{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42716/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42716","id":"gutenberg_42716","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42716","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Clergy -- England -- Biography","Stoughton, John, 1807-1897"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1894 Hodder and Stoughton edition by David Price,\nemail ccx074@pglaf.org.\n\n\n\n\n\n                            RECOLLECTIONS OF A\n                                LONG LIFE\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                    BY\n                           JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D\n\n   AUTHOR OF \u201cECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND,\u201d \u201cSTARS OF THE EAST,\u201d\n                                ETC., ETC.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  London\n                           HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n                           27, PATERNOSTER ROW\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                MDCCCXCIV\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n      Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                       THIS VOLUME OF RECOLLECTIONS\n                               IS DEDICATED\n                          TO MY LIFE-LONG FRIEND\n                    THE REV. JOSHUA CLARKSON HARRISON,\n                 WHOSE WISDOM HAS AIDED ME IN PERPLEXITY,\n                  WHOSE SYMPATHY HAS CHEERED MY SORROWS\n                          AND ENHANCED MY JOYS,\n                  AND WHOSE CONSTANT FRIENDSHIP HAS BEEN\n                        THE PRIVILEGE OF MY FAMILY\n                            AS WELL AS MYSELF.\n\n                                                                     J. S.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT\n\n\nMORE than forty years ago I edited the autobiography of the Rev. W.\nWalford.  This book, which fully answers to its name, is a remarkable\nproduction, entering into the secrets of the author\u2019s soul, unveiling the\nstruggles and sorrows of a mysterious experience.\n\nThe work now published is of a very different kind.  It really relates to\nothers more than to myself, and brings within view some incidents of\nreligious history and aspects of personal character more interesting than\nany confined to my own experience.  It presents associations during a\nlong period spent in various work, in distant journeys, and in friendly\nintercourse with many distinguished persons.\n\nI enter into no theological discussion, or any relation of spiritual\nconflicts, the results of such introspection, as the autobiography of my\ndeparted friend describes.  I only give recollections of what I have seen\nand heard, especially in relation to those whom it has been my privilege\nto regard as more or less intimate friends.\n\nIt was just after retirement from Kensington that I began to gather up\nthe following reminiscences, with a permission that my family might\npublish them after my decease.  They were then put aside, and not looked\nat for years.\n\nWithin the last few months it has struck me that so many likely to feel\nan interest in my Recollections have passed away, and others are so far\nadvanced in life, that if the publication be longer delayed, few indeed\nwill be left likely to feel any interest in my narrative.\n\nConscious of failures in memory at my advanced age, I have availed myself\nof memoranda made when travelling, long before any book of this kind was\ncontemplated.\n\nI have been greatly helped in this volume by my dear daughter, with whom\nI reside, who has frequently accompanied me in my travels, and been my\nvalued secretary at home.  Without her aid I could not have brought these\nRecollections through the press.\n\nTUNBRIDGE WELLS,\n         _January_, 1894.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n                              CHAPTER I\n                              1807\u20131828\n                                                                  PAGE\nBirth and boyhood in Norwich\u2014Education\u2014My mother\u2014Early            1\u201318\ntastes\u2014First sight of the sea\u2014Public events\u2014Early\nstudies\u2014Roman Catholicism\u2014Friendships\u2014Religious\nchange\u2014The Christian ministry\u2014College days\n                              CHAPTER II\n                              1828\u20131832\nFellow-students\u2014Public excitements\u2014Old House of                  19\u201338\nCommons\u2014William IV.\u2014Popular preachers in London: Daniel\nWilson, Rowland Hill, James Parsons, Irving, Dr.\nChalmers\u2014Monthly lectures\u2014Work amongst the poor\u2014Political\nexcitement\n                             CHAPTER III\n                              1832\u20131837\nFirst sight of Windsor\u2014Anecdotes of George III.\u2014Rev. A.          39\u201358\nRedford\u2014New chapel and ordination\u2014Bishop Selwyn\u2014Funeral\nof William IV.\u2014Queen Victoria\u2019s coronation and\nwedding\u2014Chaplainship to a Highland regiment\u2014Eton\nMontem\u2014Windsor Auxiliary to Bible Society\u2014Queen\u2019s\npatronage\u2014Windsor a century ago\u2014Eton Institute\u2014Early\nfriendships\n                              CHAPTER IV\n                              1837\u20131843\nSir Culling Eardley and tent preaching\u2014Case of                   59\u201375\nconscience\u2014Public questions\u2014Missionary tours\u2014Newstead\nAbbey\u2014Byron and Scott\u2014Royal visit to Edinburgh\u2014Up the\nRhine\u2014The Rev. W. Walford\u2014Bagster, the publisher\u2014Radicals\na century, ago\u2014John Bergne, of the Foreign\nOffice\u2014Tractarian controversy, and No. 90\n                              CHAPTER V\n                              1843\u20131850\nRemoval to Kensington\u2014Life of Dr. Arnold\u2014Ladies\u2019 schools        76\u2013100\nat Kensington\u2014Kensington friends\u2014Archdeacon\nSinclair\u2014British Schools and Duchess of Inverness\u2014British\nand Foreign Bible Society; London Missionary\nSociety\u2014Young Men\u2019s Christian Association\u2014Evangelical\nAlliance\u2014Sub Ros\u00e2\u2014Tractarianism and Dr. Pusey\u2014Political\nexcitement\u2014Visit to Geneva\u2014C\u00e6sar Malan\u2014Notting Hill\nChapel\u2014Father of Rev. F. D. Maurice\u2014Visit to Newport\nPagnell and the haunts of the poet Cowper\n                              CHAPTER VI\n                              1850\u20131854\nThe papal aggression\u2014Discourses on the Romanist                101\u2013119\ncontroversy\u2014Palace of glass\u2014Evangelical lectures in\nExeter Hall\u2014Memorial of Dr. Doddridge\u2014Visit to Germany\nand Switzerland; thence to Milan, Verona, and\nVenice\u2014Intercourse at Kensington with remarkable people\n                             CHAPTER VII\n                              1854\u20131862\nVisit to Rome: Holy Week, Pio Nono and the feet-washing,       120\u2013137\nCatacombs\u2014Naples\u2014Vesuvius\u2014New chapel at\nKensington\u2014Commencement of the Congregational\nUnion\u2014Algernon Wells\u2014The \u201cRivulet\u201d controversy\u2014Visit to\nBerlin, Dresden, Schandau, and Prague\u2014Affecting sudden\ndeath at Kensington\u2014Family bereavements\u2014Tour in the\nPyrenees\u2014St. Sauveur, the Emperor Napoleon, and Empress\nEugenie\n                             CHAPTER VIII\n                              1862\u20131865\nBicentenary of Bartholomew ejectment\u2014Family                    138\u2013161\nbereavements\u2014Commencement of friendship with Dean\nStanley\u2014His sermon on \u201cThe Feast of the Dedication\u201d\u2014His\nsermon when the American President was present\u2014My Eastern\ntour: Alexandria, Cairo, the Desert, Approach to the Holy\nCity, Communion in the Episcopal Church, Dr. Rosen, Story\nabout the Sinaitic MS., Hebron, Eshcol, Solomon\u2019s Pools,\nMonastery of St. Saba, the Dead Sea, Jordan, Across\nOlivet to Jerusalem, Journey to Bethel and onwards to\nDamascus, Reflections crossing the Mediterranean, Rhodes,\nStorm, Smyrna, Ephesus, Constantinople\u2014Home by the\nDanube, Germany, and Belgium\u2014Reflections\n                              CHAPTER IX\n                              1865\u20131872\nChurch history\u2014Visit to Dr. Hook, Dean of                      162\u2013200\nChichester\u2014Anecdotes of Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford\u2014The\nDean\u2019s life at Leeds\u2014Extracts from his\nletters\u2014Acquaintance with Dr. Swainson\u2014At Cambridge when\nthe announcement of wranglers occurred\u2014Disraeli\u2019s\nschool-boy days\u2014Social gatherings to promote union\u2014The\nArchbishop of Syra at Westminster\u2014Acquaintance with\nMatthew Arnold\u2014Publication of \u201cEcclesia\u201d\u2014Friendly\nintercourse with Bible Revisionists\u2014The Right Honourable\nCowper Temple\u2019s bill for opening Church pulpits to\nNonconformists\u2014Extension of Oxford University\u2014Debate in\nthe House of Lords\u2014Dinners at Mr. George Moore\u2019s house\nafter the annual Bible meetings in Exeter Hall\u2014Death of\nDean Alford and of Sir Donald Macleod\u2014Party at Lambeth\nPalace\u2014Bishop Wilberforce\u2019s extemporary power\u2014Dr.\nGuthrie\u2019s social habits\u2014The education question\u2014Athen\u00e6um\nClub\u2014Academy Dinner\u2014\u201cEcce Homo,\u201d and Lord Shaftesbury\n                              CHAPTER X\n                                 1873\nVoyage to America for the General Meeting of the               201\u2013229\nEvangelical Alliance\u2014Hospitality of the President, the\nHonourable Mr. Dodge\u2014Visit to Sunnyside, where Washington\nIrving lived, and to the Mountain House overlooking the\nHudson\u2014The Niagara Falls\u2014Four days spent on the\nbanks\u2014Description of scenery\u2014Montreal, Boston, Andover,\nNew Haven, and New Plymouth\u2014New York\u2014Proceedings at the\nConference\u2014Reception of 600 guests by Mr. Dodge\u2014Meetings\nat Princeton, Philadelphia, and Washington\u2014Note from the\npoet Longfellow\u2014Letter of Abraham Lincoln to Mr. Gurney\n                              CHAPTER XI\n                              1874\u20131875\nDeath of Dr. Binney\u2014His opinion respecting the exclusion       230\u2013250\nof liturgical worship\u2014Unveiling of Bunyan\u2019s statue at\nBedford\u2014Unveiling of Baxter\u2019s statue at\nKidderminster\u2014Anecdote of Fletcher\u2019s preaching at\nMadeley\u2014Meeting at Kensington on my retirement\u2014Dr.\nStanley\u2019s speech\u2014Kensington friendships\u2014Results of visits\nto the poor\u2014Methods of preaching\n                             CHAPTER XII\n                              1875\u20131879\nLuther celebrations\u2014Death of Lady Augusta Stanley\u2014Her \u201cAt      251\u2013284\nHomes\u201d\u2014Anecdotes of Lamartine, Guizot, and Lord\nRussell\u2014Touching words\u2014Funeral in Westminster Abbey\u2014The\nthree benedictions\u2014The Dean\u2019s account of the Royal\nMarriage at St. Petersburg\u2014Breakfast at Lambeth with\nArchbishop Tait, and conversation relative to a\nconference between Conformists and Nonconformists: The\nplan, The meeting, Subject discussed\u2014Character of the\nPrimate\u2014Visit of the Queen to Mrs. Bagster, who was\nnearly 100 years old\u2014My pilgrimages to Ban de la Roche\nand Broad Oak\u2014Days at the Deanery with Dr. Stanley\u2014My\nlectures at Edinburgh\u2014Scottish society\u2014Singular discovery\nof lost MSS.\u2014Conference at Basle\u2014Addresses of President\nM. D. Sarasin\u2014Death of Mrs. Stoughton\n                             CHAPTER XIII\n                              1879\u20131883\nConversation with a distinguished nobleman upon ideas of       285\u2013313\nreligion amongst the upper classes\u2014Days at Spezzia, Pisa,\nand Florence\u2014Introduction to Cardinal Howard, who sent an\ninvitation to visit him\u2014Conversation with a friend of\nhis\u2014The Cardinal\u2019s reception very cordial\u2014Offers of a\nspecial introduction to the Vatican Library\nauthorities\u2014Successful day in consequence\u2014Protestant\nbrethren in Rome\u2014Christian antiquities\u2014Dr. Somerville\u2019s\nmission\u2014Drive to Subiaco\u2014Home through Venice\u2014Revisit to\nItaly in 1881\u2014Special work in library at Florence amongst\nmemorials of Savonarola\u2014Death of Dr. Stanley\u2014Character\nand habits\u2014Cromwell\u2019s skull\u2014Tour in Germany\u2014Sir William\nMcArthur\u2019s mayoralty\u2014Death of Archbishop Tait\u2014Excursion\nto the Grande Chartreuse\n                             CHAPTER XIV\n                              1883\u20131885\nJourney to Spain in preparation of book on Spanish             314\u2013337\nReformers: Through France to Figueras, Barcelona,\nTarragona, Poblet, Valencia, Cordova, Granada, Seville,\nMadrid, Escorial, Toledo, Valladolid, Burgos\n                              CHAPTER XV\n                                 1885\nThird and last visit to Rome\u2014Changes in the city and its       338\u2013360\nsurroundings\u2014Where did Paul live during his\ncaptivity?\u2014Evangelical Alliance meetings at Edinburgh and\nGlasgow\u2014Death of Lord Chichester\u2014Mr. Cheetham,\nM.P.\u2014Visits to Dr. Magee, Bishop of Peterborough\u2014Lord\nEbury and Moor Park\u2014Friends in Norfolk\u2014Increase of Roman\nCatholics in Kensington\u2014Chapel openings at\nHastings\u2014Autumnal meeting in 1886 at Norwich\u2014Bishop\u2019s\npalace\n                             CHAPTER XVI\nI.  Church of England\u2014II.  Presbyterians\u2014III.                  361\u2013391\nBaptists\u2014IV.  The Friends\u2014V.  Methodists\u2014VI.\nCongregationalists\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n1807\u20131828\n\n\nI WAS born in the parish of St. Michaels-at-Plea, Norwich, November 18th,\n1807.  My father was in some respects a remarkable man.  For his great\nintegrity, he won the name of \u201cthe honest lawyer\u201d; he would undertake no\ncause, if unconvinced of its justice, and declined the office of coroner\nbecause its duties would have shocked his feelings.  Of strong\nunderstanding, and fond of reading, after living a thoughtless life, he\nbecame an earnest Christian, and worshipped with Methodists, chiefly from\ncircumstances\u2014still regarding himself as a member of the Established\nChurch.  Two elder sisters and an elder brother of mine were baptised by\nthe parish clergyman; so was I, the Archdeacon of London being my\ngodfather.  I have been told that I \u201cwas intended for the Church,\u201d and\nsome Episcopalian friends have amused themselves with speculations as to\nwhat might have been the result.\n\nMy mother before she married was a Quakeress, and used to tell of eminent\n\u201cFriends\u201d she knew in her girlhood, especially Edmund Gurney, who\npreached \u201cwith great power\u201d in the Gildencroft Meeting House.  She was\nbrought up a Quakeress by her mother, but her father was, at least in\nlater life, a staunch Methodist.  She remembered John Wesley, and used to\ntell how he took her up as a child and kissed her.\n\nMy father died in my fifth year.  Of him I have but a faint recollection.\nMy grandfather, at a distance now of seventy-five years, visibly stands\nbefore me\u2014a tall old gentleman with flaxen wig, large spectacles, a long,\nblue, bright-buttoned coat, and big buckled shoes.  He was Master of\nBethel Hospital, an institution for the insane, in my native city; and,\nas I spent much time with him for a year before his death, I saw and\nheard a good deal of the patients under his care.  \u201cMaster,\u201d said one of\nthem, \u201cI want to propose a toast\u2014may the devil never go abroad or receive\nvisitors at home.\u201d  \u201cWhat brought you here?\u201d somebody asked an inmate.\n\u201cThe loss of what you never had, or you would not ask such a question,\u201d\nwas the prompt reply.  A man who fancied himself King of England drew on\nhis cell wall pictures of ships which he called his fleet, and would\nnever speak unless he was addressed as \u201cYour Majesty.\u201d  I once narrowly\nescaped severe injury from a woman, who seized me as her child and\nsqueezed me so hard, that no violence could induce her to relax her\ngrasp; but gentle words, and a promise that I should be taken care of,\nsecured my release.  Alternate severity and indulgence, at that time, in\nthe treatment of patients led to a sad tragedy in the case of my\ngrandfather, who was killed by a man employed as gardener.  He was\nthought to be harmless, and used to mow the lawn.  One morning he drew\nthe scythe across his master\u2019s body and nearly cut him in two.\n\nMy mother had a dream the night before, and saw in it her father lying on\na bed, pale as ashes, which she interpreted as meaning something terrible\nwould happen to him.  When, at breakfast time, she was told by a\ngentleman of what had occurred, she coupled it with what she had seen in\nher sleep.\n\nWe were living at the time in a very old house with diamond-paned\nwindows, a brick-paved entrance hall, and some rambling passages.  I well\nremember the little bedroom in which I slept.  There resided with us an\nold lady, widow of a Norwich gentleman, who had been a friend of the\nfamous George Whitefield.  She used to tell anecdotes of the popular\npreacher\u2014how he called himself Dr. Squintum, and, when supping off\ncowheel, a dish he liked, would say, he wondered what people would think\nof his being so employed.\n\nMy mother had a strong verbal memory which her son has not inherited; and\nit enabled her to instruct and entertain me by reciting long extracts in\nprose and poetry.  She was a great reader and did much to instruct and\ncultivate my mind by her frequent recitations.  My education owes more to\nthis, and other circumstances, than to schoolmasters under whom I was\nplaced.  However, of course, rudiments of knowledge fell to my lot in the\nusual way; but my culture in chief resulted from devouring books, from\ninstructive conversation, and from the delight I felt in observing\nnature, and looking on what was ancient.  When other boys were at play, I\nliked to get by myself and read; biography and history having for me\npre-eminent charms.  Lord Nelson had been dead only a few years at the\ntime I speak of, and what I learnt about him as a Norfolk man immensely\ngratified my curiosity.  His aunt was a friend of my grandmother, and\ngreat was my delight to see and hear such a distinguished lady; the\ngratification being enhanced by a bright shilling she slipped into my\nhand.  The river Wensum, old trees by the water-side, the picturesque\nvillage of Thorpe, Whitlingham White House and woods, the uplands of\nMousehold, walled-in gardens all over the city, wild hedgerows, sheltered\nnooks and corners under weeping willows, cattle feeding in green meadows,\nand swans swimming on the river\u2014these objects afforded me an \u00e6sthetic\neducation.\n\nFrom a child I took an interest in historical tales, and felt delight in\nlistening to my mother\u2019s memories of early days.  She recollected the\nAmerican war, and spoke of a family dispute amongst her elders, which\nlasted just as long\u2014ten years.  Excitement in William Pitt\u2019s day she\nbrought vividly before me; and she told how Thelwall, the orator,\ndelivered revolutionary harangues, and being attacked by a mob, he was\nglad to escape by clambering over the roofs of houses.  The trials of\nHorne Tooke, Hardy, and others, and Erskine\u2019s famous speeches in their\ndefence, were in my boyhood modern incidents.  Objects in the city\nexcited arch\u00e6ological tastes.  The Norman keep, Herbert de Lozinga\u2019s\nCathedral, Erpingham Gate, the Grammar School, the Bishop\u2019s palace, with\nruins in the garden, dilapidated towers on the edge of the river, Guild\nHall, St. Andrew\u2019s Hall, and the Old Men\u2019s Hospital\u2014these had for me a\nmighty charm, creating fancies by day and dreams by night.  The East\nAnglian city had not old houses such as Prout found on the Continent, but\nit contained picturesque, tumble-down tenements, and other \u201cbits,\u201d\nsketched in \u201cHighways and Byeways of Old Norwich.\u201d  The sight of these\ncreated a habit of looking after ancient quaint remains, which has never\nforsaken me.\n\nGuild day, with its triumphal arches, carpets and flags hung out of\nwindows, Darby and Joan sitting in a green arbour, the Mayor\u2019s coach\nattended by \u201cSnap,\u201d and the \u201cwhifflers\u201d; the rush-strewn cathedral\npavement, as the Corporation marched up the nave\u2014all this gave birth to\nboyish enthusiasm for the picturesque.  Every Guild day, on a green baize\nplatform near the west door of the cathedral, the head boy of the Grammar\nSchool delivered a Latin oration before his Worship.  What envy that boy\naroused in my bosom!  Elections, too, were objects of intense interest to\nme as a childish politician, when Whig candidates were carried in\nblue-and-white satin chairs, on the shoulders of men who tossed them up,\nas the Goths did their heroes upon battle shields.\n\nAs to another part of my education, I loved to read the lives of eminent\npeople, and devoured a good many memoirs of men and women in religious\nmagazines.  Norwich was at that time distinguished for literary,\nartistic, and benevolent celebrities; and I felt proud as a boy to think\nof them as pertaining to my own birthplace.  The appearance of several\namongst them I have still, after the lapse of seventy years, vividly\nbefore me\u2014Mrs. Opie, the Taylors, the Martineaus, Joseph John Gurney, and\nBishop Bathurst, with several beside.\n\nMay I add, the first sight of the sea at Yarmouth I can never forget.  It\nwas a November morning in my ninth year.  The sky looked angry; the\nwind-swept waters and tall billows broke furiously on the beach; the hulk\nof a stranded vessel lay on the sands\u2014emblem of life\u2019s shattered hopes.\n\nPublic excitements prevailed in my boyish days beyond what the present\ngeneration has witnessed.  After the battle of Waterloo, and the\nconsequent peace, which was coupled with an idea of plenty, large loaves\nwere paraded on poles as symbols of abundant food, mistakenly supposed to\ncome as a natural consequence now that Buonaparte was conquered.  There\narose, instead of this, much distress amongst the lower class, greatly\nowing to corn-laws enacted for the protection of agricultural interests.\nBread riots followed, and I now catch glimpses of a mob in 1816 marching\nto the New Mills to sack a granary, and shoot into the flushes of the\nriver Wensum, loads of grain and flour.  Such tumults were surpassed in\nbreadth and depth of feeling, amongst the upper class, by the excitement\nattending the return to England of Queen Caroline after the accession of\nGeorge IV. in 1820.  Never have I known such agitation in private\ncircles, as when society split from top to bottom on the question of her\nMajesty\u2019s character and wrongs.  For months there were almost incessant\nprocessions from London to Hammersmith in honour of the lady, who was\nsojourning at Brandenburgh House.  Unnumbered addresses were presented to\nher, and whenever her carriage appeared, it evoked rapturous shouts.\nDuring her trial things were done and said startling beyond parallel.\nDocuments full of abominable details were deposited in a \u201cgreen bag,\u201d\nwhich called to mind the words in Job xiv. 17; and when filthy evidence\nwas furnished on the king\u2019s side against his wife, counsel on her side\nattacked him as a second Nero, and compared him to the infernal shadow in\nMilton, which \u201cthe likeness of a kingly crown had on.\u201d  Round the\nhearthstone families and friends were divided on this absorbing subject;\nand such word battles as Home Rule now occasions were then far surpassed.\n\nMy school days over, I entered a lawyer\u2019s office.  He put into my hands\n\u201cBlackstone\u2019s Commentaries,\u201d which interested me less in what was said\nabout real and personal property, the rights of things and the rights of\npersons, with the law of descent and entail, than in what appeared\ntouching legislation, and the principles of government.  De Lolme on \u201cThe\nConstitution,\u201d I read with avidity.  Having to attend the Law Courts at\ntimes, I listened to forensic eloquence with great interest; a love for\noratory being further gratified by hearing speeches at public meetings\nwhen Lord Suffield and Joseph John Gurney advocated negro emancipation\nand other reforms.\n\nTheological discussions interested me immensely.  The lawyer in whose\noffice I was became a Roman Catholic, and, finding me an inquisitive\nyoungster, talked on the subject, explaining the doctrines and ceremonies\nof his Church.  Whilst the information he gave me was worth having, I\ndetermined to read Milner\u2019s \u201cEnd of Religious Controversy,\u201d and other\nCatholic books; and beyond my interest respecting matters of an\nantiquarian flavour, I felt the importance of ascertaining true grounds\nfor Protestant beliefs.  My master took me once a week to North Walsham,\nand in cold winter nights, as the moon shone on the snow-sprinkled\nhedges, plied me with arguments for transubstantiation, purgatory, and\nthe like.  I ventured humbly to dispute his positions, and to contend for\ntruths on the opposite side; though the match was unequal between a boy\nof fifteen and a man of forty, primed by the priest to whom he owed his\nconversion.  Those night drives were useful, and led me to see some of\nthe better aspects of Roman Catholic faith and character, whilst they\naroused inquiry, and led to clearer convictions than I might otherwise\nhave reached respecting principles in debate.  Here let me observe that\nearly intercourse with friends of different denominations has in the best\nsense broadened my habit of looking at questions, and inspired a\ntolerance, not of error itself, but of persons holding error, because\nthey are often better than their creeds, and have in them a great deal\nthat is good, as well as something of another quality.  Quiet intercourse\nin early life with members of various denominations I find to have been a\nschool for the culture of Christian charity.\n\nRemoved when about sixteen to another office, with the idea of entering\nthe legal profession, I met with fellow-clerks of education and taste,\nwho proved very helpful; one in particular became an intimate friend.  He\nhad been a favourite pupil of an eminent classical schoolmaster, and was\nwell up in Horace.  We had much talk on subjects of common interest.  His\ntemperament had a melancholy tinge, owing to his state of health, for he\nwas in a slow consumption, but behind dark clouds there lay a sky full of\nhumour, and his conversation often sparkled with unaffected wit.  He\ncould be a little satirical at the expense of juvenile follies, in which\nhe did not share; whilst amiability kept him from giving pain to the most\nsensitive.  Our friendship continued until his early death, when he\npassed away \u201cin the faith and hope of the Gospel.\u201d\n\nAmongst early educational influences which I enjoyed may be reckoned the\nopportunities I had of listening to public speakers of different\nkinds\u2014lawyers at the bar, preachers in the pulpit, orators on the\nplatform, and candidates during elections; for Norwich was contested most\nearnestly in my boyhood.  Moreover, the city was remarkable for musical\nculture.  It had weekly concerts.  Festivals also occurred; these I\nattended again and again with much enjoyment.  My friends who know my\nignorance of music will smile at this.\n\nIt might be when I was about seventeen that on a Sunday morning I took a\nwalk into the country with a volume of Chalmers\u2019 sermons under my arm.  I\nread one of them on Rom. v. 10.  The perusal deeply affected me, and on\nthe evening of the same day, I heard a Methodist minister preach upon\nJohn iii. 16.  These two impressions commenced a lifelong change in my\nexperience and character\u2014a change so great, that it led to the\nabandonment of my former occupation, and issued in the consecration of my\nafter-days to the Gospel ministry.\n\nAbout that time a journey to London on legal business gave me an\nopportunity of hearing distinguished preachers, Dr. Adam Clarke and Dr.\nCollyer amongst the rest\u2014a privilege which deepened my religious\nconvictions.  I may observe in passing, as regards my visit to London,\nthat the first sight of it, on a dull morning after a night in the\nNorwich mail, I have never forgotten\u2014Bishopsgate-street, the Old Post\nOffice, and all round the Mansion House\u2014how different the neighbourhood\nappeared in 1826 from what it does now!  In Waterloo-place, Pall Mall, I\nspent more than a month, and I can now see George IV. descending the\nsteps of Carlton House (where the Duke of York\u2019s column stands), leaning\non a page\u2019s shoulder on the way to his carriage.\n\nOn returning to Norwich, my thoughts fixed on the subject which had\npreviously engaged my attention.  A few years ago, when conversing with a\nfriend in the coffee-room of the House of Commons, a report was mentioned\nof a certain Dissenting minister\u2019s intention to enter Parliament, if a\nseat could be obtained.  My friend remarked emphatically, \u201cThat would be\na come-down.\u201d  He himself at that time held office, and was on the way to\nbecome a Right Honourable; and when I expressed my surprise to hear him\ntalk so, he rejoined that he considered the Gospel ministry as the\nhighest employment on earth when a man really \u201c_was called to it_.\u201d  I\nfelt, sixty years ago, exactly in that way, and only wished to know that\nsuch a call awaited me.  I spent some months in coming to a conclusion,\nand at length felt convinced that it was my duty and privilege to spend\nlife in Christian preaching and pastoral work.\n\nThen arose the question, In what ecclesiastical connexion?  My relation\nto Methodism had arisen from circumstances, but now some study of\necclesiastical principles was necessary.  I began to read what I could on\nthe subject, acquainting myself with different sides, and being open to\nconviction one way or another.  I had no predilections, and was ready to\nbe either a clergyman or a Dissenting minister.  I arrived at the\nconclusion that Congregationalism, _on the whole_, as far as I understood\nit, came nearest to New Testament teaching; but that probably no existing\nconnexion corresponded exactly with Churches of the first century.  What\nI thought then has been confirmed by studies in after-years, devoted\nlargely to the New Testament and the history of Christendom.  I have\nlearned to distinguish between principles lying at the basis of religious\nbeliefs and existing organisations through which they are worked out.\nThe former may be true and sound, whilst the latter are defective, and in\nsome points mistaken.\n\nIt is curious that at the time I first made up my mind I knew socially\nnext to nothing of Congregationalists as a body; my chief associations\nhaving been with Methodists, Quakers, Church-people, and a few Roman\nCatholics.  I joined the venerable society of Christians assembling in\nthe Old Meeting House, Norwich; its fathers and founders having been\ngathered into Church fellowship, during the seventeenth century, under\nthe teaching and influence of William Bridge, who resided in Yarmouth;\nsome of the members being Norwich folk.  When I expressed my desire for\nthe ministry to two Dissenting ministers\u2014the pastor of the Old Meeting\nHouse and his friend who occupied Princes-street pulpit\u2014I met with\ndifferent opinions, the former advising me to pursue the study of law,\nthe latter encouraging my desire for the ministry.  In the end these two\nfriends concurred in advice, the consequence being my introduction to\nHighbury College, London.\n\nI had from the beginning cautions against forsaking in after-life the\npulpit for any other post.  William Godwin, the famous author of\n\u201cPolitical Justice\u201d and other works, also W. J. Fox, the Anti-Corn-law\nlecturer, a distinguished public character at that time, had been\nintended for the Dissenting ministry, and, indeed, entered it.  By a\nremarkable coincidence, both these distinguished men were connected with\nthe Old Meeting House, where I then was accustomed to worship.  Their\nabandonment of an early faith and a sacred calling for the sake of\nliterature and politics, was held up to me as a beacon, to warn me off\ndangerous rocks.\n\nBefore noticing my entrance into college, I may be allowed to mention\nthat the congregation which I joined contained some noteworthy people.\nMr. William Youngman was a hard-headed, intelligent, and inquisitive man,\nmuch given to theological argument and incisive criticism of current\nopinions.  He tried the patience of orthodox religionists, and was the\nterror of neophytes.  Once, when I dined with him, he commenced talking\nabout original sin as I was hanging up my hat, and went on in the same\nstrain to the end of my visit.  He found his match at book meetings in\nMr. Thomas Brightwell, F.R.S., an eminent naturalist, whose name is\nperpetuated in a memoir of a plant called after him, to be found, if I\ncorrectly remember, in the Transactions of the Royal Society.  He was a\ndiligent student of the Bible, and published notes on the Old Testament,\ndrawn chiefly from the Scholia of Rosenmuller and Michaelis.\n\nIn 1828 I entered Highbury College, afterwards merged in New College, St.\nJohn\u2019s Wood; the professors\u2014or tutors as they were called in my\ntime\u2014being Dr. Henderson, Dr. Burder, and Dr. Halley.  Dr. Henderson had\nbeen engaged in foreign missionary and Bible work, spending much time in\nSt. Petersburg, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, where he became acquainted\nwith the languages of Northern Europe.  He drilled us in the languages of\nthe Old Testament, initiated some small study in Syriac, and delivered\nelaborate lectures on the evidences and doctrines of Christianity.  He\nsuggested essays to be written during the vacation on subjects demanding\nresearch, and he regularly required the careful preparation of comments\non the original Scriptures, to be delivered _viva voce_ in class.  Dr.\nBurder was son of George Burder, once well known as the author of\n\u201cVillage Sermons.\u201d  He lectured on mental and moral philosophy, and\nemployed as text-books the works of Reid, Stewart, and Brown having\nhimself graduated in a Scotch university.  Exceedingly careful,\nconscientious, and precise, he opposed all bold speculations, and was\nincapable of sympathy with mystical thinkers.  He had a clear\napprehension of whatever he taught, and used to lay down as a canon of\ncomposition.  \u201cExpress yourselves, not so that you _may_, but so that you\n_must_ be understood.\u201d  Dr. Halley was a good classical scholar,\nimpulsive, unsystematic, and by no means a severe disciplinarian.  He\nenthusiastically admired Demosthenes and Cicero, and to hear him give\nextempore versions of these orators was an immense treat.  We read with\nhim some Greek tragedians and Latin poets, and he delivered lectures on\nhistory and antiquities.  Mathematics came within his department; but,\ncertainly in my time, he never turned out a wrangler.  His influence,\nhowever, was very stimulative, and he inspired when he did not instruct.\n\nDefects in the Nonconformist educational system were apparent to me at\nthat time, much more so have they become to me ever since; but, to a\nconsiderable extent, they arose from uncontrollable circumstances, so\nmany students having had few advantages in their boyhood.  I have lived\nto witness a great improvement in Nonconformist college methods.\n\nIt should not be omitted that during the latter part of our term a few of\nus attended the mental and moral philosophy class of Professor Hoppus in\nthe London University College, Gower Street, that institution having been\nestablished by friends of unsectarian education, and numbering on its\ncouncils, and amongst its officers, several Nonconformists.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n1828\u20131832\n\n\nMY most distinguished fellow-student for intellectual power and literary\nattainment was Henry Rogers, afterwards a large contributor to the\n_Edinburgh Review_.  Some of the articles he wrote for that periodical\nhave been published as essays in three volumes.  His feeble voice stood\nin the way of his being an effective preacher; but his learning and\nability eminently fitted him for the duties of a professor.  In that\ncapacity he rendered high service at Spring Hill, Birmingham, and next,\nat Lancashire College, Manchester.  He was highly esteemed by Lord\nMacaulay, and Archbishop Whately; excessive modesty alone prevented his\nintroduction to the highest literary circles.\n\nHe was a clear-headed, acute thinker and reasoner, delighting in Socratic\ntalk, trotting out an unsuspicious conversationalist, until he entangled\nhim in inconsistency and contradictions, the remembrance of which might\nbe afterwards useful.  Rogers, to the end of life, was a humble and\ndevout Christian.  Our intercourse in after-days was pleasant, and to me\nmost encouraging.\n\nWilliam Drew, who became a devoted Indian missionary, was another of my\ncontemporaries, and, from sympathy with him, I caught a portion of his\nspirit; had I possessed the needful qualifications, I could have devoted\nmyself to a similar enterprise.\n\nSamuel Bergne, for many years an able and much-appreciated secretary of\nthe British and Foreign Bible Society, was another of my fellow-students.\nWith him I became extremely intimate, owing, in part, to an extraordinary\nfamily affair, which I have been requested to relate.  My father, before\nhe married, had living with him a sister, to whom he was strongly\nattached.  After their separation, she went to reside in London, and\ndropped all correspondence with him; to the day of his death he could\nnever ascertain what had become of her.  Methods were adopted to find out\nher residence, but all in vain.  More than thirty years had elapsed since\nshe disappeared, when one day I met Bergne, who had been visiting his\nmother at Brompton.  \u201cHave not you a relative there?\u201d he asked.  \u201cNot\nthat I know of,\u201d was my reply.  Then he told me that an evening or two\nbefore, as he was sitting by the fire, it flashed upon him how he had\nheard that an old friend of his mother\u2019s, before her marriage, bore the\nsame name as mine; that she came from Norwich, and that her brother was a\nlawyer.  I was taken aback by what my friend said, and then related what\nI had heard in childhood respecting my father\u2019s long-lost sister.\n\u201cDepend upon it,\u201d he exclaimed, \u201cI have found for you the lady your\nfamily have been seeking in vain.\u201d  I soon received a request to meet the\nstranger at Mrs. Bergne\u2019s house, when something like a scene occurred, as\nthe separated relatives stood face to face.  Yet neither then nor\nafterwards did she shed any light upon the mystery.  She had a husband\nwho proved to be no less a mystery.  We never could learn anything about\nhis connections; but, at the time of my introduction to him he was\nengaged on _The Morning Post_.  We afterwards learned from himself, as\nwell as others, that he had been employed in this country as an agent of\nthe Imperial French Court; certainly he had in his possession a key to\nthe cipher-writing, used by the first Napoleon.  He showed me relics of\nthat extraordinary man, and had much to say of several notabilities at\nhome and abroad.  What of fact mingled with fiction in his strange\ndisclosures I cannot say; but, after his death, I saw some of his papers,\nincluding an unintelligible correspondence between Mr. Canning and\nhimself; also letters relating to private scandals of great people, only\nfit to be thrown into the fire.  He lived in an imaginary world, and used\nto say that Napoleon Buonaparte was still living.  To his influence, I\nsuppose, the mystery which shrouded my aunt\u2019s life after her marriage,\nmight be ascribed.\n\nThe four years I spent at Highbury were marked by much political\nexcitement.  In 1828 the Corporation and Test Acts were repealed.  The\nCatholic Relief Bill was carried in 1829.  In 1830 William IV. succeeded\nhis brother.  The \u201cthree days of July\u201d the same year occurred in Paris:\nthe abdication of Charles X., and the accession of Louis Philippe,\nswiftly followed each other; and a fresh impetus was thus given to the\ncause of English liberalism.  The Duke of Wellington\u2019s protest against\nreform, the defeat of the Ministry on the Civil List, and the\nintroduction of the Reform Bill the next year, produced an excitement\nwhich I do not think has been equalled since, though for passionate\ndiscussion in the homes of England, it has been surpassed by what\noccurred during the trial of Queen Caroline.  Earl Grey, Lord Brougham,\nand Lord John Russell were popular idols, their names in everybody\u2019s\nmouth, their portraits looking down from innumerable shop windows, their\nbusts set up in house after house, their likenesses printed on\nhandkerchiefs and stamped on pipes and jugs, and all sorts of ware.  They\nwere mobbed and hurrahed wherever they went, and their carriages were\ndragged by the populace through streams knee-deep.\n\nAt that period the old House of Commons was standing, and went by the\nname of St. Stephen\u2019s Chapel.  Within its walls the Reform battle was\nfought; and there still lingered round it memories of Pitt and Fox, Burke\nand Sheridan.  I had a great curiosity to see this English forum, and\nwhen I obtained admission, with my tutor, Dr. Halley, who explained the\nbuilding and what was going on, I seemed to be in an old Presbyterian\nmeeting-house, with galleries on three sides, the Speaker\u2019s chair, with\nits wooden canopy, resembling a pulpit, at the farther end.  Members were\n\u201ccribbed, cabined, and confined.\u201d  The forms of the House were\ninteresting to me, and afforded a framework in which to insert images of\nmen in the reign of George II.  I had but to put Court dresses and cocked\nhats on the members, and forthwith the age of Walpole came back to view.\nA messenger from the Lords, the bowing of an officer as he approached the\ntable, with its wigged clerks, and other matters of ceremony illustrated\nmy readings of Parliament business in olden times.\n\nOne figure especially I now recall\u2014that of Sir Charles Wetherall, a\nfierce opponent of reform.  Up he rose, violently gesticulating, his\nshirt very visible between his black waistcoat and dark nether garment.\n\nThe coronation of William IV. and Queen Adelaide indicated a change in\nthat august ceremonial, which showed how reform touched royal pageantry.\nThough an instance of a double coronation, it came short of the elaborate\ndisplay when the previous monarch sat alone in Edward\u2019s chair.  I saw the\nprocession going down to Westminster, along a narrow street at Charing\nCross\u2014old-fashioned shabby shops standing where now you catch sight of\npalatial hotels\u2014old Northumberland House, with its gardens, occupying the\nspace now become a broad avenue.  The beefeaters, the trumpeters, and the\nfootmen in attendance upon the gaudy state-coach, with its royal\noccupants, were very picturesque.  And what a crush there was to avoid\nthe mob streaming down from the Haymarket!\n\nAll sorts of reports were afloat, tending to make the new king popular.\nIt was said, that immediately after his accession, he came to town in the\ndickey of his carriage, and invited, after an unceremonious manner, his\nold naval friends to come and dine with him.  A story went the round with\nrare applause that, after the defeat of the Reform Bill, when he wanted\nto dissolve Parliament, he said if the royal carriages could not be got\nready, he would go in a hackney coach.  How far such tales were true I do\nnot know; but a nobleman, present at one of His Majesty\u2019s dinner-parties\nat the Brighton Pavilion, told me that, on that occasion, the king\ntoasted some of his guests in sailor fashion, and remarked that his\nseafaring pursuits had scarcely fitted him for a throne.  Then, pointing\nto the queen, he added that for any improvement in his ways he was\nindebted to that good lady.  The story raised him in my estimation and\nthat of many others.\n\nI must now turn from politics and royalty to what was more in my own way.\n\nThe Rev. Daniel Wilson, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, stood high amongst\nLondon Evangelicals as Vicar of Islington, and I sometimes heard him in\nhis crowded church; but my great delight was to walk down to Camberwell\nto listen to Henry Melvill, then in the zenith of his popularity.  His\nmanner was peculiar\u2014he had a curious shake of the head, and a strange\ninflection of voice at the end of a sentence, which kept up attention.\nAs to style, he was artificial in the extreme; every paragraph seeming to\nbe planned on the same model, ending with the words of his text as a\nwell-turned climax.  The preacher swept his auditors along with the force\nof a torrent from point to point.  I heard him at Barnes, when he was\nadvanced in life, deliver one of his old discourses, I should judge\nlittle, if at all, altered; but it lacked the fire of early days, and the\ncongregation evinced little of the sympathy which seemed to quiver in\nLondon churches at the sound of his voice twenty or thirty years before.\n\nRowland Hill, though a very old man in 1830, continued to fill Surrey\nChapel with a crowded audience.  I listened to a sermon in which he\nrecommended young people when they set up house-keeping to secure one\npiece of furniture especially\u2014_i.e._, the looking-glass of a good\nconscience, so that husband and wife, keeping it clean, might see\nthemselves in it, with joy and thankfulness; \u201cfor a good man is satisfied\nfrom himself,\u201d and, he added, \u201cso is a good woman.\u201d  John Angell James,\nof Birmingham, was one of the most popular preachers at that time, and he\noccasionally occupied Surrey Chapel pulpit; but William Jay, of Bath, was\na more regular \u201csupply,\u201d and echoes of his sonorous voice I still catch\nas I read his pithy and impressive sermons.  When he came to preach\nRowland Hill\u2019s funeral sermon I had left college, and he honoured me with\nan invitation to preach for him at Bath the Sunday following.  In 1886,\nwhen I occupied the same pulpit in my old age, a lady told me that she\nremembered my being there more than fifty years before, when the people\nwondered at their pastor\u2019s sending \u201csuch a boy to take his place.\u201d  A\nsimilar occurrence had happened when Jay first preached for Rowland Hill.\n\nJames Parsons, of York, was a frequent visitor to London, and used to\noccupy for several Sundays in the year the pulpit of Moorfields\nTabernacle, and that of Tottenham Court Chapel.  Congregations gathered\nan hour before service to listen to this youthful preacher.  He had been\neducated for the law, and, with a strong taste for rhetorical efforts,\nhad cultivated, by the study of English authors, his own extraordinary\ngift for public speaking.  Almost inaudible at first, his voice would\ngradually rise into tones shrill and penetrating; and after repeated\npauses, when people relieved themselves by bursts of coughing, he would,\nduring his peroration, wind them up to such a pitch of excitement as I\nhave never witnessed since.  He was thoroughly evangelical and devout,\nand did an immense deal of spiritual good.  I became intimately\nacquainted with him in after-years, and found in his friendship a source\nof much enjoyment.  His conversations in the parlour were as full of\nanecdote and humour as his sermons in the pulpit were of pathos and\npower.  I have heard a member of Parliament, one of his deacons at York,\nsay that Mr. Parsons\u2019 eloquence in early days was perfectly electrifying,\nand that, as he listened to him at that time, he felt as if he must lay\nhold on the top of his pew to prevent being swept away by the force of\nthe preacher\u2019s appeals.\n\nEdward Irving occupied the Caledonian Church in Hatton Garden, a retired\nand ugly-looking Presbyterian meeting-house; but the nobility flocked\nround him, and it was picturesque to see Scotch schoolboys in Highland\nkilts placed in front of the pulpit.  As I was trying to get in at a side\ndoor, up walked the gigantic orator, with his black locks and\nbroad-brimmed beaver, as if an old Covenanter had risen from the dead.\nAn infant lying in the arms of that strong man added to the effect of the\npicture.  His manner at that period was grand.  His sermons were\ncarefully prepared and read, every word, but with a blended majesty and\npathos which no extempore utterance could exceed; and his reading of the\ntwenty-third Psalm, Scotch version, was inimitable.  His favourite word,\n\u201c_Fatherhood_,\u201d quoted by Mr. Canning with admiration, and now so\nhackneyed, impressed religious people wonderfully by its freshness.  A\nfellow-student took me some time afterwards to call on him at his house\nin the then New Road.  He was unwell and sat by the fireside wrapped in a\nblue gown.  He talked to me for some time on the subject of baptism, the\nright understanding of which, he said, was a key to many theological\nquestions.  I could not assent to all he said, nor indeed understand it,\nbut did not dare, at my age, to make any reply.  When he had ended he\nslowly rose from his chair.  It seemed as if he would never finish\nrising, he was so tall.  When erect, he waved his hand to a nursemaid,\nwho was walking across the room with a babe in her arms, and then,\nplacing his hand on my head, he offered a solemn intercession, suggesting\nthe idea of a Hebrew prophet blessing a young Israelite.\n\nAt a later period he took up peculiar views on prophecy, and on some\necclesiastical points.  Then he became wild and incoherent.  I heard him\npreach outside Coldbath Prison to a few bystanders, very differently from\nwhat he had done in Hatton Garden.  He seemed to have lost unction as\nwell as thoughtfulness and eloquence.  On a cold winter morning, before\nbreakfast, several students and myself walked down to his new church in\nRegent Square to witness \u201cthe gift of tongues,\u201d which, amongst other\nimaginations, he believed had been miraculously bestowed.  The building\nwas dark, for the sun had not risen, and the mysterious gloom heightened\nthe effect of the exhibition which followed.  First arose inarticulate\nscreams, then exclamations of \u201cHe is coming!\u201d \u201cHe is co-m-i-ng!\u201d drawn\nout in marvellous quavers.  What appeared to me inarticulate and\nincomprehensible sounds, were regarded by him and many people as Divine\nutterances.  They deemed them the return of Pentecost\u2014a gift of tongues.\nAt London Wall Church I saw him afterwards arraigned before the\npresbytery for heretical opinions touching the Lord\u2019s humanity.  He\nfought his battle manfully; and whatever people might think of his\nsentiments, they could scarcely fail to be impressed with the sincerity\nand earnestness of the man.  The trial issued in his expulsion from\nRegent Square\u2014poor fellow!  It is touching to think of his history;\npopularity was his snare.  It turned his head; yet, after all, he\nsacrificed that very popularity to sincere convictions.  His latest life\nwas an instance of martyrdom for conscience\u2019 sake.  Those who condemn his\nopinions must honour the man.\n\nDr. Chalmers came to preach at Regent Square.  After the benefit derived\nfrom his printed sermons, I might well desire to hear his voice.  The\npitch of excitement to which he wrought himself up surpassed everything\nof the kind I ever witnessed.  His vehemence was terrific, yet all seemed\nnatural.  He was John Knox over again\u2014John Knox in manner, more than John\nKnox in thought and eloquence of expression.  He moved on \u201chinges,\u201d as\nRobert Hall said, or rather, \u201clike a cloud, that moveth altogether, if it\nmove at all.\u201d  The fact is, he felt what he was saying.  It went down to\nthe depths of his own soul, and hence it reached the souls of others.\nThe crowd in the church was immense, numbers standing all the time; yet\nit was curious to learn that the sermon was already in print\u2014in print, I\nbelieve, years before.  He often redelivered his discourses, even after\npublication; and Dr. Wardlaw of Glasgow told me his distinguished\nneighbour informed him, that he tried to lessen the crowds at church by\nannouncing that next time he meant to deliver what they had heard\nalready.  \u201cYet,\u201d with a childlike simplicity the old man added, \u201cthey\ncome in still larger numbers than before!\u201d  Not many preachers are\ntroubled in that way.\n\nAt the time now referred to, religious services were not multiplied as at\npresent; hence great interest was taken amongst London Congregationalists\nin what were called \u201cMonthly Lectures,\u201d given by ministers who carefully\nprepared what they delivered.  Three come back to my recollection now.\nThe first, in Jewin Street, was delivered by Dr. Collyer, a popular\ndivine, who attracted the notice of royalty, and had the Dukes of Kent\nand of Sussex to hear him.  I knew him well in after-days, when he spoke\nof friendly intercourse with him, vouchsafed on the part of Queen\nVictoria\u2019s father.  The subject of the doctor\u2019s lecture was \u201cOur Colonial\nEmpire,\u201d and a felicitous text was selected from Ezek. xxviii. 14\u201316.  He\nurged on his audience the claims of distant colonies, then much\nneglected; and he painted vivid pictures of England\u2019s commercial wealth\nand vast possessions, insisting strongly on our national\nresponsibilities.  The second I remember was in Claremont Chapel, from\nthe lips of my tutor, Dr. Halley, on the importance of intercessory\nprayer, showing its place in Church history, as a pivot on which turned\nevents of unutterable importance.  A third, at Bermondsey, was delivered\nby a minister of great pulpit gifts, named Dobson, who discoursed on the\ntopic of the final resurrection.  I am not in the habit of saying the\nformer days were better than these, yet I may be permitted to express my\nopinion that those three lectures would bear favourable comparison with\nthe best productions in Nonconformist homiletics at the present day.\nAmong venerable forms present at these lectures, to officiate or listen,\nwere Dr. Winter, of New Court, now covered by buildings sacred to the\nlaw, a man of high repute, stout in figure, and strong in opinion; and\nDr. Pye Smith, spare, attenuated, ethereal in presence, Melancthon-like\nin spirit, and as full of learning as Melancthon, with scientific\nknowledge which entitled him to the place he held by the side of\naccomplished geologists.  I may also mention James Stratten, of\nPaddington, who had an eagle\u2019s eye, and a combination of face, voice,\nthought, and style which rendered him unique amongst preachers,\u2014like\nRembrandt amongst artists\u2014rich in lights and shadows.  Nor should Dr.\nFletcher, of Stepney, be forgotten, whose purity of thought, felicity of\ndiction, and depth of evangelical sentiment attracted large audiences.\nThe Claytons were well-known members of this goodly fellowship.  How\nthese and other names are passing out of remembrance!\n\nLooking back to \u201csixty years since,\u201d I am struck with the difference\nbetween certain aspects of Metropolitan Nonconformity presented then, and\nothers familiar now.  Indeed, a similar state of things is obvious when\nwe turn to the religious history of other great cities.  Citizens then\nfor the most part _lived_ in London.  Westminster and the opposite side\nof the Thames saw, on Sundays and week days, in the same neighbourhood\nboth the poor and rich.  Thus pious families exerted an immediate and\nconstant influence where they lived, and my remembrance of Metropolitan\ndomestic life then is intensely gratifying.  There were happy homes in\nLondon where now want and misery abound.  Organised district work goes\non, but it is a poor substitute for the presence of godly and\nphilanthropic people in their own homesteads, coming in constant contact\nwith those who needed sympathy and help.\n\nEfforts were not wanting for the benefit of London on the part of\nChristian people in general.  The City Mission had then been recently\nfounded, and students in Highbury College lent a hand in work amongst the\npoor.  I remember a district in existence, called Saffron Hill, full of\nold tenements now swept away.  Some fellow-students went with me to the\nspot on a Sunday afternoon, and we preached from a doorstep, while women\nlooked down from their windows, and perhaps men below were smoking their\npipes.  Drury Lane was a dirty, neglected neighbourhood; and, in a room\nhired there, we conducted a service on Sunday nights.  Sometimes\ndisturbances arose, but the work went on.  Nor were certain districts in\nthe country round London neglected.  There we preached and visited the\naged sick, praying by the bedside, and ministering such instruction and\ncomfort as we were able.\n\nPublic religious meetings in those days were comparatively rare, and the\nstyle of speaking was different from what it is now\u2014more ornate, with\napostrophes and appeals of a kind which has vanished away.  The annual\nBible gathering was held in Freemasons\u2019 Hall, the floor covered with a\nclosely-packed audience.  A passage was partitioned off on the left hand\nside for the access of speakers to the platform, who were eagerly\nwatched, and loudly applauded, as they approached, their heads amusingly\nbobbing up and down as they quickened their pace.  The diminutive William\nWilberforce, eye-glass in hand, his head on one side, came skipping\nalong; Dr. Ryder, Bishop of Gloucester, with big wig, and smooth apron,\nfollowed at a more dignified pace; Cunningham, Noel, and other\nevangelical celebrities were sure to be present.  Rowland Hill, by his\nquizzical look, and humorous tongue, could not fail to make a mark; and\nBurnet of Cork, who afterwards became pastor of the Independent\nCongregation, Camberwell, was a vast favourite, his rising to speak being\na signal for loud cheers.  There he would stand, calmly extemporising\nsentences which exactly hit the occasion, and the audience\u2014all eyes\nturned towards him\u2014upturned faces seeming, as he said, to resemble \u201ca\ntesselated pavement.\u201d  He liked to compare North and South Ireland with\none another, as showing the contrast between a Bible-reading and a\nBible-ignoring population.\n\nAfter Exeter Hall had been opened there arose a tremendous controversy\nabout Unitarians and the Bible Society.  Some well-known speakers could\nnot get a hearing, and the scene on the platform was terribly confused,\nuntil Rowland Hill rose and put the assembly in good humour, by remarking\nthat he \u201cwould accept the Bible from the hands of the devil; only he\nwould keep him at a distance, and take his gift with a pair of tongs.\u201d\n\nIn the same place anti-slavery meetings were held.  I remember one in\nparticular when, besides Buxton and Mackintosh, O\u2019Connell and Sheil were\npresent.  Mackintosh spoke with philosophical calmness.  O\u2019Connell was\nfull of invective, satire, and pathos; one moment terrific in\ndenunciation, then heart-melting in tones of sympathy; now stamping with\nhis foot, and laying hold of his scratch wig, as if he would tear it in\npieces; next, with gentle whispers, drawing tears, or creating laughter.\nSheil, in a torrent of declamation, was carried off his legs, borne along\nby his own impetuosity, completely overmastered by himself; whilst his\nIrish friend never lost self-control amidst most violent storms of\npassion.\n\nSome time afterwards, I listened to Lord Brougham in the same hall on the\nsame subject.  He was then past his best days, but flashes of oratory,\nfull of satire and invective against the party he had left, burst forth\nin a long speech, which, as chairman, he delivered in the middle of the\nproceedings, to the interruption of previous arrangements.  It was, I\nsuppose, by no means equal to his earlier efforts, but enough remained of\nthunder and lightning to remind one of his eulogised resemblance to\nDemosthenes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n1832\u20131837\n\n\nWHEN I first saw Windsor in the winter of 1830\u201331 how different the town\nappeared from what it did afterwards!  All about Thames Street and Castle\nHill was crowded with old houses and shops on both sides of the way, and\nthe walls bounding Lower Ward were hidden from view, except where the\nClock Tower, which stood in advance, looked down upon the passers-by.  A\nlarge plain brick mansion, called the Queen\u2019s Lodge, long since removed,\noccupied the right hand of the road leading to York and Lancaster Gate,\nwhile old-fashioned tenements lined the approach to the royal precincts.\nOn the night of my first arrival patches of snow covered the roofs, and\ndotted the pediments of doors and windows; over Henry VIII.\u2019s gateway\nhung a gorgeous hatchment in memory of George IV., who had not long\nbefore left this life.  It was slow travelling from London to Windsor in\nthose days, especially when the waters were out, and the roads were\nheavy, and thick fogs rendered the leaders invisible to the coachman;\nwhilst deep ruts clogged the wheels and now and then an icy flood came up\nto the axles.  In the town I heard a great deal about \u201cWindsor of the\nolden time,\u201d when highway robbers were rife, and gentlemen who took to\nthe road would lie in wait under cover of a plantation, and, galloping\nover a field, stop the traveller and lighten him of his purse.  According\nto one informant, a tradesman in High Street, at the latter part of the\neighteenth century, kept a swift-trotting nag, which he mounted after\ndark to do a little business on the road, and then returned richer than\nhe went.  People at that time, as I heard some of them say, did not think\nof riding or driving over Hounslow Heath alone; but, when approaching\nthat ill-famed spot where gibbets lingered by the roadside, were careful\nto wait till a number was formed able to defend themselves against the\nattack of thieves.  The sobriety of many inhabitants in the royal borough\ndid not stand high, and at mayors\u2019 feasts the guests did not think they\nsufficiently honoured the hospitalities of the evening, unless they drank\nso much as made it difficult for them to find their way home.\n\nAnecdotes of George III. were rife.  I heard that he used to rise early,\ntake a walk before breakfast, and sit down in a certain bookseller\u2019s\nshop, looking at publications on the counter.  But one morning he saw a\nbook by Tom Paine lying there; after that he paid no more visits.\nSometimes he said very shrewd things.  A Bow-street runner, named\nTownsend, liked to attend early prayers when His Majesty was present, and\nto make himself heard in loud responses.  One day he was running about\nafter service looking for something he could not find.  \u201cTownsend,\nTownsend, what are you after?\u201d  \u201cI have lost my hat, please your\nMajesty.\u201d  \u201cYou prayed well,\u201d was the monarch\u2019s rejoinder; \u201cbut you did\nnot watch.\u201d  The king had a wonderful memory; and once, as a troop of\nyeomanry rode past in review, he pointed out a man amongst them of whom\nhe had bought a horse twenty years before, and whom he had not seen\nafterwards.\n\nAn old inhabitant, who became my father-in-law, vouched for the truth of\nsome of these stories; and bore testimony, not only to the condescension\nand familiarity of George III., but to the kindness and consideration of\nGeorge IV.  One remark which my friend and relative used to make as he\nwas walking through the apartments of the castle, produced a startling\neffect.  Stopping before the picture of Charles I., he would say: \u201cHe\nlooks just as he did when I last saw him.\u201d  The fact was that my relative\nwas present when Sir Henry Halford superintended the exhumation of the\nbeheaded king; and he first caught a glimpse of the royal face, because\nhe assisted in cutting open the coffin lid.  The face was perfect, and\nexactly resembled Vandyke\u2019s famous portrait of Charles I.  When exposed\nto the air the dust crumbled away.\n\nAfter preaching at Windsor, as a student, several times, I received an\ninvitation to become co-pastor of the Congregational church.  The Rev. A.\nRedford, a man of singular consistency of character, who by his conduct\nas a Christian minister won the respect and confidence of the town\ngenerally, as well as of his own little flock, had been in office for\nmany years, and needed assistance in his sacred calling.  He won my\nheart; and as a son with a father I laboured with him in the gospel.\nGeorge III., who had a domestic or two in his household attending on this\ngood man\u2019s preaching, was heard to say: \u201cThe clergy are paid by the\ncountry to pray for me, but Mr. Redford\u2019s praying is without pay.\u201d\n\nIn the prospect of my becoming co-pastor, the congregation in 1832\ndetermined to build a new chapel, the one in existence being not\nsufficiently large; and as a sign of the honour in which the senior\nminister was held, I may mention, that Church-people, as well as\nDissenters, contributed to the fund.  The late Earl of Derby, then Mr.\nStanley, who represented the borough, subscribed \u00a350.  The other member\ngave a like sum.  The vicar and almost all the leading inhabitants were\nfound on the list.  The fact is now mentioned to indicate the good\nunderstanding between different classes of religionists which then\nexisted in Windsor.\n\nI was ordained the day after the new chapel was opened, at the beginning\nof May 1833.  It was a service long to be remembered.  Such services were\nthought more of in those days than they are now.  Ministers and friends\ncame from a great distance, and a large congregation was sure to\nassemble.  Generally the spirit was devout.  An introductory discourse\nillustrated the grounds of Nonconformity.  After this several questions\nwere answered by the candidate, as to his Christian experience, doctrinal\nsentiments, and reasons for believing he had a call to the ministry.  A\ndeacon of the Church related the steps which had led to the present\nchoice, and, afterwards, the ordination prayer was offered with a solemn\nlaying on of hands.  In my case, my venerated co-pastor fulfilled this\nduty; and it was interesting to me that, in like manner, he had been\nordained by Rowland Hill.  A charge to the inducted minister followed;\nthen came a sermon to the people, pointing out their duties.  The holy\ninfluence of that day rests on me to this hour, after the lapse of more\nthan fifty years.\n\nThe fresh impetus now given to our religious work served to stimulate\nfriends in the Establishment, who had so helped us in our department of\nthe one great cause.  A Sunday evening service was commenced in the\nparish church, and a new Episcopal place of worship was erected in Eton,\nwhere it was much needed.  In addition to the vicar of Windsor and his\ncurates, some of the masters at Eton College came forward in parish work,\nrendering help by sermons at a third Sunday service then recently\ncommenced.  The Rev. T. Chapman, afterwards a Colonial bishop, took the\nlead, and did much to revive religion in the town.  But the most\ndistinguished labourer at the time was the Rev. G. A. Selwyn, then\nconnected with Eton, who was afterwards one of the most heroic missionary\nbishops of modern times; with him it was my privilege to co-operate in\nthe establishment of the Windsor Infants\u2019 School.\n\nlie would fain have induced me to enter the Establishment, but though he\ndid not succeed in that respect, he ever treated me with a brotherly\nregard, which I sincerely reciprocated.  Before he embarked for his\ndistant field of labour he wrote a farewell note in which he said: \u201cOn\nthe few points in which we differ, I thank God we have been enabled to\ndwell, often at some length, without one particle of that acrimony which\noften discredits controversy, and proves it to proceed rather from human\npassions than from zeal for the truth of God.  I cannot recollect,\nthroughout all our intercourse, one single word which can be considered\nas a breach of charity between us.  For this I am especially thankful,\nthat when I go to offer up my gift upon far distant altars, I shall have\nleft no brother at home, with whom I ought first to have been\nreconciled.\u201d\n\nI had a ticket for St. George\u2019s Chapel when William IV. was interred.\nThe interior of the building was dark, except as illumined by torches in\nthe hands of soldiers who lined the nave, and by numerous lights within\nthe choir.  When the procession drew up about nine o\u2019clock, at the south\nentrance, the blaze of outside torches was seen through the stained\nwindows; then the appearance of heralds in their tabards followed: next\nthe slow march of mourners close to the coffin, the Duke of Sussex being\nmost conspicuous; afterwards a funeral dirge echoed from the fretted\nroof.  The silence was further broken by the Burial Service and the\nrepetition of royal titles.  \u201cSic transit gloria mundi\u201d came last, and\nleft an ineffaceable impression.\n\nI was further favoured with a ticket to see the coronation in Westminster\nAbbey.  When the procession entered the nave, officers of state and\nforeign ambassadors appeared in rich costume.  Diamond-decked coats and\nrich mantles made a grand show, yet they chiefly served to set off the\nsimple dignity of the queen in her early girlhood, whilst a spell of\nloyalty touched spectators looking down from lofty galleries.  The\ncoronation shout of \u201cGod save the Queen\u201d needed to be heard that it might\nbe fully understood.  Afterwards, a stream of dignified personages, with\nmantles and coronets, issued from the choir and covered the nave with a\ntesselated pattern of rich colours.\n\nTo the coronation succeeded the royal marriage, honoured at Windsor by\nextraordinary festivities; and at night the cort\u00e9ge of the bride and\nbridegroom, on their way to the castle through decorated and illuminated\nstreets, evoked a rapturous welcome from assembled thousands.  But what\nabove all other incidents of that occasion lives in my memory at the\npresent moment is the sudden view which I caught a day or two afterwards\nof the wedded pair in a pony carriage, driven by the bridegroom as his\nbride nestled beside him, under his wing, with simplicity which gave\nexquisite finish to the chief pictures which passed before me that\nsummer.\n\nAnother incident may be mentioned.  At a town meeting it was proposed\nthat an address of congratulation should be presented to Her Majesty by\nthe mayor and others.  The presentation followed at a lev\u00e9e.  It was\ninteresting to see notabilities assembled in St. James\u2019s Palace at the\nfirst public reception by Her Majesty after the royal marriage.  Amongst\na crowd of noblemen in the ante-room were pointed out, in particular, Dr.\nPhillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, with an eagle eye indicative of his\nintellect, and Joseph Hume, the sturdy economist; both of them much\ntalked of at that period.  Others I have forgotten.  After waiting we\nwere ushered into the presence, the Queen, with Prince Albert at her\nside, occupying a place near a window not far from the entrance door.\nSince that I have knelt before Her Majesty more than once, but how great\nthe difference between the first and last occasions\u2014the girl become a\nmatron, the sparkling bride a sorrowful widow, and the newly-married wife\na mother with sons and daughters standing round in reverence and\naffection.\n\nIf I may here anticipate a Windsor ceremonial of later date, let me\nmention the royal presentation of colours to a regiment of Highlanders to\nwhich I acted as chaplain.  The colours were bestowed in the quadrangle\nof the castle on the day when the christening of the Prince of Wales took\nplace.  The Prince Consort, the King of Prussia, and the Duke of\nWellington, with several other grandees, formed a group under the shadow\nof the castle porch.  As chaplain to the regiment I was allowed to stand\nnear, and was struck with the Prince\u2019s German accent, which he seemed to\nconquer in later life, when he spoke almost like a born Englishman.  The\nDuke addressed the soldiers in his accustomed plain style, giving them\nvery good advice.  Preparations for the banquet in St. George\u2019s Hall,\nwhich a number of people were allowed to see, were very magnificent,\ntables being covered with gold and silver plate.  Some antique pieces\nbrought from the Tower were of special interest.  In the evening I joined\nthe non-commissioned officers, to whom a dinner was given, and I was glad\nof an opportunity to recall to their minds the Duke\u2019s address.  This\nHighland regiment while in Windsor attended worship in our chapel, when\nthe band accompanied the singing, and Highland bonnets hung round,\noutside the galleries.  I visited the barracks, conversed and prayed with\nthe sick, and baptised the children.  My relations with the colonel and\nthe officers were pleasant during the whole time that the Scotch remained\nin Windsor.\n\nGoing back a few years, let me notice \u201cEton Montem,\u201d then witnessed in\nall its splendour.  Approaches to the college were guarded by boys in\nfancy costumes: coloured velvet coats, yellow boots, caps decorated with\ngraceful plumes, appeared on the scene.  The youngsters levied a tax on\nall comers, calling it \u201c_salt_,\u201d which they deposited in bags suspended\nfrom their necks.  As royal carriages swept across Windsor bridge,\npicturesque sentinels received handsome donations from royal hands.  The\ngifts, together with a large number of others, formed a fund for the\ncaptain of the school to defray his expenses at Cambridge, whither he was\nsent in prospect of a fellowship.  The procession of boys to Salt Hill,\nwhere the captain waved a flag after a prescribed fashion, excited\nimmense interest, and was witnessed by multitudes.  The sight in the\ncollege gardens as the day closed, afforded perhaps the best of the\npageant, for these lads, attired in Turkish, Greek, Italian, and other\nshowy garbs, mixed with their friends so as to form a picture of animated\nlife, with old trees and old buildings for a background.\n\nI had not been long in the town before I became intimately connected with\nthe British and Foreign Bible Society, which laid a strong hold on my\naffections as a boy, and to which I firmly adhered, after I became a man.\nOur auxiliary was a flourishing one.  Some relatives of Lord Bexley,\npresident of the parent society, lived in our neighbourhood, and used to\ncome over to our annual gatherings in the Town Hall.  One of them, the\nRev. Mr. Neal, of Taplow, was a constant visitor.  He typified a class of\nmen now almost extinct.  They loved the Establishment, and, judging of it\nby its formularies, identified it with the cause of evangelical religion.\nThey knew much less of Anglo-Catholic theology than of Puritanical works.\nOwen and Baxter occupied a conspicuous place on their literary shelves,\nby the side of Latimer and Calvin.  The Evangelicals were nevertheless\nfaithful to their own ecclesiastical order, preferring episcopacy to any\nother form of government.  Not on social or literary grounds had they\nsympathy with Dissenters, or from what is now recognised as \u201cbreadth of\nopinion,\u201d but they cultivated union, on purely evangelical grounds.\n\nAt our Bible Meeting, with good old Mr. Neale, other evangelical\nclergymen were present, also one of our borough members, Mr. Ramsbottom,\nM.P. (who always took the chair), and Sir John Chapman, a strong\nconservative Churchman, was sure to be on the platform.  I cannot say\nthat the speeches were brilliant, though the deputation from London\ninterested us much.  First came Mr. Dudley, who had been a Quaker, but\nwas then an Episcopalian; and, to the facts he detailed, there were added\npeculiarities of utterance, which gave a flavour to what he said.  He\nslightly stuttered; and once, as he described how the blind were taught\nto read with their fingers the pages of embossed Bibles, he said it\nreminded him of the words, \u201cThat they should seek the Lord, if haply,\nthey might _feel after __Him and find Him_.\u201d  Hesitation of speech made\nthe quotation increasingly effective.  After him came Mr. Bourne, who\nhad, I believe, been formerly a stipendiary magistrate in the West\nIndies; and he had a singular _click_ in his voice.  He told a story of\nsome ladies who had coloured their maps so as to distinguish, by a pink\ncolour, the countries where the Bible was circulated\u2014thus \u201c_pinking_ the\nworld for Christ.\u201d  The good man\u2019s click told curiously on his\npronunciation of words; and I used, sometimes, to make my Bible Society\nfriends smile, by inquiring whether they offered a premium for agents\nwith a \u201c_diversity of tongues_.\u201d  The Rev. Sydney Godolphin Osborne\u2014the\nfamous \u201cS. G. O.\u201d of _The Times_ newspaper\u2014had at that period a living\nnear Windsor, and took great interest in our auxiliary.  He was a fine,\ntall, aristocratic young man, of straightforward character, strong common\nsense, and a racy style of utterance.  He made capital speeches, and in\nmany ways helped on our work; in one way especially, which deserves\ndistinct mention.  He thought it would be a good thing to obtain royal\npatronage for our auxiliary, though Her Majesty\u2019s name was not identified\nwith the parent society.  He wrote to Lord John Russell, then a Cabinet\nMinister (whose brother, Lord Wriothesley Russell, after he became Canon\nof Windsor, lovingly supported our cause).  When Lord John laid the\nrequest before Her Majesty, she graciously gave her name as local\npatroness, and sent a donation of twenty guineas.  It is worth mentioning\nthat this occurred at a time when party politics were running high.  Two\nletters communicating the Queen\u2019s kindness may be here inserted.\n\nThe first was addressed to the Honourable Godolphin Osborne.\n\n    \u201cSIR,\n\n    \u201cI have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter\n    respecting \u2018The Windsor Auxiliary Bible Society,\u2019 on which the Queen\n    was last year pleased to bestow her patronage, which I have submitted\n    to the Queen, and though Her Majesty does not usually grant a\n    donation to those institutions to which Her Majesty\u2019s patronage only\n    has been given, yet, the Queen, taking into her consideration that\n    the establishment in question is in the immediate neighbourhood of\n    Windsor Castle, has been pleased to direct me to forward twenty\n    guineas as a donation.  I beg to enclose a draft for that sum, and\n    request you will have the goodness to acknowledge its receipt.\n\n                                                 \u201cI have the honour to be,\n                                              \u201cYour most obedient servant,\n                                                            \u201cH. WHEATLEY.\u201d\n\nThis letter was conveyed to me by the person addressed, who added the\nfollowing note:\u2014\n\n    \u201cI wrote to Sir H. Wheatley about a donation from the Queen to the\n    Bible Society.  I have received a satisfactory answer, and a draft\n    for twenty guineas.  If it meets your approbation, I would wish that\n    the fact should not be known to any but ourselves just now.  At the\n    present moment the country is so _party-mad_, and there is such a\n    determination to catch at anything for party purposes, that I am\n    anxious to avoid giving a handle of any sort to either side in a\n    matter which has no real reference to politics.  I only wrote last\n    week from Wales, and got an immediate answer, which I have\n    acknowledged, saying, at the same time, that at the anniversary\n    meeting a more official acknowledgment will be sent.\n\n                                                                \u201cI remain,\n                                                             \u201cYours truly,\n                                                      \u201cGODOLPHIN OSBORNE.\u201d\n\nThis letter sheds light on the state of public feeling existing at that\nday.\n\nIn connection with the town of Windsor, let me mention two or three\ntraditions I received from the lips of my beloved wife, who became the\nlight of my dwelling on May 12th, 1835.  Her good old father, Mr. George\nCooper, had long been a sort of Christian Gaius, receiving as guests\nunder his hospitable roof several men and women of renown.  Often would\nshe speak of Rowland Hill, who repeatedly visited her home on his way to\nWotton-under-Edge, where he spent the summer months.  He delighted to\npreach in our little chapel in High Street, where the Eton boys would\nattend to see and hear the eccentric old clergyman, who in his youth had\nbeen one of their predecessors as a schoolboy.  He would tell Mr. Cooper\nhow he used sometimes to steal at eventide beyond Eton bounds, to attend\na prayer-meeting in a cottage, which he could reach only by leaping over\na ditch with the help of a long pole.  He allowed the good woman who\nlived there an annuity, which Mr. Cooper used to convey as long as she\nlived.  Rowland Hill liked to hear at High Street Chapel the Hundredth\nPsalm in Watts\u2019s Hymn-book, and the youngsters who came used to alter the\nlast verse, shouting: \u201cWhen _Rowland Hill_ shall cease to move.\u201d\n\nI remember hearing how Charles Wesley, the son of the great hymn-writer,\nvisited the town, accompanied by his sister, and spent an evening in Mr.\nCooper\u2019s house, greatly to the joy of my wife as a girl.  They arrived in\na sedan chair, dressed in Court costume.  His execution on the piano was\nsurprising; and those who watched his thick, short fingers, as they swept\nover the keys, said it was miraculous how he played.\n\nBefore I conclude what I have to say of my life in Windsor, let me advert\nto attempts I made to promote intellectual and literary improvement,\naccording to methods then beginning to be popular.  There was an\nInstitute formed in the adjoining town of Eton for the encouragement of\nreading amongst such as had not enjoyed the advantages of early\neducation.  A room was opened, furnished with a few books, where\ninducements to what is termed mutual improvement were provided, and there\nthe famous astronomer Sir J. F. W. Herschell delivered an inaugural\nlecture, which gave it at once a character of distinguished\nrespectability.  I was invited to join in the infant enterprise, which I\ndid with pleasure and satisfaction, and felt it an honour to become one\nof its lecturers.  The effort made at Eton was followed at Windsor.  I\nthrew myself into the enterprise, and worked on its behalf as long as I\nremained in the town.  The committee honoured me with an invitation to\nlecture in the Town Hall, where my effort was kindly accepted by a large\naudience; a short course on the History of the Castle and Town followed.\nThis, by request, was published in a volume dedicated, by permission, to\nthe Prince Consort.  In its preparation assistance had been furnished\nthrough books, documents, and advice, by residents in the town, and by\nofficials in the castle.\n\nIn concluding this chapter, I am constrained to notice some friendships\nwhich were enjoyed by me during my Windsor residence.  Poyle is a small\nhamlet on the Great Western road not far from Windsor, near Colnbrook.\nSixty years ago a long line of mail coaches passed every night the\nturnpike-gate, as cottagers heard the blast of the guard\u2019s horn, and\nstepped out to see the coachmen, in like livery, handling the reins which\nguided their teams.  Hard by the spot there was a paper mill, spanning a\npretty little river, the Coln, which kept the machinery in motion.  The\nwhole formed a picture common in the early part of this century, not so\ncommon now.  Close to the mill were two goodly residences, occupied by\ntwo brothers named Ibotson, of an old Nonconformist stock, who could\ntrace back religious ancestors to Puritan days.  What pleasant gatherings\nof congenial friends I met with at Poyle!\u2014neighbouring pastors, and the\nRev. Joshua Clarkson Harrison, born not far off, and at the time building\nup a goodly reputation in London and its environs, were of the number.\n\nIn contrast with these bright circumstances, I must notice incidents of a\nfar different kind.  My dear wife lost about that time two brothers in\nearly life by what we call accidents; but, worse still, while I was from\nhome one summer, my beloved mother, who lived with me, set fire to her\nmuslin dress, while the servant was absent, and immediately became\nenveloped in flames.  Some one passing by endeavoured to render\nassistance, but it was too late, and the next morning she expired.\nBright summer weather was for a long time after that, to my eyes, covered\nwith a pall of darkness; and to look on the blue sky and the gay summer\nflowers only made me more sad.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n1837\u20131843\n\n\nBEING disposed beyond immediate pastoral duties to help in religious work\noutside, I found ample opportunities for doing it.  Sir Culling Eardley\nwas at that time zealous in the furtherance of village preaching.  Coming\nto Windsor, he offered to help us in purchasing a tent for services in\nthe neighbourhood.  It was procured and employed, but with less success\nthan had attended his enterprise of the same kind in Hertfordshire.  I\nundertook, at his request, a fortnight\u2019s tour in that county, and one\nevening preached near a wood, where John Bunyan, in days of persecution,\naddressed the neglected peasantry.\n\nRevivalism at the period now referred to, attracted attention in England,\nin part owing to the circulation of American books, and the preaching of\nAmerican divines.  A great awakening occurred at Reading, Henley,\nMaidenhead, and Windsor.  Streams of people might be seen on dark winter\nmornings, lantern in hand, on their way to the place of prayer.  Chapels\nwere thronged, ministers were in full sympathy with each other; all\nworked with a will.  Looking back on the whole, I believe genuine good\nwas done; yet in some instances the effect was transient.  Conversion was\ninsisted upon, and peace with God through Jesus Christ was offered; but\nwhether moral improvement in the details of human life was proportionally\nemphasised, and practically carried out, I am not prepared to say.\nCertainly, appeals respecting holiness in general were not wanting.\nRightly to adjust the balance, so as to guard against self-righteousness\non one hand, and the neglect of personal responsibility on the other,\nrequires vast wisdom.  To induce people to look at themselves and to\nChrist also, cannot be accomplished without thought and discrimination in\npromiscuous gatherings.  Whatever might be defects in the movement,\nassuredly they did not come from artificial arrangements.  No one can be\nsaid to have \u201cgot up the thing.\u201d\n\nAt all times in the course of our ministry \u201ccases of conscience\u201d occur.\nOne in particular I may mention.  I was once sent for to visit a dying\nperson.  The home, the people, the surroundings, excited revulsion, as\nwell as a determination to improve a strange opportunity.  I found a\nyoung woman on her deathbed, and another sitting by, who used phraseology\nindicative of evangelical sentiment.  She offered to leave the room that\nthe patient might unburthen her mind to me.  It was obvious some secret\nof guilt lay on the sufferer\u2019s conscience.  I had no wish to be a father\nconfessor, and pointed her to the _only One_ who can pardon sin.  At last\nthe dying creature uttered a piercing exclamation, which seemed to me an\nacknowledgment of sin.  What the secret was she did not disclose.\nPresently she entered \u201cthe silent land.\u201d  When I called again, I\nintimated to her attendant my surprise at what she had said, for I could\nnot doubt that she was leading an immoral life.  She frankly confessed\nshe had fallen into vice, after expressing a belief that she had been\nconverted, and _had_ been a \u201cchild of God.\u201d  The incident was affecting,\ninstructive, and admonitory.\n\nPublic questions interested me much, and I took part in those which\nbelonged to philanthropy and religion.  Amongst them at the time I speak\nof, negro emancipation stood foremost.  From boyhood it laid hold on me.\nSpeeches at Norwich, by Joseph John Gurney and others, had left an\nabiding impression; and when the great controversy became ripe for\nsettlement, I threw myself into the struggle.  The excitement throughout\nthe nation was intense, and it laid hold chiefly of the religious section\nof the British public.  Missionaries had been at work amongst negroes,\nand had seen the horrors of the system.  The persecution of Smith, a\nmissionary in Demerara, who died in prison, evoked passionate sympathy;\nand the appeal of Knibb, another missionary, who came over as an advocate\nof emancipation, struck the nail on the head, and drove it into the\ncentre of this colossal wrong.  Nothing is more manifest, to those who\nwitnessed what went on in England half a century ago for slave\nemancipation, than that, however manifold the arguments employed, however\nnumerous the methods and agencies in motion, it was Christianity which\nlay at the heart of the movement.  Quakers were amongst the most zealous\nco-operators in this advocacy for freedom, and I much enjoyed the\nfellowship into which I was brought with followers of George Fox, early\nfamily associations strengthening bonds of friendship between us.\nDeputations went up to London to wait upon Mr. Stanley, Colonial\nSecretary, afterwards Earl of Derby, and I well remember the crowd\ngathered in a large room in Downing Street, to strengthen the hands of\nthat gentleman in his chivalrous enterprise.  The history of steps which\nled to the final victory it is not for me to tell in these pages, but I\nmay mention the third reading by the Lords of the Emancipation Bill in\nAugust 1833.  It filled multitudes with joy; and on August 1st, 1834, the\nAct took effect, when a solemn celebration of the event occurred in\nEngland, as well as the West India Islands.  That day I preached at\nWindsor from Jer. xl. 4:\u2014\u201cAnd now, behold, I loose thee this day from the\nchains which were upon thine hand.\u201d\n\nIn 1839 the Anti-Corn Law League took shape.  I distinctly recollect the\nscene presented at a great bazaar in Covent Garden Theatre, in aid of\nFree Trade, when there was a wonderful gathering of notabilities and\nother folks.  Stalls, articles, and ornaments, were varied and imposing;\nand as that exhibition appeared before the present age of bazaars was\nfully inaugurated, it had a more dazzling and bewildering effect than\nefforts of the kind can have now that they have become so common.\n\nDissenters\u2019 grievances, too, were exciting subjects in those days.\nCertain disabilities had an irritating effect on those who felt them, and\nlegislation was sought for their removal.  No doubt, in the heat of the\nconflict things were said on both sides which, on calm review, cannot be\njustified; and I am in my old age more than ever convinced that union of\nthe _suaviter in modo_ with the _fortiter in re_, is the best method of\nconducting controversy.\n\nMy holidays, whilst I was a Windsor pastor, were spent in preaching; but\nthere were two exceptions, when I broke ground as a tourist.  Travelling\nin Nottinghamshire and the neighbouring counties, I visited Newstead\nAbbey with a fresh remembrance of Washington Irving\u2019s description of the\nplace.  I had a gossip with an old domestic, who told me stories of Lord\nByron, whom she knew as a boy, and used to carry on her back on account\nof his lameness.  He pricked and otherwise tormented the patient\ncreature, so as, on one occasion, to provoke her so much, that she boldly\nventured on a rather amusing act of retaliation.  Leaning over her\nshoulders to look into an old chest full of feathers, she, to use her own\nwords, \u201ccopped him over, and he came out for all the world just like a\nyoung owlet.\u201d  What I then heard of his early days gave me an\nunfavourable idea of that child of genius, so caressed and tormented, so\nflattered and persecuted, so early thrown into unfortunate circumstances,\nand altogether so badly brought up.  What a contrast between two poets,\nwhose memories came vividly before me during this tour!\u2014Byron and Scott,\nboth of them lame for life; one a stranger to the other\u2019s purity.  Years\nafterwards I heard Dean Stanley preach a sermon to children, in which,\nwith his characteristic felicity of thought, he spoke of the contrasted\ninfluences of physical deformity in these two instances\u2014how the club foot\nof the first was an occasion of mortified pride and ill-nature, and the\nclub foot of the second was borne with patience and contentment.  The\nstory of Byron\u2019s club foot is now treated by some I hear as a popular\ndelusion; but, at all events, he had something the matter with his foot\nwhich irritated his temper and made him disagreeable.  Therefore the\nDean\u2019s moral lesson remains untouched.  In connection with good humour\nand kindness, a physical defect may be only a foil to set off moral\nexcellence.\n\nAfter passing through Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland in company\nwith my dear friend Harrison, we reached Edinburgh by coach at midnight\nto find ourselves in the morning amidst grand preparations for the\nQueen\u2019s first arrival in the Scottish capital.  The view at noon from\nCalton Hill, as the arrangements for receiving royalty had reached their\nacme, was most magnificent.  Princes Street, from end to end, presented\nmultitudes of people in holiday attire, military uniforms, tartan, kilts\nand feathered bonnets, gave rich plays of colour.  The crowd waited and\nwaited, but no Queen appeared.  Night fell, and the expectants went to\nbed disappointed.  Next morning every one was taken by surprise, for Her\nMajesty, having been detained at sea, landed at Leith, whilst the Lord\nProvost was still asleep.  My friend and I afterwards went to Stirling,\nand identified historic points which dot the field of Bannockburn\u2014then to\nPerth, Dunkeld, Killiecrankie, and Blair Atholl.\n\nIn the course of numerous journeys I had opportunities of seeing the real\nstate of Nonconformity in rural districts.  It was then much better than\nsome people suppose.  There were then families of influence identified\nwith country places of worship, who have not left behind them sympathetic\nrepresentatives.  The revival of religion in the National Church has\nproduced a considerable change in the relative position of ecclesiastical\nparties.  Sunday evening services in cathedral and parish church, and the\npastoral activity of incumbents and curates, with numerous missionary and\nother organisations, have produced effects very visible in the eyes of\nold people, who can look back on the religious condition of England\nduring the first quarter of the present century.\n\nMy first Continental tour occurred before I left Windsor.  I visited a\nfamily at Rotterdam into which a fellow-student had married, and had\npleasant insights into Dutch life.  After peeps at the Hague, Leyden, and\nAmsterdam, abounding in a gratification of antiquarian and historical\ntaste, slowly proceeding up the Rhine, I felt all the enthusiasm incident\nto a young traveller as he first gazes on castle-crowned hills which line\nthe river.  Many and many a ramble since on those romantic banks have\nincreased rather than diminished my admiration of the Rhine.\n\nFriendships have through life been essential to my enjoyment, I might\nalmost say to my existence.  Intimate acquaintance with people of\nremarkable character in my Windsor days was a source of intense\ngratification.\n\nThe Rev. W. Walford, for some years minister of a Congregational Church\nat Yarmouth, then classical tutor at Homerton College, and finally pastor\nof the old Meeting House, Uxbridge, was one of the most remarkable men I\never knew.  I see him now, with his handsome face, bald head, well-knit\nform, keen eyes, compressed lips, rather tottering in gait, and brusque\nin manner.  What walks and talks we had!  In conversation he expressed\nhimself with singular accuracy on theological and metaphysical subjects.\nHe had Butler and Jonathan Edwards at his fingers\u2019 ends, and could pack\ninto a few words some of their most abstruse definitions and arguments.\nHe had a habit of turning round when you walked with him, and standing\nface to face, when he would, in a most luminous style, state his\npropositions and adduce his proofs.  He read Sir William Hamilton with\nimmense admiration, though he did not in all respects adopt his views;\nand, at a period when looseness of religious thought was becoming\nprevalent, it was a treat to see him make a stand, figuratively as well\nas literally, for a distinct utterance of what people believe.  From no\nman\u2019s conversation have I derived more instruction and advantage.  I can\nnever forget his reading to me, with tears in his eyes, a translation he\nhad made of Plato\u2019s \u201cPhaedo.\u201d\n\nOne day an old gentleman called to say he was about to reside at Old\nWindsor, and intended joining our worship at William Street Chapel.  He\nhad a cheerful, lively expression of countenance, with a few short grey\nlocks on each side of his bald head, and showed in his gait signs of\nparalytic seizure.  Full of humour and kindness, he made a pleasant\nimpression.  Thus began my friendship with Mr. Samuel Bagster of famous\nPolyglot memory.  Notwithstanding his lameness, he could at that time\nwalk from Old Windsor to our house with the aid of a stick, only asking a\nhelping hand at the commencement of his pedestrian attempts.  Thus\nstarted off he would steadily pursue his journey dressed in a short cloak\nand wearing a very broad-brimmed hat.  He was one of the chattiest, most\namusing friends I ever had.  He possessed a large fund of anecdotes,\nwhich he knew I liked; and from time to time, as I visited his house, he\ndoled them out with no niggard hand.  He had lived on books, and books\nwere his delight.  Many choice editions in handsome bindings lined the\nwalls in his rambling, quaint sort of residence, where also flowers,\ngathered in his little garden, formed conspicuous ornaments.  There he\nwould sit nursing his foot, complaining of pain in his great toe, and\nwould launch out for a pleasant sail over the lake of memory, and take me\nfrom one point to another.  The old books he had bought and sold, the\ncircumstances connected with the origin of his Polyglot and Hexapla, the\nfire which occurred on his premises in Paternoster Row\u2014these he would\nnarrate in a characteristic way.\n\nHe often talked about the French Revolution and events connected with it\nin our own country.  Clubs of a more than questionable description were\nestablished, and he told me that, invited by a person of his own age to\nattend a meeting held in an obscure street, he was surprised, on his\nentrance, to find a number of men ranged on either side of a room,\nsitting by long tables, with a cross one at the upper end.  There sat the\npresident for the evening.  Several foaming tankards were brought in,\nwhen the president calling on the company to rise, took up one of the\npots, and striking off the foam which crested the porter, gave as a\ntoast: \u201cSo let all . . . perish.\u201d  The blank was left to be filled up as\neach drinker pleased.  The avowed dislike to kings entertained by these\nboon companions suggested to Mr. Bagster the word \u201ckings\u201d or \u201ctyrants\u201d;\nand at once he gladly left the place, not a little alarmed, lest he\nshould be suspected of treasonable designs.  With characteristic caution,\nhe took care not to observe the thoroughfare through which he passed on\nhis way back, that he might be able conscientiously to declare he did not\nknow the situation of the place.  He also related that his father had a\nworkman in his employ, whom he knew to be a disaffected subject.  He\nexpostulated with him on the horrors of a revolution as illustrated in\nFrance, and dwelt upon the confusion which would ensue upon outbreaks on\nestablished order.  The man lifted up the skirt of his threadbare coat\nagainst the window, and significantly asked: \u201cPray, sir, what have I to\nlose?\u201d  My friend was no Radical, no Whig, but a Tory of the\nold-fashioned type, who approved of things as they were, without,\nhowever, any consciousness of wishing to tyrannise over other people.  He\nwas a great admirer of Izaak Walton, and had made a collection of\ndrawings illustrative of his \u201cCompleat Angler,\u201d of which he intended to\npublish a new edition, with a life of the author.  When he had completed\nhis \u201cComprehensive Bible,\u201d which, by permission, he dedicated to George\nIV., he was allowed personally to present it to His Majesty; and I have\nheard him say that on that occasion he was introduced to the royal\npresence by the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The publisher was already\nparalysed, and could walk only with a tottering step; but the Primate\ngave him his arm, and led him up to the so-called first gentleman of\nEurope, who received him very graciously, and accepted at his hands the\nhandsomely-bound volume.\n\nThere were other people I met with at Windsor whom I may mention.  At the\nhouse of Dr. Ferguson, a Scotch physician of good birth and high culture,\nI met with his son-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Moultrie, Incumbent at Rugby, and\nfriend of Dr. Arnold.  He was a man of genius and piety, and gave a\nconviction of personal goodness, which made me value his volume of poems\neven more than I had done before.  I like to look at authors through\ntheir books, and then again at books through their authors.  In some\ncases the personal damages the literary judgment; but in many cases I\nhave enjoyed works much more after knowing the worker.\n\nMr. Jesse, the naturalist, was another of my acquaintances.  He held an\noffice in connection with royal parks and palaces, and I spent pleasant\nhours as he drove me in his little pony gig from Windsor to Hampton\nCourt, in the restoration of which he felt great delight.  An amiable\ndisposition, gentlemanly manners, and large information, made him an\nexcellent companion.  From the account he gave of his early life I found\nhis father was a clergyman, a friend of Lady Huntingdon\u2019s, and an\noccasional preacher at Spafields Chapel.  Mr. Stark, the eminent\nlandscape artist, was one of my hearers, a man of decided religious\nconvictions, and conscientious in art as in other things.  He and Mr.\nBristow, the animal painter, were amongst my friends; and in Windsor\nForest they found subjects for their united skill, Stark putting in the\ntrees, Bristow dogs and horses.\n\nAmongst London friends at that time, and long afterwards was John Bergne,\nbrother to my fellow-student Samuel Bergne, already mentioned.  Clerk in\nthe Foreign Office, he rose to the superintendence of the Treaty\nDepartment.  Full of knowledge respecting European affairs, he often\namused me by his taciturnity whenever they came on the carpet,\u2014abstinence\nfrom communication of office secrets having become to him second nature.\nHis mind was rich with information on various subjects; and in the\nscience of numismatics he was well skilled.  His collection of coins was\nof great value, including examples of English money from the earliest\ntime, and valuable portions of \u201cgreat finds\u201d in Greek states.  His\naffluent conversation, overflowing with humour, his rapid utterance and\ncommand of language surpassed what I have heard from many good talkers,\nwhom it has been my fortune to meet with during a long life.\n\nWith other remarkable persons, I became intimately acquainted after my\nremoval to Kensington.  These I shall notice in their proper place.\n\nIn 1833 arose the Puseyite or Tractarian controversy as it was called.\nOf this a full account is given by Dr. Newman, in his \u201cApologia\u201d\u2014an\naccount, of course, proceeding from his own point of view.  The strife\nboth inside and outside the University of Oxford, where the masters of\nthe Tractarian movement lived and worked, was of the hottest kind; and\nthose engaged in it on both sides, under the influence of party feeling,\nfailed to appreciate each other\u2019s position, and to estimate correctly the\ntendencies involved.  The Anglo-Catholics did not believe they were so\nnear Rome; the staunch Protestants did not calculate on the wonderful\neffect which the controversy would have in stirring up the latent\nenergies of the Church, and in modifying forms of worship, even amongst\nEvangelical parties.  An amusing story I remember hearing when the famous\nTract, \u201cNo. 90,\u201d was published.  The then Bishop of Winchester (I think)\nwished to see it, and wrote to his bookseller to forward a copy, but from\nillegibility of penmanship \u201c_No_ 90\u201d was mistaken for \u201c_No go_\u201d; and the\npoor bookseller, after inquiring in the Row for a pamphlet with that\ntitle, wrote to inform his Lordship, that there was no such tract in the\nmarket.  The story ran its round, and the Evangelicals pronounced \u201c_No._\n90\u201d \u201c_No go_.\u201d\n\nDr. Newman condensed within the space of a few years the Romeward\ntendencies of Christendom during successive ages: starting with\nTractarian doctrines, it was consistent for him to become a Roman\nCatholic in the sequel; and Dr. Pusey, in pausing where he did, never\nexplained the grounds of his practical inconsistency.  I felt it my duty\nto point out the unscriptural character of the Tractarian movement in a\ncourse of lectures, afterwards published under the title of \u201cTractarian\nTheology.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n1843\u20131850\n\n\nI WAS quite satisfied with my position at Windsor and had no thoughts of\nleaving it, when Dr. Vaughan of Kensington accepted the principalship of\nLancashire College, and at the same time overtures were made by his\nChurch to me that I should succeed him in the vacant pastorate.  I can\ntruly say that my desires were on the side of remaining where I was.  I\nonly wished to know the Divine Master\u2019s will.  I felt unwilling to accept\nwhat looked like preferment; but after visiting Kensington and preaching\nthere, the path before me appeared pretty plain.  I accepted the call I\nreceived.  \u201cIt seems like a dream,\u201d I wrote to my predecessor.  \u201cYes,\u201d he\nreplied; \u201cbut it is like Joseph\u2019s\u2014a dream from the Lord.\u201d\n\nIt was a curious coincidence that the Church at Windsor and the Church at\nKensington were both in their origin connected with a coachman in the\nservice of George III.  His name was Saunders, and he enjoyed his royal\nmaster\u2019s confidence.  They used to talk together about religion, and,\nencouraged by the King\u2019s good opinion, the servant put tracts in the\ncarriage pocket; and when His Majesty had read them he asked for more.\nAs the royal residence was sometimes in town, and sometimes at Windsor,\nthe home of Saunders varied accordingly, and he felt an interest in both\nneighbourhoods, especially as it regarded the humbler class.  He probably\ncaught the revivalist spirit prevalent a hundred years ago, and did what\nhe could to gather people together for religious impression.  In this way\na room called \u201cThe Hole in the Wall\u201d came to be the cradle of Windsor\nCongregationalism; and a \u201chumble dwelling,\u201d mentioned by the Kensington\nhistorian, was birthplace to the congregation which afterwards assembled\nin Hornton Street.  \u201cWhen the faithful servant begged permission, on\naccount of age, to retire from His Majesty\u2019s service, that he might\nreside at Kensington, it was not without an expression of regret on the\npart of the monarch; but the request was granted, and as often as the\nKing afterwards passed through the place he took the most kind and\ncondescending notice of his coachman.\u201d {77}\n\nIn \u201cPoems by John Moultrie,\u201d there occur these lines\u2014\n\n    \u201cI have a son, a third sweet son, his age I cannot tell,\n    For they reckon not by years and months where he is gone to dwell.\u201d\n\nDuring the first three years of my Kensington residence, there were three\nlittle children taken from us, and translated to that mysterious world,\nwhere our time reckonings are lost in an incomprehensible eternity.\nAltogether six children were brought with us from Windsor; and to these\nwere added five more in the first few years after our removal\u2014making the\ndomestic flock at the time I speak of eleven.  Of that number only four\nremain on earth at this time, {78}\u2014a fact which tells of joy, and of much\nsorrow, at the hands of our Heavenly Father.  Three were taken from us\nbetween 1843 and 1849.\n\nDuring my Windsor life I began to take a deep interest in the writings of\nDr. Arnold, and afterwards, when his Life appeared, written by his\nadmiring pupil, Dr. Stanley, that interest increased.  As I read these\nmemoirs I little thought that I should share in the Biographer\u2019s\nfriendship; and my admiration of the two men was so deep that I attribute\nany improvement in my mind and character since, greatly to their combined\ninfluence.  Through life I have been more than ordinarily benefited by\ntheir works, and as to the Master of Rugby School, I have always been\neager to learn what I could from any Rugby pupils I happened to know.  At\nthis moment there comes to my recollection an anecdote related by a\nfriend who had been a Rugby boy.  He told me that some accident happened\nat chapel in the upsetting of Bibles or prayer-books, and their fall from\nthe gallery created much disturbance.  Boys who were suspected of having\na share in causing what happened were called up by the Master, and my\ninformant was of the number.  He told me that Dr. Arnold _trusted_ a boy\nwho denied any offence of which he was accused until clear proof appeared\nto the contrary.  This was designed to keep up mutual confidence.  In the\ninstance under notice the boy accused felt sure that Dr. Arnold was not\nsatisfied with the denial; yet he allowed the matter to pass, because he\nwould promote confidence between master and pupil.  The anecdote confirms\nwhat I have since read.  He was never on the watch for boys, and he so\nencouraged straightforward and manly action, in trivial as in great\nthings, that there grew up a general feeling, that \u201cIt was a shame to\ntell Arnold a lie, for he always believed one.\u201d {80}\n\nKensington, at the time of which I speak, was famous for its number of\nladies\u2019 schools, and in them several daughters of Nonconformist parents\nwere receiving their education.  They formed an interesting part of my\ncongregation, and my pastoral relation to them prepared for lifelong\nfriendships.  Of this group of families were the Dawsons of Lancaster,\nthe Rawsons of Leeds, the Cheethams of Staleybridge, and the Sharmans of\nWellingborough.  With all of them I became intimate, and their\nfriendships have proved no small comfort to me in later life.  Parents of\nthese families were distinguished by usefulness in many ways.  Mr. Rawson\nwas the well-known gifted hymn-writer; and Mr. Cheetham was M.P., and\ntook an active part in the repeal of the Corn Laws.  Daughters of these\ngentlemen were under my ministerial care while pupils at Kensington, and\nafterwards became earnest Christian workers in different ways, and their\ncontinued affection is a comfort to me in my old age.  A son of Mr.\nDawson married a daughter of Mr. Rawson, and immediately they went to\nChina for mission work; but the broken-down health of the husband\ncompelled his speedy return to England.  He is now doing good work as one\nof the London City Mission secretaries.\n\nIn connection with Kensington, I would further mention other helpers: Mr.\nand Mrs. Coombs of Clapham were so.  Mr. Coombs helped me especially by a\nlarge donation to the fund for building my new chapel.  In other ways I\nwas brought into relation with him.  He was Treasurer of New College, and\nan active member of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious\nTract Society, and the London Missionary Society.  His intelligence,\naptitude for conversation, and kind-hearted intercourse made his\nfriendship a privilege of more than ordinary value.  It was intensified\nby his family relationship to some of my Kensington flock, the Salters\nand the Talfourds, whom I shall mention elsewhere in these reminiscences.\nAmidst preaching and pastoral work, it was a relief to spend a short\nholiday under Mr. Coombs\u2019 hospitable roof at Clapham, where I found a\nlarge collection of books.  He died before I left Kensington, but my\nfriendship with his wife and daughter continued till they died.\n\nArchdeacon Sinclair, who had accepted the vicarage just before I removed\nto Kensington, paid me a visit of welcome, and thus laid a foundation for\nsubsequent intercourse.  He was son of the well-known Sir John Sinclair,\nand brother of the authoress, Catherine Sinclair.  All the family were\nremarkably tall.  The Archdeacon was a man of eminent culture, and of\nextensive aristocratic connections.  His great-grandmother, though a\nloyalist, was the noted lady who aided in the escape of Prince Charlie,\nafter the battle of Culloden.  This same ancestress lay buried in\nKensington Church, in front of the pulpit.  Archdeacon Sinclair was well\nread in theology, widely acquainted with the controversies of the day,\nand a thoroughly orthodox Churchman; also rich in family and Scotch\ntraditions.  He told me the MSS. of David Hume came into his hands, and\nfrom perusal of them he was confirmed in his suspicion, that the\ncelebrated historian and philosopher had no deep convictions of any kind,\nbut only played with subjects he handled, doubtful about his own doubts.\n\nReturning to the notice of my ministerial life, it comes in chronological\norder to mention that we had at Kensington, in 1843, British schools,\nwhich, being undenominational, received help from Church-people and\nDissenters.  They had long been patronised by distinguished personages,\nand not long after I had become resident in the neighbourhood application\nwas made by the committee to the Duchess of Inverness, widow of the Duke\nof Sussex, to become patroness of the schools.  This circumstance led her\nGrace to invite me to call on her, which I did.  I was shown into an\nold-fashioned drawing-room, furnished in the style of the last century,\nthe walls being decorated with portraits of George III. and members of\nhis family.  Entering the apartment was stepping back, as it were, to\n\u201csixty years since.\u201d  An old lady of diminutive stature, in black silk\nand a small cap, presently appeared, who entered into pleasant\nconversation about her late husband, and Mr. Ramsbottom, M.P. for\nWindsor, whom I knew very well.  Both of them were zealous Freemasons.\nHer Grace had caught their spirit, as far as a lady could do it, and\ninquired of me whether I was a Mason.  No doubt, could I have answered in\nthe affirmative, I should have risen in her estimation.  My visit was\nfruitful in reference to our schools, for she sent a donation of \u00a320,\napologising for not doing more at that time.  Kensington Palace was then\ninhabited by other distinguished persons; and one of the secretaries of\nthe Propagation Society, I think, at that time performed the duties of a\nchaplain to those resident within the walls.\n\nIt is appropriate in connection with the early part of my Kensington life\nto mention religious societies with which I closely associated myself.\nThere is no doubt some truth in the lines that,\n\n    \u201cDistance lends enchantment to the view,\n    And clothes the mountain with an azure hue.\u201d\n\nIn looking at benevolent work, remote in time or place, we are apt to\npaint it in fairest colours; but of the great importance of the religious\nwork going on fifty years ago in London and the neighbourhood, there can\nbe no question whatever.\n\nThe _British and Foreign Bible Society_ I always regarded as lying at the\nvery foundation of our religious activity.  It had a comprehensive\nAuxiliary in the West End from the commencement of the society\u2019s\noperations, and annual meetings were held in the Haymarket, under the\npresidency of royal dukes.  This Auxiliary was broken into parts, and\nKensington had a leading place amongst them.  Traditions of earlier days\nwere cherished when I began to live in the royal suburb, and they\ninvested our local gatherings with some dignity, as families when divided\nderive honours from their common ancestry.\n\nThe Missionary Society, as it was originally called\u2014the _London\nMissionary Society_, as it was afterwards named\u2014had from the beginning\nbeen supported by our Church; indeed, fathers and founders of the one\nappear amongst early workers in the other, and through the ministry of\nMr. Clayton, Dr. Leifchild, and Dr. Vaughan, foreign missions found\nzealous supporters at Kensington.  The London City Mission, then in its\nearly age, had engaged my sympathies at Windsor.  There we had a town\nmissionary, who brought us into connection with work going on in the\nMetropolis.  Consequently, when I came to Kensington, I took much\ninterest in the annual meetings of the society, and was brought into\nintimate relations with its officers and supporters.  Annual gatherings\nwere held in Freemasons\u2019 Hall, Queen Street, where signs of the Zodiac,\nand portraits of Grand Masters, adorned the ceiling and walls, suggesting\nto speakers allusions, obvious or far-fetched, till they became rather\nthreadbare and wearisome; but, from the beginning, narratives by the\nmissionaries formed a chief source of interest.\n\nThe Young Men\u2019s Christian Association was formed soon after I came to my\nnew charge, and with it I had connection from the beginning, being first\non the list of lecturers in the City, before the annual courses at Exeter\nHall commenced.\n\nThe Evangelical Alliance was founded in 1843, and as a desire for union\nhas ever been with me a \u201cpassion,\u201d I joined the Alliance from the\nbeginning.  There was great simplicity in the earliest gatherings, and an\nair of novelty gave additional charms.  However, some members professing\ncatholic sympathies on the platform pursued an exclusive line of conduct\non other occasions, and this circumstance provoked unfavourable comments.\nPlausible objections, moreover, were made to the society\u2019s\nconstitution\u2014the platform, too wide for some, being too narrow for\nothers.  I could have desired a wider basis and the furtherance of\nChristian unity apart from all controversy with those who differed from\nus.  On the whole, however, it was a move in the right direction, and the\ngatherings of its early friends in town and in other parts of the country\nwere of an eminently joyous description.  Sir Culling Eardley and others,\nin private as well as public, promoted the interests of the Alliance.  At\nthat time several influential clergymen and leading Dissenters used to\nmeet, not only on the platform, but in the homes of distinguished lay\nmembers, who threw themselves very heartily into the movement.\n\nBrought into the neighbourhood of London, and already known by some\nbrethren there, I soon found myself surrounded by many friends.  For more\nthan a century there had been in existence an association of Dissenting\nministers, who took the title of _Sub Rosa_, from the confidential\ncharacter of their intercourse.  There were some of the most\ndistinguished London Congregational ministers in the brotherhood at the\ntime now referred to; and they discussed points of importance, and for\nthe most part, as to denominational matters, acted in harmony.  Some of\nthe departed were men of great ability, conspicuous in the pulpit and on\nthe platform; but the remembrance of them by the public is being\ngradually crowded out by new names and new questions of religious\ninterest.\n\nTo turn to a very different subject, which synchronises with the period\nunder review; let me notice that the month of October 1845 witnessed the\nstirring event of Newman\u2019s secession to the Church of Rome.  It was an\nevent of singular importance.  I have noticed on a previous page that the\nTractarian Movement was regarded by many as distinctly tending in the\ndirection of Romanism.  For a considerable time such a tendency was\ndenied on the part of its abettors generally; yet, even as early as\nNovember, 1835, Dr. Pusey, who had such confidence in Newman, wrote to\nhis wife: \u201cI almost see elements of disunion, in that John Newman will\nscare people\u201d; {88a} and, in 1836, Newman himself incidentally wrote: \u201cAs\nto the sacrificial view of the Eucharist, I do not see that you can find\nfault with the formal wording of the Tridentine decree.  Does not the\nArticle on the sacrifice of the Mass supply the doctrine, or notion, to\nbe opposed?  What that is, is to be learnt historically, I suppose.\u201d\nBesides the question of Eucharistic doctrine, Pusey\u2019s correspondence at\nthis time gives clear evidence of other questions, more or less\ndifficult, in respect to doctrine, practice, or terminology, arising out\nof a more general appreciation of Church principles and order. {88b}\nThat which was called Puseyism prepared for Popery; and this was obvious\nto most people, though Pusey himself could not see it.  Inconsistently,\nas I think, he remained where he was; and, now that he declined to follow\nhis friend, it is surprising he took no steps to satisfy the public as to\ngrounds on which he himself remained in the Church of England.  His\nattachment to what he deemed the Church of his fathers, however, was very\nstrong, and he thought well of those who remained in that Church, though\nholding opinions different from his own.  For instance, he wrote: \u201cEver\nsince I knew them, which was not in my earliest years,\u201d \u201cI have loved\nthose who are called _Evangelicals_.  I loved them because they loved our\nLord.  I loved them for their zeal for souls.  I often thought them\nnarrow, yet I was often drawn to individuals among them, more than to\nothers who held truths in common with myself, which the Evangelicals did\nnot hold, at least not explicitly.\u201d {89}  There is a ring in these words\nwhich shows the sympathy which Pusey retained for those who loved the\nSaviour, though, in ecclesiastical matters, widely differing from High\nChurchmen.  It appears to me that, if Pusey had been as _consistent_ with\nhis Tractarian principles as Newman was, Pusey would have followed Newman\nto Rome, but, happily, his loving spirit for Christian _goodness_ kept\nhim in communion with a Church where he saw piety beautifully manifested\nby some who differed from him in ecclesiastical opinion.  I cannot make\nthis reference to Dr. Pusey without saying that, with all my repugnance\nto his ecclesiastical opinions, and the conviction I have, that while he\nnever became a Romanist, he greatly helped on the movement which carried\nmany in the popish direction, the perusal of his memoirs has given me a\nhigh estimate of his personal piety.  His devoutness, his love to Christ,\nhis unworldly habits, his affectionate disposition, and his self-denial\nin the ordering of his domestic affairs, so as to enlarge his pecuniary\ncontributions to religious purposes, are worthy of their imitation who\nregard with sorrow his High-Church peculiarities.  Might not domestic and\nsocial ties, as well as strong attachment to the Church of England from\nhis childhood, have had something to do with his final course?\n\nThe Revolutions of 1848 brought with them an immense amount of excitement\nin this country, as in others.  The month of April in that year can never\nbe forgotten.  An outbreak was feared in London.  Special constables were\nsworn in.  On the Sunday before the 10th of the month my friend, Mr.\nWalford, preached a remarkable sermon in Kensington Chapel.  His text was\nIsa. xii. 2\u2014\u201cBehold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be\nafraid.\u201d  Having unfolded the sentiment of the passage, he applied the\nprinciple to passing events, and spoke of the political excitement in\nthis country at the time of the French Revolution, which he well\nremembered.  He assured us that the excitement then surpassed anything\nwhich existed at the time when he spoke, and expressed his confidence in\nthe rectitude and love of the Almighty, who maketh the wrath of man to\npraise Him.  The preacher\u2019s age, and his vivid recollection of what he\nhad witnessed, gave force to his exhortations, as tears were falling from\nhis eyes.\n\nTrust in Providence, touchingly enforced by personal recollections, was\nhonoured by what occurred on the following day.  The meeting on\nKensington Common, so much dreaded, broke up in confusion.  Ringleaders\nwere alarmed, the mob was scattered without the interference of soldiers\nwho had been provided against an outbreak, but were concealed in public\nbuildings, through the Duke of Wellington\u2019s wisdom.  A day which opened\nin fear was spent in peace and confidence.\n\nDuring a visit abroad in that year, 1848, I reached Geneva, with letters\nof introduction to C\u00e6sar Malan, Gaussen, and M. St. George.  Merle\nD\u2019Aubigne was from home.  In company with friends, on the Sunday\nafternoon, I attended at C\u00e6sar Malan\u2019s little chapel.  We had mistaken\nthe hour, and, on our entering, he recapitulated the early portions of\nhis sermon.  Then, in his own pleasant parlour, he engaged in fervent\ndiscourse on his favourite tenet of Christian assurance.  On parting he\nsingled me out for the privilege of a double French kiss, and on my\nexpressing a hope that we should meet in the Father\u2019s House, he rebuked\nme for using the word _hope_.  With him it was a matter of assurance.\nThen I reminded him of the difference between present and future, and\nquoted St. Paul: \u201cFor we are saved _by hope_: but hope that is seen is\nnot hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?  But if we hope\nfor that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.\u201d\n\nI parted from relatives, who had been my fellow-travellers, and made my\nway next morning alone by boat to Vevay, thence travelling to Basle and\nStrasburg.  Traffic was interrupted, and relics of revolution were seen\nin marching troops and handcuffed prisoners.\n\nIn 1849 a movement occurred for meeting religious needs in Kensington.  A\nchapel was much needed on Notting Hill, and one of my deacons, who lived\nthere, promised a large donation for the purpose.  A few friends met in\nHornton Street vestry, and opened a subscription list, which at once\nsecured \u00a31500.  With that we went to work.\n\nAt first, there was some notion of incorporating members of the two\ncongregations in one Church, with a copastorate; and Dr. Vaughan, I\nthink, indicated willingness to become my colleague.  I should not have\nobjected to such union, but feared lest the moral effect of our movement\nshould be thereby impaired.  The scheme might have been looked upon as\none of self-aggrandisement, while it was meant as an act of\nself-sacrifice.  The latter it proved to be, for we drafted off about\nfifty members, as the nucleus of a new Church.  Also we missed about two\nhundred seat-holders, who took pews in the new edifice, and, of course,\nthere arose a certain _\u00e9clat_ around Notting Hill which left Hornton\nStreet a little in the shade.  But soon things revived; our chapel became\nas full as ever.  Funds recovered, liberal things were devised, and one\nmorning I found a handsome cheque on my library table.  Everybody seemed\nto be growing in kindness, and Hornton Street rose to more than its\nprevious prosperity.  It was an illustration of the principle\u2014true of\ncommunities as well as of individuals\u2014\u201cThere is that scattereth and yet\nincreaseth.\u201d\n\nIn connection with my early residence at Kensington I may mention a\ncircumstance which interested me.  I observed several times, sitting near\nmy pulpit, an old gentleman.  Upon inquiry, I found it was the Rev.\nMichael Maurice, father to the Rev. F. D. Maurice, then at the height of\nhis influence as author and preacher.  I never had the pleasure of\nconversing with my venerable hearer, but I learned from different sources\nmuch relative to his character and career.  Though descended from a\nthoroughly orthodox family, he was educated for the ministry under Dr.\nAbraham Rees, Dr. Kippis and Dr. Savage\u2014the first two being Arian\ndivines, and the last a moderate Calvinist.  He became afternoon preacher\nat Dr. Priestley\u2019s Meeting House; and after officiating in other\nUnitarian places of worship, retired from pulpit work altogether.  But he\nhabitually associated with orthodox Nonconformists during the time he\nlived at Southampton.  He also joined the British and Foreign Bible\nSociety, and spoke for it on the platform.  I wondered he should worship\nin Hornton Street, but information subsequently obtained served to\nexplain the circumstance.  He appears to have been a devout man with a\nlarge measure of Evangelical feeling.  I mention him as a type of no\ninconsiderable class of sincerely religious people.\n\nI knew but little of his distinguished son, only having met him a few\ntimes at Dean Stanley\u2019s, and at Baldwin Brown\u2019s.  I used sometimes, on a\nSunday afternoon, to hear Mr. Maurice preach at Lincoln\u2019s Inn, and was\nmuch struck with the earnestness with which he repeated the Lord\u2019s\nPrayer.  The difficulty he felt in making himself understood is amusing.\nSome of the principles, he said, which his friends attacked, were those\nhe strongly objected to himself, and those which they held as against\nhim, were just those on which he rested his own faith and hope.  \u201cI could\nnot make them the least understand what I meant,\u201d he went on to say; \u201cand\nif I did they would only dislike me for it.\u201d  It was not obscurity of\nstyle, as many thought, which made him unintelligible; but obscurity or\nconfusion of thought arising from complexity of perception.  He saw so\nmuch that it puzzled him how to express it.  I respected him greatly as\nan honest thinker, more anxious to commend himself to the Searcher of\nhearts than to his fellow-men.\n\nIt must have been, I think, in 1846 or 1847 that I received an invitation\nto preach the annual sermon on behalf of Newport Pagnell College, and\nthither I went in the month of June.  The Rev. Thos. Palmer Bull,\npresident, and his son, the Rev. Josiah Bull, were living under the same\nroof, their house and garden full of comfort and convenience, beauty and\nfragrance.  The old gentleman had a good library, and in nooks and\ncorners were MSS. and relics of Cowper and Newton, friends of his father,\nthe Rev. William Bull.  The father was the \u201cTaurus,\u201d and his son the\n\u201cTommy,\u201d immortalised in Newton and Cowper\u2019s letters.  When I had\nfulfilled my public duty I intensely enjoyed conversation with my elder\nhost, as he showed me letters written, and relics possessed by the two\ncelebrities so closely connected with his father\u2019s name.  He told me how\nhe used, when a boy, to accompany his father to Olney, where he dined\nwith the poet; that when grace was said, Cowper would play with his knife\nand fork, to indicate he had no share in acts of worship; that he would\ncheerfully converse on a variety of topics, but shunned all reference to\nreligion.  Notwithstanding, he would sometimes join in an Olney hymn; and\nthen check himself as one who had neither part nor lot in the matter.  He\nwould kindly talk with little Tom, who accompanied his father on those\nvisits, and they, on their way to and from the now world-known town,\nwould join in singing a psalm or hymn, to a familiar tune.  The old\ngentleman, I was informed, sometimes indulged in the use of a pipe, as he\ndrove along the accustomed road.  Full of such memories, I made an\nexcursion to Olney, stopped at the house near the park of the\nThrogmortons, saw the room in which the poet slept, traced his writing on\na pane of glass, and thought of the despair to which, in that chamber, he\nwas so pitiable a victim.  Then I was taken to the unpretentious abode in\nthe main street of Olney, where he cultivated a close intimacy with John\nNewton, and kept rabbits in his little garden,\u2014which garden, at the time\nI think of, remained much in its former state.  The summer-house,\ndescribed by the bard, was still in existence.  Here, pausing for a\nmoment to gather up another memento of Cowper, I may mention, that a\nrelative of mine pointed out a house in East Dereham, which was Cowper\u2019s\nresidence; and told me that he remembered when a boy peeping through the\nkeyhole of a door, and seeing him sitting in his chair.  Cowper died at\nthe residence of his kinsman, the Rev. Mr. Johnson.  A friend of his gave\nme a leaf, in the poet\u2019s handwriting, from the translation of Homer.\n\nSoon after my return from this excursion I was chosen to fill up a\nvacancy in the important Nonconformist Trust of William Coward, a London\nmerchant, who appointed Dr. Watts, Dr. Guyse, and Mr. Neal, author of the\n\u201cHistory of the Puritans,\u201d\u2014with another person who was a\nlayman,\u2014administrators of property which he bequeathed for charitable\npurposes.  Much of it consisted of Bank stock; that having risen, the\nrevenue had become very considerable.\n\nDr. Doddridge was a special friend of Mr. Coward\u2019s, and had under his\ncare several ministerial candidates, supported by that gentleman.\nAccording to tradition, the merchant was very punctual, the minister less\nso; and when the former invited the latter to dinner, if he did not come\nexactly at the hour, the footman was ordered not to admit him.  A\ngentleman who lived opposite was aware of this peculiarity, and his\nfootman arranged with Mr. Coward\u2019s footman, that when Dr. Doddridge had\nbeen invited to dinner, mention should be made of it to the servant on\nthe other side the road, that a dinner might be prepared for his\nreverence there.  Other curious stories were told of our founder, which I\nhave forgotten.  The perpetuation of Dr. Doddridge\u2019s academy in different\nplaces, and under different forms, led to a transfer of the institution\nfrom Wymondley in Hertfordshire to Torrington Square, London, where, in\nassociation with London University College, it existed at the time of my\naccession to the trusteeship.  For about two years I assisted in\nconducting the business of Coward College, as a separate institution.\nThen came a change.  There were at the time three independent academies,\nas they were then called, in London and the neighbourhood\u2014Homerton,\nHighbury and Coward.  There were three sets of tutors, three boards of\nadministration, three distinct buildings, and three distinct sources of\nexpense.  Previous attempts to accomplish the union of these institutions\nhad failed; but at the time to which I now refer, an opportunity arrived\nfor accomplishing the union.  After conferences between \u201cHeads of Houses\u201d\nfor some months, it was determined to sell the three buildings, then\noccupied by the students, and to erect one large new edifice, where they\nmight be instructed together.  The erection of New College St. John\u2019s\nWood, was the result.  In the negotiations connected with this change,\nDr., afterwards Sir William, Smith zealously co-operated with the Coward\ntrustees.  My dear old friend, the Rev. William Walford, took a great\ninterest in the accomplishment of this business, but he died before it\nwas completely effected.\n\nHe spent his last days in writing an autobiography, and after his death I\nfound it was written in letters addressed to myself, with a request that\nI would edit the publication.  This I did with a melancholy satisfaction.\nHe had suffered acutely from mental depression, and the malady returned\nwith violence shortly before his death.  My last visits were most\npainful.  He refused all consolation, and passed away under a cloud, like\nthat which attended the sunset of Cowper.  There were gleams of light,\nfollowed by dense darkness.  Then he sank into silence, if not torpor.\nDays and nights rolled on, so different from their \u201ctranquil gliding\u201d\nwhich he described in his letters; but it was the happy confidence of his\nfriends, notwithstanding his own fears, that the angry billow, no less\nthan the gentle wave, was bearing the weather-beaten barque to the\ncelestial shore.  He died on June 22nd, 1850.  The poor body looked like\na wreck, but faith could see at rest the soul which had such hard work to\npilot the vessel beyond reach of storms.  A post-mortem examination\nproved that his depression arose from the condition of the brain.  He was\na good Greek scholar, and delighted in reading Plato.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n1850\u20131854\n\n\nTHE year 1850 opened with a storm of religious excitement, owing to a\ndivision of England by Papal authority into Roman dioceses, at the\nsuggestion of Dr. Wiseman.  It came to be called \u201cThe Papal Aggression.\u201d\nSome thought more was made of it, at the time, than circumstances\nwarranted; but, looked at through the medium of history, it seemed to aim\nat a territorial authority over England, inconsistent with our\nrepudiation of Papal supremacy.  The way in which it was taken up by some\ngood people was not wise, and there was an anti-popish commotion amongst\nsome of my friends\u2014a few only.  The commotion was unreasonable, but was\noverruled for good, as the incident led some Protestants to look into\ntheir professed principles, which doubtless, in our country, lie at the\nbasis of civil and religious liberty.\n\nFrom one end of the island to the other, Nonconformists as well as\nChurchmen took an opportunity for expressing attachment to the\nReformation.  In two ways I became connected with what went on.  The\nPresbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist ministers of London,\nrepresenting the three denominations, resolved, in common with other\necclesiastical bodies, to approach Her Majesty with a protest against\n\u201cPapal Aggression.\u201d  The three denominations\u2014like Convocation and certain\nEnglish corporations\u2014have a right of presenting addresses to the\nSovereign; and on this occasion, the audience for accepting the\naddresses, was appointed to be at Windsor Castle.  When the ceremony in\nthe Royal Closet for receiving representatives of the three denominations\nwas over, we were invited to lunch in the equerry\u2019s apartment.  Covers\nwere laid for two or three gentlemen, in addition to our party.  \u201cPray,\ncan you tell me their names?\u201d I whispered to one of the servants, who,\nfrom my previous residence in the town, happened to know me.  He could\nnot say, and at the same moment the strangers, who proved to be Roman\nCatholic noblemen, felt a like curiosity to know who we were.  I\nproceeded to explain the origin of the three denominations, which was\nquite a revelation to the gentlemen; who informed us that they had just\npresented a loyal address from 250,000 Catholics.  They proceeded to say,\nthat English Protestants had quite misapprehended the meaning of recent\narrangements; and, after receiving a courteous explanation, we sat down\nwith them, and had a pleasant chat.\n\nAt that time I delivered at Kensington a short series of discourses on\nthe Roman Catholic controversy.  I went over some of the main points in\nthat controversy, avoiding misrepresentation and uncharitableness.  I was\nnot violent enough to please some ultra-Protestants, but I had the\ngratification of hearing, that two young Catholics ultimately became\nProtestants, and were helped by the lectures.  I have met in the course\nof my life with several members of the Romish Church, who have appeared\nto me estimable characters.  I had in my congregation a young lady, one\nof a family which ranked a Cardinal amongst its members, and whose mother\nremained a Catholic; in her dying illness she clung to Christ as her\nSaviour, saying, in the words of Solomon\u2019s Song: \u201cI held Him, and would\nnot let Him go.\u201d\n\nIn the same year, as I have said, the Palace of Glass was opened; and,\nbeing a Kensington resident, I had opportunities of watching the edifice\nrising out of the earth as a beautiful exhalation.  On moonlight nights,\nin the previous winter, how often, on my way home, it revealed itself,\namidst floating mists, as a kind of ethereal structure!\n\nThere was a moral atmosphere created by the enterprise, which those who\ndo not recollect it are unable to appreciate.  It inspired thousands of\npeople with expressions of charity and goodwill.  The opening day can\nnever be forgotten by those who witnessed it.  The _Times_ newspaper had\na leader, which made one feel that a new era in history had arrived; that\nwar and strife were approaching an end, and a millennial age of goodwill\nhad dawned upon mankind.  When, that day, we saw crowds, not jostling and\npushing against each other; for almost every unit of the mass seemed\nwilling to make way for a neighbour; when we witnessed the opening\nservice, and beheld the royal procession moving through the stupendous\naisles,\u2014representatives of \u201call people that on earth do dwell,\u201d\u2014those\npresent seemed to feel as they never did before.  As the poet Montgomery\nconversed with me on the subject, he remarked that, looking down from the\ngalleries upon the throng which passed before his eyes, it \u201creminded him\nof flowing waters gently gurgling through some broad channel.\u201d  The\npeople, thronging here and there round corners, seemed like eddies in a\nriver with lofty banks.\n\nIn the Exhibition year efforts were made for the religious improvement of\nthe people.  The Press was in different ways employed for this purpose;\nand amongst other methods there appeared, as distinctively\ncharacteristic, a series of evangelical discourses in Exeter Hall.  They\nattracted crowded audiences.  The sermons were carefully reported and\nwidely circulated.  About the same time several similar methods were\nemployed for the promotion of religion; services were held in theatres\nand other places of amusement.  Having been engaged in these efforts, I\ncan testify to the crowds gathered together, and the general decorum of\ntheir behaviour.  Some to whom these buildings belonged took an interest\nin the proceedings, as I knew from conversation with dramatic managers,\nwho expressed interest in the addresses delivered.  Afterwards, services\nwere planned to be conducted by Episcopal clergymen in Exeter Hall, but\nthe plan was frustrated by opposition of parochial authority.  After\nthis, Dissenters undertook to supply the lack of service, and the first\nSunday night, an Independent minister officiated, reading parts of the\nLiturgy in the Book of Common Prayer, and an English nobleman acted as\nclerk, leading the responses.\n\nThe same year (1851) it fell to my lot at the autumnal meeting of the\nCongregational Union to read a memorial paper on Dr. Doddridge, who had\ndied just a hundred years before, and had been pastor and Divinity\nProfessor in Northampton, where the assembly met.  We occupied the old\nmeeting-house in which he preached; there in the vestry stood the chair\nin which he sat.  From the pulpit which had been his, the centenary\ntribute to his memory was delivered.  Mr. Bull, of Newport Pagnell,\npresented the original MS. of a funeral sermon which the doctor preached\nfor his little daughter, partly written upon her coffin.  A common\nsympathy, amidst deathlike silence, pervaded the audience, as if the\ndivine who was commemorated had only just left the world, and we had\nassembled to honour his remains.  The _genius loci_ of the place, and\ntraditions of the good man, passed away so long before, contributed to\nthe occasion more impressiveness than it derived from other\ncircumstances.\n\nIn 1852 my beloved wife travelled with me to Elberfeld to see our eldest\ndaughter.  We had, from an early period, formed the plan of sending our\nchildren abroad for part of their education, in order that they might\nlearn a foreign language and see other forms of society besides our own.\nTherefore we placed our firstborn under the care of Pastor and Madame\nSchr\u00f6der,\u2014two very excellent persons, whose character and influence\nanswered the high expectations we had been led to form.  Pastor Schr\u00f6der\nsucceeded Dr. Krummacher as one of the pastors of the Evangelical\ncommunion.  We enjoyed his society and that of his excellent wife, and\nsaw something of German habits, which interested me much; they presented\naspects unfamiliar to us.  For instance, one Sunday afternoon we took a\nwalk in the woods with our friend the pastor, and, on the way, he\ngathered into a large company one after another of his people, until it\nformed quite a procession; and, finally, we rested in a pleasant nook\nencompassed by trees, where the people drank coffee, and sang hymns.\n\nAfter we had spent some days at Elberfeld we started for Switzerland,\nwhere I planned my wife and daughter should spend two or three weeks,\nwhilst accompanied by a Kensington friend, I proceeded on a journey to\nItaly.  We started from Zurich, crossed the lake, reached Coire and the\nVia Mala, and over the Alps, came down to the Lake of Como; thence we\nreached Milan, where we stayed three days.  I then became acquainted for\nthe first time with the Duomo and other churches.  We spent a Sunday in\nthe city, and felt deeply interested in schools founded by Cardinal\nBorromeo, carried on at the time with exemplary care; and we found at\neventide, in a church, groups of worshippers, led by a layman, who knelt\nin front as they chanted responses.  I was struck then, and have been\noftentimes since, with the adaptation of Scripture passages on church\nwalls, pointing to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  One thought,\ntoo, of Ambrose, who forbade the approach of Theodosius, wet with the\nblood he had shed at Thessalonica.  Speaking of the adaptation of\nScripture in foreign churches, I may mention other passages inscribed on\ntheir walls in other places, for example, at Treves, where under a\npicture of \u201cThe Nativity\u201d we read \u201cVerily Thou art a God that hidest\nThyself,\u201d as applied to the Incarnation.  Again, at Nismes, if I\nrecollect aright, under the fresco of a captive rejoicing in his freedom,\nthe words \u201cThou hast loosed my bonds\u201d; and under another, representing\nmartyrs and virgins at the portals of heaven, \u201cWith joy and rejoicing\nshall they be brought: they shall enter into the King\u2019s palace.\u201d  After\nall, the kernel of the Gospel continues in Roman Catholic Christendom,\nthough too often concealed under manifold innovations.  Still there it\nis, if you look for it.\n\nMy reference to Milan brings before me other recollections of that\nwonderful city, as revisited again and again since 1852.  Amidst manifold\nassociations of art, arch\u00e6ology, history, and religion, one image,\nindelibly impressed on my mind, is that of Augustine under the fig tree\nin a garden, listening to a voice which cried, \u201cTolle lege\u201d; at the\nhearing of which he sat down, took the Testament in his hand, and read\nRom. xiii., and thus became a new creature in Christ Jesus.  Wandering in\nquiet old streets, I have paused near some fig tree in a little enclosure\nof grass and flowers, to think of him who became the grandest father of\nthe Latin Church.\n\nFrom Milan we proceeded to Verona, and thence to Venice, where I felt\n\u201cone of the greatest emotions of life.\u201d  I have seen it again and again,\nbut the first charm was greatest of all.  Then Titian\u2019s \u201cPeter Martyr\u201d\nadorned the walls of SS. Giovanni e Paulo.  Wonderful picture that! but\nit does not, to my mind, eclipse his S. Jerome in the Brera at Milan.\n\nLet me return to Kensington.  Perhaps this is as good a place as any, for\nsaying a few words about people there, and others with whom I was brought\ninto contact, during my pastorate.\n\nUnder the ministry of my predecessor, Dr. Leifchild, there lived in one\nof the stately houses in the neighbourhood, a gentleman\u2014commanding in\nperson and polished in manners\u2014who was drawn towards the Dissenting\npastor, though he had no affection for Dissent; if he smiled at the\nsystem, he liked some of the people.  He lost largely on the Stock\nExchange, but he bore it with much magnanimity.  I was acquainted with\nsome of the family, who were in prosperous circumstances, and who became\nmy kind friends.  I once met at their house with an old general\u2014uncle to\nthe Duchess of Gordon\u2014who related a singular anecdote.  He had been at\nthe Eglinton Tournament, and, as the castle was crowded with guests, he\nand another person shared the same bedroom.  That person was no other\nthan the future Napoleon II.  He kept his companion awake with talk about\nthe French Empire and his uncle, declaring, that he was sure one day of\nsitting on his uncle\u2019s throne.  The ambitious dream filled his mind, and\noverflowed in his abundant chat; though then it seemed a most improbable\nimagination.  The incident was related some time after the tournament,\nand before the Republic was established; and when I afterwards heard of\nNapoleon\u2019s election to the presidentship, I saw it was by no means\nunlikely that the daring prophecy he had ventured, would come to pass.  I\nhave heard from other people that he often, when residing in London,\ntalked in society of his coming elevation, as imperial ruler of the\nFrench.  The uncle had seen beforehand the dazzling star of his destiny.\nHis nephew did the same.  There were people who fancied something\nsupernatural in this, but it may be accounted for on natural principles.\n\nAnother story, of an amusing kind, I heard at a Chiswick garden party, to\nwhich I was taken by the kind friends at whose house I met the old Scotch\nsoldier.  Amongst personages of rank present at Chiswick were certain\nbishops, who had not dropped the old episcopal costume of a big wig, a\nmost decidedly broad-brimmed clerical hat, and a conspicuous apron.\nRight Reverend brethren are still somewhat distinguished from other\npeople, though some of them reduce the distinction within very restricted\nlimits; forty or fifty years ago it was quite otherwise.  They appeared\nthen commonly\u2014to use an undignified expression\u2014in _full jig_, and as some\noccupants of the Bench passed by, in unmistakable array of the kind just\nnoticed, a clergyman at the garden party now mentioned, told me of a\nprime minister, who used to remark, he thought, \u201cBishops well deserved\nall they got\u201d (and it was much more then than it is now), \u201cfor allowing\nthemselves to be dressed up, as such regular guys.\u201d\n\nLiterature and art were pretty well represented in Kensington, at the\nperiod I speak of.  Contributors to _Punch_\u2014Mark Lemon, Gilbert a Becket,\nand others\u2014were my neighbours, and with one of them I spent a pleasant\nevening.  Gilbert a Becket during a few weeks, when the parish church\nunderwent repairs, used pretty regularly to attend our chapel, and I was\nstruck by his attentiveness and devotion.  He expressed his readiness to\nspend a few hours with me, at a friend\u2019s residence, only he stipulated\nthat it should not be on an opera night; and when it was proposed to me I\nstipulated that it should not be on one of my service nights.\nPreliminaries being settled we accordingly met, and got on exceedingly\nwell.  What amuses me, as I think of it, is that, though I am not at all\ngiven to pun-making, the presence of a brilliant punster so inspired me,\nthat I perpetrated one or two hits, which Becket pronounced very fair.\nPerhaps I may be forgiven by those who achieve pleasant things in that\nway, if I remark that there is something contagious in the practice; and\nit is difficult not to catch it, when in company with those who are\nimbued with the habit.\n\nWith another celebrity I came in contact through intimacy with his\nfamily, and his early connection with our place of worship.  I allude to\nJustice Talfourd.  When a young man he used to attend on Dr. Leifchild\u2019s\nministry, his father and mother being members of the Congregational\nChurch at Kensington.  His mother, whom I knew well, related anecdotes of\nhis early days at home, and at Mill Hill School, where he had\nschoolfellows who afterwards distinguished themselves in the walks of\nDissent.  He wrote home about his companions and told his mother of\nprayer-meetings amongst the boys; and of one boy in particular, very\nimaginative, and florid on such occasions.  This schoolfellow became\nafterwards an eloquent minister, well known as Dr. Hamilton of Leeds.\nThe Judge told me of his early attachment to that gentleman, and how,\nduring the doctor\u2019s last visit to London, he went to hear him preach, and\nstepped into the vestry afterwards, to talk of old times; but the\npreacher had left, which was a great disappointment.\n\nThere was a strong religious side to Judge Talfourd\u2019s character, and he\nused to speak with much enthusiasm of my predecessor, Dr. Leifchild,\nwhose preaching he said came up to his idea of the Apostle Paul\u2019s\nministry.\n\nAmongst artists living in Kensington were two Academicians, Uwins and\nPhilip, who both belonged to our congregation\u2014the first a regular, the\nsecond an occasional, attendant.  Philip\u2019s wife\u2014a beautiful woman, whom\nhe introduced into some of his pictures\u2014was a communicant with us at the\nLord\u2019s table.  I often visited the artist\u2019s studio, and listened to his\npicturesque description of Spain, and also to his accounts of family\nafflictions which elicited my sympathy.\n\nFrom my boyhood I had taken an interest in art, and the friendship of\nseveral men distinguished in its cultivation was exceedingly instructive\nand pleasant.  My travels on the Continent, which enabled me to visit\nmost of the principal picture galleries,\u2014rich in specimens by great\nmasters,\u2014educated and purified what little taste I had; and prompted me\nto somewhat extensive studies in artistic literature.  These, blended\nwith other habits of reading, I find an immense enjoyment in the leisure\nof my old age.\n\nMr. Theed, the sculptor, and his family, who attended Kensington Chapel,\nwere our intimate friends; and he told me much about Gibson, his\ncompanion in art, and intimate acquaintance for many years, when they\nresided at Rome.  With the latter gentleman I became acquainted slightly\nwhen I was in Italy, and had a long talk with him once about tinting\nsculpture,\u2014which he advocated with zeal, and practised with skill.  I\nfelt there was force in what he said.  Another Kensington name,\u2014that of\nEdward Corbould, the water-colourist,\u2014may be coupled with my friend\nTheed\u2019s.  Each was connected with the other in artistic service to Her\nMajesty and family.  I remember on the Sunday morning after the Prince\nConsort\u2019s lamented death, missing both these gentlemen at Divine worship,\nin consequence of their being summoned to Windsor\u2014one to take a cast, and\nthe other to make a drawing of the good Prince\u2019s face.\n\nThere was another group of hearers during the latter part of my\nKensington ministry, to whom I was much attached.  One of them, Cozens\nHardy, M.P., who has won eminence in the legal profession, is son to the\noldest friend I have.  All now referred to are distinguished, not only by\nprofessional position, but by continued study in classical learning.\n\nI must not pass by \u201cannals of the poor.\u201d  When I first went to\nKensington, I was requested to visit an old shoemaker, crippled, and in\nhumble circumstances, but with a good deal of natural politeness, the\nmore striking from its surroundings.  He had been a wild young fellow,\ndaring to the last degree, and this was the cause of his incurable\nlameness.  He was converted under the ministry of Dr. Leifchild.  The\npreacher, in the course of a sermon, related an anecdote of Mr. Cecil,\nwho previous to his becoming decidedly religious narrowly escaped with\nlife, when thrown by his horse across the track of a waggon, which in\npassing only crushed his hat.  The incident struck the listener.  It\nresembled his own experience, and riveted his attention, preparing him to\nlisten to the preacher\u2019s appeals.  He became an exemplary Christian; and\nI often sat by his bedside to hear him describe the wondrous change\nwrought in his character, by Divine grace.  \u201cI am a wonder unto many,\u201d he\nused to say; and then, with faltering voice, would sing the old hymn\u2014\n\n    \u201cAmazing grace, how sweet the sound,\n       That saved a wretch like me!\n    I once was lost, but now am found;\n       Was blind, but now I see.\u201d\n\nThis was not the only case in which the humbler members of the Church\nwere a comfort to me.  Often my heart was cheered by communications made\nby them, touching spiritual life.  Such communications were perfectly\nartless, and arose from the absence of that reserve which, in the upper\nclass, is the result of educational refinement.  This circumstance often\nprevents a free revelation of what cultured people think and feel on the\nsubject of religion.  I have frequently noticed it, and never inferred,\nfrom delicacy touching soul secrets, any want of that which rises to the\nsurface, and overflows in ready words, when uneducated people speak of\ntheir Christian experience.\n\nI cannot omit a reference to the Gurney family, with some of whom I came\ninto pleasant connection during my Kensington residence.  As a boy, I had\nsome knowledge of their ancestral relatives; and now I came into close\nfriendship with Mr. Bell, brother to Mrs. John Gurney, who was mother to\nSamuel Gurney, the renowned London Quaker, and also to Joseph John\nGurney, of Earlham, near Norwich\u2014an equally renowned banker, and also a\n_Public Friend_, as preachers of that denomination then were wont to be\ncalled.  Mr. Bell had become one of my hearers and a communicant, much to\nhis spiritual benefit, as he and his family informed me.  He was a chatty\nold gentleman, and used to talk of his sister, Priscilla Wakefield, of\nMiss Schemmelpenninck, and of Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u2014whom he met at the\nhouse of his friend Gilman, resident in Highgate.  Through frequent vivid\nreferences to these celebrities, whom I knew by their writings and by\nreport, I came to have a sort of personal acquaintance with them.  Thus\nthey became, more than ever, living realities.  Besides this, I came to\nhave a slight personal knowledge of Mr. Samuel Gurney, just mentioned,\nthe well-known bill-broker, and also of Mrs. Fry, his sister, who did so\nmuch good as a prison visitor.  Mr. Gurney was a stately person, with a\nbenign countenance, and a musical voice rich in persuasive tones.  The\nmental anxiety he felt during money panics, not only on his own account,\nbut also from sympathy with others, was such, that he was known to spend\nsleepless nights pacing his chamber.  Mrs. Fry was as dignified as her\nbrother, and I now in imagination see her in her becoming Quaker garb, as\nshe talked to me about her nephew Bell, and spoke gratefully of the\nbenefit he had derived from my ministry.  The younger Mr. Samuel Gurney\ncame to live at Prince\u2019s Gate, Kensington, and used to worship with us\noccasionally.  At his table I met with the Bunsens, and other remarkable\nfriends and relatives of his.  He told me that at any time when I needed,\nin Christian work, pecuniary help, I might apply to him without\nhesitation.  The crash on \u201cBlack Friday\u201d was a terrible trial, as it made\nhim, after being one of the richest of London citizens, dependent on his\nrelatives.  I wrote to him words of condolence, to which he beautifully\nreplied, saying that he trusted the tribulation which had befallen him\nwould be for his spiritual welfare.  His excellent wife bore up nobly,\nand the two afforded admirable instances of Christian patience and\nresignation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n1854\u20131862\n\n\nON April 4th, 1854, I started the first time for Rome, provided with\nletters of introduction to Gibson, the sculptor, Penry Williams, the\nlandscape painter, and two Roman Catholic dignitaries, one a Monseignor,\nthe other president of the English College.  All these gentlemen were\npolite and helpful to me.\n\nMy companions were Dr. Raffles, Dr. Halley, the Rev. Spencer Edwards, and\nanother friend.  The first of them was wonderful for relating stories,\nwhich he always told _secundum artem_.  He kept us awake one whole night\nwith his amusing anecdotes; but, as we were travelling through France at\na time when espionage was prevalent, he would not allow us to make any\npolitical allusions.  I was surprised at the retentiveness of his verbal\nmemory; whilst he repeated long pieces, in which the amusement consisted\nof odd words, connected with no rational meaning, when put together.\n\nIt was Holy Week when we reached Rome.  On Thursday there was the\nfeet-washing at St. Peter\u2019s, and the supper afterwards: the Pope, as\n\u201cservant of servants,\u201d ministering to the poor, but with great pomp on\nboth occasions.  We arranged to see the former, and found a transept on\nthe right hand, fitted up for the occasion.  Rank, fashion, beauty,\narrayed in mourning, found accommodation in galleries commanding a good\nview.  Ladies were veiled, gentlemen wore evening dress.  Admission to\nthat part of the edifice could be obtained on no other conditions.  Pio\nNono, a pleasant, genial-looking old man, who won a good opinion as soon\nas you looked at him, did his part well.  He read the Gospel (John xiii.)\nin tones wonderfully musical and distinct, and then washed the pilgrims\u2019\nfeet with grace and reverence.  The whole was artistically and solemnly\ndone.  \u201cOne can laugh at these things, as described in books,\u201d said Dr.\nRaffles\u2014a staunch Nonconformist\u2014\u201cbut _not_ when witnessed, as now, in\nthis magnificent place.\u201d  Still, on a calm review, nothing like _worship_\nappears in any part of the ceremony.  Then the _Miserere_ in the\nafternoon!  Those who did not witness it years ago can have no idea of it\nnow; or of the gorgeous procession, amidst a blaze of light, to the altar\nof S. Paulo, and the prostration of the Pontiff and his Cardinals on the\nfloor, in the midst of darkness, candles having been extinguished, one by\none.  The scene on the grand staircase was striking as the dignitaries\nreturned, varying in appearance and character\u2014an ascetic monk, a man of\nthe world, another looking studious and reflective, a fourth keen and\nstatesmanlike.  Nobody could deny the Italian scenic skill in such\nmatters.  I have been at Rome in Easter, since then, much struck with\nsubsequent changes.  When all was over on my first Easter in Rome, I went\nto the English Episcopal Church, where the Lord\u2019s Supper was administered\naccording to Protestant rites, and I could not but be impressed by the\ncontrast between the two services.  It illustrated the change effected by\nthe Reformation.  I mentioned this once to the Rev. Frederic Denison\nMaurice, who, of course, agreed with me; and, talking of Rome, he\nhappened to relate an anecdote which I do not remember having seen in\nprint.  Pio Nono, after the suppression of Latin nunneries in Poland,\nreceived a visit from the Emperor of Russia.  \u201cYou are a great king,\u201d\nsaid the former to the latter, \u201cone of the mightiest in the world.  I am\na poor feeble man, servant of servants; but I cite you to meet me before\nthe Judge of all, and to answer for your treatment of helpless women.\u201d\nThere was the old assumption of authority; but there was a touch of\ngrandeur in the words.\n\nI saw the catacombs, following my guide, taper in hand; and in one of the\nstrange passages was accosted by name.  \u201cWho could have expected to be\nrecognised in this dark underworld?\u201d I exclaimed.  It turned out to be a\nperson who had lived at Eton, and been a hearer of mine at Windsor.\nOther recognitions have occurred to me of an odd kind, when visiting\nseveral places.\n\nI became so attracted by what I saw in Rome, and drank so deeply into the\nspirit of Arnold\u2019s letters, written there, that my last day was spent in\npensive leave-takings of ruin after ruin, church after church.  I have\nbeen there twice since, each for a longer time than the first; but not\nwith quite the impression which I felt in the first instance.\n\nWe proceeded to Naples, stopped at Cisterna, at Terracinia, at Gaeta, and\nat S. Agata.  Whoever has travelled the same road must long remember the\nfragrance of the orange-groves and the coloured dresses of the peasantry.\n\nWe had no trouble at custom-houses on the way, for my two companions and\nmyself travelled in humble fashion.  Otherwise did the two doctors,\nalready mentioned, fare.  Large sums were demanded of them on the\nNeapolitan frontier; and when they refused to pay, their luggage was\nsearched, and a coloured pen-wiper being found, the officials declared it\nwas a _revolutionary cockade_, and that books in their portmanteaus were\nno doubt full of treason and heresy.  There was no alternative but to\nstay where they were, or to allow a soldier to accompany them in charge\nof the suspected articles.  All this trouble was followed by apologies on\nreaching Naples, after an appeal had been made to the English Consul.\n\nWe saw the picture galleries and museums in Naples, and explored the city\nas well as we could during our short stay.  Religious services of a\nspecial kind were being held in one of the churches; and I remember\nentering it on an evening when it was crowded with people, listening to a\nfriar, who was earnestly preaching.  Next morning, on revisiting the\nplace, it was crowded as the night before, and the same priest occupied\nthe pulpit.  We drove along the old coast road, by the so-called Tomb of\nVirgil to Castellamare, Sorrento, Posilipo and Pozzuoli (the Puteoli of\nthe Acts), and had dreams of the luxurious life once spent on these\nshores, and of Paul\u2019s disembarkation on his way to Rome.  We also spent a\nday at Vesuvius, where clouds of vapour were rolling upward; and I, with\none of our party, crawled down to the crater, as near as we could, much\nto the dismay of our senior companions.  On our way back to Naples we\ntarried as long as possible at Pompeii, looking at the wonders of that\nmemorable spot.\n\nAn important step was taken at Kensington on my return from Italy.  The\n\u201cswarm\u201d sent to Notting Hill did not permanently reduce the numbers of\nour congregation.  On the contrary, they considerably advanced.  The old\nchapel became more than ever inconvenient, and we resolved to build a new\nand much larger one.\n\nI must now pass from local and personal affairs to notice a movement in\nCongregationalism at large.  Independency leads to isolated action on the\npart of local Churches.  It is unfriendly to cohesion and co-operation.\nIt provides for freedom, and nothing else.  Old Independents saw this,\nand checked the evil by maintaining local fellowships between Church and\nChurch, by the employment of \u201cmessengers\u201d one to another. {126}\n\nAbout 1830 the wiser heads amongst us had clearly seen the evil, and\nendeavoured to overcome it.  They concluded that centrifugal tendencies\nshould be met by a centripetal force.  Mr. Binney used to say, we were a\ncollection of limbs\u2014legs, arms, feet, and hands\u2014all in motion, but not an\norganised body.  To frame a body out of so many members, was the design\nof the Congregational Union.  Algernon Wells may be regarded as its\nfounder.  He was one of the most beautiful characters I have ever\nknown\u2014intelligent, well read, sagacious, with extensive knowledge of men\nand things, and a profound attachment to evangelical truth.  He had a\nrare order of eloquence, and wove pleasant tissues of thought in his\nsermons and speeches.  If his speeches were not always sermons, his\nsermons were almost always speeches.  There was a great charm in his\nconversation, and it often overflowed with wit.  Though a decided\nCongregationalist, he was full of charity, and cultivated harmonious\nintercourse with other denominations.  His policy as to the newly-formed\norganisation, was to make the meetings fraternal rather than\ncontroversial\u2014a brotherly society to promote edification rather than an\necclesiastical army to fight with soldiers outside, or a council to\nsettle disputes inside.  The early meetings were held in the\nCongregational Library, and did not muster more than a hundred members.\n\u201cBusiness\u201d received at times a look askance: spiritual edification\nexcited desire, and stimulated expression.  Now and then came touches of\nhumour, as when after talking about the state of the denomination till we\nwere hungry, one brother rose and gravely asked \u201cwhether any intelligence\nhad arrived from the Sandwich Islands.\u201d\n\nGood Algernon Wells died in 1851, and soon afterwards I was requested by\na sub-committee to meet them in conference on an important matter.  It\nwas to propose my election as Mr. Wells\u2019 successor.  Now, secretaryships\nhave always been my aversion\u2014from an instinct, I suppose, such as guides\ninferior animals to shun what they were never made for.  The\nsecretaryship of the City Mission had been pressed upon me soon after my\narrival in London, but I steadily refused it, from a conviction of utter\nincompetence; and, for the same reason, I declined to entertain the\nproposal just mentioned.  He who proposed the office for me accepted it\nfor himself, and we worked together pleasantly through several years.  I\nwas elected chairman of the Union in May 1856, amidst much excitement.\nThere have been strains on its strength more than once, but this first\nwas the greatest.\n\nDr. Campbell had been for some time a prominent member.  Hard-headed and\nhard-handed, of a bold, open countenance, and with a habit of planting\nhis foot pretty firmly on the ground,\u2014the outer man well indicated the\ninner; kind-hearted and affectionate at home, but not the same on a\nplatform, or with an editorial pen in hand.  He then gave no quarter to\nanybody who opposed him.  \u201cYou are a good fellow,\u201d it was once said to\nhim by a loving spirit; \u201cbut I don\u2019t like that great club you carry.\u201d\nThat great club he swung about, much to the terror of many, and\nconsequently he exercised a despotic sway, to which they were indisposed\nto submit.  He held the doctrines of Calvinistic theology with a firm\ngrasp, and looked with alarm upon certain opinions springing up amongst\nhis brethren.  He considered that there was looseness of sentiment, and a\nrange of thought too free, existing amongst younger men, which imperilled\nthe evangelical soundness of the Churches.  He gave it the name of\n_Negative Theology_.  The name took, and was bandied about to the\nannoyance of persons to whom it was applied, many of them holding\npositive truths as firmly as Dr. Campbell himself.  It happened that in\n1856 Mr. Lynch, a man of genius and sensibility, with a mind cast in a\nmould the opposite of Dr. Campbell\u2019s, published a small volume of poetry\nentitled \u201cThe Rivulet.\u201d  Some of the hymns it contained excited\nadmiration, and are now extensively used; but the book, as a whole,\naroused Dr. Campbell\u2019s wrath beyond measure.  He wrote a criticism upon\nit, which awakened indignation in those who had read \u201cThe Rivulet\u201d with\napproval.  Fifteen brethren drew up and signed a protest against this\nstyle of review.\n\nThere existed, no doubt, a tendency on the part of a few brethren to give\nup certain theological expressions long held sacred, and also to throw\ninto the background, if not to question, points of doctrine deemed\nperfectly Congregational.  In the opposite quarter there appeared a\ntenacity of diction and an emphasis of opinion on old lines, accompanied\nby ungenerous reflections respecting those whom they deemed innovators.\nVery naturally, personal feeling was thus stirred up, and the Union\nseemed threatened with disaster.\n\n\u201cWe men are a mysterious sort of creatures,\u201d said John Howe to Richard\nBaxter.  No doubt we are, and that in more ways than one: in this\nespecially, that whilst discussing theories of God, Christ, and the Holy\nSpirit\u2014all fountains of love\u2014we are apt to be found drawing water from\nthe wells of Marah.\n\nThe controversy, now spoken of, related to old and new aspects of\ntheological thought.  Looking back, I can but say, the balance sheet of\npast and present, in respect to what is now noticed, shows both gain and\nloss.  All the gain, it strikes me, might have been secured without\nincurring loss at all; and, in making up the whole account, there should\nhave been more charity in judging individuals, and more justice in\ndiscussing principles.\n\nI wished, in my address, to combine the two, and so render the whole a\nsort of Irenicon.\n\nA personal correspondence followed between two good men, which is now, I\nhope, buried in oblivion; but no secession of members from the Union took\nplace, that I know of.  The two tendencies still exist, but they call for\nno criticism in these pages.  My views on the subject I have often\nexpressed.\n\nBefore the close of my Windsor ministry I had begun to indulge in foreign\ntravel, and in 1854, when I had spent some time in my Kensington\npastorate, I ventured on a trip to Rome, which I have described already.\nAfter that, visits abroad were numerous, and from amongst them I select\none paid in 1856, when I spent a few weeks with my two sons, who were\nthen being educated in Berlin.  My dear wife accompanied me through the\ngreater part of the tour, as she was anxious to see how the lads were\ngetting on.  We made our way to the Prussian capital through Hanover,\nand, on reaching our destination, found all well.  After spending a\nlittle while in Berlin, seeing the sights and becoming acquainted with\nsome excellent people, we made an excursion to the South, and spent a few\ndays at Dresden, where antiquities, pictures, and drives in the\nneighbourhood greatly delighted us.  We proceeded to Schandau, a pretty\nlittle village, and there took lodgings, initiating ourselves into\namusing details of German life.  We attended the parish church on Sunday,\ntaking interest in the clergyman, who was expounding to his people the\nhistory of David.  We witnessed some of life\u2019s joys and sorrows,\nespecially a funeral, which was very picturesque\u2014bright flowers, red\nroses and green leaves, relieving the darkness of death, the hope of\nHeaven shedding light on the sorrow of bereavement.  Excursions in the\nneighbourhood added to our family enjoyments of this sojourn, and one day\nwe came in contact with royalty.  The King of Saxony, the Queen, and a\nfew of the Court, climbed up a hill which we had selected as a\nresting-place, commanding views of the Elbe.  Their Majesties\u2019 servants\nin livery (who, by the way, were very civil to us) paid the royal\nreckoning to a humble ch\u00e2let-keeper, as any of his subjects might do.  We\nwatched the King and attendants as they embarked in a boat for their\nDresden home.  My boys and I pushed on to Prague, where the bridge and\nSt. John Nepomuk, the Hradschin, and the thirty years\u2019 war, John Huss and\nhis house in the Bethlehem platz, the Jews\u2019 town on the banks of the\nMoldau, the Jewish burial ground, and the old synagogue, inspired\nhistorical memories of deep interest.  We joined mamma and returned to\nDresden the way we came; and there, after long gazings on the picture\ngallery, especially at Raphael\u2019s \u201cMadonna and Child\u201d\u2014opposite to which\npeople sat reverently, as if engaged in devotion\u2014father and mother parted\nfrom the dear boys, and we wended our way homewards; not without\nlingering in Lutherland to look at homes and haunts of the great\nReformer.\n\nTo return to my Kensington flock.  In the year 1857, one Sunday night,\nafter I had retired to rest, I heard a loud ringing at the door-bell, and\nimmediately rose.  On opening the window, there stood a carriage; and the\ncoachman, as soon as by gaslight he saw my face, cried out, \u201cOh, sir, my\nmistress is dead!\u201d  His mistress was Mrs. Jacomb, residing with her\nhusband and family at Notting Hill.  They had all been at Divine worship\nthat morning in their usual health.  The carriage had been sent to take\nme back to the mourners.  I immediately rose and went.  On reaching the\nhouse I witnessed a scene of domestic distress such as I never witnessed\nbefore.  My deceased friend had in the morning worshipped with us, in her\nusual delicate health, and, as I learned, in more than her usual\ncheerfulness.  She was preparing for evening service, when she was\nsuddenly seized with illness, and in a short time expired.  The husband\nand family were in deep distress, but they had a blessed knowledge of Him\nwho brought life and immortality to light.  She was a woman rich in\nspiritual sympathy, and had been no ordinary friend to me and mine, in\nour early married life.  We had a large family, and, though favoured\nabove many, had our domestic trials.  How often I thought of what Paul\nsaid of \u201cPh\u0153be, our sister\u201d: \u201cShe has been a succourer of many, and of\nmyself also.\u201d  I never knew any one who had more tender sympathy in\ntrouble than Mrs. Jacomb, or was more swift in expressing it.  Her\nhusband was worthy of her, and her children \u201crise up to call her\nblessed.\u201d  Those who survive are cherished friends.  He was of an old\nPuritan stock, descendant of Dr. Jacomb, a renowned ejected clergyman\nafter the Commonwealth; and the family genealogy is rich in noted names\nand memories.\n\nIn this chapter I cannot refrain from recording my own domestic sorrows.\nIn 1853 a sweet child had died\u2014little Catherine, born shortly after we\nleft Windsor; and in 1858 another, more advanced in life, a boy named\nArnold, full of energy and promise, was taken from us by our Heavenly\nFather.  His illness was brief; but beforehand my dear wife had been\nanxious for his spiritual welfare, and her conversations were followed by\nthe Divine blessing.  His joyous, winning ways had won the hearts of\nvisitors, and his death widely affected my congregation, awakening\nsympathy to a degree which inspired my liveliest gratitude.  Our friend\nJoshua Harrison preached a funeral sermon for the dear boy, full of\npathos and power.\n\nIn 1859 a friend accompanied me to the Pyrenees.  Travelling by French\nrailways, we reached Bayonne at the end of August, and then crossed the\nSpanish frontier in a Spanish diligence, which had all the lumber and\nshabby trappings of French ones.  We reached San Sebastian at night, and\nnext morning took a walk on the promenade, where the ladies in mantillas\nand veils flourished their fans with grace and dignity; and if there be\nsomething gay in French solemnity, there is something grave in the gaiety\nof Spaniards.  We again climbed up a diligence, and travelled through the\nLower Pyrenees to Pau, where, from the Grand Terrace, we saw peering out\nfrom the haze of a hot summer sky the mountain range\u2014not near, as many\nimagine, but many miles off.  Of course we saw the old palace where Henri\nIV. was born and wrapped up in his shell cradle.  Along roads bordered by\nwoods and hills, reminding one of Wharfedale, we reached an elevation at\nSevignac, overlooking the valley of the Gave, with magnificent mountains\nin front, Pic du Midi coming into full view.  Eaux Bonnes, with all the\nluxuries of a French watering-place, was then reached, whence we\nproceeded to Eaux Chaudes, where the mountains become awfully\nprecipitous.  We looked down from zigzag roads, cut out of declivities\nbuttressed by rocks and embankments, with boiling torrents at the foot,\nroaring like thunder.  The Pic du Midi, streaked with snow, rises up so\nas to remind one of an Egyptian pyramid.\n\nWe determined to visit Pantacosa, and passed through a romantic defile,\ncrossed the Spanish frontier again, and halted at a village, where the\nhouses seemed walls without windows, the outlook being altogether from\nthe back.  Glimpses of Aragon\u2019s broad plain were caught, as we looked\nsouth, and crowds of Spanish muleteers passed us, laden with merchandise.\nThe baths of Pantacosa occupy a gloomy region, shut in by rocks, and\nthere I spent the Sunday as an invalid, my strength being overtaxed; but\nnext day I rose in the enjoyment of health and vigour.  Then we made our\nway to Luz.  The church of the Templars built there is half fortress and\nhalf sanctuary.  You enter through a machicolated gateway, into a church,\nthe gloomiest I ever saw.  Through a little door, the _Cagots_, a\nproverbial race weak both in body and mind, used to enter for worship.\n\nNear to Luz is St. Sauveur, a narrow valley, richly wooded, with a tiny\nvillage jammed in among the rocks.  At the time of our visit, the Emperor\nNapoleon and the Empress Eugenie were staying there.  The house they\noccupied was small and plain; nothing distinguished it but the two\nsentinels at the door.  All was silent and solitary, and nobody seemed to\nnotice the royal residence, besides ourselves.  In the afternoon, we saw\ntheir Majesties returning from a drive in open carriages with outriders.\nNapoleon sat on the box, Eugenie was chatting with her lady attendants.\nOn alighting she remained at the door of the house, playing with her\nwalking stick, and receiving a letter-bag.  The Emperor came out, lighted\na cigar, smoked and then walked on to inspect some men at work on a new\nroad.\n\nWe made an excursion to Gavarnie\u2014a shady defile with precipitous rocks,\noverhanging woods, and a river foaming and roaring four hundred feet\nbelow.  Beyond is the Cirque, a basin-shaped valley of semicircular\nrocks, with steps and stages, whilst a drapery of water fringes them all\nround.  We ascended the Pic de Bergons, tarried a day at Bagn\u00e8res de\nBigorre, a central spot for tourists, with the usual appurtenances of\nsuch places.  We proceeded to Bagn\u00e8res de Luchon, by a romantic drive,\ncommanding a view of the Maladetta with its snows and glaciers.\n\nIn the course of our rambles in the Pyrenees we were struck with Eastern\ncustoms.  An unmuzzled ox went round a heap of corn.  Sheep were not\ndriven but led, and wine was kept in leathern bottles.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n1862\u20131865\n\n\nTHE year 1862, being the Bicentenary of the Bartholomew ejectment, was\nlargely given by English Nonconformists to a remembrance of the\nconfessorship and heroism which marked the ejectment of ministers in\n1662.  A meeting was held in the spring at St. James\u2019s Hall, Piccadilly,\nwhen papers were read, bearing on the commemoration.  The preparation of\none of them fell to my lot; but I was taken ill at the time for its\ndelivery, and it had to be read by my friend, the Rev. Joshua Clarkson\nHarrison.  A story is told of Garrick\u2019s reading a poem of Hannah More\u2019s,\nbefore a party of friends, when the effect produced was by Garrick\nattributed to the lady\u2019s composition, and by the lady to the reader\u2019s\nelocution.  Whatever might be the impression made at St. James\u2019s Hall on\nthe reading of the paper, it was divided between my friend and me, after\nthe same fashion.  In this address I advocated a Bartholomew celebration,\non the ground, that it was good to remember sacrifices made for\nconscience\u2019 sake, and therefore professed my readiness to honour Jeremy\nTaylor as well as Richard Baxter.  This brought a letter from the Bishop\nof Down and Connor testing my sincerity by an appeal on behalf of an\nIrish cathedral restoration in memory of Jeremy Taylor.  I sent a small\ncontribution, which brought back a pleasant response, such as I highly\nvalued.  Afterwards I met him at the Athen\u00e6um, when he invited me to\nvisit him, with a view to Christian union in Ireland.  I should add that\nthe Bishop\u2019s scheme for the cathedral restoration failed, and he politely\nreturned my small contribution.\n\nIn the autumn of 1862, I read a paper to the Congregational Assembly, in\nwhich I advocated certain methods of improvement.  This subject I took up\nafterwards, with no result, however, that I could discover.  The faults\nof other systems are always more welcome than the reformation of our own.\n\nIn 1863 we were visited by a family bereavement which was one of the\nheaviest sorrows of my life.  John Howard Stoughton, born at Windsor in\n1842, was a lad of extraordinary character, witty and artistic beyond his\nbrothers and sisters, who loved him with no ordinary love.  His love of\nart led us to place the youth under Mr. Thomas, a distinguished sculptor\nand decorator, largely employed in works at Windsor Castle.  Our boy\ndevoted himself to his pursuits with an assiduity which created much\nanxiety in his mother and in me, for it evidently injured his health.  In\nthe spring of 1861 we took him to Hastings, and Dr. Moore, an eminent\nphysician there, carefully studied his case, and, as the result, advised\nthat his artistic pursuits should be for awhile suspended, and that he\nshould travel abroad, where he would see and learn much, without tasking\nhis physical power.  Accordingly, in the summer of 1861, he visited the\nContinent with his elder brother and me, went up and down the Rhine, and\nsaw pictures, statues, and decorations, which interested his mind without\novertasking his bodily strength.  In the following autumn he was better,\nand under medical advice we arranged that, in company with one of his\nsisters, he should spend the winter in Rome.  They did so accordingly,\nand our hopes were raised; but in the spring he had an attack, which\nrendered it advisable that he should remove from Rome to some other part\nof Italy.  He did so, and paid a visit to friends in Leghorn.  I left\nhome with another of my daughters and two nieces, joining my children\nwhere they were staying; thence I accompanied them, on a pleasant tour\nthrough Florence, over the Apennines, and, by way of Bologna, Milan, and\nthe Alps, to Geneva.  Thence we came home through France.  We returned in\ngood spirits; but, as winter approached, fears reawakened.  Gradually the\ninvalid became weaker; but faith in the Invisible and Divine Father grew\nstronger and stronger.  The youth spent with us a cheerful Christmas; but\nin spring it was obvious he was not long for this world.  As the end\napproached he talked calmly on the subject with his beloved brother, the\ntwo being united in bonds of Christian faith, as well as natural\naffection.  I can never forget the Holy Communion we\u2014mother, father,\nbrother, and sisters\u2014enjoyed in a room overlooking our garden, when\nbursting buds told of nature\u2019s returning life, and the dear sufferer bore\nunmistakable signs of approaching death.  But he was calm and cheerful,\nand took deep interest in the gracious ordinance.  It was administered\nwith solemnity by our dear friend Harrison, who loved Howard as though he\nhad been his own son.  He expired on March 31st, 1863, and on the\nfollowing Sunday evening my brother just named preached a memorable\nfuneral sermon in Kensington Chapel.\n\nIn 1864 Dr. Stanley became Dean of Westminster, and on his expressing a\nwish to be introduced to some Nonconformist brethren, Dr. William\nSmith\u2014editor of so many valuable dictionaries, and with whom I was then\nassociated in the business of New College\u2014kindly gave a dinner party to\nwhich he invited me.  The Dean afterwards finding there was between us\nsome similarity of taste in literature, and sympathy in desires for\nunion, invited me to the Deanery; and so began a friendship with him and\nLady Augusta, which lasted as long as they lived, and proved one of the\nmost precious privileges vouchsafed to me, by the providence of our\nHeavenly Father.  On December 28th, 1865, \u201cthe Feast of the Holy\nInnocents\u201d\u2014the Dean preached a sermon in Westminster Abbey.  The sermon\nwas in commemoration of the Abbey\u2019s foundation by Edward the Confessor\neight hundred years before.  The text was felicitously chosen from John\nx. 22, 23,\u2014\u201cIt was the feast of the _Dedication_, and it was _winter_,\nand Jesus walked in the temple in _Solomon\u2019s porch_.\u201d  \u201cFeast of the\nDedication\u201d corresponded with the character of the service; \u201cwinter\u201d was\nthe season of both celebrations; the northern porch\u2014a main entrance to\nthe Abbey\u2014is called \u201cSolomon\u2019s porch.\u201d  The sermon was not less\nappropriate than the text.  It sketched the history of the venerable\nedifice, and contained marked allusions to Nonconformist ministrations\nwithin its walls during the Commonwealth.  Being present on the occasion,\nI wrote to the Dean afterwards in reference to his allusions, when, in\nreply, he said, \u201cIt gave me additional pleasure to deliver them, from the\nreflection that there was at least one person present capable of entering\ninto them.\u201d  In the sermon, as delivered, he spoke of the Westminster\nConfession as the only one ever _imposed_ in the _whole Island_, and on\nmy calling his attention to this statement, and pointing out the\ndistinction between the _doctrinal_ and ecclesiastical part of the\nConfession, he answered, \u201cI was not ignorant of the distinction, nor did\nI mean to say it was _imposed_ in any offensive sense.  For I was anxious\nnot to say a word that could be offensive to any of my brethren, and\nmerely wished to call attention to the fact, that a document, which had\nreceived in part a wider legal recognition than any other since the\nReformation, came from Westminster Abbey.\u201d  In the sermon, as _printed_,\nare the words \u201c_sanctioned by law_ for the whole Island,\u201d and in a note,\n\u201cThe doctrinal Articles of the Westminster Confession of Faith (were)\nsanctioned by the English Parliament in 1647, and the whole Confession by\nthe Scottish Parliament in 1648.\u201d\n\nIn further illustration of the Dean\u2019s ingenuity when turning Scripture to\naccount in the improvement of events, I may here repeat what he once\nrelated to me.  He happened on a Saturday to be preparing a sermon for\nthe Abbey, on some occasion when he was to plead for _two_ objects, and\nhad chosen for his text Gen. xxvii. 38\u2014\u201cAnd Esau said unto his father,\nhast thou but one blessing my father?  Bless me, even me also, O my\nfather.\u201d  As the Dean was writing his discourse, some one stepped in and\ntold him, the American President, General Grant, intended to be at the\nAbbey the next day, and suggested that it would be gratifying to\nAmericans if some allusion was made to the incident.  Immediately it was\nturned to account by the Dean in this way\u2014that God had many blessings\nwhich He distributed amongst his children; that bounty to one did not\nmean denial to another; that Great Britain, for instance, had been\nblessed, but God had rich benefactions for America as well.\n\nFor years I felt an earnest desire to visit the East, and thus to become\npersonally acquainted with Bible lands.  A meeting was held in 1865 to\npresent me with a purse of \u00a3400, and a pledge that expenses incurred\nthrough my absence from Kensington should be met, without any pecuniary\nresponsibilities on my part.  The friends who accompanied me were Dr.\nAllon, of Union Chapel, Islington, Dr. Spence, of the Poultry Chapel,\nLondon, Dr. Bright, minister of the Independent Chapel, Dorking, and two\nyoung lay friends\u2014Stanley Kemp-Welch and Thomas Wilson.  The Dean of\nWestminster gave me introductions to people he knew in Palestine, and\nafforded valuable assistance in other ways.\n\nWe started in February 1865.  I kept a journal and sent home long\nletters.  We visited Alexandria and Cairo, and then proceeded through the\ndesert of Sinai to the monastery at the foot of Jebel Mousa.  Turning\nnorth, we made our way to Gaza, thence to Ramleh, and so onwards to\nJerusalem.  The members of our little party, as we approached the city on\nhorseback, rode at a considerable distance from each other.  I knew that\nwe should cross some ridges, before we caught sight of the city, and I\nhappened to be in the rear of my fellow-travellers.  I watched the\nforemost of them till I saw him pull up his horse, pause awhile, then\ntake off his hat.  I knew what that meant, and the feelings awakened I\ncan never forget while I live.  I eagerly, and I may say reverently,\nfollowed the foremost horseman, and as soon as I caught sight of the\nwalls and the gate, I am not ashamed to say, my eyes were full of tears.\n\nAs we entered the Holy City the bustle was very great.  Bedouins with\nyellow scarves round their heads, and striped robes on their shoulders;\nSyrians with snowy turbans, short jackets, and flowing trousers; Turks\nwearing the crimson fez; a rich man \u201cclothed in purple and fine linen,\u201d\nmounted on a smartly caparisoned white ass, and a poor man on foot,\nragged and tattered; camels and donkeys carrying loads of timber and\nbrushwood, to the peril of wayfarers; Egyptian, Copt, Armenian, Greek,\nthe black Nubian, the white Circassian, with groups of veiled women,\nshuffling over the stones in gay slippers\u2014all these made a motley\npicture, which dazzled the attention of pilgrims from England.  At length\nwe reached our hotel, and had to make ladder-like ascents, and mount on\nroofs, story after story, before we could get to our apartments, whence\nwe caught our first view of Mount Olivet.\n\nWe met with Christian friends in the Holy City, and were kindly invited\nby Dr. Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, to spend an evening at his house, when\nhe gathered together a party consisting of the principal foreign visitors\nat the time, most of whom were English.  For two Sunday mornings we\nworshipped at the church on Mount Zion, near the Episcopal residence, and\nwere glad of an opportunity to partake of the Communion.  I have always\ndelighted in fellowship at the Lord\u2019s table with Christian brethren of\ndifferent churches, who, under different forms of administration, worship\nand adore the same Lord.  Not only when travelling on the Continent have\nI received the Lord\u2019s Supper at the hands of Episcopalian brethren, but\nin England, on a few occasions I have availed myself of a similar\ncatholic privilege.\n\nBefore proceeding further, let me relate a story I heard from Dr. Rosen,\nthe German consul, respecting the famous Sinaitic MS.  Tischendorf had\nreason to believe a precious treasure was hid in the monastery at Sinai.\nHe obtained letters which he thought would assist him, but, on further\nconsideration, declined to employ them.  He found in the library part of\nhis coveted prize; and, it happened at that moment, the office of\nOkonomos was vacant, and a keen contest for it was going on between two\nmonks.  He joined one party, and promised to use influence with the\nRussian Emperor in favour of their candidate, hinting that the present of\na valuable MS. would promote their object.  After a good deal of\ndiplomacy this plan prospered.  The MS. coveted by the scholar was\nsecured, and the once hopeless candidate was installed in office.  This\nwas not all.  The MS. was incomplete, and the missing part was found by\nTischendorf in the possession of a Greek merchant.  The promise of a\nRussian title proved more effectual than gold, and Tischendorf carried\noff his prize to St. Petersburg in triumph.  I jotted down the story the\nevening Dr. Rosen related it, and here in a few words have I given the\nsubstance.\n\nOf course we explored Jerusalem as far as our limited time allowed; and,\nunder the guidance of Dr. Rosen, I had the privilege of visiting certain\nspots where recent discoveries had been made.  I remember seeing what\nlooked like indications of a well, from which, it was easy to imagine,\npeople, in our Lord\u2019s time, used to draw water.  Nor can I forget rambles\non the line of walls commanding views of the city and neighbourhood.  I\ncan now distinctly recall my visit to a sepulchre outside the city, where\na stone, like a large millstone, was lying at the door, as if recently\n\u201crolled away.\u201d  I studied (as well as time, and what I had read on the\nsubject, would allow), the question as to the place of crucifixion, and\nwhere our blessed Lord rose from the dead.  Points still remain to be\nsettled, as to the direction in which the city wall ran in the time of\nChrist.  I cannot adopt any modern theories on the whole subject, which\nhave made way in America and in England.  It appears to me after long\nstudy, that grounds can still be maintained in support of the old\ntradition in favour of the spot where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre\nstands.  We made a memorable excursion to Bethlehem, by way of Rachel\u2019s\nsepulchre, and descended the cave where, it is said, our Lord was born.\nWe next proceeded to Hebron, where I stood by a flight of steps leading\nto the tombs within, longing to ascend and explore those hallowed resting\nplaces.  Returning northwards, we stopped at the traditional oak, by\nwhich Abraham sat in the heat of the day\u2014and at the vineyards of Eschol\nwhere old stocks are thriving still\u2014and at Solomon\u2019s pool and gardens,\nnot far from David\u2019s hiding-places.  Then, after a long and exciting day,\nwe found rest in the old monastery of S. Saba, from the terrace of which,\nwe caught a view of the Dead Sea.  We rambled on its melancholy shores,\ndipped in the Jordan, and then spent a night by the ruins of Jericho.\n\nThe order of our journey followed Dr. Stanley\u2019s directions, that we might\nhave the advantage of crossing Olivet, so as to come suddenly on the\npoint where our Lord \u201cbeheld the city and wept over it.\u201d  From Jerusalem\nwe proceeded northwards by Bethel, Sychar, Samaria, Esdraelon, and\nNazareth, to Tiberias and the Lake.  Thence by Safed we travelled over\nthe hills of Galilee to Banias (\u201cthe Syrian Tivoli\u201d), Damascus, and\nBeyrout.  Banias is a charming spot.  With the scenery from a hill\noverlooking Damascus I was charmed beyond measure, and was intensely\ninterested in the antiquities of that grand old city.  Dr. Allon, Dr.\nBright and Mr. Wilson visited the ruins at Baalbec, but Mr. Kemp-Welch\nremained with me in Damascus to take care of Dr. Spence, who was very\nill.  He had to be leisurely taken over the mountains to Beyrout,\napproaching which we had never-to-be-forgotten views of the beautiful\nMediterranean.\n\nAfter leaving Palestine I wrote in my notes the following impression as\nto the Bible, which had been a constant companion and guide in our\ntravels:\u2014It is the Book of the Holy Land\u2014the gospel of Palestine.  It is\nOriental; it is Syrian; it is Samaritan; it is Galilean; it is Jewish.\nIt paints the scenery of the Land of Promise from end to end, and the\nwilderness too.  It echoes the voices of the people.  We hear in it the\nmurmur of towns and villages, we pass through; it breathes the pure,\nfresh, bracing air of the desert; everywhere as I opened the Divine pages\nI found them reflecting surrounding scenes.  Even the brilliant\nFrenchman, who has tasked his genius to demolish the authentic life of\nJesus and to build out of the ruins an imagination of his own, virtually\nadmits the truth of what I have now advanced, for he points out the\nminute accuracy of the Volume; which shows how true in detail are the\nGospels, how faithful to rock and stream, river and lake, tree and wild\nflower, is the entire narrative.  Thus, after all he says to the\ncontrary, he really raises in the reader\u2019s mind a fair presumption of its\nfidelity in higher matters.\n\nOne circumstance struck me as very noticeable\u2014that is, the compression,\nwithin a small compass, of a number of stirring incidents related in Holy\nWrit.  Dothan, where Joseph sought his brethren and their flocks; the\nplain of Megiddo, the battle-field of Israel; the river Kishon, \u201cthat\nancient river,\u201d so fatal to Sisera\u2019s army; the valley of Jezreel, with\nits wide panorama, where Ahab had a palace; the heights of Gilboa, where\nfell Saul and his sons, with the well of Harod at the foot, where\nGideon\u2019s three hundred men stooped and lapped the water; the garden of\nthe Shunamite, opposite to Mount Carmel; the city of Nain and the cave of\nEndor; Tabor and Nazareth\u2014all these spots come within a few hours\u2019 ride.\nWell might Issachar think \u201cthat rest was good, and the land that it was\npleasant.\u201d\n\nOur party began to separate at Beyrout.  Dr. Spence, accompanied by Mr.\nWilson, returned direct to England; the rest of us came home through\nEurope.\n\nIn crossing the Mediterranean with Dr. Allon and Kemp-Welch we touched at\nCyprus.  The coast looked flat and uninteresting, but the bright morning,\nthe sparkling sea, and the manifold associations attaching to the islands\ninspired great curiosity and deep interest, though I felt by no means\nwell.  I began to be conscious that my appetite for travelling had\nsomewhat palled, if not become almost dead.  We landed at Larnaca, and\nfound it a very poor place.  The Greek churches were somewhat curious,\nfrom the circumstance of old columns with characteristic capitals being\nbuilt into the walls.  I noticed Greek priests sitting in wine shops, and\nsome of them occupying places of traffic, selling different articles in\nhuckster-like hovels.  These men indicated the social degradation of\ninferior orders in the Eastern Church.  However it may be with the\ndignified clergy in Russia, certainly priests in Palestine, Syria and the\nMediterranean Isles afford low types of civilisation.  After dwelling on\nwhat is related about Cyprus in the Acts of the Apostles, the conversion\nof Sergius Paulus, and the conduct of Elymas the sorcerer, became very\nreal narratives; and with these memories in our minds we re-embarked and\nhad a pleasant evening as we sat on deck.  I fell asleep with the\nprospect of reaching Rhodes the next day.\n\nThe harbour, with its well-known mole and adjuncts, is very picturesque.\nWe climbed up narrow streets, full of houses once occupied by the\nknights, and from the fortification, had an extensive view of the island\nand the Mediterranean.  The Church of St. John, blown up by gunpowder,\nand shattered to fragments, seized on my imagination for a good while, as\nI wandered, and sat down on a spot, so rich in romantic story.  We then\nreturned to the interior of the town, and at the harbour watched the\nboatmen, busy at the seaside.  As we were doing so, one of my companions\nexclaimed, \u201cStoughton, you\u2019ve got the jaundice!\u201d and, sure enough, when\nwe reached our steamer, the looking-glass proved this was true.  When I\nrose next morning my limbs were of a saffron colour.\n\nThe weather changed.  The sky was dark, and the views we caught of Asia\nwere by no means inviting.  At night there came a storm; and a storm in\nthe Mediterranean is no trifling matter.  Wind roared through the\nrigging; the vessel lurched and laboured, groaning as if the timbers\nwould burst.  Lying in my berth I could feel the dashing billows.  Tables\nand stools were sliding about.  The suspended lamps swayed to and fro,\nlike the pendulum of a clock.  Overhead confusion was terrible.  Horses\nwere kicking, and the sailors were swearing.  We had a pasha with his\nharem on board, and, as might be expected, they were exceedingly\nterrified.  Crowds of pilgrims returning from the Eastern celebration at\nJerusalem, were lying on deck resembling herrings in a barrel, and the\nnoise they made was terrific.  Waves beat over our boat, till the poor\ncreatures were almost drowned.  Beside we had horses, bears and monkeys\non board, and, of course, they added to the inharmonious concert.  I rose\nfrom my hammock early, and with my companion, Mr. Welch, sought comfort\nfrom a cup of tea.  Reaching the deck, I talked with one of the\nengineers, an Englishman, and asked what he thought of the storm.  \u201cIs\nthere any danger?\u201d I asked.  He replied, \u201cThis has been a very queer\nnight, and we have made no way.  If it had lasted, that would have been\nserious.\u201d  We safely reached Smyrna harbour in the afternoon.\n\nOf course, I thought as we approached land:\u2014There, on one of the hills\nyonder, the martyr, Polycarp, by death sealed the truths which he had\nproclaimed in life.  As we landed, I thought myself in an Italian port,\nso European at a glance everything looked\u2014houses, shops, and people\u2014but,\nentering the town, the scene changed, for there the streets, bazaars, and\ncostumes told of Oriental manners and customs.  The next day a party was\norganised to visit the ruins of Ephesus.  It can be reached by railway,\nand when we entered the station, we might have fancied ourselves at home;\nfor there we met with English guards, and railway porters, like our own.\nWe had a special train to convey us to the far-famed ruins.  We visited\nwhat is left of the forum, the theatre, and the stadium, but it is\ndifficult to identify anything; and it seemed to me, a definite idea of\nwhat Ephesus was in its glory is impossible.  The view from the loftiest\neminence is magnificent, including the vast plain, the winding river\nCayster, and what, in Paul\u2019s day was the harbour of Miletus.  At the time\nof our visit, Greek Christians were celebrating the Festival of St. John,\non a lofty hill, the church there being a rude-looking structure.  The\ncave of the seven sleepers was pointed out, on our way back to the\nrailway station, and by the cave is a beautiful mosque of the fifteenth\ncentury.\n\nOn Saturday morning we embarked at Smyrna for Constantinople.  We faintly\ndiscerned in the far distance, as we crossed those classic waters, point\nafter point closely connected with ancient story.  Of course, all the\nway, amidst Homeric scenes and associations, we called them to mind by\nHomer\u2019s help; but the thought of St. John\u2019s labours, his epistles, to the\nseven churches in the Apocalypse, more prominently occupied one\u2019s mind on\nthe Lord\u2019s day, when we had worship in the saloon, and I preached, as\nwell as I could, to a few sympathetic fellow-passengers.\n\nOn Monday morning early, we reached the Golden Horn, filled with\nshipping.  Caiques were quietly gliding over still waters; but we were\ntroubled at the Custom House by an ignorant soldier, who laid hold upon\nmy \u201cHomer\u201d and detained it for two or three days.\n\nKemp-Welch was the only member of our party left, the rest proceeding\nhomeward by another route.  I made the most of what was possible during\nthe four days spent at Constantinople.  My friend and I followed the\ncircuit of the city on horseback; through Stamboul, which appeared very\nOriental, ruinous and dirty\u2014through lines of cypresses, near cemeteries\nwith turbaned headstones; and so, all round, till we reached the sweet\nwaters.  There we tarried a while, looking at the gardens, and their\nsummer houses, called kiosks.  The place is a resort like Hampton Court.\nThence we returned to the city.  Next day we crossed the Golden Horn, and\nsaw the Sultan\u2019s seraglio, attached to which are more gardens and more\nkiosks.  The place contains a library full of Arabic MSS., and a throne\nroom, with the Sultan\u2019s divan, surmounted with a baldacchino.  There His\nMajesty used to hold his court, attended by janissaries, and was screened\nfrom the view of subjects, except that his hands were visible.  The\nSublime Porte is the grand entrance to the room of audience for\nambassadors from other courts.\n\nWe visited the arsenal with its ammunition, muskets, and swords.  The\nbuilding, it is said, was in the fourth century a church\u2014the Church of S.\nIrene, where Chrysostom preached some of his wonderful sermons\u2014and it has\nstill in the apse an antique cross.  But the grand ecclesiastical edifice\nof Constantinople is S. Sophia, with columns brought from Ephesus, and\nrepresentations of four cherubim with their faces obliterated.  A legend\nis preserved to this effect, that when Constantinople was taken by the\nTurks, a priest was saying mass\u2014immediately a chasm opened in the wall\nand received him.  There he still remains, chalice in hand, waiting to\nfinish the service, when Christians recover the ancient edifice.\n\nBut I must not enter into further details of what I saw and heard during\nmy short stay at Constantinople.  I was now left alone, as my only\nremaining companion was obliged to return home by a different route.\n\nLet me add in closing this part of my story, that the banks of the\nBosphorus on which I gazed, as I left Constantinople, surpassed previous\nimagination.  The gardens and kiosks by the waterside, looked\nparadisaical; and as we steamed along I was enchanted, one instant after\nanother, by objects on the shore.  All the way to the Black Sea was\ndelightful.  Then surroundings changed.  Travellers, landed to find\nthemselves amidst indescribable confusion.  Thence we proceeded by rail\nacross a dreary district, without trees, and abounding in shallow sheets\nof stagnant water, with plenty of storks, Egyptian geese, and other wild\nbirds.  Still, within the region crossed, there were fields of grain.  We\nreached our steamer on the Danube, between six and seven o\u2019clock on\nFriday evening.\n\nWe found the great river improve as we ascended it.  At first we had low\nbanks dotted with mosques and minarets, showing we were still in Turkey.\nOn board the boat I was treated as an invalid, and the attention shown by\ncaptain, crew, and servants, was such as to inspire the warmest gratitude\non my part.\n\nThe scenery on the banks of the Danube, in the earlier part of our voyage\nup the river, was very magnificent\u2014rocks rising loftily from the water\u2019s\nedge on one bank, but low on the other.  We passed richly wooded scenery,\nand caught glimpses of pleasant glens, with running streams and\npicturesque bridges.  Further on were comfortable farm-houses and smiling\nvillages.  We reached Pesth on Tuesday, travelling by rail, and then\nproceeded, in the same way, to Vienna, where I tarried for a couple of\ndays\u2014seeing the magnificent cathedral, the vaults of the Capuchin Church,\nthe Prater, the Royal Palace, and the Picture Galleries.  Travelling\nacross Germany by rail I reached the Rhine, thence to Brussels, where I\nwas entertained by my nieces then on a visit there.  At last I found two\ndear daughters waiting at the Victoria Station, and at Fairlawn House,\nHammersmith, there was a loving welcome.\n\nAt the conclusion of my narrative of Eastern travel, let me remark.  What\none sees in travelling through Palestine gives vividness to the\nnarrative\u2014makes what before were pale outlines, pictures of glowing\ncolour and dazzling light.  I do not forget the danger there is of being\ntoo much engaged with what is outward in Biblical studies\u2014tarrying in the\nporch instead of worshipping in the temple\u2014lingering by the hedge to\ngather flowers instead of pressing into the field to cut down\ncorn\u2014playing the geologist, instead of working as spiritual\nminers\u2014finding out what is curious as to literature, instead of\nappropriating \u201cthe unsearchable riches of Christ.\u201d  But still, what I\ngathered in the East is precious, and may minister to spiritual\nedification, as well as to mental enjoyment.  How marvellous it is that\nwhilst the Bible is so Eastern\u2014while Oriental manners, customs, and\nscenery are photographed there, it is nevertheless an universal book!\nThe Koran is not so Eastern as the Bible; at least, so it struck me, as I\nread it in the East; yet the Bible is the Englishman\u2019s book as the Koran\ncould not be, even if we were all Mussulmans.\n\nSpecially forcible and beautiful were the impressions we derived touching\nthe life of Christ; we felt how toilsome were his journeys as He _walked_\nalong the rough and rugged pathways from Jericho to Jerusalem, over which\nwe _rode_.  How humiliating must have been his intercourse with the poor,\nwho, no doubt, then lived in wretched mud hovels, such as we saw, not\nonly in Palestine, but in Egypt; types of domestic habitation for the\nlower classes in ages past!  We thought: Through such collections of\n\u201chouses of clay\u201d did He pass!  Here did He tarry, and within such abodes!\nNot one of them was His own; He had not where to lay His head.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n1865\u20131872\n\n\nIN the year 1867 I published the first volumes of my \u201cEcclesiastical\nHistory of England\u201d; this calls for explanation of what preceded and\nprepared for it.\n\nImmediately after I left college, and settled at Windsor, I commenced the\nstudy of Church history with much earnestness; and the first fruit was a\ncourse of lectures on the subject to my congregation, delivered on week\nevenings.  When I had completed them they were sent by me to my revered\ntutor, Dr. Henderson, for criticism and advice.  He encouraged me to\npursue my studies in that direction, with the hope and intention of\nmaking use of them in after life.  I followed his advice, and during the\nremainder of my Windsor ministry devoted all the time I could spare from\npulpit and pastoral duties to researches into early annals of\nChristendom.  In my investigations I was kindly allowed to use the Dean\nand Chapter\u2019s library.  After I left Windsor, I turned attention to\necclesiastical affairs during the Puritan period.  This happened just as\nI was about to pay a visit to my native county\u2014Norfolk\u2014where I commenced\nstudying original records in Norwich.  Proceedings _against\nNonconformity_ and other records there came within my reach, that part of\nEngland being somewhat rich in this department of history.  \u201cSpiritual\nHeroes\u201d was the title of my first volume, which not long after was\nrevised and enlarged in a second edition.  The Congregational lecture on\n\u201cThe Ages of Christendom,\u201d was delivered and published in 1856.  This\nled, in 1867, to the \u201cEcclesiastical History of England, from the Opening\nof the Long Parliament to the Death of Oliver Cromwell.\u201d  \u201cThe Church of\nthe Restoration,\u201d forming two volumes, appeared in 1870, and \u201cThe Church\nof the Revolution\u201d in 1874.  To complete the list of works on English\nEcclesiasticism, there followed other volumes on the reigns of Queen Anne\nand the Three Georges.  Afterwards came \u201cReligion in England from 1800 to\n1851.\u201d  I state all this, because some confusion has arisen from a\nfragmentary publication of the original works and of successive editions.\n\nIn 1867 correspondence and personal intercourse commenced between a\ndistinguished Episcopalian and myself, of an interesting character.  In\nthat year I received an invitation to Chichester from Dean Hook.  He was\nmuch talked of, on account of his High Churchmanship, and his pre-eminent\nactivity as Vicar of Leeds.  Dissenters counted him amongst their bitter\nfoes; and I should have been much surprised, years earlier, had I been\ntold I was to be a guest at his house.  Yet so it was.  Historical\nsympathies brought us together, and each found that the other wished to\nbe fair in dealing with men who held opposite opinions.  Both believed in\na spiritual brotherhood reaching beyond denominational bounds.  Soon\nafter my arrival at Chichester he asked: \u201cWhat shall we talk about?  If I\nthought I could make you a Churchman, I would try to do so; and if you\nthought you could make a Dissenter of me, you would make the attempt.\u201d  I\nreplied: \u201cNothing of the kind; let us leave out ecclesiastical\ncontroversy, and talk of literary and religious matters, on which we are\npretty well agreed; and when we have exhausted them we will take up\npoints of difference.\u201d  He went on to say, that his great friend Lord\nHatherley, then High Chancellor, differed from him politically, and yet\nthey had walked up together to the polling booth to record opposite\nvotes, without any breach of friendship.  \u201cAnd so,\u201d he said, \u201cyou and I\ncan unite to a certain extent; and when we come to the parting of the\nway, we can each take our own course, with mutual good will.\u201d  I entered\ninto the compact.  On historical and social subjects, and as to religion\nin its spiritual and experimental aspects, we were of one accord, and\nfelt no inclination to unsheath swords.\n\nWe had pleasant drives in the country and cheerful chat at the\ndinner-table, when he included within his party members of the cathedral\nbody.  Plenty of anecdotes were related, some about Dr. Wilberforce, when\nBishop of Oxford.  The Bishop, I heard, used to tell a story, which\nshowed how a man might, unconsciously, make a good pun.  He had engaged\nto dine with somebody whose name was _Hunter_, a cattle grazier, and on\nhis way, as was his wont, the Bishop bethought himself: \u201cWhat topic of\ntalk can we have together?\u201d  At the railway-station his eye caught an\nadvertisement of \u201cThorley\u2019s Food for Cattle.\u201d  That would suit very well.\nSo the bishop asked the grazier his opinion of such provision for beasts\nof the field.  The host replied: \u201cIt might do very well for _Oxen_, but\nnot for a _Hunter_.\u201d  He did not know he was quoting the diocesan name of\nhis right-reverend guest (Oxon.), and forgot at the moment he was also\nrepeating his own.  The Dean gave a conundrum, invented by the Bishop,\nfor the amusement of a young lady:\u2014\n\n\u201cWhat part of your dress resembles two popular preachers in the Church of\nEngland?\u201d\n\n\u201cGive it up?\u201d\n\n\u201cHook and I.\u201d\n\nThe Chancellor of the Cathedral, I think it was, spoke of Wilberforce\u2019s\npower of adapting himself to people whom he met.  He liked to know\nbeforehand who he was to see.  Introduced to a Yorkshire-man, he began to\ntalk in the county dialect.  Visiting a screw manufactory, he won the\nconfidence of workmen by showing some knowledge of their business.  Once\nat the Earl of Derby\u2019s (grandfather of the present Lord) he met gentlemen\nof the turf, and surprised them by giving the pedigree of a celebrated\nracehorse.  On being asked how he came to be \u201cwell up\u201d on such a subject,\nhe said he had gleaned knowledge of that kind as a boy, in the stables of\na trainer, near his father\u2019s house.  He scarcely ever forgot anything he\nhad heard.\n\nThe Dean was an early riser; and retired early to bed.  We had family\nprayer in the library about nine o\u2019clock, the family and the guests\nstanding and kneeling together.  He read the Psalms for the day, and used\nparts of the Morning and Evening Service.  Once, about half-past ten in\nthe evening, I said to Mrs. Hook\u2014a charming woman, \u201clight of the\ndwelling\u201d\u2014\u201cI must bid the Dean good-night.  Where is he?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn bed and asleep the last hour,\u201d she gently answered.\n\nHe told me that early rising had been his habit during his residence at\nLeeds, and was so still; that demands on his time, from forenoon to\nnight, were such at Leeds as would have prevented all literary work, had\nhe not secured hours for study before breakfast.  Then it was he wrote\nhis books.  He worked hard all day when vicar, and adopted unusual\nmethods of usefulness, holding something like Methodist class-meetings,\nwhich took strong hold on his Yorkshire parishioners.  Familiar\ndevotional gatherings he kept up at Chichester; and a poor old woman was\nso delighted with them, that, by an odd association of ideas, she\ncompared them to feasting on \u201clamb and salad.\u201d  These meetings he would\nhumorously call by that name.  I had a good deal of talk with my kind\nhostess about clerical incomes, and the demands made on them; and so I\nbecame disabused of false notions common amongst outsiders.  From what I\nheard of large outgoings, payments on promotion, and so on, I am able to\nform a more correct estimate of pecuniary affairs in the Establishment,\nthan I could before.\n\nConsiderable correspondence passed between us.  A friendly intercourse\nwas also maintained by subsequent visits.  In a letter dated June 4th,\n1867, he says:\u2014\n\n    \u201cI like a companion who will look out for points of agreement, and\n    then coze upon them.  I never court the society of those who love an\n    argument, and look out for topics on which we disagree.  You will,\n    perhaps, infer from this, that I want vigour of mind; but I really\n    believe that many minds are drawn out and strengthened by cozing\n    instead of arguing, and I am sure that this conduces to brotherly\n    affection.  My wife and I after many years of hard work\u2014and what is\n    worse than work, worry\u2014came here to retire from the world.  We see\n    little of general society, and confine ourselves to pleasant cozy\n    intercourse, with our large and united family, and old friends.  We\n    cannot, therefore, offer you any gaiety when you come amongst us, but\n    if you take us as we are, we shall hope to have some pleasant cozes.\u201d\n\nIn a letter, dated March 1868, he remarks:\n\n    \u201cIn the Peninsular War the pickets of the two armies were accustomed\n    often to meet on the most friendly terms, and enjoy each other\u2019s\n    conversation.  But when the trumpet sounded each man was at his post,\n    ready to do his duty.  So it is with us.  I have always acted on this\n    principle of refusing to admit the assertion, that our differences\n    are on nonessentials\u2014and of offering, nevertheless, the right hand of\n    friendship in private to those whom in public I might oppose, or\n    rather by whom I was myself opposed.  I was freely censured at one\n    time for this; but when I left Leeds my Nonconformist friends rallied\n    round me to bid me farewell, and several of them saw I had pursued\n    the right course.\u201d\n\n    \u201cThe great thing which you and I have to do is to guard against the\n    deadly sin of too many of our contemporaries\u2014imputing motives.  If we\n    can discover a good motive, we may rejoice, even though we condemn\n    the action to which it may have led.  But no words can express, or\n    thought conceive, the indignation I experience, when men seek to\n    attribute good actions to bad motives.\u201d\n\nThe Dean was not one of your modern correspondents.  The last of these\nextracts is from a letter on quarto sheets, which covers _sixteen_\nclosely written pages.\n\nDr. Hook was a delightful talker, English to the backbone\u2014\u201ca thorough\nJohn Bull,\u201d as an Oxford don once said to me.  There was a strong dash of\nhumour in his constitution, and he was ready to tell amusing anecdotes of\nhimself.  He was no ritualist, no Puritan, certainly no Erastian; but a\ngodly, warm-hearted, Christian man, whom it was a privilege to know.\n\nDuring visits to Chichester I became acquainted with one of the canons,\nDr. Swainson, then Norrisian Professor at Cambridge, afterwards Master of\nChrist\u2019s College in that University.  He rendered me essential service\nwhilst I was writing my volumes on \u201cThe Church of the Restoration.\u201d  Some\nof the books and MSS. in the library of the cathedral were of great use;\nand when I visited him afterwards at Cambridge he rendered me further\nvaluable aid.  I had the pleasure of meeting some Cambridge dons at his\ndinner table, and I remember being interested and instructed by a long\nconversation on the rendering of names given in our version of the Bible\nto ancient instruments of music.  In 1869 I was present at the\nannouncement of wranglers for that year.  I stood side by side with my\nfriend in the gallery, close to the gentleman who held in his hand a\npaper big with the fates of university competitors.  It was a dark\nmorning, and at eight o\u2019clock, amidst breathless silence, the personal\nsecrets so many waited to learn, were publicly proclaimed.  It was a\ngrand piece of living mosaic which lay before me, as upturned eager\ncountenances were fixed on the spot where I was standing; and the\nannouncement of the new senior wrangler raised applause which seemed\nenough to lift the roof.\n\nMy friendly relations with Dr. Swainson continued through after-years;\nand his laborious investigations into Church creeds were frequent topics\nin our conversation.  His inquiries into the date of the Utrecht MS.\ncontaining the \u201cQuicunque vult,\u201d etc., were extraordinarily extensive,\nminute, and careful, as I can bear testimony from repeated accounts he\ngave of Continental journeys and inquiries.  I apprehend that nobody ever\nspent so much time and labour on the inquiry, as he did; therefore his\nconclusions ought to carry much weight in the settlement of a controversy\ntouching historical theology, as well as an arch\u00e6ological question.\n\nOn the occasion of my visit to Cambridge I went to see my friend, Mr.\nFordham of Melbourne, who possessed a valuable collection of paintings;\nand I mention him here, for the sake of what he related respecting Lord\nBeaconsfield, who had been a schoolfellow with Mr. Fordham\u2019s\nbrother-in-law, the Right Honourable Russell Gurney, Recorder of London.\n\nThey were educated at an academy in Walthamstow, kept by Mr. Cogan, a\nPresbyterian minister, whose son I knew well.  Young Dizzy, as people\ncalled the politician, was famous at school for two things.  He delighted\nin forming parties and getting up cabals\u2014there was an embryo politician;\nnext he excelled in telling stories, and would keep the boys awake at\nnight by his romantic inventions\u2014there was an embryo novelist.  He had\nearly dreams of future greatness, I think; and my friend informed me that\nhe had talked to his schoolmates of being one day Prime Minister of\nEngland.\n\nIn the winter of 1867\u201368, Dr. Alford, Dean of Canterbury, delivered and\nprinted a lecture on \u201cThe Christian Conscience,\u201d which was followed up,\nin _The Contemporary_ by an article expressive of kindly feelings towards\nNonconformists, and a desire for more friendly intercourse with them.  I\nfelt it a duty to respond to this overture, and did so, both privately\nand publicly.  This prepared for a friendship which I highly valued.\nAbout the same time, Archdeacon Sandford, father of the Bishop of\nGibraltar, made a move in the same direction.  I spoke to brethren in\nsympathy with myself, as regards union, and we thought of inviting a few\nclergymen to meet us\u2014when, on my acquainting Dean Stanley with what we\nhad in our minds, he expressed a wish to take the lead by getting several\nfriends on both sides to dine with him at Westminster.  Accordingly Dean\nAlford, Archdeacon Sandford, Prebendary Humphreys, and other clergymen,\nmet my friends Binney, Allon, and others, at our good friend\u2019s hospitable\nboard; and the party proved most agreeable.  Other gatherings of the same\nkind followed, and at Fairlawn, where I lived, a long conversation took\nplace, when, in addition to those just mentioned, Lord Ebury, Henry\nWinterbotham, M.P., Dr. Angus, Dr. Rigg, Dr. Roberts, and my intimate\nfriend, Joshua Harrison, interchanged views in reference to Catholic\nintercourse.  Dr. Alford, the Dean of Canterbury, afterwards invited Mr.\nBinney and myself to one of his garden parties, and soon afterwards he\npresided at the Cheshunt College Anniversary, when he uttered sentiments\nwhich were followed by a pleasant response from ministers of different\ndenominations.  On another occasion he met the Professors of New College,\nby invitation from the Coward Trustees; thus, and in other and similar\nways, brotherly intercourse was considerably advanced.\n\nIf I may be permitted to trespass a little on what was at the time in\nfuturity, I will, for the sake of preserving connection between incidents\nat that period, mention other circumstances which brought together, in a\nfriendly way, members of different religious bodies.  The first was of no\ngreat importance.  I think it was in 1870, the Archbishop of Syra visited\nEngland, and made some little stir.  Dr. Stanley entertained him in the\nJerusalem Chamber, and invited a larger party to meet him afterwards.\nThe host was not likely to lose such an opportunity for bringing together\npeople of different opinions.  Several were introduced to this stranger,\nwho occupied during his visit, perhaps, a position above his usual one.\nThe simple fact of this introduction was magnified, by newspapers, even\nthe _Times_, into a sort of submission to Greek Archiepiscopal\nsuperiority; for the few whose names were mentioned were represented as\nreceiving his formal benediction, and I wrote to explain the nature of\nthe interview, which really amounted to nothing more than a respectful\nbow on the part of an Englishman to a foreigner, and the return on the\nforeigner\u2019s part of an accustomed Greek salutation.  The intended effect\nof private civil reciprocities is often spoiled, by attributing to them\nmeanings never intended and utterly absurd.  Reports of them in quite a\nridiculous way get into newspapers.\n\nIt was owing to the circumstance of my being \u201ccapped\u201d in Edinburgh at the\nsame time with Matthew Arnold, that I became acquainted with that\nremarkable man.  He was by no means popular with Dissenters, owing to\nwhat, in some of his books, he said with reference to them.  They\nappreciated his ability, but censured the spirit which appeared in some\nof his criticisms.  My acquaintance with him convinced me that in some\nrespects he was misjudged.  When I came to know him pretty well, I\nplayfully referred to some things he had written, which stung people whom\nI knew.  \u201cBut I am not such a bad fellow,\u201d he rejoined, \u201cas Dissenters\nthink.\u201d  \u201cNo,\u201d I replied, \u201cbut Dissenters look at you through your books;\nI look at your books through you\u2014and that makes a great difference.\u201d  I\nalways found him kind, gentle, tender-hearted.  He sympathised with me in\ndomestic sorrows, and was pleased with some things I had written.\n\nThe publication of \u201cEcclesia,\u201d a volume by Dissenters, about the same\ntime that another volume appeared written by Churchmen, was the means of\nbringing the editors and writers of the two works together at the house\nof a common friend, the Rev. H. S. Toms of Enfield.  The Rev. W. D.\nMaclagan, editor of \u201cThe Church and the Age\u201d\u2014incumbent of a neighbouring\nparish (afterwards Vicar of Kensington, then Bishop of Lichfield\n{176a})\u2014and Dr. Reynolds, of Cheshunt College, were present.  Each editor\nproposed success to his brother editor on the other side.\n\nThis was an instance of mutual recognition and charity, worthy of being\nknown; standing out, as it does, in pleasant contrast with bitter ways in\nwhich ecclesiastical controversies have been too often waged.  Nor did\nthat single interview end the intercourse thus begun, as I have had a few\nopportunities since of kindly intercourse with Dr. Maclagan, both as\nKensington Vicar, and as a distinguished Bishop, earnestly doing his\nEpiscopal work.\n\nAnother event occurred about the same time, in favour of union.  The\nquestion of Bible Revision ripened to a practical issue in 1870. {176b}\nA committee was formed by Convocation to carry out the project, and I had\nthe privilege of being present during a part of the discussion.  I heard\nthe Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Alford, make an eloquent speech in favour of\nthe design he had done so much to initiate, and for the accomplishment of\nwhich he laboured to the last.  That speech was pronounced by some\nmembers as the most effective he ever delivered.  In the evening of the\nsame day, I came across Archdeacon Denison, at a clerical meeting, to\nwhich I was invited by an old Kensington neighbour, the Rev. J. E. Kempe,\nRector of St. James\u2019, Piccadilly.  There is nothing like private chat\nwith men of pronounced opinions, who in public are accustomed to speak\nwith vehemence.  Judging from newspapers, one regards them as repulsive,\nwhereas a little _t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate_ in a quiet corner, makes a marvellously\ndifferent impression.  It was so in this instance, and the fiery\nArchdeacon, as I had thought him, proved a genial, humorous old\nclergyman, joking me on misconceptions of character formed by reading\noutside critics.\n\nI must say, after all his antecedents, I found him a thoroughly hearty\nand kindly disposed Englishman and Christian.  \u201cThe Revision,\u201d had a\npowerful and permanent effect in the relations of several distinguished\nChurchmen and Nonconformists.  Some of my scholarly brethren, I need\nscarcely say, were chosen on the committee, and nothing could be more\nharmonious than their co-operation on both sides.  Having enjoyed the\nfriendship of some, and the acquaintance of more, I can testify to their\nmutual regard and affection.  Some High Churchmen\u2014as I know from having\nseen notes in their handwriting\u2014expressed thankfulness to Almighty God\nfor having brought them into this new relationship.  It evidently removed\nprejudices, and inspired a feeling of religious oneness, where there had\nbeen before estrangement, if not alienation.  At the same time Dissenting\nscholarship rose in estimation; and I found from conversation, that\nChurchmen held their fellow-revisers in high respect as critical students\nof the sacred volume.  Some betrayed their possession of an idea, that\nNonconformist learning in our day had risen far above what it was of old;\nan idea I endeavoured to correct, by maintaining that, whilst there has\nbeen a wider _diffusion_ of knowledge amongst our ministers, it may be\nquestioned whether the attainments of living men amongst us have not been\nexceeded by those of a past generation.  Distinguished Hebrew scholars,\nsuch as Drs. Boothroyd, Pye-Smith, and Henderson, famous in the early\nyears of the century, are dropping out of notice in the present day.\n\nSocial intercourse went on between the revisers and their friends.\nReunions were held at New College, and Regent\u2019s Park College, and also in\nprivate residences.\n\nAn attempt on a bolder line to promote Christian union, came into\nprominence about the time now under review.  I allude to a proposal for\nwhat has been called an \u201cinterchange of pulpits,\u201d\u2014more properly an\ninterchange of preaching officers.  A hundred years ago it was not\naltogether uncommon for Incumbents of the Establishment to preach in\nDissenting chapels, especially those of the Countess of Huntingdon\u2019s\nConnexion; in a few instances a Nonconformist occupied a parish church\npulpit.  Such irregularities died out early in this century.  But twenty\nyears since there appeared a willingness on the part of several clergymen\nto revive the practice.  Conferences were held with reference to the\nsubject, and discussions occurred as to what measures should be taken to\nsecure legally, what seemed desirable to many.  The Right Honourable\nCowper Temple, afterwards Lord Mount Temple (now deceased), took an\ninterest in the matter, and prepared a Bill to remove legal impediments\nout of the way.  He sent me the following note:\u2014\n\n    \u201cMy desire is to give power to the Bishop and Incumbent to allow any\n    minister of any denomination, or any layman, to preach occasional\n    sermons without requiring the person who preaches to do any of the\n    things required of a Priest or Deacon.\n\n    \u201cI shall not touch the Act of Uniformity, but provide for a case\n    which is not included in its provisions\u2014that of preaching sermons\n    which are not part of the daily Church Service, though they may be\n    delivered at the same time.  All that is wanted is the admission that\n    preaching in a church belonging to the Establishment is not\n    exclusively a function of the Established Church.\u201d\n\nI insert a copy of the Bill which he sent me.\n\n                                   \u201cA BILL\n\n    \u201cTo enable Incumbents of Parishes, with the approval and consent of\n    the Archbishop or Bishop of the Diocese, to admit to the Pulpits of\n    their Parish Churches persons not in Holy Orders of the Church of\n    England, for the purpose of delivering occasional Sermons or\n    Lectures.\n\n    \u201cWhereas it is expedient that facilities should be given for the\n    occasional delivery of Sermons in Churches of the Church of England\n    by persons not in Holy Orders of the Church of England.\n\n    \u201cMay it therefore please Your Majesty,\n\n    \u201cThat it may be enacted, by the Queen\u2019s Most Excellent Majesty, by\n    and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,\n    and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the\n    authority of the same, as follows (that is to say):\u2014\n\n    \u201c1.  It shall be lawful for the Bishop of any Diocese in England, on\n    the application of the Incumbent or Officiating Minister of any\n    Church or Chapel belonging to the Church of England within his\n    Diocese, or for the Ordinary of any Collegiate Church or Chapel, to\n    grant, if he shall think fit, permission under his hand to any\n    person, although he is not in Holy Orders and has not made or\n    subscribed a Declaration of Assent in the terms set forth in \u2018The\n    Clerical Subscription Act, 1865,\u2019 to preach occasional Sermons or\n    Lectures in such Church or Chapel; and thereupon it shall be lawful\n    for the person mentioned in such permission, on the invitation of the\n    Incumbent or Officiating Minister, to preach an occasional Sermon or\n    Lecture in such Church or Chapel without making any subscription or\n    declaration before preaching.\n\n    \u201c2.  The preaching of an occasional Sermon or Lecture, in pursuance\n    of this Act, may take place in any Church or Chapel either, after any\n    of the Services in the Book of Common Prayer, or at a time when no\n    Service is used, as may seem best to the Incumbent or Officiating\n    Minister of such Church or Chapel.\u201d\n\nThis Bill did not propose liberty for an Episcopalian incumbent to preach\nin a Nonconformist edifice\u2014that object could be sought afterwards\u2014and the\nlimited freedom contemplated by the proposed measure failed to receive\nparliamentary support.  The fact was, Members of Parliament, who were\nDissenters, did not take up the question with any zeal, and some were\ndecidedly against the proposal.  They felt no more desire to see\nNonconformists in Church pulpits than the Established clergy and laity\ndid; though, of course, they took a different ground of objection.  Lines\nof division remained strongly marked, and those who aimed at\nDisestablishment were bent on a more sweeping change.  The time had not\nbecome ripe even for so small an alteration, and as there seemed no great\nwillingness in any party to promote the proposal, it came to an\nunfortunate end.  All kinds of means for promoting union have been\nsuggested, and I have supported some very earnestly; but, in my old age,\nI am persuaded there is truth in the remark: \u201cThe more we grow in\nknowledge and advance in love, the more we should strive to preserve that\nsimplicity, which is so peculiarly the characteristic of the Gospel, and\nthe more we should guard against _the uncharitableness of supposing that\nevery other view_, _except our own_, _must be useless or erroneous_.\u201d\n{183}\n\nThe year 1871 was marked by an educational measure, opening Oxford to all\ndenominations more fully than it had been.  The Bill met with opposition\nfrom the Marquis of Salisbury and his friends.  Some time before I had\nbeen requested by Lord Ebury to draw up for the Ritual Commission an\naccount of Nonconformist modes of communion.  The account is printed in\nthe Report for 1870 (p. 139).  Now I received a note from the Marquis,\nwho had obtained a committee for collecting information, asking me to\ngive evidence with regard to matters referred to them.  Accordingly I\nattended.  After listening to what Dr. Jowett, Master of Balliol, had to\nsay, I took my seat, to answer their Lordships\u2019 queries. {184}  I had\nlooked forward to examination as somewhat formidable, but found it far\notherwise.  It turned out to be a pleasant conversation.\n\nWhen the Bill came under discussion in the House of Lords, I felt an\ninterest in the debate, and consequently attended as a listener.  After\nLord Carnarvon had spoken, he stepped over to the spot where I stood,\nsaying that his desire had been not to say anything discourteous to\nDissenters.  I received from him afterwards a note, written in the same\nspirit, and expressing a desire for the maintenance of friendly\nrelations.  About the same time it happened that a course of lectures was\ngiven on \u201cChristian Evidences,\u201d in which bishops and other clergymen took\npart with Dissenting ministers.\n\nThe British and Foreign Bible Society is a bond of social, as well as\nreligious, union.  A dinner at Mr. George Moore\u2019s house, Palace Gardens,\nwas, at that time, an annual institution, and after the Exeter Hall\nmeeting in May, the committee, speakers, and other friends, met under his\nhospitable roof.  The host appeared at his very best, frank, generous,\nand kind\u2014no affectation, no assumption; only a rich vein of English\ngeniality.  On his right hand at such occasions, usually sat Lord\nShaftesbury, on the left perhaps the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Without\nflattery, but in homely ways of recognising service, the master of the\ntable would call up one after another of his guests, and after we left\nthe dining-room, we had family prayer together, a bishop and a Dissenter\ntaking part in conducting the worship.\n\nIn 1871 the Dean of Canterbury was suddenly taken to his rest.  The\ntidings gave great sorrow; and I felt it was due to his memory that some\nDissenting brethren should attend the funeral.  Harrison, Baldwin Brown,\nNewman Hall, and others did so; I was invited by the family to be one of\nthe pall bearers.  Dr. Stanley, Dr. Merivale, Dean of Ely, and others,\nmet in the good man\u2019s library, where his picture of St. Michael\u2019s\nMount,\u2014on which he had spent some of his last hours\u2014stood upon the easel,\nand Walton\u2019s Polyglot lay open at the Book of Exodus, where Dr. Alford\nhad been reading just before his death.  Slowly and sadly we walked into\nthe cloisters, where places were assigned us, and the procession moved\ninto the cathedral.  There Mrs. Alford, with wonderful composure, joined\nin the solemn service.  Shops were shut, and the streets lined with\npeople, as we were conveyed to St. Martin\u2019s Churchyard, where we joined\nin singing one of his hymns, \u201cTen thousand times ten thousand,\u201d etc.  He\nhad expressed a wish to be interred there, and wrote the following\nmemorandum: \u201cWhen I am gone, and a tomb is to be put up, let there be,\nbesides any indication of who is sleeping below, these words only:\n_Deversorium viatoris Hierosolymam proficiscentis_\u2014_i.e._, the inn of a\ntraveller who is on his way to Jerusalem.\u201d\n\nIn a letter which I received from Canon Robertson, he said, in reference\nto this inscription: \u201cPerhaps Mr. Bullock may be able to tell you, that\nsome one has discovered the source of the words engraved at the bottom of\nthe tombstone.  My own inquiries have been fruitless.\u201d  I have not been\nable to ascertain their origin.\n\nA committee was formed to raise some testimonial to the Dean\u2019s worth, and\nthey invited me to join them.  They acted in correspondence with the\nChapter, and it was determined that a painted window should be placed in\nthe cathedral, and that it should contain symbols of the evangelists, and\nthe scenes of our Lord\u2019s Temptation, in the larger circles; whilst the\nfour smaller ones around, were to contain subjects showing that He\nexercised miraculous power of the same kinds, in which He refused to\nexert it, at the Tempter\u2019s suggestion.\n\nIn the following year I lost a valued friend, member of our Kensington\nchurch, Sir Donald F. Macleod, C.B., K.C.S.I.  He had occupied the\nposition of Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub, and met his death from a\nrailway accident in December, 1872.  He possessed a rare gift for putting\nhimself into kindly fellowship with those he ruled, whether rich or poor,\nentering into their feelings and cultivating their regard so that he\nacquired a widespread influence in the Indian province, which might be\ncalled the country of his adoption.  All the people loved him as a friend\nand father; hence it was said, that if the natives had to choose a\nprince, he would be their choice.  In a leading journal, the remark of an\nIndian gentleman was preserved to the effect, that, \u201cIf all Christians\nwere like Sir Donald, there would be no Mahomedans or Hindoos.\u201d  His\nprivate life was of a piece with his public career.  He had the power of\nmaking numerous friendships through the happy blending of religion with\nan affectionate disposition.  \u201cWherever he went,\u201d said a relative, \u201chis\npresence was like sunshine, and the sunshine was the reflection of\nanother presence, even of Him of whom it is said, \u2018In Thy presence is\nfulness of joy.\u2019\u201d  As he communed with us at Kensington, and was a\npersonal friend, I can bear testimony to his cheerful manners in company.\nHis tall, commanding figure attracted attention, and his calm, pleasant\nutterances won all hearts, especially those of the young, who would\ngather round him, attracted by the magic of his sympathy.  This Indian\ngentleman visited the Cripples\u2019 Home; this Oriental scholar addressed a\nclass in the East of London; this ruler, who might have died a rich\nnabob, gave away the surplus of his income in acts of charity.\n\nIn 1872 an incident occurred of an amusing description, which, as it has\nsome significancy, is worthy of notice.  A paragraph appeared in a\nreligious newspaper to the following effect: \u201cThe Revs. Dr. Binney, Dr.\nAllon, and Dr. Stoughton have been, it seems, presented to His Grace the\nArchbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, by that consistent advocate\nof comprehension, Dr. Stanley, Dean of Westminster.  It remains to be\nseen whether the Archbishop will invite either of the Doctors to preach\nin any of the Metropolitan churches, if not in the Abbey, or in the\nCathedral.  The Act of Uniformity will have to be repealed.\u201d  If anybody\nwho read this announcement had been acquainted with the circumstances, he\nwould have seen its absurdity.  The visit arose from an informal\ninvitation to a party at Lambeth\u2014from Dr. Tait, who was well acquainted\nwith all the three persons.  They needed no \u201cpresentation,\u201d such as the\nnewspaper imagined.  It is a curious fact, that, while some people\ncomplain of Dissenters being ignored or repulsed by the upper classes,\nwhen, instead of it, there is friendly recognition, the complainants\nimagine that, if the two classes do meet, there must be obsequiousness on\nthe one side, and patronage on the other.  It is supposed an impossible\nthing, for a Dignitary and a Dissenter to meet as gentlemen, without any\nprofessional design; on the occasion referred to, ecclesiastical objects\nno more entered the head of the host, as he welcomed us with cordiality,\nthan it entered the heads of his guests.  It was an affair of social\ncourtesy, in which politeness on the one side, I hope, was returned on\nthe other.  By the way, at a Lambeth reception, after mingling with\nfriends whom I had known for some years, I heard Mr. Binney say to Bishop\nWilberforce: \u201cAre you not surprised to see us here?\u201d\n\n\u201cSurprised!  Why, if you were not here, who should be here?\u201d\n\nThis rejoinder puzzled my friend, when I ventured to add, \u201cI understand\nyour compliment, my lord, but at least you will acknowledge, it is\nsomething new.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, not new,\u201d he rejoined, and laying his hand on my shoulder, proceeded\nto say, \u201cWhat is right is not new: is not righteousness as old as the\ncreation?\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you consider it is right for us to be here,\u201d I ventured to remark.\n\n\u201cCertainly; delighted to see you.\u201d\n\nSome one overhearing this colloquy, observed in a whisper, \u201cHe will talk\nin a different way in different company.\u201d  Possibly; but I believe there\nis force in what I have heard his friends say\u2014he was a man of many-sided\nsympathy, thoroughly good-natured, fond of approbation, wishing to stand\nwell with everybody, and for the moment _sincerely_ meaning what he said.\nBut he was changeful and inconsistent, saying one day, under an amiable\nimpulse, what it was difficult to reconcile with his conversation another\nday in different company.  I knew little of him personally as a man; but\nas a preacher, and author, I must say I have derived no small advantage\nfrom his sermons and addresses.\n\nFurther, in reference to Bishop Wilberforce, remarkable stories were\ncurrent showing what a marvellous gift of extemporary eloquence he\npossessed.  Archdeacon Sinclair told me that once the Bishop came to a\nmeeting of the National School Society, totally unprepared, and whispered\nto him: \u201cWhat points had I better take up?\u201d  The Archdeacon mentioned two\nor three.  Wilberforce a few minutes afterwards rose, and delivered a\nspeech on those very points, as if he had spent the morning in\npreparation.  Dean Stanley told me that when the Bishop held a\nconfirmation in the Abbey, he asked, as they walked together up the nave,\nwhether there was any particular subject he would like to have\nintroduced.  One was mentioned.  Forthwith the Bishop took it up in his\naddress to the confirmed, in a way which led his hearers to suppose he\nhad carefully prepared what he said.\n\nDr. Guthrie was one of the most genial men I ever knew; full of anecdote\nup to the brim.  Indeed his conversation almost entirely took that form,\nand his racy way of telling a story gave what he said an irresistible\ncharm.  He was far more catholic than many of his brethren, and though he\nhad respect for his ecclesiastical party, his sympathies went far beyond\nhis own circle; and with reference to the Established Church of Scotland,\nthough himself a _Free_ Churchman, he cherished no animosity, and was not\n_indisposed_ to preach occasionally in the old parish pulpits.  His\nattachment to Evangelical truth was very strong, and for any deviations\nfrom it he would listen to no excuse.  He visited some of my people at\nKensington, and that brought me frequently into his society.  How he used\nto talk of his visits to Mr. Disraeli and the Countess of Beaconsfield,\nof the wedding of the Marquis of Lorne, when he escorted the children of\nthe family to Windsor Castle, and was especially noticed by Her Majesty,\nand was addressed as \u201cMy Lord\u201d by somebody who thought him a bishop; and\nof a dinner-party at Argyle Lodge, when he met Mr. Bright, and could\nhardly get in a word himself, because the great orator would talk so\nmuch!  The last time I saw him was at breakfast with me at my house, when\nI think he was more brilliant and merry than usual.  He knew I was\nentertaining thoughts of retirement, and he strongly urged me to\nrelinquish pastoral duties and become an occasional preacher.  Moreover\nhe said, \u201cIt is better to be too early than too late in this respect.\n\u2018Why do you give up so soon?\u2019 one of Her Majesty\u2019s Ministers once asked\nme; \u2018you have all your wits about you.\u2019  \u2018Yes,\u2019 I replied, \u2018and if I were\nto wait, as some do, till my wits are gone, I should never give up at\nall.\u2019\u201d\n\nAn important crisis in the summer of 1872, had occurred in the history of\nNew College.  Dr. Halley from age and infirmities, retired from the\nprincipalship.  Dr. Newth was chosen successor, and to fill up the chair,\nleft vacant by my old friend and tutor, the services of three London\nministers were called into requisition.  Mr. Binney undertook the\nHomiletic Class, Dr. Kennedy became Theological Professor in the\ndepartment of Apologetics, and I was invited to conduct instruction in\nHistorical Theology.  My hands were pretty full, but this was an\nengagement congenial to my taste, and for which I felt I was better\nqualified than I had been at the time when an invitation was given me to\naccept the office of principal. {193}\n\nThe question of my retirement from the pastorate occupied my thoughts at\na later period, and I indicated this in a communication to the Church\nthrough my deacons.  That communication was met by a warm and earnest\nrequest that I would continue at Kensington Chapel a little while longer.\nI consented to tarry till the end of two years.\n\nAbout the time just noticed, education in reference to public schools\nassisted by Government grants was keenly discussed.  Those amongst\nNonconformists who were disposed to accept State aid in support of\nschools in which religion was taught were regarded as acting\ninconsistently with their principles in opposition to State endowment of\nChristianity.  Into that question it is unnecessary to enter here, but I\nrepeat what I urged at the time referred to, that Government aid and\nGovernment inspection were co-extensive; that if Government assisted a\nschool, and inquired _exclusively_ into the _secular_ instruction of\npupils, the aid bestowed was to be regarded as in aid of that alone.  The\nseparation in a school of religious from secular instruction, appeared to\nme inconsistent with our duty _as Christians_.  In guiding the intellect\nof the young, an infusion of Gospel truth is, I believe, of essential\nimportance.  A declaration to the effect that the Bible should be used in\npublic schools was signed by several hundred Christian ministers, and in\nthat declaration I most cordially joined.  The severance of revelation\nfrom other fundamental grounds of youthful knowledge was, in my\nestimation, very mischievous.\n\nMr. Forster was condemned severely by a large number of Dissenters as\nbeing opposed to the interests of Nonconformity.  I have good reason for\nbelieving that he wished to deal fairly between Church and Dissent.  The\nopinions of all parties had to be consulted, and it was no easy thing for\nany man in his place to give universal satisfaction.  I conversed with\nhim at the time on the subject of his measure, and am persuaded he was\nhonest throughout the whole business.  When the strongest feeling against\nhim existed, I know, from what he said to me, that he gave full credit to\nhis opponents for good intentions.  Of some friends we both knew, who\ndiffered from him widely, he spoke in the kindest terms.  When he was\nregarded as an enemy by some Nonconformists, I was informed he attended a\nNonconformist chapel in the country during a summer holiday; and I know\nhe helped the pastor by pecuniary assistance,\u2014that very pastor being my\ninformant.  Mr. Forster never lost sympathy with Quakerism.  Our common\nfriend, Mr. Braithwaite, a well-known member of that denomination, spoke\nat his funeral; and an eminent Baptist minister told me of his pleasant\nvisits to Mr. Forster\u2019s residence.\n\nMatthew Arnold proposed my name for election to the Athen\u00e6um Club.  The\nusual mode is vote by ballot, which, on account of the number of\ncandidates, occasions delay for many years.  But the committee have power\nto choose annually nine members by special vote.  I did not know fully\nuntil the secretary wrote to me, that I had been so elected\u2014an honour to\nwhich I felt myself by no means entitled.  The influence of Dr. Stanley,\nMr. Matthew Arnold, and other kind friends, secured for me this great\nprivilege, which has been a source of literary advantage and pleasure to\nme ever since.  And I may here mention, from what occurred in the\nproceedings of the committee, as I was told, Nonconformity was, in my\ncase, rather a help than hindrance; as the club, in a catholic spirit,\ndesires to have representatives of different classes and opinions\nincluded on its rolls.  On the same principle not long afterwards Dr.\nMartineau was introduced to the Athen\u00e6um.\n\nI was surprised a few weeks after my election to receive an invitation to\nthe Academy dinner, and was pleased to learn from one of the Academicians\nthat this compliment, as well as the preceding, arose from the same\nspirit of catholic sociality.  Nothing but presence at one of these\nbanquets can give an adequate idea of their remarkable magnificence.  A\nsudden burst of light, just before speeches commence, has a magical\neffect.  Mr. Disraeli, then Prime Minister, delivered a highly finished\noration, after sitting silent and sphinx-like for an hour before.\n\nAt an early part of the period to which this chapter belongs, the famous\nvolume entitled \u201cEcce Homo\u201d was published.  It excited much controversy.\nI read it with interest and attention.  It has long been my habit, in\nperusing works unfavourable to orthodoxy, to search in them for admitted\nprinciples which, by a fair application, may be employed in support of\ntruths to which the author is regarded as being opposed.  In the work\njust mentioned there is a chapter on what is called \u201cChrist\u2019s Royalty!\u201d\n{197}  Christ is represented as having established in the world a new\ntheocracy in describing Himself as King of the kingdom of God; in other\nwords, as a King representing the Majesty of the Invisible Ruler of a\ntheocracy.  He claimed the character of Founder, of Legislator, and, in a\ncertain high and peculiar sense, \u201cof Judge of a new and Divine society.\u201d\nWhatever might be the views of the writer with regard to the nature of\nJesus Christ, such a position as he reached, seems to me to involve\nChrist\u2019s true and proper Divinity.  In other words, it is tantamount to\nsaying that \u201cJesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.\u201d\n\nI remember that at the time, whatever might be the tendency of the work\non the whole, I thought there were in it admissions of such a nature as\nto afford a basis for convincing arguments in favour of Evangelical\nChristianity.\n\nOne evening, at that time, I met Lord Shaftesbury at a friend\u2019s house,\nand had a conversation with him on the subject of the book.  It is well\nknown that, with the impetuosity which was so natural to that great and\ngood man, he was swept along by a hurricane of indignation, which led him\nto pronounce \u201cEcce Homo\u201d a work of most pernicious tendency.  Of Lord\nShaftesbury it might be said that he was like a cloud which moveth\naltogether, if it move at all.  He could do or say nothing by halves; and\nhowever minds of a different order might judge of his acts and\nutterances, there can be no doubt that by the enthusiasm of his advocacy\nhe carried beneficial measures which otherwise might not have succeeded.\nWhen I was talking with him after the manner just indicated and pointing\nout arguments which I conceived might be constructed out of some of the\nwriter\u2019s admissions, he was evidently very restless, and expressed his\nstrong conviction, that the book deserved to be strongly reprehended, in\norder to warn people against being led away by its contents.  In the\ncourse of conversation he manifested, that he had not read what he so\nseverely condemned.  This habit of condemning books without reading them,\nit is to be feared, is too common in the present day.\n\nHere let me add Lord Shaftesbury\u2019s manner was not always the same.  At\ntimes he was gentle and exceedingly affable, of which I remember an\namusing instance.  We were travelling together from Peterborough, after a\njubilee meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society in that city.\nHe was speaking of the profound ignorance of the upper classes respecting\nthe character and habits of Nonconformists; and I ventured to relate to\nhim, in illustration of what he had said himself, a story which I had\nheard respecting his father, who was Chairman of the Committee of the\nHouse of Lords.  A solicitor waited upon him to confer respecting a Bill,\nwhich was coming before the Upper House, in reference to matters which\naffected the rights of Dissenters.  The old Earl said to this gentleman,\n\u201cI hear a good deal about these Dissenters, and some things very strange.\nI have been told they are people _who go about without clothes_.\u201d  The\nEarl laughed, and said, such a thing as I related was just like him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n1873\n\n\nTHE sixth General Meeting of the Evangelical Alliance had been fixed for\nthe year 1870, in New York; but, owing to the war between France and\nGermany, it was postponed to the autumn of 1873.  Canon Leathes, Mr.\nHarrison, and myself, received invitations from the American committee,\nto attend the assembly; and, accordingly, we started for our destination\nin one of the Cunard steamers at the close of the month of August.  With\nthe exception of rough weather in the earlier part, we had a fine\npassage.  Going out we touched on the Irish coast, and, it being Sunday,\nwe landed and spent the day on shore.  We were on the coast of Waterford,\nand found the country very pleasant.  We attended church in the forenoon,\nand afterwards took walks in the neighbourhood.  I had spent a week or\nmore in Ireland some few years previously, and had then seen spots in the\nGreen Isle, which created a desire to see more.  The city of Limerick on\nthe Shannon had given me delight.  Dublin is a magnificent city, and the\nobject of my visit there had been to preach on a special occasion in Dr.\nUrwick\u2019s church.  I saw at that time something of Irish society, and\nfound controversy rife between Protestants and Papists.  I took an\nopportunity of visiting the Killarney lakes, and found them all, and more\nthan, I had imagined.  Nor could I fail to be amused with the humour of\ncarriage-drivers and other Irish people.  Returning to our steamer on\nSunday afternoon, we started for New York, and had, in the course of our\nvoyage, rough weather and smooth.  For some-time it was\nunfavourable\u2014\u201cfour-fifths of a gale\u201d somebody said; but in the latter\npart of our trip we had charming weather.  Where the whistle at night had\nsounded like a wail of distress, it was now felt to be means of safety.\nFlag signals and rockets now and then relieved the tedium; so did the\ngambols of porpoises.  Moonbeams in a mottled sky, were pleasant\nvariations, as we steamed along at a rapid rate.  The night before we\nlanded in New York harbour, the sun went down like a ball of fire, the\nsea was intensely blue, whilst alive with little billows, like children\nat their sports; the bow of the steamer was crowded by passengers looking\nout for the pilot\u2013a capital subject, I thought, for some clever pencil.\nThe next morning when we reached Sandy Hook, I could not help comparing\nthe coast scenery near us with some views I had seen on the Bosphorus.\n\n\u201cFor the _first_ time I am in America,\u201d I said to a Yankee\nfellow-passenger.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d he replied; \u201cyou are now, sir, in the land of the brave, the home\nof the free.\u201d\n\nMr. Harrison and myself were guests of the Hon. Mr. Dodge, President of\nthe American Evangelical Alliance.  On our arrival he conducted us to his\ncountry seat on the banks of the Hudson, near Tarryton.\n\nWe were in the midst of charming scenery, immortalised by Washington\nIrving; near the glen of \u201cSleepy Hollow,\u201d and the haunts of Ichabod\nCrane.  By the little Dutch church in the neighbourhood lies a cemetery,\nwhere \u201cthe American Goldsmith\u201d is buried.\n\nWe were driven to Sunnyside, where he lived and died, in an old-fashioned\nDutch-looking house, with picturesque gables, bearing a\nseventeenth-century date.  It is embosomed amidst trees which so\novershadow the lawn and walks, that \u201cSunnyside,\u201d even when unclouded, can\nsuffer nothing from the blaze of day.  Miss Irving, niece of the author,\nand a friend of our host, welcomed us to this sylvan abode, and showed us\nher uncle\u2019s library, writing table, and shelves of books, just as he left\nthem.\n\nWe should have been glad to remain longer at Mr. Dodge\u2019s villa, but were\nanxious to reach Niagara, as soon as possible; therefore, on the second\nmorning after our arrival, Mr. Harrison, with Newman Hall, who had\naccompanied us to America, embarked on a steamer for the Catskills, on\nour way to the Falls.  We arrived at the Mountain House in the evening,\nhaving, in our river voyage, been struck with the Hudson, as resembling\nin some parts, a succession of lakes full of Italian-like beauty.  We\nspent a Sunday at our capacious resting-place, which could accommodate\nfour or five hundred visitors, and engaged in united worship with Bishop\nBedell, successor to Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio.  He preached in the\nmorning, and at his request, I occupied the desk at night.\n\nWe did not reach Niagara till late on Monday, and heard the roar of the\ncataract some time before our arrival.\n\nNiagara is a grand study, and we spent the greater part of four days over\nit\u2014the first in taking general views, the other three in gathering up\ndetails.  I sat down on the rocks, and wrote my impressions from point to\npoint.  From the suspension bridge, below the Falls, you have an inclined\nplane of troubled waters.  From the south side of Goat Island, you have a\nstill more striking view of the rapids, like an arm of the sea, two miles\nin width, and in front it dashes down the Horse Shoe Fall.  Just at the\nedge it is a ridge of emerald, tinged, or rather lined, with white.  Then\nit goes on in rows of streaks, white, white, white; at the bottom, the\nflood vanishes in vapour.  In the forenoon under sunshine the picture is\ncrossed by a rainbow.  Beyond the mist the river is a shifting floor of\nvariegated marble.  At a right angle with the Horse Shoe, the American\nFall is seen in profile, from what is called, I think, \u201cProspect Park.\u201d\nThe rapids below are finer than those above the Falls.  Those below are\nhemmed in by rocks; those above are bordered by open country on both\nsides.  Further on, below the Falls, there is an enormous whirlpool.\n\nInstead of a unity, I found Niagara manifold, varying as one wanders\nabout the banks.  The channel here is worthy of the stream.  It is cut\ninto precipitous cliffs, picturesque rocks, forests of trees, bridges,\nhotels and other houses.  In photographs and engravings, there is often\nbut a tame outline, with which the reality does not correspond.  Of the\nupper and lower Rapids, I prefer the former in one respect; it gives good\nviews of the foliage which fringes the water.  Emphatically, one may use\nthe word _beauty_ in reference to the landscape as distinguished from the\nRapids.  Colours are charming\u2014greens of all tints; at sunset streaks of\npink, violet, lavender, lilac, along the edge of the Falls; azure tints\nin the river; sky with crimson and purple flushes at eventide.\n\nAt the expense of repetition, I will quote the words I find in my\nnotebook written on a rocky bank:\u2014\u201cOpposite, looking west, is the Canada\nside, skirted by thick trees, forming a continuous border\u2014the Horse Shoe\nform of a rocky ledge, crossed by the sweep of water, would measure the\nthird of a mile.  It still resembles a ridge of emerald, tinged, or\nrather lined, with white.  Then the flood plunges down, to rise again\nfrom the bottom in columns of vapour.  In sunshine the whole is crossed\nby a wonderful rainbow.  Then, afterwards, it appeared to me like an\naltar of frosted silver, spanning the end of a temple choir, sending up\nincense for ever and ever!  Looking down into the precipitous gulf,\nformed by the Canadian and American shores, one sees the river flowing on\nsteadily like a shifting floor of variegated marble,\u2014green, streaked with\nwhite.  I shift my position, walking under the trees of Goat Island,\nabout a quarter of a mile from the Horse Shoe, and sit upon a bit of\ntableland, forming what is called Lunar Island,\u2014dividing into two unequal\nlimbs the watery flood.  At the bottom appears another rainbow.  I shift\nagain, walking up the Goat Island, and cross a bridge over Rapids, and\nthen enter the grounds called (as just said) Prospect Park; and there one\nfaces both cataracts\u2014the American in profile, the Horse Shoe full face.\u201d\n\nA suspension bridge crosses the whirling waters on which it makes one\ngiddy to look down.  Then occurs a turn, where a whirlpool is formed, and\npieces of timber are swept round and round by enormous eddies.  Four days\nI spent at these never-to-be-forgotten spots filled with marvels of\nDivine creation.\n\nMy visit to Montreal was very short, but we saw enough to indicate the\ncity\u2019s prosperity; it underwent great reverses afterwards.  We were\ninvited to the handsome dwellings of several wealthy citizens, and\nwitnessed much zeal in the cause of religion.\n\nOn our journey from Montreal to Boston we passed through glorious\nscenery, some of it Swiss-like.  There were many tempting nooks furnished\nwith hotels, winding roads leading up to forests on the hills, groups of\nwhite houses with green shutters, and a pretty church amidst them with a\nlofty spire.  There is a wonderful charm about New England villages.\n\nAt Boston a cordial welcome was afforded by Dr. Dexter, who hospitably\nentertained us.  My first impression, derived from what I saw of the\ncity\u2019s less modern part, was that it had an English look; but on further\nacquaintance, after seeing its modern edifices, one receives the idea of\na Continental capital.  I was delighted with what delights everybody\u2014the\nbroad green common, adorned by goodly trees and goodly mansions.  Some of\nthe public buildings in Boston are very imposing: a Gothic church, built\nby Congregationalists, cost, I was told, \u00a350,000; but since I was there I\nunderstand a much nobler Episcopalian edifice has been erected.  On the\nSunday morning I preached in a large Congregational church, where the\nmusic and singing were of a very superior kind, and the choir, I was\ntold, cost a large annual sum.  On the Sunday evening I went to a Baptist\nchapel, and, after sermon and prayers, a large number of the congregation\nadjourned to a schoolroom, where something like a Methodist love-feast\nwas held.  I met in the town with a nephew of Thomas Carlyle, who related\nto me that, while on a visit to England, he called on his uncle, and was\ntold it was impossible to see him; Mrs. C. resisted as long as she could,\nbut submitted at last.  The nephew was admitted to his uncle\u2019s study, and\nthe two relatives had a long talk to their mutual satisfaction.\n\nDr. Dexter planned an excursion to Andover, where we were received by the\nPrincipal of the College, the Venerable Dr. Park, a celebrated scholar\nand divine, who took me a drive round the neighbourhood, and pointed out\nthe house of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the homes of people described in\nher books.  We had a delightful visit to a ladies\u2019 school, where Mr.\nHarrison and I received a cordial welcome.  Our kind host took us to his\nresidence several miles off, at New Bedford, and the next day conducted\nus to Harvard University, on the other side the Boston river.  There we\nwere entertained by Professor Abbot, who took care to show us a hall,\nbuilt by a namesake of mine.  Best of all my associations with Dr. Dexter\nand the neighbourhood was a most memorable day spent at New Plymouth\nwhere he pointed out the localities of the Pilgrim Fathers.\n\nWe proceeded to New Haven, where we found at the station, Dr. Porter,\nPrincipal of Yale University, waiting for us; we were conducted through\nleafy avenues to the college buildings, and there introduced to the\nfamous American theologian, Dr. Bushnell, with other celebrities.  The\nstudents then assembled, and listened to an elaborate speech by Dr.\nDorner, the German scholar and divine, who happened to be there on a\nvisit, having come as a delegate to the Alliance meetings.  Yale College\nis a venerable institution, standing among the foremost Universities of\nthe New World.  The neighbourhood is interesting, and we should have been\ndelighted, had time allowed, to explore the region where two of the\nregicides, Walley and Gough, concealed themselves for two or three years\nin a cave, to which they gave the name of Providence.  One of them,\nGough, suddenly appeared, when a Puritan congregation was attacked by\nPhilip of Pokanoket, and delivered them out of his hands.  He then\ndisappeared like the twin brothers at the battle of Regillus.\n\nHaving had our glimpse of New England, we hastened to Philadelphia, to\nspend a quiet Sunday with a kind English friend, Mr. Yarnell.\nPhiladelphia is magnificent, redolent of William Penn\u2019s memory, who\namongst colonial founders, stands unique as a man of peace.  He did not\nsweep away aboriginal savages with sword and shot, but entered into\ntreaty with them, under the shadow of a spreading elm, which came to be\nheld in great veneration.  Views in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia,\nvie with noble monuments, visible on every side, of commercial\ncivilisation and prosperity.  The grand Masonic Temple had, when we were\nthere, been recently opened; and it is amongst the finest structures in\nthe city.  But the Hall of Independence, architecturally unpretentious,\nhas greater attractions for historic travellers.  We were entertained in\nGerman Town, a charming suburb, by the Wissahickon\u2014\u201cfit haunt\u201d for\nShakespeare\u2019s fairies, Peas-blossom and the rest, flowing through tangled\nbrakes, wealthy in wild flowers.  Drives by the \u201cwedded rivers\u201d as\nWhittier calls them, the Schuylkill, and the Delaware\u2014are enjoyments for\nhigh days and holidays.  One view of the city I caught from a hill\nembosomed in trees.  A long line of foliage from the tops of which rise\ncupolas and steeples, reminded me of Damascus, with its groves and\ngardens, mosques and minarets.\n\nWe saw something of private social life in German Town.  Several families\nin the neighbourhood were invited to spend an evening with us.  It\nresembled a party on the Continent, where eating and drinking are not of\nmuch interest.  The marked feature of the whole gathering was extreme yet\ntasteful simplicity.  Some ladies were sumptuously dressed, and there, as\nin other places, appeared an eye for harmony of colours\u2014a special\nAmerican endowment, which struck me pleasantly.  Manners were agreeable,\nand there was ease in conversation\u2014a rare enjoyment.  The ladies were\nself-possessed, and could hold their own, yet not rudely; and their\nkindliness indicated personal interest, which made their visitors feel at\nhome.\n\nWe arrived at New York at the beginning of October, and were entertained\nby Mr. Dodge at his princely residence in Madison Avenue.  Sir Charles\nReed was guest there at the same time, and the arrangements for our\nreception betokened a cordial welcome.\n\nIn a \u201cHistory of New York,\u201d it is stated that \u201cwhen Henry Hudson\ndiscovered the river, now bearing his name, and Hendrick Christiansen,\nand Adam Block, followed up the discovery, the island of Manhattan was\nmade the chief dep\u00f4t of the trade, and Christiansen received the\nappointment of agent for the traffic in furs during the passage of the\nvessels to and from Holland.  He immediately set about the construction\nof a small fort, with a few rude buildings, on the southern extremity of\nthe island, thus laying the foundation of the future city.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn May 1626, Peter Minuet arrived at New Netherlands, as\nDirector-General, and immediately effected the purchase of the island of\nManhattan, from the Indians for goods and trinkets to the value of sixty\nguilders or about twenty-four dollars.\u201d  \u201cIn 1628 a church was organised\nwith fifty communicants under the auspices of James Michaelius, a\nclergyman from Holland.\u201d  From these feeble beginnings sprang the wharfs,\nthe quays, the avenues, the squares, the warehouses, the stores, the\nhalls, the libraries, the museums, the hospitals of New York.  When shall\nwe stop in the enumeration of riches belonging to this Queen of the West?\nHence, too, we may say came the churches, the congregations, the\ncolleges, the schools, the reformatories and the religious institutions,\nwithout number, which form the glory of that Western Metropolis.  The\nfirst meeting of the Alliance Congress\u2014for the expenses of which twenty\nthousand dollars had been subscribed\u2014was held in the hall of the Young\nMen\u2019s Christian Association.  The hall contains fifteen hundred sittings,\nand was decorated with flags, flowers, and mottoes.  It was crowded in\nevery corner, and the spectacle from the platform was imposing, the\naudience being composed, to a large extent, of representatives from the\nStates, and the principal nations of our Eastern Hemisphere.\n\nDr. Adams of New York, an eminent Presbyterian pastor, delivered an\naddress of welcome.  Elaborate yet unaffected, scholarly yet not\nscholastic, fervent yet not rhapsodical, fluent yet perfectly finished,\npious without a particle of fanaticism,\u2014it laid hold on people present,\nand made an impression talked of to this day.  I have heard many a\ncourteous speech at the opening of large assemblies, but never any thing\nlike that, before or since.\n\nThe address of welcome was acknowledged in a hearty, but inferior style,\nby English, French, Dutch, and German delegates.  \u201cI am glad,\u201d said\nProfessor Christlieb, the German, grasping the hand of Pastor Fisch, the\nFrenchman, \u201cI am glad to see as the firstfruits of this gathering, that\nwe Germans can clasp the hands of our French brethren.\u201d\n\nThe next morning we assembled in Steinway Hall.  After prayer by Dr.\nHodge of Princeton, Dr. Woolsey, Ex-President of Yale College, a\ndistinguished student of International Law, took the chair.  The Dean of\nCanterbury, Dr. Payne Smith, read a sympathetic letter from the English\nPrimate, and immediately after prayer, he solemnly repeated the Apostles\u2019\nCreed, in which the whole assembly followed in audible tones.\n\nThe Conference then began with the reading of papers, which, with\naddresses, were continued morning and evening at sectional meetings.  The\ninterest was kept up, attention never seeming to flag.  When Sunday came,\nlarge churches were crowded to excess.  The Holy Communion was\nadministered in the afternoon, when Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist,\nMoravian, and Indian brethren took part in the service.\n\nBesides the sectional conventions, an enormous general meeting was held\nin Brooklyn, when extempore addresses were delivered in free and easy\nstyle.  But perhaps the most deeply affected audience was a crowded one\nin the Academy of Music the last Sunday night, for prayers and short\naddresses.  A prima donna, I heard, was present: certainly there was one\nvoice of pre-eminent sweetness and power in that vast congregation.\n\nAll the newspapers gave reports of the proceedings as fully as _The\nTimes_ does of our parliamentary debates.  One afternoon two gentlemen,\nwho had been clergymen, spent some time beforehand in preparing a report\nof what I meant to say in the evening.  There was no other way, _they\nsaid_, of getting the report ready for the next morning.  The interest\ntaken in our proceedings by all classes greatly surprised me.\nNewspapers, representative of churches out of sympathy with our\nproceedings, noticed and criticised what went on: the secular press also\ntook up the matter, and conveyed abundant information.  What appeared in\nNew York papers was transferred to others all over the States, and thus\nreligious news of that week spread far and wide.\n\nThe whole report, published afterwards, was a curiosity for size and\ncheapness; but such voluminous accounts of a conference must not be taken\nto mean more than this\u2014that Americans like to know whatever is going on,\nin every circle.  It appeared to me that our transatlantic brethren are\nso fond of hearing public speakers, and of reading what they say, that\nthey do not confine their thoughts to such discussions as are germane to\ntheir own convictions and tastes.  They are curious to hear what anybody\nhas to utter, if he speaks to the purpose, no matter what the topic may\nbe.  We should be mistaken, if we measured religious belief in New York\nby popular attention given to the Alliance.\n\nThe President, Dr. Woolsey, was a distinguished constitutional lawyer,\nconsulted at times about international claims by European authorities;\nnumerous professors of erudition and power, authors, orators,\npoliticians, merchants, gathered round him in 1873; the European\ncontinent contributed such men as Dorner, Christlieb, and Krafft from\nGermany, Prochet from Genoa, Carrasco from Madrid, Bovet from Neuchatel,\nStuart from Holland.  Some of our own distinguished countrymen have been\nalready mentioned.  Ward Beecher delivered a wonderful oration in Dr.\nAdams\u2019 church on the subject of preaching.  He was like a man stopping\nyou in the street, and getting \u201chold of your button\u201d so as to compel\nattention.  I met him several times in America, and received acts of\nkindness, when his face was lighted up with an expression of rare beauty.\n\nNor were churches and halls the only \u201cpleasant places.\u201d  One evening Mr.\nDodge had a reception to which eight hundred persons were invited, and at\none moment, he told me six hundred were actually present.  Introductions,\nhandshakings, recognitions, questions, answers, observations and stories\nwere incessant; whilst a band of musicians played at one end of a suite\nof apartments, it could not be heard at the other.\n\nOn Monday, all the delegates were conveyed by special train to\nPhiladelphia.  On the way we stopped at Princeton.  Students of colleges\nassembled at the station, and uttered their characteristic cheers\u2014in\nimitation of ascending and descending rockets\u2014followed by such huzzahs as\nwe do not hear in England.  We marched in procession through the streets\nto the church, where a crowded congregation awaited our arrival.\n\nWe reached Philadelphia about three o\u2019clock.  There a long train of\ncarriages awaited our arrival to convey delegates to the Hall of\nIndependence.  The city authorities represented by one of the judges,\nexpressed a welcome, after which we were escorted to the Continental\nHotel capable of containing the whole party.  We all started next morning\nfor Washington.\n\nOn the way we were delighted with surrounding scenery, especially when we\ncame to Chesapeake Bay, into which the Susquehanna pours its waters.\nWoods were clothed with autumnal tints, crimson maples flashed their\nfires amidst manifold hues of decaying foliage; and the sunny prospect,\nas we skirted the bay, was beautiful beyond description.  At the\nBaltimore station brethren from Washington invested us each with a white\nribbon badge; then on we swept past homesteads, recently the abodes of\nslaves, many a hut serving as an original illustration for \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s\nCabin.\u201d\n\nWe talked in the train with a black bishop, who entertained us with\ndescriptions of negro excitability.  He said coloured congregations would\nexclaim in church, as the preacher proceeded with his discourse, \u201cThat\u2019s\ntrue, Massa\u201d; and a man once shouted, under the influence of what he\nheard, \u201cMassa, that\u2019s like going up Jacob\u2019s ladder.\u201d\n\nA distant view of the Capitol is not unlike that of St. Peter\u2019s at Rome,\nas seen from the Campagna.  We saw a few city lions\u2014the Capitol and\nSmithsonian Institute being chief; and we found this metropolis, not\nwithout form, for it is artistically laid out in thoroughfares radiating\nfrom the Capitol; but it is certainly \u201cvoid,\u201d for nominal streets were\nthere, but at that time without houses.  We drove a long distance, across\nan open country, suggesting the idea of a city which _is not_, but only\n_about to be_.  How it looks now, I do not know.  Yellow dust was blowing\nin clouds, and lying in thick drifts on the steps of the Hall of\nAssembly.\n\nGeneral Grant carried in his face the signs of an indomitable will, and\nwithout any personal assumption behaved as one conscious of\nrepresentative power.  After my return home, Dr. Adams, who was then in\nEngland, told me that he acted as chaplain to the forces at the time of\nthe great war, and rode by the General\u2019s side, when he reviewed the\ntroops.  As illustrative of his memory for little things, I may refer to\nthe General\u2019s conversation with his old chaplain, when they met in\nEngland, and he alluded to the colour of the horse, the latter used to\nride, informing him of the animal\u2019s death, which had just occurred.  The\nGeneral seems to have possessed the royal gift of not forgetting those to\nwhom he had been once introduced.  Let me add, he was proud of having\ncommanded such an immense army as he did, and said to the Duke of\nWellington\u2014who repeated this to Dr. Stanley, my informant\u2014\u201cYour father\nwas general in chief of only forty thousand men; I led as many as _half a\nmillion_.\u201d\n\nWe visited a great number of institutions in New York\u2014colleges, schools,\nhospitals, and reformatories.  Colleges, architecturally, were not\nimposing; but the libraries and scientific apparatus possessed by some of\nthem, were of a choice and costly kind.  I was told of one gentleman who\nhad contributed \u00a3100,000 to educational objects.  Schools are immense\nbuildings; and at New York and Philadelphia it was a sight indeed, to\nbehold pupils, gliding to their appointed places, and then upturning some\neight hundred happy countenances towards the visitors come to see them.\nThe examination of classes was most satisfactory, and the resources and\nadroitness of the teachers most admirable.  Hospitals in the city are\nabundant, beyond what the necessities of the population seemed to\nrequire, and the reformatories afforded encouraging examples of\ndiscipline and improvement.\n\nParks and cemeteries are on a scale of such magnitude, and are so\npicturesquely laid out, that English visitors surveyed them with\nsurprise.  As to American scenery in general, justice had never been done\nto it.\n\nWe felt gulpy in taking leave of friends, and ending a visit so\nmemorable.\n\nThe sea was calm, and the weather bright, as we steamed out on our voyage\nhome, but a gale followed, and we had violent storms during several days.\nSerious accidents occurred in consequence, which gave a maimed appearance\nto some of the passengers.  My dear friend Harrison had a serious fall.\nWaves rose many feet high, and they supplied a key to some of Turner\u2019s\nsea pictures, and also to Ruskin\u2019s eloquent language in describing the\n\u201ctruth of water\u201d\u2014the power, majesty, and deathfulness of the open, deep,\nillimitable sea.\n\nA friendship I formed in America deserves a notice here, on account of\nthe person\u2019s eminence and the obligations under which he laid me by his\nsubsequent handsome gifts.  Dr. Sprague had the largest collection of\nautographs in the world.  The number was immense, amounting, I am told,\nto about 100,000.  He was living at Flushing at the time I was in New\nYork, and I had charge from a friend in England to call upon him.  Though\nhaving never met him before, yet from previous knowledge of each other,\nwe were at home, immediately after I had crossed his threshold.  It is an\nAmerican characteristic to treat as friend any one who has been known by\nkindly report beforehand, or who can present credentials of character.\nDr. Sprague\u2019s wife and daughter received us at once as if we had belonged\nto the family.  We crowded an immense deal of talk into a short space,\nand before we parted he made reference to his huge collection of\nautographs.  As we had little time to spare, I had covenanted with my\ncompanion, Mr. Harrison, that I would avoid that tempting topic, as it\nwould detain us too long; but the ice being suddenly broken, there was no\nhelp, and I found myself plunged\u2014I must say not unwillingly\u2014into a\nsubject which prudence had decidedly proscribed.  Dr. Sprague found that\nI was one of the craft, but a minor member; and forthwith he profusely\noffered assistance, asking whether there were any letters of his\ncountrymen I particularly desired to possess.  What an overture!  I\nmodestly replied, I should be glad of a few lines written by Washington\nIrving.  Before I left America there came a most interesting letter from\nIrving to his publisher, respecting a new edition of his works; and after\nmy return to England, post after post brought most valuable contributions\nto my store of autographs.  The very first included a letter signed by\nGeneral Washington of historical value.  It relates to the close of the\nWar of Independence, and gives direction for cessation of hostilities\nimmediately after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, in 1781.  Letters in\nthe handwriting of Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and a number of other\ncelebrities, came to England from time to time, enriching my stores,\nalmost to the period of Dr. Sprague\u2019s death.  He was a popular preacher,\na distinguished divine, a prolific author, and a man of widespread\ninfluence in the States.\n\nIn closing this account of American friends, I must say a few words about\nmembers of Harvard University.  I had met with the Greek Professor at the\nMountain House, on the Catskills, who spoke much of the principal, Dr.\nPeabody, for whom I felt a high respect.  My friend, Mr. Harrison, and I\nwere most courteously received by the Doctor at his residence, and were\nshown over the University buildings, especially that bearing the name of\nStoughton, a Governor of Massachusetts.  I was anxious to see the poet\nLongfellow, who resided in an old-fashioned house not far from the\ncollege.  Unfortunately he was not at home, and I could not refrain from\ndropping him a line.  I received the following reply:\u2014\n\n                                         CAMBRIDGE, _October_ 7_th_, 1873.\n\n    \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\n\n    \u201cI have this morning had the pleasure of receiving your friendly\n    note, and hasten to say how much I regret that absence prevented me\n    from seeing you when you were in Cambridge.\n\n    \u201cWe should have lived over again that bright summer afternoon at Mrs.\n    Fuller Maitland\u2019s, which I so well remember, and you would have told\n    me of many friends whom I should like to hear of again.\n\n    \u201cPerhaps I may still have the pleasure of seeing you before you\n    return to England.  If not, I beg you to present to Mr. and Mrs.\n    Maitland my best regards and most cordial remembrance of their\n    kindness and hospitality.\n\n                                                    \u201cWith greatest esteem,\n                                                       \u201cI am, my dear sir,\n                                                             \u201cYours truly,\n                                                    \u201cHENRY W. LONGFELLOW.\u201d\n\nMr. and Mrs. Fuller Maitland, members of a well-known old Nonconformist\nfamily, were members of my church at Kensington; and at their house I\nused to meet distinguished and interesting people.  The occasion referred\nto in the foregoing letter made upon me a most pleasant impression.  A\nlarge company had assembled to greet the American poet, and there was\nplenty of handshaking, which I feared would rather weary him, especially\nas so many of us were total strangers; but he assured me that I was quite\nmistaken, and that it gratified him much to be surrounded by so large a\nparty, composed of those whom he regarded as English friends.  Americans\nare in some respects more cosmopolitan and genial in new society, than\nEnglishmen, and I was struck with this repeatedly in my transatlantic\ntrip.  I was quite affected with the kindness met with everywhere.  Among\nthose who showed special courtesy were some of the well-known Abbot\nfamily, and other professors at Yale, Andover, and Princeton, as well as\nat Harvard, and Mr. Winthrop, of Boston fame.  Before I conclude this\naccount of my American tour, one more incident remains to be mentioned.\nAt some of the meetings in New York, I met with an intelligent and\ninteresting Quaker.  I found he was acquainted with Friends in England,\nand in the course of conversation mention was made of the Gurneys, when\nhe informed me that Mrs. Gurney, widow of Joseph John Gurney, of Earlham,\nwas residing in the vicinity of Burlington, in New Jersey.  She was an\nAmerican lady who became the wife of the Norwich philanthropist, and\nretired to her own country after her husband\u2019s death.  Finding that I\nknew Mr. Gurney, his widow was informed of the circumstance, and\npresently I received a kind invitation to visit her at her own residence.\nMy friend and I, after a pleasant journey, reached the outskirts of\nBurlington, and were welcomed by our hostess at a handsome house with\npicturesque surroundings.  We had much conversation about Earlham, and I\nwas shown into a comfortable library stocked with books, brought from the\nHall which I had seen in my boyhood.  She told me about a visit which Mr.\nForster, father of the distinguished politician, had paid her, not very\nlong before,\u2014a visit speedily followed by his death, and interment in the\nneighbourhood.  On the walls of the drawing-room I noticed a facsimile of\nthe famous letter written to Mrs. Gurney, by President Lincoln,\nrespecting the great war going on, in which the question of negro slavery\nwas so inextricably involved.  She and some other ladies had been\nfavoured with a special interview on the subject of emancipation, and it\nwas to this interview, and its associations that the facsimile referred.\nShe asked, if I should like to have a copy of it, and then not being able\nat the moment to find what she sought, she took down the framed copy and\npresented it to me as a memorial of my visit.  I carefully brought it to\nEngland, and as it is not known here, as it is in America, I subjoin the\ncontents, showing the importance which Abraham Lincoln attached to the\nconversation of the zealous Quaker on the occasion mentioned.\n\n                                         \u201cWASHINGTON, _Sept._ 4_th_, 1864.\n\n             \u201cELIZA P. GURNEY.\n\n    \u201cMY ESTEEMED FRIEND,\u2014I have not forgotten, probably never shall\n    forget, the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends\n    visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago.  Nor has your kind\n    letter, written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten.  In all, it\n    has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God.  I am much\n    indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their\n    constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them more than to\n    yourself.  The purposes of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail,\n    though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in\n    advance.  We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long\n    before this, but God knows best and has ruled otherwise.  We shall\n    yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein.  Meanwhile we\n    must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so\n    working, still conduces to the great end He ordains.  Surely He\n    intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no\n    mortal could make, and no mortal could stay.\n\n    \u201cYour people\u2014the Friends\u2014have had, and are having, a very great\n    trial.  On principle and faith, opposed to both war and oppression,\n    they can only practically oppose oppression by war.  In this hard\n    dilemma some have chosen one horn, and some the other.  For those\n    appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do,\n    the best I could, and can, in my own conscience under my oath to the\n    laws.  That you believe this I doubt not, and believing it, I shall\n    still receive, for our country and myself, your earnest prayers to\n    our Father in Heaven.\n\n                                                     \u201cYour sincere Friend,\n                                                             \u201cA. LINCOLN.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n1874\u20131875\n\n\nIN the year 1874 I lost my old friend, Thomas Binney.  His pre-eminent\nposition amongst Dissenters was attested by copious notices in\nnewspapers, and, by the scene at his funeral.  That position arose from\nseveral causes\u2014his character, abilities, pulpit popularity, and personal\nappearance, manifold and far-reaching sympathies, and a genial nature,\ncharacteristic of the best Englishmen.  His influence in the\nCongregational denomination throughout the country was aided by the\ncentral position of the Weigh-House when London was different from what\nit is now; {230} by strangers from the provinces who flocked there as to\na centre; by visits to various parts of the country at Nonconformist\nfestivals; and by the transfer of so many members of his Church to other\ncongregations throughout the land.  Nor do I forget how his name came to\nbe known, beyond that of any other of our ministers, throughout the\nBritish colonies, owing to his being the father and founder of the\nColonial Missionary Society, and the guide and counsellor of many youths\ngoing to seek their fortune in America or the South Seas.  Still further\nwas his popularity owing to a visit he paid some years ago to Australia.\nAlso, when I was in Canada, I often heard of a less public visit paid to\nthat country at an earlier period.\n\nAmongst the many subjects in which my friend felt interested, was that of\nimprovement in conducting Nonconformist worship; he gave his views\nrespecting it in an appendix to a work on Liturgies, by the Rev. E. H.\nBaird of New York.  I refer to this subject particularly, because to a\nconsiderable extent I sympathised with him; not, however, in consequence\nof his arguments, but from previous convictions, which, during late\nyears, have become stronger than ever.  The authority for excluding all\nliturgical worship from our places of assembly, neither he nor I could\never understand.  I see nothing in Scripture which ties a Christian down\nto this perverse one-sidedness.  On the contrary, both methods are\nsanctioned in the Old and New Testaments.  My experience since retiring\nfrom the pastorate has strongly confirmed my previous impressions.  When\nleading public worship, as I did for so many years, my utterances of\ndevotion were spontaneous, and I am sure imperfect; but what was obvious\nenough before, though sometimes overlooked, came home to my feelings when\nlistening to words in public devotion, often unadapted to inspire or\nguide supplication and praise.  Further, extempore words, though _free_\nto the speaker, are, to all intents and purposes, _a form_ to the\nhearers; and if a form in extempore speech, when thoroughly suitable, be\nproper, why is not a form in written language?  Since I have become deaf,\nand often cannot catch a brother\u2019s supplications, a form which I can\n_read_ must obviously be preferable to one which I am unable to\nunderstand.  Extempore public devotion, under many circumstances is of\npriceless value; but under some circumstances so is liturgical service.\nAttempts amongst Dissenters in the latter direction, I am aware, have in\nsome instances failed, owing largely to prejudices handed down through\npast generations; until those prejudices melt away\u2014some day perhaps they\nwill\u2014an alteration, such as to others like myself, seems quite hopeless.\n{233}\n\nIn the years 1874 and 1875, I took part in commemoration of two\nworld-known Nonconformist celebrations.\n\nThe first was the unveiling of Bunyan\u2019s statue at Bedford.  I went down\nwith the Dean of Westminster, Lady Augusta Stanley, and Dr. Allon, who\nall did wisely and well the parts allotted them.  Her Ladyship gracefully\nunveiled the bronze figure of the wonderful dreamer; and her husband\nuttered immediately afterwards the following effective words:\u2014\u201cThe Mayor\nhas called upon me to say a few words, and I shall obey him.  The Mayor\nhas done _his_ work, the Duke of Bedford has done his,\u201d (he gave the\nstatue,) \u201cand now I ask you to do yours, in commemorating John Bunyan.\nEvery one who has not read the \u2018Pilgrim\u2019s Progress,\u2019 if there be any such\nperson, read it without delay; those who have read it a hundred times,\nread it for the hundred and first time.  Follow out in your lives the\nlessons which the \u2018Pilgrim\u2019s Progress\u2019 teaches; and then you will all of\nyou be even better monuments of John Bunyan, than the magnificent statue\nwhich the Duke of Bedford has given you.\u201d\n\nThe Dean and Dr. Allon delivered elaborate addresses at the Corn\nExchange, and it was allotted to me, to propose, after a public dinner,\n\u201cThe Memory of John Bunyan.\u201d  The thought struck me, that his genius was\nequally imaginative and realistic.  People rise from reading his dream,\nwith impressions of character, as lively as those derived from perusing\nShakespeare or Scott.  They see in his delineations just such folks as\nwalked the streets of Bedford, and plodded through Midland country lanes,\ntwo hundred years ago.  I heard gentlemen at table say they thought\nBunyan took his conceptions of scenery from neighbouring places.  But I\nsaid I did not think so.  He had never beheld hills like \u201cthe Delectable\nMountain,\u201d nor a vale or plain like that of \u201cBeulah.\u201d  In fact, he took\nhis scenery from Scripture, and gave it reality by allusions such as we\nemploy, when touching on objects of every-day life.  He was \u201cChristian,\u201d\n\u201cEvangelist,\u201d \u201cGreatheart,\u201d all in one\u2014a pilgrim to the Heavenly City and\na preacher of the Gospel.\n\nI may here add that two years afterwards brazen doors were given to\nBunyan meeting by the Duke, and were opened with due solemnities, the\nMayor and Corporation attending on the occasion.\n\nThe unveiling of Baxter\u2019s statue at Kidderminster occurred in July 1875,\nwhen Dr. Stanley represented the Church of England at the request of the\ntown authorities; and, at the same time, they requested me to speak on\nbehalf of Nonconformity.  It was a gala day; shops were shut, flags were\nhung out, people wore holiday clothes, and a procession of the\nCorporation, the Bishop, and the speakers marched to the spot where the\nstatue was placed.\n\nSoon after the Kidderminster celebration I visited a worthy friend of\nmine at Bridgenorth, the Rev. Daniel Evans.  Whilst there I received a\nletter from Dr. Stanley saying that he had heard me mention a design I\nhad of visiting Madeley.  He said he found in his interleaved Bible,\nopposite Dan. iii. 19\u201327, the words \u201cFletcher of Madeley,\u201d and asked if I\ncould discover at Madeley a key to this enigma, as it seemed to him.  Mr.\nEvans and I had visited Madeley together, and in conversation recalled to\nmind an anecdote in Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d  A man threatened to\nburn his wife if she went to hear the vicar again.  She went\nnotwithstanding, and the preacher chose for his sermon one of the lessons\nfor the day, instead of the text he had thought of previously.  The\nlesson was in Daniel on the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and\nAbednego from the fiery furnace.  The man followed his wife at a distance\nto find out what it was in Fletcher\u2019s preaching that so attracted her.\nWhen the poor woman returned she found her husband on his knees praying\nby the side of the fire he had prepared for her martyrdom.  I wrote to\nthe Dean and told him the story, as recalled to my mind by my friend\nDaniel Evans.  The Dean sent back his kind regards and thanks to\n_Daniel_, \u201cwho had discovered his dream and the interpretation thereof.\u201d\n\nI have brought the Bunyan and Baxter celebrations together because of\ntheir similarity; and the Madeley incident because it became connected\nwith the last of them.\n\nIn 1874, the year between the two celebrations, I resigned my charge at\nKensington, when a meeting was held to present a testimonial, to which\nArchdeacon Sinclair contributed, and the Dean of Westminster, with other\nChurchmen, besides Nonconformist friends in large numbers, uttered loving\nwords I can never forget.\n\nThe following report appeared in _The Times_:\u2014\n\n                    \u201cDEAN STANLEY AND THE NONCONFORMISTS.\n\n    \u201cOn Thursday evening, April 15th, 1874, the Rev. J. Stoughton, D.D.,\n    an eminent Dissenting minister at Kensington, retired from the\n    pastorate of his congregation there, after a connection with them\n    extending over the long period of thirty-three years, during which he\n    has had the reputation, while upholding the principles of\n    Nonconformity, of maintaining the most kindly relations with the\n    neighbouring clergy, and is understood to have enjoyed the respect of\n    the whole community of Churchmen as well as Dissenters.  The ceremony\n    of last evening was held in Kensington Chapel, a handsome building in\n    Allen Street, Kensington, where Dr. Stoughton has long ministered,\n    and his congregation attended in great numbers on the occasion.  Mr.\n    Samuel Morley, M.P., acted as chairman, and there were present, among\n    others, the Dean of Westminster, Sir Charles Reed, Sir Thomas\n    Chambers, M.P., Mr. James Spicer, the Revs. W. H. Fremantle, M.A., J.\n    Angus, D.D., W. M. Punshon, D.D., Donald Fraser, D.D.; F. J. Jobson,\n    D.D., Henry Allon, D.D., Samuel Martin, and J. C. Harrison, the\n    last-named of whom, on being called to address the meeting, took\n    occasion to say that their reverend friend, Dr. Stoughton, though\n    acquainted with every form of religious thought, had ever held fast\n    to the Gospel; that, as a minister of religion, it had been quite a\n    passion with him to be thoroughly fair and impartial; and that he had\n    all along panted for union among all religious denominations.  Later\n    in the ceremony, the Dean of Westminster, having been called upon to\n    speak, presented himself to the meeting, and was much cheered.  He\n    said there might perhaps be several reasons why he had been asked to\n    address them.  He could not plead the same long acquaintance as the\n    previous speakers had claimed with their venerable pastor; but still,\n    during the last few years of his acquaintance with him, he could\n    truly say that there had been no occasion of joy or sorrow in his\n    life on which he had not received some kind sympathy from him.  There\n    was another reason for his addressing the meeting.  As a Churchman,\n    and as a minister of the Church of England, he felt called on to\n    express his gratitude towards one, not exactly of his communion, who\n    had never once let fall from his lips a word of bitterness against\n    the community to which the Dean belonged, and through whose heart he\n    verily believed the destruction of Westminster Abbey would send a\n    pang.  He only trusted that when the twenty-first century arrived,\n    and some future pastor of the chapel should write the history of\n    Queen Victoria\u2019s reign, he would treat his communion with the same\n    courtesy and appreciation as their present pastor had treated, alike,\n    divergent ministers and pastors of the Church of the Commonwealth.\n    He felt he had come there that evening not so much as a personal\n    friend or as a minister of the Established Church, but rather as her\n    representative of common friends through the writings of Dr.\n    Stoughton and himself.  He came there to express obligations which\n    dear old friends of them both, who lived two hundred years ago, would\n    have wished to express on an occasion such as that\u2014Chillingworth,\n    Jeremy Taylor, Sir Matthew Hale, and many more whom his friend had\n    brought to one common platform.  They had had before his time\n    histories of the Puritans, where they heard of nothing but Puritans;\n    they had also histories of the Church of England; but the work of Dr.\n    Stoughton was the first that had brought those famous men together.\n    There was, he knew, a charge brought against his friend and himself\n    that they were not sufficiently good haters.  However that might be,\n    he was sure that Dr. Stoughton hated, as he did, party spirit, the\n    want of candour, all untruthfulness, and insolent vulgarity, whether\n    in Church or Nonconformity.  All these the Dean hated with a\n    detestation so complete that, if it were possible, he would be\n    willing to curse them thirteen times a year.  He could not part from\n    that assembly or from that occasion without saying one word on the\n    peculiar aspect of the farewell on which the previous speakers had so\n    touchingly dwelt.  Surely it was a transition of life which all of\n    them might envy as they approached the term of their allotted\n    existence, to be able to secure for themselves a margin of life and\n    of comparative quiet before the great end came at last.  There was a\n    custom in old monasteries\u2014he trusted it would not be altogether\n    inappropriate to mention it at a meeting of Congregationalists\u2014that\n    when any of the ancient monks had served a term of thirty or forty\n    years\u2014he forgot which\u2014they were then to be relieved altogether from\n    their arduous labours; they were to be called by a gentle name which\n    meant \u2018playfellow\u2019; and one condition of their existence was that\n    nothing that was disagreeable should ever be named in their company.\n    Such to their friend Dr. Stoughton was the tranquil period through\n    which he was now passing; and although they might still anticipate\n    for him long years of active usefulness, whether by pen or by voice,\n    there must be a delightful sense on his part in looking forward,\n    having accomplished one period of his existence, to a more\n    undisturbed time in which he might look back on what had been, and\n    forward to what was to be to him and all alike.  The Dean\u2019s speech,\n    of which this is necessarily a summary, was repeatedly cheered during\n    its delivery.  A valedictory address, expressed in flattering terms,\n    and reviewing the long connection between their pastor and the\n    congregation, was afterwards presented to Dr. Stoughton by Mr. R.\n    Freeman, on behalf of the Church and congregation, accompanied by the\n    spontaneous gift of a purse containing \u00a33000.\u201d\n\nBesides others who were present on the occasion, as noticed in _The\nTimes_, let me mention my excellent friend and neighbour the Rev. J.\nPhilip Gell, formerly Vicar of St. John\u2019s, Notting Hill.  He referred to\nthe well-knit efforts of pastor and people, which had constituted the\nstrength of the Church at Kensington, and remarked that it was little\nknown how the force of public opinion acts and reacts on the life of a\nlarge permanent congregation.  \u201cThe love which was thrilling that night\nwas the Church\u2019s strength, and so long as that lived and flowed on the\npart of the people, and was sustained by the pastor\u2019s wisdom, so long\nwould the Church live and prosper.\u201d\n\nDr. Morley Punshon, President of the Wesleyan Connexion, travelled from\nLeeds, where he had preached that morning.  He trusted that the Church\nwould be Divinely guided in choosing a successor.  It was encouraging to\nwitness such a presentation as that just made, the like of which many\npresent had never seen before.\n\nThe years I spent at Kensington were very happy.  I can say from\nexperience that the life of a Congregational minister, in connection with\na large and liberal Church\u2014when full play is given to the social\naffections, elevated and purified by culture as well as religion\u2014is an\nenviable lot, and calls for the devout gratitude of any one who has\nenjoyed it.\n\nThe friendships formed with many of my flock, a very few of whom are\nstill living, have been amongst the choicest privileges afforded me by\nDivine Providence.  Loving memories of them linger in my heart, amidst\nsweeping obliterations of names and faces incident to an age of fourscore\nand more, and those who survive me will, I trust, accept an\nacknowledgment of obligations deeply felt as these lines are written.  I\ntook special interest in some, now goodly matrons, who were school girls\nat Kensington in my time, and whose happy fortunes I have sympathetically\nfollowed through life.  If they read these lines, they will understand\nthe fatherly feeling with which they are written.  Their parents, now at\nrest in the eternal home, were no small joy to me, and as they passed\naway, one after another, they left blanks not to be filled up in this\nworld.\n\nTwo deceased friends I may here notice.  At an early period in my\nKensington pastorate, a gentleman called upon me in the vestry with a\ntransfer to our Church from a communion he had joined in Manchester.  At\nthe time he was a rising engineer, and afterwards took part in the\nconstruction of railways over the Alps and in South America.  He was a\nbotanist, and came to possess a large garden and conservatory where he\nlived.  He received the honour of knighthood, and as Sir James Brunlees\nbecame well known.  He took a deep interest in our Congregational\naffairs, and after his change of residence from Addison Road, Kensington,\nstill continued, with his family, to worship with us on Sundays.  He was\nan intimate friend of John Bright, both of them being anglers; and I was\nentertained by stories of their success, as brethren of the rod.  I often\nspent a few restful days at Argyle Lodge, where he and his kind-hearted\nlady made me as much at home as I felt at my own fireside.  She died\nsuddenly, after my retirement, when she was visiting a friend.  I was\nimmediately summoned to meet and comfort the mourning family.  Another\nfriend\u2014George Rawson, of Bristol, the gifted hymn-writer\u2014also died after\nmy retirement, leaving memories of intelligence, humour, and affection,\nwhich I shall fondly cherish as long as I live.  His beloved wife,\ndaughter of the Rev. John Clayton, one of my predecessors in the\nKensington pastorate, died some years before at Bristol.  The touching\nmemory of her funeral, and of the company then present, passes before me\nas I write these lines.\n\nWhen I wrote this chapter, I asked my dear daughter Georgie to give me\nsome results of her own experience whilst visiting the poor.  She\nreturned the following notes:\u2014\n\n    \u201cInstances of unselfishness are sometimes very touching.  I knew a\n    Christian woman who suffered for years with weak sight, and had\n    several operations on both eyes, so that she could only distinguish\n    outlines of different objects.  She heard of two little children,\n    distant relations of her husband, being left orphans, and as she had\n    no children of her own, she suggested that they should adopt these\n    little girls, and lead them in early years to a knowledge of Christ.\n    The husband was so touched at his wife\u2019s readiness, with failing\n    sight, to take this burden upon herself that, though a common\n    labourer, he was willing to incur the extra expense, and ever since\n    that home has been one of the brightest I know.\n\n    \u201cA poor woman expressed a strong desire that some one would speak to\n    her sailor boy, who was wild and unmanageable.  An opportunity\n    occurred not long after, but the lad manifested great disgust at\n    being talked to, and afterwards whenever I called he left the room.\n    When about to start upon a voyage, I went to bid him \u2018Good-bye.\u2019  On\n    leaving I said, \u2018The time may come when you will feel the need of a\n    true friend; remember that Christ is ready to receive you, for He has\n    said, \u201cHim that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.\u201d  These\n    words may fill your heart with gladness some day.\u2019  I did not hear\n    anything of him for a long time, but one evening I received a note\n    saying he was lying ill in a hospital, and would I go and see him.  I\n    complied, and found he had never forgotten the Saviour\u2019s words which\n    I had quoted.  He resisted, he said, the voice calling him to forsake\n    his sins and cleave to Christ till he could bear it no longer.  At\n    last he yielded, and the change produced in him was remarkable.\n    During a long illness he manifested patience, unlike his old self,\n    and the lad\u2019s cheerfulness and readiness to help his mother were very\n    beautiful.  He died in her arms, singing \u2018Safe in the arms of Jesus.\u2019\n\n    \u201cMany of the poor have seen days of prosperity, and have forgotten\n    God; but, when adversity comes, like frightened children, they rush\n    to the Father\u2019s arms.  One man, possessing at one time over \u00a320,000,\n    with a hundred men under him, lost all.  Then, when reduced to the\n    greatest distress, he listened to the Divine voice.\n\n    \u201cI remember that on Lord Chichester\u2019s library table there always\n    stood a large card, with the words:\n\n    \u2018Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me\n    A living, bright reality.\u2019\n\n    \u201cAnd such words unite the rich and the poor.  One of the poorest\n    women I ever met, had a strong realisation of Christ\u2019s constant\n    presence; and it so beautified her life, that all who entered her\n    humble home felt such a prayer had been answered in her experience.\n    I never talk to her but my mind is carried back to the Stanmer\n    library.\u201d\n\nAt the end of this chapter, which closes my Kensington ministry, I\nventure to speak of my methods of preaching.\n\nThe main object of my ministrations was the illustration of God\u2019s Holy\nWord.  Archbishop Whately preferred \u201cto set his watch by the sun\u201d; and,\ntherefore, tested the results of his own thinking, and other teachers, by\na comparison of them with the decisions of Scripture.  When Scripture was\nplain, the subject on which it pronounced a distinct judgment was\nregarded as fixed for ever.  That method it was my desire habitually to\npursue.  I made it my aim, not only to interpret the meaning of a\nparticular verse taken by itself, but to catch, and fix in my mind, the\n_drift_ of Apostolic thought in particular instances.  It has been said,\nirreverently, that some expositors, when persecuted in one verse, flee to\nanother, and the connection between the several parts of a paragraph is\noverlooked and lost.\n\nIt was my desire to look at long _trains of thought_ in the writings of\nSt. Paul as a sacred landscape, in which here and there a verse occurs as\na lofty hill, which serves as a commanding point for surveying a\nlandscape of thought round about.  A single verse is often a key to an\nentire paragraph.\n\nIt was my habit to go over now and then a large extent of\nScripture\u2014doctrinal, biographical, historical.  \u201cStars of the East, or\nProphets and Apostles,\u201d formed a series of personal sketches in the Old\nand New Testaments, afterwards published by the Religious Tract Society.\nAnother course, called \u201cLights of the World,\u201d were illustrations of\ncharacter, drawn from records of Christian experience and action, such as\n\u201cWilliam Tyndale, or Labour and Patience\u201d; \u201cRichard Hooker, or a Soul in\nLove with God\u2019s Law and Holy Order\u201d; and \u201cRobert Leighton, or the\nPeacefulness of Faith.\u201d\n\nBesides such methods I did not scruple to lay under contribution to the\npulpit, condensed summaries of Puritan works, such as Baxter\u2019s \u201cNow or\nNever\u201d; also I may mention that a course of Sermons on \u201cPilgrim\u2019s\nProgress\u201d excited much interest, and three or four of these I repeated at\nthe close of my pastorate.\n\nAs to the real value of a sermon, form must never be confounded with\nsubstance.  It is vain to vote the mantle into majesty.  A royal robe\ndepends for effect on the richness of the material, not on the adjustment\nof its folds.  Toller\u2019s \u201cSermons\u201d {248} so eulogised by Robert Hall,\ndepend for their impressiveness, not on a careful selection of words\u2014in\nthis respect they are open to criticism\u2014but upon the intrinsic majesty of\nsuch thoughts as they express.\n\nThere is an obvious contrast between French and English preachers in this\nrespect.  They are more attentive to form than we are.  I have witnessed\neffects in Parisian, and in Italian churches as well, produced by modes\nof delivery, such as I never saw in our own country.  Young preachers in\nEngland might make their sermons more effective than they are, by greater\nattention paid to a mode of delivery.\n\nLet me add a word or two as to preparation from week to week.  At the\nbeginning of a week I chose subjects for the following Sunday; and then\ngathered up from day to day, in reading and talking, arguments and\nillustrations suggested by books, scenery and conversation.  One\u2019s mind\nmay be brought to such a state as to gather together what is valuable and\nuseful from time to time, as the magnet attracts to itself grains of\nprecious metal over which it sweeps.  And, let it not be forgotten, we\nmay sometimes _build_ up a sermon by adding one thought to another; and\nat other times _plant_ a sermon through an idea which takes root and\ngrows into a goodly tree.  My method then was, on a Saturday evening, to\n_review_ and revise what I had prepared, to criticise its substance and\narrangement, and alter it in matter and form, so that on Sunday morning\nit could be poured out to the people in freshness and force.\n\nOn week-night services, I sometimes took up Church history, or\narch\u00e6ological illustrations of the Bible.  Bible-classes, of course, were\nheld; but in the latter part of my Kensington pastorate, I was greatly\nhelped in this, as in other respects by my worthy friend, the Rev. J.\nAlden Davies, who was for a few years my assistant minister. {250}\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n1875\u20131879\n\n\nIN my last chapter I brought together two celebrations\u2014one in honour of\nJohn Bunyan, the other in honour of Richard Baxter.  Another celebration\nnow claims attention, not of an English Nonconformist, but of a\nProtestant Reformer, whose fame covers the world\u2014Martin Luther.  English\ncommemorations of his character and work were held late in 1875 and early\nin 1876.\n\nBefore I mention any particulars respecting the Luther celebration, I\nrepeat what I have said elsewhere:\n\n    \u201cThere is no other man of a similar order whose fame touches so many\n    topographical points, and sweeps over so wide a surface.  The local\n    reminiscences of Shakespeare and Milton, even taken together, are\n    few, and cluster round a metropolis, a provincial town, and two or\n    three villages.  But how many cities, castles, and houses there are\n    in Germany scattered far and wide which may be said to have Martin\n    Luther for their presiding genius!  Guide-books call attention to\n    some spot where he went, some fortress or tenement which gave him\n    shelter, some church in which he preached, some locality which his\n    name has made famous; and there are scenes and houses unmentioned in\n    guide-books, over which lingers the spell of his memory.  One comes\n    across mementoes of Charles V. in divers directions; but even they\n    are fewer, less interesting, and less honoured than those of the monk\n    who gave the emperor so much anxiety, and who by his devotion, and\n    energy accomplished the reformation of the Teutonic Church.\n    Certainly no king, no kaiser, can vie with him as to the place he\n    occupies in the thoughts of his own people, and indeed of the whole\n    Christian world.\u201d {252}\n\nWashington Irving concludes his essay on \u201cShakespeare and\nStratford-on-Avon,\u201d by remarking it would have cheered \u201cthe spirit of the\nyouthful bard that his name should become the glory of his birthplace,\nthat his ashes should be guarded as a most precious treasure, and that\nits lessening spire, on which his eyes were fixed in tearful\ncontemplation, should one day become the beacon towering amidst the\ngentle landscape to guide the literary pilgrim of every nation to his\ntomb.\u201d\n\nIt is no depreciation of Shakespeare\u2019s genius to say that above his\naspirations after fame, whatever they might be, rose the aims and desires\nof Luther\u2014a man absorbed in zeal for the salvation of souls, and for the\nglory of his Saviour; but it would have filled him with wonder, could he\nhave foreseen the place he was to occupy in the history of the world, and\nhow the double tower of the Stadt Kirche, in which he preached, would\nbecome a beacon to guide tens of thousands from both hemispheres to the\nAugustinian monastery, where he lived, and to the Schloss Kirche, where\nhe lies buried.\n\nThe Luther Commemoration in England was enthusiastic.\n\nSoon after I left Kensington an immense assembly gathered in Exeter Hall,\nto take up points in Luther\u2019s character and work.  If I remember rightly,\nI dwelt on that occasion at some length on his domestic life, often\nassailed by his opponents, but held in admiration by Protestants all over\nthe world.  In lectures and addresses, delivered at Norwich,\nPeterborough, Bedford, and elsewhere, I dwelt on his manifold excellences\nand achievements, at Leipzig, at Worms, in the Wartburg, and his\nWittenberg home.  My remarks accorded with those I have now introduced.\n\nAfter the close of my pastorate in Kensington, Ealing became my home.\nThe professorships at New College were continued.  Sundays were spent in\npreaching the Gospel.  Literary studies were pursued to a larger extent\nthan they had been when pastoral duty claimed chief attention.\n\nIn 1876 I was grieved by the death of Lady Augusta Stanley, for she\nmanifested towards me kindness which could not fail to inspire my warmest\ngratitude.  I never knew any other person who had so much dignity and\nsweetness of demeanour, one who, with many-sided sympathy, could make her\nnumerous guests feel how sincere were her friendly demonstrations.  It\noften surprised me, as it did others, how she paid marked attention to\nall her guests, however numerous they might be.  Her tact was admirable.\nNobody could leave the Deanery with the idea of having been neglected.\n\nHer \u201cAt Homes\u201d were extraordinarily popular, for every one was sure of\nmeeting with notabilities of Church and State, literature and science.\nHer husband was in full sympathy with her in all these respects.\n\nShe was intimately acquainted with foreign celebrities, and her\nconversation about them was of much interest.  She and her mother, Lady\nElgin, spent some days in Lamartine\u2019s house at Paris, when violent mobs,\nduring the Revolution, assembled in front of the residence.  The\nPresident behaved bravely, but expressed fear lest any insult should be\noffered to English ladies under his roof.  Mother and daughter, if I\nremember right, had been offered refuge by the President when the utmost\nperil filled the French capital.  Lady Augusta related interesting\nanecdotes of Lamartine; and I gathered that he habitually indicated no\nsmall confidence in himself, feeling that he was the greatest man in\nFrance, as no doubt, at the time, he really was.\n\nHer Ladyship and the Dean were well acquainted with M. Guizot, and gave\ninteresting accounts of that distinguished statesman, and of his habits\nand studies after retirement from public life.  I happened once, when\ntalking of Earl Russell, to make the remark, that I had heard of his cold\nmanner to political acquaintances.  Her countenance lighted up, and she\nspoke with enthusiasm of what he was in the bosom of his family, and the\ncircle of intimate friends.  Bishop Thirlwall was a great favourite with\nher, and she related interesting anecdotes of that distinguished man,\nindicating a warm heart, in union with a keen intellect.\n\nLady Augusta\u2019s visit to St. Petersburg with the Dean, at the marriage of\nthe Duke of Edinburgh, proved too much for her strength, and at Paris in\nthe following autumn serious illness set in.  From time to time amendment\nand relapse excited hope and fear, until all prospect of recovery\nvanished.  She spoke of friends, sent kind messages, and talked calmly\nand with humble confidence of the other world, saying, \u201cThink of me as\nnear, only in another room.  \u2018In my Father\u2019s house are many mansions.\u2019\u201d\nI had a touching note from the Dean asking me to be a pall-bearer at the\nfuneral.  All chosen for that office indicated causes, classes, and\nplaces in which she felt an interest.  Religion, literature, and\nphilanthropy, the neighbourhood in which she lived, and Scotland\u2014each had\na representative.\n\nThe assembly of mourners in the Jerusalem Chamber; the spectacle in the\nAbbey; the procession up the nave whilst the Queen occupied a little\ngallery not far from the western door; the calm submission of the\nbereaved husband, as he sat by the coffin; the solemn entrance into Henry\nVII.\u2019s Chapel; the ray of sunlight falling on the coffin as it sank into\nthe vault; and especially the words, \u201cI heard a voice from Heaven,\u201d sung\nby choristers invisible at the moment, as if music came from the Upper\nTemple\u2014these incidents can never be forgotten.\n\nIt was by royal command that this lady, descended from the royal Bruce,\nwas buried in a chapel reserved for royal persons; and immediately after\nthe interment wreaths from the Queen and her children were strewn over\nthe grave.  The three benedictions\u2014the Mosaic, the Pauline, and the\nEcclesiastical\u2014which the deceased loved to hear were pronounced, at the\nclose of the service, by the Dean from a desk in the nave.  She had said\nto him, \u201cThink of me as you repeat the holy words.\u201d  He did, when she was\ngone as when she was living.\n\nThe Dean sometimes referred to his visit to St. Petersburg in company\nwith her ladyship, and spoke of his having before him, as he tied the\nnuptial knot on that memorable occasion, no less than four princes, each\nof whom was expectant of a crown\u2014the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince of\nPrussia, the Crown Prince of the Netherlands, and the Czarevitch; and he\nalso mentioned this circumstance\u2014that after the wedding party had passed\nin state through a magnificent hall, where no provision for a banquet\ncould be seen, within an hour and a half they sat down to a feast of\nsumptuous splendour, reminding him of Belshazzar\u2019s, not in point of\nexcess, but in point of regal display.  The fact was, the side-tables had\nbeen concealed behind screens and drapery.  The middle one had in that\nspace of time been fixed and adorned.\n\nI may here mention that one day, during a visit to the Deanery, I had\nmuch conversation with Miss Stanley, the Dean\u2019s sister, an agreeable\ncompanion, who freely indulged in some common recollections of dear old\nNorwich, and some friends whom we had both known.  She told me a great\ndeal about her good father, the Bishop, dwelling with admiration upon his\nexceedingly simple habits, and his determination never to give at the\nPalace _grand dinners_, but only such as combined hospitality with\nChristian unostentation.\n\nTwo or three days previous to Lady Augusta\u2019s funeral, I breakfasted at\nLambeth, when Archbishop Tait, amongst other things, spoke of his desire\nfor some union with Protestant Dissenters as far as it was possible; and\nthis led to proceedings which, as they have not been reported in any\nfulness, may be recorded here.\n\nIt was a delicate question who should first move in the matter.  The\nArchbishop wished to invite brethren to Lambeth, but what reason was to\nbe assigned for taking such a step?  At length it was arranged that some\ncommunication should be made to him, indicative of a disposition on the\npart of Nonconformists to confer with Episcopalian brethren.  On such a\nground the Archbishop considered he might bring together bishops, ready\nto join in a conference.  I undertook to prepare a letter and get it\nsigned, so that Dr. Tait might feel he had sure footing for what might\nfollow.  It was based on a recognition of pleasure felt by\nNonconformists, in consequence of passages in his recent charges touching\nreligious union.  The letter went on to express willingness to meet\nbrethren for consultation respecting co-operation in religious service so\nfar as it might be possible and wise.  It was signed by well-known\nministers, and was acknowledged by the Archbishop under the term of\n\u201cmemorial,\u201d an expression which, if I remember rightly, had not been\nemployed by us.\n\nFour Nonconformist ministers accordingly went down to Lambeth to converse\non the subject.  Previous to this interview, it was my conviction that to\ndiscuss the subject of _union_ by itself was by no means desirable, as it\nmight raise questions which would defeat the end in view.  In harmony\nwith this, the following opinion was expressed by a friendly\nprelate:\u2014\u201cSuch a neutral subject as the progress of irreligious thought,\nwould do well as a basis for a friendly meeting.\u201d\n\nIn a note received from the Archbishop before we met, he said, \u201cI beg\nleave to assure you that all the bishops whom I have consulted agree in\nthe extreme importance of this movement, and in an earnest desire that by\nproper preliminary arrangements your proposal for a conference may be\nbrought to a satisfactory result.\u201d  The proposal for a conference, I\nthink, did not _originate_ with me, though I quite approved of it, and\nwas glad the Archbishop had kindly arranged for its being held.\n\nI subjoin the following record, received from Lambeth, respecting a\nconference which the ministers named held with the Archbishop\nbeforehand:\u2014\n\n    \u201cMay 24th, 1876: The Archbishop of Canterbury saw the Rev. Dr.\n    Stoughton, the Rev. Dr. Angus, the Rev. Newman Hall, and the Rev. Dr.\n    Aveling.\n\n    \u201cThe gentlemen present having heard from the Archbishop what had\n    passed with the bishops who met at the Ecclesiastical Commission, it\n    was the opinion of those present that there was ample room for united\n    efforts to stem growing infidelity and ungodliness.\n\n    \u201c1.  Therefore that a united conference as to the best means of\n    attempting to spread the knowledge of the answers to materialistic\n    and atheistic sophistries might be attended with very beneficial\n    results.\n\n    \u201c2.  That such a conference might with great advantage consider the\n    lamentable ignorance and indifference as to religion which prevails\n    amongst masses of the community, and the best modes of meeting these\n    evils.\n\n    \u201c3.  That such a conference might also with advantage consider what\n    efforts are needed to rouse the classes above the artisan class to a\n    greater appreciation of the realities of religion.\n\n    \u201c4.  That it would be desirable that at such a conference those\n    present should come prepared to state their experience as to the\n    difficulties to be met, and the proposed remedies.  It was agreed\n    that a day after the first week in July would be suitable for such a\n    conference.\n\n    \u201cThe result of this was reported by the Archbishop to an informal\n    meeting of certain bishops at the Room of the House of Lords:\n    present, the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Winchester,\n    St. Asaph, Llandaff, Gloucester and Bristol, and Carlisle; and\n    Monday, July 4th, at twelve noon, was fixed for our gathering.\u201d\n\nWe assembled accordingly on July 4th, and there were present besides the\nPrimate, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Peterborough, Gloucester,\nBath and Wells, Drs. Allon, Raleigh, Punshon, Rigg, Aveling, Angus,\nCumming, Robertson of Edinburgh (an old schoolmate of Dr. Tait); the\nRevs. J. C. Harrison, Newman Hall, Josiah Viney, and several others whom\nI cannot call to mind as, unfortunately, I have not kept a list.\n\nThe Archbishop presided, read the Scriptures, and offered prayer.  He\nopened the proceedings by an appropriate address, and then requested me\nto give some account of the steps which had led to our meeting together.\nI could not help referring to some remarkable gatherings in the Jerusalem\nChamber, March 1640\u20131, convened by Dr. Williams, at that time Bishop of\nLincoln, and also Dean of Westminster, when several other dignitaries met\ncertain Presbyterian divines.  \u201cThis,\u201d I remarked, \u201cwas done by order of\nthe House of Lords, with a view to settling points of difference between\necclesiastical parties of that day.  A scheme of comprehension was\ncontemplated.  It came to nothing, though the intercourse seems to have\nbeen pleasant, and they were hospitably entertained by the convener.\u201d\n\u201cThis was the last course of all public Episcopal treatments,\u201d said the\nwitty Thomas Fuller, who added: \u201cThe guests may now soon put up their\nknives, seeing, soon after, the voider was called for, which took away\nall bishops\u2019 lands.\u201d  I emphasised the fact that we had assembled for a\nvery different purpose, not to discuss any plan of comprehension, but to\nsee how parties, remaining ecclesiastically as we were, could,\nnotwithstanding, _unite_ in defence of our common faith against those who\nopposed it.\n\n\u201cWe have a common cause,\u201d it was added; \u201cand let us aim at extending the\ninfluence of our common Christianity\u2014this would bring us into spiritual\nand practical fellowship, the most enduring of all bonds.\u201d  The Bishop of\nBath and Wells followed and spoke on the specific point\u2014how we should\nmeet doubts and difficulties in reference to religion.  The Bishop of\nPeterborough discussed the subject generally, with great eloquence and\nforce.  The Bishops of London and Winchester made practical suggestions\nas to guarding Christians against scepticism, and rousing people at large\nfrom indifference and neglect.  Drs. Rigg, Angus, and others, combatted\ninfidel objections and enforced attention to the subject before us.  A\nspirit of harmony pervaded the meeting.\n\nWe broke up the morning conference at two o\u2019clock, and then lunched\ntogether; reassembling at three o\u2019clock, when the Bishop of Gloucester,\nDr. Punshon, and several besides, resumed the conversation.  No\nrepresentatives of the press were present, and no report, that I am aware\nof, was taken and preserved.  We wished to prevent the controversial\ntreatment of what took place.  Two of those who were there, together with\nmyself, received and complied with a request to prepare some brief\nstatement for _The Times_, on the character and purpose of our meeting.\nOf course, the whole matter was criticised afterwards, chiefly however in\nprivate.  I do not remember that it was taken up controversially in\nreligious periodicals.  To correct some misapprehensions\u2014expressed in a\nDissenting newspaper\u2014I, at the request of an esteemed brother, wrote a\nshort letter of explanation.\n\nWhen we separated, gratification was expressed by those who were present.\nSome Nonconformists did not enter into the movement; others did, and that\nmost heartily.  From several Episcopalian friends we received assurances\nof approval and sympathy.  It issued in no united action; no fresh\norganisation had, as far as I know, ever been intended.  The purpose\ndesigned was accomplished by interchanging thought, collecting\ninformation, and encouraging one another in ministerial work.\n\nFor Archbishop Tait I had great respect and affection.  He was singularly\nkind and conversable, without affecting any official superiority.  Under\nhis grave countenance, and habitually serious demeanour, as one who lived\never \u201cin his Great Taskmaster\u2019s eye,\u201d there were veins of cheerfulness\nand humour in his familiar intercourse\u2014I felt deeply, his gentle\nsympathy, expressed in a letter of condolence, on my dear wife\u2019s death;\nand the last time we talked together, being interrupted by another\nperson, he broke off in the opening of what seemed an amusing tale.  He\nappreciated the relative position of Church and Dissent, better than any\nother dignitary I have met with.  He would say that Nonconformists had\ntheir traditions, organisations, endowments, and influence, which gave\nthem a status they were not likely to surrender by bringing over what\nbelonged to them, into an Episcopalian organisation.  A fraternal _modus\nvivendi_, he regarded as the object to be aimed at, not an absorption of\nDissenting bodies into the Establishment.  He, no doubt, would have\npreferred to see _One Great Church_ in England, under a moderate\nEpiscopacy; but he seemed to cherish little hope of any such object being\naccomplished.\n\nOn a former page allusion was made to Mr. Bagster, of Polyglot fame.  In\nthe year (1877) his venerable wife, at the age of 100 _within a few\nhours_, died at Old Windsor; and her accumulated years attracted the\nnotice of Her Majesty, who honoured her with a visit just before her\ndecease.  I called at the cottage in which she expired, after the royal\nvisitor had been there, and there heard the particulars of the interview.\nHer Majesty I was informed, brought with her the Princess Beatrice; and,\non their entrance into the bedroom, where the old lady was lying, she at\nonce expressed her gratitude for the signal favour bestowed by her\nSovereign, saying that \u201cshe was looking forward to her own speedy\ndismissal to the immediate presence of the Saviour, where she hoped\nhereafter to meet Her Majesty.\u201d  Pleasant conversation followed, in which\nMrs. B., at the Queen\u2019s request, related her memories of George III.,\nQueen Charlotte, and the Royal Family, as they used to walk on the Castle\nterrace, in the presence of a large number of loyal spectators.  The\nQueen manifested interest in particulars respecting the good old lady,\nrelated by her daughter; and in consequence of the report she gave on her\nreturn home, Prince Leopold, as I was told soon afterwards, paid a visit\nto Old Windsor, and wished for a rehearsal of what had been communicated\nby his Royal Mother.  Repeated gracious inquiries from the Castle\nfollowed.  At the funeral service a note was put into my hands, written\nby the Duchess of Roxburgh to Miss Bagster, tenderly touching on that\nlady\u2019s sorrow, for her late bereavement; and concluding with the words:\n\u201cThe Queen begs you to convey to all the members of your venerable\nmother\u2019s family, the assurance of Her Majesty\u2019s condolence.\u201d  This note\nwas read to the mourners.\n\nIn 1877 I made two pilgrimages which left memorable impressions.  All my\nlife I have been an enthusiastic shrine-seeker, loving to trace out spots\nsanctified by footsteps of heroic and holy men.  I heartily adopt the\nwords of Dr. Martineau, \u201cNo material interests, no common welfare, can so\nbind a community together, and make it strong of heart, as a history of\nrights maintained and virtues uncorrupted and freedom won; and one legend\nof conscience is worth more to a country than hidden gold and fertile\nplains.\u201d\n\nAt different periods I have visited the birthplaces of Shakespeare and of\nRaleigh, of Cromwell and of Wesley; the homes of Knox, Hampden, Milton,\nBaxter, and Howard; the haunts of Johnson, Goldsmith, Watts, and Cowper;\nthe graves of Bunyan, Burns, Scott, and Chalmers have all had attractions\nfor me.\n\nThe pilgrimages I made in 1877 were the following:\u2014\n\nThe first to the Vosges district in France, searching for Ban de la\nRoche, the scene of Oberlin\u2019s labours, and the resting place of his\nremains. {268}  From Strassburg my daughter and I went to Mutzig,\nsituated amidst a theatre of red sandstone hills mantled with woods and\nvineyards.  Then from Mutzig we proceeded to Fouday, through valley after\nvalley, if not exactly picturesque, yet really pictorial, and finally\napproached the parish of the model pastor.  In the heart of the village\nof Ban de la Roche, are the church hallowed by his preaching, and the\ngrave where he sleeps.  Three broad slabs lie on the green turf, side by\nside, the middle one inscribed with the words, \u201cIl fut 60 ans p\u00e8re de ce\ncanton.\u2014\u2018La M\u00e9moire du juste sera en benediction.\u2019\u201d  An iron cross bears\nthe name \u201cPapa Oberlin.\u201d  We were surprised to find the spot, though\nhighly situated, so rich in beauty as summer waned; an afternoon sun\nwarming the crisp air, and lighting up objects with varied tints.  At\nWalderbach, a Swiss-like village, full of cottages and fruit trees, we\nfound the parsonage house in which the good man lived and died.  We were\nwelcomed by the present clergyman\u2019s wife, whom we had met before, without\nknowing her.  The good lady took us over the rooms associated with her\nhusband\u2019s predecessor.  There was the study where he worked, and the\nbedroom in which he slept.  Some of his furniture is preserved, with a\ncollection of toys he made for children, and a large jar full of still\nfragrant rose leaves, a few of which were gratefully accepted as a\nmemento of the visit.\n\nThe other pilgrimage was in England to Broad Oak, Shropshire, where\nPhilip Henry resided and where his son Matthew was born.  It stands where\nthe Wrexham Road is intersected by a lane leading to Whitwell Church.  It\nis a small farmhouse, part of a larger one, with heavy beams, and a broad\nchimney corner, like what one sees in Anne Hathaway\u2019s cottage near\nStratford-on-Avon.  When in its primitive state, it must have been\nspacious, for, says the famous Puritan, \u201cI have room for twelve friends\nin my beds, a hundred in my barn, and a thousand in my heart.\u201d  Here he\nresembled \u201cAbraham sitting at his tent door, in quest of opportunities to\ndo good.  If he met with any poor near his house, and gave them alms in\nmoney, he would, besides, bid them go to his door for relief.  He was\nvery tender and compassionate towards poor strangers, and travellers,\nthough his candour and charity were often imposed upon by cheats and\npretenders.\u201d\n\nThe mention of Broad Oak occurs repeatedly in the Life of the father,\nwritten by his affectionate son.  The latter tells of his father\u2019s\nremoval to Broad Oak, and the providences concerning him there, of \u201cthe\nrebukes he lay under at Broad Oak,\u201d and of the last nine years of his\nlife, in \u201cliberty and enlargement at Broad Oak.\u201d  At a time when\nministerial engagements were by no means so numerous and diversified as\nthey are at present; when habits of home study, quiet visitation of the\nflock, and catechising the children, rather than preaching on public\noccasions, attending large meetings, and travelling to and fro along the\nlength and breadth of the land, distinguished both town and country\nclergymen; when those who were connected with the Established Church, and\nhad no restraints put upon their activity, spent what would be now\nconsidered very retired and monotonous lives; what must have been the\nsecluded and stationary position of an ejected minister between the\nRestoration and the Revolution!  No wonder, then, that almost every\nincident and effort belonging to Philip Henry\u2019s career belonged to the\nfarm at Broad Oak, where he lived and died, and wrote and suffered, and\nwalked and taught, bringing up his children, and receiving his friends,\nand paying visits to his neighbours, under the shadow of the umbrageous\ntrees which gave a name to his pleasant homestead.\n\nI drove over to the house, or rather that part of it which still remains,\na part of the kitchen, as I suppose, in which the good man used to\npreach.  The people of the house showed me some relics\u2014the pulpit\ncushion, and, I think, the pulpit itself, or some portion of it; also\nsome buttons which belonged to Philip Henry\u2019s coat.\n\nAt Whitwell is a chapel containing Philip Henry\u2019s monument, which once\nstood in the parish edifice of Whitchurch.\n\nAt the end of the Whitwell epitaph are the words, \u201cIn dormitorium hic\njuxta positum demisit June 24, Anno Dom. MDCXCVI, \u00c6tatis LXV.\u201d  Was it in\nimitation of this, that the words were introduced in Matthew Henry\u2019s\nmonument in Holy Trinity Church, Chester, \u201cConfectum corpus huic\ndormitorio commisit 22 die Junii, 1714, Anno \u00e6tat 52\u201d?\n\nDr. Howson, Dean of Chester, who was staying with me at Crewe Hall when\nthis visit was arranged, intended to be my companion, for he was a great\nadmirer of the Henrys; but illness prevented him.\n\nIn 1877 I was invited by Dr. Stanley to deliver a missionary lecture in\nWestminster Abbey, one of a series he had arranged, in which some friends\nof his, not clergymen in the Establishment, took part.\n\nIn 1877 I gave a lecture in the room of the Society of Arts on the\nprospects and perils of modern civilisation.  One of the audience was a\nnative gentleman attached to the Chinese Embassy\u2014a very intelligent\nperson, speaking English well, and showing by his conversation how\nclearly he grasped points of the address he had just heard.  It was a\nsingular circumstance that a representative of the largest empire of the\nworld\u2014which not long ago counted all other nations as barbarous\u2014should\nlisten to a barbarian as he represented the good and _evil_ of European\ncivilisation.\n\nJust before Christmas (1877) two or three days were spent at the Deanery\nof Westminster, and on the Sunday afternoon Dr. Stanley walked with me on\nthe terrace of the Parliamentary Houses, where we had some interesting\ntalk.  He pointed to the palatial edifice at our back as we looked across\nthe river, and said, \u201cThis is the palace of the nation\u201d; turning\nattention to St. Thomas\u2019 Hospital, he remarked, \u201cThat is the palace of\nthe poor\u201d; and next, looking towards Lambeth, he added, \u201cThere is the\npalace of the Church.\u201d  We discussed the state and prospects of the\nEstablishment, and he, as a staunch advocate for its continuance,\npropounded schemes of reform, which, looking at the state of parties,\nseemed to me quite impracticable.  He was filled with an idea of\ncomprehension, if not within wide Episcopalian limits, then by a State\nunion of different denominations\u2014for example, thus: He would have been\nglad to see a Presbyterian Moderator, a Congregational Chairman, and a\nWesleyan President sitting in the House of Lords on a bench with the\nbishops.  He further thought that, as Charles II. was willing to have\nNonconformist chaplains, after the Restoration, so an English sovereign\nmight now, without any impropriety, do the same; and if the Uniformity\nAct were modified so as to allow a Dissenting minister to enter a pulpit\nof the Establishment, there would be no legal bar in the way.  My friend\nhad the widest sympathies possible, and union, with him, was a passion.\n\nIn some respects I have a feeling like the Dean\u2019s, but I hold theological\nand ecclesiastical principles such as he did not adopt.  One fundamental\ndifference between us was that he overlooked the exercise of Church\n_discipline_, to which I attach great importance.  The study of State\norganisations has convinced me that the \u201cunion of Church and State\u201d\ncreates insuperable barriers in the way of ecclesiastical discipline.  If\nthe Church be linked to the State, so that a subject of the State becomes\nthereby legally entitled to membership and communion,\u2014that forms a strong\nbar to a faithful correction of moral misconduct and fundamental\ndisbeliefs.  It was a great difficulty under the Commonwealth.  The\ndevoted and holy Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, found it so in\ncarrying on his diocese.  He said in his famous \u201cEcclesiastical\nConstitutions\u201d that his desire was \u201cWe may not stand charged with the\nscandals which wicked men bring upon religion, when they are admitted to,\nand reputed members of, Christ\u2019s Church; and that we may, by all laudable\nmeans, promote the conversion of sinners, and oblige men to submit to the\ndiscipline of the Gospel.\u201d  But for myself, let me say I have not found\nany difficulty in the maintenance of discipline in Congregational\nChurches.  Whatever might be the basis of Dr. Stanley\u2019s far-reaching\ncomprehension, it appears to me there might be a much broader range of\nreligious sympathy and co-operation between distinct religious bodies\nconnected with the maintenance of well-accentuated beliefs, and the\nexercise of ecclesiastical discipline.\n\nIn the early part of the following year I visited Edinburgh to lecture\nfor the Philosophical Society of that city.  My subject was \u201cThe Great\nRebellion\u201d; and I made a double attempt, first, to vindicate the\nParliament policy as against the despotic unconstitutionalism of the\ninfatuated monarch; and secondly, to criticise the proceedings of some\neminent men on the Puritan and popular side.  The society invited me to\nlecture again, when different historical ground was taken, and a sketch\nwas presented of English and Scotch life in the days of Queen Anne.\n\nMy old friend, and large-hearted host, the Rev. George D. Cullen,\nfavoured me with the company at dinner, of Dr. Goold, Moderator of the\nFree Church; Dr. Hanna, son-in-law to Dr. Chalmers; Dr. Alexander, and\nothers\u2014and we had earnest talk about topics of the day.  Scotch and\nEnglish elements of thought, blended so as to bring diversities into\nview, without any portion of the acrimony common to polemical debate.\nTrue blue Presbyterianism rose in contrast with milder colours of\nEcclesiasticism.  There was no want of thrust or repartee, but we kept\nthe unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.  Edinburgh society is of\nthe choicest kind.  Some of the best talkers may be found on the other\nside the border; and memories of celebrities in Auld Reekie, are amongst\nthe most pleasant of my life.  On the occasion just noticed, my friend\nMr. Cullen took me over to St. Andrews; and there Principal Tulloch did\nthe honours of ciceroneship to perfection.  In the evening we dined at\nthe house of Professor Swann, where further social enjoyments of a high\nuniversity order were found to be in store.\n\nDuring this visit to Scotland a curious fact was related to me by the\nlibrarian of the University.  Drummond of Hawthornden bequeathed books to\nthe library of that institution, and in the catalogue appeared an item of\n\u201cMSS. respecting Mary Queen of Scots.\u201d\n\nThese MSS. were long missing, and inquiries about them were made in vain.\nNot very long before my visit, the librarian received a communication\nfrom some one who said he had, in his possession, papers belonging to the\nUniversity; and on receiving a reply to his letter, he forwarded them.\nThey turned out to be the missing treasure.  How came this about?  As\nwell as I can remember it appeared that a librarian of the last century\nput one day into his coat pocket these very MSS., and took them home for\nexamination.  He suddenly died.  His clothes were sent to a relative, and\namongst them, the coat containing the documents now mentioned.  For a\ncentury afterwards they remained forgotten, and then came to light.  The\npossessor, finding they belonged to Edinburgh University, wrote to the\nlibrarian as stated above, and restored them to their proper place.  The\nrecovered property was shown to me.  It included original papers\npublished some time ago, and others not previously known; but, if I may\nventure to say so, after a brief inspection, they did not promise to be\nof so much service as was hoped, in throwing fresh light on the mysteries\nof poor Mary\u2019s career.\n\nThe seventh General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance was held in\nBasle, September 1st 1879.\n\nThere was a large gathering of delegates from Germany, France, Austria,\nItaly, Spain, Holland, America and England.  The president was M. C.\nSarasin, Councillor of State, who is said to have descended from a\nMoorish ancestor settled in the canton.  He showed himself to be\nacquainted with English literature.\n\n\u201cLet me remind our English friends,\u201d he said, \u201cof the words their great\npoet puts in the mouth of Richard II.:\n\n             \u2018Look not to the ground\n    Ye favourites of a king!  Are we not high?\n    High be our thoughts.\u2019\n\n\u201cLet us cherish high thoughts, my friends!  Are we not the servants of a\nKing, of the King of kings, and Lord of lords?  And is it not His work we\nare carrying on?\n\n    \u2018Die sach\u2019 ist dein, Herr Jesu Christ,\n    Die sach\u2019 an der wir stehen.\u2019\n    (The cause is Thine, Lord Jesus Christ,\n    The cause for which we stand.)\n\n\u201cThus let our work be done, our testimony be given, our efforts be\nunited, in the same joyful steadfast spirit, with the same buoyancy, with\nwhich the Apostle, with chained hands, appealed to his flock at Philippi,\n\u2018Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.\u2019\u201d\n\nThese were animating words, and awakened an enthusiastic response, when\nuttered in the old church of St. Martin, where \u00c6colampadius first\npreached the doctrines of the Reformation.\n\nI give the following _resum\u00e9_ of some remarks I made at the Basle\nAlliance meeting.\n\n_The Times_ reported:\n\n\u201cDr. Stoughton contrasted the gathering of peoples in that assembly,\nrepresentative of all nations, with a meeting held in Basle four hundred\nand fifty years ago.  Christendom was then in a very divided state, for\nthe spirit of religious inquiry was breaking out, and the great\nmoot-point was, in all theological controversy, \u2018Where lies the ultimate\nauthority for religious beliefs\u2014in Popes, in Councils, or in the Word of\nGod?\u2019  They met that day in times of a somewhat differentcharacter, but\nof still deeper and wider agitation, for the question now was, not only\nwhether the Church or the Bible was the final test of truth, but also\nwhether reason or revelation should be our guide as to the highest of all\nsubjects which could affect the present and future interests of the human\nfamily.  But how vast the difference between that famous Council at Basle\nand the Evangelical Alliance Conference of this day!  Under what\ndifferent aspects was union regarded by the two assemblies!  The one\naimed at uniformity, at a precise and definitely-expressed agreement of\nopinion, in relation to theological and ecclesiastical points, which\nmight be enforced on all Christendom by pains and penalties,\u2014even death,\nto a recreant brother.  The other seeks to promote unity, holding, after\nthe experience of ages, that uniformity was impossible, and that true\nunity could not only be attained, but was compatible with a hearty,\nloving, sympathetic Christian fellowship throughout the family of the\nredeemed.  He then contrasted the appearance of the two meetings, traced\nout the history of the followers of John Huss, and, in a long and\nexceedingly able and interesting historical review of the history of the\nReformation, showed that Protestant England was not only indebted to\nBasle for men but for principles; and, identifying the two with the work\nof Calvin at Geneva and John Knox in Scotland, he contended that the\noutcome of those early struggles was not only religious freedom in\nEurope, but, mainly through the Puritans of England, the religious life\nand progress of America.  Their simple reliance now, as then, was the\nGospel of Christ, and freedom to preach and practise its heaven-born\ntruths.\u201d\n\nI have a great delight in all genuine Christian union, but my conception\nof it is by no means confined to the cultivation of love and sympathy\nwith those, who in all, or in most, respects concur with me.  There is an\nadmirable passage in Julius Hare\u2019s preface to the third volume of\nArnold\u2019s \u201cRome.\u201d  \u201cWe are so bound and shackled, by all manner of\nprejudices, national, party, ecclesiastical, individual, that we can\nhardly move a limb freely; and we are so fenced and penned in, that few\ncan look over their neighbour\u2019s land, or up to any piece of sky, except\nto _that which is just over their heads_.\u201d  I took an active part in the\nearly history of the Evangelical Alliance, and I rejoice in those points\nof agreement which are expressed in its Evangelical faith; but I have\nnever liked its exclusion of some good people from its fellowship, on the\nground of differences in relation to ecclesiastical ordinances.  I would\nlook kindly over \u201cmy neighbour\u2019s land,\u201d and towards \u201cpieces of sky\u201d which\nare not \u201cjust over my head.\u201d\n\nI can scarcely bring myself to speak of the sorrow which befell me in\nNovember 1879.  My beloved wife then died, and was interred in Hanwell\nCemetery, which pertains to the parish of Kensington.  The beautiful\nwords in Proverbs are inscribed on her gravestone: \u201cHer children arise\nup, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.\u201d  Some\ntime ago I read in the Life of my American friend, Dr. Hodge, the\nfollowing passage respecting the deceased companion of _his_ life.  I can\ntruly appropriate it to my departed loved one.  \u201cA humble worshipper of\nChrist, she lived in love and died in faith.  Trustful woman, delightful\ncompanion, ardent friend, devoted wife, self-sacrificing mother, we lay\nyou gently here, our best beloved, to gather strength and beauty for the\ncoming of the Lord.\u201d\n\nMy dearest friend Joshua Harrison, who was to her as a brother, preached\na funeral sermon, in which he said, \u201cThe strength of her life was her\nfaith in the Son of God.  Her path, though the sun shone brightly upon\nit, was often a thorny one.  Her own health was liable to frequent\ninterruptions, and her heart was pierced again and again by the loss of\nchildren, whom she loved better than herself.  Oh, the unmurmuring\nresignation with which seven several times, she saw her dear ones carried\nto the grave!  Oh, the courage with which she bore the shock!  She never\nwavered in the conviction, \u2018He loved me and gave Himself for me,\u2019 but\nfelt that these sad sorrows must be only the obscurer manifestations of\nHis love.  And hence she could write, \u2018Here we shall never be exempt from\ntrial and sorrow, but when we reach that changeless home above, there\nwill be no need of sanctifying us there.  All that is needful to make us\nmeet for that holy place must be done here; and oh, how much pruning and\npurging, how much of grace and strength we need to help us to walk more\nclosely with Him.\u2019\n\n\u201cShe has reached that changeless abode now, and has left all sorrow\nbehind.  Long, long had she been waiting, but the message came so\nsuddenly at last, that, without knowing she was dying, she found herself\nat home.  The words discovered in her desk, which by copying she had made\nher own, received sweet and exact fulfilment:\n\n    \u2018The way is long, my Father, and my soul\n    Longs for the rest and quiet of the goal;\n    While yet I journey through this weary land,\n    Keep me from wandering; Father, take my hand,\n          Quickly and straight,\n          Lead to Heaven\u2019s gate\n                Thy child.\n\n    \u2018The way is long, my child, but it shall be\n    Not one step longer than is best for thee,\n    And thou shalt know, at last, when thou shalt stand\n    Close by the gate, how I did take thy hand,\n          And quick and straight,\n          Lead to Heaven\u2019s gate\n                My child.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n1879\u20131883\n\n\nNEED was felt for some change after my sad bereavement; so in March,\n1880, my daughter and I started for Italy.  We tarried on our way a week\nat Cannes with my friend, Mr. Prust, of Northampton, an old\nfellow-student, who had a villa in the Riviera.  I greatly enjoyed the\nclimate and scenery, and felt soothed by walks and drives on the shores,\nthrough the cork groves, and round about to more distant places of\ninterest.  Old affections sprang up anew between my friend and myself as\nwe talked of auld lang syne.  Nothing could exceed the kindness shown by\nhim and his two interesting nieces.\n\nI met with some old acquaintances at Mentone; amongst the rest, with a\ngentleman well known in the political and religious world and closely\nconnected with Lord Palmerston.  He gave me much information as to what\nhe apprehended was the state of thought and feeling amongst the upper\nclass in reference to Christianity.  There seemed to be a large amount of\nlight-hearted, thoughtless scepticism on the part of young people; girls\ncatching from their brothers doubts as to God and Christ and\neternity\u2014doubts circulated in conversation and in periodicals.  The facts\nindicated did not strike me as deep and earnest, but as froth on the\nsurface of common talk; not, however, to be passed over as a trifling\nphenomenon, for if those who occupy superior stations in the world have\ntheir faith shaken as to natural and revealed religion, it forebodes\nmischief to wider circles round them.  My informant was inclined to\nbelieve that outspoken doubt and disbelief was less to be dreaded than\nconcealed enmity.  Moreover, that whilst there was much to excite concern\nin literature and social intercourse of the present day, there was also\nan increase in the higher as well as lower walks of thorough-going\nChristian experience and practice.  In my own limited acquaintance I have\nbeen cheered to find instances of what appeared genuine piety where I\nlittle expected them; works of benevolence going on nowadays amongst all\nclasses are surely tokens for good, which ought to fill us with\nthankfulness.  We are all tempted to confine ourselves to one side of the\nworld and Church picture before us; but we shall not get at the whole\ntruth by shutting one eye and keeping the other wide open.\n\nLeaving Cannes, we travelled by the Cornice Railway to Genoa, and there\nrenewed acquaintance with churches, palaces, and picture galleries, seen\nyears before.  Then tarrying at Spezzia, we saw some new specimens of\nItalian scenery and life.  Pisa and Florence were again visited, cities\nin which I loved to linger; and at the end of about ten days we reached\nRome.\n\nI had an introduction to Cardinal Howard, who sent me an invitation to\nvisit him.  I was met by a Monseignor friend of his, with whom I had a\ngood deal of conversation.  We discussed several topics, and then touched\nupon the relations in which Catholics and Protestants stood to one\nanother.  He considered there was improvement in this respect, more\nsocial intercourse existing between them than was once the case.\n\nPio Nono had a Jewish friend, who became a convert.  Seeing him one day\ndepressed, \u201cthe holy father,\u201d as this Monseignor called him, asked what\nwas the cause.\n\n\u201cI have just lost my father, who died a Jew, and I am greatly concerned\nabout the state of his soul.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut was he a good Jew, devout and acting up to the light he had?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d was the reply.\n\nThen came the Pope\u2019s rejoinder, \u201cI will pray for him; and do you pray for\nhim, and I doubt not that God will have mercy on him.\u201d\n\nThese were his words as well as I can remember.  The drift of the story\nand its application were intended to show that the deceased pontiff did\nnot despair of a Jew\u2019s salvation.  He did not look upon those outside the\nRoman pale as beyond the reach of God\u2019s mercy, though needing\npurification in a future state.\n\nWhilst we were talking the Cardinal came in.  The reception he gave me\nwas singularly cordial, and we had a good deal of friendly chat relative\nto the Stanley family.  The favours I asked he granted at once; one was a\nspecial introduction to the chief librarian at the Vatican, and the\nseeing more of its treasures than I had done when I visited the library\nmany years before.  He took me into his library, well furnished with\nbooks, in handsome bindings, and we had some talk about Thomas Aquinas,\nin whose writings I took an interest.  He recommended to me some little\nbooks of analysis and comment.  He also procured a papal permission for\nmy daughter to see St. Peter\u2019s Crypt, which is closed to ladies\ngenerally, on all days of the year except one.  The Cardinal arranged\nwith one of the Vatican librarians that I should have special facilities\nfor seeing historical documents; and afterwards, on my reaching the\nVatican by appointment, I was received by an officer, who accompanied me\ninto one of the magnificent galleries, which I had seen years before, to\nfind then all book-cases closed.  Now some of them were opened, and I was\npermitted to take down any volumes I liked; and I at once luxuriated in\nthe inspection of charming Aldine editions of patristic and other\nauthors\u2014the paper as white, and the printing as fresh, as when they were\nproduced four centuries ago.\n\nI was surprised to find that provision was made for the use of printed\nbooks, and certain MSS., by readers, admitted after the fashion in our\nBritish Museum.  There are catalogues, giving titles and press-marks;\nand, by writing for what you want upon slips of paper, and handing them\nto an attendant, as in the British Museum, you attain the volumes\ndesired, which you can use at desks provided for the purpose.  A\ncatalogue of much greater compass than exists at present, I was informed,\nis in progress; but the Cardinal told me, it might be a long time before\nit was finished, adding, that Rome is the Eternal City in more senses\nthan one.  He encouraged me to believe that even the archives of the Holy\nSee might be accessible; but, far short of that, MSS. which I wrote for,\nand examined, were sufficient to convince me that there is abundant\nmaterials for extensive research, beyond what was formerly possible.\nBesides, in the vast Library of the Dominicans\u2014who once had their\nmonastery at Sopra Minerva\u2014a library which is now open to the public,\nunder certain regulations, there are the archives of the Roman\nInquisition; the historical use which now can be made of them, appears in\nmany numbers of _La Rivista Christiana_, in which I found many valuable\nextracts.  Much interesting information respecting early Italian\nconfessors may be found in those Inquisitionary records.\n\nI saw several Protestant brethren in Rome; and, besides preaching in the\nPresbyterian Church twice, was invited to address a large meeting of\nItalians, through the medium of the Rev. Mr. Piggott, who was my kind\ninterpreter.  I took occasion to lament that Italian Protestants, whilst\nnot by any means numerous, were broken up into so many parties; said that\nit would be far better if they would work together; and if that were\nimpossible, it was at least desirable and easy, not to interfere with\neach other\u2019s proceedings, by opposition or uncivil criticism.  Judging\nfrom a response on the part of an Italian, I was glad to find my remarks\nwere not deemed offensive; but I am afraid they did no real good.\n\nWhilst in Rome at this time I tried to turn my visit to some account by\nrestudying its Christian antiquities.  Christian art in its early state\nis a subject illustrated by the Catacombs.  The rude paintings and\nsculptures familiar to every Roman visitor, familiar by means of books to\nthousands who have never seen the originals, are historical and symbolic.\nNoah and the Ark, Abraham offering up Isaac, Moses receiving the law,\nJonah and the whale, Daniel and the lions, the three Hebrews in the\nfurnace\u2014these have a Christian meaning, and point typically to truths\nrespecting Christ\u2019s redemption.  Subterranean Rome, it has been well said\nby a French author, is \u201c_a living book_, palpable, everlasting,\u201d and\nthere are written on its pages, in hieroglyphic ways, truths which are\nheld by all true Christians, whether Protestant or Catholic.  The Agape\nor love-feast, a ship emblematic of the Church, the cross, the fish, the\ndove, and other well-known signs of Christ and His salvation, occur over\nand over again.  Also there are historical pictures of the Nativity, and\nof Peter denying his Master.  Portraits also are found of Christ, of\nPeter, of Paul.  The Virgin Mary is seen by the side of her husband,\nwhilst the Holy Child, like an Italian bambino, lies in His cradle, an ox\nlicking His feet; close by, the Magi are watching stars in the east.  No\npicture or image of the Virgin, in solitary magnificence, at all\nresembling the Madonnas of a later period, so far as I can make out, has\nbeen discovered in the Catacombs.  The contrast between the early\nattempts and the later achievements of Roman Christian art in doctrinal\nsignificance, as well as in imaginative conception and technical skill,\nis obvious and striking.  To pass from the former to the latter requires\nan immense stride; to go from examining early representations of gospel\nfacts and principles, to look round churches and galleries rich in the\nworks of modern Catholic artists, is to exchange worlds.  The difference\nin religious meaning is as great as the difference in artistic merit.\n\nDuring this visit to Rome some remarkable religious meetings were\nconducted by Dr. A. N. Somerville, of Glasgow, who in other parts of\nItaly the same spring, held revivalistic Protestant services.  Those at\nRome occurred on a spot, to reach which many citizens had to cross a\nbridge with a toll bar on it.  Notwithstanding, on the evening when we\nattended, I should think about eight hundred people were present.  The\npreacher could not speak Italian, and what he said was translated into\nthat language, by a native Protestant.  Everything was skilfully managed,\nand the effect appeared on the whole, solemn and impressive.\nCongregations after the same methods had been previously gathered in\nFlorence, where the addresses, according to report, had produced\nconsiderable impression.  Sankey\u2019s hymns, translated into Italian, were\nsung at Rome, with Sankey\u2019s tunes; how far solid evangelical results\nfollowed I could not ascertain.\n\nWe made, at this time, two excursions which I must notice.  One was very\nshort: only as far as Ostia, where there are still some Roman remains.\nThe present town is not worth notice, but the ancient city, Hare says in\nhis \u201cDays near Rome,\u201d is like Pompeii.  I cannot quite agree with him.\nThe deep ruts of Roman chariot wheels; fragments here and there of Roman\npottery, human bones, coloured marbles, and a few architectural relics,\nare of interest; but what attracted me to the spot was the memory of\nAugustine, who, in his \u201cConfessions,\u201d paints such a touching picture of\nhis mother Monica\u2019s illness and death.  Thoughts of that interview, as\nrelated by the converted son, were the only charm of our visit, and the\nhour or two we were compelled to spend in the place, for the refreshment\nof our coachman and his horse, were most dreary.  The long, long gossip\ngoing on between a priest and the mistress of the little farm, betokened\nthe intense idleness and vulgarity of both,\u2014typical, I fear, of the whole\nneighbourhood.\n\nAnother expedition we made was of a very different kind.  We engaged a\ncarriage to the charming haunts of Tivoli, where picturesque objects in\nthe town and its vicinity, and the stupendous waterfall with manifold\nassociations, clustering round the immediate neighbourhood, created\nmemorable delight.  Next day we drove to Subiaco, along an interesting\nroad rich in memories of old Roman rural life.  My daughter wrote in her\njournal:\u2014\n\n    \u201cIt was a glorious morning, the sun was shining brightly, and in the\n    cool spring air, our three pretty little black horses dashed along\n    the road at a good pace, so that we soon found ourselves winding in\n    and out amongst the Sabine Hills.  We climbed up a steep ascent, only\n    to go dashing down on the other side.  The retreating hills, rising\n    here and there to a great height, were clothed with trees, some of a\n    sombre colour, some fresh with the bright hue of early spring, with\n    here and there a cluster of silver olives, making a delightful\n    variety of colour; whilst, at our feet, the roadside was beautiful\n    with anemones, cyclamen, honeysuckle, and saxifrage; and, lower\n    still, ran the refreshing river Arno.\u201d\n\nNot far from Subiaco there is a deep gorge with sloping sides of rock and\nfoliage, reaching down to the river Arno, bordered by chestnut trees,\namidst which, here and there, rises a tall cypress.  The brow of the hill\non the side nearest Subiaco, is crowned by a far-famed monastery in\nwhich, very different from what it is now, the great St. Benedict,\nfounder of a monastery which bears his name, spent his early days and\nprepared for his great life work, which began at Monte Cassino, on the\nroad from Rome to Naples.\n\nWe left Subiaco for Olevano, and were benighted on our way, as the horses\ntoiled up hill after hill.  We reached Olevano late at night, and caused\nquite a commotion in the narrow street, by our inquiries after the hotel,\nwhere we were to pass the night, and which, ignorantly, we had passed by,\nat the hill-top which overlooks the town.  There, to our delight, we met\nwith a most enjoyable reception, as the house is a favourite resort for\nartists; and though we blundered into a room, already occupied by guests,\nwe were permitted to remain, and listen to charming stories of the place\nand its surroundings.  After tarrying a few hours next morning, we had to\nhasten our departure, that we might catch a train on the railway from\nNaples to Rome.\n\nAfter leaving Rome on our way to England, we halted some days at Venice,\nand revived old recollections.  I went over points of interest in a visit\nyears before, and new pictorial and architectural pleasures were enjoyed.\nWe proceeded to Bologna, and crossed the beautiful Lago di Garda, spent a\nday or two at Trent, where special services were being held for young\npeople, and hosts of \u201cshining ones\u201d in white, crowded the churches.\n\nIn 1881 I visited Italy again, especially for the purpose of carrying on\nresearches commenced just before.  The journey was rapid.  Reaching\nTurin, accompanied by my dear daughter, I began my work by searching out\nlocalities which I could easily identify.  In other places I picked up\nillustrations I desired; for, when the mind is bent on a particular\ninquiry, it is wonderful how it draws cognate matters to itself.  We made\nan excursion to Pavia, and, on the way, stopped at the beautiful\nmonastery of Certosa.  Pavia, situated on the river Ticino, with a\ncovered bridge, is interesting, from its antiquities and history.  The\nchurches are specimens of Lombardic architecture, and in the Duomo one\nwas startled to find the tomb of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, whose\nremains were transferred from Africa to this city.  They were there at\nthe time of our visit, his monument being full of magnificence and\nbeauty, in general form and particular details.  Since I was at Pavia,\nthe body has been restored to its original resting-place.  Pavia connects\nitself with the philosopher, Boetius, by a popular tradition that he was\nimprisoned in a tower belonging to the city.  Piacenza and Bologna during\nthis journey afforded gleanings which helped me to realise important\nevents occurring there at the time of the Reformation; but it was in\nFlorence that I did most work, and spent more than a week from day to day\ntracking Savonarola\u2019s footsteps through the streets, from San Marco to\nthe Palazzo Vecchio, and back again, not forgetting his visit to Lorenzo\ndi Medici at his villa in Careggi, with views of rich woodlands and\ngrassy fields.  But my chief employment was in the public library,\nsearching out and deciphering original documents, connected with his\ntrial.  According to one account Savonarola underwent an examination,\nfirst by words, then by threats, then by torture; and on the second day\nof his imprisonment was put on the rack.  The account of the trial which\nI gathered from original sources, was in harmony with that of Villari in\nhis life of the martyr.  There are two letters appended, one addressed to\nthe Pope respecting _la vita buono_ of the sufferer, and another by a\nlarge number of Florentine citizens.  I was especially interested in\nSavonarola\u2019s Bible, which he used to carry under his arm.  It is entitled\n\u201cBiblia integra,\u201d the type beautifully clear, the date 1491.  It contains\nsome of his prophecies in MS.  Signor Guicciardini has contributed a\nlarge collection of Savonarola\u2019s works to this Magliabecchian Library, as\nit is called, and the catalogue of them runs over sixty pages.\n\nAfter leaving Florence, we visited the Waldensian valleys, of which I\nhave given some account in my \u201cFootprints of Italian Reformers,\u201d and I\nmay here add, that I agree fully with Professor Comba in his opinion,\nthat the Waldenses, properly speaking, do not appear in history earlier\nthan the twelfth century, and then they are seen scattered over the South\nof France at Metz, and in the Netherlands\u2014their origin being ascribed by\ntheir enemies to Peter Waldo of Lyons, who does not appear to have\nvisited the valleys.  I found the good people in the valleys opposed to\nthe results of Professor Comba\u2019s researches.  An intelligent daughter of\na Waldensian minister said, \u201cWe do not believe in them at all here.\u201d\nAfter studying the subject, let me add, I do.\n\nIn 1881 my dear friend Dr. Stanley died, after so short an illness that I\nhad no opportunity of seeing him in his last hours.  His funeral was an\nevent of national interest.\n\nHe had much of the mind which distinguished \u201cthat disciple whom Jesus\nloved.\u201d  His singular sweetness of disposition was partly natural, for he\nwas a gentle, quiet boy, winning many hearts; but it was gracious and\nspiritual also, a result of sincere discipleship to the Divine Master.  I\noften felt surprised at his extraordinary amount of forbearance under\nmost unjust and cruel attacks.  I once alluded to the need of patience\namidst such trials, instancing Archbishop Tillotson, who left behind him\na bundle of scurrilous letters, labelled with the words, \u201cMay God forgive\nthe writers as I do.\u201d  I learned from my friend that once he was accused\nof infidelity by an anonymous correspondent; and on another occasion,\nafter the figures of Moses, David, Paul, and Peter had been placed in the\nchoir of the Abbey, he received a note beginning with a charge of\nidolatry.  Our Broad Church Dean, and the prelate of the Revolution were\necclesiastically and socially much alike.  As to theology the former told\nme there is much in the teaching of Scripture which transcends human\nconception, much which, running along lines of mystery, he felt himself\nunable to follow; but, at the same time, he would remark, there is much\nmore that is plain, which \u201ca wayfaring man, though a fool,\u201d may receive\nand \u201cnot err therein.\u201d  To these plain things, he said, he desired to\ncleave; these plain things he endeavoured to preach.  The main difference\nbetween others and himself was that certain Evangelical principles were\nplainer to them than to him.\n\nHis interest in Bible study was intense, especially with regard to\nhistorical and biographical subjects; and it was well said, that whilst\nsome critics seemed to delight in destroying certain parts, his delight\nwas to build them up into a grand whole.  His habit was to maintain\ntruth, so far as he saw it, rather than to attack and overthrow error;\nand his gift of felicitously adapting events and passages of Holy Writ to\npassing incidents and characters, was truly wonderful; especially when an\nopportunity occurred for weaving sacred associations round the walls of\nhis beloved Abbey.  Nor did he fail to turn his skill in this respect to\nadmirable account, when preaching in America.\n\nDr. Stanley\u2019s amiableness never betrayed a suspicion of weakness in his\ncharacter.  Indeed he had a side almost stern in some of its appearances;\nand he fought against what he deemed evil, with great vehemence; and\nstood up very boldly, I know, against unprincipled people, declaring that\nhe would not meet them, except in the presence of witnesses.\n\nTo see him at his best was to be with him alone, when he gave full sway\nto his thoughts and feelings, expressing them with greater freedom than I\never heard him do in company.  The most enjoyable time was late in the\nevening, after guests had retired; especially when he conducted me to my\nbedroom, candlestick in hand, and tarried for a good while chatting about\nsubjects and persons of interest to us both.\n\nNot long before his death, I spent a night at Westminster, when we talked\nabout Oliver Cromwell.  With much pathos he read aloud Carlyle\u2019s\ndescription of the Lord Protector\u2019s last hours; and, some time before\nthis, he told me that he had been engaged in endeavouring to ascertain\nwhat became of the hero\u2019s remains after indignities done to them at the\nRestoration.\n\nSoon after the Dean\u2019s death, I received from Mrs. Drummond, his\nexecutrix, a note accompanied by the picture it referred to.  \u201cIn a\nmemorandum left by our dear Dean, he desired a photograph of him, which\nused to stand in the drawing-room, should be sent to you, in remembrance\nof a sincere friendship.\u201d\n\nWith regard to the composition of historical works he was in the habit of\nemploying such information as he could gather from friends.\n\nOxford men have told me, that he used to lay under contribution whatever\nhe could learn from other people\u2019s researches.  For these, however, he\nwas always ready to make ample returns.\n\nDr. Stanley told me that he was in the habit of looking at some\nhistorical characters through the medium of living people, who appeared\nto him, in one way or other, to resemble them.  Excellencies and\nfrailties on the part of deceased individuals, thus came out more vividly\nbefore him.  It struck me as a considerable help to a realisation of what\ndeparted persons _might_ be; but it requires to be carefully employed,\nlest from resemblances which are real, we infer other things which are\nimaginary.\n\nHis taste was comprehensive.  He loved everything which related to\nEnglish history, especially where it touched his own dear Abbey.\nConformity and Nonconformity he sometimes sought to harmonise in\nsurprising ways.\n\nI may add here that there was in the Abbey a monument to Dr. Watts in a\ndilapidated condition, when I suggested a plan for its restoration.  The\nplan was adopted, and in consequence the monument was for a time removed.\nDuring its absence I received a note containing a playful allusion to the\ncircumstance:\u2014\n\n    \u201cIf some strong Nonconformist should wander through the Abbey this\n    week, he may go away with the impression that in a fit of sudden\n    intolerance the Dean had torn down the monument of Isaac Watts.  I\n    assure you that the gaping and vacant chasm in the wall might well\n    suggest such an interpretation.  I hope, however, in a few days the\n    restored angel and the mended harp of your sweet psalmist will dispel\n    any hopes that may be awakened in High Churchmen or suspicions in\n    Nonconformists.\u201d\n\nI was informed not long after the Dean\u2019s death, that a gentleman in Kent\nhad in his possession what was said to be Oliver Cromwell\u2019s skull.  A\nfriend of mine procured from that gentleman an invitation to see the\nrelic.  A large, handsome box was placed on a table, and out of it was\ntaken, wrapped up in silk, a man\u2019s skull.  The lower part of the face was\ngone, leaving the upper jawbone entire, or nearly so; and within the\nmouth we saw the shrivelled remains of a tongue, while some of the skin\non the upper part of the face was still preserved.  What astonished me\nwas the quantity of hair adhering to the scalp; and also the following\ncircumstances pertaining to the relic.  The inside, carefully examined by\na medical companion, plainly appeared to have been embalmed; signs of\nthis were attached to the surface.  Moreover, part of a spike penetrated\nthe upper bone, showing that once the skull must have been exposed in a\nway common enough, when men, put to death for political crimes, had their\nheads set up in conspicuous places.  Finally the head had been severed\nfrom the body, not by a sharp axe, but by a knife which had hacked and\ntorn the skin.  These peculiarities pointed to one who, having received\nhonourable burial, was afterwards beheaded with a blunt instrument, and\nthen treated as a traitor, by having his head exhibited like those fixed\non the top of Temple Bar.  These peculiarities pertained to Oliver\nCromwell; and to no one else.  Documents are preserved together with the\nrelic.  They state that the relic remained publicly exposed for a long\ntime, till one night a gale of wind blew it down; that a soldier on\nsentry picked it up and took it home, and then became alarmed at finding\nthere was search made after it by public authorities.  He concealed it\ndown to the time of his death; and when danger was over, the secret was\ndivulged.  The skull was afterwards exhibited as a source of profit, and\nan account of the exhibition appears among papers preserved in the box.\nAfter being withdrawn from public view, it was privately sold to an\nancestor of the gentleman possessing it at the time of my visit.  There\nis a story afloat, that Cromwell was not buried in Westminster, another\ncorpse being substituted for public interment, and, therefore, that the\nbody hanged at Tyburn was not his!  This story is not to be trusted.\n\nIn the August following Dean Stanley\u2019s death, I made, with my friend\nHarrison and some of my family, a tour in Germany.  We were delighted\nwith the Bavarian Highlands and the Bader See.\n\nWe visited Oberammergau, and heard much about the Passion Play, and were\nconducted to the place of performance, by persons who had taken part in\nit.  They gave us interesting information.  The priest of the place is no\nbigot.  He insisted that a Protestant, who had died in the village,\nshould be interred in consecrated ground, for which, we are told, he\nreceived a rebuke from Rome.  The drive we had from Partenkirchen to\nMittenwald called forth exclamations of great delight.\n\nIn the following winter I mixed with members of various denominations,\nsome widely separated from others.  This led me to think a good deal\nabout consistency.  I noted down at the time considerations of this kind.\nEverybody admits the palpable truism, \u201cTruth is true, and falsehood is\nfalse,\u201d and some deduce from that the corollary: \u201cThen stick to the true,\nand eschew the false altogether.  Countenance what you believe, by\nconsorting exclusively with such as believe as you do.\u201d\n\nBut, it must be remembered, systems are complex, and cannot be fairly\ndealt with in the fashion recommended by some.  In many cases, what is\ncondemned as a whole, contains seeds of another sort.  There are\nestimable people who are not accustomed to analyse what they condemn, and\ncannot see what of truth may be found in the midst of error.  To look\nalone at one side of a system, which, after all, has much of truth, may\ninvolve us in error.  Thinking of Divine sovereignty, if not connected\nwith human responsibility, may land us in Antinomianism; to dwell upon\nresponsibility by itself, may make us Pelagians.\n\nIn the summer of 1882, I went down to Rodborough, in Gloucestershire, to\nvisit my friend, Sir S. Marling, just made baronet, and to preach, I\nthink, for the seventh time, on behalf of the Sunday Schools.  The\nCountess of Huntingdon, George Whitefield, and Rowland Hill had all been\nin some way connected with the chapel.\n\nOn the occasion now mentioned, there was a large gathering of day and\nSunday scholars, a picture worthy of Wilkie\u2019s pencil.  Sir Samuel and his\nlady were encircled by guests old and young, receiving from them\ndemonstrations of affection in loud huzzas.\n\nSoon after my return from Italy I attended meetings connected with\nWesleyan Methodism, when my friend Mr. McArthur, (afterwards knighted),\nwas Lord Mayor of London.  He invited me at different times to meet a\nlarge number of ministers of his own and other communions, and at such\ntimes he manifested the catholic spirit by which he was eminently\ndistinguished.  I think it was once in his mayoralty that the archbishops\nand bishops dined at the Mansion House table, when toasts were proposed,\nto which the Archbishop of Canterbury had to respond.  Afterwards\nNonconformists were honoured in the common way, and it fell to my lot to\nreply in a few words.  The Archbishop had, in a good-natured style,\nreferred to the cares and troubles of his right reverend brethren, and\nhimself.  Alluding to what he had said, I ventured to remark I was quite\ncontent with my humbler position, and had no aspirations after a seat on\nthe Episcopal Bench.  Further, I pleaded, as I always do, for catholic\nunion, and remarked that I strove to be a Christian first; next, a\npatriotic religious Englishman; and thirdly, a devout Dissenter, adding\nthat I should be ashamed of my Nonconformity, if that were so\nobstreperous, as to quarrel with the subordinate place I assigned to it.\n\nAt the close of the year 1882 Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, died.\nWith him I had the pleasure of being acquainted soon after his\nappointment to the See of London.  Our relations afterwards were very\nfriendly.  I was kindly invited to share in the pleasure of his Lambeth\nhospitality; and at a time of deep domestic sorrow he was one of the very\nfirst to express affectionate sympathy in a letter of condolence.  I\nfound him always very kind, and he impressed me with the conviction that\nin his judgment of Conformity and Nonconformity, and of the relative\nduties of Churchmen and Dissenters, he took much more sensible views than\nmost of his brethren.  He did not seem to anticipate, as at all probable,\nthe comprehension of all, or most, English Christians within the pale of\none community; since each denomination has its principles, its\ntraditions, and its trust property, and is not likely to merge its\npeculiarities in the adoption of others.  A wise, liberal, Christian\n_modus vivendi_ was the object of his desire.  I attended his funeral,\nand met in his residence at Addiscombe, a large number of clergymen, and\nmen of different opinions, drawn together by a common regard for his\neminent moral and religious worth.  The trees were bare, the ground was\ncovered with snow, and the long procession walked through the park, the\nwinter sun brightening the scene.  The whole struck me as very solemn,\nand in harmony with the occasion that had brought us together.\n\nMy journeys abroad were approaching an end when in 1882 my daughter and I\nspent a few weeks in Switzerland, on the shores of the Genevan lake, and\nin its neighbourhood.  One memorable expedition we made was to Grenoble\nand the Grande Chartreuse.  The monastery was difficult of access early\nin this century, but now there are well-appointed vehicles for conveying\ntourists from the railway to the gates of this romantic retreat.  The\nascent as far as Laurent du Pont is up a road lined with acacias,\nbordering barley fields, commanding glimpses of a magnificent valley,\nwith bosky dells, cut in twain by the river Isere.  The gorge to the\nright increases in grandeur as one ascends.  Purple rocks rise from\ndepths of massy verdure, sublimity succeeds beauty, and, after reaching a\nbroad mountain-girdled plain, one arrives at a halting place called\nLaurent du Pont.  Thence the road becomes more steep, winding along\nledges of rock, whence, through openings, one looks down on pine woods,\nand sees the stream fighting its way, like our contested passage through\nthis troublesome world.  We reached a thick forest at the top of the\npass, and came to the monastery\u2014a pile, of buildings sheltered on green\nuplands.  There were before us long walls, square towers, and steep\nroofs, dappled with dormer windows; here and there was a slender spire.\nThe buildings stand 4268 feet above the level of the sea, and one of the\ncorridors is 660 feet long.  The original foundation dates far back; but\nlittle of what one now sees is older than the seventeenth century.  The\nfounder was the famous Bruno, who, with six companions, retreated to this\nspot so secluded and desolate.  _Chartre_ signifies a prison, but it also\nexpresses what we mean by the word _charter_.  The buildings have been\nseven times destroyed, but in the seventeenth century the convent reached\nits meridian glory.\n\nNo sooner had we entered the penetralia of the building, than we saw\nnotices requesting visitors not to smoke, nor loiter, nor speak loudly;\nand in the distance were monks with white cloaks and cowls, gliding about\nlike ghosts from the other world.  Pictures of Carthusian convents were\nhanging on the corridor walls; and the Chapter House exhibited badly\npainted portraits of past generals.  Following our guide, we entered a\nvaulted cloister, with windows on one side and doors on the other,\nbearing texts of Scripture, such as \u201cNarrow is the way which leadeth unto\nlife,\u201d and \u201cWhosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath\ncannot be My disciple.\u201d  Stations of the Cross are hung upon the walls;\nthrough a window are caught glimpses of a green garden, bright and cheery\namidst sombre appearances all round.  The dormitories have each a\ncupboard-like bed, a little reading desk, a stove, directions for\nnovices, a statuette of the Virgin, and a crucifix.  There are workshops\nfitted up with lathes, and a small chapel with an altar cloth, covered\nwith skulls and cross-bones.  Inscriptions such as \u201cVanity of vanities,\nall is vanity,\u201d expressed the characteristic feeling of the inmates.  The\nlibrary is handsome, well fitted up, with beautifully bound books.\n\nVisitors are not admitted to the monastic chapel; but from a tribune they\nare permitted to look down on the ante-chapel, and witness matins at the\nappointed hour.  The brotherhood are remarkable for industry, being\ngraziers of cattle, and manufacturers of liqueurs.\n\nThe clock struck six just after we left the monastery, and a calm summer\nevening shone on the old walls, the green pastures, and the climbing\nwoods.  The pass, as we descended, struck us as almost equal to the Via\nMala in grandeur, united with beauties which the other scene can scarcely\nboast.  Road-making, tree-felling, saw-mills, iron works, distilleries,\ncement manufactories, told of widespread industry.  The old monastery lay\nbehind; modern enterprise stood out before.\n\nWe were rapidly driven through Laurent du Pont, as the star-studded sky,\nstreaked by the Milky Way, overarched the region.  We noticed glow-worms\nin the hedges, brought out by advancing night, and presently the wide\nvale at the foot of the descending road seemed dusted with bright-looking\nobjects like glow-worms; but they turned out to be the lamps of Voirons,\nwhere we took the train for Grenoble, and finished a day of remarkable\ninterest.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n1883\u20131885\n\n\nAT this period I was engaged in the preparation of \u201cThe Spanish\nReformers,\u201d and to give vividness to the work, with regard to local\nscenery and circumstances, I resolved in March 1883 to visit the\nPeninsula, where I might gather what was possible for the accomplishment\nof my purpose.\n\nMy daughter was my companion, and had been studying Spanish to render me\nassistance.  We travelled through France on our way to the north-east of\nSpain.\n\nWe halted at Lyons: in the neighbourhood of it persecution occurred in\nthe second century; but unlike what obtained in Spain three hundred years\nago, it was not the persecution of one class of Christians by another,\nbut the persecution of the Church by a heathen world.  We find embedded\nin the Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius a document giving an account of\nsufferings by believers at that time who were in the neighbourhood of\nLyons.  Vienne, with its glass houses and metal foundries, coalpits and\nsmoke, is now passed by travellers, without any interest; but in the\nsecond century it took precedence of Lyons, and had a flourishing Church,\na member of which\u2014Blandina, a maiden slave\u2014suffered death as the penalty\nof her faith. {315}\n\nWe tarried a night at Lyons, drove round the city, saw the cathedral and\nother buildings, and ascended a hill on which stands the church of Notre\nDame de Fourvi\u00e8res, covered and crowded with ex-votive offerings, in\nreturn for miraculous cures by the Virgin.  From the elevation views are\ncaught of extensive scenery.  Thence we proceeded to Arles, rich in Roman\nremains, including a magnificent amphitheatre.  The cathedral of St.\nTrophimus said to have been one of St. Paul\u2019s disciples, is an\ninteresting specimen of twelfth or thirteenth century architecture.\nThence we proceeded to Narbonne, a quaint old town, of importance in\nRoman times, with ramparts still of some interest, and quaint streets,\nthrough which we had an evening\u2019s ramble.  The cathedral of St. Just is\nan unfinished edifice of the thirteenth century, with some good tracery\nin the windows.  The city is distant from the sea only about eight miles.\nThence we proceeded to Perpignan, and, entering Spain, reached our\ndestination at Figueras, where we were kindly welcomed by our friends,\n{316} who are engaged in evangelistic work amongst Roman Catholic\nSpaniards.\n\nFigueras is a considerable town, which greatly interested us.  It was the\nday before Good Friday that we arrived, and we were much amused by a\nnumber of boys with wooden mallets vehemently beating the pavement, which\nwas explained to us as a custom indicative of hatred to the Jews for\nhaving crucified our Lord; what the Jews had to do with Figueras I could\nnot make out.  In the evening there was a procession through the streets\nof a truly magnificent description.  It consisted of the gentry in the\ntown, attired in antique Spanish costumes, and presented an imposing\nspectacle.  Ladies personated the Virgin Mary and other Scripture\ncharacters, and numerous candles carried by attendants made a splendid\nillumination.  On the following day, Good Friday, we had a drive into the\ncountry, where we saw and heard of what went on in the way of missionary\nwork conducted by our zealous friends.  In the evening we visited a\nneighbouring church which was illuminated, and crowded with people\nengaged in religious service.  After this, we saw in the streets a long\nprocession, including penitents, who were fettered with chains.\n\nFrom Figueras we travelled to Barcelona, a city rich in commercial\nenterprise and wealth, the streets crowded with people and enlivened by\ncarriages of grandees and wealthy merchants, as well as by vehicles\nemployed in humble traffic.  The cathedral is a noble edifice, in which\nwe attended Divine worship on Easter Sunday.  A priest with difficulty\nmade his way through a densely-crowded congregation to the altar steps,\nwhere he knelt and prayed, and then mounted a temporary pulpit.  As soon\nas he opened his lips, all eyes were turned towards him.  His voice was\nmarvellous and his attitudes were graceful; sometimes he was persuasive,\nthen indignant, always earnest; women wept, tears ran down men\u2019s cheeks.\nThe sermon was on our Lord\u2019s resurrection.  He insisted on our duty to\nremember Christ\u2014\u201cthe Way, the Truth, and the Life\u201d; and he showed the\neffect of this on the hearts and lives of believers.  He dwelt on the\nduty of repentance, and urged people to come to Christ.  In a touching\nmanner he referred to his own experience, and exhorted the congregation\nto believe, pray, and obey the Gospel; saying over and over again,\n\u201c_Haber f\u00e8_, _f\u00e8_, _f\u00e8_\u201d\u2014\u201cHave faith, faith, faith.\u201d\n\nI met with signs of Protestant work going on in Barcelona, and a\ngentleman residing there at the time, told me of what the British and\nForeign Bible Society was doing in Spain.  He gave it, as his opinion,\nthat it exceeded other instrumentalities in the efficiency of its\nservice.  I find it stated by a Spanish author, that Barcelona abounds in\nmendicancy, and I have, as I write, a woodcut before me representing a\npitiable crowd of beggars at one of the cathedral doors. {318}\n\nNext to Barcelona, we visited Tarragona, travelling there by rail.\nTarragona is situated on an eminence commanding a fine view of the\nMediterranean, and I was much interested in the architecture of the\ncathedral, a building of the eleventh century, fully described by Street\nin his work on \u201cThe Gothic Architecture of Spain.\u201d\n\nWhilst tarrying at Tarragona, I made an excursion to Poblet, rarely\nvisited by English, though frequented by French and German travellers.\nThis place is distinguished by monastic remains of extraordinary\nmagnificence.  You wander amongst courts, cloisters, and dormitories,\nthrough stately halls, which once boasted of a magnificent library rich\nin MSS.; through a palace appropriated for the use of royal and noble\nvisitants; and through a stately church with a nave of seven bays.  The\narchitectural grandeur of the whole is amazing; I was surprised to learn\nthat it is so rarely seen by our countrymen.  Kings and nobles were\nbrought there for interment, and in that respect it vies with our\nWestminster Abbey.  At Poblet shattered tombs may still be seen; and few,\nif any, but Spaniards of purest blood, were permitted to sleep within the\nmonastic walls.  A marble slab may be seen covering the remains of an\nEnglishman, described in the Spanish guide book as \u201cFelipe de, Marqu\u00e9se\nde Malbursi y de Cacharloch,\u201d etc.  Wharton was the English name of this\nwell-known personage, who was made Knight of the Garter by James II.  He\nhad become a Roman Catholic, but his father was a distinguished English\nNonconformist.\n\nOur next destination was Valencia, to which city we travelled by rail,\nenchanted as we approached it, by beautiful scenery which one does not\nfind abundant in Spain.  Augustus Hare breaks out rather rapturously\nrespecting his approach: \u201cDay broke in time to show us the first vision\nof tall palms, with their feathery foliage, rising black against one of\nTennyson\u2019s \u2018daffodil skies,\u2019 which above, still deep blue, was filled\nwith stars.\u201d  The groves and gardens appeared to me very beautiful; and\nthe soil is so fertile, that lucerne is sown fifteen times in the course\nof a year.  Valencia has battlemented walls; and its arched gate, the\nPuerta de Sarranos, reminds one of old English barbicans.  It is an\nOriental kind of place, and has charmingly arched entrances for\nlight\u2014_agimes_,\u2014_i.e._, openings by which the sun enters.  The city is\nfull of memories, connected with the Cid, which I have not space to\nintroduce; but I may mention that precursors of the Reformation entered\nthe city in 1350,\u2014under the name of Beghards, who figure rather\nprominently in the religious history of that period.\n\nThe Cathedral of Valencia is a noble edifice, and has one magnificent\nentrance of richly decorated Gothic.  There is, in the Colegio del\nPatriarca, a ceremony every week on Friday, which attracts a number of\npeople.  It consists in letting down an altar piece by concealed\nmachinery; and then, by withdrawing a curtain, there is disclosed a large\npicture of our Saviour on the Cross.  Those who assemble to witness this\nceremony, are required to appear in mourning.  I explored the city from\nend to end, and found it by no means so uninteresting as some represent\nit.\n\nWe started in the evening for Cordova, a long distance; but as it was\naccomplished in darkness, I noticed nothing by the way, except stoppages\nat stations and a change of trains.  We crossed the Sierra Morena, which,\nin some places, at least, must be very magnificent, if one may judge from\nan engraving of tall rocks facing each other, leaving scarcely room for\nmuleteers to pass between.  The approach to Cordova is inviting, and the\nMoorish city is beheld amidst a fertile region, across which runs the\nGuadalquivir.\n\nWe had been invited to take up our abode with an exemplary Scotch\nmissionary in the city.  The sojourn was in a quiet street at a\ncomfortable dwelling, with an open space in the middle of the residence,\nplanted with shrubs.  Upon this we looked down from windows in our\napartments.  One room on the ground floor is sufficiently large to\nreceive a congregation of about fifty people.  We were there on a Sunday\nand attended worship in the evening.\n\nThe Mosque of Cordova, now a cathedral, is one of the most wonderful\nbuildings in the world.  The surrounding walls are from thirty to\nsixty-feet high.  The courtyard measures 430 feet by 210.  Once there\nwere nineteen entrance gates, now there is but one.  Formerly there were\ninside the mosque 1200 monolithic columns, now there are only 850.  What\nis the _coro_, or choir, of the cathedral, was erected in the sixteenth\ncentury, after the Mohammedan mosque had become a Catholic church.  We\nhad pleasant walks and drives in the neighbourhood.\n\nThe next celebrated place in our route was the far-famed Granada, of\nwhich expectations were highly raised, without any disappointment.  We\nwandered about the Alhambra for several days.  The Hall of the Lions, the\nHall of the Ambassadors, and the Hall of the Abencerrages,\u2014with their\narches and columns, courts and colonnades, fountains and flowers,\u2014kept us\nspel-bound day by day.  We read Washington Irving on the fascinating\nspots which he describes so vividly.  We could but bow to his relentless\nfidelity, where he assures us that, after examining Arabic authorities\nand letters, written by Boabdil\u2019s contemporaries, he was convinced, that\nthe whole collection is fictitious with a few grains of truth at the\nbottom.\n\nThe fame of the Alhambra swallows up all which is wonderful in Granada,\nbut, the city retains much besides worthy of a traveller\u2019s attention.\nThe prospect you have of the place, the plain, and the surrounding hills,\nis magnificent; and the cathedral, commenced in 1529, after the defeat\nand banishment of the Moors, is a building of architectural interest.  It\ncontains the Capella Real, with the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella; also\nof Philip the Handsome, and his wife Juana, \u201cCrazy Jane,\u201d as she was\ncalled, mother of the famous Charles V.  The granddaughter tells us: \u201cShe\ncommitted her soul to God and gave thanks to Him, that, at length, He\ndelivered her from all her sorrows.\u201d  In connection with the cathedral,\nwe meet with Fernando de Talavera, better known by Spaniards than by\nEnglishmen.  Though he remained a Roman Catholic, he deviated from the\ncommon opinions and usages of his age.  The Carthusians have a monastery\noutside the city, and on visiting it, I found pictures of English\npriests, reported to have been martyrs at the period of the Reformation.\nNo doubt their sufferings are exaggerated on the monastic walls, but it\nis a fact, beyond reasonable doubt, that there were Roman Catholics put\nto death by English Protestants.\n\nWe started one morning from Granada for Seville, and, on crossing the\nVega by the railway, we saw a good barley crop in the month of April.  At\nBobadillo, we got on the Seville line, and found the country improve as\nwe came near to the city on the banks of the Guadalquivir.  There,\ninstead of antique and uncomfortable _fondas_, travellers meet with\nspacious and well-furnished hotels.  We tarried several days in the city.\n\nThe cathedral, of course, was the first object of interest; and, as soon\nas possible, we repaired to it, and received an overpowering impression,\nas we looked above, beneath, around.  Above there is the magnificent\nroof, spanning the breadth of the temple; beneath there lies a large slab\ncovering the remains, not, as sometimes supposed, of Columbus, who\ndiscovered America, but of Fernando, his son.  In Holy Week an immense\nGreek cross, carved in wood, is raised over the spot, and lighted up so\nas to produce an indescribable effect.  The _coro_, or choir, is as\ngrand, though in another way, as the nave which leads up to it.  In an\nupper part of the edifice there are preserved MSS. and other memorials of\nunrivalled Spanish discoveries, and they were freely shown to us.  We\nwent to the Museum, and feasted on Murillo\u2019s pictures.  We were also\ntaken by a friend to see another work of the same artist, since\npresented, I am told, to the Pope.\n\nSeville was headquarters of the Protestant cause.  The Reformation did\nnot penetrate much below the hidalgo class.  It left the masses almost\nuntouched.  In Seville stood the Inquisition prison, till it was removed\nto a palace in the Calle san Mario.  \u201cHere,\u201d says Mr. Wiffen in 1842,\n\u201cwhile gazing on the edifice with feelings of awe, I recalled to\nremembrance those martyrs for the truth, and, at the same time, I\nlistened with painful interest to the narration made to me by a Spanish\ngentleman, of an attack on those very premises at a recent period by an\ninfuriated populace, who suffered but few of the friars confined there\nfor political offences, to escape with life.  The building having taken\nfire some perished in the flames, while others fell by the hands of the\nassassins.\u201d  The tables were turned just then, priests were in prison for\npolitical crimes, as heretics had been incarcerated in the sixteenth\ncentury.\n\nOld Venetian political policy was carried out against Protestantism, and\nthe Inquisition office, with opened ears, listened for whisperings of\nheresy.  Horrors went on in secret places.  I cannot relate them, but\nthey may be found in what is written by Limborch and Llorente.  A few\nmiles from Seville is the monastery of San Isidore\u2014the cradle of the\nSpanish Reformation\u2014and I visited the building with deep interest.  The\nchapel remains in tolerable repair, and is used as a parish church.  The\nchapter-house, sacristy and cloisters are preserved.  Ancient pictures\nhang on the walls, and old embroidered vestments are shown to visitors.\nBibles and Protestant books were of old secretly brought within the\nwalls, and monks began to read them.\n\nI have described Seville Cathedral and its treasures at some length in my\nvolume on \u201cSpanish Reformers, their Memories and Dwelling Places.\u201d  I\ncannot repeat here what has been said there.  But let me say, the city is\nfull of interest to travellers, hotels are comfortable, shops are well\nstocked with curiosities, manufactories are hives of industry, and\npictures by great masters are found in churches and private houses.  I\nwas enchanted with some of the Murillos, and would advise every traveller\nto visit the Sala de Murillo in Seville.\n\nI should have been glad to have prolonged my stay, and to have revisited\nspots full of historic interest.  But I had much before me to see and\nstudy in the interior and north of Spain; therefore, though unwillingly,\nwe took the train one night for Madrid, making that a starting point for\nother explorations.\n\nI may mention that during our stay at Madrid we were entertained in a\ncurious straggling house, occupied by Dr. Fliedner, a minister, who acted\nas chaplain to the German Embassy.  The house, it is said, was occupied\nby the famous Escovedo, secretary to the still more famous Don Juan of\nAustria; and one night as he was returning home six ruffians waylaid him,\nbetween eight and nine o\u2019clock, and inflicted on him wounds, of which he\ndied in half an hour.  Peres, a great villain who hated Don Juan, is said\nto have obtained the sanction of Philip II. for this abominable deed,\nprompted by the discovery of an amour between Escovedo and the Princess\nof Eboli.  It is a horrible story of crime and vice, common in the secret\nannals of Spain.\n\nIn Madrid I had the privilege of using the public library, and found\nthere a large collection of English and French, as well as Spanish,\nliterature.  I am sorry to say, that on the shelves, many volumes in our\nlanguage appeared, written by \u201cadvanced thinkers,\u201d tending to the\ndiffusion of anti-Christian principles.  And, in the windows of\nbooksellers I noticed works for sale of the same description.  The Bible\nSociety I found at work within limits marked by law, and I attended one\nevening a Spanish congregation gathered by Protestant agency, and had the\nprivilege of addressing those present, through the medium of an\ninterpreter.  I met with specimens of Spanish superstition which were\nvery degrading.  In one case I saw papers, with a figure of the Virgin\u2019s\nshoe printed upon them, sold to ignorant people as a sacred charm.\n\nThe Plaza at Madrid is a magnificent square, encompassed by a line of\nhandsome buildings with a garden, fountains, and an equestrian statue of\nPhilip III. in the middle.  Here some of the _autos_ were held in the\nseventeenth century, and in 1869 excavations were made, where\nincontestable proofs of burnings appeared in bones, charred wood, chain\nlinks, nails and rivets discovered in the soil.  Dr. Manning, in his\n\u201cSpanish Pictures,\u201d wrote soon after the discovery: \u201cI visited the spot,\nand much as I had heard of the horrors of the Quemadore, I was not\nprepared for the sight I beheld; layer above layer, like the strata of a\ngeological model, were these silent, but most eloquent witnesses of the\nmurderous cruelty of Rome.\u201d\n\nI may here add that I saw other mementoes of the Spanish Inquisition in\nunderground vaults connected with a house occupied by the Rev. Mr.\nJameson, a Presbyterian clergyman at work in Madrid.  I found recesses\nwalled up, which it was said had been cells in the days of persecution.\n\nOf course, I visited the immense picture-gallery in Madrid; but the size\nand number of rooms with multitudes of paintings on the walls, were so\nbewildering, as to make only a confused impression on my mind.  Spanish\nart has not the charm for me which it has for many.  Velasquez and\nMurillo, of course, are pre-eminent.  The latter stands first of all in\nmy estimation.  No one, who has seen only the dirty beggar boys at\nDulwich, can have any conception of Murillo\u2019s merits.  It is in Seville,\nhowever, that he must be studied, if any one would see him at his best.\nI found no Murillo in Madrid which charmed me like those it was my\nprivilege to enjoy in the Capital of the South.  There is a good chapter\non Velasquez and Murillo in Sir E. Head\u2019s \u201cHandbook of Painting\u2014Spanish\nSchool.\u201d\n\n\u201cVelasquez and Murillo are preferred, and preferred with reason, to all\nthe others, as the most original and characteristic of their school.\nThese two great painters are remarkable for having lived in the same\ntime, in the same school, painted for the same people and of the same\nage, and yet to have formed two styles so different and opposite that the\nmost unlearned can scarcely mistake them, Murillo being all softness,\nwhile Velasquez is all sparkle and vivacity.\u201d {329}\n\nA curious story is told of a picture by Velasquez\u2014the portrait of Adrian\nPulido Pareja.  Philip IV. coming, as usual, to see the artist at work,\nstarted when he saw this portrait, and addressing himself to it,\nexclaimed: \u201cWhat, art thou still here?  Did I not send thee off?  How is\nit thou art not gone?\u201d  But seeing the figure did not salute him, the\nKing discovered his mistake, and, turning to Velasquez, said: \u201cI assure\nyou I was deceived.\u201d\n\nWe visited the Escorial some distance from Madrid.  Philip II. is buried\nthere.  Its situation is wild and desolate\u2014a vast expanse of undulations,\nscarcely to be called mountainous, except in the distance, where\nsnow-streaked sierras send cutting blasts over the slate roofs and\nagainst the grey stone walls.  The building itself looks like a\nmanufactory, at best like spacious barracks; one may think it something\nbetween a prison and a convent, or rather a combination of the two; at\nany rate its cold, stern, repulsive exterior is a fair type of the\nbuilder\u2019s character and influence.  The only objects of much interest,\nand they are in truth most melancholy, one finds in the monkish\napartments, the monastic chapel, and the costly sepulchre of the founder\nand his family.  A long and narrow room is shown with brick floor and\nleathern chairs, where he dined.  Next to it is another, only separated\nby folding doors, from which, when open, the despot borrowed the light by\nwhich he wrote his despatches.  In this room is a plain oak table, with\nthree brass ink bottles on one side, and a velvet writing-case in the\nmiddle; these, with the leather-bottomed chair on which he sat, are\ncarefully preserved.  From this room you pass into a third, low and dark,\na mere cell, whence through an opening in the wall, the altar of the\nmonastery chapel may be seen; there he spent his last hours, after being,\nlike his prototype Herod, smitten by an angel of the Lord, and eaten up\nof worms; no death could be more horrible.  That chapel is an enormous\nmarble building, most costly, most dreary, and into one corner of the\n_coro_ he would sometimes steal, to perform his devotions with the\nJeronymite brotherhood.  The sepulchre under the high altar is reached by\na slippery marble staircase; and round the sides of the vault are placed\nsarcophagi, one above another; Charles V. occupies the topmost position,\nPhilip being placed under his father.  The dismalness of the spot is\nunrelieved by any emblem or suggestion of Christian hope: not even such a\nray falls over it as that which lighted up the mind of the heathen\nCicero, when he spoke of meeting in the future life an assembly of noble\nsouls.\n\nToledo is about forty miles from Madrid, and is easily reached by rail.\nScenery on the way is uninteresting till you get near the city, when,\ncrossing the bridge over the Tagus, you are reminded of the rocky seat on\nwhich sits Durham Cathedral.  Winding through narrow streets of the city\nand past Moorish-looking entrances into courts, called _patios_, I\nthought Toledo was a sort of album, with ornamented leaves on one side,\nand romantic legends on the other.  At the foot of St. Martin\u2019s bridge\nlies a cave, where Roderic, the last of the Goths, saw the lady whose\nseduction caused the Moorish invasion; which invasion robbed the monarch\nof his crown.  The cathedral is grand indeed.  The cloisters are full of\nrich tracery, elegant pilasters crowned with statuettes, and open windows\nadorned by elaborate tracery.  The interior is worthy of its surroundings\nand its approach; and I was deeply interested in the Mozarabic chapel.\nThere is preserved a thin folio, bearing the name of the chapel, and\ncontaining a Latin service, used there every day.  With it is connected\nan absurd tradition, the story and meaning of which are disputed by\narch\u00e6ologists.  With the cathedral you have connected the name of\nBartolomo Carranza, called the Black Friar, whose long story is entwined\nround the Council of Trent, and with Philip of Spain, who married the\nEnglish Queen Mary.  He attended Charles V. on his deathbed, and was\naccused of heresy; and yet the Pope raised for him a monument in\ncommemoration of his virtues.  It is said Carranza believed in the\ndoctrine of Justification by Faith; and his history from beginning to end\nappears to me a hopeless puzzle. {333}\n\nIn Toledo is the \u201cSquare Market,\u201d as it is called; and here occurred\nbullfights and burnings,\u2014one of the latter in 1560, when Philip II. was\npresent.\n\nWe returned from Toledo to Madrid and leaving the capital, a week or so\nafterwards, travelled to Valladolid.  The chief, indeed the only,\narchitectural monument in Valladolid is found in the combined edifices of\nSan Pablo\u2019s Church, and San Gregorio\u2019s College.  The facade of the former\nis an elaborate example of Gothic flamboyant; but the gateway of the\nlatter with its heraldic ornaments, coats of arms, statues in niches, and\nnumerous figures, has a bewildering effect.  Columbus and Cervantes both\nresided in this city; the former died in the Calle de Colon, the latter\nwrote the first part of \u201cDon Quixote\u201d in the Calle de Rastro.\n\nFord, in his voluminous \u201cGuide to Spain,\u201d at the beginning of a notice\nrespecting Valladolid, says: \u201cIn the first street, above the bridge, is\nthe site of the old Inquisition, the Court of Chancery, and the prison\u201d;\nadding the remark: \u201cThe great Chancery or Court of Appeal for the north\nof Spain was moved to the present building by Ferdinand and Isabella.\nThe inscribed motto, \u2018_Jura fidem ac p\u00e6nam reddit sua munera\ncunctus_\u2019\u2014seems rather strong, to all who know what Spanish _justitia_\nis, let alone Chancery in general.\u201d\n\nIncipient stages of reformation come before us in this city.  One sees in\nimagination \u201cThe Calle del Doctor Cazalla,\u201d of Jewish extraction, a man\nof renown for his Protestant work, born in 1510; he had been Court\npreacher and champion of orthodoxy, until he came under the influence of\nGerman reformers.  But he seems by no means to have been a Martin Luther,\nfor, when he was accused of dogmatising in a Valladolid conventicle, he\nsolemnly denied the fact, and said he had not _indoctrinated_ other\npeople with his own views.  His end was not heroic.  After being\ndislocated on the rack, he recanted with a hope of life, but he found no\nescape.  The night before his execution, when acquainted with the final\nsentence, the poor man said, \u201cI must prepare to die in the grace of God,\nfor it is impossible for me to add to what I have said, without\nfalsehood.\u201d  We learn that, after all, he did not break with Rome, but\nreceived absolution; and then, instead of being burnt, he was strangled.\nHis house was pulled down, the spot strewn with salt, and a column placed\nwhere the building had stood.  An inscription upon it stated: \u201cLutheran\nheretics assembled here in conventicle against the Catholic faith and the\nRoman Church.\u201d  A namesake, Francesco de Vibero Cazalla, more valiant for\nthe truth, remained constant to the last.  Another martyr behaved\nheroically, only lamenting that his wife abjured, and he saw her dressed\nas a penitent.  But we are told the husband\u2019s look never departed from\nher eyes.  In my \u201cSpanish Reformers\u201d I have given a detailed account of\nseveral sufferers for the truth at Valladolid.\n\nOf the cathedral, Street, in his work on \u201cSpanish Architecture,\u201d says:\n\u201cNothing could ever cure the hideous unsightliness of the exterior\u201d; and\nhe adds: \u201cThe side elevation remains as Herrera, the architect, designed\nit, and is really valuable as _a warning_.\u201d  The author describes Sta.\nMaria l\u2019Antigua, close to the cathedral, as the most attractive church in\nValladolid.  He says of the city: \u201cIt was too rich and prosperous, during\nan age of much work, and little taste, to have left medi\u00e6val architecture\nof any real value; yet as a modern city it is, in parts, gay and\nattractive; being, after Madrid, the most important city of the north of\nSpain.\u201d  From what I saw of the place, I can endorse this opinion.\n\nWe reached Burgos, after a short journey, and found the town much less\ninteresting and agreeable than Valladolid, but the cathedral is\nincomparably superior.  The picture of its facade, doors, windows, and\ntowers, is vividly imprinted on my memory.\n\nWe were now approaching the border of France, and I had memories revived\nof a first dip into Spain, years before.  Though the land be still the\nsame and the skies the same, different feelings arise from departure out\nof a country, compared with one\u2019s entrance into it.  We reached a new and\nvery comfortable hotel at San Sebastian, and there I revived\nrecollections of curiosity and interest, felt years before, when I first\ncrossed the border and became acquainted with the costumes, the manners\nand customs of Spanish life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n1885\n\n\nTHIS year I paid my third and last visit to Rome.  A comparison of the\ncity and neighbourhood as they were during my first visit with what now\nappeared, was very striking.  Formerly it retained much of the appearance\nit had in the previous century.  There were narrow streets, bad\npavements, old-fashioned houses; monks and friars of different orders,\nwhite, black, grey, thronging thoroughfares; cardinals\u2019 coaches with\nliveried servants, in gay coats and cocked hats; the Pope, driving down\nthe Corso, whilst the whole population watched him with reverence on\nbended knees: now these old sights had vanished; comparatively few\necclesiastics could be recognised by their costumes; only companies of\nboys, in red or blue collegiate garb, attracted attention by contrast\nwith other people.  At Easter in the olden time the ceremonies at St.\nPeter\u2019s were gorgeous, the illumination of the dome brilliant, the\nfireworks in the Piazza del Popolo unrivalled: now Mass on Easter Sunday\nwas far from imposing, there was no feet washing, no dinner to poor\npilgrims, no _Miserere_ in the Sistine chapel, no blaze of candles in the\nPauline.  The Forum had formerly lines of trees, groups of cattle,\npeasants in rural costume; now marble sculptures had been brought to\nlight.  The neighbourhood of St. John Lateran had been waste and void;\nnow it was covered with modern houses.  What a change in the Fontana,\noutside Rome, the traditional site of St. Paul\u2019s martyrdom.  The\nmonastery, when I had seen it before was desolate, now it was surrounded\nby abundant vegetation; the culture of the eucalyptus plant being the\nsecret of this transformation.\n\nHare laments, in the following strain, changes which had occurred in the\ncity and were to be regretted:\u2014\n\n    \u201cThe baths of Caracalla, stripped of all their verdure and shrubs,\n    and deprived alike of the tufted foliage amid which Shelley wrote,\n    and of the flowery carpet which so greatly enhanced their lonely\n    solemnity, are now a series of bare featureless walls standing in a\n    gravelly waste, and possess no more attraction than the ruins of a\n    London warehouse.  The Coliseum, no longer \u2018a garlanded ring,\u2019 is\n    bereaved of everything which made it so lovely and so picturesque;\n    while botanists must for ever deplore the incomparable and strangely\n    unique \u2018Flora of the Coliseum,\u2019 which Signor Rosa has caused to be\n    carefully annihilated; even the roots of the shrubs having been\n    extracted by the firemen, though, in pulling them out, more of the\n    building has come down than five hundred years of time would have\n    injured.  In the Basilica of Constantine, the whole of the beautiful\n    covering of shrubs with which nature had protected the vast arches,\n    has been removed, and the rain soaking into the unprotected upper\n    surface, will soon bring them down.  Nor has the work of the\n    destroyer been confined to the Pagan antiquities, the early Christian\n    porches of S. Prassede and S. Pudenziana, with their valuable\n    terra-cotta ornaments, have been so smeared with paint and\n    yellow-wash as to be irrecognisable; many smaller but precious\n    Christian antiquities, such as the lion of the Santi Apostoli, have\n    disappeared altogether.  And in return for these destructions and\n    abductions Rome has been given\u2014what?  Quantities of hideous false\n    rock-work painted brown in all the public gardens; a Swiss cottage\n    and a clock which goes by water forced in amidst the statues and\n    sarcophagi of the Pincio; and the having the passages of the Capitol\n    painted all over with the most flaring scarlet and blue, so as\n    utterly to destroy the repose and splendour of its ancient statues.\u201d\n\nWe visited a very old house in the Ghetto, where at the time services\nwere held by a company of Jewish converts.  Rude, uncomfortable and mean,\nthe place looked to any one accustomed to modern churches; yet that\ndreary apartment, up a flight of stairs, was typical of places for\nChristian worship in the imperial city of the second century.  Few\nfashionable people know the existence of the room I mention, and\nattendants shyly ascend the dirty steps, wishing to be unobserved; just\nso, no doubt, it was with some of the companies in the second century who\nin Rome \u201csang praises to Jesus as to God.\u201d  In the reigns of Trajan,\nHadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, little was known about the\nGospel by the higher ranks.  Emperors, consuls, magistrates, marched\nalong the streets in haughty indifference, or with contemptuous hate\ntowards the new superstition.\n\nMuch inquiry has arisen as to where Paul lived during his captivity in\nRome.  A local tradition affirms that in a subterranean church dedicated\nto the Virgin Mary, which you pass going down the Corso, you have the\nvery \u201chired house,\u201d where for two years the Apostle lived.  In the\ncrypt-like place, there is nothing which looks like a human dwelling; and\nthe tradition itself, in a city where such traditions abound, is of\nlittle if any value.  A house in the Ghetto, extremely ancient, was\npointed out to me by Dr. Philip, a Jewish missionary, as the probable\nspot; but his idea seems to have had nothing to rest upon, except that\nthis old building is in the Jews\u2019 quarter.  What is fatal to the\nidentification of the \u201chired house\u201d in either of these spots is that the\nNew Testament indicates it as connected with lodgings occupied by the\nPretorian guard.  The \u201csoldier that kept him\u201d would not be far away from\ncomrades; and soldiers in general would be accommodated in the Pretorian\ncamp, of which traces exist near the Porta Pia\u2014a long distance from the\nCorso and the Ghetto.\n\nMy third visit to Rome was the close of my foreign travels.  A word more\nin reference to them.  Most frequently on my way to other countries, I\npassed through France to Paris, either by Calais and Amiens, or by Havre\nand Rouen.  Let me refer for a moment to the cathedral at Amiens, one of\nthe wonders of the world\u2014the largest place of worship I know, except\nCologne Cathedral, St. Peter\u2019s at Rome, and St. Sophia at Constantinople.\nIt takes away one\u2019s breath to look up at its rich clerestory, and its\nroof, 140 feet high, half as high again as that of Westminster Abbey.\nRouen has architectural beauty, and an historical interest beyond other\nFrench cities.  The Church of St. Ouen surpasses the cathedral, and the\nPalais de Justice is a beautiful specimen of Civic Gothic.  But\nassociations of what happened in that city, during the fifteenth century,\nsurpass its material monuments.  Poor Joan of Arc\u2014most touching example\nof self-delusion and self-sacrifice the world ever saw\u2014how she absorbs\ninterest as one stands in the Place de Pucelle, where she was burnt, the\nvictim of French ingratitude and English revenge!  Paris is so well known\nby everybody that no notice need be taken of it here.\n\nWe now return to Great Britain.\n\nIn the autumn of 1885 the Evangelical Alliance met at Edinburgh and\nGlasgow, and in the latter city I was entertained by the Lord Provost,\nSir William and Lady Collins, and met there, Admiral Sir W. King Hall and\nhis lady, with whom a pleasant friendship sprang up, and I accepted an\ninvitation to visit them at their home, but his death soon afterwards\ndeprived me of the anticipated pleasure.  They appeared to me spiritually\nminded people; their society with that of our excellent host and hostess\nfilled me with great pleasure.  At the meeting I lamented, as I am\naccustomed to do, our numerous ecclesiastical divisions.  \u201cHere we are as\nChristians connected with denominational churches, and we may be compared\nto persons living in an island city, where we have our own municipal\nregulations, where some are in what may be called Episcopalian Square,\nsome occupying Methodist Terrace, some residing in Congregational Road,\nand some liking to live by the waterside.  Whilst these differences exist\namongst us in this world, surely it sometimes crosses our minds that they\nare distinctions of a very temporary nature.  The things which are seen\nare temporal, but the things not seen are eternal.  We are looking away\nfrom what is familiar to what is now rare indeed\u2014perfect unity.\u201d\n\nI have long found it to be one of the sorrows incident to old age to\nlament the loss of attached friends.  In this respect I was much tried in\nthe year 1886, for I had then to deplore the death of Lord Chichester,\nwho became acquainted with me through the medium of the Evangelical\nAlliance about twenty years before.  Of late he was unable to attend\nmeetings, but our intercourse in private continued and increased as years\nrolled on.  Descendant of Sir John Pelham, who figured in the French\nwars, described by Froissart, and an immediate relative of a well-known\npolitical family of the same name in the last century,\u2014the Earl became an\nearnest Christian and an active philanthropist for more than half a\ncentury.  Possessed of wide and varied information respecting men and\nthings, and being eminently genial and altogether free from ostentation,\nhis society could not but be agreeable and instructive.  It was a treat\nto hear him recount incidents and conversations of former days.  At\ndifferent times he brought within view George IV., William IV., the Duke\nof Wellington, leaders of the Whig party, and other magnates.  He told me\nthat when approaching his majority his father proposed that he should\nenter the House of Commons, and the Duke of Newcastle promised him a seat\nfor Newark.  Before an election arrived the father of young Lord Pelham\ndied, and the son became a peer.  It is remarkable that the seat intended\nfor him in the Lower House was next occupied by the now famous William\nEwart Gladstone.  \u201cThe Grand Old Man,\u201d in conversation with my friend not\nlong before his death, speculated, in his characteristic way, upon\npossible consequences to each, had the seat been accepted by young Lord\nPelham.  With the Hare family, the Osbornes of the ducal house of Leeds,\nthe Rev. F. D. Maurice, and other distinguished persons, the Earl had\nbeen intimate, and could tell many a story about them.  Though a thorough\nEvangelical, and zealous for all the great truths of Christianity, he was\nsingularly free from prejudice against people of different views.  He\ncould appreciate goodness wherever it was to be found.\n\nThe Prince Regent, with old Queen Charlotte, paid a visit to Stanmer, the\nfamily seat, near Brighton, when the Earl was a boy, and an amusing\npicture in one of the rooms exhibits his Royal Highness in dandy\nfashion\u2014his diminutive mother wearing a wonderful bonnet, the former earl\nacting as cicerone, and his eldest boy riding on a smart pony.  The\nStanmer Pelhams are descended, on the female side, from Oliver Cromwell,\nand have in their possession the Lord Protector\u2019s Bible in four volumes,\na miniature of him, which, I think, belonged to Lady Falconbridge, and a\nportrait of His Highness\u2019s mother.  It is curious to find these\nCommonwealth relics associated with mementoes in the family arms,\u2014I refer\nto the buckle and strap of Sir John Pelham, who assisted in taking King\nJohn of France prisoner at the battle of Poitiers.  In addition to these\nmemorials, mention may be made of a fine copy in the library of Walton\u2019s\n\u201cPolyglot,\u201d with the rare preface containing a reference to Oliver\nCromwell.\n\nSoon after the death of Lord Chichester I lost another friend, Mr.\nCheetham, M.P.  His daughters were educated at Kensington, and hence an\nintimacy sprang up between us, cultivated by visits to Eastwood, near\nStaleybridge, where he resided.  He was a shrewd, energetic man, and\nfigured conspicuously in the Anti-Corn Law League.  His command of the\nLancashire dialect, and his knowledge of Lancashire life, made him an\namusing companion, and Lord John Russell would sometimes engage him in\ncharacteristic recitals, greatly to his lordship\u2019s diversion.  Mr.\nCheetham had in early life known much of the Moravians, and ever retained\na deep interest in that remarkable community, though to the end of life\nhe remained a constant member of the Congregational communion.  I have\nlong been of Dr. Johnson\u2019s mind: \u201cIf a man does not make new\nacquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left\nalone.  A man, sir, should keep _his friendships in constant repair_.\u201d\nOn that principle I have habitually sought to make up for losses from\nbereavement.\n\nHere let me add a few lines respecting the Archbishop of York, Dr. Magee,\npreviously Bishop of Peterborough.\n\nI first met him at Norwich where we took part in a Bible Meeting, and in\nthe course of my remarks I spoke of \u201csinking ecclesiastical differences\u201d\non such an occasion.  Dr. Magee, then Dean of Cork, made an amusing\nreference to this, and repeated it with kindness and humour the next day,\nas we travelled together by rail to London.  We talked incessantly and at\nthe end he pressed me to visit him at Cork.  Several years passed without\nour meeting, and then at a funeral service in Westminster Abbey, he\nkindly accosted me, saying, that as I had not been to see him at Cork, I\nmust go and see him at Peterborough, where, not long before, he had been\nappointed bishop.  Several visits followed, which I greatly enjoyed.  My\nimpression of him as a brilliant talker, which I received on our journey\nfrom Norwich to London, was now increased, and nothing could exceed his\nhospitality and that of his amiable wife and daughters.  We had several\ndrives; and one day we sat down together in a picturesque churchyard to\ndiscuss ecclesiastical questions, where, as he said, the associations and\n\u201c_genius loci_\u201d were on his side.  I forget altogether what passed\nbetween us, beyond a series of _pros_ and _cons_, and can only say that\nwe finished as we began\u2014he a Churchman, I a Nonconformist, but both good\nfriends.  Once when I was at Peterborough I heard him preach in the\nCathedral for the Bible Society, on the jubilee of the auxiliary, when he\ntook for his text two passages: \u201cIs not this the carpenter\u2019s son?\u201d  \u201cThe\nWord was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the\nglory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\u201d\nHe admirably brought out the Divine and human sides of our blessed Lord\u2019s\npersonality and then presented this as being in harmony with the Divine\nand human elements in Holy Writ.  As is well known, he did not use a MS.\nin the pulpit; nor, as he told me, was he in the habit of _writing_ his\nsermons beforehand.  He seems to have had the gift of mental composition,\nand also of expressing himself extemporaneously in felicitous diction and\nwith quiet ease.  Nor was he at all verbose, as many fluent speakers are.\n\nHe could tell a story as few people can, sparkling with humour, and\ndistinct in point.  I remember two he told of Dean Mansel.  Taking a lady\nround St. Paul\u2019s, she paused to look at a figure of Neptune with his\n_trident_, remarking that she was shocked at seeing in a church such\nheathen mythology.  \u201cWhy,\u201d rejoined the Dean, \u201cthat looks more like\n_Tridentine_ theology.\u201d  At a public dinner, after a toast to Reform\u2014the\nword on the paper had an _e_ at the end\u2014\u201cReform,\u201d the Dean remarked,\n\u201coften ended in an _\u00e9meute_.\u201d\n\nAs I was preparing for my journey in Spain I met the Bishop at the\nAthen\u00e6um, when he told me he was doing the same, and proposed we should\ngo together, adding that he could help me with his knowledge of Spanish.\nI had heard him speak of his residence in Spain when he was a boy, and I\nshould have been delighted to fall in with his plan, but found it quite\nimpossible beforehand with regard to time.  However, we agreed to inquire\nafter each other at consular offices, as we passed from place to place;\nbut I found I was always too late, or too soon.  When I called at an\nhotel in Madrid, where he had been staying, I learned he had just left\nfor the railway; and after our return, he told me his daughter saw me in\nthe street as they were hurrying to catch a train.\n\nHow many remarkable facts have been related within the last few years\nrespecting old English houses and estates!\n\nDuring a visit to Lord Ebury, at Moor Park, he told me the mansion he\noccupied had been in the hands of many distinguished families; and that\nreminds one of what is said in the Eastern tale: \u201cCall it not a palace\nbut a caravanserai.\u201d  It belonged to the Abbot of St. Albans; to Neville,\nArchbishop of York; to Henry VII.; to De Vere, Earl of Oxford; to\nCardinal Wolsey; to Lucy, Countess of Bedford; to Sir John Franklin; to\nthe Earl of Ossory, who sold it to the Duke of Monmouth, whose Duchess\nsold it to Mr. Styles, of South Sea Bubble notoriety, to be afterwards\npurchased by Lord Anson.  After changing owners again and again, it was\nsecured by the Marquis of Westminster for his son.  Lord Ebury informed\nme it had never remained in the same family more than two generations.\nThere runs a curious story of the Lady of the Earl of Monmouth, who\npossessed the estate in the seventeenth century,\u2014that her ladyship\nprotested against the intention of James I., to put his son Prince\nCharles \u201cinto iron boots, to strengthen his joints and sinews\u201d; for he\nseemed to have been physically as a boy what he was, in some respects,\nmorally as a man\u2014very _weak-kneed_.\n\nIn the course of my recollections, I have had much to say of foreign\ntours, and also of journeys in different parts of England for various\nreligious purposes; but, in drawing my personal narrative to a close, I\nam constrained to add a few lines, respecting visits to friends in my own\ncounty, where I have enjoyed welcome rests amidst ministerial toils.\n\nOne spot, long years ago, where I was wont to seek recreation was\nLetheringsett Hall, near Holt, in my native county, Norfolk.  There still\nlives Mr. Cozens-Hardy, whom I knew as a boy, about five years old, in\ndays when we worshipped in Calvert Street Chapel, Norwich.  He married a\nlady whom I recollect as a girl, and who was long the light of his\ndwelling, well known to numerous guests.  They hospitably entertained me\nin many of my summer holidays, and drove me round the neighbourhood\ncalled \u201cThe Garden of Norfolk.\u201d  Respecting his beloved wife, let me\nquote words which I wrote for a short family memorial of her: \u201cMy last\ntwo or three visits found her weak and frail, but yet a good deal of her\nold buoyancy would come back as we sat chatting round the fire.  She\nseemed to have a quiet faith in the blessed Gospel, but with some shadows\nof doubt and fear respecting herself.  No bold, self-asserting\nprofessions, as is the case with some, but a genuine sympathy in\nreference to the fundamental truths of the Gospel, which form the\nresting-place of all true believers.  She seemed to know more of the\nValley of Humiliation than of the Land of Beulah; not often climbing the\nDelectable Mountains, but by no means a prisoner in Doubting Castle.\u201d\nHer good husband has for many years been the main supporter of the\nMethodist Society in Holt, and his son, the eminent Q.C., has been for\nmany years a member of the Congregational Church at Kensington.  The\nlarge-hearted Mr. Colman, M.P. for Norwich, married Mr. Cozens-Hardy\u2019s\neldest daughter, and in their hospitable homes at Carrow and Corton I\nhave spent many a happy day.\n\nI may add here that amongst delightful sojourns in English homes, I\ngratefully reckon Stanley Park, the residence of Sir Samuel Marling; a\nmarine villa at Dawlish, belonging to Sir Thomas Lea, Bart., also his\nhome at Kidderminster; the beautiful Quinta on the Welsh border,\nbelonging to Colonel Barnes; and the marine residence of Miss Cheetham,\none of my interesting school-girls at Kensington.\n\nDuring the later portion of my residence in Kensington, there was a\nconsiderable increase of Roman Catholics residing in the neighbourhood.\nWhen I first went to it, a small place of worship sufficed to meet their\nwants, but before I left, a large church was built near the Vicarage, and\nanother in the high road, partly hidden by buildings in front.  After the\nformation of a Westminster Archiepiscopal see, the last-named edifice\nbecame a pro-cathedral, where Cardinal Manning sometimes officiated.  As\nI did not hear of numerous conversions, in the neighbourhood, to the\nRomish faith, I was curious to know whence the increase arose, and one\nday I had a long conversation on the subject with Monsignor Capel.  He\ninformed me that it was owing largely to an increase in the number of\npriests who had come to reside in the place, and who attracted many\nretired people who were desirous of opportunities for confession and\nspiritual advice.\n\nHence, I gathered that the increase of Catholics in the neighbourhood did\nnot arise from local conversions; this explained what had been a matter\nof wonder.  The Monsignor was very sociable and communicative, and gave\nmuch information about Romanism, its usages and dignitaries.  He had a\ngreat deal to say about the political relations of distinguished\nCatholics at that time.  How far all his reports were to be trusted I\ncannot say.\n\nCertainly there was much activity amongst Hammersmith Catholics.  Within\na few doors of my house there was a sisterhood active in collecting\nwhatever they could of money, garments, and other benefits for the poor,\nand on the edge of Brook Green rose a handsome church, in which special\nrevival services were held.  I attended one of these, and heard a priest\nmake earnest religious appeals to careless sinners.\n\nThere was a nunnery not far off, and from the abbess, through the medium\nof a relative, I received an invitation to witness the ceremony of taking\nthe veil.  As a spectacle, there was something about it pathetic and\ntouching, but as an act of worship the whole struck me as altogether out\nof harmony with primitive Christianity.  The relative who conveyed to me\nthe invitation was the daughter of a Dissenting minister, a girl highly\nimaginative and poetical, who made some little stir in earlier life by a\nbook entitled \u201cFrom Oxford to Rome,\u201d by \u201cOne that made the Journey.\u201d  She\ntold me of a complimentary note on the subject from a High Church\npolitician; and I found that she had been thrown a good deal in the way\nof Oxford \u201cperverts,\u201d as they were called.  She became a decided convert,\nand related to me much of what she saw amongst her new friends.  By her\nsevere penances she broke down her health until she died, but not in the\nreligion she had recently embraced.  The faith of her childhood, in its\nsimplicity, returned in her last days.  I do not know that she made a\nformal renunciation of what she had lately embraced, but she desired no\npriestly ministrations, and fell back upon her Bible, and the truths she\nhad accepted in former days.  She joined in her father\u2019s prayers by her\nbedside, and so went home to rest for ever with her Saviour, whom she\nloved amidst all her aberrations of controversial thought.\n\nSoon after my resignation I paid a summer visit to my friend Mr. George\nMoore, of Whitehall, Cumberland, the well-known merchant prince.  There I\nmet Lord Justice Lush, his lady and daughter, Dr. Moffat, Canon\nBattersby, and Mr. Smithies, the \u201cWorkman\u2019s Friend.\u201d  One day we had\nBible readings in a baronial-looking hall; another day we had outdoor\nrecreations for the villagers, when a select party dined at the mansion.\nIn the evenings we were taken to places in the neighbourhood to attend\nBible meetings.  On Sunday we went to church in the morning and to chapel\nin the evening.  Our host was in all his glory.\n\nWith the good judge I had much conversation, and heard something of his\nearly life story.  He had been on the point of settling in America when\nhe was young, and went there more than once before he finally made a home\nin his own country.  He was a beautiful character, an example of\nChristian politeness, general intelligence, and professional learning.\n\nIn closing notices of towns to which I have paid ministerial visits, let\nme mention Hastings, in which, from circumstances to be mentioned, I feel\nmore than ordinary interest.  I do not speak of the decisive battle on\nthe field of Senlac, which ended the line of Saxon sovereigns and gave to\nEngland a Norman king, but of personal memories, somewhat unique in their\nconnection.  There was, many years ago, a venerable Dissenting minister\nin the town whose congregation was small, and it was thought by London\nfriends and others, that a new and larger chapel should be built, and\nefforts made to revive the cause.  I was invited to preach at the\ndedication of that building, and at the close of the sermon found my old\nfellow-student, the Rev. James Griffin, was present.  He had just before,\nowing to impaired health, resigned an important pastorate at Manchester,\nand, as he seemed to be recovering strength, I suggested that this new\nchapel at Hastings might be a suitable sphere for resuming his ministry.\nThe congregation invited him to become pastor, and he faithfully and\nsuccessfully for many years discharged the duties of that office.  It\nbecame after a time necessary to erect a still larger edifice, and, in\nconnection with the opening services, I was for a second time invited to\npreach to the people.  Mr. Griffin soon afterwards engaged in the\nerection of another chapel outside the town, and when the time for\nopening it approached he invited me to undertake that service.  Thus a\nthreefold cord of interest attached me to Nonconformist friends at\nHastings.  Moreover, repeated visits on the part of my dear wife and\nchildren increased my interest in the town, and the hospitality of my\nfriends I remember with gratitude.  My dear friend James Griffin still\nlives, adorning the doctrine he has successfully preached for more than\nhalf a century.\n\nThe autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union was in 1886 held at\nNorwich.  My friend, the Rev. Edward White, was chairman, and I was\ninvited to read in the old Meeting House, where I worshipped in my youth,\na paper on the early history of Norfolk Congregationalism.  There was a\nlarge gathering of ministers and other friends in the city, and, as in\nother cities and towns, Episcopalians received Nonconformists as their\nguests.  It was my privilege to be entertained by the Bishop, with whom I\nhad become acquainted while sojourning under the roof of his brother,\nLord Chichester, at Stanmer Park.  I was received and treated with the\ngreatest kindness and comfort, and found this Episcopal home a beautiful\nexample of Christian simplicity and devotion.\n\nThe Mayor of the city received members of the Union and other friends in\nSt. Andrew\u2019s Hall on the Monday evening; and one afternoon Mr. Colman,\nM.P. for Norwich, had a large garden-party in his pleasure grounds.\n\nI availed myself of opportunities during the week for rambling about\nscenes of my boyhood, amidst many changes in architecture, manners and\ncustoms, including habits of religious life.  The trade of the city had\nflowed into new channels; old families such as I knew in my boyhood were\nno more.  New faces I saw everywhere, and pensive thoughts were naturally\nsuggested when one traversed memories of seventy years.  How different\nhad been my lot from what it might have been!  Church and Dissent did not\nstand in the same relations to each other as they had done once.  There\nwas more mutual charity, more, I believe and trust, of real religion.\nCertainly, Evangelicalism had made way in the Establishment, and was not\nregarded as it had been in days gone by.\n\nI took a ramble outside the old city, and called on young friends; and so\ncaught glimpses touching borders of auld lang syne.\n\nIt fell to my lot to occupy a bedroom in the palace exactly to my taste.\nIt is described by Blomefield in his \u201cHistory of Norwich.\u201d  Lined with\ncarved wainscot brought from the demolished abbey of St. Bennet in the\nHolm, retaining still the arms of that abbey\u2014of the Veres, and others,\nparticularly those of Sir John Fastolff, their great benefactor.  There\nwere also busts of heroes and remarkable men and women, \u201cbrought hither\nby Bishop Rugg.\u201d  The place recalled images of old, and stories which had\ninterested me in youth; if they did not people my dreams, they coloured\nmy meditations.\n\nMy \u201cRecollections of a Long Life\u201d began with a notice of being born in\nNorwich; and as the last visit to my birthplace was at the time now\nindicated, I think it is a fitting point for terminating my narrative.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\n\nIN completing this volume I propose to take a survey of what I have seen\nand noticed, amongst distinct religious denominations, during seventy\nyears.\n\nI.  To begin with the Church of England.  I remember hearing a sermon by\nthe late Bishop of Manchester, at the reopening of Chester Cathedral,\nwhen, in no measured terms, he dwelt upon ecclesiastical abuses, as they\nexisted during the last century, and the earliest part of the present.\nHe exposed the nepotism of bishops, the worldliness of clergymen, and the\nindifference of Church-people to religion in general.  About the same\ntime another prelate privately told me that things in his diocese, when\nhe was first consecrated, had reached such a point as made it wonderful\nhow the Establishment had survived.  He complained of the limited power\ndiocesans had at command, to repress existing evils, and gave an\ninstance, how in his own case he had spent a large sum without any effect\nfor the removal of a clergyman who had dishonoured his profession.  About\nthe facts charged against the delinquent there could be no doubt, but\nproceedings failed through technical objections.  I remember when I was a\nyouth there were scandals in the diocese of Norwich, publicly known, yet\nlegally unassailable.  Plurality and non-residence were notorious.\nPreaching was neglected to a shameful degree; in one case fifteen\nchurches were served by three incumbents.  Livings had to be sequestered\nthrough clerical insolvency or scandalous misconduct.  Bishop Stanley\nwrought a great reformation in these respects, much to the dismay of\ndelinquents, much to the satisfaction of parishioners.  I remember him\nperfectly well.  Of slight figure, with white hair, he tripped along the\nstreets of Norwich on a Sunday, to one church after another without\ngiving beforehand notice of his movements, but surprising rector or\ncurate at the close of the service by rising to pronounce the\nbenediction.  He was as unremitting and efficient in his clerical\nposition, as he had before been in his naval duties.  The magistrates\u2019\nseat prepared Ambrose for his episcopate at Milan: the deck of a ship\nprepared Edward Stanley to rule the diocese of Norwich.\n\nThe typical High Church clergyman of my early days was a person\nperfunctorily discharging his duties, living on civil terms with his\nparishioners, known in the parish by clerical costume, reading prayers in\na surplice, and preaching in a black gown, visiting the best society in\nthe neighbourhood, kind to the poor, and looking upon Dissenters as a\nrather suspicious class.\n\nBut a great change took place in 1832.  Earnest men, as we have seen,\narose at Oxford, who devoted themselves to the study of certain\nAnglo-Catholic divines and Greek and Latin fathers.  Some of them\nintroduced ritualistic practices, older than the Reformation.  The change\nunder Henry VIII. and Elizabeth was approved by them no further than as\nit wiped away stains from the face of popery.  I recollect a High Church\nlayman telling me he liked an ornate service, but that he was left far\nbehind by the newly advanced party.  I have myself witnessed ceremonies\nin Anglican churches so nearly approaching the Romanistic that only a\npractised eye could discern the difference.  There were, however, men of\nanother order, who had a liking for Anglo-Catholic theology, but eschewed\nrevived ceremonialism; and I have heard a High Churchman in Westminster\nAbbey preach such a sermon on the necessity of the Holy Spirit for the\nsalvation of souls as, with a few expressions, a Methodist might have\ndelivered.  He pronounced a glowing eulogium on John Wesley.  On one side\nthis clergyman appeared a warm-hearted Evangelical, on the other, he was\na staunch High Churchman.\n\nWhen I think of Evangelicals early in this century, they present a\ndifferent class from men of the type just described.  As a boy in Norwich\nI heard Simeon of Cambridge, and Legh Richmond of Turvey; and I remember\nthem at this moment as they appeared in the autumn of that year to\nadvocate the British and Foreign Bible Society.  The former of the two\ndoes not come to my recollection so vividly as the latter; him I can now\nsee, with his pleasant face, and large spectacles, mounting, with a lame\nfoot, the pulpit stairs of St. Lawrence\u2019s Church\u2014attired, not in a white\nsurplice, but in a black gown: nothing priestly in his appearance and\nmanner.  His sermon was on behalf of the Society for Promoting\nChristianity among Jews.  He took for his text, \u201cFor thy servants take\npleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof.\u201d  With a soft,\nwinning voice, and \u201ca sweet reasonableness\u201d he discoursed on the\ninterest, which all Christians should feel in building up the Church of\nGod, especially with stones gathered from ruins of the House of Israel.\nIn St Andrew\u2019s Hall he spoke on behalf of the Bible Society, and related\na conversation he had on the subject with the Emperor Alexander of\nRussia, when he visited England after the Napoleonic wars.  He also told\ntouching stories of what the Word of God could do for people amidst sins\nand sorrows.  As to Charles Simeon, whom I heard, he did not penetrate\nlike dew, but came down with hailstones and coals of fire.\n\nAt a later period Episcopalians bestirred themselves in many parts of the\ncountry, and from end to end, in building and other efforts for church\nextension, and I recollect Dean Alford told me how surprised the Church\nCommissioners were at the liberal response given to challenges for aiding\necclesiastical objects.\n\nIn 1865 the old Act of Uniformity was modified so as to relieve the\nconsciences of such as scrupled to declare unfeigned consent to\neverything contained in the Prayer-Book.  _Now_ the requirement was an\nassent to the Articles, the Common Prayer, and the Ordering of Bishops,\nPriests, and Deacons, and a declaration that the doctrine of the\nEstablishment was agreeable to the Word of God.  In 1867 a commission was\nappointed to regulate public worship, the result of which was\nunsatisfactory.\n\nIn former pages of this volume I have noticed devoted and exemplary\nChurchmen through whom my own soul has been nourished and stimulated.  It\nwould be ungrateful not to recognise, on these pages, spiritual benefit I\nhave derived from sermons preached and books written by living Churchmen.\n\nBefore I close this section of reminiscences touching the Church of\nEngland it will be interesting to notice an accession to it of a\nremarkable person who had previously been a Dissenter.  Her name, now so\nextensively known, was Sarah Martin.  My old friend Mr. Walford often\nalluded to her in his conversations, and in his Autobiography, written in\na series of letters published by his direction, he gives the following\nnarrative:\u2014\n\n    \u201cThis young woman, during my residence in Yarmouth, supported by her\n    needle both herself and, I think, also an aged grandmother, with whom\n    she lived at Caister, near Yarmouth.  When I first knew her she was,\n    I imagine, about twenty years of age.  She introduced herself to me\n    as one who had been as inconsiderate and negligent of religion, as\n    she was ignorant of the nature of genuine Christianity.  By some\n    means, which I do not now remember, she was induced to come to the\n    New Meeting, where she heard one or more discourses from me, which,\n    she assured me, had produced very deep impressions upon her, and\n    entirely changed the character of her mind and conduct.  She\n    subsequently became a member of the Church of which I was the pastor,\n    and was most diligent and attentive to the public and private\n    meetings of the Church.  I found her to possess great energy of mind,\n    by the exercise of which she very soon became well informed in the\n    truths and duties of Christianity, and ardently disposed to do any\n    good that was compatible with her station in life.  Her affection for\n    me was such that it is not too much to say of her, as St. Paul did of\n    his converts among the Galatians, that, if it had been possible, they\n    would have plucked out their own eyes and have given them to him\n    (Gal. iv. 15).  Her regard for me, and the ministry I exercised,\n    continued unalterable through the several years in which I resided in\n    Yarmouth, after my acquaintance with her commenced.  I afterwards saw\n    her several times during occasional visits which I made to that\n    place, when I found that she still retained an affectionate\n    remembrance of me.\u201d\n\nShe was in humble circumstances, and earned a scanty income by the use of\nher needle; but she coupled with it extraordinary efforts for the good of\nothers, and this disposed some ladies, members of the Established Church,\nto contribute to her support.  This enabled her to devote more time to\nher charitable work, and at length she was so absorbed in it that she\nbecame a kind of missionary to the inmates of the workhouse and the\nprisoners in Yarmouth gaol.  She read and explained the Scriptures to\nthem, and in devotional service, she carried on for their spiritual\nwelfare, she employed parts of the Church Prayer-Book.  Gradually, I\ninfer, she became attached to those who helped her, and this association\nled to her becoming a member of the Establishment.  After her death a\ncommemorative window was placed in Yarmouth parish church, and at its\nreopening, after a costly restoration, Bishop Wilberforce pronounced an\neloquent eulogium on Sarah Martin\u2019s character.  Some intimate\nNonconformist friends of mine remained attached to her, and showed me\nnumerous MSS. in her handwriting.\n\nI now return to the ranks of Dissent and proceed to notice\u2014\n\nII.  English Presbyterianism.  A word on its earlier history will here be\nappropriate.  The Presbyterians of the sixteenth and seventeenth\ncenturies were orthodox.  After the Restoration many of them adhered to\nthe Westminster Confession, but a departure from it, in some instances,\nappeared in the century after.  Arian and Socinian opinions began to\nobtain, but those who held them claimed connection with the Presbyterians\nof the Commonwealth, on the ground that they followed such worthies in\nthe exercise of religious freedom and the rights of conscience.  Their\nforefathers had repudiated the Prayer-Book, and now they, their sons in\nthe cause of religious freedom, renounced the Westminster Confession.\nFor the most part they remained steadfast in believing New Testament\nmiracles.  The Rev. Mr. Madge, a noted English Presbyterian, sixty or\nseventy years ago, said to me once, he could not understand how a man\ncould be called a Christian who did not believe in our Lord\u2019s\nresurrection.\n\nDuring the reign of William IV. the two most prominent English\nPresbyterians of the old school were the Rev. Mr. Aspland and Mr. Madge.\nThe latter I knew well.  Mr. Aspland was an eloquent speaker, and exerted\nhimself conspicuously in the cause of Unitarianism, with which he\nidentified the interests of religious freedom.  His son, in writing his\nfather\u2019s life, pourtrays that gentleman\u2019s religious connections, social\nvirtues, and decision of character; but does not conceal his warmth of\ntemper, and dislike to certain eminent Trinitarians.  Mr. Madge, before\nhe became minister of Essex Street, London, was for some years settled in\nmy native city, and presided over a wealthy congregation, in which were\nseveral distinguished literary and artistic people.  The Martineaus, the\nAldersons, the Starks, and other distinguished families, were of the\nnumber.  They worshipped in the Octagon Chapel, as it was called from its\narchitecture, and for a number of years the building was the most\ndistinguished Nonconformist place of worship in the eastern capital.  It\nwas rather sumptuously fitted up in my boyish days, and the attendants\nwere not wont to mix much with other Dissenters.  If there were any fault\nin this, I dare say it was shared on both sides.\n\nReturning to the English Presbyterians at large, but especially as they\nexisted in London, I must speak of a trust established by Dr. Williams,\nof the last century.  He was orthodox, but the administration of funds\nbequeathed by him came into the hands of those Presbyterians who deviated\nfrom his doctrinal views, but still retained the Presbyterian name by\nwhich he was known.  Though Unitarians in opinion, they by no means\nconfined their charity to Unitarian ministers and chapels; and still the\n\u201cWilliams\u2019 Scholarships\u201d are enjoyed by students preparing for orthodox\nministrations amongst Independents.  Dr. Martineau was for some time an\nadministrator of the trust, but strongly objected to the exclusion of\northodox ministers from its administration.\n\nDuring the last century there were Presbyterians in England holding\ndecidedly Evangelical views, and of late there have been numerous\ncongregations gathered, which, in their unity, form what is called \u201cThe\nPresbyterian Church in England.\u201d  Scotch brethren of great renown\u2014Dr.\nJames Hamilton, Dr. Young, and Dr. Archer\u2014I had the privilege of\nnumbering amongst personal friends, and they were held in honour by all\nEvangelical Churchmen and Nonconformists.\n\nIII.  Another large section of brethren were Baptists, distinguished by\ncertain _doctrinal_ and _disciplinary_ views;\u2014the former as Particular or\nCalvinistic, on the one hand, and General or Arminian on the other;\u2014the\nlatter as Open communionists and Strict communionists.  Open\ncommunionists admit to the Lord\u2019s table those who have not been baptised\nby immersion; Strict communionists confine the Lord\u2019s Supper to those who\nhave been immersed.  Such distinctions are now fading away.  Calvinists\nand Arminians are comprehended in the same union, and Strict\ncommunionists are comparatively few.\n\nRobert Hall, the advocate of Open communion, I never saw: he died when I\nwas young.  Joseph Kinghorn, his opponent, a distinguished Hebrew\nscholar, I knew well, as he lived in Norwich during my boyhood.  William\nBrock, who succeeded him, and afterwards became minister of Bloomsbury\nChapel, London, entered the ministry about the same time as I did, and we\nregarded each other with warm affection.  Dr. Cox and Dr. Steane were\nwidely known in the religious world, and with both of them I entered into\na fellowship of work and worship at the opening of chapels and on other\npublic occasions.  John Howard Hinton was another Baptist brother, of\nwhom I saw much when he was at Reading and I was at Windsor.  He was more\noriginal, more metaphysical, more scientific, and more excitable than\nothers whom I have mentioned, perhaps of a higher intellectual order, and\nstill greater depth of religious emotion.  Mr. Spurgeon, who has so\nrecently left the world, and whose influence and fame extended further\nthan any other Nonconformist in modern times, I greatly respected and\nadmired; and though I did not share his intimacy, I saw something of him\nin my own home, and a little more in his, where he had a magnificent\nlibrary, and received his numerous friends with cordiality.  His\npopularity amongst aristocratic people was, for a little time, much\ngreater than is generally supposed, for I was informed by a lady of\ndistinction that for some weeks in his early career he was a leading\ntopic of conversation in upper circles.\n\nIV.  I now turn to the Quaker community.  Well do I remember meetings at\nthe Goldencroft, Norwich, where, at the upper end, sat men and women\ncalled Public Friends.  My mother, born in 1770, told me of yearly\nmeetings held in our old city, when sometimes Friends from America\nattended: and so great was the number of visitors that it raised the\nmarket price of provisions.  Some ladies who came from the other side of\nthe Atlantic wore dresses with open skirts and green aprons.  No bows of\nribbon were seen, while bonnets of black and of lead-coloured silk\ncrowned the heads of young and old.  What Charles Lamb says in his \u201cElia\u201d\ncorresponds with what I recollect, and what my mother used to tell me,\nhow \u201ctroops of the shining ones\u201d were seen walking the streets, on their\nway to the house of worship, where their silence was more eloquent than\nspeech.  I have read with sympathy \u201cThe Life of John Woolman,\u201d written by\nhimself, and so warmly recommended by the essayist.  \u201cGet,\u201d says Charles\nLamb, \u201cthe writings of John Woolman by heart, and love the early\nQuakers.\u201d\n\nA very serious diversion in theological opinion existed among American\nFriends early in this century, and it is because an effect of it appeared\nin England that it is noticed here.  A French Friend\u2014the well-known\nStephen Grellet\u2014travelling in the States, makes this entry in his\njournal, under date 1822:\u2014\u201cWe proceeded to Long Island, where I attended\nall the meetings, but here my soul\u2019s distress exceeded all I had known\nduring the preceding months, though my baptism had been deep.  I found\nthat the greatest part of the members of our Society and many of the\nministers and elders, are carried away by the principle which Elias Hicks\nhas so assiduously propagated among them.  He now speaks out boldly,\ndisguising his sentiments no longer; he seeks to invalidate the Holy\nScriptures, and sets up man\u2019s reason as his only guide, openly denying\nthe divinity of Christ.  I have had many expostulations with him in which\nI have most tenderly pleaded with him, but all has been in vain.\u201d {374}\nFrom what I have read in American literature touching what is known as\nthe Hicksite controversy, it appears to me plainly indicative of a denial\namong many American Friends, that Jesus Christ, in the orthodox sense of\nthe term, was Divine, and that He did not make any atonement for sin.\nHicks appears to have been a thorough mystic, unintelligible to\ncommon-sense people.  At all events he converted many to his views; and\nthese views were caught up by some Friends in this country.  To what\nextent exactly they were adopted in England I cannot say: but they\ncreated alarm amongst many Friends on this side the Atlantic.  Great\nsorrow at the abandonment of Evangelical doctrines led to secessions from\nQuakerism on the part of excellent people who had been born and bred in\nthe community.  Some of them resided, at the time I speak of, on the\nborders of Wales, others in the county of York.  They became\nCongregationalists, and in tours on behalf of the London Missionary\nSociety, I was received hospitably in their homes, and had gratifying\nopportunities of witnessing their beautiful Christian life.\n\nJoseph John Gurney, of Earlham, felt seriously concerned respecting the\nAmerican defection, in a community to which he had been attached from\nchildhood.  He had studied in the University of Oxford, had cultivated\nfriendships in other denominations, was a good classic and Biblical\nscholar, and also an author of theological works.  Mr. Gurney was\n\u201cconcerned\u201d about the effect of Hicksite opinion on American and English\nFriends, and therefore took up his pen and wrote in reply to the leader\nwho had done so much mischief.\n\nMr. Gurney, like his sister Mrs. Fry, undertook journeys for preaching\nthe Gospel, and once he visited Windsor for that purpose.  I was unwell\nat the time, but he called and talked by my bedside, and commended me to\nGod in prayer.  Several Quaker families at that period were living at\nStaines and Uxbridge; with them I had much intercourse, especially when\nwe were joined in the advocacy of Slave Emancipation.  The community, in\nboth towns now named, was considerable for numbers and for wealth.\n\nFriends now dress, speak and act much like other people.  Conforming to\ncommon custom, they still eschew all extravagances of fashion.  They no\nlonger forfeit membership by \u201cmarrying out of Society.\u201d  \u201cThe Right\nHonourable John Bright\u201d (how shocked George Fox would have been at the\ntitle!) told me once, that relaxation in strictness as to unimportant\npoints, had checked a decline in numbers going on before.\n\nV.  Methodism, of course, brings to my mind a long train of early\nassociations.  Not merely names, but living forms, of noted preachers\nbelonging to the second decade of this century come back to my\nrecollection.\n\nCalvert Street Chapel was opened about 1812, and Dr. Coke preached.\n\nI cannot say that I remember his sermon; but, as noticed already, I\ndistinctly recollect seeing the odd-looking, diminutive man, standing on\na table talking in the committee room of Bethel Hospital {377} adorned by\npaintings of foundress and governors.  Dr. Coke energetically addressed\non the occasion a number of people, who had been invited by my\ngrandfather, to hear the noted advocate of Methodist missions.  Many\nyears afterwards I mentioned the circumstance to a gentleman, who at the\ntime took care of the patients, when he fetched an old committee book, in\nwhich this gathering was noticed, with a minute expressing the\ndispleasure of the Governors at such a liberty being taken, and\nforbidding anything of the kind in future.  The Wesleyan congregations in\nNorwich were then very large, and _local_ preachers\u2014uncultivated men in\nhumble life\u2014frequently occupied the pulpit in the afternoon service at\nCalvert Street, and, remember, delivered animated discourses likely to do\ntheir hearers good.\n\nDr. Jabez Bunting was a very influential man among the Methodists when I\nwas young.  For many years he was regarded as ruler of the\nConnexion,\u2014exerting a despotic sway over the whole body.  Such general\nconclusions oftentimes are not fairly drawn from existing facts, and how\nfar widely extended opinion in the case now noticed, is justifiable I\ncannot undertake to say.  To me he was very agreeable, and for him I had\ngreat respect.  William Bunting, his son, was of a different stamp from\nhis father, and though a skilful critic, he had not his father\u2019s gift of\nauthority and rule.\n\nBefore the middle of the century came Dr. Newton, to open a second\nchapel, in the upper part of Norwich; his magnificent voice and careful\ndiction produced a powerful effect.  I met him in after-life at Windsor,\nwhen he told me that he was accustomed to leave his home on Monday\nmorning in the Manchester circuit, and travel by coach to the other end\nof England,\u2014perhaps cross over to Ireland,\u2014and then get back, at the end\nof the week, ready for preaching the next day.  He said he weekly\ndelivered five or six sermons, making them \u201con the wheels\u201d as he went\nalong.  He seemed a stranger to physical fatigue.\n\nDuring my Windsor ministry I became acquainted with a noted Wesleyan, who\nwas not an itinerant, but a local, preacher.  He went by the name of\n\u201cBilly Dawson,\u201d and was eminently gifted with humour and pathos.  I heard\nhim preach, and listened to his platform speeches.  He was not only\nnaturally eloquent, but histrionic too; in speeches and sermons he acted\nwhile he spoke.  He made you realise what he described.  It is said that\nGeorge Whitefield, when preaching to sailors, described a storm at sea so\nvividly that some of them shouted, \u201cTake to the long boat.\u201d  Dawson had a\nlike power of realising what he described.  He would, at a missionary\nmeeting, make a telescope of his resolution, and putting it to one of his\neyes, describe what he saw in imagination,\u2014perhaps a picture of the\nmillennium drawn from Isaiah\u2019s prophecies.  I was young, just come from\ncollege, at the time I speak of, and made a speech in which I used some\nwords which were not so plain as they might have been.  After the meeting\nhe spoke to me kindly, suggesting equivalent terms in plain Saxon.  It\nwas a good lesson for an unfledged bird.\n\nWhen I was a member of the Wesleyan Society, I attended class according\nto rule, and I found the practice beneficial, inasmuch as it was a\nconstant spur to self-examination.  The primitive agape, revived amongst\nthe Methodists, exists under the name of love-feast, at which, together\nwith eating bread and drinking water as an expression of fellowship, men\nand women are accustomed voluntarily to rise, and give some account of\ntheir religious experience for edification to others.  These addresses I\nfound often interesting and useful.  By such means, a habit of spiritual\nintercommunication amongst Methodists is kept alive; beneficial in some\ncases no doubt, but liable to abuse in others, as most good things are.\nI am constrained to relate how this habit on the bright side manifested\nitself on a private occasion during a meeting of Conference in London.\nDr. Jobson, an eminent Wesleyan, invited a party of friends to his house.\nHe kindly included me in the number, and I found at his hospitable board\nthe President for the year, and some ex-presidents.  Together with them,\nDrs. Binney, Raleigh, Allon, and Donald Fraser were present.  Our host\nwas a thorough Methodist, and very comprehensive in his sympathies, for\nhe had mixed with different denominations.  He had many friends in the\nEstablishment, and in early life had studied under an eminent Roman\nCatholic architect, at whose house he met bishops and priests of that\ncommunion.  On the occasion I refer to, he in an easy way initiated a\nconversation which I can never forget.  He appealed to his guests, one by\none, for some account of their religious life.  All readily responded;\nand this is most remarkable,\u2014all who spoke attributed to Methodism\nspiritual influence of a decisive kind.  To use Wesleyan phraseology,\nmost of them had been \u201cbrought to God\u201d through Methodist instrumentality.\nDr. Osborne was present, and made some remarks, at the close of which,\nwith choked utterance, he repeated the verse\u2014\n\n    \u201cAnd if our fellowship below,\n       In Jesus be so sweet,\n    What heights of rapture shall we know,\n       When round the throne we meet?\u201d\n\nThe Norwich Methodists were chiefly humble folks with a sprinkling of\nsome in better circumstances; their habits were very simple and they\nlooked upon some who made money as becoming \u201cworldly,\u201d or at least, as\nexposed to temptation.  At that time, however, such as possessed social\ncomforts could not be justly charged with conformity to the course of\nthis world; and over their little gatherings in one another\u2019s houses\nthere was shed a religious atmosphere such as was breathed in class and\nlove-feast.  Early in the century on a Sunday, between afternoon and\nevening service, there might be a large tea-party, where the preacher, a\nclass-leader, and other members of Society would talk and pray and sing,\ntill it was time to go to evening service at chapel.  This communion\nseems to me now as I think of it such as is described in Malachi: \u201cThen\nthey that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord\nhearkened and heard it; and a book of remembrance was written before Him\nfor them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name; and they\nshall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My\njewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth\nhim.\u201d\n\nWorldly prosperity has since fallen to the lot of not a few Methodists,\nand the usual temptations surrounding wealth have tested their character;\nbut I am thankful to say, amongst those whom I have visited, I have found\nbeautiful instances of adherence to religious principles.  I may mention\na friend already noticed, Sir William McArthur, K.C.M.G.  When Lord Mayor\nof London he continued his previous Wesleyan duties; and whilst bountiful\nin his hospitality eschewed usages of a fashionable kind.  In his year of\noffice the \u0152cumenical Conference was held, and during its meetings\nrepeated Mansion House invitations were given to friends in sympathy with\nEvangelical religion.  I attended his funeral, and in his residence on\nNotting Hill a large number of mourners assembled, and we had a short\ndevotional service together, very touching, tender, and beautiful.\n\nMy personal recollections of Methodism, which roll back more than seventy\nyears ago, linger round Yarmouth and Norwich.  At Yarmouth I used to\nworship on a Sunday in a curious old-fashioned square chapel, with\ngalleries on the four sides.  There was a deep one opposite the two\nentrance doors, and attached to the front of that gallery was a pulpit\u2014by\nwhat means, as a boy, I never could make out.  The preacher ascended from\nbehind by a staircase, invisible to the congregation, and then from the\ntop of the staircase descended by two or three steps into a curiously\nshaped pulpit.  I distinctly recollect the venerable Joseph Benson, then\na patriarch, who had been associated with Methodists in John Wesley\u2019s\ntime.  I think I see him now, of slender frame, venerable aspect, and\nwearing a coat of dark purple.  Of course I have no recollection of what\nhe said, but he was regarded as a saintly man in those days.  In the\nautumn Yarmouth was frequented by a number of mariners from the\nnorth\u2014coblemen they were called\u2014who had come to fish for herrings off the\nYarmouth coast.  They were staunch Methodists, and used to hold a\nprayer-meeting after the general service.  How those men used to pray\nwith stentorian voice, which called forth loud \u201cAmens\u201d from voices all\nover the chapel!\n\nIn Calvert Street, Norwich, there used to be special services on\nChristmas-day.  After a prayer-meeting at six o\u2019clock in the morning\nthere was preaching at seven o\u2019clock, when hymns appropriate to the\nseason were sung, accompanied by violins and wind instruments of\ndifferent kinds.  I did not fail, between five and six o\u2019clock, to rise\nand cross the city in order to be in good time for these services.  They\nusually commenced with the hymn\u2014\n\n    \u201cChristians, awake, salute the happy morn\n    Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born;\n    Rise to adore the mystery of love,\n    Which hosts of angels chanted from above;\n    With them the joyful tidings first begun\n    Of God incarnate and the Virgin\u2019s son.\n\n    \u201cThen to the watchful shepherds it was told,\n    Who heard the angelic herald\u2019s voice: \u2018Behold,\n    I bring good tidings of a Saviour\u2019s birth,\n    To you and all the nations upon earth:\n    This day hath God fulfilled His promised word,\n    This day is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord.\u2019\u201d\n\nWith the Methodist chapel in Calvert Street my earliest religious\nthoughts are connected.  Watch-nights and love-feasts, are sacred in my\nrecollection.\n\nVI.  Respecting the Congregationalist denomination, of which I have\nspoken already, let me add that in 1877 I was requested by Dr. Schaff, of\nNew York, to give my impression of prevalent beliefs amongst us.  I\nreplied as follows: \u201cLooking at the principles of Congregationalism,\nwhich involve the repudiation of all human authority in matters of\nreligion, it is impossible to believe that persons holding those\nprinciples can consistently regard any ecclesiastical creed or symbol in\nthe same way as Catholics, whether Roman or Anglican, regard the creeds\nof the ancient Church.  There is a strong feeling against the use of such\ndocuments for the purpose of defining limits of religious communion, or\nfor the purpose of checking the exercise of free inquiry; and there is\nalso a widespread conviction that it is impossible to reduce the\nexpression of Christian belief to a series of logical propositions, so as\nto preserve and represent the full spirit of Gospel truth.\u201d  (See\nSchaff\u2019s \u201cCreeds of Christendom,\u201d p. 833.)\n\nNo doubt there may be heard in some circles loose conversation, seeming\nto indicate such a repugnance to creeds as would imply a dislike to all\nformal definitions of Christian doctrine; but I apprehend the prevailing\nsentiment relative to this subject among our ministers and churches does\nnot go beyond the point just indicated.  Many of them consider that while\ncreeds are objectionable as tests, and imperfect as confessions, they may\nhave a certain value as manifestoes of conviction, on the part of\ndifferent communities.\n\nSome people write and talk on the subject of present opinion, with a\npositiveness which only omniscience could warrant.  No mortal can know\nwhat is going on in the minds of thousands, touching momentous subjects;\nyet such knowledge is requisite for the confident conclusions of certain\ncritics.  We may speak decidedly of what is commonly taught in a\ncommunity, yet this should be done with qualifications and no farther.\n\nSilence on momentous points may prove a loss as to the full wealth of\ntheology; but I am thankful for gain at the present day in richer views\nthan formerly of our Lord\u2019s character, and the bearing of it upon life\nand conduct.  Let me add, however, if _Redemption_ in all its fulness be\nnot prominent in pulpit ministrations, power will be gone.  Some suppose\nwe are making theological advance, and that discoveries are opening akin\nto those in physical science; but people who have more carefully surveyed\nthe wide field, and more observantly studied the history of religious\nthought, discover that much as seen at first sight, is chiefly a falling\nback upon what was old and forgotten.\n\nIn closing what I have to say of modern Congregationalists, I venture to\nnotice deceased ministers whom it has been a privilege to number amongst\nmy friends.\n\nI knew but slightly the Rev. William Jay of Bath.  He has been\nincidentally noticed in these pages already, for he was old when I was\nyoung.  He rose from a lowly rank in life to be regarded as teacher and\ncompanion by the intellectual and noble.  Mrs. Hannah More valued his\nministrations and cultivated his society.  Wilberforce used to attend his\nchapel when staying at Bath; and an Indian ruler, when in England, went\nto hear him at Surrey Chapel, and expressed great admiration of the\nsermon.\n\nThe next to be mentioned is John Angell James of Birmingham.  I remember\nperfectly well the first sermon I heard him preach when I was a student.\nThe text was: \u201cOur conversation (or citizenship) is in heaven.\u201d  His\nvoice was richly toned\u2014a genuine birth gift improved by culture.  He\nintroduced the following illustration: A pilgrim in the Middle Ages, on\nhis way to Jerusalem, passed through Constantinople.  A friend took him\nfrom street to street, pausing to point out attractions, in magnificent\nbuildings, and the rich scenery of the Golden Horn.  He wondered the\ntraveller was not enchanted.  The latter replied: \u201cYes, all very fine,\n_but it is not the Holy City_.\u201d  The application was obvious and well\nenforced.\n\nDr. Raffles of Liverpool\u2014noticed already as one of my companions to\nRome\u2014and Dr. Hamilton of Leeds, well known throughout England, won the\naffections of their people by sympathetic intercourse, and interested\nthem by eloquent instructions and appeals.  The former enunciated his\ncarefully prepared periods with a voice naturally musical, the latter\ndelivered his thoughts in condensed sentences, which reminded one of a\nperson taking very short steps.  There was an intellectual power in the\nsermons of the last-named, not indicated in those of the former.\n\nJohn Alexander of Norwich I cannot pass by without notice.  Like David,\nhe was a youth with ruddy countenance.  His speech throughout a sermon\nfell gentle as a snowflake, without any coldness of touch.  He read much,\nand made good use of what he read.  The charm of his private life and\nconversation exceeded the effect of his public ministry, though that was\ngreat.\n\nI must mention another name.  John Harris was for some years a secluded\npastor at Epsom, little known.  He wrote \u201cThe Great Teacher,\u201d but though\nfar above the common level of such literature, it made little impression,\ncompared with its merits.  A prize was offered for an essay on\nCovetousness and Christian Liberality.  Harris won the prize, and printed\nthe essay.  The effect was instantaneous.\n\nThe book sold edition after edition, and the author\u2019s name became\ngenerally familiar.  Requests for his services were universal.  He was\neverywhere talked about, and when he preached places were crowded.  His\npopularity lasted as long as he lived, but he died when he was\nfifty-four.  He was unassuming, kind-hearted, generous to poor ministers,\ngenial in conversation, and beloved by all who knew him.\n\nAnother brother must be mentioned\u2014Baldwin Brown\u2014of superior intellectual\ntype, well educated, an extensive reader, and one who delighted in a\nlarge circle of sympathetic friends.  He gathered round him a good\ncongregation, composed chiefly of thoughtful people, who became\nassimilated to his characteristic teachings.  He wore himself out by\nincessant study and pulpit service.\n\nI must not pass by David Thomas of Bristol, my fellow-student and friend\nthrough life, whose elevated and genial character won from a wide circle\nwarm attachment, and whose unique pulpit power captivated all capable of\nsympathising with one so thoughtful and so good.\n\nNor can I omit Alexander Raleigh, my successor for a short period at\nKensington, who fulfilled a ministry dear to many who listened with\ndelight to his characteristic teaching.\n\nThe last name I mention is that of Samuel Martin, minister at Westminster\nChapel.  He had gifts of a peculiar description, which marked him off,\nand made him stand by himself, both as minister and man.  His appearance,\nvoice, manner, habits, were all his own.  He _lived_ for his Church, in\nwhose interests he was thoroughly absorbed.  No one not intimately\nacquainted with him could have an adequate idea how he loved his flock,\nand lived for their welfare week by week.  I had reverent affection for\nhim as a saintly man, and I witnessed evidence amongst his large circle,\nin town and country, how he watched for souls as one that must give an\naccount.  His congregation during Parliament months included several\nM.P.\u2019s, whom he gathered together for patriotic prayer.\n\nHis neighbour, Dr. Stanley, had a reverent regard for Mr. Martin, and I\nknow that the Dean and Lady Augusta went to Westminster Chapel to hear\nhis voice and worship with his people.  He spoke to me of him in terms of\nstrong affection, also telling me of a brother clergyman who, after a\nvisit to his sick chamber, pronounced him one of the most saintly men he\nhad ever seen.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n      Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n{77}  Faulkener\u2019s \u201cHistory and Antiquities of Kensington,\u201d p. 317.\n\n{78}  1893.\n\n{80}  \u201cChristian Workers of the Nineteenth Century,\u201d S.P.C.K., p. 216.\n\n{88a}  \u201cLife of E. B. Pusey,\u201d i. 336.\n\n{88b}  _Ibid._, ii. 33.\n\n{89}  \u201cLife of Pusey,\u201d ii. 8.\n\n{126}  Early Independent Churches had been particular in their relations\nto one another; and they would not recognise new communities without\nsatisfactory evidence of character, principles, and conduct.  They became\nmore isolated afterwards.\n\n{176a}  Now Archbishop of York.\n\n{176b}  A very good account of this under the title of \u201cLectures on Bible\nRevision,\u201d has been published by my excellent friend and late colleague\nat New College, Principal Newth, D.D.\n\n{183}  \u201cMemorials of a Quiet Life,\u201d i. 237.\n\n{184}  Dr. Raleigh, Sir Charles Reed, and others, were examined.\n\n{193}  That was whilst I was in full work at Kensington, and not very\nlong after our new chapel was built, while a debt of \u00a31000 rested on it.\nI said I could not leave my charge whilst that debt remained.  As soon as\nI had declined the New College principalship, my congregation swept off\nthe debt as expressive of gratitude for my remaining amongst them.\n\n{197}  \u201cEcce Homo,\u201d chap. iv.\n\n{230}  Written about 1883.\n\n{233}  I am glad that at Kensington, a liturgical element has been\nintroduced, such as I should have approved, but could not accomplish,\nbecause I knew it would then be disapproved by many.\n\n{248}  With a short Memoir by Robert Hall.\n\n{250}  In what I have ventured to say about pulpit preparation I have\nhoped to help my younger ministerial brethren.\n\n{252}  \u201cHomes and Haunts of Martin Luther,\u201d p. 4.\n\n{268}  Since my visit to Ban de la Roche I discovered that, in a part of\nthe country not far off, an Irish missionary, Columbanus, in the sixth\ncentury laboured for the temporal, as well as the spiritual, welfare of\nthe people.  See Wolf\u2019s \u201cCountry of the Vosges,\u201d p. 214.\n\n{315}  Eusebius, \u201cEccl. Hist.,\u201d V. I, 2.\n\n{316}  Pastor and Madame Rodriguez.\n\n{318}  De Aniccio, \u201cL\u2019Espagne traduit de Italien.\u201d\n\n{329}  \u201cLife of Wilkie,\u201d p. 472.\n\n{333}  I have gone into this story in my \u201cSpanish Reformers,\u201d p. 185.\n\n{374}  \u201cMemoirs of Stephen Grellet,\u201d vol. ii., 130.\n\n{377}  See page 2.","title":"Recollections of a Long Life","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":81159}