Fifteen Chapters of AutobiographyRussell, George William Erskine
History
Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography
Russell, George William Erskine
Politicians -- England -- Biography; Russell, George William Erskine, 1853-1919
pleasure to place in contrast with these absurdities the truly pastoral
and moving sermons of Mr. John Smith, whose apostolic work at Harrow I
have already commemorated. His paraphrase of 1. St. Peter iv. 7-8 still
lingers in my ear--"Be watchful, be prayerful, be very kind." He is thus
described on a Memorial Tablet in the Chapel:
To the Young a Father,
To friends in joy or grief a Brother,
To the poor, the suffering, and the tempted,
A minister of Hope and Strength.
Tried by more than common sorrows,
And upborne by more than common faith,
His holy life interpreted to many
The Mind which was in Christ Jesus,
The Promise of the Comforter,
And the Vision granted to the Pure in Heart.
It may seem odd that one should remember so much about sermons preached
so long ago, but Bishop Welldon's testimony illustrates the point. "When
I came to Harrow, I was greatly struck by the feeling of the boys for
the weekly Sermon; they looked for it as an element in their lives, they
attended to it, and passed judgment upon it." (I may remark in passing
that Dr. Welldon promptly and wisely reduced the Sunday Sermons from two
to one.)
But the day of days in Harrow Chapel was Founder's Day, October 10th,
1868, when the preacher at the Commemoration Service was Liddon, who had
lately become famous by the Bampton Lectures of 1866. The scene and the
sermon can never be forgotten. Prayers and hymns and thanksgivings for
Founder and Benefactors had been duly performed, and we had listened
with becoming solemnity to that droll chapter about "Such as found out
musical tunes, and recited verses in writing." When the preacher entered
the pulpit, his appearance instantly attracted attention. We had heard
vaguely of him as "the great Oxford swell," but now that we saw him we
felt a livelier interest. "He looks like a monk," one boy whispers to
his neighbour; and indeed it is a better description than the speaker
knows. The Oxford M.A. gown, worn over a cassock, is the Benedictine
habit modified by time and place; the spare, thin figure suggests
asceticism; the beautifully chiselled, sharply-pointed features, the
close-shaved face, the tawny skin, the jet-black hair, remind us vaguely
of something by Velasquez or Murillo, or of Ary Scheffer's picture of
St. Augustine. And the interest aroused by sight is intensified by
sound. The vibrant voice strikes like an electric shock. The exquisite,
almost over-refined, articulation seems the very note of culture. The
restrained passion which thrills through the disciplined utterance warns
even the most heedless that something quite unlike the ordinary stuff of
school-sermons is coming. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou
shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." The speaker speaks of the
blessedness and glory of boyhood; the splendid inheritance of a Public
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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