bring out to you the secret cause of the weakness of your will in this case of the night school. Reconsidering your touching address on Thursday, I have said to myself many times-What was the jarring string of sentiment and action there? Why the gentle Hindoo attractive', and the Lincoln loon repulsive, to the Gospel-bearer? Not for Jesus' reason "because he was lost," for the lostness of Lark Lane2 Boys is much more apparent. It is for some reason which lies in ψυχική not πνευματική and I thank God more freely than I did that I was not tempted to Calcutta. But, dear man, you have cherished a gradually growing rebellion against a task which you embraced at first with fervouras most Christian-most Church-like-most reconciling;-you remember your words. This rebellion has undermined your strength of will in that particular direction--and subtle instincts perceived it. I should (not like, but ought to) mention one other illustration--but not now-μǹ μéλavı xai xáρrw*—we must recover breath. Meanwhile, oremus. Your loving friend and fellow in sorrow, E. W. BENSON. 1 The Chancellor's correspondent had lately returned from Mission work in India. 2 A street in Lincoln. 3 The natural, not the spiritual region. A free quotation from 2 Ep. of St John v. 12 dià xáρтov кal μéλavos, "with paper and ink." CHAPTER XII. TRURO. "Suscitabo tabernaculum David, quod cecidit; et reaedificabo aperturas murorum ejus, et ea quae corruerant instaurabo, et reaedificabo illud sicut in diebus antiquis." AMOS. "Lacrimas introrsus obortas Devorat, et clausum pectore vulnus habet." OVID. THE foundation of the See of Truro was the outcome of a long and patient effort carried on for over thirty years with the greatest perseverance by a small body of clergy and laity. Among the earlier workers, who in the face of repeated disappointments never allowed the idea to drop, the names of the late Earl of Devon, Archdeacon Hobhouse, Prebendary Tatham, Dr Walker and Mr Edmund Carlyon are most conspicuous. At last in 1876, Lady Rolle, of Bicton, widow of Lord Rolle of Coronation fame, herself a Trefusis, the daughter of a Cornish clergyman, by a splendid gift of £40,000, completed the endowment. A certain annual sum, fixed by the Act, was transferred to the new See from the revenues of Exeter, and the remaining money, necessary to produce an income of £3000 a year, was raised. The arrangements were completed towards the close of the year 1876. On Dec. 15 the See was actually created by Order in Council. The Bishopric of Rochester was also vacant by the creation, under an Act of 1875, of the new Diocese of St Albans out of the original See of Rochester. Bishop Claughton, who was advanced in years, preferred to accept the less arduous position, and became Bishop of St Albans. It was thought by many people that my father would have been named for the See of Rochester, but Canon Thorold of York, Vicar of St Pancras, was appointed. One morning in the Winter of 1876 my father was dressing to go to the early Cathedral Service. He was talking to my mother of his great happiness at Lincoln, the steady growth of his many plans, and his determination not to leave his work. While he was dressing, the post came, and the letters were as usual laid on the hall table, which stood under a window commanded, across a little court, by the window of my father's bedroom. He saw the letters gleaming white on the table, and had a presentiment, he said afterwards, that they contained some momentous news. He went down, and my mother from the window saw him open them; among them he found a letter from the Premier, Lord Beaconsfield, offering him the newly constituted See of Truro. His own impulse was to refuse. He did not think that he ought to leave his Lincoln work so soon. But after much humble prayer and asking the advice of his best friends, he came reluctantly to the conclusion that he must go. Prebendary Maddison says: I remember his saying that in the morning the Premier's letter offering the Bishopric came, he had just said that he was never so happy in his life, when the post arrived, and he had to decide whether to go or remain. His decision was characteristically told to me in a few lines in which he said he was going to "take care of Temple's Sixth Form." He went, and Lincoln never seemed quite the same place again. One missed him everywhere. 1876 LETTERS-OFFER OF TRURO 413 After the strain of creating a public school at Wellington, the repose of ancient tradition and the joy of seeing new energies flow briskly in the venerable channels had been very great. But again he was called upon to found, to inaugurate. He consulted his old friends : To Canon Westcott, on the offer of the See of Truro. THE CHANCERY, LINCOLN. MY DEAR WESTCOTT, 4 Dec. 1876. My letters to you are nothing but perpetual demands on your kindness. Truro has been offered to-day. Had I better say Yes or No? I seek counsel from God. But I know that it is through such friends as you and Lightfoot that His aids to "right judgment" will mainly come-most likely wholly. In giving a judgment, remember that I look to staying here. £3000 a year does not really seem adequate for a person without private fortune-when, first a House, and a sufficient house, has to be provided out of the £3000-when travelling in railwayless Cornwall is scarcely possible without carriage and horses of one's own-and very expensive with them-when entertainment and necessary visits to London can be scarcely less costly in one Bishopric than in another-when Bishops who do not give subscriptions are not able to raise subscriptions. Quiet Bishops like Hereford, as well as our own and Exeter, tell me their own incomes are wholly used in necessary expenses. The position has no attractions for my wife or for me. We know the drawbacks too well-besides being, as I trust, wiser in the school of Christ than to be in love with its hindrances. The work here is simply now beginning to bud. The Theological students-the partly realizing Cathedral life-the Society of Mission Clergy-the Temperance, which is this moment in the crisis of To-be-or-not-to-be; and which I think we may with resolution throw into a new aspect and open out into new power-Deo adjuvante. Then, is there any special call of a spiritual order to Cornwall -which I do not see? Then, is it a call which one is free to accept or decline as being not suitable for the whole of life, even if it were so for this few years? Orate pro nobis-if time suffice you, and give me the counsel which has so very very long and so often made me take the right turn. Yours ever lovingly grateful, E. W. BENSON. The Chancellor sent a post-card to his old friend Canon Wickenden to ask for advice and prayer. It consisted of a drawing of an envelope, with " Beaconsfield" in the lefthand bottom corner, an open letter, with indistinguishable lines, only the letters "H. M." and "Truro" legible, and two hands clasped in an attitude of prayer. Canon Crowfoot writes: His life at Lincoln had been a preparation for greater work to follow. Lincoln came between Wellington and Truro. At Lincoln the Headmaster was gradually transformed into the Bishop. He had lived in constant converse with a great and holy Bishop whom he loved as a father. He had gauged the possibilities of a noble Cathedral. He had taken a Mission. He had conducted a Retreat for Clergy. He had made proof of his own powers in new and diverse directions not as a preacher and teacher only but as a friend, a reconciler and a peacemaker. He had learnt not only to trust but to awaken trust in all with whom he came in contact. "Single-heart" is the name given to the last four sermons which he preached as Chancellor in the Cathedral. The little volume is dedicated "to the dear people of the congregation of Lincoln Cathedral in memory of last Advent-tide and in gratitude for their letters of commendation to the church of Cornwall." A few words from the last pages of the last (an ordination sermon) foreshadow his own after life. He is describing the secret of organization. He is enforcing the lesson that sensible saints "do first, then teach." "They would see how futile it is to try to make out their own living Church to be the Church of some other country (whichever delights them) or the Church of some distant day. Its elements now are more |