Clergy -- England -- Biography; Stoughton, John, 1807-1897
The British and Foreign Bible Society is a bond of social, as well as
religious, union. A dinner at Mr. George Moore’s house, Palace Gardens,
was, at that time, an annual institution, and after the Exeter Hall
meeting in May, the committee, speakers, and other friends, met under his
hospitable roof. The host appeared at his very best, frank, generous,
and kind—no affectation, no assumption; only a rich vein of English
geniality. On his right hand at such occasions, usually sat Lord
Shaftesbury, on the left perhaps the Archbishop of Canterbury. Without
flattery, but in homely ways of recognising service, the master of the
table would call up one after another of his guests, and after we left
the dining-room, we had family prayer together, a bishop and a Dissenter
taking part in conducting the worship.
In 1871 the Dean of Canterbury was suddenly taken to his rest. The
tidings gave great sorrow; and I felt it was due to his memory that some
Dissenting brethren should attend the funeral. Harrison, Baldwin Brown,
Newman Hall, and others did so; I was invited by the family to be one of
the pall bearers. Dr. Stanley, Dr. Merivale, Dean of Ely, and others,
met in the good man’s library, where his picture of St. Michael’s
Mount,—on which he had spent some of his last hours—stood upon the easel,
and Walton’s Polyglot lay open at the Book of Exodus, where Dr. Alford
had been reading just before his death. Slowly and sadly we walked into
the cloisters, where places were assigned us, and the procession moved
into the cathedral. There Mrs. Alford, with wonderful composure, joined
in the solemn service. Shops were shut, and the streets lined with
people, as we were conveyed to St. Martin’s Churchyard, where we joined
in singing one of his hymns, “Ten thousand times ten thousand,” etc. He
had expressed a wish to be interred there, and wrote the following
memorandum: “When I am gone, and a tomb is to be put up, let there be,
besides any indication of who is sleeping below, these words only:
_Deversorium viatoris Hierosolymam proficiscentis_—_i.e._, the inn of a
traveller who is on his way to Jerusalem.”
In a letter which I received from Canon Robertson, he said, in reference
to this inscription: “Perhaps Mr. Bullock may be able to tell you, that
some one has discovered the source of the words engraved at the bottom of
the tombstone. My own inquiries have been fruitless.” I have not been
able to ascertain their origin.
A committee was formed to raise some testimonial to the Dean’s worth, and
they invited me to join them. They acted in correspondence with the
Chapter, and it was determined that a painted window should be placed in
the cathedral, and that it should contain symbols of the evangelists, and
the scenes of our Lord’s Temptation, in the larger circles; whilst the
four smaller ones around, were to contain subjects showing that He
exercised miraculous power of the same kinds, in which He refused to
exert it, at the Tempter’s suggestion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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