He does not give up his asceticism, though he feels the pain of it; and well he might, for he would sometimes eat nothing until six o'clock in the evening, and be all the day going through his parish, or writing sermons if the day were wet. He says in the journal of one of those days: "A fasting day till dinner made me very miserable, and makes me doubt the excellency of this means .... dinner did me good." He improves upon the fasting, however, by adding another day every week, when he finds that it really helps him to eradicate his passions and raise up his mind to heaven. The bodily pain consequent on want of food was not the only thing Mr. Spencer had to endure from his fasting. It was a practice that had a popish air about it; his friends and members of his family grew indignant that he should be making himself peculiar. He had to bear the brunt of all their remarks; he did so willingly, and would sit down to the family breakfast to feed on their rebukes and send his portion down untasted, whilst the rest took their meal. He also reads Thomas-a-Kempis's "Imitation of Christ," and we see evidences of that remarkable spirit for which he was afterwards distinguished--thanking God for everything. He becomes a secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: that institution was a favourite of Dr. Blomfield's, and he may have induced Mr. Spencer to patronize it. When Mr. Spencer saw how well it worked in its department, he thought of a scheme for improvising something of his own. He does not give particulars {121} of what it was; but he submitted it to his Bishop, who "threw cold water on it," and Mr. Spencer simply thanks God for being thwarted. He is completely wrapped up in his clerical duties, so much so that he does not give the full time to his summer vacation in Ryde; he is always impatient to get back to his parish when some pressing business requires him to leave it; and even, while away, he is perpetually visiting clergymen, and talking upon matters belonging to his office. He seems though, ever since the destruction of his High Church principles, to be getting every day more Evangelical in his words and actions. {122} CHAPTER IV. Mr. Spencer Becomes Rector Of Brington.