Prime Ministers and Some Others: A Book of ReminiscencesRussell, George William Erskine
History
Prime Ministers and Some Others: A Book of Reminiscences
Russell, George William Erskine
Great Britain -- Biography
"He told me of Mr. Liddon, the saintly and learned preacher; of
the devout worshippers at All Saints', whose black nails show they
are artisans; of the society formed to pray daily for the restoration
of Christian unity."
And again:
"His father and mother seem to gather virtue and sweetness from
looking at him and talking to him, though they fight hard against
his unpractical and exploded Church views, and think his zeal
misdirected.... And all the while his mother's face gets brighter
and kinder because she is looking at him. Happy are the parents
who, when they have reached that time of life in which the world is
getting too strong and virtue is a thing of routine, are quickened
by the bold, restless zeal of their sons and daughters, and so
renew their youth."
In 1866 he was induced by his friend Mr. Lane-Fox, afterwards Chancellor
of the Primrose League, to join the English Church Union.
"At that time," he writes, "I was much concerned with the affairs
of the House of Charity in Soho and the Newport Market Refuge.
1866 was the cholera year, and I recollect coming straight back
from Lorne's[*] coming of age to London, where I saw Dr. Pusey,
with the result that I set to work to help Miss Sellon with her
temporary hospital in Commercial Street, Whitechapel."
[Footnote *: Afterwards Duke of Argyll.]
In this connexion it is proper to recall the devoted services which
he rendered to the House of Mercy at Horbury, near Wakefield; and
those who know what religious prejudice was in rural districts
forty years ago will realize the value of the support accorded to
an institution struggling against calumny and misrepresentation
by the most popular and promising young man in the West Riding.
There lies before me as I write a letter written by an Evangelical
mother--Lady Charles Russell--to her son, then just ordained to
a curacy at Doncaster.
"I want to hear more about Lord and Lady Halifax. I knew them pretty
well as Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood, but I have lived in retirement
since before he was raised to the peerage. His eldest son was not
only very good-looking, but inclined to be very good, as I dare
say Dr. Vaughan may have heard. Do you know anything about him?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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