“Amongst others I saw a great deal of the Bishop of Sydney, and found him very strong about the Australian idea. {158b} He says it is the very thing that he has long desired for his own diocese. But I do not yet see the call of God sufficiently clearly to have my judgment really inclined to it. If the Lord makes His way plain, I hope to be ready to go, but God forbid that I should go one step without His orders.” From the Archbishop of Canterbury:— “ADDINGTON PARK, CROYDON, _September_ 24_th_, 1868. “To REV. ED. HOARE. “DEAR MR. HOARE,—It will give me very great pleasure if you will accept the office of Honorary Canon of Canterbury, to which your standing in the diocese and the services which you have rendered to the Church by your zeal and ability in the discharge of your ministerial functions amply entitle you. “Believe me, dear Mr. Hoare, “Very sincerely yours, “C. T. CANTUAR.” The offer of an Honorary Canonry in Canterbury Cathedral, made in 1868 by Archbishop Longley, was the only dignity which he ever received; why this should have been the case is a question that has often been asked, and to which no satisfactory answer has ever been made. Canon Hoare would have made an admirable Bishop: he was a born ruler and administrator; his intellectual powers and wide sympathies (for which those who knew him superficially gave him no credit), together with his power of inspiring enthusiasm in all his subordinates, would have been good qualities for that high position, and not the least advantages which he possessed were a fine presence and commanding personality. But he neither sought nor wished for promotion, and remained to the last what he loved to be, a pastor in the midst of a devoted flock, with more opportunities of preaching the Gospel of Christ at home and throughout England than fell to the lot of most men, and, as one remarked to him when the subject happened to be referred to in a newspaper, “Man has not promoted you, but God has, by permitting you to be the means of bringing blessing to more souls than any one whom I know.” Looking at the subject in that aspect, it is impossible to deny that his exceptional talents were specially suited to the sphere which he adorned, and thus we may believe that God overruled the apparent neglect of men for the greater advancement of His truth. CHAPTER XI _PAROCHIAL MISSIONS_ Five-and-twenty years ago parochial missions were in a different position from that in which they stand at present. There were very few mission preachers, and they had a good many difficulties to contend with. Some looked askance at the new movement and thought it savoured of Rome; others deemed it “exciting,” and unworthy of the calm atmosphere of the Church of England.