion of the acrimony common to polemical debate. +True blue Presbyterianism rose in contrast with milder colours of +Ecclesiasticism. There was no want of thrust or repartee, but we kept +the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Edinburgh society is of +the choicest kind. Some of the best talkers may be found on the other +side the border; and memories of celebrities in Auld Reekie, are amongst +the most pleasant of my life. On the occasion just noticed, my friend +Mr. Cullen took me over to St. Andrews; and there Principal Tulloch did +the honours of ciceroneship to perfection. In the evening we dined at +the house of Professor Swann, where further social enjoyments of a high +university order were found to be in store. + +During this visit to Scotland a curious fact was related to me by the +librarian of the University. Drummond of Hawthornden bequeathed books to +the library of that institution, and in the catalogue appeared an item of +“MSS. respecting Mary Queen of Scots.” + +These MSS. were long missing, and inquiries about them were made in vain. +Not very long before my visit, the librarian received a communication +from some one who said he had, in his possession, papers belonging to the +University; and on receiving a reply to his letter, he forwarded them. +They turned out to be the missing treasure. How came this about? As +well as I can remember it appeared that a librarian of the last century +put one day into his coat pocket these very MSS., and took them home for +examination. He suddenly died. His clothes were sent to a relative, and +amongst them, the coat containing the documents now mentioned. For a +century afterwards they remained forgotten, and then came to light. The +possessor, finding they belonged to Edinburgh University, wrote to the +librarian as stated above, and restored them to their proper place. The +recovered property was shown to me. It included original papers +published some time ago, and others not previously known; but, if I may +venture to say so, after a brief inspection, they did not promise to be +of so much service as was hoped, in throwing fresh light on the mysteries +of poor Mary’s career. + +The seventh General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance was held in +Basle, September 1st 1879. + +There was a large gathering of delegates from Germany, France, Austria, +Italy, Spain, Holland, America and England. The president was M. C. +Sarasin, Councillor of State, who is said to have descended from a +Moorish ancestor settled in the canton. He showed himself to be +acquainted with English literature. + +“Let me remind our English friends,” he said, “of the words their great +poet puts in the mouth of Richard II.: + + ‘Look not to the ground + Ye favourites of a king! Are we not high? + High be our thoughts.’ + +“Let us cherish high thoughts, my friends! Are we not the servants of a +King, of the King of kings, and Lord of lords? And is it not His work we +are carrying on? + + ‘Die sach’ ist dein, Herr Jesu Christ, + Die sach’ an der wir stehen.’ + (The cause is Thine, Lord Jesus Christ, + The cause for which we stand.) + +“Thus let our work be done, our testimony be given, our efforts be +united, in the same joyful steadfast spirit, with the same buoyancy, with +which the Apostle, with chained hands, appealed to his flock at Philippi, +‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.’” + +These were animating words, and awakened an enthusiastic response, when +uttered in the old church of St. Martin, where Æcolampadius first +preached the doctrines of the Reformation. + +I give the following _resumé_ of some remarks I made at the Basle +Alliance meeting. + +_The Times_ reported: + +“Dr. Stoughton contrasted the gathering of peoples in that assembly, +representative of all nations, with a meeting held in Basle four hundred +and fifty years ago. Christendom was then in a very divided state, for +the spirit of religious inquiry was breaking out, and the great +moot-point was, in all theological controversy, ‘Where lies the ultimate +authority for religious beliefs—in Popes, in Councils, or in the Word of +God?’ They met that day in times of a somewhat differentcharacter, but +of still deeper and wider agitation, for the question now was, not only +whether the Church or the Bible was the final test of truth, but also +whether reason or revelation should be our guide as to the highest of all +subjects which could affect the present and future interests of the human +family. But how vast the difference between that famous Council at Basle +and the Evangelical Alliance Conference of this day! Under what +different aspects was union regarded by the two assemblies! The one +aimed at uniformity, at a precise and definitely-expressed agreement of +opinion, in relation to theological and ecclesiastical points, which +might be enforced on all Christendom by pains and penalties,—even death, +to a recreant brother. The other seeks to promote unity, holding, after +the experience of ages, that uniformity was impossible, and that true +unity could not only be attained, but was compatible with a hearty, +loving, sympathetic Christian fellowship throughout the family of the +redeemed. He then contrasted the appearance of the two meetings, traced +out the history of the followers of John Huss, and, in a long and +exceedingly able and interesting historical review of the history of the +Reformation, showed that Protestant England was not only indebted to +Basle for men but for principles; and, identifying the two with the work +of Calvin at Geneva and John Knox in Scotland, he contended that the +outcome of those early struggles was not only religious freedom in +Europe, but, mainly through the Puritans of England, the religious life +and progress of America. Their simple reliance now, as then, was the +Gospel of Christ, and freedom to preach and practise its heaven-born +truths.” + +I have a great delight in all genuine Christian union, but my conception +of it is by no means confined to the cultivation of love and sympathy +with those, who in all, or in most, respects concur with me. There is an +admirable passage in Julius Hare’s preface to the third volume of +Arnold’s “Rome.” “We are so bound and shackled, by all manner of +prejudices, national, party, ecclesiastical, individual, that we can +hardly move a limb freely; and we are so fenced and penned in, that few +can look over their neighbour’s land, or up to any piece of sky, except +to _that which is just over their heads_.” I took an active part in the +early history of the Evangelical Alliance, and I rejoice in those points +of agreement which are expressed in its Evangelical faith; but I have +never liked its exclusion of some good people from its fellowship, on the +ground of differences in relation to ecclesiastical ordinances. I would +look kindly over “my neighbour’s land,” and towards “pieces of sky” which +are not “just over my head.” + +I can scarcely bring myself to speak of the sorrow which befell me in +November 1879. My beloved wife then died, and was interred in Hanwell +Cemetery, which pertains to the parish of Kensington. The beautiful +words in Proverbs are inscribed on her gravestone: “Her children arise +up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” Some +time ago I read in the Life of my American friend, Dr. Hodge, the +following passage respecting the deceased companion of _his_ life. I can +truly appropriate it to my departed loved one. “A humble worshipper of +Christ, she lived in love and died in faith. Trustful woman, delightful +companion, ardent friend, devoted wife, self-sacrificing mother, we lay +you gently here, our best beloved, to gather strength and beauty for the +coming of the Lord.” + +My dearest friend Joshua Harrison, who was to her as a brother, preached +a funeral sermon, in which he said, “The strength of her life was her +faith in the Son of God. Her path, though the sun shone brightly upon +it, was often a thorny one. Her own health was liable to frequent +interruptions, and her heart was pierced again and again by the loss of +children, whom she loved better than herself. Oh, the unmurmuring +resignation with which seven several times, she saw her dear ones carried +to the grave! Oh, the courage with which she bore the shock! She never +wavered in the conviction, ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me,’ but +felt that these sad sorrows must be only the obscurer manifestations of +His love. And hence she could write, ‘Here we shall never be exempt from +trial and sorrow, but when we reach that changeless home above, there +will be no need of sanctifying us there. All that is needful to make us +meet for that holy place must be done here; and oh, how much pruning and +purging, how much of grace and strength we need to help us to walk more +closely with Him.’ + +“She has reached that changeless abode now, and has left all sorrow +behind. Long, long had she been waiting, but the message came so +suddenly at last, that, without knowing she was dying, she found herself +at home. The words discovered in her desk, which by copying she had made +her own, received sweet and exact fulfilment: + + ‘The way is long, my Father, and my soul + Longs for the rest and quiet of the goal; + While yet I journey through this weary land, + Keep me from wandering; Father, take my hand, + Quickly and straight, + Lead to Heaven’s gate + Thy child. + + ‘The way is long, my child, but it shall be + Not one step longer than is best for thee, + And thou shalt know, at last, when thou shalt stand + Close by the gate, how I did take thy hand, + And quick and straight, + Lead to Heaven’s gate + My child.’” + + + + +CHAPTER XIII +1879–1883 + + +NEED was felt for some change after my sad bereavement; so in March, +1880, my daughter and I started for Italy. We tarried on our way a week +at Cannes with my friend, Mr. Prust, of Northampton, an old +fellow-student, who had a villa in the Riviera. I greatly enjoyed the +climate and scenery, and felt soothed by walks and drives on the shores, +through the cork groves, and round about to more distant places of +interest. Old affections sprang up anew between my friend and myself as +we talked of auld lang syne. Nothing could exceed the kindness shown by +him and his two interesting nieces. + +I met with some old acquaintances at Mentone; amongst the rest, with a +gentleman well known in the political and religious world and closely +connected with Lord Palmerston. He gave me much information as to what +he apprehended was the state of thought and feeling amongst the upper +class in reference to Christianity. There seemed to be a large amount of +light-hearted, thoughtless scepticism on the part of young people; girls +catching from their brothers doubts as to God and Christ and +eternity—doubts circulated in conversation and in periodicals. The facts +indicated did not strike me as deep and earnest, but as froth on the +surface of common talk; not, however, to be passed over as a trifling +phenomenon, for if those who occupy superior stations in the world have +their faith shaken as to natural and revealed religion, it forebodes +mischief to wider circles round them. My informant was inclined to +believe that outspoken doubt and disbelief was less to be dreaded than +concealed enmity. Moreover, that whilst there was much to excite concern +in literature and social intercourse of the present day, there was also +an increase in the higher as well as lower walks of thorough-going +Christian experience and practice. In my own limited acquaintance I have +been cheered to find instances of what appeared genuine piety where I +little expected them; works of benevolence going on nowadays amongst all +classes are surely tokens for good, which ought to fill us with +thankfulness. We are all tempted to confine ourselves to one side of the +world and Church picture before us; but we shall not get at the whole +truth by shutting one eye and keeping the other wide open. + +Leaving Cannes, we travelled by the Cornice Railway to Genoa, and there +renewed acquaintance with churches, palaces, and picture galleries, seen +years before. Then tarrying at Spezzia, we saw some new specimens of +Italian scenery and life. Pisa and Florence were again visited, cities +in which I loved to linger; and at the end of about ten days we reached +Rome. + +I had an introduction to Cardinal Howard, who sent me an invitation to +visit him. I was met by a Monseignor friend of his, with whom I had a +good deal of conversation. We discussed several topics, and then touched +upon the relations in which Catholics and Protestants stood to one +another. He considered there was improvement in this respect, more +social intercourse existing between them than was once the case. + +Pio Nono had a Jewish friend, who became a convert. Seeing him one day +depressed, “the holy father,” as this Monseignor called him, asked what +was the cause. + +“I have just lost my father, who died a Jew, and I am greatly concerned +about the state of his soul.” + +“But was he a good Jew, devout and acting up to the light he had?” + +“Yes,” was the reply. + +Then came the Pope’s rejoinder, “I will pray for him; and do you pray for +him, and I doubt not that God will have mercy on him.” + +These were his words as well as I can remember. The drift of the story +and its application were intended to show that the deceased pontiff did +not despair of a Jew’s salvation. He did not look upon those outside the +Roman pale as beyond the reach of God’s mercy, though needing +purification in a future state. + +Whilst we were talking the Cardinal came in. The reception he gave me +was singularly cordial, and we had a good deal of friendly chat relative +to the Stanley family. The favours I asked he granted at once; one was a +special introduction to the chief librarian at the Vatican, and the +seeing more of its treasures than I had done when I visited the library +many years before. He took me into his library, well furnished with +books, in handsome bindings, and we had some talk about Thomas Aquinas, +in whose writings I took an interest. He recommended to me some little +books of analysis and comment. He also procured a papal permission for +my daughter to see St. Peter’s Crypt, which is closed to ladies +generally, on all days of the year except one. The Cardinal arranged +with one of the Vatican librarians that I should have special facilities +for seeing historical documents; and afterwards, on my reaching the +Vatican by appointment, I was received by an officer, who accompanied me +into one of the magnificent galleries, which I had seen years before, to +find then all book-cases closed. Now some of them were opened, and I was +permitted to take down any volumes I liked; and I at once luxuriated in +the inspection of charming Aldine editions of patristic and other +authors—the paper as white, and the printing as fresh, as when they were +produced four centuries ago. + +I was surprised to find that provision was made for the use of printed +books, and certain MSS., by readers, admitted after the fashion in our +British Museum. There are catalogues, giving titles and press-marks; +and, by writing for what you want upon slips of paper, and handing them +to an attendant, as in the British Museum, you attain the volumes +desired, which you can use at desks provided for the purpose. A +catalogue of much greater compass than exists at present, I was informed, +is in progress; but the Cardinal told me, it might be a long time before +it was finished, adding, that Rome is the Eternal City in more senses +than one. He encouraged me to believe that even the archives of the Holy +See might be accessible; but, far short of that, MSS. which I wrote for, +and examined, were sufficient to convince me that there is abundant +materials for extensive research, beyond what was formerly possible. +Besides, in the vast Library of the Dominicans—who once had their +monastery at Sopra Minerva—a library which is now open to the public, +under certain regulations, there are the archives of the Roman +Inquisition; the historical use which now can be made of them, appears in +many numbers of _La Rivista Christiana_, in which I found many valuable +extracts. Much interesting information respecting early Italian +confessors may be found in those Inquisitionary records. + +I saw several Protestant brethren in Rome; and, besides preaching in the +Presbyterian Church twice, was invited to address a large meeting of +Italians, through the medium of the Rev. Mr. Piggott, who was my kind +interpreter. I took occasion to lament that Italian Protestants, whilst +not by any means numerous, were broken up into so many parties; said that +it would be far better if they would work together; and if that were +impossible, it was at least desirable and easy, not to interfere with +each other’s proceedings, by opposition or uncivil criticism. Judging +from a response on the part of an Italian, I was glad to find my remarks +were not deemed offensive; but I am afraid they did no real good. + +Whilst in Rome at this time I tried to turn my visit to some account by +restudying its Christian antiquities. Christian art in its early state +is a subject illustrated by the Catacombs. The rude paintings and +sculptures familiar to every Roman visitor, familiar by means of books to +thousands who have never seen the originals, are historical and symbolic. +Noah and the Ark, Abraham offering up Isaac, Moses receiving the law, +Jonah and the whale, Daniel and the lions, the three Hebrews in the +furnace—these have a Christian meaning, and point typically to truths +respecting Christ’s redemption. Subterranean Rome, it has been well said +by a French author, is “_a living book_, palpable, everlasting,” and +there are written on its pages, in hieroglyphic ways, truths which are +held by all true Christians, whether Protestant or Catholic. The Agape +or love-feast, a ship emblematic of the Church, the cross, the fish, the +dove, and other well-known signs of Christ and His salvation, occur over +and over again. Also there are historical pictures of the Nativity, and +of Peter denying his Master. Portraits also are found of Christ, of +Peter, of Paul. The Virgin Mary is seen by the side of her husband, +whilst the Holy Child, like an Italian bambino, lies in His cradle, an ox +licking His feet; close by, the Magi are watching stars in the east. No +picture or image of the Virgin, in solitary magnificence, at all +resembling the Madonnas of a later period, so far as I can make out, has +been discovered in the Catacombs. The contrast between the early +attempts and the later achievements of Roman Christian art in doctrinal +significance, as well as in imaginative conception and technical skill, +is obvious and striking. To pass from the former to the latter requires +an immense stride; to go from examining early representations of gospel +facts and principles, to look round churches and galleries rich in the +works of modern Catholic artists, is to exchange worlds. The difference +in religious meaning is as great as the difference in artistic merit. + +During this visit to Rome some remarkable religious meetings were +conducted by Dr. A. N. Somerville, of Glasgow, who in other parts of +Italy the same spring, held revivalistic Protestant services. Those at +Rome occurred on a spot, to reach which many citizens had to cross a +bridge with a toll bar on it. Notwithstanding, on the evening when we +attended, I should think about eight hundred people were present. The +preacher could not speak Italian, and what he said was translated into +that language, by a native Protestant. Everything was skilfully managed, +and the effect appeared on the whole, solemn and impressive. +Congregations after the same methods had been previously gathered in +Florence, where the addresses, according to report, had produced +considerable impression. Sankey’s hymns, translated into Italian, were +sung at Rome, with Sankey’s tunes; how far solid evangelical results +followed I could not ascertain. + +We made, at this time, two excursions which I must notice. One was very +short: only as far as Ostia, where there are still some Roman remains. +The present town is not worth notice, but the ancient city, Hare says in +his “Days near Rome,” is like Pompeii. I cannot quite agree with him. +The deep ruts of Roman chariot wheels; fragments here and there of Roman +pottery, human bones, coloured marbles, and a few architectural relics, +are of interest; but what attracted me to the spot was the memory of +Augustine, who, in his “Confessions,” paints such a touching picture of +his mother Monica’s illness and death. Thoughts of that interview, as +related by the converted son, were the only charm of our visit, and the +hour or two we were compelled to spend in the place, for the refreshment +of our coachman and his horse, were most dreary. The long, long gossip +going on between a priest and the mistress of the little farm, betokened +the intense idleness and vulgarity of both,—typical, I fear, of the whole +neighbourhood. + +Another expedition we made was of a very different kind. We engaged a +carriage to the charming haunts of Tivoli, where picturesque objects in +the town and its vicinity, and the stupendous waterfall with manifold +associations, clustering round the immediate neighbourhood, created +memorable delight. Next day we drove to Subiaco, along an interesting +road rich in memories of old Roman rural life. My daughter wrote in her +journal:— + + “It was a glorious morning, the sun was shining brightly, and in the + cool spring air, our three pretty little black horses dashed along + the road at a good pace, so that we soon found ourselves winding in + and out amongst the Sabine Hills. We climbed up a steep ascent, only + to go dashing down on the other side. The retreating hills, rising + here and there to a great height, were clothed with trees, some of a + sombre colour, some fresh with the bright hue of early spring, with + here and there a cluster of silver olives, making a delightful + variety of colour; whilst, at our feet, the roadside was beautiful + with anemones, cyclamen, honeysuckle, and saxifrage; and, lower + still, ran the refreshing river Arno.” + +Not far from Subiaco there is a deep gorge with sloping sides of rock and +foliage, reaching down to the river Arno, bordered by chestnut trees, +amidst which, here and there, rises a tall cypress. The brow of the hill +on the side nearest Subiaco, is crowned by a far-famed monastery in +which, very different from what it is now, the great St. Benedict, +founder of a monastery which bears his name, spent his early days and +prepared for his great life work, which began at Monte Cassino, on the +road from Rome to Naples. + +We left Subiaco for Olevano, and were benighted on our way, as the horses +toiled up hill after hill. We reached Olevano late at night, and caused +quite a commotion in the narrow street, by our inquiries after the hotel, +where we were to pass the night, and which, ignorantly, we had passed by, +at the hill-top which overlooks the town. There, to our delight, we met +with a most enjoyable reception, as the house is a favourite resort for +artists; and though we blundered into a room, already occupied by guests, +we were permitted to remain, and listen to charming stories of the place +and its surroundings. After tarrying a few hours next morning, we had to +hasten our departure, that we might catch a train on the railway from +Naples to Rome. + +After leaving Rome on our way to England, we halted some days at Venice, +and revived old recollections. I went over points of interest in a visit +years before, and new pictorial and architectural pleasures were enjoyed. +We proceeded to Bologna, and crossed the beautiful Lago di Garda, spent a +day or two at Trent, where special services were being held for young +people, and hosts of “shining ones” in white, crowded the churches. + +In 1881 I visited Italy again, especially for the purpose of carrying on +researches commenced just before. The journey was rapid. Reaching +Turin, accompanied by my dear daughter, I began my work by searching out +localities which I could easily identify. In other places I picked up +illustrations I desired; for, when the mind is bent on a particular +inquiry, it is wonderful how it draws cognate matters to itself. We made +an excursion to Pavia, and, on the way, stopped at the beautiful +monastery of Certosa. Pavia, situated on the river Ticino, with a +covered bridge, is interesting, from its antiquities and history. The +churches are specimens of Lombardic architecture, and in the Duomo one +was startled to find the tomb of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, whose +remains were transferred from Africa to this city. They were there at +the time of our visit, his monument being full of magnificence and +beauty, in general form and particular details. Since I was at Pavia, +the body has been restored to its original resting-place. Pavia connects +itself with the philosopher, Boetius, by a popular tradition that he was +imprisoned in a tower belonging to the city. Piacenza and Bologna during +this journey afforded gleanings which helped me to realise important +events occurring there at the time of the Reformation; but it was in +Florence that I did most work, and spent more than a week from day to day +tracking Savonarola’s footsteps through the streets, from San Marco to +the Palazzo Vecchio, and back again, not forgetting his visit to Lorenzo +di Medici at his villa in Careggi, with views of rich woodlands and +grassy fields. But my chief employment was in the public library, +searching out and deciphering original documents, connected with his +trial. According to one account Savonarola underwent an examination, +first by words, then by threats, then by torture; and on the second day +of his imprisonment was put on the rack. The account of the trial which +I gathered from original sources, was in harmony with that of Villari in +his life of the martyr. There are two letters appended, one addressed to +the Pope respecting _la vita buono_ of the sufferer, and another by a +large number of Florentine citizens. I was especially interested in +Savonarola’s Bible, which he used to carry under his arm. It is entitled +“Biblia integra,” the type beautifully clear, the date 1491. It contains +some of his prophecies in MS. Signor Guicciardini has contributed a +large collection of Savonarola’s works to this Magliabecchian Library, as +it is called, and the catalogue of them runs over sixty pages. + +After leaving Florence, we visited the Waldensian valleys, of which I +have given some account in my “Footprints of Italian Reformers,” and I +may here add, that I agree fully with Professor Comba in his opinion, +that the Waldenses, properly speaking, do not appear in history earlier +than the twelfth century, and then they are seen scattered over the South +of France at Metz, and in the Netherlands—their origin being ascribed by +their enemies to Peter Waldo of Lyons, who does not appear to have +visited the valleys. I found the good people in the valleys opposed to +the results of Professor Comba’s researches. An intelligent daughter of +a Waldensian minister said, “We do not believe in them at all here.” +After studying the subject, let me add, I do. + +In 1881 my dear friend Dr. Stanley died, after so short an illness that I +had no opportunity of seeing him in his last hours. His funeral was an +event of national interest. + +He had much of the mind which distinguished “that disciple whom Jesus +loved.” His singular sweetness of disposition was partly natural, for he +was a gentle, quiet boy, winning many hearts; but it was gracious and +spiritual also, a result of sincere discipleship to the Divine Master. I +often felt surprised at his extraordinary amount of forbearance under +most unjust and cruel attacks. I once alluded to the need of patience +amidst such trials, instancing Archbishop Tillotson, who left behind him +a bundle of scurrilous letters, labelled with the words, “May God forgive +the writers as I do.” I learned from my friend that once he was accused +of infidelity by an anonymous correspondent; and on another occasion, +after the figures of Moses, David, Paul, and Peter had been placed in the +choir of the Abbey, he received a note beginning with a charge of +idolatry. Our Broad Church Dean, and the prelate of the Revolution were +ecclesiastically and socially much alike. As to theology the former told +me there is much in the teaching of Scripture which transcends human +conception, much which, running along lines of mystery, he felt himself +unable to follow; but, at the same time, he would remark, there is much +more that is plain, which “a wayfaring man, though a fool,” may receive +and “not err therein.” To these plain things, he said, he desired to +cleave; these plain things he endeavoured to preach. The main difference +between others and himself was that certain Evangelical principles were +plainer to them than to him. + +His interest in Bible study was intense, especially with regard to +historical and biographical subjects; and it was well said, that whilst +some critics seemed to delight in destroying certain parts, his delight +was to build them up into a grand whole. His habit was to maintain +truth, so far as he saw it, rather than to attack and overthrow error; +and his gift of felicitously adapting events and passages of Holy Writ to +passing incidents and characters, was truly wonderful; especially when an +opportunity occurred for weaving sacred associations round the walls of +his beloved Abbey. Nor did he fail to turn his skill in this respect to +admirable account, when preaching in America. + +Dr. Stanley’s amiableness never betrayed a suspicion of weakness in his +character. Indeed he had a side almost stern in some of its appearances; +and he fought against what he deemed evil, with great vehemence; and +stood up very boldly, I know, against unprincipled people, declaring that +he would not meet them, except in the presence of witnesses. + +To see him at his best was to be with him alone, when he gave full sway +to his thoughts and feelings, expressing them with greater freedom than I +ever heard him do in company. The most enjoyable time was late in the +evening, after guests had retired; especially when he conducted me to my +bedroom, candlestick in hand, and tarried for a good while chatting about +subjects and persons of interest to us both. + +Not long before his death, I spent a night at Westminster, when we talked +about Oliver Cromwell. With much pathos he read aloud Carlyle’s +description of the Lord Protector’s last hours; and, some time before +this, he told me that he had been engaged in endeavouring to ascertain +what became of the hero’s remains after indignities done to them at the +Restoration. + +Soon after the Dean’s death, I received from Mrs. Drummond, his +executrix, a note accompanied by the picture it referred to. “In a +memorandum left by our dear Dean, he desired a photograph of him, which +used to stand in the drawing-room, should be sent to you, in remembrance +of a sincere friendship.” + +With regard to the composition of historical works he was in the habit of +employing such information as he could gather from friends. + +Oxford men have told me, that he used to lay under contribution whatever +he could learn from other people’s researches. For these, however, he +was always ready to make ample returns. + +Dr. Stanley told me that he was in the habit of looking at some +historical characters through the medium of living people, who appeared +to him, in one way or other, to resemble them. Excellencies and +frailties on the part of deceased individuals, thus came out more vividly +before him. It struck me as a considerable help to a realisation of what +departed persons _might_ be; but it requires to be carefully employed, +lest from resemblances which are real, we infer other things which are +imaginary. + +His taste was comprehensive. He loved everything which related to +English history, especially where it touched his own dear Abbey. +Conformity and Nonconformity he sometimes sought to harmonise in +surprising ways. + +I may add here that there was in the Abbey a monument to Dr. Watts in a +dilapidated condition, when I suggested a plan for its restoration. The +plan was adopted, and in consequence the monument was for a time removed. +During its absence I received a note containing a playful allusion to the +circumstance:— + + “If some strong Nonconformist should wander through the Abbey this + week, he may go away with the impression that in a fit of sudden + intolerance the Dean had torn down the monument of Isaac Watts. I + assure you that the gaping and vacant chasm in the wall might well + suggest such an interpretation. I hope, however, in a few days the + restored angel and the mended harp of your sweet psalmist will dispel + any hopes that may be awakened in High Churchmen or suspicions in + Nonconformists.” + +I was informed not long after the Dean’s death, that a gentleman in Kent +had in his possession what was said to be Oliver Cromwell’s skull. A +friend of mine procured from that gentleman an invitation to see the +relic. A large, handsome box was placed on a table, and out of it was +taken, wrapped up in silk, a man’s skull. The lower part of the face was +gone, leaving the upper jawbone entire, or nearly so; and within the +mouth we saw the shrivelled remains of a tongue, while some of the skin +on the upper part of the face was still preserved. What astonished me +was the quantity of hair adhering to the scalp; and also the following +circumstances pertaining to the relic. The inside, carefully examined by +a medical companion, plainly appeared to have been embalmed; signs of +this were attached to the surface. Moreover, part of a spike penetrated +the upper bone, showing that once the skull must have been exposed in a +way common enough, when men, put to death for political crimes, had their +heads set up in conspicuous places. Finally the head had been severed +from the body, not by a sharp axe, but by a knife which had hacked and +torn the skin. These peculiarities pointed to one who, having received +honourable burial, was afterwards beheaded with a blunt instrument, and +then treated as a traitor, by having his head exhibited like those fixed +on the top of Temple Bar. These peculiarities pertained to Oliver +Cromwell; and to no one else. Documents are preserved together with the +relic. They state that the relic remained publicly exposed for a long +time, till one night a gale of wind blew it down; that a soldier on +sentry picked it up and took it home, and then became alarmed at finding +there was search made after it by public authorities. He concealed it +down to the time of his death; and when danger was over, the secret was +divulged. The skull was afterwards exhibited as a source of profit, and +an account of the exhibition appears among papers preserved in the box. +After being withdrawn from public view, it was privately sold to an +ancestor of the gentleman possessing it at the time of my visit. There +is a story afloat, that Cromwell was not buried in Westminster, another +corpse being substituted for public interment, and, therefore, that the +body hanged at Tyburn was not his! This story is not to be trusted. + +In the August following Dean Stanley’s death, I made, with my friend +Harrison and some of my family, a tour in Germany. We were delighted +with the Bavarian Highlands and the Bader See. + +We visited Oberammergau, and heard much about the Passion Play, and were +conducted to the place of performance, by persons who had taken part in +it. They gave us interesting information. The priest of the place is no +bigot. He insisted that a Protestant, who had died in the village, +should be interred in consecrated ground, for which, we are told, he +received a rebuke from Rome. The drive we had from Partenkirchen to +Mittenwald called forth exclamations of great delight. + +In the following winter I mixed with members of various denominations, +some widely separated from others. This led me to think a good deal +about consistency. I noted down at the time considerations of this kind. +Everybody admits the palpable truism, “Truth is true, and falsehood is +false,” and some deduce from that the corollary: “Then stick to the true, +and eschew the false altogether. Countenance what you believe, by +consorting exclusively with such as believe as you do.” + +But, it must be remembered, systems are complex, and cannot be fairly +dealt with in the fashion recommended by some. In many cases, what is +condemned as a whole, contains seeds of another sort. There are +estimable people who are not accustomed to analyse what they condemn, and +cannot see what of truth may be found in the midst of error. To look +alone at one side of a system, which, after all, has much of truth, may +involve us in error. Thinking of Divine sovereignty, if not connected +with human responsibility, may land us in Antinomianism; to dwell upon +responsibility by itself, may make us Pelagians. + +In the summer of 1882, I went down to Rodborough, in Gloucestershire, to +visit my friend, Sir S. Marling, just made baronet, and to preach, I +think, for the seventh time, on behalf of the Sunday Schools. The +Countess of Huntingdon, George Whitefield, and Rowland Hill had all been +in some way connected with the chapel. + +On the occasion now mentioned, there was a large gathering of day and +Sunday scholars, a picture worthy of Wilkie’s pencil. Sir Samuel and his +lady were encircled by guests old and young, receiving from them +demonstrations of affection in loud huzzas. + +Soon after my return from Italy I attended meetings connected with +Wesleyan Methodism, when my friend Mr. McArthur, (afterwards knighted), +was Lord Mayor of London. He invited me at different times to meet a +large number of ministers of his own and other communions, and at such +times he manifested the catholic spirit by which he was eminently +distinguished. I think it was once in his mayoralty that the archbishops +and bishops dined at the Mansion House table, when toasts were proposed, +to which the Archbishop of Canterbury had to respond. Afterwards +Nonconformists were honoured in the common way, and it fell to my lot to +reply in a few words. The Archbishop had, in a good-natured style, +referred to the cares and troubles of his right reverend brethren, and +himself. Alluding to what he had said, I ventured to remark I was quite +content with my humbler position, and had no aspirations after a seat on +the Episcopal Bench. Further, I pleaded, as I always do, for catholic +union, and remarked that I strove to be a Christian first; next, a +patriotic religious Englishman; and thirdly, a devout Dissenter, adding +that I should be ashamed of my Nonconformity, if that were so +obstreperous, as to quarrel with the subordinate place I assigned to it. + +At the close of the year 1882 Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. +With him I had the pleasure of being acquainted soon after his +appointment to the See of London. Our relations afterwards were very +friendly. I was kindly invited to share in the pleasure of his Lambeth +hospitality; and at a time of deep domestic sorrow he was one of the very +first to express affectionate sympathy in a letter of condolence. I +found him always very kind, and he impressed me with the conviction that +in his judgment of Conformity and Nonconformity, and of the relative +duties of Churchmen and Dissenters, he took much more sensible views than +most of his brethren. He did not seem to anticipate, as at all probable, +the comprehension of all, or most, English Christians within the pale of +one community; since each denomination has its principles, its +traditions, and its trust property, and is not likely to merge its +peculiarities in the adoption of others. A wise, liberal, Christian +_modus vivendi_ was the object of his desire. I attended his funeral, +and met in his residence at Addiscombe, a large number of clergymen, and +men of different opinions, drawn together by a common regard for his +eminent moral and religious worth. The trees were bare, the ground was +covered with snow, and the long procession walked through the park, the +winter sun brightening the scene. The whole struck me as very solemn, +and in harmony with the occasion that had brought us together. + +My journeys abroad were approaching an end when in 1882 my daughter and I +spent a few weeks in Switzerland, on the shores of the Genevan lake, and +in its neighbourhood. One memorable expedition we made was to Grenoble +and the Grande Chartreuse. The monastery was difficult of access early +in this century, but now there are well-appointed vehicles for conveying +tourists from the railway to the gates of this romantic retreat. The +ascent as far as Laurent du Pont is up a road lined with acacias, +bordering barley fields, commanding glimpses of a magnificent valley, +with bosky dells, cut in twain by the river Isere. The gorge to the +right increases in grandeur as one ascends. Purple rocks rise from +depths of massy verdure, sublimity succeeds beauty, and, after reaching a +broad mountain-girdled plain, one arrives at a halting place called +Laurent du Pont. Thence the road becomes more steep, winding along +ledges of rock, whence, through openings, one looks down on pine woods, +and sees the stream fighting its way, like our contested passage through +this troublesome world. We reached a thick forest at the top of the +pass, and came to the monastery—a pile, of buildings sheltered on green +uplands. There were before us long walls, square towers, and steep +roofs, dappled with dormer windows; here and there was a slender spire. +The buildings stand 4268 feet above the level of the sea, and one of the +corridors is 660 feet long. The original foundation dates far back; but +little of what one now sees is older than the seventeenth century. The +founder was the famous Bruno, who, with six companions, retreated to this +spot so secluded and desolate. _Chartre_ signifies a prison, but it also +expresses what we mean by the word _charter_. The buildings have been +seven times destroyed, but in the seventeenth century the convent reached +its meridian glory. + +No sooner had we entered the penetralia of the building, than we saw +notices requesting visitors not to smoke, nor loiter, nor speak loudly; +and in the distance were monks with white cloaks and cowls, gliding about +like ghosts from the other world. Pictures of Carthusian convents were +hanging on the corridor walls; and the Chapter House exhibited badly +painted portraits of past generals. Following our guide, we entered a +vaulted cloister, with windows on one side and doors on the other, +bearing texts of Scripture, such as “Narrow is the way which leadeth unto +life,” and “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath +cannot be My disciple.” Stations of the Cross are hung upon the walls; +through a window are caught glimpses of a green garden, bright and cheery +amidst sombre appearances all round. The dormitories have each a +cupboard-like bed, a little reading desk, a stove, directions for +novices, a statuette of the Virgin, and a crucifix. There are workshops +fitted up with lathes, and a small chapel with an altar cloth, covered +with skulls and cross-bones. Inscriptions such as “Vanity of vanities, +all is vanity,” expressed the characteristic feeling of the inmates. The +library is handsome, well fitted up, with beautifully bound books. + +Visitors are not admitted to the monastic chapel; but from a tribune they +are permitted to look down on the ante-chapel, and witness matins at the +appointed hour. The brotherhood are remarkable for industry, being +graziers of cattle, and manufacturers of liqueurs. + +The clock struck six just after we left the monastery, and a calm summer +evening shone on the old walls, the green pastures, and the climbing +woods. The pass, as we descended, struck us as almost equal to the Via +Mala in grandeur, united with beauties which the other scene can scarcely +boast. Road-making, tree-felling, saw-mills, iron works, distilleries, +cement manufactories, told of widespread industry. The old monastery lay +behind; modern enterprise stood out before. + +We were rapidly driven through Laurent du Pont, as the star-studded sky, +streaked by the Milky Way, overarched the region. We noticed glow-worms +in the hedges, brought out by advancing night, and presently the wide +vale at the foot of the descending road seemed dusted with bright-looking +objects like glow-worms; but they turned out to be the lamps of Voirons, +where we took the train for Grenoble, and finished a day of remarkable +interest. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV +1883–1885 + + +AT this period I was engaged in the preparation of “The Spanish +Reformers,” and to give vividness to the work, with regard to local +scenery and circumstances, I resolved in March 1883 to visit the +Peninsula, where I might gather what was possible for the accomplishment +of my purpose. + +My daughter was my companion, and had been studying Spanish to render me +assistance. We travelled through France on our way to the north-east of +Spain. + +We halted at Lyons: in the neighbourhood of it persecution occurred in +the second century; but unlike what obtained in Spain three hundred years +ago, it was not the persecution of one class of Christians by another, +but the persecution of the Church by a heathen world. We find embedded +in the Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius a document giving an account of +sufferings by believers at that time who were in the neighbourhood of +Lyons. Vienne, with its glass houses and metal foundries, coalpits and +smoke, is now passed by travellers, without any interest; but in the +second century it took precedence of Lyons, and had a flourishing Church, +a member of which—Blandina, a maiden slave—suffered death as the penalty +of her faith. {315} + +We tarried a night at Lyons, drove round the city, saw the cathedral and +other buildings, and ascended a hill on which stands the church of Notre +Dame de Fourvières, covered and crowded with ex-votive offerings, in +return for miraculous cures by the Virgin. From the elevation views are +caught of extensive scenery. Thence we proceeded to Arles, rich in Roman +remains, including a magnificent amphitheatre. The cathedral of St. +Trophimus said to have been one of St. Paul’s disciples, is an +interesting specimen of twelfth or thirteenth century architecture. +Thence we proceeded to Narbonne, a quaint old town, of importance in +Roman times, with ramparts still of some interest, and quaint streets, +through which we had an evening’s ramble. The cathedral of St. Just is +an unfinished edifice of the thirteenth century, with some good tracery +in the windows. The city is distant from the sea only about eight miles. +Thence we proceeded to Perpignan, and, entering Spain, reached our +destination at Figueras, where we were kindly welcomed by our friends, +{316} who are engaged in evangelistic work amongst Roman Catholic +Spaniards. + +Figueras is a considerable town, which greatly interested us. It was the +day before Good Friday that we arrived, and we were much amused by a +number of boys with wooden mallets vehemently beating the pavement, which +was explained to us as a custom indicative of hatred to the Jews for +having crucified our Lord; what the Jews had to do with Figueras I could +not make out. In the evening there was a procession through the streets +of a truly magnificent description. It consisted of the gentry in the +town, attired in antique Spanish costumes, and presented an imposing +spectacle. Ladies personated the Virgin Mary and other Scripture +characters, and numerous candles carried by attendants made a splendid +illumination. On the following day, Good Friday, we had a drive into the +country, where we saw and heard of what went on in the way of missionary +work conducted by our zealous friends. In the evening we visited a +neighbouring church which was illuminated, and crowded with people +engaged in religious service. After this, we saw in the streets a long +procession, including penitents, who were fettered with chains. + +From Figueras we travelled to Barcelona, a city rich in commercial +enterprise and wealth, the streets crowded with people and enlivened by +carriages of grandees and wealthy merchants, as well as by vehicles +employed in humble traffic. The cathedral is a noble edifice, in which +we attended Divine worship on Easter Sunday. A priest with difficulty +made his way through a densely-crowded congregation to the altar steps, +where he knelt and prayed, and then mounted a temporary pulpit. As soon +as he opened his lips, all eyes were turned towards him. His voice was +marvellous and his attitudes were graceful; sometimes he was persuasive, +then indignant, always earnest; women wept, tears ran down men’s cheeks. +The sermon was on our Lord’s resurrection. He insisted on our duty to +remember Christ—“the Way, the Truth, and the Life”; and he showed the +effect of this on the hearts and lives of believers. He dwelt on the +duty of repentance, and urged people to come to Christ. In a touching +manner he referred to his own experience, and exhorted the congregation +to believe, pray, and obey the Gospel; saying over and over again, +“_Haber fè_, _fè_, _fè_”—“Have faith, faith, faith.” + +I met with signs of Protestant work going on in Barcelona, and a +gentleman residing there at the time, told me of what the British and +Foreign Bible Society was doing in Spain. He gave it, as his opinion, +that it exceeded other instrumentalities in the efficiency of its +service. I find it stated by a Spanish author, that Barcelona abounds in +mendicancy, and I have, as I write, a woodcut before me representing a +pitiable crowd of beggars at one of the cathedral doors. {318} + +Next to Barcelona, we visited Tarragona, travelling there by rail. +Tarragona is situated on an eminence commanding a fine view of the +Mediterranean, and I was much interested in the architecture of the +cathedral, a building of the eleventh century, fully described by Street +in his work on “The Gothic Architecture of Spain.” + +Whilst tarrying at Tarragona, I made an excursion to Poblet, rarely +visited by English, though frequented by French and German travellers. +This place is distinguished by monastic remains of extraordinary +magnificence. You wander amongst courts, cloisters, and dormitories, +through stately halls, which once boasted of a magnificent library rich +in MSS.; through a palace appropriated for the use of royal and noble +visitants; and through a stately church with a nave of seven bays. The +architectural grandeur of the whole is amazing; I was surprised to learn +that it is so rarely seen by our countrymen. Kings and nobles were +brought there for interment, and in that respect it vies with our +Westminster Abbey. At Poblet shattered tombs may still be seen; and few, +if any, but Spaniards of purest blood, were permitted to sleep within the +monastic walls. A marble slab may be seen covering the remains of an +Englishman, described in the Spanish guide book as “Felipe de, Marquése +de Malbursi y de Cacharloch,” etc. Wharton was the English name of this +well-known personage, who was made Knight of the Garter by James II. He +had become a Roman Catholic, but his father was a distinguished English +Nonconformist. + +Our next destination was Valencia, to which city we travelled by rail, +enchanted as we approached it, by beautiful scenery which one does not +find abundant in Spain. Augustus Hare breaks out rather rapturously +respecting his approach: “Day broke in time to show us the first vision +of tall palms, with their feathery foliage, rising black against one of +Tennyson’s ‘daffodil skies,’ which above, still deep blue, was filled +with stars.” The groves and gardens appeared to me very beautiful; and +the soil is so fertile, that lucerne is sown fifteen times in the course +of a year. Valencia has battlemented walls; and its arched gate, the +Puerta de Sarranos, reminds one of old English barbicans. It is an +Oriental kind of place, and has charmingly arched entrances for +light—_agimes_,—_i.e._, openings by which the sun enters. The city is +full of memories, connected with the Cid, which I have not space to +introduce; but I may mention that precursors of the Reformation entered +the city in 1350,—under the name of Beghards, who figure rather +prominently in the religious history of that period. + +The Cathedral of Valencia is a noble edifice, and has one magnificent +entrance of richly decorated Gothic. There is, in the Colegio del +Patriarca, a ceremony every week on Friday, which attracts a number of +people. It consists in letting down an altar piece by concealed +machinery; and then, by withdrawing a curtain, there is disclosed a large +picture of our Saviour on the Cross. Those who assemble to witness this +ceremony, are required to appear in mourning. I explored the city from +end to end, and found it by no means so uninteresting as some represent +it. + +We started in the evening for Cordova, a long distance; but as it was +accomplished in darkness, I noticed nothing by the way, except stoppages +at stations and a change of trains. We crossed the Sierra Morena, which, +in some places, at least, must be very magnificent, if one may judge from +an engraving of tall rocks facing each other, leaving scarcely room for +muleteers to pass between. The approach to Cordova is inviting, and the +Moorish city is beheld amidst a fertile region, across which runs the +Guadalquivir. + +We had been invited to take up our abode with an exemplary Scotch +missionary in the city. The sojourn was in a quiet street at a +comfortable dwelling, with an open space in the middle of the residence, +planted with shrubs. Upon this we looked down from windows in our +apartments. One room on the ground floor is sufficiently large to +receive a congregation of about fifty people. We were there on a Sunday +and attended worship in the evening. + +The Mosque of Cordova, now a cathedral, is one of the most wonderful +buildings in the world. The surrounding walls are from thirty to +sixty-feet high. The courtyard measures 430 feet by 210. Once there +were nineteen entrance gates, now there is but one. Formerly there were +inside the mosque 1200 monolithic columns, now there are only 850. What +is the _coro_, or choir, of the cathedral, was erected in the sixteenth +century, after the Mohammedan mosque had become a Catholic church. We +had pleasant walks and drives in the neighbourhood. + +The next celebrated place in our route was the far-famed Granada, of +which expectations were highly raised, without any disappointment. We +wandered about the Alhambra for several days. The Hall of the Lions, the +Hall of the Ambassadors, and the Hall of the Abencerrages,—with their +arches and columns, courts and colonnades, fountains and flowers,—kept us +spel-bound day by day. We read Washington Irving on the fascinating +spots which he describes so vividly. We could but bow to his relentless +fidelity, where he assures us that, after examining Arabic authorities +and letters, written by Boabdil’s contemporaries, he was convinced, that +the whole collection is fictitious with a few grains of truth at the +bottom. + +The fame of the Alhambra swallows up all which is wonderful in Granada, +but, the city retains much besides worthy of a traveller’s attention. +The prospect you have of the place, the plain, and the surrounding hills, +is magnificent; and the cathedral, commenced in 1529, after the defeat +and banishment of the Moors, is a building of architectural interest. It +contains the Capella Real, with the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella; also +of Philip the Handsome, and his wife Juana, “Crazy Jane,” as she was +called, mother of the famous Charles V. The granddaughter tells us: “She +committed her soul to God and gave thanks to Him, that, at length, He +delivered her from all her sorrows.” In connection with the cathedral, +we meet with Fernando de Talavera, better known by Spaniards than by +Englishmen. Though he remained a Roman Catholic, he deviated from the +common opinions and usages of his age. The Carthusians have a monastery +outside the city, and on visiting it, I found pictures of English +priests, reported to have been martyrs at the period of the Reformation. +No doubt their sufferings are exaggerated on the monastic walls, but it +is a fact, beyond reasonable doubt, that there were Roman Catholics put +to death by English Protestants. + +We started one morning from Granada for Seville, and, on crossing the +Vega by the railway, we saw a good barley crop in the month of April. At +Bobadillo, we got on the Seville line, and found the country improve as +we came near to the city on the banks of the Guadalquivir. There, +instead of antique and uncomfortable _fondas_, travellers meet with +spacious and well-furnished hotels. We tarried several days in the city. + +The cathedral, of course, was the first object of interest; and, as soon +as possible, we repaired to it, and received an overpowering impression, +as we looked above, beneath, around. Above there is the magnificent +roof, spanning the breadth of the temple; beneath there lies a large slab +covering the remains, not, as sometimes supposed, of Columbus, who +discovered America, but of Fernando, his son. In Holy Week an immense +Greek cross, carved in wood, is raised over the spot, and lighted up so +as to produce an indescribable effect. The _coro_, or choir, is as +grand, though in another way, as the nave which leads up to it. In an +upper part of the edifice there are preserved MSS. and other memorials of +unrivalled Spanish discoveries, and they were freely shown to us. We +went to the Museum, and feasted on Murillo’s pictures. We were also +taken by a friend to see another work of the same artist, since +presented, I am told, to the Pope. + +Seville was headquarters of the Protestant cause. The Reformation did +not penetrate much below the hidalgo class. It left the masses almost +untouched. In Seville stood the Inquisition prison, till it was removed +to a palace in the Calle san Mario. “Here,” says Mr. Wiffen in 1842, +“while gazing on the edifice with feelings of awe, I recalled to +remembrance those martyrs for the truth, and, at the same time, I +listened with painful interest to the narration made to me by a Spanish +gentleman, of an attack on those very premises at a recent period by an +infuriated populace, who suffered but few of the friars confined there +for political offences, to escape with life. The building having taken +fire some perished in the flames, while others fell by the hands of the +assassins.” The tables were turned just then, priests were in prison for +political crimes, as heretics had been incarcerated in the sixteenth +century. + +Old Venetian political policy was carried out against Protestantism, and +the Inquisition office, with opened ears, listened for whisperings of +heresy. Horrors went on in secret places. I cannot relate them, but +they may be found in what is written by Limborch and Llorente. A few +miles from Seville is the monastery of San Isidore—the cradle of the +Spanish Reformation—and I visited the building with deep interest. The +chapel remains in tolerable repair, and is used as a parish church. The +chapter-house, sacristy and cloisters are preserved. Ancient pictures +hang on the walls, and old embroidered vestments are shown to visitors. +Bibles and Protestant books were of old secretly brought within the +walls, and monks began to read them. + +I have described Seville Cathedral and its treasures at some length in my +volume on “Spanish Reformers, their Memories and Dwelling Places.” I +cannot repeat here what has been said there. But let me say, the city is +full of interest to travellers, hotels are comfortable, shops are well +stocked with curiosities, manufactories are hives of industry, and +pictures by great masters are found in churches and private houses. I +was enchanted with some of the Murillos, and would advise every traveller +to visit the Sala de Murillo in Seville. + +I should have been glad to have prolonged my stay, and to have revisited +spots full of historic interest. But I had much before me to see and +study in the interior and north of Spain; therefore, though unwillingly, +we took the train one night for Madrid, making that a starting point for +other explorations. + +I may mention that during our stay at Madrid we were entertained in a +curious straggling house, occupied by Dr. Fliedner, a minister, who acted +as chaplain to the German Embassy. The house, it is said, was occupied +by the famous Escovedo, secretary to the still more famous Don Juan of +Austria; and one night as he was returning home six ruffians waylaid him, +between eight and nine o’clock, and inflicted on him wounds, of which he +died in half an hour. Peres, a great villain who hated Don Juan, is said +to have obtained the sanction of Philip II. for this abominable deed, +prompted by the discovery of an amour between Escovedo and the Princess +of Eboli. It is a horrible story of crime and vice, common in the secret +annals of Spain. + +In Madrid I had the privilege of using the public library, and found +there a large collection of English and French, as well as Spanish, +literature. I am sorry to say, that on the shelves, many volumes in our +language appeared, written by “advanced thinkers,” tending to the +diffusion of anti-Christian principles. And, in the windows of +booksellers I noticed works for sale of the same description. The Bible +Society I found at work within limits marked by law, and I attended one +evening a Spanish congregation gathered by Protestant agency, and had the +privilege of addressing those present, through the medium of an +interpreter. I met with specimens of Spanish superstition which were +very degrading. In one case I saw papers, with a figure of the Virgin’s +shoe printed upon them, sold to ignorant people as a sacred charm. + +The Plaza at Madrid is a magnificent square, encompassed by a line of +handsome buildings with a garden, fountains, and an equestrian statue of +Philip III. in the middle. Here some of the _autos_ were held in the +seventeenth century, and in 1869 excavations were made, where +incontestable proofs of burnings appeared in bones, charred wood, chain +links, nails and rivets discovered in the soil. Dr. Manning, in his +“Spanish Pictures,” wrote soon after the discovery: “I visited the spot, +and much as I had heard of the horrors of the Quemadore, I was not +prepared for the sight I beheld; layer above layer, like the strata of a +geological model, were these silent, but most eloquent witnesses of the +murderous cruelty of Rome.” + +I may here add that I saw other mementoes of the Spanish Inquisition in +underground vaults connected with a house occupied by the Rev. Mr. +Jameson, a Presbyterian clergyman at work in Madrid. I found recesses +walled up, which it was said had been cells in the days of persecution. + +Of course, I visited the immense picture-gallery in Madrid; but the size +and number of rooms with multitudes of paintings on the walls, were so +bewildering, as to make only a confused impression on my mind. Spanish +art has not the charm for me which it has for many. Velasquez and +Murillo, of course, are pre-eminent. The latter stands first of all in +my estimation. No one, who has seen only the dirty beggar boys at +Dulwich, can have any conception of Murillo’s merits. It is in Seville, +however, that he must be studied, if any one would see him at his best. +I found no Murillo in Madrid which charmed me like those it was my +privilege to enjoy in the Capital of the South. There is a good chapter +on Velasquez and Murillo in Sir E. Head’s “Handbook of Painting—Spanish +School.” + +“Velasquez and Murillo are preferred, and preferred with reason, to all +the others, as the most original and characteristic of their school. +These two great painters are remarkable for having lived in the same +time, in the same school, painted for the same people and of the same +age, and yet to have formed two styles so different and opposite that the +most unlearned can scarcely mistake them, Murillo being all softness, +while Velasquez is all sparkle and vivacity.” {329} + +A curious story is told of a picture by Velasquez—the portrait of Adrian +Pulido Pareja. Philip IV. coming, as usual, to see the artist at work, +started when he saw this portrait, and addressing himself to it, +exclaimed: “What, art thou still here? Did I not send thee off? How is +it thou art not gone?” But seeing the figure did not salute him, the +King discovered his mistake, and, turning to Velasquez, said: “I assure +you I was deceived.” + +We visited the Escorial some distance from Madrid. Philip II. is buried +there. Its situation is wild and desolate—a vast expanse of undulations, +scarcely to be called mountainous, except in the distance, where +snow-streaked sierras send cutting blasts over the slate roofs and +against the grey stone walls. The building itself looks like a +manufactory, at best like spacious barracks; one may think it something +between a prison and a convent, or rather a combination of the two; at +any rate its cold, stern, repulsive exterior is a fair type of the +builder’s character and influence. The only objects of much interest, +and they are in truth most melancholy, one finds in the monkish +apartments, the monastic chapel, and the costly sepulchre of the founder +and his family. A long and narrow room is shown with brick floor and +leathern chairs, where he dined. Next to it is another, only separated +by folding doors, from which, when open, the despot borrowed the light by +which he wrote his despatches. In this room is a plain oak table, with +three brass ink bottles on one side, and a velvet writing-case in the +middle; these, with the leather-bottomed chair on which he sat, are +carefully preserved. From this room you pass into a third, low and dark, +a mere cell, whence through an opening in the wall, the altar of the +monastery chapel may be seen; there he spent his last hours, after being, +like his prototype Herod, smitten by an angel of the Lord, and eaten up +of worms; no death could be more horrible. That chapel is an enormous +marble building, most costly, most dreary, and into one corner of the +_coro_ he would sometimes steal, to perform his devotions with the +Jeronymite brotherhood. The sepulchre under the high altar is reached by +a slippery marble staircase; and round the sides of the vault are placed +sarcophagi, one above another; Charles V. occupies the topmost position, +Philip being placed under his father. The dismalness of the spot is +unrelieved by any emblem or suggestion of Christian hope: not even such a +ray falls over it as that which lighted up the mind of the heathen +Cicero, when he spoke of meeting in the future life an assembly of noble +souls. + +Toledo is about forty miles from Madrid, and is easily reached by rail. +Scenery on the way is uninteresting till you get near the city, when, +crossing the bridge over the Tagus, you are reminded of the rocky seat on +which sits Durham Cathedral. Winding through narrow streets of the city +and past Moorish-looking entrances into courts, called _patios_, I +thought Toledo was a sort of album, with ornamented leaves on one side, +and romantic legends on the other. At the foot of St. Martin’s bridge +lies a cave, where Roderic, the last of the Goths, saw the lady whose +seduction caused the Moorish invasion; which invasion robbed the monarch +of his crown. The cathedral is grand indeed. The cloisters are full of +rich tracery, elegant pilasters crowned with statuettes, and open windows +adorned by elaborate tracery. The interior is worthy of its surroundings +and its approach; and I was deeply interested in the Mozarabic chapel. +There is preserved a thin folio, bearing the name of the chapel, and +containing a Latin service, used there every day. With it is connected +an absurd tradition, the story and meaning of which are disputed by +archæologists. With the cathedral you have connected the name of +Bartolomo Carranza, called the Black Friar, whose long story is entwined +round the Council of Trent, and with Philip of Spain, who married the +English Queen Mary. He attended Charles V. on his deathbed, and was +accused of heresy; and yet the Pope raised for him a monument in +commemoration of his virtues. It is said Carranza believed in the +doctrine of Justification by Faith; and his history from beginning to end +appears to me a hopeless puzzle. {333} + +In Toledo is the “Square Market,” as it is called; and here occurred +bullfights and burnings,—one of the latter in 1560, when Philip II. was +present. + +We returned from Toledo to Madrid and leaving the capital, a week or so +afterwards, travelled to Valladolid. The chief, indeed the only, +architectural monument in Valladolid is found in the combined edifices of +San Pablo’s Church, and San Gregorio’s College. The facade of the former +is an elaborate example of Gothic flamboyant; but the gateway of the +latter with its heraldic ornaments, coats of arms, statues in niches, and +numerous figures, has a bewildering effect. Columbus and Cervantes both +resided in this city; the former died in the Calle de Colon, the latter +wrote the first part of “Don Quixote” in the Calle de Rastro. + +Ford, in his voluminous “Guide to Spain,” at the beginning of a notice +respecting Valladolid, says: “In the first street, above the bridge, is +the site of the old Inquisition, the Court of Chancery, and the prison”; +adding the remark: “The great Chancery or Court of Appeal for the north +of Spain was moved to the present building by Ferdinand and Isabella. +The inscribed motto, ‘_Jura fidem ac pænam reddit sua munera +cunctus_’—seems rather strong, to all who know what Spanish _justitia_ +is, let alone Chancery in general.” + +Incipient stages of reformation come before us in this city. One sees in +imagination “The Calle del Doctor Cazalla,” of Jewish extraction, a man +of renown for his Protestant work, born in 1510; he had been Court +preacher and champion of orthodoxy, until he came under the influence of +German reformers. But he seems by no means to have been a Martin Luther, +for, when he was accused of dogmatising in a Valladolid conventicle, he +solemnly denied the fact, and said he had not _indoctrinated_ other +people with his own views. His end was not heroic. After being +dislocated on the rack, he recanted with a hope of life, but he found no +escape. The night before his execution, when acquainted with the final +sentence, the poor man said, “I must prepare to die in the grace of God, +for it is impossible for me to add to what I have said, without +falsehood.” We learn that, after all, he did not break with Rome, but +received absolution; and then, instead of being burnt, he was strangled. +His house was pulled down, the spot strewn with salt, and a column placed +where the building had stood. An inscription upon it stated: “Lutheran +heretics assembled here in conventicle against the Catholic faith and the +Roman Church.” A namesake, Francesco de Vibero Cazalla, more valiant for +the truth, remained constant to the last. Another martyr behaved +heroically, only lamenting that his wife abjured, and he saw her dressed +as a penitent. But we are told the husband’s look never departed from +her eyes. In my “Spanish Reformers” I have given a detailed account of +several sufferers for the truth at Valladolid. + +Of the cathedral, Street, in his work on “Spanish Architecture,” says: +“Nothing could ever cure the hideous unsightliness of the exterior”; and +he adds: “The side elevation remains as Herrera, the architect, designed +it, and is really valuable as _a warning_.” The author describes Sta. +Maria l’Antigua, close to the cathedral, as the most attractive church in +Valladolid. He says of the city: “It was too rich and prosperous, during +an age of much work, and little taste, to have left mediæval architecture +of any real value; yet as a modern city it is, in parts, gay and +attractive; being, after Madrid, the most important city of the north of +Spain.” From what I saw of the place, I can endorse this opinion. + +We reached Burgos, after a short journey, and found the town much less +interesting and agreeable than Valladolid, but the cathedral is +incomparably superior. The picture of its facade, doors, windows, and +towers, is vividly imprinted on my memory. + +We were now approaching the border of France, and I had memories revived +of a first dip into Spain, years before. Though the land be still the +same and the skies the same, different feelings arise from departure out +of a country, compared with one’s entrance into it. We reached a new and +very comfortable hotel at San Sebastian, and there I revived +recollections of curiosity and interest, felt years before, when I first +crossed the border and became acquainted with the costumes, the manners +and customs of Spanish life. + + + + +CHAPTER XV +1885 + + +THIS year I paid my third and last visit to Rome. A comparison of the +city and neighbourhood as they were during my first visit with what now +appeared, was very striking. Formerly it retained much of the appearance +it had in the previous century. There were narrow streets, bad +pavements, old-fashioned houses; monks and friars of different orders, +white, black, grey, thronging thoroughfares; cardinals’ coaches with +liveried servants, in gay coats and cocked hats; the Pope, driving down +the Corso, whilst the whole population watched him with reverence on +bended knees: now these old sights had vanished; comparatively few +ecclesiastics could be recognised by their costumes; only companies of +boys, in red or blue collegiate garb, attracted attention by contrast +with other people. At Easter in the olden time the ceremonies at St. +Peter’s were gorgeous, the illumination of the dome brilliant, the +fireworks in the Piazza del Popolo unrivalled: now Mass on Easter Sunday +was far from imposing, there was no feet washing, no dinner to poor +pilgrims, no _Miserere_ in the Sistine chapel, no blaze of candles in the +Pauline. The Forum had formerly lines of trees, groups of cattle, +peasants in rural costume; now marble sculptures had been brought to +light. The neighbourhood of St. John Lateran had been waste and void; +now it was covered with modern houses. What a change in the Fontana, +outside Rome, the traditional site of St. Paul’s martyrdom. The +monastery, when I had seen it before was desolate, now it was surrounded +by abundant vegetation; the culture of the eucalyptus plant being the +secret of this transformation. + +Hare laments, in the following strain, changes which had occurred in the +city and were to be regretted:— + + “The baths of Caracalla, stripped of all their verdure and shrubs, + and deprived alike of the tufted foliage amid which Shelley wrote, + and of the flowery carpet which so greatly enhanced their lonely + solemnity, are now a series of bare featureless walls standing in a + gravelly waste, and possess no more attraction than the ruins of a + London warehouse. The Coliseum, no longer ‘a garlanded ring,’ is + bereaved of everything which made it so lovely and so picturesque; + while botanists must for ever deplore the incomparable and strangely + unique ‘Flora of the Coliseum,’ which Signor Rosa has caused to be + carefully annihilated; even the roots of the shrubs having been + extracted by the firemen, though, in pulling them out, more of the + building has come down than five hundred years of time would have + injured. In the Basilica of Constantine, the whole of the beautiful + covering of shrubs with which nature had protected the vast arches, + has been removed, and the rain soaking into the unprotected upper + surface, will soon bring them down. Nor has the work of the + destroyer been confined to the Pagan antiquities, the early Christian + porches of S. Prassede and S. Pudenziana, with their valuable + terra-cotta ornaments, have been so smeared with paint and + yellow-wash as to be irrecognisable; many smaller but precious + Christian antiquities, such as the lion of the Santi Apostoli, have + disappeared altogether. And in return for these destructions and + abductions Rome has been given—what? Quantities of hideous false + rock-work painted brown in all the public gardens; a Swiss cottage + and a clock which goes by water forced in amidst the statues and + sarcophagi of the Pincio; and the having the passages of the Capitol + painted all over with the most flaring scarlet and blue, so as + utterly to destroy the repose and splendour of its ancient statues.” + +We visited a very old house in the Ghetto, where at the time services +were held by a company of Jewish converts. Rude, uncomfortable and mean, +the place looked to any one accustomed to modern churches; yet that +dreary apartment, up a flight of stairs, was typical of places for +Christian worship in the imperial city of the second century. Few +fashionable people know the existence of the room I mention, and +attendants shyly ascend the dirty steps, wishing to be unobserved; just +so, no doubt, it was with some of the companies in the second century who +in Rome “sang praises to Jesus as to God.” In the reigns of Trajan, +Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, little was known about the +Gospel by the higher ranks. Emperors, consuls, magistrates, marched +along the streets in haughty indifference, or with contemptuous hate +towards the new superstition. + +Much inquiry has arisen as to where Paul lived during his captivity in +Rome. A local tradition affirms that in a subterranean church dedicated +to the Virgin Mary, which you pass going down the Corso, you have the +very “hired house,” where for two years the Apostle lived. In the +crypt-like place, there is nothing which looks like a human dwelling; and +the tradition itself, in a city where such traditions abound, is of +little if any value. A house in the Ghetto, extremely ancient, was +pointed out to me by Dr. Philip, a Jewish missionary, as the probable +spot; but his idea seems to have had nothing to rest upon, except that +this old building is in the Jews’ quarter. What is fatal to the +identification of the “hired house” in either of these spots is that the +New Testament indicates it as connected with lodgings occupied by the +Pretorian guard. The “soldier that kept him” would not be far away from +comrades; and soldiers in general would be accommodated in the Pretorian +camp, of which traces exist near the Porta Pia—a long distance from the +Corso and the Ghetto. + +My third visit to Rome was the close of my foreign travels. A word more +in reference to them. Most frequently on my way to other countries, I +passed through France to Paris, either by Calais and Amiens, or by Havre +and Rouen. Let me refer for a moment to the cathedral at Amiens, one of +the wonders of the world—the largest place of worship I know, except +Cologne Cathedral, St. Peter’s at Rome, and St. Sophia at Constantinople. +It takes away one’s breath to look up at its rich clerestory, and its +roof, 140 feet high, half as high again as that of Westminster Abbey. +Rouen has architectural beauty, and an historical interest beyond other +French cities. The Church of St. Ouen surpasses the cathedral, and the +Palais de Justice is a beautiful specimen of Civic Gothic. But +associations of what happened in that city, during the fifteenth century, +surpass its material monuments. Poor Joan of Arc—most touching example +of self-delusion and self-sacrifice the world ever saw—how she absorbs +interest as one stands in the Place de Pucelle, where she was burnt, the +victim of French ingratitude and English revenge! Paris is so well known +by everybody that no notice need be taken of it here. + +We now return to Great Britain. + +In the autumn of 1885 the Evangelical Alliance met at Edinburgh and +Glasgow, and in the latter city I was entertained by the Lord Provost, +Sir William and Lady Collins, and met there, Admiral Sir W. King Hall and +his lady, with whom a pleasant friendship sprang up, and I accepted an +invitation to visit them at their home, but his death soon afterwards +deprived me of the anticipated pleasure. They appeared to me spiritually +minded people; their society with that of our excellent host and hostess +filled me with great pleasure. At the meeting I lamented, as I am +accustomed to do, our numerous ecclesiastical divisions. “Here we are as +Christians connected with denominational churches, and we may be compared +to persons living in an island city, where we have our own municipal +regulations, where some are in what may be called Episcopalian Square, +some occupying Methodist Terrace, some residing in Congregational Road, +and some liking to live by the waterside. Whilst these differences exist +amongst us in this world, surely it sometimes crosses our minds that they +are distinctions of a very temporary nature. The things which are seen +are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal. We are looking away +from what is familiar to what is now rare indeed—perfect unity.” + +I have long found it to be one of the sorrows incident to old age to +lament the loss of attached friends. In this respect I was much tried in +the year 1886, for I had then to deplore the death of Lord Chichester, +who became acquainted with me through the medium of the Evangelical +Alliance about twenty years before. Of late he was unable to attend +meetings, but our intercourse in private continued and increased as years +rolled on. Descendant of Sir John Pelham, who figured in the French +wars, described by Froissart, and an immediate relative of a well-known +political family of the same name in the last century,—the Earl became an +earnest Christian and an active philanthropist for more than half a +century. Possessed of wide and varied information respecting men and +things, and being eminently genial and altogether free from ostentation, +his society could not but be agreeable and instructive. It was a treat +to hear him recount incidents and conversations of former days. At +different times he brought within view George IV., William IV., the Duke +of Wellington, leaders of the Whig party, and other magnates. He told me +that when approaching his majority his father proposed that he should +enter the House of Commons, and the Duke of Newcastle promised him a seat +for Newark. Before an election arrived the father of young Lord Pelham +died, and the son became a peer. It is remarkable that the seat intended +for him in the Lower House was next occupied by the now famous William +Ewart Gladstone. “The Grand Old Man,” in conversation with my friend not +long before his death, speculated, in his characteristic way, upon +possible consequences to each, had the seat been accepted by young Lord +Pelham. With the Hare family, the Osbornes of the ducal house of Leeds, +the Rev. F. D. Maurice, and other distinguished persons, the Earl had +been intimate, and could tell many a story about them. Though a thorough +Evangelical, and zealous for all the great truths of Christianity, he was +singularly free from prejudice against people of different views. He +could appreciate goodness wherever it was to be found. + +The Prince Regent, with old Queen Charlotte, paid a visit to Stanmer, the +family seat, near Brighton, when the Earl was a boy, and an amusing +picture in one of the rooms exhibits his Royal Highness in dandy +fashion—his diminutive mother wearing a wonderful bonnet, the former earl +acting as cicerone, and his eldest boy riding on a smart pony. The +Stanmer Pelhams are descended, on the female side, from Oliver Cromwell, +and have in their possession the Lord Protector’s Bible in four volumes, +a miniature of him, which, I think, belonged to Lady Falconbridge, and a +portrait of His Highness’s mother. It is curious to find these +Commonwealth relics associated with mementoes in the family arms,—I refer +to the buckle and strap of Sir John Pelham, who assisted in taking King +John of France prisoner at the battle of Poitiers. In addition to these +memorials, mention may be made of a fine copy in the library of Walton’s +“Polyglot,” with the rare preface containing a reference to Oliver +Cromwell. + +Soon after the death of Lord Chichester I lost another friend, Mr. +Cheetham, M.P. His daughters were educated at Kensington, and hence an +intimacy sprang up between us, cultivated by visits to Eastwood, near +Staleybridge, where he resided. He was a shrewd, energetic man, and +figured conspicuously in the Anti-Corn Law League. His command of the +Lancashire dialect, and his knowledge of Lancashire life, made him an +amusing companion, and Lord John Russell would sometimes engage him in +characteristic recitals, greatly to his lordship’s diversion. Mr. +Cheetham had in early life known much of the Moravians, and ever retained +a deep interest in that remarkable community, though to the end of life +he remained a constant member of the Congregational communion. I have +long been of Dr. Johnson’s mind: “If a man does not make new +acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left +alone. A man, sir, should keep _his friendships in constant repair_.” +On that principle I have habitually sought to make up for losses from +bereavement. + +Here let me add a few lines respecting the Archbishop of York, Dr. Magee, +previously Bishop of Peterborough. + +I first met him at Norwich where we took part in a Bible Meeting, and in +the course of my remarks I spoke of “sinking ecclesiastical differences” +on such an occasion. Dr. Magee, then Dean of Cork, made an amusing +reference to this, and repeated it with kindness and humour the next day, +as we travelled together by rail to London. We talked incessantly and at +the end he pressed me to visit him at Cork. Several years passed without +our meeting, and then at a funeral service in Westminster Abbey, he +kindly accosted me, saying, that as I had not been to see him at Cork, I +must go and see him at Peterborough, where, not long before, he had been +appointed bishop. Several visits followed, which I greatly enjoyed. My +impression of him as a brilliant talker, which I received on our journey +from Norwich to London, was now increased, and nothing could exceed his +hospitality and that of his amiable wife and daughters. We had several +drives; and one day we sat down together in a picturesque churchyard to +discuss ecclesiastical questions, where, as he said, the associations and +“_genius loci_” were on his side. I forget altogether what passed +between us, beyond a series of _pros_ and _cons_, and can only say that +we finished as we began—he a Churchman, I a Nonconformist, but both good +friends. Once when I was at Peterborough I heard him preach in the +Cathedral for the Bible Society, on the jubilee of the auxiliary, when he +took for his text two passages: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” “The +Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the +glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” +He admirably brought out the Divine and human sides of our blessed Lord’s +personality and then presented this as being in harmony with the Divine +and human elements in Holy Writ. As is well known, he did not use a MS. +in the pulpit; nor, as he told me, was he in the habit of _writing_ his +sermons beforehand. He seems to have had the gift of mental composition, +and also of expressing himself extemporaneously in felicitous diction and +with quiet ease. Nor was he at all verbose, as many fluent speakers are. + +He could tell a story as few people can, sparkling with humour, and +distinct in point. I remember two he told of Dean Mansel. Taking a lady +round St. Paul’s, she paused to look at a figure of Neptune with his +_trident_, remarking that she was shocked at seeing in a church such +heathen mythology. “Why,” rejoined the Dean, “that looks more like +_Tridentine_ theology.” At a public dinner, after a toast to Reform—the +word on the paper had an _e_ at the end—“Reform,” the Dean remarked, +“often ended in an _émeute_.” + +As I was preparing for my journey in Spain I met the Bishop at the +Athenæum, when he told me he was doing the same, and proposed we should +go together, adding that he could help me with his knowledge of Spanish. +I had heard him speak of his residence in Spain when he was a boy, and I +should have been delighted to fall in with his plan, but found it quite +impossible beforehand with regard to time. However, we agreed to inquire +after each other at consular offices, as we passed from place to place; +but I found I was always too late, or too soon. When I called at an +hotel in Madrid, where he had been staying, I learned he had just left +for the railway; and after our return, he told me his daughter saw me in +the street as they were hurrying to catch a train. + +How many remarkable facts have been related within the last few years +respecting old English houses and estates! + +During a visit to Lord Ebury, at Moor Park, he told me the mansion he +occupied had been in the hands of many distinguished families; and that +reminds one of what is said in the Eastern tale: “Call it not a palace +but a caravanserai.” It belonged to the Abbot of St. Albans; to Neville, +Archbishop of York; to Henry VII.; to De Vere, Earl of Oxford; to +Cardinal Wolsey; to Lucy, Countess of Bedford; to Sir John Franklin; to +the Earl of Ossory, who sold it to the Duke of Monmouth, whose Duchess +sold it to Mr. Styles, of South Sea Bubble notoriety, to be afterwards +purchased by Lord Anson. After changing owners again and again, it was +secured by the Marquis of Westminster for his son. Lord Ebury informed +me it had never remained in the same family more than two generations. +There runs a curious story of the Lady of the Earl of Monmouth, who +possessed the estate in the seventeenth century,—that her ladyship +protested against the intention of James I., to put his son Prince +Charles “into iron boots, to strengthen his joints and sinews”; for he +seemed to have been physically as a boy what he was, in some respects, +morally as a man—very _weak-kneed_. + +In the course of my recollections, I have had much to say of foreign +tours, and also of journeys in different parts of England for various +religious purposes; but, in drawing my personal narrative to a close, I +am constrained to add a few lines, respecting visits to friends in my own +county, where I have enjoyed welcome rests amidst ministerial toils. + +One spot, long years ago, where I was wont to seek recreation was +Letheringsett Hall, near Holt, in my native county, Norfolk. There still +lives Mr. Cozens-Hardy, whom I knew as a boy, about five years old, in +days when we worshipped in Calvert Street Chapel, Norwich. He married a +lady whom I recollect as a girl, and who was long the light of his +dwelling, well known to numerous guests. They hospitably entertained me +in many of my summer holidays, and drove me round the neighbourhood +called “The Garden of Norfolk.” Respecting his beloved wife, let me +quote words which I wrote for a short family memorial of her: “My last +two or three visits found her weak and frail, but yet a good deal of her +old buoyancy would come back as we sat chatting round the fire. She +seemed to have a quiet faith in the blessed Gospel, but with some shadows +of doubt and fear respecting herself. No bold, self-asserting +professions, as is the case with some, but a genuine sympathy in +reference to the fundamental truths of the Gospel, which form the +resting-place of all true believers. She seemed to know more of the +Valley of Humiliation than of the Land of Beulah; not often climbing the +Delectable Mountains, but by no means a prisoner in Doubting Castle.” +Her good husband has for many years been the main supporter of the +Methodist Society in Holt, and his son, the eminent Q.C., has been for +many years a member of the Congregational Church at Kensington. The +large-hearted Mr. Colman, M.P. for Norwich, married Mr. Cozens-Hardy’s +eldest daughter, and in their hospitable homes at Carrow and Corton I +have spent many a happy day. + +I may add here that amongst delightful sojourns in English homes, I +gratefully reckon Stanley Park, the residence of Sir Samuel Marling; a +marine villa at Dawlish, belonging to Sir Thomas Lea, Bart., also his +home at Kidderminster; the beautiful Quinta on the Welsh border, +belonging to Colonel Barnes; and the marine residence of Miss Cheetham, +one of my interesting school-girls at Kensington. + +During the later portion of my residence in Kensington, there was a +considerable increase of Roman Catholics residing in the neighbourhood. +When I first went to it, a small place of worship sufficed to meet their +wants, but before I left, a large church was built near the Vicarage, and +another in the high road, partly hidden by buildings in front. After the +formation of a Westminster Archiepiscopal see, the last-named edifice +became a pro-cathedral, where Cardinal Manning sometimes officiated. As +I did not hear of numerous conversions, in the neighbourhood, to the +Romish faith, I was curious to know whence the increase arose, and one +day I had a long conversation on the subject with Monsignor Capel. He +informed me that it was owing largely to an increase in the number of +priests who had come to reside in the place, and who attracted many +retired people who were desirous of opportunities for confession and +spiritual advice. + +Hence, I gathered that the increase of Catholics in the neighbourhood did +not arise from local conversions; this explained what had been a matter +of wonder. The Monsignor was very sociable and communicative, and gave +much information about Romanism, its usages and dignitaries. He had a +great deal to say about the political relations of distinguished +Catholics at that time. How far all his reports were to be trusted I +cannot say. + +Certainly there was much activity amongst Hammersmith Catholics. Within +a few doors of my house there was a sisterhood active in collecting +whatever they could of money, garments, and other benefits for the poor, +and on the edge of Brook Green rose a handsome church, in which special +revival services were held. I attended one of these, and heard a priest +make earnest religious appeals to careless sinners. + +There was a nunnery not far off, and from the abbess, through the medium +of a relative, I received an invitation to witness the ceremony of taking +the veil. As a spectacle, there was something about it pathetic and +touching, but as an act of worship the whole struck me as altogether out +of harmony with primitive Christianity. The relative who conveyed to me +the invitation was the daughter of a Dissenting minister, a girl highly +imaginative and poetical, who made some little stir in earlier life by a +book entitled “From Oxford to Rome,” by “One that made the Journey.” She +told me of a complimentary note on the subject from a High Church +politician; and I found that she had been thrown a good deal in the way +of Oxford “perverts,” as they were called. She became a decided convert, +and related to me much of what she saw amongst her new friends. By her +severe penances she broke down her health until she died, but not in the +religion she had recently embraced. The faith of her childhood, in its +simplicity, returned in her last days. I do not know that she made a +formal renunciation of what she had lately embraced, but she desired no +priestly ministrations, and fell back upon her Bible, and the truths she +had accepted in former days. She joined in her father’s prayers by her +bedside, and so went home to rest for ever with her Saviour, whom she +loved amidst all her aberrations of controversial thought. + +Soon after my resignation I paid a summer visit to my friend Mr. George +Moore, of Whitehall, Cumberland, the well-known merchant prince. There I +met Lord Justice Lush, his lady and daughter, Dr. Moffat, Canon +Battersby, and Mr. Smithies, the “Workman’s Friend.” One day we had +Bible readings in a baronial-looking hall; another day we had outdoor +recreations for the villagers, when a select party dined at the mansion. +In the evenings we were taken to places in the neighbourhood to attend +Bible meetings. On Sunday we went to church in the morning and to chapel +in the evening. Our host was in all his glory. + +With the good judge I had much conversation, and heard something of his +early life story. He had been on the point of settling in America when +he was young, and went there more than once before he finally made a home +in his own country. He was a beautiful character, an example of +Christian politeness, general intelligence, and professional learning. + +In closing notices of towns to which I have paid ministerial visits, let +me mention Hastings, in which, from circumstances to be mentioned, I feel +more than ordinary interest. I do not speak of the decisive battle on +the field of Senlac, which ended the line of Saxon sovereigns and gave to +England a Norman king, but of personal memories, somewhat unique in their +connection. There was, many years ago, a venerable Dissenting minister +in the town whose congregation was small, and it was thought by London +friends and others, that a new and larger chapel should be built, and +efforts made to revive the cause. I was invited to preach at the +dedication of that building, and at the close of the sermon found my old +fellow-student, the Rev. James Griffin, was present. He had just before, +owing to impaired health, resigned an important pastorate at Manchester, +and, as he seemed to be recovering strength, I suggested that this new +chapel at Hastings might be a suitable sphere for resuming his ministry. +The congregation invited him to become pastor, and he faithfully and +successfully for many years discharged the duties of that office. It +became after a time necessary to erect a still larger edifice, and, in +connection with the opening services, I was for a second time invited to +preach to the people. Mr. Griffin soon afterwards engaged in the +erection of another chapel outside the town, and when the time for +opening it approached he invited me to undertake that service. Thus a +threefold cord of interest attached me to Nonconformist friends at +Hastings. Moreover, repeated visits on the part of my dear wife and +children increased my interest in the town, and the hospitality of my +friends I remember with gratitude. My dear friend James Griffin still +lives, adorning the doctrine he has successfully preached for more than +half a century. + +The autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union was in 1886 held at +Norwich. My friend, the Rev. Edward White, was chairman, and I was +invited to read in the old Meeting House, where I worshipped in my youth, +a paper on the early history of Norfolk Congregationalism. There was a +large gathering of ministers and other friends in the city, and, as in +other cities and towns, Episcopalians received Nonconformists as their +guests. It was my privilege to be entertained by the Bishop, with whom I +had become acquainted while sojourning under the roof of his brother, +Lord Chichester, at Stanmer Park. I was received and treated with the +greatest kindness and comfort, and found this Episcopal home a beautiful +example of Christian simplicity and devotion. + +The Mayor of the city received members of the Union and other friends in +St. Andrew’s Hall on the Monday evening; and one afternoon Mr. Colman, +M.P. for Norwich, had a large garden-party in his pleasure grounds. + +I availed myself of opportunities during the week for rambling about +scenes of my boyhood, amidst many changes in architecture, manners and +customs, including habits of religious life. The trade of the city had +flowed into new channels; old families such as I knew in my boyhood were +no more. New faces I saw everywhere, and pensive thoughts were naturally +suggested when one traversed memories of seventy years. How different +had been my lot from what it might have been! Church and Dissent did not +stand in the same relations to each other as they had done once. There +was more mutual charity, more, I believe and trust, of real religion. +Certainly, Evangelicalism had made way in the Establishment, and was not +regarded as it had been in days gone by. + +I took a ramble outside the old city, and called on young friends; and so +caught glimpses touching borders of auld lang syne. + +It fell to my lot to occupy a bedroom in the palace exactly to my taste. +It is described by Blomefield in his “History of Norwich.” Lined with +carved wainscot brought from the demolished abbey of St. Bennet in the +Holm, retaining still the arms of that abbey—of the Veres, and others, +particularly those of Sir John Fastolff, their great benefactor. There +were also busts of heroes and remarkable men and women, “brought hither +by Bishop Rugg.” The place recalled images of old, and stories which had +interested me in youth; if they did not people my dreams, they coloured +my meditations. + +My “Recollections of a Long Life” began with a notice of being born in +Norwich; and as the last visit to my birthplace was at the time now +indicated, I think it is a fitting point for terminating my narrative. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +IN completing this volume I propose to take a survey of what I have seen +and noticed, amongst distinct religious denominations, during seventy +years. + +I. To begin with the Church of England. I remember hearing a sermon by +the late Bishop of Manchester, at the reopening of Chester Cathedral, +when, in no measured terms, he dwelt upon ecclesiastical abuses, as they +existed during the last century, and the earliest part of the present. +He exposed the nepotism of bishops, the worldliness of clergymen, and the +indifference of Church-people to religion in general. About the same +time another prelate privately told me that things in his diocese, when +he was first consecrated, had reached such a point as made it wonderful +how the Establishment had survived. He complained of the limited power +diocesans had at command, to repress existing evils, and gave an +instance, how in his own case he had spent a large sum without any effect +for the removal of a clergyman who had dishonoured his profession. About +the facts charged against the delinquent there could be no doubt, but +proceedings failed through technical objections. I remember when I was a +youth there were scandals in the diocese of Norwich, publicly known, yet +legally unassailable. Plurality and non-residence were notorious. +Preaching was neglected to a shameful degree; in one case fifteen +churches were served by three incumbents. Livings had to be sequestered +through clerical insolvency or scandalous misconduct. Bishop Stanley +wrought a great reformation in these respects, much to the dismay of +delinquents, much to the satisfaction of parishioners. I remember him +perfectly well. Of slight figure, with white hair, he tripped along the +streets of Norwich on a Sunday, to one church after another without +giving beforehand notice of his movements, but surprising rector or +curate at the close of the service by rising to pronounce the +benediction. He was as unremitting and efficient in his clerical +position, as he had before been in his naval duties. The magistrates’ +seat prepared Ambrose for his episcopate at Milan: the deck of a ship +prepared Edward Stanley to rule the diocese of Norwich. + +The typical High Church clergyman of my early days was a person +perfunctorily discharging his duties, living on civil terms with his +parishioners, known in the parish by clerical costume, reading prayers in +a surplice, and preaching in a black gown, visiting the best society in +the neighbourhood, kind to the poor, and looking upon Dissenters as a +rather suspicious class. + +But a great change took place in 1832. Earnest men, as we have seen, +arose at Oxford, who devoted themselves to the study of certain +Anglo-Catholic divines and Greek and Latin fathers. Some of them +introduced ritualistic practices, older than the Reformation. The change +under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth was approved by them no further than as +it wiped away stains from the face of popery. I recollect a High Church +layman telling me he liked an ornate service, but that he was left far +behind by the newly advanced party. I have myself witnessed ceremonies +in Anglican churches so nearly approaching the Romanistic that only a +practised eye could discern the difference. There were, however, men of +another order, who had a liking for Anglo-Catholic theology, but eschewed +revived ceremonialism; and I have heard a High Churchman in Westminster +Abbey preach such a sermon on the necessity of the Holy Spirit for the +salvation of souls as, with a few expressions, a Methodist might have +delivered. He pronounced a glowing eulogium on John Wesley. On one side +this clergyman appeared a warm-hearted Evangelical, on the other, he was +a staunch High Churchman. + +When I think of Evangelicals early in this century, they present a +different class from men of the type just described. As a boy in Norwich +I heard Simeon of Cambridge, and Legh Richmond of Turvey; and I remember +them at this moment as they appeared in the autumn of that year to +advocate the British and Foreign Bible Society. The former of the two +does not come to my recollection so vividly as the latter; him I can now +see, with his pleasant face, and large spectacles, mounting, with a lame +foot, the pulpit stairs of St. Lawrence’s Church—attired, not in a white +surplice, but in a black gown: nothing priestly in his appearance and +manner. His sermon was on behalf of the Society for Promoting +Christianity among Jews. He took for his text, “For thy servants take +pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof.” With a soft, +winning voice, and “a sweet reasonableness” he discoursed on the +interest, which all Christians should feel in building up the Church of +God, especially with stones gathered from ruins of the House of Israel. +In St Andrew’s Hall he spoke on behalf of the Bible Society, and related +a conversation he had on the subject with the Emperor Alexander of +Russia, when he visited England after the Napoleonic wars. He also told +touching stories of what the Word of God could do for people amidst sins +and sorrows. As to Charles Simeon, whom I heard, he did not penetrate +like dew, but came down with hailstones and coals of fire. + +At a later period Episcopalians bestirred themselves in many parts of the +country, and from end to end, in building and other efforts for church +extension, and I recollect Dean Alford told me how surprised the Church +Commissioners were at the liberal response given to challenges for aiding +ecclesiastical objects. + +In 1865 the old Act of Uniformity was modified so as to relieve the +consciences of such as scrupled to declare unfeigned consent to +everything contained in the Prayer-Book. _Now_ the requirement was an +assent to the Articles, the Common Prayer, and the Ordering of Bishops, +Priests, and Deacons, and a declaration that the doctrine of the +Establishment was agreeable to the Word of God. In 1867 a commission was +appointed to regulate public worship, the result of which was +unsatisfactory. + +In former pages of this volume I have noticed devoted and exemplary +Churchmen through whom my own soul has been nourished and stimulated. It +would be ungrateful not to recognise, on these pages, spiritual benefit I +have derived from sermons preached and books written by living Churchmen. + +Before I close this section of reminiscences touching the Church of +England it will be interesting to notice an accession to it of a +remarkable person who had previously been a Dissenter. Her name, now so +extensively known, was Sarah Martin. My old friend Mr. Walford often +alluded to her in his conversations, and in his Autobiography, written in +a series of letters published by his direction, he gives the following +narrative:— + + “This young woman, during my residence in Yarmouth, supported by her + needle both herself and, I think, also an aged grandmother, with whom + she lived at Caister, near Yarmouth. When I first knew her she was, + I imagine, about twenty years of age. She introduced herself to me + as one who had been as inconsiderate and negligent of religion, as + she was ignorant of the nature of genuine Christianity. By some + means, which I do not now remember, she was induced to come to the + New Meeting, where she heard one or more discourses from me, which, + she assured me, had produced very deep impressions upon her, and + entirely changed the character of her mind and conduct. She + subsequently became a member of the Church of which I was the pastor, + and was most diligent and attentive to the public and private + meetings of the Church. I found her to possess great energy of mind, + by the exercise of which she very soon became well informed in the + truths and duties of Christianity, and ardently disposed to do any + good that was compatible with her station in life. Her affection for + me was such that it is not too much to say of her, as St. Paul did of + his converts among the Galatians, that, if it had been possible, they + would have plucked out their own eyes and have given them to him + (Gal. iv. 15). Her regard for me, and the ministry I exercised, + continued unalterable through the several years in which I resided in + Yarmouth, after my acquaintance with her commenced. I afterwards saw + her several times during occasional visits which I made to that + place, when I found that she still retained an affectionate + remembrance of me.” + +She was in humble circumstances, and earned a scanty income by the use of +her needle; but she coupled with it extraordinary efforts for the good of +others, and this disposed some ladies, members of the Established Church, +to contribute to her support. This enabled her to devote more time to +her charitable work, and at length she was so absorbed in it that she +became a kind of missionary to the inmates of the workhouse and the +prisoners in Yarmouth gaol. She read and explained the Scriptures to +them, and in devotional service, she carried on for their spiritual +welfare, she employed parts of the Church Prayer-Book. Gradually, I +infer, she became attached to those who helped her, and this association +led to her becoming a member of the Establishment. After her death a +commemorative window was placed in Yarmouth parish church, and at its +reopening, after a costly restoration, Bishop Wilberforce pronounced an +eloquent eulogium on Sarah Martin’s character. Some intimate +Nonconformist friends of mine remained attached to her, and showed me +numerous MSS. in her handwriting. + +I now return to the ranks of Dissent and proceed to notice— + +II. English Presbyterianism. A word on its earlier history will here be +appropriate. The Presbyterians of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries were orthodox. After the Restoration many of them adhered to +the Westminster Confession, but a departure from it, in some instances, +appeared in the century after. Arian and Socinian opinions began to +obtain, but those who held them claimed connection with the Presbyterians +of the Commonwealth, on the ground that they followed such worthies in +the exercise of religious freedom and the rights of conscience. Their +forefathers had repudiated the Prayer-Book, and now they, their sons in +the cause of religious freedom, renounced the Westminster Confession. +For the most part they remained steadfast in believing New Testament +miracles. The Rev. Mr. Madge, a noted English Presbyterian, sixty or +seventy years ago, said to me once, he could not understand how a man +could be called a Christian who did not believe in our Lord’s +resurrection. + +During the reign of William IV. the two most prominent English +Presbyterians of the old school were the Rev. Mr. Aspland and Mr. Madge. +The latter I knew well. Mr. Aspland was an eloquent speaker, and exerted +himself conspicuously in the cause of Unitarianism, with which he +identified the interests of religious freedom. His son, in writing his +father’s life, pourtrays that gentleman’s religious connections, social +virtues, and decision of character; but does not conceal his warmth of +temper, and dislike to certain eminent Trinitarians. Mr. Madge, before +he became minister of Essex Street, London, was for some years settled in +my native city, and presided over a wealthy congregation, in which were +several distinguished literary and artistic people. The Martineaus, the +Aldersons, the Starks, and other distinguished families, were of the +number. They worshipped in the Octagon Chapel, as it was called from its +architecture, and for a number of years the building was the most +distinguished Nonconformist place of worship in the eastern capital. It +was rather sumptuously fitted up in my boyish days, and the attendants +were not wont to mix much with other Dissenters. If there were any fault +in this, I dare say it was shared on both sides. + +Returning to the English Presbyterians at large, but especially as they +existed in London, I must speak of a trust established by Dr. Williams, +of the last century. He was orthodox, but the administration of funds +bequeathed by him came into the hands of those Presbyterians who deviated +from his doctrinal views, but still retained the Presbyterian name by +which he was known. Though Unitarians in opinion, they by no means +confined their charity to Unitarian ministers and chapels; and still the +“Williams’ Scholarships” are enjoyed by students preparing for orthodox +ministrations amongst Independents. Dr. Martineau was for some time an +administrator of the trust, but strongly objected to the exclusion of +orthodox ministers from its administration. + +During the last century there were Presbyterians in England holding +decidedly Evangelical views, and of late there have been numerous +congregations gathered, which, in their unity, form what is called “The +Presbyterian Church in England.” Scotch brethren of great renown—Dr. +James Hamilton, Dr. Young, and Dr. Archer—I had the privilege of +numbering amongst personal friends, and they were held in honour by all +Evangelical Churchmen and Nonconformists. + +III. Another large section of brethren were Baptists, distinguished by +certain _doctrinal_ and _disciplinary_ views;—the former as Particular or +Calvinistic, on the one hand, and General or Arminian on the other;—the +latter as Open communionists and Strict communionists. Open +communionists admit to the Lord’s table those who have not been baptised +by immersion; Strict communionists confine the Lord’s Supper to those who +have been immersed. Such distinctions are now fading away. Calvinists +and Arminians are comprehended in the same union, and Strict +communionists are comparatively few. + +Robert Hall, the advocate of Open communion, I never saw: he died when I +was young. Joseph Kinghorn, his opponent, a distinguished Hebrew +scholar, I knew well, as he lived in Norwich during my boyhood. William +Brock, who succeeded him, and afterwards became minister of Bloomsbury +Chapel, London, entered the ministry about the same time as I did, and we +regarded each other with warm affection. Dr. Cox and Dr. Steane were +widely known in the religious world, and with both of them I entered into +a fellowship of work and worship at the opening of chapels and on other +public occasions. John Howard Hinton was another Baptist brother, of +whom I saw much when he was at Reading and I was at Windsor. He was more +original, more metaphysical, more scientific, and more excitable than +others whom I have mentioned, perhaps of a higher intellectual order, and +still greater depth of religious emotion. Mr. Spurgeon, who has so +recently left the world, and whose influence and fame extended further +than any other Nonconformist in modern times, I greatly respected and +admired; and though I did not share his intimacy, I saw something of him +in my own home, and a little more in his, where he had a magnificent +library, and received his numerous friends with cordiality. His +popularity amongst aristocratic people was, for a little time, much +greater than is generally supposed, for I was informed by a lady of +distinction that for some weeks in his early career he was a leading +topic of conversation in upper circles. + +IV. I now turn to the Quaker community. Well do I remember meetings at +the Goldencroft, Norwich, where, at the upper end, sat men and women +called Public Friends. My mother, born in 1770, told me of yearly +meetings held in our old city, when sometimes Friends from America +attended: and so great was the number of visitors that it raised the +market price of provisions. Some ladies who came from the other side of +the Atlantic wore dresses with open skirts and green aprons. No bows of +ribbon were seen, while bonnets of black and of lead-coloured silk +crowned the heads of young and old. What Charles Lamb says in his “Elia” +corresponds with what I recollect, and what my mother used to tell me, +how “troops of the shining ones” were seen walking the streets, on their +way to the house of worship, where their silence was more eloquent than +speech. I have read with sympathy “The Life of John Woolman,” written by +himself, and so warmly recommended by the essayist. “Get,” says Charles +Lamb, “the writings of John Woolman by heart, and love the early +Quakers.” + +A very serious diversion in theological opinion existed among American +Friends early in this century, and it is because an effect of it appeared +in England that it is noticed here. A French Friend—the well-known +Stephen Grellet—travelling in the States, makes this entry in his +journal, under date 1822:—“We proceeded to Long Island, where I attended +all the meetings, but here my soul’s distress exceeded all I had known +during the preceding months, though my baptism had been deep. I found +that the greatest part of the members of our Society and many of the +ministers and elders, are carried away by the principle which Elias Hicks +has so assiduously propagated among them. He now speaks out boldly, +disguising his sentiments no longer; he seeks to invalidate the Holy +Scriptures, and sets up man’s reason as his only guide, openly denying +the divinity of Christ. I have had many expostulations with him in which +I have most tenderly pleaded with him, but all has been in vain.” {374} +From what I have read in American literature touching what is known as +the Hicksite controversy, it appears to me plainly indicative of a denial +among many American Friends, that Jesus Christ, in the orthodox sense of +the term, was Divine, and that He did not make any atonement for sin. +Hicks appears to have been a thorough mystic, unintelligible to +common-sense people. At all events he converted many to his views; and +these views were caught up by some Friends in this country. To what +extent exactly they were adopted in England I cannot say: but they +created alarm amongst many Friends on this side the Atlantic. Great +sorrow at the abandonment of Evangelical doctrines led to secessions from +Quakerism on the part of excellent people who had been born and bred in +the community. Some of them resided, at the time I speak of, on the +borders of Wales, others in the county of York. They became +Congregationalists, and in tours on behalf of the London Missionary +Society, I was received hospitably in their homes, and had gratifying +opportunities of witnessing their beautiful Christian life. + +Joseph John Gurney, of Earlham, felt seriously concerned respecting the +American defection, in a community to which he had been attached from +childhood. He had studied in the University of Oxford, had cultivated +friendships in other denominations, was a good classic and Biblical +scholar, and also an author of theological works. Mr. Gurney was +“concerned” about the effect of Hicksite opinion on American and English +Friends, and therefore took up his pen and wrote in reply to the leader +who had done so much mischief. + +Mr. Gurney, like his sister Mrs. Fry, undertook journeys for preaching +the Gospel, and once he visited Windsor for that purpose. I was unwell +at the time, but he called and talked by my bedside, and commended me to +God in prayer. Several Quaker families at that period were living at +Staines and Uxbridge; with them I had much intercourse, especially when +we were joined in the advocacy of Slave Emancipation. The community, in +both towns now named, was considerable for numbers and for wealth. + +Friends now dress, speak and act much like other people. Conforming to +common custom, they still eschew all extravagances of fashion. They no +longer forfeit membership by “marrying out of Society.” “The Right +Honourable John Bright” (how shocked George Fox would have been at the +title!) told me once, that relaxation in strictness as to unimportant +points, had checked a decline in numbers going on before. + +V. Methodism, of course, brings to my mind a long train of early +associations. Not merely names, but living forms, of noted preachers +belonging to the second decade of this century come back to my +recollection. + +Calvert Street Chapel was opened about 1812, and Dr. Coke preached. + +I cannot say that I remember his sermon; but, as noticed already, I +distinctly recollect seeing the odd-looking, diminutive man, standing on +a table talking in the committee room of Bethel Hospital {377} adorned by +paintings of foundress and governors. Dr. Coke energetically addressed +on the occasion a number of people, who had been invited by my +grandfather, to hear the noted advocate of Methodist missions. Many +years afterwards I mentioned the circumstance to a gentleman, who at the +time took care of the patients, when he fetched an old committee book, in +which this gathering was noticed, with a minute expressing the +displeasure of the Governors at such a liberty being taken, and +forbidding anything of the kind in future. The Wesleyan congregations in +Norwich were then very large, and _local_ preachers—uncultivated men in +humble life—frequently occupied the pulpit in the afternoon service at +Calvert Street, and, remember, delivered animated discourses likely to do +their hearers good. + +Dr. Jabez Bunting was a very influential man among the Methodists when I +was young. For many years he was regarded as ruler of the +Connexion,—exerting a despotic sway over the whole body. Such general +conclusions oftentimes are not fairly drawn from existing facts, and how +far widely extended opinion in the case now noticed, is justifiable I +cannot undertake to say. To me he was very agreeable, and for him I had +great respect. William Bunting, his son, was of a different stamp from +his father, and though a skilful critic, he had not his father’s gift of +authority and rule. + +Before the middle of the century came Dr. Newton, to open a second +chapel, in the upper part of Norwich; his magnificent voice and careful +diction produced a powerful effect. I met him in after-life at Windsor, +when he told me that he was accustomed to leave his home on Monday +morning in the Manchester circuit, and travel by coach to the other end +of England,—perhaps cross over to Ireland,—and then get back, at the end +of the week, ready for preaching the next day. He said he weekly +delivered five or six sermons, making them “on the wheels” as he went +along. He seemed a stranger to physical fatigue. + +During my Windsor ministry I became acquainted with a noted Wesleyan, who +was not an itinerant, but a local, preacher. He went by the name of +“Billy Dawson,” and was eminently gifted with humour and pathos. I heard +him preach, and listened to his platform speeches. He was not only +naturally eloquent, but histrionic too; in speeches and sermons he acted +while he spoke. He made you realise what he described. It is said that +George Whitefield, when preaching to sailors, described a storm at sea so +vividly that some of them shouted, “Take to the long boat.” Dawson had a +like power of realising what he described. He would, at a missionary +meeting, make a telescope of his resolution, and putting it to one of his +eyes, describe what he saw in imagination,—perhaps a picture of the +millennium drawn from Isaiah’s prophecies. I was young, just come from +college, at the time I speak of, and made a speech in which I used some +words which were not so plain as they might have been. After the meeting +he spoke to me kindly, suggesting equivalent terms in plain Saxon. It +was a good lesson for an unfledged bird. + +When I was a member of the Wesleyan Society, I attended class according +to rule, and I found the practice beneficial, inasmuch as it was a +constant spur to self-examination. The primitive agape, revived amongst +the Methodists, exists under the name of love-feast, at which, together +with eating bread and drinking water as an expression of fellowship, men +and women are accustomed voluntarily to rise, and give some account of +their religious experience for edification to others. These addresses I +found often interesting and useful. By such means, a habit of spiritual +intercommunication amongst Methodists is kept alive; beneficial in some +cases no doubt, but liable to abuse in others, as most good things are. +I am constrained to relate how this habit on the bright side manifested +itself on a private occasion during a meeting of Conference in London. +Dr. Jobson, an eminent Wesleyan, invited a party of friends to his house. +He kindly included me in the number, and I found at his hospitable board +the President for the year, and some ex-presidents. Together with them, +Drs. Binney, Raleigh, Allon, and Donald Fraser were present. Our host +was a thorough Methodist, and very comprehensive in his sympathies, for +he had mixed with different denominations. He had many friends in the +Establishment, and in early life had studied under an eminent Roman +Catholic architect, at whose house he met bishops and priests of that +communion. On the occasion I refer to, he in an easy way initiated a +conversation which I can never forget. He appealed to his guests, one by +one, for some account of their religious life. All readily responded; +and this is most remarkable,—all who spoke attributed to Methodism +spiritual influence of a decisive kind. To use Wesleyan phraseology, +most of them had been “brought to God” through Methodist instrumentality. +Dr. Osborne was present, and made some remarks, at the close of which, +with choked utterance, he repeated the verse— + + “And if our fellowship below, + In Jesus be so sweet, + What heights of rapture shall we know, + When round the throne we meet?” + +The Norwich Methodists were chiefly humble folks with a sprinkling of +some in better circumstances; their habits were very simple and they +looked upon some who made money as becoming “worldly,” or at least, as +exposed to temptation. At that time, however, such as possessed social +comforts could not be justly charged with conformity to the course of +this world; and over their little gatherings in one another’s houses +there was shed a religious atmosphere such as was breathed in class and +love-feast. Early in the century on a Sunday, between afternoon and +evening service, there might be a large tea-party, where the preacher, a +class-leader, and other members of Society would talk and pray and sing, +till it was time to go to evening service at chapel. This communion +seems to me now as I think of it such as is described in Malachi: “Then +they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord +hearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before Him +for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name; and they +shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My +jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth +him.” + +Worldly prosperity has since fallen to the lot of not a few Methodists, +and the usual temptations surrounding wealth have tested their character; +but I am thankful to say, amongst those whom I have visited, I have found +beautiful instances of adherence to religious principles. I may mention +a friend already noticed, Sir William McArthur, K.C.M.G. When Lord Mayor +of London he continued his previous Wesleyan duties; and whilst bountiful +in his hospitality eschewed usages of a fashionable kind. In his year of +office the Œcumenical Conference was held, and during its meetings +repeated Mansion House invitations were given to friends in sympathy with +Evangelical religion. I attended his funeral, and in his residence on +Notting Hill a large number of mourners assembled, and we had a short +devotional service together, very touching, tender, and beautiful. + +My personal recollections of Methodism, which roll back more than seventy +years ago, linger round Yarmouth and Norwich. At Yarmouth I used to +worship on a Sunday in a curious old-fashioned square chapel, with +galleries on the four sides. There was a deep one opposite the two +entrance doors, and attached to the front of that gallery was a pulpit—by +what means, as a boy, I never could make out. The preacher ascended from +behind by a staircase, invisible to the congregation, and then from the +top of the staircase descended by two or three steps into a curiously +shaped pulpit. I distinctly recollect the venerable Joseph Benson, then +a patriarch, who had been associated with Methodists in John Wesley’s +time. I think I see him now, of slender frame, venerable aspect, and +wearing a coat of dark purple. Of course I have no recollection of what +he said, but he was regarded as a saintly man in those days. In the +autumn Yarmouth was frequented by a number of mariners from the +north—coblemen they were called—who had come to fish for herrings off the +Yarmouth coast. They were staunch Methodists, and used to hold a +prayer-meeting after the general service. How those men used to pray +with stentorian voice, which called forth loud “Amens” from voices all +over the chapel! + +In Calvert Street, Norwich, there used to be special services on +Christmas-day. After a prayer-meeting at six o’clock in the morning +there was preaching at seven o’clock, when hymns appropriate to the +season were sung, accompanied by violins and wind instruments of +different kinds. I did not fail, between five and six o’clock, to rise +and cross the city in order to be in good time for these services. They +usually commenced with the hymn— + + “Christians, awake, salute the happy morn + Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born; + Rise to adore the mystery of love, + Which hosts of angels chanted from above; + With them the joyful tidings first begun + Of God incarnate and the Virgin’s son. + + “Then to the watchful shepherds it was told, + Who heard the angelic herald’s voice: ‘Behold, + I bring good tidings of a Saviour’s birth, + To you and all the nations upon earth: + This day hath God fulfilled His promised word, + This day is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord.’” + +With the Methodist chapel in Calvert Street my earliest religious +thoughts are connected. Watch-nights and love-feasts, are sacred in my +recollection. + +VI. Respecting the Congregationalist denomination, of which I have +spoken already, let me add that in 1877 I was requested by Dr. Schaff, of +New York, to give my impression of prevalent beliefs amongst us. I +replied as follows: “Looking at the principles of Congregationalism, +which involve the repudiation of all human authority in matters of +religion, it is impossible to believe that persons holding those +principles can consistently regard any ecclesiastical creed or symbol in +the same way as Catholics, whether Roman or Anglican, regard the creeds +of the ancient Church. There is a strong feeling against the use of such +documents for the purpose of defining limits of religious communion, or +for the purpose of checking the exercise of free inquiry; and there is +also a widespread conviction that it is impossible to reduce the +expression of Christian belief to a series of logical propositions, so as +to preserve and represent the full spirit of Gospel truth.” (See +Schaff’s “Creeds of Christendom,” p. 833.) + +No doubt there may be heard in some circles loose conversation, seeming +to indicate such a repugnance to creeds as would imply a dislike to all +formal definitions of Christian doctrine; but I apprehend the prevailing +sentiment relative to this subject among our ministers and churches does +not go beyond the point just indicated. Many of them consider that while +creeds are objectionable as tests, and imperfect as confessions, they may +have a certain value as manifestoes of conviction, on the part of +different communities. + +Some people write and talk on the subject of present opinion, with a +positiveness which only omniscience could warrant. No mortal can know +what is going on in the minds of thousands, touching momentous subjects; +yet such knowledge is requisite for the confident conclusions of certain +critics. We may speak decidedly of what is commonly taught in a +community, yet this should be done with qualifications and no farther. + +Silence on momentous points may prove a loss as to the full wealth of +theology; but I am thankful for gain at the present day in richer views +than formerly of our Lord’s character, and the bearing of it upon life +and conduct. Let me add, however, if _Redemption_ in all its fulness be +not prominent in pulpit ministrations, power will be gone. Some suppose +we are making theological advance, and that discoveries are opening akin +to those in physical science; but people who have more carefully surveyed +the wide field, and more observantly studied the history of religious +thought, discover that much as seen at first sight, is chiefly a falling +back upon what was old and forgotten. + +In closing what I have to say of modern Congregationalists, I venture to +notice deceased ministers whom it has been a privilege to number amongst +my friends. + +I knew but slightly the Rev. William Jay of Bath. He has been +incidentally noticed in these pages already, for he was old when I was +young. He rose from a lowly rank in life to be regarded as teacher and +companion by the intellectual and noble. Mrs. Hannah More valued his +ministrations and cultivated his society. Wilberforce used to attend his +chapel when staying at Bath; and an Indian ruler, when in England, went +to hear him at Surrey Chapel, and expressed great admiration of the +sermon. + +The next to be mentioned is John Angell James of Birmingham. I remember +perfectly well the first sermon I heard him preach when I was a student. +The text was: “Our conversation (or citizenship) is in heaven.” His +voice was richly toned—a genuine birth gift improved by culture. He +introduced the following illustration: A pilgrim in the Middle Ages, on +his way to Jerusalem, passed through Constantinople. A friend took him +from street to street, pausing to point out attractions, in magnificent +buildings, and the rich scenery of the Golden Horn. He wondered the +traveller was not enchanted. The latter replied: “Yes, all very fine, +_but it is not the Holy City_.” The application was obvious and well +enforced. + +Dr. Raffles of Liverpool—noticed already as one of my companions to +Rome—and Dr. Hamilton of Leeds, well known throughout England, won the +affections of their people by sympathetic intercourse, and interested +them by eloquent instructions and appeals. The former enunciated his +carefully prepared periods with a voice naturally musical, the latter +delivered his thoughts in condensed sentences, which reminded one of a +person taking very short steps. There was an intellectual power in the +sermons of the last-named, not indicated in those of the former. + +John Alexander of Norwich I cannot pass by without notice. Like David, +he was a youth with ruddy countenance. His speech throughout a sermon +fell gentle as a snowflake, without any coldness of touch. He read much, +and made good use of what he read. The charm of his private life and +conversation exceeded the effect of his public ministry, though that was +great. + +I must mention another name. John Harris was for some years a secluded +pastor at Epsom, little known. He wrote “The Great Teacher,” but though +far above the common level of such literature, it made little impression, +compared with its merits. A prize was offered for an essay on +Covetousness and Christian Liberality. Harris won the prize, and printed +the essay. The effect was instantaneous. + +The book sold edition after edition, and the author’s name became +generally familiar. Requests for his services were universal. He was +everywhere talked about, and when he preached places were crowded. His +popularity lasted as long as he lived, but he died when he was +fifty-four. He was unassuming, kind-hearted, generous to poor ministers, +genial in conversation, and beloved by all who knew him. + +Another brother must be mentioned—Baldwin Brown—of superior intellectual +type, well educated, an extensive reader, and one who delighted in a +large circle of sympathetic friends. He gathered round him a good +congregation, composed chiefly of thoughtful people, who became +assimilated to his characteristic teachings. He wore himself out by +incessant study and pulpit service. + +I must not pass by David Thomas of Bristol, my fellow-student and friend +through life, whose elevated and genial character won from a wide circle +warm attachment, and whose unique pulpit power captivated all capable of +sympathising with one so thoughtful and so good. + +Nor can I omit Alexander Raleigh, my successor for a short period at +Kensington, who fulfilled a ministry dear to many who listened with +delight to his characteristic teaching. + +The last name I mention is that of Samuel Martin, minister at Westminster +Chapel. He had gifts of a peculiar description, which marked him off, +and made him stand by himself, both as minister and man. His appearance, +voice, manner, habits, were all his own. He _lived_ for his Church, in +whose interests he was thoroughly absorbed. No one not intimately +acquainted with him could have an adequate idea how he loved his flock, +and lived for their welfare week by week. I had reverent affection for +him as a saintly man, and I witnessed evidence amongst his large circle, +in town and country, how he watched for souls as one that must give an +account. His congregation during Parliament months included several +M.P.’s, whom he gathered together for patriotic prayer. + +His neighbour, Dr. Stanley, had a reverent regard for Mr. Martin, and I +know that the Dean and Lady Augusta went to Westminster Chapel to hear +his voice and worship with his people. He spoke to me of him in terms of +strong affection, also telling me of a brother clergyman who, after a +visit to his sick chamber, pronounced him one of the most saintly men he +had ever seen. + + * * * * * + + Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{77} Faulkener’s “History and Antiquities of Kensington,” p. 317. + +{78} 1893. + +{80} “Christian Workers of the Nineteenth Century,” S.P.C.K., p. 216. + +{88a} “Life of E. B. Pusey,” i. 336. + +{88b} _Ibid._, ii. 33. + +{89} “Life of Pusey,” ii. 8. + +{126} Early Independent Churches had been particular in their relations +to one another; and they would not recognise new communities without +satisfactory evidence of character, principles, and conduct. They became +more isolated afterwards. + +{176a} Now Archbishop of York. + +{176b} A very good account of this under the title of “Lectures on Bible +Revision,” has been published by my excellent friend and late colleague +at New College, Principal Newth, D.D. + +{183} “Memorials of a Quiet Life,” i. 237. + +{184} Dr. Raleigh, Sir Charles Reed, and others, were examined. + +{193} That was whilst I was in full work at Kensington, and not very +long after our new chapel was built, while a debt of £1000 rested on it. +I said I could not leave my charge whilst that debt remained. As soon as +I had declined the New College principalship, my congregation swept off +the debt as expressive of gratitude for my remaining amongst them. + +{197} “Ecce Homo,” chap. iv. + +{230} Written about 1883. + +{233} I am glad that at Kensington, a liturgical element has been +introduced, such as I should have approved, but could not accomplish, +because I knew it would then be disapproved by many. + +{248} With a short Memoir by Robert Hall. + +{250} In what I have ventured to say about pulpit preparation I have +hoped to help my younger ministerial brethren. + +{252} “Homes and Haunts of Martin Luther,” p. 4. + +{268} Since my visit to Ban de la Roche I discovered that, in a part of +the country not far off, an Irish missionary, Columbanus, in the sixth +century laboured for the temporal, as well as the spiritual, welfare of +the people. See Wolf’s “Country of the Vosges,” p. 214. + +{315} Eusebius, “Eccl. Hist.,” V. I, 2. + +{316} Pastor and Madame Rodriguez. + +{318} De Aniccio, “L’Espagne traduit de Italien.” + +{329} “Life of Wilkie,” p. 472. + +{333} I have gone into this story in my “Spanish Reformers,” p. 185. + +{374} “Memoirs of Stephen Grellet,” vol. ii., 130. + +{377} See page 2. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE*** + + +******* This file should be named 42716-0.txt or 42716-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/2/7/1/42716 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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