"How could you keep your temper through all the vexatious dispute of
to-night's debate?" was the question asked of Lord Althorpe by his most
intimate friend, after a fierce discussion on the Reform Bill. "I always
ask for strength before going to the House," was the answer; "and to-day
I asked for special strength, for I knew that party spirit ran high."
Many years ago I worked as a curate in the district which had seen the
first labours of the excellent Bishop of Wakefield, whose sudden removal
from active work will long be deeply mourned by the Church of England.
When he left Kidderminster for a country parish, he gave a New Testament
to a young man who had at one time promised well, but who fell into bad
company. "I shall make you the subject of special prayer," said the
Bishop, on wishing him good-bye. Some years afterwards I told the Bishop
that his advice had not been thrown away, and his words were, "I humbly
hope my prayer was heard."
Bishop Mackenzie told a friend of mine that he had asked for some change
in the life of two favourite pupils at Cambridge. They were not in the
habit of going to University sermons, but they went to hear one of
Bishop Selwyn's famous series in 1854. One of them became an eminent
clergyman, and the other died a missionary in India.
One more instance will suffice. An attack upon the divinity of Christ
was published some years ago by one who had been trained in a very
different way. His former tutor, who had a very great love for him,
asked a few friends not to forget him. As the tutor was dying, he had
the satisfaction of hearing that the man he had known and loved from
childhood had returned to the faith of a child.
I believe that all who have had considerable experience in parochial
work could give many instances of special answers to prayer. In recent
years many have come forward to offer themselves for labor at home and
abroad. The present occupation of many minds with the difficulties of
belief, the revelations made by earnest thinkers like Romanes, the
questions raised in such lives as the late Master of Balliol's, the
earnest longings for some reconciliation between the men of science and
the men of faith, may all surely be accepted as in some degree answers
to the prayers and aspirations of all who hope that in the Church of the
future there may be found a simple faith, an enduring charity, and a
belief in the unchangeable strength of an unchangeable Saviour.
A word to the reader.
Do you know what "Sabbath Reading" is? It is a 16-page weekly paper,
devoted exclusively to the best class of religious matter. No word of
Secular News, Politics, Sectarianism, or wearying disputations on the
"letter" which killeth, but much of the best teaching on the "spirit"
which giveth life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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