Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian IslandsYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Religion
Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Missions -- Melanesia; Patteson, John Coleridge, 1827-1871
'You will know that I have been confirmed to-day, and I dare say you all
thought of me. The ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Lincoln, and
I hope that I have truly considered the great duty and responsibility
I have taken upon myself, and have prayed for strength to support me
in the execution of all those duties. I shall of course receive the
Sacrament the first time I have an opportunity, and I trust worthily. I
think there must have been 200 confirmed. The Bishop gave us a very
good charge afterwards, recommending us all to take pattern by the
self-denial and true devotion of the Bishop of New Zealand, on whom
he spoke for a long-while. The whole ceremony was performed with the
greatest decorum, and in the retiring and coming up of the different
sets there was very little noise, and not the slightest confusion. I
went up with the first set, and the Bishop came round and put his hands
on the heads of the whole set (about forty), and then going into the
middle pronounced the prayer. The responses were all made very audibly,
and everyone seemed to be impressed with a proper feeling of the
holiness and seriousness of the ceremony. After all the boys had been
confirmed about seven other people were confirmed, of whom two were
quite as much as thirty, I should think.'
'June 5.
'I have just returned from receiving the Holy Sacrament in Chapel. I
received it from Hawtrey and Okes, but there were three other ministers
besides. There was a large attendance, seventy or eighty or more Eton
boys alone. I used the little book that mamma sent me, and found the
little directions and observations very useful. I do truly hope and
believe that I received it worthily... It struck me more than ever
(although I had often read it before) as being such a particularly
impressive and beautiful service. I never saw anything conducted with
greater decorum. Not a single fellow spoke except at the responses,
which were well and audibly made, and really every fellow seemed to
be really impressed with the awfulness of the ceremony, and the great
wickedness of not piously receiving it, I do not know whether there
will be another Sacrament here before the holidays, or whether I shall
receive it with you at Feniton next time.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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