6~. 2- / . to 'i^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^jf^ Presented by c3V^ ^/"VvaV^X \ s^ Y^ <£x V^ BX 5995 .G65 A3 1910 Grafton, Charles C. 1830- 1912. A journey Godward of Doulos lesou KristQu_La_^ervant o Personal Reminiscences Bishop Grafton BY THE BISHOP OF FOND DU LAG PusEY AND THE Church Kevival. Clotli, 50 cts ; by mail 55 cts. The Roman Question. A collection of papers. Cloth $1.00; by mail $1.10. A Catholic Atlas. Royal 8vo, cloth, $2.50; by mail $2.Y0. Christian and Catholic. Cloth, $1.50; by mail $1.65. THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO., Milwaukee, Wis. [* MAY 21 1910 *] (L^- A Journey Godwar OF AoOXos ^Irjaov XpicrToS (A Servant of Jesus Christ) BY, CHARLES C. GRAFTON Bishop of Fond du Lac MILWAUKEE THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. LONDON A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. 1910 Copyright by THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 1910 TO THE REV. MOTHER FOUNDRESS OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE HOLY NATIVITY IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF HER WISE COUNSELS AND SUP- PORT, AND ASKING HER PRAYERS AND THOSE OF HER DAUGHTERS IN CHRIST. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER A FOREWORD. By Erving Winsloto 1 I. CHANGES AND CHANCES 21 II. "IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 54 III. "CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE?" 71 IV. "THE RELIGIOUS LIFE" 88 V. PASTORAL WORK 107 VI. AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE . . 131 VII. THE DIOCESE OF FOND DU LAC 152 (Including a paper with the same title by the Rev. William Dafter, D.D.) VIII. THE EPISCOPATE 158 Educational Work 172 The Cathedral 175 The Convent 177 IX. SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS 180 Ceremonial 185 X. TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE .... 190 (Including a paper entitled Fight the Good Fight, by the Bev. B. Talbot Rogers, D.D.) XI. MY LIFE IN CHRIST 208 Meditation on the Vision of Jerusalem .... 209 Meditation on the Seed 212 Meditation on the Tares 214 Meditation on the Love of Christ 216 Meditation on the Ten Virgins 218 Meditation on the Words: "Ye know not what Spirit ye are of" 219 Meditation on Humility 222 Extract from a Meditation on the Text: "Out of the Mouth of Bahes and Sucklings Hast Thou Per- fected Praise" 225 VIU CONTENTS XII. AN INSTRUCTION 229 Prayer 231 Public Prayer 234 Meditation 235 Love 238 XIII. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION .243 XIV. THE POLISH OLD CATHOLIC MOVEMENT ... 279 XV. FINAL WORDS 301 PORTRAITS PAGE The Bishop of Fond du Lac — Frontispiece. Chables Chapman Grafton, 1859 32-33 Rev. T. T, Carter 46-47 Members of the Order of St. John the Evangelist (Cow- let Fathers), 1903 88-89 The Rev. Mother Foundress, Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity 104-105 View of the Sanctuary, St. Paul's Cathedral, Fond DU Lac 158-159 Rev. Cornelius Hill 164-165 Grafton Hall, Fond du Lac 172-173 Episcopal Residence and Convent of the Holy Nativity, Fond du Lac 178-179 S. Saviour's, Moscow 242-243 Antonius, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg .... 250-251 Father John of Cronstadt 254-255 Vladimir, Metropolitan of Moscow 256-257 Bishops at the Consecration of the Rt. Rev. R. H. Weller, D.D., TO BE Bishop Coadjutor of Fond du Lac, Nov. 8, 1900 278-279 The Late Bishop Kozlowski 294-295 A FOREWORD Extracts from a Paper Read at the Bishop's JuBn.EE IN 1909. By Erving Winslow, Esq. Affection and respect for the person and char- acter of the subject of this sketch are too general to give its author any special right to offer his tribute on this interesting occasion, because he en- tertains these sentiments so heartily and sincerely. The only plea for indulgence consists in fellow-citi- zenship with Charles Chapman Grafton in Boston, and a life-long connection with the parish of the Advent, to the rectorship of which he gave sixteen years of his consecrated life. Many parts of Boston have undergone changes, not merely social and structural, but geographical and almost geological. Water has been made into land and hills carried into the sea. But the site of the house where Bishop Grafton was born is still occupied by a habitation, being a part of that upon which the Touraine, the chief hotel, now stands. On the 12th of April, 1830, Major Joseph Graf- ton and his wife, Ann Maria (Gurley), were liv- ing in this house on the east side of Common, now Tremont, Street, next to the corner of Boylston, and here on this date their son, Charles Chapman, was Z A JOURNEY GODWARD born. The Grafton immigrants came from Eng- land to Salem. It is a tradition that Richard Grafton, King's jDrinter to Henry VIII. and Edward YI. and printer of the Great Bible and the First Prayer Book of Edward VI., who was sent to the Tower for issuing Lady Jane Grey's proclamation, was an ancestor. One of the Salem Graftons presented a Bible to Harvard College. Major Joseph Grafton had been a distin- guished officer— thanked in General Orders— of the regular army in the war of 1812, and later becoming Surveyor of the Port. Mrs. Grafton was the daughter of the Hon. John Ward Gurley, first Attorney-General of Louisiana, and Grace Hanfield Stackpole, said to have been the hand- somest woman of her day in New England. From this ancestress perhaps, came the endoA^anent of personal beauty, as from other many distinguished forbears were inherited gifts and graces which were to mark the youth's fitness, and which were the ordinary indications for a brilliant worldl}^ career. In this case, perchance, another illustra- tion may be found of that ''mystery in our proba- tion" upon which the pious Isaac AVilliams com- ments with such beauty, inasmuch as ''in the saint of God the character acquired by the gift of the Holy Spirit is often that which is most opposed to the natural tendencies and dispositions." The very fitness and the easy opportunities for social suc- cess, for pleasure seeking and the pursuits of ambi- tion, were divinely appointed to develop their ex- tremes: retirement, renunciation, and hmxiilit}^ Active discountenance, much more than would be A FOREWORD O shown in our day, of tolerant indifferentism, was then exhibited towards any inclination to the Faith or to any disposition to recognize its expression. But there were conditions in the lad's youth which kept hiin somewhat apart from the natural associa- tions with his circle of friends and relatives. After three years in the historical Boston Latin School, which he entered in 1843, he spent a short time at the Phillips- Andover Academy, where he was attacked by a trouble in the eyes, so that he was obliged to continue his education with a pri- vate tutor. The Church of the Advent had begun its im- portant and eventful history, December 3, 1844, in an upper room at No. 13 Merrimac Street, and after another change of habitation to a hall at Causeway and Lowell Streets, it had found a home, on Advent Sunday, November 28, 1847, in a com- modious but rigidly simple edifice in Green Street. The establishment of this work in Boston (the name of which was suggested by Eichard H. Dana, Jr., one of its charter members) , was in sympathy with the so-called Oxford movement, begun a few years before in England. The character and posi- tion of its founders, and the Catholic and reverent nature of its practices, could not be overlooked, and a deep impression was made upon the city, though so largely Socinian in its religion. Dr. Holmes, himself a life-long Unitarian, expressed the sentiment of the community in one of his classic essays, describing the venture of faith under the pseudon3an of the ''Church of St. Poly- carp." 4 A JOURNEY GODWAED ''For this was a church with open doors, mth seats for all classes and all colours alike— a church of zealous worshippers after their faith, of char- itable and serviceable men and women; one that took care of its children and never forgot its poor and whose people were much more occupied in looking out for their own souls than in attacking the faith of their neighbors. In its mode of wor- ship there was a union of two qualities— the taste and refinement, which the educated require just as much in their churches as elsewhere, and the air of stateliness, ahnost of pomp, which impresses the common worshipper, and is often not without its effect upon those who think they hold outward fomi as of little value." Grafton became interested in the Church at a time when it attracted special sympathy through the persecution it was enduring at the hands of the Ordinary, who refused to visit it again in conse- quence of his disapproval of some trifling details in the arrangement of the service, which he had noticed at his first confirmation in the parish. The saintly character of the rector, the Eev. William Croswell, known to him in childhood as rector of Christ Church, impressed the young man, who had been deeply moved in spiritual things at an age when too many— hearing the Voice, as they so often do— refuse to listen to it. He was present at the first service in the church in Green street. The Eev. Oliver S. Prescott joined the parish as an assistant in October, 1849, and became a friend and counsellor. Hudson, the Shakespearian scholar, who had been ordained to the diaconate. A FOREWORD was also connected with the Advent, and Ms power- ful and studious mind was not without influence on his young hearer. On May 18, 1851, the Fourth Sunday after Easter, Grafton was confirmed at St. Stephen's chapel, whither the Advent candidates marched in procession to meet the Bishop, headed by their rector; the last occasion for this extraordinary performance, which the Bishop's attitude made necessary. A canon procured from the General Convention obliged the Bishop to resume his Epis- copal functions in the parish thereafter, but the rector, whose delicate constitution had been wrecked by the persecution he had suffered, was never again to shepherd his faithful flock. Graf- ton was in the church on the memorable occasion, November 9, 1851, when, as Dr. Croswell was kneeling at the Altar, ' ' about the time of the even- ing sacrifice, the angel touched him." Though so young a man, Grafton was appointed as a member of the committee of the parish, with five of its lead- ing officials and parishioners, to go to New Haven as an escort and to attend the burial service there. In 1851 Grafton entered Harvard Law School. While there an incident occurred which he has re- lated and which was in the end helpful to him. He became greatly puzzled over certain legal prin- ciples which were laid down in the text-book, and could not see his way to a correct solution of a case before him. It rather depressed him, as he thought he must be wanting in sufficient acute- ness for the profession. So he summoned up his courage and determined to carry the matter to 6 A JOURNEY GODWARD Chief Justice Parker, his professor, who was one of the great lights of the legal profession. Graf- ton remembers with what timidity he rapped at the door, and was ushered into "the presence." He told the professor he had a legal difficulty which he could not solve. ' ' State the case, Mr. Grafton, ' ' the professor said. So it was stated at length, with the pros and cons of the conflicting sides, and Mr. Grafton awaited the dictum of the Chief Justice. His quiet and semi-amused expression was never forgotten and his words conveyed a valuable les- son, when Professor Parker said: "I am old enough and have lived long enough to tell you I don't know what the law is in the case." Grafton recalls the relief it was to hear the supreme arbiter say this. The student was not the "fool" he had thought himself, and went out with a more cour- ageous heart to take up his studies again. During this period the spiritual combat and conquest were going on in Grafton's soul. He be- gan to form habits of religious observance ; he ac- quired a belief in the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, and he used to walk to Boston from Cambridge to make his fasting Communion. Our Church had hardly begun to wake from its apa- thetic condition. It was obvious to him that the low church position, then so generally held, was but a partial one, and that the Catholicity of our own branch of the Church was the only true basis of its claims. It is not possible for the closest friend to reveal the light under such conditions. There was even a drawing to a political career. The anti-slavery cause commended itself greatly A FOREWORD 7 through the influence of his near friend, Wendell Phillips; but the final, the heavenly-guided deci- sion was reached, that a greater good could be done to humanity by entering the ministry. While pur- suing his studies at Harvard, under Fr. Prescott's influence Grafton finally determined to offer him- self as a candidate for Holy Orders to Bishop Whittingham of Maryland, a saintly man, whose sympathy and help were naturally sought rather than that of the head of the diocese of Massachu- setts. Fr. Grafton remained in Maryland for about ten years. He was admitted to the "Holy Order of Deacons in the Church of Christ," according to the Bishop's certificate, December 23i, 1855, being the Fourth Sunday in Advent, at St. Peter's Church, Ellicott's Mills, and was ordained to the "Holy Office of Priesthood" by Bishop Whitting- ham, May 30, 1858, being Trinity Sunday, in St. Paul's, Baltimore. His career in Maryland began at Eeisterstown during slavery times. His first six months were spent in a deserted rectory, where he practically camped out, and had twenty-six dollars for his first six months' stipend. He was curate to Dr. Rich, a very saintly man. Fr. Grafton had often to walk miles to one of his missions. They did not have overmuch in the way of food, and used to warm over what was sent in for their Sunday meals. Fr. Grafton recalls that on the occasion of his first sermon with Dr. Rich, to whom he was curate, there were only four persons present. Dr. Rich, a sincere and holy man, gave him one piece of ser- 8 A JOURNEY GODWAED mon advice: "Make j^our sermons short, for I have not mj^self the gift of listening to long ser- mons. Keep, while a young man, within twenty minutes. ' ' A laj^nan perhaps may venture to say that the wisdom of the elder man in adhering to the precept given him 'Svhile a young man" has contributed much to the success of his pulpit min- istry. About this time Fr. Grafton was called to the founding of a mission of the Epiphany at Wash- ington under Dr. Pine. This call had a great many social and other attractions. He told the Bishop that if he wished him to go there, he would do so; but as a young man he shrank from the dangerous attractions of the life in Washington, and dreaded the difficulty of establishing the sys- tem of free sittings, which he believed in, and a weekly Eucharist. It was by the permission of Bishop Whittingham that he declined what was, from a worldly point of view, a most advantageous offer. He was for a short time chaplain at the Church Home and Infirmary and of the Deacon- esses of Maryland. In 1858 Fr. Grafton became assistant minister in King and Queen parish, Chaptico, and in 1859 he was called to be curate of St. Paul's Church, Baltimore. Fr. Grafton re- mained at St. Paul's Church until 1865 ; during the prolonged illness of Dr. Wyatt— about one and a half years— having its entire charge. During this period the Civil War broke out. Fr. Grafton's training at Harvard had led him to be in sj^mpathy with the Federal side. He believed that if the principle of state secession was a correct one, our A FOREWORD 9 country was a rope of sand. Not only the South might go, but the West might go, or any state might go. Indeed, we had no real country; and apart from slavery, the question was whether we were to be a country or no. Yet he recognized the patriotism of the South and the legal strength of its position. At the breaking-out of the war, Fr. Grafton was in Baltimore. He was then chap- lain to a house of Deaconesses which, under Mrs. Tyler, the Mother, was engaged in charitable work. He well recalls the 19th day of April, when the first blood in the Civil War was shed. The sol- diers were passing through the streets of the town and some were shot. Under Mrs. Tyler's direction and in the face of an enraged mob, they were taken in and cared for. Mrs. Tyler's noble service was afterwards recognized by the Massachusetts legis- lature. During the war Fr. Grafton assisted her in the active conduct of the house. Sometimes they had a hundred wounded men come in at night. They were also called to minister to the Confed- erate prisoners. It was in 1865 that Fr. Grafton went to Eng- land with the following circular letter of introduc- tion from Bishop Whittingham : ''To all who in the Communion of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church live in the faith and love of Jesus Christ, our Lord : Greeting ! ''The bearer, Charles Chapman Grafton, LL.B., as a Presbyter of upright and godly life and conversation, soimd learning, and ap- proved fidelity in the holy ministry, is com- mended while travelling with our permission, 10 A JOURNEY GODWARD on his lawful occasions, to the enjoyment of all the Christian offices of love. By your loving brother in Christ, William Rollinson Whittinghj^m, Bishop of Maryland. (Seal) Baltimore, U. S., May 2, 1865." Fr. Grafton was kindly welcomed by Dr. Pusey and others who took great interest in the founda- tion of a religious community for men. Fr. O 'Neil and a few others had been thinking of it before his arrival. He was led to associate himself with the Rev. Fr. R. M. Benson. They began in the year 1865 in a house on the Cowley road. At first there were only two of them. They were in the course of the year joined by Fr. O'Neil, and subse- quently by Fr. Prescott from America. They adopted a rule of life that was episcopally ap- proved. The house was monastic in its simplicity. Of course the Holy Sacrifice was daily offered. They took a simple habit of an Anglican pattern. In founding the community, Fr. Benson dAvelt on the importance of a community recitation of the Divine Offices. In our very busy, work-day world, he thought an Anglican community should espec- ially bear witness, by its life of meditation, to the unseen world. Dr. Pusey, who was consulted, had from his intimacy with, and friendship for, New- man the idea that the Oratorian system would be best adapted to them. The modern orders in Rome, the Jesuits and Oratorians, do not say the Divine Office in community. But Fr. Benson A FOREWORD 11 more wisely tliouglit that the Benedictine Rule in this respect was the more to be desired. The new order was to be a missionary one. Fr. Benson in his earlier days had desired to go to India, and had only been stopped in obedience to the Bishop of Oxford. His missionary spirit has pervaded the Society from its earliest days. In the begin- ning Fr. Benson gave a thirty days' retreat, which he continued to do for a number of years. His in- sight into Holy Scripture was remarkable, and his life resembled, in its asceticism, that of the Cure d'Ars. In this humble way the Society of St. John the Evangelist began. Along with Fr. O'Neil, Fr. Grafton organized the first great London Mission. About 140 parishes took part in it, and 60,000 were estimated as attending the services daily. The London Times spoke of it as giving a new impulse to the Church. The result was widely and thoroughly acknowl- edged. It helped to bring the Church more in touch with the people, and to draw the clergy of the different schools in the Church together. When preaching the great fundamental truths of religion and seeking to win souls to Christ, it was found how much Churchmen had in common. The Society has now extended widely through- out the world. It has houses in Bombay and Poo- nah in India, St. Cuthbert's in Africa, a house in London, and a Church and parish work in Boston and in other places. The Society has replaced its first himible monastic building by a large one in Oxford, and a noble church. In 1870 the Church of the Advent in Boston, 12 A JOURNEY GODWARD occupying its fourth site in Bowdoin street, was without a rector, the Rev. James A. BoUes having resigned in December, 1869 ; and was in charge of the Rev. Moses P. Sticlmey as rector ad interim. It was proposed to the Society of St. John the Evangelist, of which Fr. Benson was the Superior, to take over the administration of the parish. Fr. Benson and two associates visited Boston and ex- amined the situation, but the Bishop of Massachu- setts refused to allow the ''foreigners" to officiate in public worship, and they could only speak in unconsecrated halls or private rooms. Thus, it was asked that one of the Brotherhood, a priest in Holy Orders in the American Church, might be- come rector, and permission was given to Fr. Graf- ton to accept the proffered function. After sev- eral months' service by Fr. Prescott, Mr. Stickney having resigned at Easter, 1871, Fr. Grafton's ac- ceptance was received by the parish at the Easter meeting, 1872, his letter dimissory to Massachu- setts from Maryland, with which he had retained official connection, being dated February 24, 1872. After many years a question arose on a matter of jurisdiction between the Cowley house, estab- lished at Philadelphia, and the mother house at Oxford. Fr. Prescott conferred with Fr. Grafton and it was decided to appeal to the English Super- ior to grant an American Constitution, which had long been contemplated and which would put the American priests in right relations to their Bish- ops. But this appeal was not acted on, and it was finally arranged for various good and sufficient rea- sons, among which was the placing of the Ameri- A FOREWORD 13 cans in right relation to their Bishops, that they should leave the Society, be honorably released from their vows, and allowed to form an American Order of their own. Fr. Grafton had contributed a large sum of money toward the purchase of the house of wor- ship in Bowdoin Street, which it was proposed should become the home of the American organiza- tion. But a large number of the members of the parish of the Advent had become convinced that an organic connection with a religious order was not wholly desirable in the development of parochial life, so Fr. Grafton assented to the transfer of the building on Bowdoin Street to the Cowley society, retaining, of course, his rectorship of the parish of the Advent, and the administration of the new parish church, which had been built under his in- spiration and influence. The land having been purchased at Easter, 1875, was broken March 21, 1878 ; the chancel first built and walled in, used as a chapel on Easter, 1879, and the building of the nave commenced in the spring of 1881. The rector established the house of the Holy Nativity in 1882, a Sisterhood which largely assisted in preparing for and building up the increased congregation for the new church. The first service was held in the completed fabric on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, 1883. Fr. Grafton's heart was yet full of missionary enterprise, and of the desire to promote an Ameri- can Order of missionaries. Seeing the great pros- perity of the parish of the Advent in its new and magnificent building, the church crowded, the 14 A JOURNEY GODWARD parish expenses all met and everything at the high- est point of success, he felt that he could give his work into other hands, and in April, 1888, he re- signed the rectorship of the Advent, and took the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity to Providence. His future plans were to be shaped in an un- expected manner. On the 13th day of November, 1888, Fr. Graf- ton was elected, by the Council of that Diocese, Bishop of Fond du Lac, and he felt this call im- perative to a difficult field which was practically a missionary one. On the 4th of April, 1889, the Presiding Bishop certified to the fulfilment of the necessary canonical conditions for the consecration, which sacred function took place on St. Mark's day, April 25th, in the Cathedral of St. Paul, Fond du Lac. A farewell service was held in the parish of the Advent, Boston, April 13th, at which the future Bishop was celebrant at the Eucharist, and Bishop Paddock of Massachusetts was the preacher. At this service many of the clergy of Massachusetts assisted and many others were present among the large congregation. It was a most affecting occa- sion. One of the niunerous public notices of this service, voicing its expression, said of the partici- pants in this farewell, that "their sorrow is tem- pered by their confidence in the career of the future Bishop. If his particular delicacy and cul- tivation have aided his work in the East, the pre- dominant elements of his character, the piety and purity of his nature, are what have really effected its great results, and the more difficult the field the more shining will be his influence and A FOREWORD 15 example. ' ' An address was prepared by a commit- tee of the Clerical Union of Massachusetts, hand- somely engrossed, and presented to Fr. Grafton, in the following form : "On the part of many brethren in the sacred ministry of the Church of this diocese, these words of congratulation, affection, and farewell are presented. We feel honored that one of our own number has been called to accept an office of the highest dignity and use- fulness. You are to be the successor of one whom it is no ordinary privilege to follow, for the character and labors of the first Bishop of Fond du Lac have made his episcopate forever memorable. We rejoice that you are entering upon a field of labor which offers you every prospect of wide and enduring usefulness. While the episcopate has always been a posi- tion of honor, and while it has always offered special opportunities for reaching and in- fluencing men for good, it is almost impossible to over-estimate the value of the services of the Bishop of a growing diocese in our new land, as a leader of sound thought, as a pro- moter of active benevolence, and as an orig- inator and helper of wholesome influences for the welfare of the people committed to his charge. We heartily congratulate you upon being thus called to be a Bishop in the Church of God, and our affection for you will make us eager for your success. You have endeared yourself to us by your generous and brotherly qualities, and our hearts will be with you as 16 A JOURNEY GODWAED you meet the labors, cares, and responsibili- ties of a position for which we consider you most eminently qualified. You may always be sure of the sympathy of your many friends in Massachusetts in whatever may be done for the extension and upbuilding of the Church of Christ. In bidding you farewell we have the assurance that we are but transferring you to other friends, who are eager to attest their loyalty to you, and to hold up jout hands in the work given you to do among them. That God's blessing may rest upon you in all your efforts to advance His glory and kingdom is our earnest prayer. (Signed) George W. Shinn, A. St. John Chambre, William J. Harris, William B. Frisby, Charles W. Ketchum, Committee/^ The material results of Fr. Grafton's sixteen years' rectorship of the parish of the Advent are well known. First, the magnificent half -million- dollar church with its large and growing endow- ment, the one practically completed and the other well launched before he laid down his authority. The cost of land and buildings and fittings was not contributed disproportionately by any great giver or group of givers, but by little children, by the widow who gave her mite, by the wage-earner whose giving meant real sacrifice, as well as by the well-to-do. His appeal was made to all the mem- bers of the congregation by one whose own ascetic A FOREWORD 17 life made it much more effective than such an appeal would come from the mouths of men of known comfortable incomes, who, themselves, set no particular example of self-denial. He who lived in the hardness of the religious life, could urge the foregoing of a car fare, of some little indul- gence in food or raiment, for the sake of adding a living stone to the Temple of the Lord— so many of which were built into its walls. Meetings of rally and encouragement were held, a system of weekly pledges organized, and every legitimate means emploj^ed for carrying on the great work. Many gifts of money and ornaments of various kinds came from the family and personal friends of the incumbent, and many were thank offerings for gifts and graces received through his ministra- tions. The rector was chairman of the building committee throughout its existence, constant and zealous at all its meetings; and the architect, the late John H. Sturgis, was one of his most intimate friends and received from Fr. Grafton many sug- gestions in the design and execution of the under- taking. Another great work of Fr. Grafton's rector- ship was the establishment of the House of the Holy Nativity, the result of much stud}^ and ex- perience of existing Sisterhoods. Its special field was the cultivation of the Religious Life, and to give aid to the parochial clergy in their spiritual work and in preparation of candidates for the Sacraments. During the last three years of Fr. Grafton's administration of the parish of the Advent, half as many adults were baptized as in 18 A JOURNEY GODWAED all the other nineteen Episcopal Churches of Bos- ton put together, a result largely due, as he has often said, to the efficient work of the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity. The mother house is now at Fond du Lac, while there are branch houses among the Indians at Oneida, Wisconsin ; at Providence, Ehode Island; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; New York, N. Y. ; and at Portland, Maine. The spiritual work of the sixteen years in the parish of the Advent cannot be reckoned here. It will be loiown when the jewels are made up and the good pastor gives an account of his flock. Like the great Prince-Bishop of Geneva, Fr. Grafton had sjDecial facility of access to those persons of cul- ture and refinement, so difficult to reach because their taste and breeding must necessarily^ be recog- nized and accounted with before a hearing can be obtained from them. As with St. Francis de Sales, his singular purity and detachment were imited to that sense of proportion, that insight and S}tii- pathy, which we call tact. Those whose tempta- tions do not lie in the way of coarse indulgence, but proceed from tendencies to melancholy and morbid self-analysis, require a certain encourage- ment and mortification of the will rather than ex- cessive bodily asceticism. Fr. Grafton knew how to inculcate the ''little virtues which grow at the foot of the Cross." He had all that restraint and reserve which were perhaps the deepest notes of the Oxford movement, in strong though silent protest against the noisy and sensational appeals of Evangelicalism, embodied as we find it in Keble's exquisite "Rosebud" hymn. A FOREWORD 19 There was a group of saintly persons in the Advent in Fr. Grafton's day, of which any pastor might have been proud— women as devoted as Ma- dame de Chantal to her holy confessor, and men who followed in the good old paths without ostenta- tion and with the true chivalric feeling for their priest. Many of these good women had been led on to further steps in the higher life by their director ; others had been turned from the engrossment of gay and brilliant society to real sanctity. Those who shared Fr. Grafton's meditations given at the House of the Holy Nativity, surrounded by his Sisters and some of these devoted associates, have testified to the spiritual exaltation in which his soul took wing in beautiful and sj^mpathetic envi- ronment. As Madame de Chantal wrote of St. Francis : ' ' That soul was more pure than the sun and more white than snow in its actions, in its resolutions, in its desires and affections. " " Words are necessary, but as means, not as ends ; they are not mere addresses to the throne of grace ; they are instruments of what is far higher, of consecration, of sacrifice. They hurry on as if impatient to ful- fil their mission. Quickly they go; the whole is quick, for they are all parts of one integral action. Quickly they go, for they are awful words of sacri- fice; they are a work too great to delay upon, as when it was said in the beginning: 'What thou doest, do quickly. ' Quickly they pass, for the Lord Jesus goes with them, as He passed along the lake in the days of His fiesh, quickly calling, first one and then another. Quickly they pass ; because as the lightning which shineth from one part of 20 A JOURNEY GODWARD. heaven unto the other, so is the coming of the Son of Man." Fr. Grafton loved the Eucharist with all his great heart, but some of the most enthusiastic words that ever fell from his lips were in praise of those who frequented daily Morning and Evening Prayer, which some of our ''advanced" Catholics speak lightly of as only condensed breviary offices, but which are sacred in Anglican and American tradition by their venerable, religious, and sober use. He was an admirable executive, never inter- fering with assignments, but leaving his clerical and lay assistants free to carry out instructions with suitable freedom in detail. He moved among us with sweetness, dignity, and gravity. Men and women venerated him ; the children loved him. Bishop Grafton's visits to us in his old home are indeed as the visits of an Angel of the Church, in which his ripening wisdom, love, and gentle- ness are ever welcomed with increasing affection. With due respect to our honored Diocesan, when we speak among ourselves of the Bishop, we mean Charles Fond du Lac ! CHAPTER I. CHANGES AND CHANCES. My Dear Friends : You have asked me to leave you some account of my life. One's life is divided into two parts— the inner life and the outward life. I have greatly hesitated in giving the facts about the latter, lest it should mislead any respecting the former. My inner life has been simply one, through many spiritual trials, temptations, and failures, of a stumbling on towards God. It overwhelms me with shame and humiliation when I think of it. It is only by clinging to the infinite mercies of the merciful Lord that I am kept out of despair. It looks to me like a failure; such a ghastly failure that I am afraid to write anything about this out- ward life. But I will try to do so, as far as practical. I became seriously interested in the Church through attending the Church of the Advent, Bos- ton, and was present at its first opening in Green Street. I had known Dr. Croswell a little in my childhood, when he was rector of Christ Church, and remember his taking me in his arms and bless- ing me. An illness of my eyes, which kept me from other work, enabled me to attend the services fre- 22 A JOURNEY GODWARD quently. What we think a misfortune turns thus to a blessing. I had long been battling with the ordinary problems of life, when, through my own failures, I was led to Confirmation. While at the Church of the Advent, a powerful influence came over me. One day, on seeing Dr. Croswell pass up the aisle to his place in the chan- cel, I heard, as it were, a Voice saying unto me as I looked at him: "And why shouldn't you be a priest?" I took no steps at the time, but the im- pression remained with me. Along with Dr. Oliver and a few others, I be- came interested in the founding of St. Botolph's parish in Boston, which was to be of decided High Church tendencies and Tractarian teaching. It had not sufficient support to be continued, but sub- sequently in the hall, Emmanuel Church carried on a Mission Sunday School. After this I went to Harvard, and entered the Law School, where I remained for some three years. I got a valuable piece of advice from Langdell, who was afterwards the great Dean. I had been taken into the Coke Club, a small one of about eight members. Langdell was one, the two Choates (one of whom was afterwards Ambassador), Chandler (afterwards Senator for New Hamp- shire), Carter (afterwards the leader at the New York bar), Shattuck (afterwards a noted lawyer in Boston), and, I believe, Felton (afterwards of some note in California) . I think they took me in on account of a plea I made, when I had the wrong side of a moot case to defend. But Langdell, in his CHANGES AND CHANCES 23 greatness, was always very kind to me, and gave me work on Parsons' Book of Contracts, which I did under him. Anxious fully to investigate subjects given me, I had run out right and left on all sorts of subjects involving legal possibilities. Langdell struck them all out, and said: "Grafton, learn to keep on the high road and beaten track. You might live a lifetime imagining legal questions, and practise a lifetime without one of them coming up. Keep on the beaten highway. ' ' This advice helped me in my Church's position, to keep the Faith as established by the Church's decisions, and not to bother with the vagaries and speculations of schis- matics. I grasped the principles which ever after- wards guided me in my religious faith. Believing there was an Intelligent and Will Energy that made the Cosmos what it was, it was but proper that a revelation should be made to us. If no such Energy existed, the world was a frightful night- mare; and if no revelation were made to us, the universe was immoral. This revelation had been made through the ma- terial universe, in the mind and conscience of man, through more enlightened seers and philosophers in all ages, by Hebrew prophets ; and, gradually de- veloping, had culminated in the person of Christ. Dr. Walker, the president of Harvard, a Uni- tarian of the Arian school, preached a strong ser- mon proving the divinity of Christ. The question, he said, was not whether Christ was the greatest of men, but whether He was a mere man or no. He proved Christ did not belong to the class of man, for He was free, as no other known man was, from 24 A JOURNEY GODWARD the prejudices of His age, country, and race; and His sinless character also differentiated Him from others, and He stood alone, unique and unap- proachable. His truthful character compelled ac- ceptance of His claim that He had had a previous existence, saying "Before Abraham was, I am"; that He "had come down from Heaven," and in some deep mystery. He "and the Father were one." It was much the same line that in after years I heard Liddon take in his Bampton Lec- tures on Tlie Divinity of Christ. For my own part, I felt that everyone needed, especially myself, in religious matters, a teacher, an example, a guide. If I recalled aright the old story, Socrates, meeting one day Alcibiades, on his way to the Temple, put to him, after his manner, many perplexing problems; and when Alcibiades, in despair, said to his great teacher: "How then shall we know these things?" the great pagan phil- osopher replied, "Someone must come and teach us. ' ' Has He not, in Christ ? I was bidden by a friend to take up Comte's philosophy. I asked. What sort of life did he lead ? "Well," was the reply, "he did not live with his wife." I did not think it worth while to try to do one thousand pages of stiff reading, along with my legal studies, and come out like the founder of this school. So my first great principle was to accept Christ as my teacher. When the world can pro- duce somebody wiser, or of a deeper spiritual in- sight, it will be time to reconsider this position. But I took the great Master as my Master, and sur- CHANGES AND CHANCES 25 rendering myself to Him, believed in Him and all He said, because He said it. The other principle, and what made me a prac- tical Churchman, was this: If Christ was the special teacher sent from Heaven, He could not so imperfectly have taught His doctrine as that the larger number of His followers would be led into error. I once, subsequently in my life, put this in the form of a dilemma to that sweet and lovely char- acter. Professor Peabody. We were conversing on religious matters, and I said : ' ' Here are two facts we must both admit to be facts: God sought to teach the world the religion that there was but one God, through the Hebrew nation. When the peo- ple fell into the sin of idolatry like the heathen, God severely punished them. When they came back from their Babylonish captivity, they became free from this sin. The world has been taught through the Jew. Man may give up a belief in God, but the world will not go back to the gods many, of the hills and plains. This great truth has been implanted in the race, that there is only one God, and to worship any other as God is a soul-de- stroying sin. The other fact is that four-fifths of all Christians have given divine honors to Christ and worshipped Him. How then can Christ be a teacher sent from God, as in some degree Uni- tarians claim ? We cannot suppose that God, hav- ing delivered mankind from the sin of idolatry, through revelation to the Jew, should send a teacher who should lead His followers into this sin. If Christ be not a divine person, to pay Him 26 A JOURNEY GODWARD divine honors is idolatrous. Either He is what four-fifths of His disciples claim Him to be, or He is no teacher in whom we can trust as sent with a divine authority. The result and effect of His teachmg shows what He intended to teach." When I put this dilemma to dear Dr. Peabody, he said: "But if you believe all this, you must be- lieve a great deal." "Certainly," I said, "the result of His teaching shows what He meant to teach, and I not only believe in His Deity, but in the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist." It was at this time that I experienced a deeper religious conviction. (I had always believed in the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, and I used to walk in from Cambridge and keep my fast- ing Communion, and what would now be called a rather strict Lent.) I had the question before me what I should do with my life, and I had a battle with myself whether I should give myself to poli- tics or to religion, I was warned by a good Epis- copal clergyman that the Church was stereotyped, and that it could not possibly be altered, and was in a deadly low condition. It was difficult to get much literature on the subject. We could not get Church books in Boston of a very decided Church character. I remember importing Dr. Pusey's de- votional book, Paradise of the Christian Soul, to the curiosity of my English relatives in London, who wondered what a young man wanted with such a book. A few able Roman priests gave me Roman books to read— Milner's End of Religious Contro- versy, Wiseman's Lectures, Moehler's Symbol ism, CHANGES AND CHANCES 27 Ives' Trials of a Mind. Bishop Southgate helped me to see that the true viewpoint of the Church was from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the Mother Church. Rome, by its claim to supremacy, had made a rent in Christendom. It was not the source of unity, but the primal cause of schism. I realized also that our chief loyalty was to the one Catholic Church Christ had made, rather than to any one of the divisions the sins of man had made. When, years after, Newman put forth his Apologia it seemed to me that he had never grasped the idea of the Catholic Church, and no wonder he fell away. He had been a low churchman, then a high church- man, and then invented a via media of his own, and, finally, tried to cover his secession by a doc- trine of development, which many Romans re- jected and which equally defended Protestantism. My studies led me to believe that the low church position in the Church did not do justice to the Prayer Book. For example, in the Baptismal Office it was declared of every child baptised that he was regenerated. The low churchman ex- plained this as merely a hope based on the faith of the sponsor. But in the office for the Private Baptism of Infants, they were declared to be re- generated, and no sponsors were required. If our Lord's Presence in the Eucharist were not effected by the consecration of the elements, why were the Consecrated Elements which remained after the Communion ordered to be so reverently consumed % Why, if Episcopal ordination were not necessary, were we not schismatical in not admitting sectarian ministers to officiate at our Altars % I became fully 28 A JOURNEY GODWARD convinced of the validity of our orders and sacra- ments, and that our Church was indeed a true branch of the Catholic Church. It had also under its English ornaments-rubric a right to the ancient vestments, lights, and Altar ritual. I realized the Catholicity of our position and our sacramental gifts, and the sin involved in leaving the Church for Rome., I remember subsequently passing a night in Trinity Church in New York in devotion, and sincerely praying God that I might be taken away during the coming year, even by railroad accident, rather than live on and proclaim, as I felt it my duty to do, the Catholicity of our Church, if it were not true. There Avere few, if any, Catholic churchmen. I remember asking Fr. Prescott, at this time, in the early fifties, whether he supposed there were any other Tractarians than ourselves in America. Bishop Ives had gone over to Rome, as had some others in Maryland, and it looked as if few were left. I believed in the Church, and I said: ''Though I shall not see her recover her heritage of doctrine and ritual in my day, it is well for a man to give up his life in an endeavour to bring a revival of the Church to pass. It is a greater work to free the Church than it is even to free the slave. For my own poor part, I will throw my hat into the ring, and do what I can in the fight. ' ' It was at this time that, under the grace of God, I determined to give mj^self up wholly to Christ and His service. In the presence of so great a fact as God's becoming Incarnate, I felt there was nothing that I could hold back from Him. I CHANGES AND CHANCES 29 therefore determined to live for Him, and for Him alone; to forego marriage and family; to conse- crate whatever I might have of means or ability to His service; and to live upon such an amount as alone would be necessary to cover the expenses of food, raiment, and shelter. However imperfectly I may have fulfilled my consecration, I have never regretted it. At that time the anti-slavery question was strongly in evidence, and Mrs. Stowe's book was written. A study of the law problems involved, led me, from a legal point of view, to believe that the slave's relation, as established by law as a "thing," was inconsistent with his duty as "a man" to his Creator. I wrote a pamphlet on the subject, which Wendell Phillips, who had taken an interest in me, thought worthy of publishing. I was not originally an Abolitionist, but I became, by the legal study of the slave question, much drawn to Phillips. The nobleness and self-sacrifice of his character much interested me. But I began to feel, and eventually felt, that I could do more good for humanity by going into the Church than into poli- tics. I felt, however, that I could never write a sermon. I knew what speaking from a brief was, but the sermons I heard were full of words I did not understand. I did not feel that I had the liter- ary ability to write them. Then my clergyman, the Rev. Fr. Prescott, told me that if God intended me to be a third-rate clergyman, rather than a first- class lawyer, my duty was to enter the ministry, rather than to seek the other profession. One must seek first to know one's vocation, and then trust 30 A JOURNEY GODWAED God and follow it. It was thus partly under his influence that I had the courage to offer myself to Bishop Whittingham, of Maryland, as a candidate for Holy Orders. Bishop Whittingham received me very kindly, but made a strict examination as to my motives in seeking Holy Orders. He gave me a homily on the poverty which might ensue if I entered the ministry. If I had to starve, I was not to blame him. I remember an amusing incident at this time. I was a young man in society life in Boston, and though I had never indulged much in the habit of smoking, I took out a cigar, and offered it to the Bishop. I never forgot his answer and look: ''I can 't imagine, ' ' he said, ' ' an Apostle, smoking. ' ' I thought at the time the logic was imperfect, as I could not imagine an Apostle doing many things we are obliged to do now. Nevertheless, the words and the injunction from that saintly man settled in my heart, and I soon concluded that it would be better for me as a priest, if I were to do priestly work for God, to give up such a habit. I was much beset by relatives and friends not to take Holy Orders. They made very large offers of worldly success and emolimient and fortune, if I would not do so. But I felt that the Church needed lives of sacrifice, and that man could never give more to God than God could give to him. I remained in Maryland under Bishop Whit- tingham for about ten years. I began during the slavery times. I remember my first six months were spent in a deserted rectory, where I practically CHANGES AND CHANCES 31 camped out, and had $26.00 for my first six months' stipend. The arrangement of the church, which was not uncommon, was after this fashion : there was a door from the vestry at the east end, through which one ;gassed to the desk from which the service was said and the sermon preached. Be- low it was the Communion table. The two were surrounded by a semi-circular rail. It was any- thing but Churchly. I was curate to a very saintly man, Dr. Rich. I had often to walk miles to one of our missions. We did not have overmuch in the way of food, and we used to warm over what was sent in for our Sunday meals. I was asked by a clerical friend who had gained the approval of the Bishop, to take up set- tlement work in a poor district in Baltimore. This, I believe, was the first settlement work ever done in our Church in America. We lived amongst the poor and opened our house to them. We had a chapel, a co-operative store, and various other ap- pliances for city missionary work. I had charge also of a small coloured mission. Here I remained with the Bishop's approval, as I was then a Dea- con, and I looked up to him as Newman looked up to his Bishop. I never rang his door bell without saying a prayer, and never left his presence with- out kneeling down and asking his blessing. He directed my studies, and was very kind to me. But he was always on his guard, after the troubles he had been through with some romancers, against ritual. We didn't have much, to be sure; but on one occasion, I remember his coming to the mis- sion when I had given up my surplice to a visiting 32 A JOURNEY GODWAED clergyman, who, I believe, was afterwards Bishop Doane, and the one I wore was a little short. It came down to about the ankles. The good Bishop called me aside after the service and requested that I would wear longer surplices. I did not state the circumstances, but I told him I would do so. He did not object to our having a black Cross at the end of our stoles, but did object to a fringe on them. There are two incidents in connection with Bishop Whittingham that I remember so well, and which will serve, perhaps, to reveal his own holy life. On one occasion I said to him: "Is it proper for one who is a priest to do menial work, as I think in religious orders one must do*?" "Dear Graf- ton," he said, "I've always reserved to myself the duty of blacking my own boots. I want to do some menial work." In reference to the same subject, I remember getting into a stage coach, when we were going to travel some twenty-eight miles over a rough and hilly road, and I said, "Dear Bishop, you have taken the worst seat in the coach. " " Well, Grafton," replied he, "somebody must take it." I constantly learned lessons of denial and self-sac- rifice from him. About this time I was called to the founding of a mission of the Epiphany at Washington under Dr. Pine. This had a great many social and other attractions. I told the Bishop that if he wished me to go there, I would do so. But I shrank as a young man from the dangers or attractions of the social life in Washington, and the difficulty I felt about establishing the system of free sittings, CHARLES CHAPMAN GRAFTON. Photograph in 1859. CHANGES AND CHANCES 33 which I believed in, and a weekly Eucharist. It was by his permission that I declined the offer. Subsequently, I was called to be an assistant at St. Paul's Church, Baltimore. Again I went to my Bishop about it. He said to me : " It is the heart of the diocese; I can't ask you to go to it, but if you will go, you can save it. I will give you my bless- ing." So I went. This church was the Mother Church of the city, and under the charge of the venerable rector. Dr. Wyatt, who had been its rec- tor for nigh fifty years. His clerical life went back to the early part of the nineteenth century, and he was intimately conversant with all its his- tory. He was for a number of years president of the House of Deputies. He had been a prominent candidate for the Bishopric of Maryland. One can never forget his gentlemanly and scholarly bearing. It was his custom in his early days to come to church in small clothes and silk stockings. He told me it was considered bad etiquette to go in- to the pulpit in boots. He wore a silk gown through the streets. His manner was extremely dignified, and his sermons were couched in Ad- disonian English. He wore gloves in the pulpit, with one finger cut so as to turn the pages over. He felt it unclerical and undignified to speak ex- temporaneously. He was most courteous in his bearing and reverent in his performances. By contact with him I learned much of the foundation and the history of our Church in America. I shall always be grateful for the way in which he treated me for the five years I was with him, as his dear son ; and he hoped I would succeed him. He was a 34 A JOURNEY GODWARD pattern of punctuality in regard to the Church ser- vice. "If," he said, "j^ou are only a minute late and there are sixty persons on a week day present, you have lost for them an hour's time." One day I was complaining as to the treatment he was receiving from some of his parishioners, and he checked me, saying, "Charles, God bears with us, and we must bear with our people." He always reserved a large portion of the pre- cious Blood of the Holy Sacrament. He did this in a most reverent manner. He said he had rea- sons for doing this in the prevention of irreverence in its consumption. He placed it in a large glass receptacle, which was silver mounted and locked. This was always placed in an ambry, or small closet, locked, in the wall of the vestry. Of course, as a curate, I conformed to my rector's custom. I was told that this was a custom of Dr. Craik, at Louis- ville, who was a high churchman. But having a question about it, I conferred with a friend of mine, the Rev. Dr. Hawkes, who, I knew, was a canonist and a low churchman; and Dr. Hawkes gave me his opinion that the rector was quite right, and was following out a received custom of our Church in doing so. I remained at St. Paul's Church for about five years, and during the prolonged illness of Dr. Wyatt, about one and a half years, having charge of it. It was a never forgotten period of my life. The congregation was trained in the principles of the Prayer Book and the influence of daily prayer, and weekly or more often Communion, and I have CHANGES AND CHANCES 35 never known a holier body of instructed church- men. During my stay at St. Paul's, I was called to the rectorship at St. Peter's, Philadelphia, made vacant by the election of Dr. Odenheimer to the Bishopric of New Jersey. He was a very warm friend, and persistently urged me to accept St. Peter's. The committee offered me what was then a large salary, $3,000, and possible preferment. It was a very attractive offer to a young man. But I felt that God had called me to the work at St Paul's, and that without very decided reasons I ought not to leave it. The rector was an old man, and confined to his bed, and the parish was not in such a good financial condition as formerly. I gave up a considerable portion of my own sti- pend, in order that the old rector should be com- fortable. This was a most trying political time. I had felt it my duty as a clergyman of the church to read the pastorals which Bishop Whittingham, who was a most decided Unionist, put forth. They were couched in very trenchant language, and with quotations from the homilies on the sin and wickedness of rebellion. During the illness of the rector, when I was forced to read them, I can well remember the way the pew doors were slammed and the people left during their delivery. A number of Confederate Church people loved me for my ministrations, but when a vacancy occurred in the rectorship the people naturally chose a southerner to succeed Dr. Wyatt. For some length of time I had felt a drawing 36 A JOURNEY GODWARD toward the religious life. The Roman Church had these orders, and if our priesthood and sacra- ments were valid, whj^ should the}^ not produce the same fruits? The lives of the saints and of the founders of religious orders grew ujDon'me. I began, wisely or not, a life of more strictness and devotion to our Lord. Dear Dr. Wyatt asked me if I would not like a Communion in the week, and I gained from him the establishment of one at St. Paul's. I began to confer with persons who, I felt, were drawn to a higher and more devotional life. A few began to say that if I would start such an order they would join me. I placed the whole mat- ter before Bishop Whittingham. He was one with me in the desirability of having svich a religious order in our Church. We had a number of con- ferences on the subject. After dear Dr. Wyatt had passed away, I again went to my Bishop: ''Am I not free now," I said, "to give myself up to the religious life?" He said: "I would gladly give up all the surroundings here in my house thus to live with God. " He felt, as I did, that this alone would be the salvation of our Church. He gave me his blessing, and told me he agreed with me that as I was now free to give myself up to the religious life, the best thing would be for me to go to England to study up the subject. Before going to England, along with Fr. Pres- cott, I determined to keep a retreat. As Ave ex- pected to deal with the poor, we had partly in view the idea of finding out upon how small a sum it was possible to live. Chiefly, I wanted to keep a few weeks in the way of preparation for the religious CHANGES AND CHANCES 37 life. We found an empty old shack of a building on the southern coast of Fire Island, L. I., near the lighthouse, which we hired for the purpose. It was in December and quite cold weather. We went over in a small boat from the mainland, tak- ing a mattress and some bedding, and some few pro- visions for food. These were of the simplest kind. We took some meal, molasses, potatoes, ham, and a few other things. We had a good sized room to live in, with a large open fireplace. When it was cold, we had to surround it with a wall of matting to keep the warmth in. We cut up our own wood, and did our own work. Fr. Prescott was the cook. We had a rule for our offices, and got up for the night offices at 2 A. M. There was a small spring nearby of fresh water. We spent the morning in study and prayer, and I made the Meditations out of Manresa. We translated out of the Sarum Portiforium the services for St. Thomas' Daj^, and kept it as a festival. We were getting along very well, when one day a U. S. cutter anchored opposite our house, and i:)resently a large number of marines and sailors surrounded our dwelling. The commanding of- ficer told us we were suspected of being Confeder- ates, and that he had come to arrest us. It seems our night lamps and our visits to the lighthouse had been noticed, and had been reported to Wash- ington, and it was supposed that we were in league with a Confederate boat, which was to land and destroy the lighthouse. Being a Unionist, I was rather glad to see the vigilance of the Government, but Fr. Prescott, who sympathized with the Con- 38 A JOURNEY GODWARD federates, did not take it so kindly. Our trunks and all we had were examined, but as I gave refer- ences to Dr. Dix and others in New York, the of- ficer departed, leaving us in possession. But as it drew near Christmas, our connection with the mainland was cut off by the ice, and I feared our water supply would fail us ; so we con- cluded we would, at the end of these weeks, finish our retreat, and go home for Christmas. There was no way of getting to the mainland except by walking the whole length of Fire Island, along its sandy beach and stormy shore. But we heard that a number of miles away there was a bridge, by which we could make connection with the main- land. So after packing up our things, and leav- ing them, we started on our walk. • During the early part of the day it was a very grand sight to see the great ocean waves breaking in on the shore, but as nightfall drew on we could see no bridge, and the peril of our situation began to dawn upon us. We knew that if we did not make some shelter, we probably would not live through the night, so greatly exhausted by cold and fatigue had we become. So we held a council of war to consider what was to be done. The first thing for us was to say Compline. After doing so, hardly had we taken a few steps when we saw be- fore us an opening in the sand hills, and I proposed going to the other side of this strip of land. No sooner had we turned in thither than we came to a fisherman's hut. It was the only habitation within miles east or west, one way or the other. You may imagine how surprised was the woman who came to CHANGES AND CHANCES 39 the door on seeing us. Her husband, a fisherman and hunter, was away for the day, but she recog- nized our distress and took us in. I felt anew that it was God's Providence that had saved my life. The next morning we tried to cross the Bay over the ice, but it broke once or twice, and we were unable to do so, so there was nothing to do but re- sume our journey on foot; and this we did. We could not believe that the bridge could be very far distant. But we walked and walked and walked, until the sun began to go down. Now I was indeed in great apprehension. But just as my heart was fainting, we espied a little rail of what turned out to be the bridge, half hidden in the snow and ice. We wended our way through it, and finally reached the mainland. There, from a neighboring farm- house, we obtained a wagon, and drove a few miles to a country hotel. O how good and reviving was that cheerful open fire, and how grateful the look of a comfortable bed to sleep on, instead of the cold sand on which I had expected to lie down. Fr. Prescott soon prepared to retire. As he was getting into bed, I said, "Father, aren't you going to say Compline with me?" "Oh," he said, with a laugh, ' ' I said my Compline coming over in the wagon." Tired as I was, however, I felt I must say it, if all alone, for this second great act of God's mercy and deliverance. The next morn- ing we got a train, and went back to New York in time for Christmas. In 1865, on my arrival in England, I was re- ceived and entertained by Dr. Pusey. He and the late Bishop of Brechin were much impressed with 40 A JOUKNEY GOD WARD the fact of this American's call to the religious life. He called together, along with the Bishop, a meeting of about ten of the leading Catholics at All Saints', Margaret Street, to consider the mat- ter. The Rev. Upton Richards took much interest in the effort. I had visited Brother Ignatius at Norwich, who had begun a Benedictine Monastery there, but was not drawn to unite with him. I got to know the Rev. S. W. O'Neil, a curate at Wan- tage, who had been thinking of the religious life, and some others. Among them was the Hon. Chas. Wood, now Lord Halifax. He honestly desired to unite with us. The question of his vocation and duty was submitted to the Bishop of Oxford and one other, who decided that for the good of the Church he ought to remain in the world. How wise this was, how well and nobly he has laboured for the Catholic cause, the Church well knows. At this time some one asked O 'Neil and myself if we knew the Rev. R. M. Benson. He was a student of Christ Church, Oxford, of high academical degree, of cultured scholarship and marked ability. We were led to go to him, and ask if he would lead the enterprise of founding a religious order. He said he would if I Avould remain with him for some years in England. This hindered ni}^ plan of re- turning to America, but believing it was the pro- vidential drawing of God, I threw n\y lot in with the learned and saintly man. Bishop Wilberforce gave us his sympathy and co-operation. During my five years' stay in England I became the spiritual director of a number of the larger sisterhoods. M}^ connection with the various CHANGES AND CHANGES 41 communities gave me a knowledge of their differ- ent characteristics. I assisted Bishop Forbes, of Brechin, and others, in the formation of one. For a time I worked in the East of London, at St. Peter's, London Docks, taking, with Fr. O'Neil Fr. Lowder's work, he having broken down with ill health. It was the crowded sailor district, some 60,000 people, perhaps, assembled together, and where every other house was a brothel. I could look out of our windows every night and see a fight going on. But it was wonderful how much Lowder had done, and what a number of persons had been rescued from vice; what a staunch and noble body of communicants had been developed. It was a grand proof of the vitality of the Catholic Faith, as expressed in our Communion. During this period I became a volunteer chap- lain to a cholera hospital, in Shoreditch. Cholera had broken out, and Miss Sellon had opened a free hospital. Dr. Pusey asked me to go there as a volunteer chaplain. He was going to take lodg- ings in the East of London, and asked me to be with him. It was a great privilege, which I gladly accepted. Dr. Pusey was wont to spend part of the day at the library of the British Museum. One day on returning to our dwelling he found he had lost the manuscript of his day's work. It was cer- tainly very annoying and would in most persons have shown itself in some act of impatience; but on the discovery of his loss, he calmly said : ''Well, I take refuge in the words of Faber's hjaiin, 'I worship Thee, Sweet Will of God.' " Nothing seemed to disturb the deep inward calm that 42 A JOURNEY GOD WARD reigned in his soul. In this, he and that dear saint, Dr. Carter, were so much alike. It mattered not Avliat they were doing; preparing for service or reading a newspaper, they were always with God. It has been said by some that Dr. Pusey did not go along with the Eitualists. He may have thought that the introduction of "ritual" was not always wise in certain parishes. But he thor- oughly believed in the Scriptural authority, the legality and usefulness, of the so-called Six Points. He used in chapels of the Sisters the Eu- charistic vestments, wafer breads, the mixed chalice, took the eastward position in celebrating, had lights on the Altar, and had incense used dur- ing the Mass. I recall that I had the privilege of assisting him when he gave those wonderful "Eleven addresses to the Companions of Jesus." Every day I saw him vest, and served him at the Altar. At the time I took note of these details, and counted sixteen candles burning on the Altar. During the cholera season he was constant in his care and ministration to the sick, not only in the hospital but in their poor dwellings. His love for them in Christ, and excuses for their lives, and words of Gospel encouragement to them, were most effective. In Pusey, God raised up for the Anglican Church a great saint, wonderful in his colossal learning, more wonderful in his deep hu- mility and burning zeal for God. The hospital was supported by Mr. Palmer, a director of the Bank of England. His gift of money, great as it was, did not equal the gift of his wife— allowing her to become a nurse under Miss CHANGES AND CHANCES 43 Sellon. The hospital was in a rough neighborhood, and there was near by a large settlement of thieves. I remember going there one afternoon and hear- ing someone call out to me, "Don't be afraid; come on ; we are all honest thieves down here. ' ' It was just after Dr. Pusey had published his Eirenicon and he was being furiously attacked by Romans. I remember one morning after his read- ing a long argument against himself and his posi- tion, his putting his hands behind his back, as was his wont, and calmly saying, "It is only a question, 'What has the Church of God said?' " This revealed the perpetual attitude of his mind. With all his enormous learning, he ever submitted to authority with the humility of a little child. I spent my days at the hospital. The Hon. Charles Wood was the honorable secretary, and worked there dail}^ The nursing was done by the Sisters. We had some very able physicians, with whom I became intimate. I was most interested in getting the poor and sick into the hospital, and used to go about in what we called our "cholera- cab." On one occasion the Bishop of London, Dr. Tait, visited us. He was very gracious and kindly. He went through the wards, speaking to the patients. I heard he paid me one of the best compliments he could when he learned that the Chaplain was an American, by saying: "I wish he was an Englishman. ' ' I used to visit St. Margaret's Convent at East Grinstead, and became acquainted with Dr. Neale. It was said that he was the master of eighteen languages. He had the blessing of being mobbed 44 A JOURNEY GODWARD on one occasion, and of being persecuted by his Bishop. He was most felicitous in his applica- tion of Holy Scripture. The rector of the parish was a decided low churchman. His permission had to be obtained for the burial of the sisters and the orphan children in the churchyard. He ob- jected to Dr. Neale's inserting any prayer for the dead on the tombstones. The Doctor asked him if he would object to any words taken from the Holy Scripture. He said No; he wouldn't object to anything taken out of the Bible. So Dr. Neale put on the headstone the inscription: "Let thy handmaiden find grace in th}^ sight." Over the graves of the children he put the words : "So the children went in and possessed the land," and "Let the little hills rejoice on every side." I was asked to take the chaplaincy of the Convent after his decease, but my superior did not concur with the plan. The Romans were Yery busy in their prosely- tising. Manning was a past master as an eccles- iastical politician. His Life, as given by Purcell, is not so very edifying. He and his confreres were very skilful in insinuating doubts in the minds of devout Anglicans. "You cannot be saved," I know one of them to have said to a de- vout Anglican, "unless you have the true faith, and you have not true faith unless you believe what you do on the authority of the Church." She seemed to be much distressed in mind. I asked her if she then thought the Martyr Laud, or Bishop Andrewes, or saintly Keble were lost. She laughed, and this broke the spell. CHANGES AND CHANCES 45 Dr. Manning knew whom he could, by his per- sonality, affect, and whom it was best to leave alone. He was observed escorting the Rev. Mother Su- perior of Clewer, the Hon. Mrs. Monsell, through a Roman institution, and a former Anglican re- marked to the Mother : "You and the Archbishop seem to be on very good terms." "Yes," she re- plied; "it is because he knows I am not a conver- tible article." Lady Herbert was also a prominent figure in this work of making proselytes to Rome. She brought her social position to bear upon those in a lower society position than her own. She gained some influence in a branch house of St. Margaret's at Hackney, where I used to visit. The Mother Superior had formerly been a Roman Catholic, and the Chaplain had become Romanized; but by God's grace, I was enabled so to put their duty be- fore the Sisters that about half of them determined to remain loyal to the Church. Among these was Sister Louisa Mary, who afterwards came to Boston, and for many years was the Superior of St. Margaret's there. Another, Mother Kate, es- tablished a noble work in the East End. The Bishop of London sent his blessing to the loyal Sis- ters, and personally thanked me. Fr. Mackonochie was asked to be the new chaplain, but he hesitated about taking it without the Bishop of London's assent, as the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in the chapel. It is a testimony to the loyalty of Mackonochie, and to the true breadth and liberality of the Bishop, that Mackonochie submitted his case 46 A JOURNEY GODWAED to the Bishop, and the Bishop allowed him to ac- cept the chaplaincy. By God's grace, when in England, I kept many from falling away to Eome. I got to know the arts by which Eoman proselytes sought to inject doubts into pious souls. It was my privilege to help some of the clergy, among them Fr. O'Neil, to be delivered from their attack of Eomanism. Fr. O'Neil had settled the matter, and announced his intention of going to Eome, and had gone to be with the Jesuit fathers. I did not feel equal to meet him intellectually. He was a Cambridge honor man, remarkable for his mathematical accuracy and logic. All I could do was to pray. I spent a whole night in prayer for him. Afterwards, he wrote that' he wanted to come here to get some things he had left behind at Oxford. He came, and stayed on for about a week, probing me, during this time, with all sorts of questions and problems. I seemed to have made no impression. At last, at the end of the week, he turned to me, and said: ''What, then, would you advise me to do?" I said, "Eemain at your post where God has put you." He settled the question then. We went down to the Jesuit House, near Windsor, together, and he took leave of the Father. We then went over to Clewer, and he saw Fr. Carter, and made his confession. I remember well that Sunday, for the Gospel told of the resurrection of the young man from death. O'Neil became a noble missionary, and laid down his life for God in India. During my stay in England there arose a great RKV. T. T. CARTER. CHANGES AND CHANCES 47 agitation and controversy on matters of Ritual. The Tractarian movement had begun at Oxford, and among scholars. It appealed especially to the intellectual and the devout. It made rapid head- way among the clergy and upper classes. To some extent through its philanthropies it reached, in a degree, the poorer and working class. But it had not become a general movement touching all conditions of man. It would have remained schol- arly and academical if the Ritual development had not taken place. Gradually it came to the front. It was not merely through the ear, but through the eye, the people w^ere to be taught. Moreover, what the devout had learned of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was bound to show itself in outward worship. The leaders of the new devel- opment began by introducing preaching in the surplice in place of the black silk gown— reading the prayer for Christ's Church militant. They said the black gown was only an academical gar- ment, and the surplice was a priestly one, and as they preached as priests, and not merely as colleg- ians, the surplice was the proper vestment. But the change led not merely to wordy opposition, but to riots, which in St, George's, in the East End, continued for weeks. Other changes were made, and the Eucharistic vestments and Altar lights were introduced. The Tractarians had always prided themselves that for all they did they had the Prayer Book for their authority. In respect to the ceremonial, they appealed to the Ornaments-Rubric, that stood at the beginning of Morning Prayer. It 48 A JOURNEY GODWARD autliorized the use of the vestments and lights and other ornaments that were in use b}^ authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI. The Ritualists said these were the legal vestments, and they stood on the law. The way they put their cause was extremelj^ and needlessly irritative to the low churchmen. If this were the law, they were guilty in not obeying it, and had got to fight for their inherited liberty as for their life. I said to some of the Ritual lead- ers, "You are making a mistake in thus pressing your case ; the courts, when the matter gets before them, will not sustain you. ' ' But they replied that it was law and the judges will have to uphold it. My reply was that, the world over, courts of last resort allow themselves to be governed by ]3olicy and politics, and they will in this case. And so they did. But God overruled the Privy Council's decision by delivering the English Catholics from that dependence on the State authority which has been the Church's harm. A readjustment of the relation of Church and State is necessary, so I held, if the Church is to recover its Catholic heritage. My time in England being over, I was called, chiefly through Dr. Shattuck, to take charge of the Church of the Advent, Boston. This was with my Superior's permission. The arrival of the Monks, as they were called, made a great impression. As- sisted by such able men as Dr. Hall, the present Bishop of Vermont; Dr. Osborne, Bishop of Springfield, and Dr. Gardner, who was afterwards President of Nashotah, the young and brilliant preacher, Fr. Coggeshall, along with others, we CHANGES AND CHANCES 49 Ijuilt up a great parish. At the Clergy House, Stamford street, we kept up our dail.y rule of re- ligious life. I had brought over some of St. Margaret's Sisters. My old friend, Mrs. Tyler, had taken charge of the Children's Hospital, and through her influence the care of it was put in charge of the Sisters. Of course their chosen life of consecra- tion attracted attention. The hospital, a beau- tiful philanthropic work, had been started by Uni- tarians. Seeing how well the work was being done by the Sisters, a Unitarian lady said: ''Why do not some of our people take up such a life, and do this work?" "We cannot get them," was the re- ply. "Then these Churchwomen must have some source of grace we have not got." The Sister- hood of St. Margaret's developed, and the work was more and more successful. On the coming of Bishop Paddock as Bishop of the diocese, he felt it his dut}^ to make inquiries concerning the ritual of the Church of the Advent. It was given out that he desired to repress it. On conference with him, I stated that if he would take the responsibility in Avriting and giving it out to the public, that any of the ceremonial was illegal, I should obey his order, or else resign the parish. He stated that he did not hold that the Eucharistic colored vestments, or the Eastward position, or wafer bread, or lights on the Altar, were illegal (they were suT) jtidice), but that there were other matters, such as lay servers, he deemed were so. I conformed to his ruling, and we were always on harmonious terms. 50 A JOURNEY GODWARD During my rectorship an incident occurred, which, though unknown to the people, was of much interest to me. There was a terrible outbreak of yellow fever at Memphis, and a call for assistance. I sent one of our Sisters thither, and prepared to go myself. Knowing that, naturally, I should be much opposed, I quietly left the city, packed up, and waited the result of my application to Bishop Quintard. I thought it would be fatal to me ; nevertheless, one could not lay down one's life more nobly than in carrying, as I purposed to do, the Blessed Sacrament from house to house in the stricken district to the sick and dying. I remem- ber the strange feeling that I had when I contem- plated that in a few weeks my work on earth might be over ; but when my letter came from Bishop Quintard I was greatly disappointed. He decidedly refused to accept my services, or to let me come. He said that certainly it would be fatal for me to enter the diseased district; I should die in a short time. This I knew ; but his refusal lost me the privilege of laying down my life for Christ. The work at the Advent continued to grow, when a question arose between the Cowley House at Philadelphia and the Mother House in Oxford. During the sixteen years, only three Americans had become professed, though there had been a large number of aspirants. A difficulty had arisen in respect to our relation to our American Bishops. Bishop Whittingham said we were under a Super- ior who was not a member of our American Church. He had allowed Fr. Prescott, who was in charge of a parish in Philadelphia, to come into CHANGES AND CHANCES 51 Maryland and hear the confession of an ill person who was under his care ; but he would give no further permission, nor allow the Society to enter the diocese for that purpose. To this Fr. Prescott had agreed. It was Fr. Prescott 's statement to me that the English Superior wrote that members of the Society should go there. He could not send them without breaking his word to Bishop Whit- tingham. Fr. Prescott then appealed to me as to what he should do. I suggested that we appeal to the English Superior now to give us the Constitu- tion so long promised, when there should be twelve professed Fathers in the Society. The request was not acted on. It resulted in an honorable re- lease of the American members, with permission to form an American Order. Steps were taken for the formation of one, and a Constitution was drawn up in 1882, and submitted to, and obtained the formal, written approval of the Bishops of Mil- waukee, Fond du Lac, and Indiana, and subse- quently, of Bishop Paddock of Massachusetts. Doubtless there were some misunderstandings on all sides ; and I have felt that if I had been a holier man, my purpose would have been better under- stood, and the rupture might have been avoided. God, however, overruled it all to good, and a most loving spirit now obtains between all the present and the former members of the Society. It has been a most wonderful triumph of Divine charity and grace. The Cowley Fathers took the old church in Bowdoin street, and I, remaining rector of the parish, took the new one, which had lately been built. 52 A JOURNEY GOD WARD Both parishes prospered greatly. At the new Church of the Advent, my communicant list, after a few years, went up from 250 to 600. The development was greatly aided by the work of the Sisters of the Holy Nativity. My experience of the religious life in England had led me to see that there was need of a sisterhood somewhat dif- ferent from those already established, and so I founded this one, which would not take charge of institutions like schools, hospitals, orphanages, and the like, but would give themselves especially to the development of the spiritual life, to devotion, to making laiown the faith, to preparing persons for the sacraments, aiding in missions, and the exten- sion of the spiritual kingdom. God blessed me by these earnest and devout workers. When I perceived that the congregations were large, indeed the church crammed, the parish ex- penses all met, everything at its highest possible success; then I felt I could resign the work into other hands. My heart was full of missionary en- terprise, and a desire to go out as a mission priest and preach in other places. And so it was with a heart full of gratitude to God for the success He had given me, that I resigned the rectorship of the Advent, took my sisterhood to Providence, and shortly after that was called to the Episcopate. My consecration took place on St. Mark's Da}^ 1889, at the Cathedral in Fond du Lac. I chose this place because, however dear to me were my old parishioners at the Advent, I wished to identify myself with the Diocese to which I had been called. My consecrators were the Rt. Rev. Dr. McLaren, CHANGES AND CHANCES 53 Bishop of Chicago; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Alexander Burgess, Bishop of Quincy ; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Sey- mour, Bishop of Springfield; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Knickerbacker, Bishop of Indiana; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Gilbert, Bishop Coadjutor of Minnesota; and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Knight, Bishop of Milwaukee. CHAPTER II. "it IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE." I have always had objections to a memoir. The effort of most writers is to set forth the subject of the work so that his readers might form a judg- ment of the character and abilities of the person described. Such judgment, favorable or other- wise, must be more or less erroneous, and not very profitable. Is there any judgment of any real value, save that which the good God declares in His Day of Judgment? Nevertheless, lives have been written advan- tageously, and St. Augustine's Confession is the great example. But none save a Saint has suf- ficient humility to write so true an account of himself, and he must have a special call of God to do so. I shrink from any attempt of this kind, though called on to make it by those I must respect. This chapter is not an account of the soul as God must see it, nor of the great sinfulness that He has shown me to exist in myself. "When love shall know as it is known, Till then, the secrets of our lives are ours And God's alone." St. Theresa had a vision from Him where her *'IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 55 soul might have been in hell. I suppose every Christian has at times felt that he was deserving of God's condemnation. While then passing over what would be unprofitable, those who are seeking after righteousness may be helped by my words in learning how a poor soul stumbled on towards God. St. Augustine, in his generous-hearted way, says there is a vocation of that kind, and it seems to me to have been mine. I think my spiritual life was helped by the pious teaching and prayers of others. As a lit- tle boy, I was for a long time an inmate of the house of a good congregational uncle and aunt. I remember they used to pray Sunday afternoons together, and take me along with them and pray for me, along with other members of the family. After the manner of the day, Sunday was kept strictly. All playthings were put away, and we were sent twice to Sunday school. When a small boy, I remember my aunt had a little seat made in our pew, so I could sit up and see the preacher, in whose delivery I took a boyish interest. I learned the 104 questions of the Westminster Catechism on Sunday evenings, being bribed to do it, partly, by pieces of pie. I think there was a little more than the natural greediness of boy- hood in me, as the first false step I can remember was taking cake and apple turnovers without per- mission. I've always had a liking for good food, though not always able to get it, and in my monkish days lived on very plain fare. My boyish character was full of the weaknesses and sins of boyhood. My uncle and aunt desired 56 A JOURNEY GODWARD much my ''conversion," and the death of a com- panion seemed to afford an opportunity to bring it about. While impressed with the fact of death, I did not feel that sensible change which I was led to expect, and which was called conversion. I think I was a little boy very fond of popu- larity, drawing my playmates to me by gifts of candy, which I would surreptitiously obtain. While somewhat clever and advanced in my studies, I remember my father saying, when I pointed out my good standing: "Well, my son, if you 've got brains, that is not to your credit ; but you can be good." One of his instructions which was remembered, for he was a soldier, was "Fear nothing, m}^ boy, except to do what is wrong." My first real thinking took place when I was about 14 years of age, and away on a visit. It is only noticeable as showing how God leads us all in varied ways. I had been reading Goldsmith's Citizen of tlie World, and somewhere he said, dis- cussing happiness, that it was obtainable by for- getfulness of the past and absence of anxiety for the future. I can't give the actual words, but it puzzled me and set me to thinking. And when once the mind begins to think, it swings round the whole circumference of thought, which takes in God and man. The pantheistic idea laid hold upon me that the All was God, and that God's written definitions needed much enlargement. But I could come to no settled conclusions, as I puzzled and wrestled over the common problems of humanity, ofttimes with tears. Having much distrust of my own abilities, I felt I ought not to decide such *'IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 57 great questions with my limited knowledge and strength. And so I thought it was prudent for a young man to wait and postpone practical de- cisions, without positivel}^ committing myself one way or another. And here I made a great blunder, for however ignorant a man may be, he should learn first of all to act on his moral sense, according to the saying of our Lord: ''He that will do My Will shall Imow of the doctrine" (St. John 7: 17). God thus left me more to my natural powers, and so I fell into mischief. I remember vainly culti- vating the role of a raconteur and telling a num- ber of worthless stories. I was of a worldly dispo- sition, and pleasure loving, and I went somewhat into society. I was thought to be a good dancer, and I remember leading the cotillion in Boston. On discovering my own weakness, and that one must make a decision, I was led to turn to Christ, and was finally confirmed. I had been led to an intellectual and perhaps some religious interest in the Church of the Advent. God, as we know, works slowly, and there was a double movement going on in my soul. But I think it was at Cambridge that I had a final wrestle with the problems of belief and faith in Jesus Christ. By God's grace, I was enabled to surrender myself to the Divine Master. I believed what He said, because He said it; and desired to do what He would have me do, for I belonged to Him. I began to use the Paradise of the Christian Soul, and perhaps other devotional books. But after Christ and His dear personalit}^ had been so realized, the question naturally followed, "How 58 A JOURNEY GODWARD was I to know what His teaching was, and what, as a Christian, ought I to do to be remoulded by it?" It became clear to me that the Gospel came into the world in an institutional form, and that Christ foimded the Church in which He and the Holy Spirit dwell, and that it was m the Church, and through the Church that I was to know what I was to believe and do. But the problem was still unsettled, until I was enabled to see which was the Church. Rome claimed to be exclusively the whole Church of Christ, but this was to leave out the fact of the great Eastern Churches which have existed from the Apostles' times, and regarded Rome as in schism and heresy. I saw also that we must not confine our vision to the Church as a body existing on the earth only. The Church, which was the mystical Body of Christ, consisted of the Church Triimiphant in Glory, and the Church Expectant in its state of purification, and the little portion called the Church Militant, which was on earth. They three together made up the one Holy Apos- tolic Church, which was united to Christ by sacra- mental grace; and however union might be dis- turbed, its unity was indestructible. The Anglican Church, while rejecting the Papacy, held the ancient Catholic Faith, and de- clared it by a living utterance in its Prayer Book. For the divisions of Christendom, though they hin- dered the promulgation with ecumenical authority of new dogmas, left each portion of Christendom a living agent, to declare the faith once delivered to the Saints. "it IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 59 In the Anglican Church I heard a livmg Voice, declaring the ancient Faith, and possessed of the priesthood, the sacraments, and the ancient wor- ship of the Church. Thus I was led to adopt these two principles for my religious guidance, I be- lieved wholly in Christ and in all He said, because He said it ; and in His Church, because it was the living organism through which He spoke and com- municated Himself to us, I was led on from this into a realization of the priesthood, and of God's call to me. The next step in my spiritual life was a realization of the truth of a vocation. God gives to every man a mission or vocation in life. He gives this in different ways, and if only one will follow it, it is a guarded and heavenly lighted road leading up to the eternal mansions. Here, I had to go through a struggle with myself. All that this world could offer in the way of comfort and earthly happiness was pro- posed to me if I would not give myself to the min- istry. Also, I was greatl}^ urged and tried by a question of dut}^ Ought I not to give myself to the great cause then agitating the country— the great anti-slavery cause"? I was tried also with the deep sense of my unfitness and unworthiness for the priestly life. But the voice of the Master said "Come," and I ventured on the waters. All true and all religious vocations require a venture of faith. We have to learn to take the step in air, and find the rock beneath. And so the great idea of priesthood, its meaning, consecration, and spec- ial union to Christ began to take possession of me. The time I am speaking of was in the early 60 A JOURNEY GODWARD fifties, and our Church was then much distracted by theological controversies, which divided church- men into two parties, high and low. The Trac- tarian Movement had had its effect in America ; in- deed had sprung up here independently; and it was a time of much religious excitement. There was a small school called the Connecticut high churchmen. They seemed to exclude from their vision the whole Eastern Church. They looked upon Rome as an apostate sister. They regarded low churchmen as no churchmen at all, and the denominations were outside the body of Christ, and the Church of Christ seemed to dwindle into a very small and insignificant body indeed. I felt, if this were the teaching of high churchmanship, that I was not a high churchman. In respect of the low church part}^, I loved their evangelical principles and internal piety, and trust in the merits of Christ, but they seemed to leave out the sacra- mental system of the Gospel. If the Gospel had its subjective side, it had also its objective one. Having been brought up at the Advent, I loved the orderly ceremonial of the Church, and the prin- ciples of divine worship involved. But just at this time I recall the publication of a book, the Direc- torium AngUcanum, which was far ahead of any of the ritual used at that day. I was in a somewhat captious mood criticising it, when an old priest, a noted leader of the low church party, rebuked me. He said: "If I should live my life over again, I should act very differently. There is nothing con- cerning the worship of God but that should be re- garded with care and reverence. ' ' *'IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 61 I was led to offer myself for the ministry. Bishop Southgate, my rector, gave me his blessing on my choice. I went to Maryland and was or- dained by Bishop Whittingham to the diaconate and to the priesthood. As I went on in my clerical work, and saw the greater growth both of Rome and of sectarianism in comparison with ours, I was drawn greatly to consider the religious life. I began to read Lives of the saints ; and the life of Stephen Harding, so exquisitely written by Dalgairns much affected me, Here, too, in France was the Cure d'Ars, like an- other Elijah, working miracles and drawing thou- sands to the Confessional. And afterwards I learned about great Father John, of Russia. God seemed capable of raising up men of extraordinary sanctity in union with Himself. I felt no doubt that Wesley in the 18th, and Moody in the 19th centuries, were special ministers for God, for the arousing of the nations. Heroic women had, in our Church, given themselves to the religious life; why should not men unite together under the coun- sels that had been given by Christ, to serve our Church ? Were those sorrowful words of Newman to be permanently true: "O my mother, whence is this unto thee, that thou hast good things poured upon thee and canst not keep them, and bearest children yet darest not own them?" Had the An- glican Church no place within her for those who loved her and would lay down their lives for her sake ? Was not the Scriptural reproach of having a miscarrying womb and dry breasts to be done away with? Could not the Holy Spirit breathe 62 A JOURNEY GODWARD upon the dry bones, and, bringing them together, make them live? As I have elsewhere said, I went to my Bishop about the matter of reviving a religious order of men for mission priests, and I obtained his encour- agement and blessing. It was about this time that I began to practise a more ascetic life. I do not say this in any com- mendation of myself, or in the way of recommenda- tion to others. "Early piety," as Faber says, "is never very wise. ' ' God leads people on in different ways. The heroic asceticism of a Pusey is not the way for all God's children. I began taking disci- pline, sleeping on the floor, saying some prayers at night. Afterwards, when I went to Cowley, Fr. Benson allowed me to give up our- mattress, hard as it was, and sleep on a board, which I did for some time. I began wearing a steel belt with spikes in it, and had one fierce hair shirt, in which, for a number of years, even at the Advent, Boston, I preached the Three Hours on Good Friday. I think the hair shirt greatly put me out one day and made me quite cross, and I began to think that this was the ordinary way in which it acted. It seemed to be based on the homoeopathic method of raising a disease in order to conquer it. I do not laiow that this asceticism was so wise, but I do laiow that the crosses and trials and suffering God gave me greatly affected my own life. It is, of course, the mortifications and trials which God sends, and the temptations He allows, which most effectively work the transformation of the soul. Now in respect to my prayers. There was one "it IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 63 which grew upon me, and was many hundred tmies repeated in various ways and with amplifications : "Oh God, dearest and best, may the increase of Thy accidental glory be the chief end of my life! May Thy ever-blessed making will be the law of my being and of all my actions and desires ! May Thy transforming and uniting love be the permanent and imperative motive of all my actions, duties, labours, thoughts, and words ! May the life of my blessed Lord be the model and mould of my own, that being melted by penitence, I may be re-cast and re-created in Thee! May the Holy Spirit so rule and govern my interior, all my emotions, fears, hopes, sorrows, and joys, that I may rest peacefully in Thee, and be an instrument for the conversion of others!" This prayer I used to call my prayer, and in varied forms used it, and have continued to do so, till my later years. It was at Cowley that I had the blessing of being under the spiritual instruction of that dear and wise saint, Fr. Benson. He started me in with a thirty days' retreat, and gave three meditations a day ; and I used to keep this Retreat for a num- ber of years. I remember many of this wise man's maxims: "Do your work for God, and leave it with God," was one of them. He impressed upon me our noth- ingness, and the necessity of an absolute consecra- tion of all our being to God. He developed the won- derful life of the counsels of obedience, poverty, chastity, in a marvellous w^ay. As he dwelt upon the everlasting Voice of God calling us, it seemed 64 A JOURNEY GODWARD as if the Voice issued from the depths of eternity. The tremendous realitj^ of his own life, and of his teaching, surpassed anything I had read. Along with this, there was a sweetness and gentleness and kindness and courtesy that turned his virtues into beatitudes. His ovm life reminded me more of Peter of Alcantara than of any other continental saint. His labours were marvellously heroic, ana he would often work eighteen or twenty hours a day. Here let me say something about mortifications : Fr. Baker, in the Sancta Sophia, reduces all spir- itual maxims under two heads: prayer and mor- tification. The condemnation of asceticism is a frequent topic with a certain class of preachers who do not imderstand the Christian principle on which it is based. It differs in character from the asceticism practised in India, or by the Manichseans. They would punish or destroy the flesh, in which they be- lieve some evil principle resides. But the Chris- tian principle is not to free the soul from the body, but, as St. Paul said, to bring the body under sub- jection. It is, moreover, practised as a loving union with Christ, for He, although He mingled in the world, was the greatest of all ascetics. In the intensity of their love for Him, the Saints have sought for a share in His life. Unless love enters into the ascetic practice, it is worthless. But every act of mortification, like the abstinence from flesh meat on Fridays, little bodily mortifica- tions, practice of any self-denial, w^hich all good Churchmen practise, should be done out of love of ''it IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 65 a crucified Lord, and be used as a means of increas- ing our love to Him. A further development in my spiritual life took place in consequence of an illness which separated me for a year and a half from my parish work, and obliged me to go abroad. My natural enthusiasm, perhaps faulty spiritual ambition, had led me se- riously to ask of God a cross. I yearned for a stigmata of some kind. "Crosses," as Dr. Pusey had said, "were the sure tokens of God's love." "Do you wish to know whether God loves you'? Ask, has He given you a cross ? ' ' A prayer for one is, however, rather an act of presumption. It is more likely to be a prompting of nature rather than of grace. It assumes self- reliance, and there is a great deal of self in it. But God, who often gives that He may break, took me at my word, and sent me one. I had long been praying for a special token of God's goodness in the bestowal of a certain gift upon a soul in whose progress I had been much interested. I asked Bishop Whittingham to join with me in prayer for this object. And the result was most sudden, sig- nificant, and startling. Not to go farther, it did, however, to my astonishment and grief, bring a serious trial and blow to myself. The cross I had asked for came indeed. At first I resisted it, did not see its reasonableness, did not properly connect it with God's good dealings. At this time, God al- lowed an iUness to come, which for a time incapaci- tated me for my work. So I went abroad. It was a great trial. I was greatly depressed. If in earlier life I had passed through the state that John of the 66 A JOURNEY GODWARD Cross calls the "night of the senses," this exper- ience led me through the "night of the soul." My heart was deeply wounded. I felt stripped of everything. I seemed to be bereft and lonely and deserted. Sensible grace was at a low ebb. Nature and mere reason seemed to be getting the ascendant. Of course I was largely affected by my physical condition. One Sunday I was- at one of our churches, and began listening to the preacher. I could not help saying to myself, "This is the poorest, feeblest, weakest sermon I have ever heard. How can any man get up in the pulpit and read out such com- mon-place?" I felt a pity for him, when he stum- bled out a sentence which went like an arrow from God to my heart. ' ' God, ' ' the • preacher said, "never gives us good desires to disappoint them." I knew He had given me mine, and I felt from that moment that He would fulfil them. The simple words of the preacher caused a great uplift to my soul. I held on to my devotions, especially to the Blessed Sacrament, which I studied anew. And though deprived of so frequent means of grace, I made some gain in self abnegation and self renunciation and the inner life. Illness and bodily weakness brought their blessings to me. I passed to humbler condition, and, I hope, a nearer walk with God. At Christmas God gave me, as He is ever willing to do to all souls, a Christmas gift. I had hmnbly asked Him to bestow me some- thing out of the inexhaustible treasures of His grace. He had opened, it seemed to me, the inner door into the chamber of His Passion and of His ''it IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 67 love. How marvellous was the revelation of His purifying, illuminating, persistent love and grace! The saints, if they knew me as He did, could not but give me up. He alone knew me, and the full range of my infirmities, weakness, failures, and sins. But the Lord who knew me through and through, in spite of all, loved me, and I could trust that love. And with this new revelation of His love, there was also given a further revelation of the depth of my own sinfulness and ingratitude, and the malignity of my own nature. So to my life prayer, there came ever to be added the peti- tion that God would deliver me from all self-in- terest, self seeking, and self love. And here I have to note a practice some would condemn. Alone, and without any other oppor- tunity of receiving the Blessed Sacrament, I cele- brated by myself. It had to be done with great simplicity, yet perhaps with more intensity of rev- erence and devotion. From my chamber, which had an outlook across Lake Geneva, I had before me in the distance the great white cap of Mont Blanc. It glowed in the morning and setting sun with lambent fires, and looked like an altar up- lifted to God. Somehow the sense of its greatness and purity touched me, and was a parable of the soul. Its broad foundations rested on the earth. Down its sides and in its valleys flowed the streams of penitence ; but above, looking to Heaven, it was glorious in its purity, and transformed as by a fire from heaven, which glowed within. But God had not done His purifying work in me. 68 A JOURNEY GODWARD He saw fit to allow me to have a yet greater trial to the emptying of my soul. If there was one thing about which my affections clung, it was the Society of St. John the Evangelist. The re-establishment of the religious life among men, and in the form of an order of mission priests, had become the cherished object of my life. I had, in a small way, aided in its planting and development, and God's blessing seemed to rest upon it. It had extended into England, America, Africa, and India. In America we had two houses and churches, one in Philadelphia and the other in Boston. Owing to the very able workers I had with me, the work grew among the wealthy and intellectual, the parish congregations were very large, and the in- fluence of the Fathers was felt throughout the diocese. We were not very extreme in our ritual, but with all loyalty to our Coimiiimion we taught the Catholic Faith. Everything was happily pro- gressing, when a trouble came. Looking back, one can see one's own failings, and believe much was owing to misunderstandings and the craftiness of Satan. Very few Americans had joined us, and we were pressed with the objection that we were a society under a Superior not a member of the American Church. A question having arisen con- cerning our duty, the Americans felt that loyalty to their own Bishops, by virtue of their ordination vows, took precedence. It was a very painful time. The questions created much misunderstanding. I had to bear much harsh treatment, and that from old friends. Amongst other things, it was said that I was breaking my vows, and again, that I was los- *'IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I HAVE BEEN IN TROUBLE" 69 ing my mind. Naturally, I could not but feel this very much. I was tempted to think that persons who were not Christians would not act in such a way. I felt I was like a door-mat on which every one was wiping his muddy boots. My great desire for the soul's progress had come to naught. The harm done amongst Catholics was a great pain to me. I retired to my little brick-lined cell, sick at heart, and could only take refuge in God. One thing I became determined about, I would not give up Christianity because some did not act as Chris- tians. I would not leave my post and duty as a priest of the Church. I would accept whatever was God's will in my regard, whatever the suffering might be. I would resign the dearest idol I had known if it was His good pleasure. I did not ask or wish anyone to agree with me, if he thought I was in the wrong : I would, from the bottom of my heart, for Christ's sake, forgive those who opposed or differed with me. I would try and see my own faults, with God to show them to me, and be peni- tent for them. All this was a slow work. I felt so sore that I exclaimed, like one who was under torture, when his limb was crushed, it did not matter what more was done to him, for he could not suffer more. God knew how I had failed in many ways ; how strong self, with all its ambitions and desires, was; how necessary it was for my heart and will to be hum- bled and crushed. One can, in old age, be thankful for it all. Not one sorrow or pain would one miss. It did not do all it might have done, but it helped 70 A JOURNEY GODWARD me, made me more real, somewhat emptied me of self, wrought a spirit of charity in me, and I got up and joined the host of forgiven cripples, and went stumbling on to God. CHAPTER III. "can these dry bones live?" If we may look for hidden and little beginnings of God's great purposes, we may find one in the connection of our Church with the saintl}^ work of the house at Little Gidding. The holy Nicholas Ferrar was a member of the London Society that set forth the enterprise of the Virginia coloniza- tion, and we recognize as one of its objects the establishment of the Church there and the conver- sion of the Indians. The Church at this time in England, however, was in a low spiritual condition, and this may be the cause of the subsequent difference in church- manship between Virginia and New England. The Virginians were conservative and held on to the Church as they had received it. In New England, the Church had to maintain itself against the fierce prejudices of the Puritans, and this forced it to a fuller grasp of Church principles and its life. After the Revolution, a great effort was made to obtain the Episcopate, The colonists up to that time had been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, who never visited them. The clergy, especially those of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, desired Bishops as essential to the 72 A JOURNEY GODWARD preservation of the Church. The scheme was vio- lently attacked by sectarians and some in the Church, as likely to bring in the English system of Episcopal rule over the clergy, and tithes im- posed upon the laity. It was, however, contended that the Episcopate was to have no connection with the civil govern- ment whatever. The Bishops were not to be appointed, but elected by clergy and laity. The Bishop was to govern along with a council of advice elected by the Diocesan Convention. The estab- lishment of the American Church has been re- garded as the greatest of all reformations. Up to that time, from the days of Constantine, State and Church had been united, sometimes to the detri- ment of both parties. But now the American Church was to l)e free, and the responsibility of growth rested on herself. The Episcopate was at last obtained. First, by Dr. Seabury, from the Scottish Bishops on the 14th of November, 1784, at Aberdeen. It was a won- derfully providential event, as it brought, through Seabury, our Church under the influence of the Scotch Liturgy. The Scotch Liturgy differed from the English, showing signs of a more Eastern origin, and in its recognition of the great Eucha- ristic Sacrifice. Seabury, it is said, was willing that changes might be made in the offices of Morning and Even- ing Prayer, if he might direct those relating to the Eucharist. It was this that gave the American Church the more full and Catholic recognition of the Holy Eucharist as the great Christian sacrifice. ''can these dry bones live?" 73 Seabury said that he left it to men of another gen- eration, who were to come after him, to restore the losses in the offices. The Magnificat and Nunc Di- mittls had been left out, the Benedictus had been abbreviated. The Nicene Creed was practically bracketed, and the recitation of the clause in the Apostles' Creed, "He descended into hell," was made optional. All of these blemishes have now been done away. Seabury 's words have become true, and our grand canon in our Communion ser- vice will ever be a monument to his wisdom and piety. Early in the nineteenth century the Church's doctrines were extended hj the administration of the great Bishop Hobart, who boldly declared that he was a high churchman. He founded a society for the distribution of the Book of Common Prayer. He was greatly attacked by the existing Bible Society for doing this, but he declared that he held that the Bible and the Prayer Book ought to be side by side in every house. His motto was, evidently, that the Church teaches, while the Bible proves. It is thus interesting to note how the great Church Revival of the nineteenth century began quite independently in America. Before Keble had preached his great Assize Sermon in 1833, which is usually given as the date of the beginning of the Tractarian Movement, Seabury, Hobart, and others had laid here in America its foundations. But, as is well known, the Church revival met in England with fierce opposition. The low church, or Evangelical, party had lost much of 74 A JOURNEY GOD WARD its early fervor and gained large political influence. The Bishops appointed ^Yere mostly from this school. They regarded the Tracts for the Times as full of dangerous errors, and violently de- nounced them. The theological system which taught that grace was given through the Sacra- ments was taken to be in opposition to the received doctrine that man was justified by faith, or, simply, trust in Christ's merits. The two ideas, rightly understood, were not really contradictory, but sup- plementary of each other. Christianity has its objective and its subjective side. While the Sacra- ments are means through which Christ acts and bestows His gifts, faith and repentance are the sub- jective and necessary conditions for their profitable reception. The controversy in England and America began to be very fierce. Each party appealed to the Scriptures, the Prayer Book, and the Articles. The contest at first raged about the doctrine of the Apostolic Succession and the remission of sins in Baptism. In the American edition of the Prayer Book the doctrine of the Apostolic Succession was clearly stated in its Collect in the Institution Office. It declared that God had promised to be with ''the ministers of Apostolic Succession to the end of the world. ' ' The doctrine of Baptismal regeneration was also clearly stated, for after every baptism the min- ister gives thanks to God that ' ' this person is regen- erate." The Articles were shown by the Tracta- rians, and especially by Tract 90, to be patient, in "can these dry bones live'?" 75 their true literal and historical meaning, of a Cath- olic interpretation. In Holy Scripture, in the sixth chapter of St. John, fairly interpreted, there could be little doubt as to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the new birth from above was ever associated in Holy Scripture with the one act of water and the Spirit. There was connected with these teachings a slight improvement in the arrangement of our churches and some details of our worship. The ordinary arrangement, as is now seen in some sur- vivals of the old church, was to have a high pulpit, beneath it a desk for the clergyman, sometimes a lower one for the clerk who made the responses; and beneath this three-decker arrangement there was a plain table for the Communion. The prayers were said by the minister in a surplice, though this was never adopted in Virginia by some of the clergy. The minister went out at the end of the prayers and changed it for a black academical gown to preach in. Any innovation of this order was visited by riots in England, and the denuncia- tions of the Bishops. Bishop Eastburn of Massachusetts, an earnest but narrow Calvinist, would not go to the Advent because there was a Cross on the wall over the altar, flowers were at times placed on the altar, and the prayers were said stall-wise. Good old Dr. Edson of Lowell told me that when he began to say the prayers in that way. Dr. Eastburn being present, the Bishop rose up, came to him, and took him by the shoulders, and forced him to turn 76 A JOURNEY GODWARD around with his face to the people. The great Bishop Mcllvaine of Ohio forbade any altar with a solid or closed front. It must be, he said, an honest table, with four legs. But a growing knowledge of architecture led to some improvement in the church's appointments, and recessed chancels took the place of the old three-decker arrangement. The low church opposition took next the form of personal attack, and the ordination of young Carey, a student at the General Theological Sem- inary, wdio held Catholic views, was publicly pro- tested against. Attacks w^ere made on Bishop Onderdonk of New York and Bishop Doane of New Jersey, Avhich were instigated by the low church party spirit. One proof of this is seen in the fact that in the judgment of the court in Onderdonk 's case, the low churchmen voted for condemnation and the high churchmen for ac- quittal. These contests, so full of human bigotry and uncharitableness, greatly checked the growth of the Church. The Church herself, by her internal strife, has been her own greatest enemy. In 1844 General Convention was stirred up to take action and endeavor to deal with the Tracta- rian Movement. But .you could as little check its onward career by resolution as you could, b}^ addressing a series of them to an advancing loco- motive, stop its progress. In spite of the deser- tion of Newman of England and of Bishop Ives of North Carolina, the work continued to grow. It was of God and could not be stopped. It was a promulgation of the truths in the Prayer Book. *'CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE?" 77 It was an assertion of the Church's right to her ancient heritage of worship. Early in the fifties, Bishop Eastburn, urged on b}^ the low element, brought the Rev. Oliver S. Prescott, an assistant at the Advent, to trial. The writer, who was at that time a law student at Har- vard, attended the three trials to which he was sub- jected, and took notes. The Hon. Richard H. Dana, a noted lawyer and staunch churchman, was Fr. Prescott 's counsel. It was proved that Fr. Prescott had offered to hear confessions privately and to give absolution. He had also in a sermon spoken of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the sinless mother of a sinless Child. The trials lasted some years, the first having failed for want of particularity concerning time and place in the indictment. At length a conclusion was reached. It was evident that the phrase "a sinless mother of a sinless Child" might be differently construed and did not necessarily involve the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. But in respect to confes- sion, the judgment was different. It was that, "though the charge was not proven" as to Fr. Prescott 's having heard confessions privately, nevertheless, he must "agree that he would not preach it, and until he so agreed he should be suspended from the ministry." So far as the Church at large was concerned, the brave stand taken, and the fulness of the Anglican authority cited in favor of sacramental confession, were such that a new impulse was given to the Church's doctrine and principles. The effect on the Church at large was contrary to what low "78 A JOURNEY GODWARD churchinen suj)pose(i it would be. Dr. Whitting- liam, the great and learned Bishop of Maryland, wrote Fr. Prescott and invited him into his diocese. He said what a Bishop could do, a Bishop could undo, and he released Fr. Prescott from Siny obligation to obey the decision of the Court, in his diocese. One of the most significant events in our Church historj^ was the founding of Nashotah House. James Lloyd Breck, with two others, came out from the East to found a mission. They lived in community, they had some rule of life. They had not to avow poverty; poverty was upon them. Their lives were very hard and heroic. They thought nothing of walking ninety miles or more through the forest, in order to reach a little consecrated church for their ordination. Of course, there were men then, and Bishops, who said "It will come to naught," advised against it, and tried to keep men from joining it. But a work was planted which, passing through many vicissi- tudes, nevertheless has given hundreds of clerg}^ to the Church. It is one of the greatest lessons the Church has had, of faith. We would like to dwell upon the noble work done by Bishop Kem- per and Philander Chase and others, but we only mention this to show how the great struggle was going on, and though -opposed, the Church was slowly responding to the Holy Spirit's guidance. It was but natural after this that in England, as well as in America, contests arose over the doc- trine of the Real Presence. Mr. Bennett said he taught that there was *'in the Sacrament an actual ^'CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE?*' 79 presence of the true Body and Blood of our Lord." It was there by virtue of the consecration, and ex- tended to the communicant, and separately from the act of reception. He held that the communion table was also an altar of sacrifice, and that adora- tion was due to Christ in the Sacrament on the ground that under the veil of bread and wine was our Lord. The Privy Council declared this not to be contrary to the Church's allowed teaching. Though the Privy Council is not a Church court, nevertheless the decision of these lawyers at this time gave much encouragement to churchmen. The same doctrine was taught in America. In a note to a famous sermon preached in 1836 by Dr. Samuel F. Jarvis before the Board of Mis- sions, he wrote: "We have no right to banish from our communion those whose notions of the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament rise to a mysterious change by which the very elements themselves, though they retain their original properties, are corporally united with or trans- formed into Christ." But at this time the Holy Communion was cele- brated very rarely; in a number of cases not once a month. A very devout woman, Miss Seton, who subsequently left our Church for Rome and founded an order for Sisters of Charity, went to the rector of Trinity Church, New York, and asked for more frequent communions. But as she was refused, she turned elsewhere to find that fuller satisfaction of communion with her Lord. It was in 1844 or 1848 that Dr. Muhlenberg, Dr. Croswell, and others, met in New York to consider 80 A JOURNEY GODWARD the question whether it was possible in the Epis- copal Church to have a weekly Eucharist. Not long after, a Sunday celebration ])egan in a few churches, one of which was the Advent in Boston. Attention was now especially drawn to the doc- trine of the Eucharist. Bishop AVhittingham had taught me that "one ought to go to the death for the doctrine of the Real Presence." Later on a great controversy rose between Dr. Craik of Kentucky and Dr. deKoven. The latter contended that while in Bajitism there were but two parts of the sacrament mentioned, in the Catechism three statements were made respect- ing the Blessed Sacrament. There was in the latter the outward sign of the element, and the in- ward part or thing, the Body and Blood of Christ, and the grace of the Sacrament, which those re- ceived who communicated w^orthily. He denied the old doctrine of Transubstantiation of pre- Reformation times, which taught the destruction of the elements. He did not hold to the Lutheran Consubstantiation theory that the two parts were in some way mingled together. The union was caused by the act of consecration and the power of the Holy Ghost, but it was a sacramental union and a mystery. He asserted the fact of the Real Presence, but would not define the how. It was thought b\' most that he gained the vic- tory in the controversy. The great transaction is one which takes place, not in a natural order gov- erned by natural laws, but in the spiritual organ- ism which is the Bodv of Christ. It is the non- ''can THESE DRY BONES LIVE?" 81 recognition of this fact that has led to snch nnwise controvers}'. But to return. The advances which were being made in the Church became more and more dis- tasteful to the extreme low churchmen. They saw, however, at last, and admitted, that the high church doctrines had support in the Book of Com- mon Prayer. They said it contained "Roman germs." They admitted that it taught Baptismal Regeneration. One of their leaders explained how he came to this conclusion. He had always held that it w^as in consequence of the faith of the sponsors that the hope of regeneration was ex- pressed, but on the occasion of his administering baptism privately, he saw that no sponsors were required, and the Church in her prayers stated the same truth, that the person was regenerate. His theory thus fell to the ground. Another one, w^ho subsequentl}^ became a Bishop in the Reformed Episcopal body, said, "Fr. Grafton, you are right in holding that the Prayer Book teaches the doctrine of the Real Presence. I don't believe in that doctrine, and therefore I have left the Church." So the low church party tried to get the Prayer Book changed. The Church in General Convention refused to do this. Presentl}^ a num- ber, led by Dr. Cummins, Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, left the Church and began the forma- tion of a new sect. It is quite clear that the Reformed Episco- palians have no valid Orders. One reason is, they had no intention, when their first Bishop was set 82 A JOURNEY GODWARD apart, to make hini a Bishop in the old sense of the word. It was thus different from the case of the consecration of Archbishop Matthew Parker. There all the four Bishops who were consecrators, were the official agents of the Church and used her owa Ordinal. In that Ordinal the intention of the Church was explicitly stated that its object was that the ancient orders should be "continued." As the consecrators acted as agents of the Church, they could not by any private opinions or belief alter the intention. It was different in the case of Dr. Cummins. He was founding a sect. His own expressed intention was the intention that gov- erned his act. As he proclaimed at the time that he did not believe in the ancient doctrine of the Church concerning Episcopacy and Priesthood, he did not make a Bishop. It was something like this: Suppose a man should define that by the term bishop he meant one who opened the church, made the fires, swept and took care of it; in other words, defined the office and w^ork of a sexton. If he laid his hands on one and prayed that he might be a bishop, since he defined the term bishop to be only a sexton, only a sexton would be made. The exodus, thus, of these low churclmien was in the nature of a demonstration of the Catholicity of the Prayer Book. As the century went on, a new school of the- ology arose. It came to be called the broad Chvirch. The discoveries of science, the new doc- trine of evolution, the different methods of his- torical research, led some to seek a reconciliation between the old Church teaching and the spirit of ''can THESE DRY BONES LIVE?" 83 the age. It was marked also by a growing spirit of philanthropy and an enthusiasm for humanity. It had, thus, its good side. But each school of the Church has its weak side. The high churchman, emphasizing the institutional form of the Church and the need of authority, tends, if not balanced, gradually toward a papacy. The low churchman, with his subjective view of religion, weakens his realization of the objective side in Church and Sac- raments. The extreme of the Broad or rationalis- tic school tends to break with tradition and author- ity, and with the facts stated in the Creeds. But just as the low church negations were checked, so it has come about with the rationalising broad school. The Church's discipline is lil^e the move- ment of a great glacier, which gradually throws out from itself substances foreign to it. And so it came to pass that Bishop Colenso in Africa, Mac- Queary and Dr. Crapsey in America, ceased to be teachers in the Church. The Catholic movement, which had been largely academic in the sixties, greatly developed its scope and effectiveness by increased ceremonial. Then again another series of attacks began. The low church party raised a large sum of money and formed a society for the jiurpose of crushing out Ritualism. It appealed in England, event- ually, to the highest civil court, that of the Privy Council. There were decisions pro and con, and some things were allowed and some not. But the Privy Council was not regarded as an Ecclesi- astical Court, and rather than obey it, priests went to prison. It was the beginning of what began to 84 A JOURNEY GODWARD be called the Victorian persecution. Her Majesty it is said, was very much displeased that such a stain as a religious persecution should be placed on her reign. In time the convicted priests were released. They had nobly suffered, and taught the English nation a great lesson. The Church also came to realize better her own spiritual character and her independence of the state. A desire for disestab- lishment, or at least for a readjustment of the re- lations of the two, began to be popular. Convoca- tion, which had been silenced for 150 years, had resumed its sittings. A Lay House was added to help give expression to the mind of the laity. In 1867 the first great mission in London, originated by the Cowley Fathers, was given, and 146 churches united in the effort and some 60,000 per- sons were in daily attendance. An heroic mission- ary spirit was developed, and mission houses were established in London, India, Africa, and else- Avhere. Clergy Houses where priests lived in com- munity life were established. The clergy began to go to the yearly retreats, and those given by Carter, Randall, and Benson were remarkable for their deep spirituality. The Cathedrals became centers again of mis- sionary eifort; St. Paul's especially, under the ministration of Dean Church and Canons Gregory and Liddon. I remember praying, in Dean Mil- man's days, as I saw the Cathedral dome out of my little garret window, that the daily Eucharist might 1)0 re-established there, and I used to send "can these dry bones live?" 85 penitents down to St. Paul's to pray for this. At last it came. What is called the Ritualistic Movement made steady progress. In America the Ornaments Rubric had been omitted from the Prayer Book, and the result was that it gave freer scope to the development of ritual and ceremonial. However, it met, as every forw^ard step is met, with fierce opposition. The Church was roused by partisan efforts into a fury and panic. The opposition said it meant to crush out Catholicity. If they could not get the Prayer Book altered, they would forbid all acts of worship offered to Christ in the Eucharist. But, as Dr. deKoven said, you may pass what law you jDlease, 3^ou cannot prevent the inward worship of the heart and adoration to our blessed Lord. The Canon that was passed proved to be futile. It was held, even by those who opposed ritual, to be unconstitutional. The Church's Prayer Book could not be altered, nor the Church's worship regulated, by canon. As an evidence of the marked way in which God protected the Faith, it was not noticed that the canon itself was fatally defective in respect to the object sought. For while it forbade all acts of wor- ship in any form to be paid to the elements— no one does that— it did not forbid w^orship to the consecrated elements. A great jurist and ecclesi- astical lawyer said that no one could be condemned under such a canon. But at the last revision this canon was repealed. How wonderfully God has protected the Faith of our Church ! We are, of course, opposed by a body of skil- 86 A JOURNEY GOD WARD ful legislators, whose effort is to undermine the whole movement under the specious plea for unity. Our Lord prayed for both unity and union, and the desire of it must be agreeable to His will. But it must be sought in a right way and on right prin- ciples, or more harm than good will be done. Dur- ing the last century the Holy Si)irit has been striv- ing with our communion, leading it to the recovery of its Catholic heritage, and the Church has been responding to this leading. The Holy Spirit has also been pleading with the Roman Church, call- ing it back to primitive doctrine and true Catho- licity, and it has rejected the Spirit's guidance and become more papal. Union with Rome is therefore an absolute impossibility. Her term of union is simply submission to monarchical Papacy. The Eastern Church asks, not for submission, but whether we are of the same faith, and if so, we are brethren. That which stands in the way is the clause in our Creed which we inherited from Rome, speaking of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father ''and the Son." For one, I should be willing to have these unauthorized words omitted from the Creed. Looking back, what great things hath God wrought ! It is said that Newman placed beneath a picture of Oxford hung in his room, the words, ''Can these dry bones live?" The answer is, Cir- cumspicerif His melancholy and despairing fare- well came from a broken heart. His subtle intel- lect could cleverly defend any theorj^ that, at the time, presented itself to his imagination. Pusey was so different. His dominant principle was sub- ''can these dry bones live?" 87 mission to the authority of the Church. His great mind was filled with vast stores of learning, and his humility was that of a little child. John Mason Neale was a far better prophet than Newman. What Neale saw in a vision has come to pass :— "Again shall long processions sweep through Lincoln's minster pile: Again shall banner, cross, and cope gleam thro' the incensed aisle ; And the faithful dead shall claim their part in the Church's thankful prayer, And the daily sacrifice to God be duly offered there; And Tierce, and Nones, and Matins, shall have each their holy lay; And the Angelus at Compline shall sweetly close the day. England of Saints, the peace will dawn — but not without the fight; So, come the contest when it may — and God defend the right!" CHAPTER IV. "the religious LITE." "And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, hut he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, ivith persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life" (St. Mark 10:29-30). The religious life is sure to raise up many ad- versaries. The unbelieving, the carnal minded and unspiritual, cannot understand it. It is of God, and their minds are closed to the Divine Light. It is like the Cross, ' ' a stumbling-block to the worldly and foolishness to the age." It arouses their hatred because it so testifies against their own views of life. The sensualist Byron wrote that the monks were men who "In hope to merit heaven, Were making earth a hell." And so in hatred, rather than pity, many look down upon these Christian athletes and soldiers of the Cross. The popular self-government of the monastery laid the foundation of the EuroiDean democracy. But it has been singularly accused of being dan- gerous to society because it cultivated obedience to rule. It has been admitted that they were seats of MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHX THE EVANGELIST, 1903 (Cowley Fathers.) "the religious life" 89 learning, and preserved through the Middle Ages the seeds of it. ''The fretfulness, impatience, and extreme ten- sion of modern literary life," says Lecky, ''the many anxieties that paralyze, and the feverish craving for place that perverts so many noble in- tellects, were unknown to the monk." The monkish scholar pursued his studies in a spirit which has now almost faded away from the world. It is another popular argument that the mon- astic system, and by that is meant the religious life, has done its work and is not suited to our age. This overlooks the pregnant fact that the religious life has adapted itself in different forms, from the earliest times, to the wants of society. It first manifested itself in a hermit form, when the Saints went out and peopled the Thebian desert. They went into the wilderness like their Master, because there they believed they would most successfully wrestle with the evil one. St. Benedict gathered up the scattered hermits into community life and founded at Monte Cassino the marvellous order that endures even to this day. When the need came for missionary work, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic founded their respective orders of friars, who went about, as did our early Methodist circuit riders, preaching the Gospel. When there came the upheaval of the Reformation there arose military organizations, chief of which was the Jesuits, under the direction of Loyola. These were not monks, they kept not the recitation of the divine office in common ; they wore no distinctive garb; they gave themselves espe- 90 A JOURNEY GODWARD cially to education. And along with this move- ment, St. Vincent de Paul took the nun out of her cell and made her a Sister of Charity, and St. Francis of Sales instituted the Order of the Visita- tion, dedicated to the work of the education of women. If ever there was an age that needed the wit- ness of the religious life and its dedication to phil- anthropic work, it is ours. As Cardinal Newman once said, "The quasi heathen of large towns may not be converted by the sight of domestic virtues and domestic comforts in the missionar}^, but the evident sight of disinterested and self-denying love and a life of firmness will influence and rule them." This has been proved by the lives and work in Eng- land of such men as Mackonochie, Lowder, and many others, and by the affections w^hich the Sis- ters show in their enduring ministrations among the sick and needy, and in the lowest regions of crime and misery. Again, the abuses and corruptions which in these twenty centuries may be found connected with the life are greedily pointed out, forgetful of the continual presence of the spirit of reform and revival that has ever marked the life. Surely, the argument of abuse is of no force against us. The Bible, and Christianity— indeed there is no human institution that has not suffered from abuse. Cor- ruptio optimi pessima. ' ' The innate principle of monasticism, ' ' writes Rev. F. C. Woodhouse, ''is the life of God." The devout soul desires God above all things, and God alone. It seeks solitude that it may better com- ''the religious life" 91 mune with God. As it grows in lil^eness to Christ, it is forced to imitate His life of mercy for the bodies and souls of men. "They do not flee away from the world in order to escape duties, trials, or temptations, but to meet them as valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ." It is "an honest and literal acceptance and fufilment of our Lord's precepts in the Sermon on the Mount, and has adapted itself to the requirements of all times and all environ- ments." Dr. Liddon, in his famous sermon on a Sister's work, eloquently describes the influence of a Sis- ter's life as bearing witness to a future life, to attain which the sacrifices here involved were to be counted as nothing. Many a man that could not be reached by logical argument is reached by this objective demonstration of the truths of Chris- tianity. What is it, the worldly man says, that up- holds these persons in the great sacrifices they cer- tainly make ? What enables them to persevere in their life of hardness, self-sacrifice, and devotion? There can be but one answer : it is the supernatural grace which comes to them from Christ. I once overheard a conversation between two Unitarian ladies who were interested in a Chil- dren's Hospital. "Why," said one, "do we have Sisters here'? They are Church women, we are not. Why not get some of our own society to come in and do this work? " The answer was, "We have tried, and cannot." "Do you mean to tell me that it is only among this special class of Christians that we can get this high devotion and self-sacri- fice ? If so, then they have got some grace that we 92 A JOURNEY GODWARD have not." The life testifies to Christ in His Church. It was part of the religious movement of the last century that we find in many countries a re- vival of the religious life. It astonished the his- torians and philosophers of our day. The life, according to them, ought to have died out under the influence of modern civilization. ' ' But today, ' ' says Froude, ' ' among other strange phenomena we see once more rise among us, as if by enchantment, the religious orders." Montalembert said in his Monks of the West: "Not since Christianity existed have such sacrifices been more numerous, more magnanimous, more stupendous, than now. Every day since the com- mencement of this 19th century hundreds have come forth from castles and cottages, from palaces and workshops, to offer to God their heart and their life." Not only have the old orders been sustained, but new ones in the Roman Church, like the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and the Christian Brothers, and many others, have arisen. Our o^vn Church has seen the rise of the Mission Priests of St. John the Evangelist, popularly known as the Cowley Fathers, and the Community of the Resurrection, and in America, the Order of the Holy Cross. We cannot enumerate them all. In England there is the Sisterhood of St. John the Baptist, with its mother house at Clewer, with its more than 200 Sis- ters, and with a great many branch houses, one of which is in America. St. Margaret's Convent at East Grinstead has some seventeen branch houses "the religious life" 93 in England and several in the United States. The Sisterhood of St. Mary, Wantage, has some sixteen houses, including one or more in India. The order of All Saints has fourteen or more branch houses, several hundred Sisters, and establishments in Af- rica, India, and our own country. There are a great many others in England : Sisters of the Holy Cross, Sisters of the Church, Sisters of Bethany, of St. Thomas the Martyr, and many others. We have here in the United States the great order of St. Mary's, now divided into three distinct provinces; the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativitj^, and a long list to be found in the Living Church Annual. Slowly and gradually the prejudice against the life has been passing away. First the practical side of it addressed itself to our own practical age. For the Church has begun to realize its spiritual value. The Church realizes as never before that her true strength lies in her saints. It is the hands lifted up in prayer that sustain the warriors in the field. It is the spiritual life and devotion devel- oped in our own Church that bring down increas- ingly God's blessings on it. To those who ask what reply shall be made to objections, or as to what has caused the revival of the Religious Life, the answer is, Christ founded it. It is an essential part of Christianity. It is dear to Him as the apple of His eye. He it is who has watched over it and blessed it and revived it in our own communion. The time came to me when I felt both weak and unworthy, when I said ''Why should there not be a religious order of priests in our Church as there is in Rome?" I could not but note the 94 A JOURNEY GODWARD growth of the sects in the town where I was. I looked around upon a large and fashionable con- gregation, comfortably seated in their pews, and felt stung by the text, "To the poor the Gospel is preached." In a cynical spirit one said to me, "That text ought to be written over your Church door, but with the addition 'Not in this place.' " Bishop Harold Browne had written, "There is a danger that the English Church should die of respectability." I seemed to hear a voice saying, "Come, and make venture on the water." I con- sulted with my Bishop, who encouraged me to give myself to the life. And gladly, he said, he would do it if it were in his power to enter it himself. And so, in my feebleness and honest intent, I said "Here I am, O Lord; send me." I went to England, for I thought they must know more about the life there than here. I had known a number of very pious people and priests in America, but in England I met some of an apparently higher and more devout type. If a saint is one who heroically corresponds to grace given, such men as Fr. O'Neil and Fr. Benson belong to that class. Gradually the Cowley society grew. I came back to America, and eventually opened a Mission House in Boston. Fr. Prescott took the head- ship of that at St. Clement's in Philadelphia. While not very successful in the growth in Amer- ica, the society extended most successfuU}^ its work in Africa and in India. It was one of Fr. O'Neil's great desires that a house should be es- tablished in London, which has now come to pass. *^THE RELIGIOUS LIFE" 95 We have said that Christ founded the life. He exemplified it in His own Person. His life was ruled by three abiding principles. To give them their technical signification, they were poverty, chastity, and obedience. As to poverty, our Lord possessed nothing and went out to His great mission having no place whereon to lay His head. The foxes had holes, He said, and the birds, nests; but He was homeless. No Francis of Assisi, or John of the Cross, or Peter of Alcantara, excelled Him in His asceticism. Why did Christ so denude Himself? Man had lost by sin his union with God and the grace to attain a beatific end. Christ came as man to fight over again man's lost battle. He took His place, there- fore, alongside of man as his brother and de- fender. He took His place alongside of man as an outcast, stripped of everything. Again, concerning obedience, Christ was by His perfect obedience to fulfil the divine purpose in creating a creature with free will. He came, not like a modern reformer planning out for himself the way of man's redemption. The plan had all been laid down for Him in the Old Scriptures. Everything concerning the temple, feasts, and sacrifices, told of Himself as the Lamb of God. He read in the Prophets the story of His life and its terrible ending. The Holy Scriptures were to Him what to a religious is his rule. He was often quoting it and saying thus it must be, for thus the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Not only was He obedient to a rule given Him by God, but also His humanity was directed by the Holy Spirit. He 96 A JOURNEY GODWARD had a divine and ever-present Master. He was led b}^ the Spirit. He listened to the Spirit, and "as I hear, so I speak." He poured His human mind, so to speak, into the mould of Holy Scripture, and was governed by it and by the Spirit of God. The holy principle of chastity was especialh" manifested in Him. In its essence this means not only purity of body^ but purity of soul. It means the detachment from all earthly love, that the love of God may be supreme. It was this that He taught the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph by His tarrying behind and being found of those in the temple. He revealed the truth that man's first duty, su- preme over that even to parents, is to be about one's Father's business. He broke away from the tenderest of all ties when He left His Blessed Mother, abandoning her to the Divine protection, and went forth to His work. He trained her to bear the piercing of the sword Avhich pierced her heart at the time of His Crucifixion. Poverty, chastity, and obedience— these lay at the founda- tion of His inner life. Now in this life He trained the selected Twelve. He called them out to follow Him into closer re- lation than that of the other disciples. They were to be spiritual athletes. He made them, thus, sharers of His own life of hardness and danger. They were to be exposed to the persecutions which fell upon Him. They were to abide with Him in His temptations. They were to be with Him in the storm on the lake ; they were to suffer hunger and be obliged to eat raw corn in the fields. They were to give up all. They were to leave father, mother. "the religious life" 97 and all that was dear to them. They were to leave their nets, and boat, and home. He organized them, also, as a band of men, as a society. He gave them a rule of life. He practised them in it just as a master of novices might do to those under him. He regulated minute particulars of their conduct. They were sent on a mission, and went two by two. They were to take no scrip in their purse. They were to be dependent upon what might be given them. They were to have no superfluity of cloth- ing. They were to salute no man by the way, but keep a cloistered silence. They were to accept the hospitality that was offered. They were to eat such things as were set before them. And individu- ally He subjected them to sharp rebukes. He told blessed Peter that he was like a stone, and told St. John that he did not know the spirit that he was of. He rebuked them for their want of faith, for their hindrances to Him in His work; for their hardness and the slowness of their faith; for the strife they had amongst themselves as to who should be greatest. He called them into union with His own awful Passion. They were to learn the depths of their own weakness, of their flight and desertion of Him. They were to be crushed to the earth before they could be raised up again. He commanded them to do seemingly impos- sible things. They were to go to a place and find an ass tied and take it, saying only to the owner, "The Lord hath need of him." They were to go into the city and find a man bearing a pitcher of water, follow him, go into his house, and say, "Where is the guest chamber where the Master 98 A JOURNEY GODWARD may keep the Passover?" He trained them to believe and to do what He said, though they could not understand Him. In other words, He trained them in the principles of His own high, religious life. Concerning these principles of His own life and those in which He trained the Apostles, He left certain directions. While He gaA^e commands which all His followers were to keep. He gave counsels which those who were striving after per- fection might follow. His three counsels were those of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They are called counsels of perfection, because by the practice of them, souls are brought into union more closely with our Lord's own life. Thus concerning poverty, He said to the rich young man who came to Him, "If thou wouldst be perfect, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come and follow Me. ' ' When the Apostles were quarreling respecting who should be greatest. He put a little child before them, and told them that he would be greatest in the King- dom of Heaven who became like a little child. Here He inculcated the law of especial obedience which those were to accept who would be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Concerning chastity, He said: "All men can- not receive this saying save them to whom it is given. There be eunuchs which have made them- selves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." He there described a condition of celibate life which was to be of a permanent character. And to "the religious life" 99 those who embraced these counsels He declared, ''Every one that has forsaken house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My Name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. ' ' It could not be but that a life so commenced should show itself in the Church, which is His Body. It was at first impossible for women to live in communities, but we hear of their dedica- tion in the case of the four daughters of Philip, who were said to be virgins, which was the techni- cal name given to this class. They were also, as we learn from the Epistles of St. Ignatius, called "widows," in reference to their separate estate. As the ages went on, adapting itself to the various needs, we find the religious life in the hermits, the monks, the friars, and the clerks regular of our modern times. Every branch of the Church, East and West, has had its monasteries, and con- vents, and houses dedicated to our Lord. The time came to me when, my heart burning with the fire of the love of God, and with loyalty to our own conm.iunion, I said to myself, Why has not our Church a part in if? It once had. It was crushed out by force. But if our Church was a living branch of Christ's Body, it had in it a res- urrection power, and could not the life be repro- duced ? We have seen how amongst women the first movement of revival began. The Trinity Sister- hood, those of St. John the Baptist, All Saints', and St. Margaret's led the way. It is noticed in olden times in the formation of communities of 100 A JOURNEY GODWARD women, that their first great founders had for their assistance the aid of saintly and wise men. St. Scholastica worked in co-operation with St. Bene- dict ; St. Jerome found a fellow-worker in the wid- ow, St. Paula ; St. Francis of Sales guided and de- veloped St. Frances de Chantal. The Roman Order of the Sacred Heart was founded by Mother Barat, assisted by Father Varin. In the Anglican Church we find that God raised up certain great founders. Few, indeed, are called to be such. In England God gave us that wonder- fully wise and gloriously and generously minded woman, the Hon. Mrs. Monsell, who, with Mr. Car- ter, developed the Clewer Sisterhood. Miss Sellon, less known, perhaps, but remarkable for her con- structive power and life of prayer, worked imder and was guided by the wisdom of Pusey. Dr. Neale, in his heroic spirit, called into existence a Sister- hood whose members, ready at any call of duty, went into the houses of the poor, and into fever- stricken districts and cholera hospitals, to attend the sick. Thus, with the noble-hearted Mother Alice, he founded one filled with the ascetic spirit and heroic perseverance. The Sisterhood of All Saints, foimded by Upton Richards, had for its first Superior the Hon. Miss Byron, who brought her culture and her wealth, joined with a marvel- lous spirituality, to the cause of Christ. In this Sisterhood was to be seen in its training the effect of one of its great chaplains, Fr. Benson. In Amer- ica the life of Mother Harriet, founder of St. Mary 's, is most generally known. It would not be proper for me now here to speak of others, but if ''the religious life" 101 the Anglican Church has come to her own, these orders and others like them will develop. Would that our clergy would preach more about the re- ligious life, and women and men would give them- selves in greater numbers to it. It is by the daily sacrifice and the religious life that the great battle would be won. Against the life a common objection is that it involves vows. Now the taking of vows is part of the Christian religion. It is the teaching of our Book of Common Prayer. We take vows at our baptism; we take them at our confirmation; we take them when w^e enter into our marriage state ; we take them when as priests or bishops we are ordained and consecrated. That our Lord sanc- tioned them is seen in this : He called men to take as celibates a permanent estate, and there could be no way of entering into such a state spiritually save by a vow. What relation, has been asked, shall a sister- hood or an order bear to the Episcopate? We might return the question by saying, What should be the attitude of the Episcopate toward an order *? The Bishops began by persecuting them. Dr. Neale was inhibited by his Bishop in England, and Fr. Benson by Bishop Eastburn in America. A Bishop, now passed to his rest, on my going to the General Seminary, said "such a man ought to be kicked off the grounds." I endeavored, as far as I could, to bring Bishops and sisterhoods into right relations. No one, I thought, had any right to start a community, or organize a religious house, without first getting the approval of his own 102 A JOURNEY GODWARD Bishop to do so. Next, there should be a commis- sion appointed by the house of Bishops to whom the rule of such a society should be submitted for approval. Until the religious order had obtained, then, the imprimatur or sanction of the Episco- pate, its members would have no right to wear a distinctive habit or be chronicled in the Church Annual. But no such action has been taken, and orders have grown up without proper supervision. No law being established by the Church, many evils have arisen. Women have had no vocation for the life of sisters, or been rejected, and it has happened again and again that these rejected ones have sought the protection of some Bishop, anxious perhaps, for a Church worker. Now women know women a great deal better than do men, and if a sister has been rejected, it is almost certain that she is not adapted to the life. But Bishops are easily deceived, perhaps more easily than other men, and their approval of persons has often been most unfortunate. And here may I give a piece of advice to Su- periors, which I have found most necessary? Do not allow your convent or religious house to become a reformatory. Clergy and friends will often write to sisters begging them to take in some per- son who, if she could only be brought under the in- fluence of the sisters, would certainly be reformed. No house, however, is to be made a reformatory. It is not the purpose of a sisterhood, unless it es- tablishes a special work for penitents. Many a house has been injured through a mistaken charity of this kind. The world makes no distinction be- ''the religious life" 103 tween the different grades of sisters, or even the inmates of a religious house ; and when some scan- dal arises it is quick to put it down to the sister- hood and not to the guest or inmate. In 1882 I was led by certain providences to found a sisterhood in America. My connection with the communities in England as a special director and confessor had given me a knowledge of their constitution and rule such as, I suppose, no other one clergyman then possessed. One peculiarity in the beginning of the revival was that sisterhoods began to take up a large number of different kinds of works. Now it is ob- vious that the sisterhood that is given to education must have different rules and order of life from a sisterhood that is given to nursing. So, too, if the sisterhood tends to the contemplative side of life, it cannot be engaged in the work of hospitals, orphanages, or penitentiaries. It seemed to me in England that this principle was overlooked. When, therefore, I was called by divine providence to found a community, I limited the scope of its work. We needed, I believed, in our Church a community in which there would be large room for the cultivation of the spiritual life, and which would especially be given to aid the parochial clergy, and have as a chief object the winning of souls. So in the community of the Holy Nativity, a society was begun whose constitution does not allow of the sisters taking charge of institutions. They are not allowed to have hospitals, orphanages, or schools. The only thing allowed would be a con- valescent hospital. The sisters were to give thena- 104 A JOURNEY GODWARD selves especially to the cultivation of the interior life ; they were to keep up as far as possible a per- petual intercession before the Blessed Sacrament. They were to cultivate, especially, charit}" amongst themselves, humilit}^ and a missionary spirit, or zeal for souls. It would be a society practising no such severities as the Carmelites or other communi- ties. They were to be given especially to commun- ion with the inner life of our Lord. And here I may notice a not uncommon mistake. Clergymen think they would like a sisterhood in their parish, and without any especial knowledge, they form one of their own. Now a sisterhood is a school for the formation of a special character. This requires long and special training. But I have been asked to give the rules of a sisterhood, as if it could be made off-hand from a receipt. In the Holy Nativity there is first a postulancy of six months, afterwards a two j^ears' novitiate, and before final reception as a full member of the society, a period of two years as Junior Professed. It is this long and careful training that has given such stability to its members, and union and hap- piness to them. Often the world, looking upon them from without, asks if these recluse are really happy in their dedicated life? So far as my ex- perience has gone, and it is confirmed by the united testimony of the religious themselves, there is no life that is so full of peace, true comfort, and joy. If it is a life of sacrifice, it is also a life of present as well as future reward. And how shall a soul know whether it is called to this life or not? The very desire that becomes THE REV. MOTHER FOUNDRESS, SISTERHOOD OF THE HOLY NATIVITY. ''the religious life" 105 permanent is one sign of a call. The spirit of de- votion and love for our Lord, and desire to for- ward His Kingdom, adds its weight to the call. There often is such a fervent desire for a life apart from the world that the soul feels assured that Christ has spoken to it. Then there are the out- ward and providential signs of God's leading to it. There are some duties to parents, aged or destitute, which might be a primary duty. But where a daughter would think it right to leave her par- ents for the married state, she has a right to fol- low the call to a higher duty to be joined to Christ. It is most common, however, for parents, in the present uninstructed state of our Church concern- ing the life, to make objections. They do not want to give up their children, or be sep- arated from them. Yet if an advantageous offer of marriage came to them they would not hold their child back from it. Indeed they know they would have no right to do so, for God has or- dained marriage. One must leave father and mother to enter into it. The call to be joined to Christ is the call to enter into a special union or mystical marriage with Him, and no parent has a right upon religious grounds to keep a child from it. They run a great risk and commit a great sin if they put hindrances in the Lord's way. God, who has a right to take their child away by death, has the right to take the child into religious life, and parents should realize that the call is a call to them, as well as to their daughter. It is a call to both parties, and if they respond to it, for it must be somewhat of a sacrifice, God will give them a 106 A JOURNEY GODWARD special blessing; they will share in the reward. Of course i:)ersons may think they are called, when they are not fitted really for the life. This can only be known and decided by a trial of it. No other state allows of such a trial, and the best way to prevent anyone from joining a society, is by let- ting her make a trial; for communities as a rule reject about fifty per cent, of aspirants. Sisters do not want to admit any as members of their household unless they are fitted especially for it. If we are asked what disposition aspirants should have, they would be these: a desire to leave the world ; a spirit of humility ; a willingness to be moulded by the rule; a desire to do Christ's service; a longing for perfection. ''And blessed, thrice blessed, " wrote Dr. Pusey, "they whom Christ alone sufficeth, the only aim of whose being is to live to Him and for Him. For Him they adorn themselves; His eyes alone they desire to please through His graces in them ; Him they long to serve without distraction; at His feet they ever sit; to Him they speak in their inmost souls, to Him they hearken. He is their light, their love, their holy joy; to Him they ever approach in trustfulness; Him they consult in all things, on Him they wait ; Him they love, even because they love Him. They desire nothmg from Him but His love, de- sire no love but His. Blessed foretaste of life eternal, to desire nothing on earth but the life of angels and the new song; to be wholly His, whom her soul loveth, and He, the Lord of angels, to be wholly hers as He says, 'I am my Beloved's, and m}^ Beloved is mine.' " CHAPTER V. PASTORAL WORK. "He that now goeth on his way weeping and heareth forth good seed: shall douhtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him" (Ps. cxxvi). One object I had in mind in going to England in 1865 was to study the new methods of parochial work. A great change had taken place since the days of the Georges, when the Episcopate was re- garded as a place of dignity and worldly comfort. While the clergy of that age were, on the whole, moral men, they had lost much of the sense of their priestly calling. They mixed like other worldly men in society, and it was not considered unclerical for them to ride to the hounds. An idle Bishop, it is said, has been made an impossibility, and the spiritual character of the clergy has greatly ad- vanced. Never, indeed, had the English clergy sunk to the low level that marked the Church of France before the Revolution, or the Church at Milan in the day of St. Charles Borromeo. For about eighty years no Archbishop of Milan was resident in his diocese. A Roman Catholic bi- ographer of Borromeo says : "The clergy generally exhibited the most un- 108 A JOURNEY GOD WARD blushing contempt of the requirements of their sacred order; their immorality being in fact so public and systematic that it is i^resumed they have lost all sense of the obligations of their state. They dressed like seculars, carried arms after the then fashion, absented themselves from their benefices, and were so totally indifferent to all that concerned the service of God that the churches were aban- doned to the most shameful neglect. The common people were especially frequently devoid of the bare knowledge of those truths which are necessary to salvation, and lived and died without even hav- ing been taught either the articles of faith or the commandments of God." Roman Catholic writers have honorably and wisely called attention to the state of things in their Church. In the chronicle of the life of J. Wimpheling, the Prelates imitated and tried to outdo the Pope in forgetfulness of their duties. Instead of keeping residence, they ran out after civil pleasures, and led dissipated and vicious lives. The poor secular and rural clergy were treated by the Bishops like helots, and burdened with taxes. We record with deep regret that Wimpheling de- clares that the clergy could purchase licenses for concubinage, and that parishioners entreated the clergy to obtain them in order to insure the honor of their own wives and daughters. There was a low tone, as we have said, among the clergy in England of the eighteenth century, but we must not forget that there were holy men like Bishop Wilson, Jones of Nayland, and the PASTORAL WORK 109 great Butler, and that by earnest laymen the great missionary societies were inaugurated. But the revival in England in the nineteenth century, filled with love of souls, had made the ways of working a modern parish as different as a modern mill from the old hand loom. Many of the clergy were living under a strict rule of life, and belonged to societies like that of the Holy Cross. Many were living together in clergy houses in community life. Good philanthropic works were springing up on every side. The old fashioned idea of a clergyman who lived in comparative ease, had been passing away. There had been a stirring of the dry bones "and a going in the tops of the mulberry trees," and a call to self sacrifice that never before had been so urgent. I had heard much about the great missionary work of Selwyn, and of that of Lowder in the East of London, and the work of St. Alban's built on the old site of the Thieves' Kitchen, which Dickens had described, and I desired to see something of all this. Among the parishes visited, I went to Wan- tage, which was then under the rectorship of the Rev. W. Butler. He subsequently became Dean of Lincoln. He was a most successful parish priest, and was popularly known as "Butler of Wan- tage." The town had about 6,000 inhabitants. There was only one small brick dissenting chapel in it. It was a Church town. There was a grand old parish church, with its Church schools, and a commimity of sisters. Butler was a great con- trast to Mr. Carter. Carter always impressed one as consciously living perpetually with God. 110 A JOURNEY GODWARD There was a marvellous rej)Ose about him, which showed itself in every word and action. While reading a newspaper or on a w^alk he was ever with God ; and his putting on of his vestments seemed to me like an act of prayer. But Butler was a man of intense activitj^ He was never restless, but in- tensely energetic. He had a great organizing power. He had six curates under him and their work was all planned out day by day. They were not, like so many American assistants, left to them- selves and their own devices, and greatly wasting their time. All the curates at Wantage assembled together at noon, and said Sext together, reported what they had done, and received their orders. Under Butler, Liddon and Fr. Neale of Oxford and others noted for their parish work, received their training in work and preaching. Butler had a i^lan of his own for keeping him- self in touch with his people. He divided them up into classes. There were those for ladies, for ser- vant girls and those in shops, the old men and women, the young men, the jDrof essional men, Sun- day school teachers, the children— perhaps some ten or twelve classes in all. Now he expected each class to meet him in his study at the rectory once a month, save perhaps in the summer season. If they did not come, he looked them up or sent them a note. He arranged for three classes a day and so got through the whole parish in three or four days of a week. They came, say at 2, 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon. They would crowd the ample study, and I have seen the school teachers sitting on the floor. He would give them a half hour's practical PASTORAL work: 111 study on the Church, its doctrine, and their life. This left hini a half hour before the next class came, to s^Deak to any personally who tarried behind for that purpose. One can see why there was only one dissenting chapel in a parish taught like this. There was daily service. I think Vespers were chorally rendered and there was a daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice. Confession, though not made obligatory, was largely used. He was indefatigable in his visits. It was a remarkable work. Lowder, in the East of London, where I stayed for a time, West at Paddington, Mackonochie at St. Alban's, Upton Richards at All Saints', were parish priests with whom I stayed also, and from whom I learned much. I was greatly aided in Boston by what I had learned in England, and by the very able assistance that I had in the present Bishop of Vermont, and the present Bishop of SiDringfield, and others. Here let me mention a device of the latter— Fr. Osborne, as he was then called— to keep hold of and to exert a personal influence on those under his care. I believe that Bishop Carpenter of Ripon employed a somewhat similar method. Let me describe that of Fr. Osborne: Take a number of large cards, say 24, about a foot square, and unite them by a ribbon at the tojD, and hang this set somewhere over your writing desk. Let these be ruled with some 15 lines near- ly an inch apart and mmibered with the days of the month. Write in small text the names of your Sunday school children, your confirmees, jouv penitents and others. Enter them according to 112 A JOURNEY GODWAED their birthdays, or Baptism and Confirmation days, or when married, or any other day marked especiall}^ in their lives. Every day send out a post- card of remembrance and a word of greeting. It will only take a few minutes. It is wonderful what an attachment grows up with such reminders of one's interest, and how falling away is prevented. Another useful parish method was practised by my now Coadjutor, Bishop Weller, when he was a parish priest, and he was a very successful one. X^ike others he had noticed how many, after being confirmed, fell away from their Communion. It is most important that the confirmed receive special instruction about the Holy Eucharist. They should be taught not only their duty of being present at it every Sunday as the chief act of Christian worship, but the privilege and reverence of receiving fasting. If the young begin in this way, they are not likely to go back from it. Now to help the confirmees to persevere in their Com- munions, Bishop Weller looked to see what Sunday of the month there was when the fewest commun- ions were made. Then he would have the class con- firmed come and make their communions on that Sunday. Those who came dropped their card or name in a box at the door. This would not he necessary if the parish were small. But on Mon- day mornings he would seek out those who stayed away, and find out the reason for it. Another method was to get them to make a special yearly corporate communion. I have known a case where a hundred men came to communion in this way. The problem before me when I undertook PASTORAL WORK 113 parish work in Boston was how to build up a con- gregation and how to develop the spiritual life of the people. Our church, when the Cowley Fathers took it, was a comparatively empty one. The building was not Churchly or attractive. It was an old Congregational meeting house, with gal- leries around three sides, which for years had been closed. Those who came might be called high churchmen, but not, as yet. Catholics. They had all the prejudices of that somewhat narrow class, because it feels it knows everything about the Church, and is unwilling to make any further ad- vance. The church building was situated between the residences of the well-to-do and the poor. I began my aggressive work with the latter. Obtaining the aid of the few more earnest and better instructed to help me, and asking others of the regular con- gregation who might be led to come chiefly through curiosity, I instituted two weekly meetings, one for men and one for women. I called them my classes. One had to make special efforts at the beginning to make persons attend. I visited the shops, the houses of the poor, the factories. I asked ladies to send their maids or servants. I distributed a leaflet on the subject. I got my par- ish visitors, too, at work. And having made a begin- ning, I soon got a nucleus which grew in attendance to about one hundred and fifty. My scheme or course of proceeding was this : I held the class in a large room, in the basement of the church. I did not put on a surplice, but wore my cassock. I had no service at the begin- 114 A JOURNEY GODWARD ning of the evening. I told the curates when sub- sequently they took the class to avoid, in their teaching, exhortation. They were not to deliver sermons, but it was to be purely an instruction and not more than half an hour in length. It was to be arranged in an orderly manner, clear, and dog- matic. The instruction for a winter would take up one general subject. It might be on the Church, or the Sacraments, or the Church's worship and rit- ual, or confession, or the Church of England's his- tory, or on the Catholic movement. The instruction began at 7 :30. At 8 to 8 :45 we had a "social." I had scattered my helpers throughout the congrega- tion to speak to those present, and as I passed from one to another I entered the names of new comers in a book. In order to give a social aspect to the meeting and to get the people to know one another, I arranged for the distribution of some slight re- freshment. Tea, coffee, and cake were passed round. It is wonderful, too, what a kindly feeling this so- ciability engendered in those who partook of it. Then, too, we had a small library, and this under the care of some helpers, was the means of much usefulness. At quarter to nine a bell was rimg, and we all filed into a side chapel. The Altar was brightly lighted up. There were no seats. Everyone had to kneel down on the floor. We sang the litany of the Blessed Sacrament, or some other metrical litany, or said a short Com- pline office. Then I stood at the door and said good night. There was to be no tarrying among them for idle conversation. There was by this ar- PASTORAL WORK 115 rangement a combination of sociability, instruc- tion, and devotion. It was all over in an hour and a half. The attendants got back early to their homes. The social element was especially prized. The class became very popular. Persons began to be pleased or proud to be invited to it. In order to reach the rich and intellectual, I adopted another plan. I called on some of the society ladies to lend me their parlors for say a course of six lectures. We agreed who should be invited, and they were, by note or personal call. We invited not only our own parishioners, but es- pecially those not connected with our Church. Persons who would never enter an Episcopal church would be willing to come to an address made in a parlor, which they regarded as a sort of lit- erary lecture. Fr. Hall, now Bishop of Vermont, gave courses most valuable on the Old Testament, and on St. John's Gospel. One advantage of this method was that it brought us into contact with an outside religious world, and enabled the lecturer to speak to individuals present or make arrange- ments for further intercourse. I had also felt that we of the clergy often failed to get at the people by our sermons. They were sometimes moved, greatly moved, by what they heard, but nothing practical came of it. The prob- lem was how to bridge over the gulf between the pulpit and the pew; how, having hooked, to land the fish. In Advent and Lent it became my cus- tom to give notice that at the end of the service I would give a five minutes' instruction on some topic then likely to attract their attention. I took 116 A JOURNEY GODWARD up such questions as why we knelt at the Incarna- tion; why lights on the Altar; why Priests wore vestments at the Eucharist ; why Priests made the Sign of the Cross; why the Lord's table was called an Altar ; what was the meaning of Apostolic Suc- cession ; were our clergy Priests ; how to go to Con- fession ; why be a Sister. Thus while the choir was going out, I put off my surplice and took my stand at the end of the aisle, and said in a distinct tone : "Now I am going to give my five minutes' instruc- tion. Let as many as can, stay." A good many would stay. The instruction had to be thoroughly and well prepared. It had to be short, sharp, and incisive. It closed with acts of faith and love. Then as the people were going out I added, ^'I've a tract here on the subject which I shall be glad to give away to any who may want it. ' ' Some would come forward, quite a good many sometimes ; and here I got hold of the individual fish. I had a sister or some of the special workers standing round about me, and as they came up I asked their names rapidl}^; intro- duced them to some of the workers, who asked them to come and visit them, or made appoint- ments to talk it out with the rector. It was through the Sisters of the Holy Nativity that this work was so successful. Let me say a word about my parish work amongst children. He who neglects the children of his parish is bound to have a decaying church. One great difficulty I had in the city I was in, was in obtaining persons willing to be, and capable of being, Sunday school teachers. Yet what a noble PASTORAL WORK 117 calling and blessed work it is ! Our clergy need to press this duty and high privilege on their people. It belongs to the exercise of the priesthood of the laity, which is too much forgotten, certainly not realized. But does not Confirmation, the sealing of the Spirit, unite the laymen with the offices of Christ, as, in a higher degree, the ordination of the priest? Does not the lajaiian go to his work of teaching, not of his own motion, or of his own strength, but as called and sent by the Lord ? In respect of their instruction, and so fitness, so far as I could, I endeavoured to remedy the de- fects of our present system. I modified and adapted that of the Dupanloup system, as it is called, to our Church and its needs. It is now so familiarly known that I need not describe it. But my own plan was in addition, on a week-day even- ing, to have Sunday School teachers meet me, and go over with them the general lesson of the Sunday, explaining and enlarging and illustrating it. And I drew up for them a catechism or series of instruc- tions which brought out for them the great doc- trine of the Incarnation and the Sacraments. Besides the children at Sunday School there are the very young ones, under seven, at home. Mothers, sometimes perplexed, asked me what would be the best way to teach them. Now most catechisms in my day began with the state- ment about God, and that He was the Maker of all things. Then the catechism goes on as the next doctrine to be considered, ''Who is the first man" and ''the first woman?" It also gave to some ex- tent the Bible account as if it were actual history. 118 A JOrRNEY GODWAED mnwr Then came the apple story and the serpent's talk, and the Fall, and the story of a ruined race and the Redeemer. After that we had several chapters on the Law, the history of the Israelites, and their wickedness, and so on up to Calvary. The awful sufferings of Christ were described, and a child was taught to believe on Him and so be saved. The doctrine was sometimes taught in this form ; "Child, liast thou trusted Jesus ? Canst thou believe and say 'He loved me. He died to save me. He has borne my sins away? For my sins were laid upon Jesus; In my stead, for my guilt He died' ? Then, Child, fall down and adore Him, Thoii art whiter than all beside." I know some children's nervous systems have been prostrated by terrible accounts of the agonies of the Crucifixion. How many have been puzzled with the theological questions involved! How many have kept it all to themselves and cried them- selves to sleep over the question whether they sav- ingly trusted in Christ or not! How often this system lays the foundation of unbelief, when Bible stories, by the mature mind, are relegated to the level of Kris Kringle and fairy tales. Now there is a better way to begin with little children. Tell them there is a bright, good, happy God, who made all things. What has He made? Angels and men. Begin thus with teaching about the Angels, and one's Guardian Angel. You lay thus in a child's mind a belief in the supernatural which can never be destroyed. Tell the child about fairies, and he finds out there are no such beings. PASTORAL WORK 119 But tell him about the angels, and Holy Scripture is full of beautiful stories of their work, and his own experience will eventually confirm the truth of their existence. They are appointed to watch over him, and guard and protect him. And many a time he will be able to say, "God has given His angels charge over me, to keep me in all my ways. ' ' The child should be taught the names of some of the angels, something about their different ranks and works, of their beautiful and joyous lives, of the interest they take in us. Teach the older chil- dren always to say the collect for St. Michael's Day on leaving for a long journey, or going from home to school. And, lastly, also tell the little one, "God made man." He placed him in a beau- tiful world. For what did He make him? He made him to attain a blessed state of joy and hap- piness in a glorious heaven. The present state of things in which there is much of trouble and sor- row and pain is only a temporary schooling time, where one is educated for our real home, and where we shall be happy and blessed. How shall we get there? the child naturally asks. The answer is, by "grace." Then explain how grace is given; how our Lord gives it through the Sacraments; what Baptism is and what Confirmation is yet to be to him ; how by prayer we gain from Him other gifts of grace ; how by grace we can become good, and be what God loves us to be. Make religion thus something practical, useful, bright, and hap- py-making. He loves to go to church, and will begin to love God. In order to develop the spiritual life, I had 120 A JOURNEY GODWARD once in each week, in a chapel, a celebration of the Holy Eucharist with hymns. The Mass was read ; no part of it intoned or sung. I regard this as a most important direction. The only singing was with hymns. I had no choir present, but the peo- ple were taught to join in the hymns, which were printed on a card. The hymns were not given out, but the people took them up of themselves. I usually gave a short address of five or six minutes, not longer, on the Blessed Sacrament, or our growth in holiness. The whole service was rigidl}- kept within three-quarters of an hour, even if we sang six short h3^mns. One was sung as an In- troit, one as a Sequence after the Gospel, one at the Offertory, one before and after the Canon, one in the place of the Gloria in Ejxcelsis. To this Mass the more devout of the people came. No religious movement that is simply theologi- cal, it should be noticed, makes progress. The time has gone b}^ when persons are aroused by pure dogmatics. Most necessary it is for our clergy to learn how to teach. Most sermons fail in doing this, and an instruction should be something hav- ing a marked character of its own, both in matter and delivery. The great religious movements which have aroused the world have all had a spir- itual and devotional side. Wesley and Whitfield and Moody appealed especially to the imagination and hearts of the people. The divine fire was not so much kindled by their eloquence as aroused by the earnestness of their prayers and praj^er meet- ings. So the Catholic Movement must have not onlv PASTORAL WORK 121 its preachers, but its great devotion. It has it in a wonderful way in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist presents Christ, though veiled, abiding with us. He has not gone away to a distant star but lives in His holy Temple of the Church. If we could visit the Holy Land, as some desire to do, we should only be seeing places where the Christ nine- teen centuries ago has been. We should not be brought thereby an}^ nearer to Him. But in the Eucharist He is verily and indeed present. And we, as truly as did the Magdalene, may come to His Blessed Feet. No St. John may lay his head more truly on Christ's breast, than do we, reposing in the Sacrament of His Blood. Our relation to Christ is far closer and dearer than that of the Apostles, when He was visible among them. They could fol- low Him, but did not receive Him into themselves, as we do. He comes to enfold us in His own life, to communicate to us His own virtue. By an act most tender, loving, and sweet. He feeds us with His own Body and Blood, and gives us of the grace of His soul and strengthens us with His divine Na- ture. Here His love breaks out to us, and claims us for His own. Around the Altar, though un- seen, are the angel choirs. They come not to re- ceive, but by their presence to do honour to and worship the Blessed Lord. The Eucharist is an ex- tension to them of that night when they sang that Gloria in Excelsis over the Babe of Bethlehem. The great Memorial Sacrifice of the Altar moves the Heart of God with its ever fresh offering. Here is set forth and pleaded, with the consecrated Broken Bread, and outpoured Blood, the effectual 122 A JOURNEY GODWAED Sacrifice of Calvary. Here we ask God to behold our Defender, and to look upon the face of His Anointed. Here the heavy-laden and the rejoicing souls bring their needs and petitions, and.the}^ are united to the great offering. God answers every Eucharistic sacrifice with new gifts of His protect- ing love. To the devout communicant this world changes its aspect as a thing of desire, and Heaven becomes permanent to his illuminated vision. How poverty-stricken spiritually are those priests and those people who look upon their com- munions as a matter of mere duty, and a profes- sion of their Christian state, or as a mere repre- sentation of an absent Lord. But once let the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence be realized, the world becomes changed, the soul lays aside its sorrows, and it is filled with joy and brightness, and up the Golden Stairway the soul mounts to God. I have always been in favor of having a celebra- tion of the Eucharist especially for children. Why nof? Why not, on Saturdays, when the children have their holiday, let them meet for a nine o'clock Mass ? Did not our Lord say : ' ' Suffer little chil- dren to come unto Me, and forbid them not?" Was that merely an invitation to those then present, or for all time*? If we churchmen appty the text to Baptism, why not to the Eucharist, where Christ is specially present? There their little receptive minds can perhaps better realize Christ's presence than do adults, disturbed by their unsubdued reason. If He took little children up in His arms, and though they had little knowledge of His Per- PASTORAL WORK 123 son, blessed them, can He not give them a blessing now? Persons who object to any being present, save receivers, may consistently object to the pres- ence of little children. As the Eastern Church al- lows of the Communion being given at a very early age, it may not be unwise for some parents to al- low their little ones to receive. But, be this as it may, and opinions will rightly differ, children and angels have a right to be present though they do not partake of the sacramental gift. The training of the spiritual nature is being neglected, and so the world is falling away from Christ. Begin by teaching children, as we have said, about the angels, and our Lord's veiled pres- ence in the Eucharist, and they are fortified in their belief in God and the supernatural. Devout followers come to the Eucharist to make some rep- aration to Christ for the insults offered to Him in His Passion, and the neglect and the indifference so common to-day. They come as soldiers come to a dress parade, to do honor to Christ as soldiers and to salute the nation's flag. They come to pre- pare themselves by worship for the adoration paid to our Lord in Glory. Here, stooping to our weak- ness. He veils His splendour, at which, could we be- hold it, we would fall, like St. John, at His feet, as dead. Our God is a hidden God. He hides Himself in nature, in His providences, in the Incarnation. He veils Himself in the Eucharist. Abiding in His Church, as the sun does in the solar system, He can make Himself manifest in any and every part of it at His will. When He ascended, the 124 A JOURNEY GODWARD cloud, wliicli may have been a group of angels, re- ceived Him out of the Apostles' sight; so now He abides with us, veiled under the consecrated Ele- ments. Here, in one way. He fulfQs His promise, "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. ' ' The time will be when at His second Coming His unveiling will take place, and then, as the light- ning shineth forth from the east to the west, by one continuous action, illuminating the whole heavens, Jesus Christ will appear. Worship of Him, then, at the Eucharist, is a most effective preparation for that blessed development and consummation, when creation will pass into its higher stage of existence, all evil and sin be done away, and glorified souls remain with Christ for ever. In my parochial work I found help in, occa- sionally, with a number of years' interval, having a parochial mission. Parochial missions have now become common. When Frs. Benson and Lowder first introduced them into England, we of the Cow- ley Fathers were sometimes called Methodists. Our spiritual opponents were found chiefly amongst the old fashioned high churchmen, who disliked all enthusiasm, excitement, and the need of conversion. One wrote me complainingly and saying there was no authority for it in the Prayer Book. I cited the Conversion of St. Paid, and the prayer in the office for the Visitation of prisoners, where Christ is appealed to as "accepting the con- version of sinners on the Cross," and a prayer is made for the person, that he "being converted and reconciled to Thee, may depart in peace. ' ' Evan- PASTORAL WORK 125 gelicals agreed with us as to the necessity of con- version, but did not accept our teaching on confes- sion. After a number of missions had been given in England it was thought wise to hold a conference of mission preachers and others. So about twenty came together at the invitation of the Father Su- perior of Cowley, assembling at Oxford. I remem- ber that Dr. Maclagan, afterwards the Archbishop of York; Dr. Wilkinson, who became the Bishop of St. Andrews and Primate of Scotland; Dr. Bright, Professor of Ecclesiastical History; and, I think, Lowder, and many others were present. The whole day was taken up in the conference. Questions relating to missions having been care- fully analyzed and put forth on paper, were discussed one by one. Each person was requested to give his opinion. Dr. Maclagan was the scribe who noted what was important, and the general principles arrived at. In reply to the question, "In what churches should missions be given?" it was held that those should be avoided where the chief object sought by the rector was merely to re- vive decaying work. The mission was not to re- suscitate or galvanize dead parishes into life, but to build up souls in Christ. It should be given in a parish where the rector himself, being a spiritual man, would carry on the work of spiritual guid- ance. The mission was to be a preparation for future work. A careful preparation also was necessary. The people should be made to under- stand it was their mission, and success depended upon their efforts. If they were not willing to 126 A JOURNEY GODWARD throw themselves into it with their efforts, it had better not be held. They were to agree to lay aside all other duties, and agree to a daily attendance at the services. They were to say a daily prayer for the mission, and make their Communion for its success. I cannot here dwell upon the various means to be adopted to secure a congregation and especially to bring in outsiders. In factories permission may be obtained to address the employees at their noon hour. A hjonn may be sung, along with a short address. I remember being with Fr. O 'Neil when, standing on a chair in an East End London square, he began by shouting out, "Good people, an auc- tion! A soul for sale!" Then he described the different offers Satan and Chri-st would make for it. Beside the special mission sermon in the even- ing, there would, of course, be the daily Eucharist and meditation for the devout, and perhaps a se- ries of services for children. The mission sermon should not be too long. I have known congrega- tions dissipated by its length. Some of the most effective of Mr. Moody's addresses were only twenty-five minutes long. A peculiarity of the mission sermon was that it was followed by an ''after meeting." The method of conducting it varied with the general method and abilities of the mission preacher. Sometimes it took the form of an old-fashioned prayer meeting. Sometimes the men and women were divided into classes, and sep- arately addressed. Sometimes there was an inter- cession service in church, accompanied by acts of PASTORAL WORK 127 faith and penitence, which all made together. Sometimes the mission priest would go amongst the people and speak to individuals and pray with them. And here I notice a method adopted by Fr, O'Neil. In a place where people could only come out quite late, or were able to stay on late in the evening, he held what he called a Crusade. He in- vited his hearers to join with him in a twelve days' effort against sin. They simply pledged themselves to come to the meeting every evening, and he de- sired them to say one short prayer for themselves and others. Presently, in his evening instructions, he got on to the subject of sin and its varieties, and our temptations. The Crusade was for men, and men only. After he had made an address, and a warm exhortation, he would announce that now Fr. Grafton would make a few remarks, while he retired into the vestry. As he went thither, he touched the man nearest the door, and beckoned him in. In this way he began his individual work. He would ask some kindly questions about the state of the person's soul, etc., etc. He would probably make an appointment with this person to come and see him at some other time. I have known, such was the necessity of the case, of his making an appointment as early as 3 o'clock in the morning. On the man's leaving, he would tell him to send the person sitting next to him into the room, as he wanted to see him. During the service cards would be given out, having on them such statements as : "I want to be baptized," or "confirmed," or "to see the mission 128 A JOURNEY GODWAED priest." These might be dropped in a box at the door. There would be also another box in which questions relating to religious matters or Church doctrine might be placed, and which the mission priest or some other, might answer before the sermon. Again, persons would be invited to make special resolutions in conference with the mission priest. At the end of the mission, those who had been benefited by it were requested to show their thanks- giving to God by a public renewal of their bap- tismal or confirmation vows. The mission would end with a thanksgiving service, and perhaps also in some cases, with a procession, each bearing a lighted candle. The conference at Oxford led to the publishing of a little book on missions ; and not long after the first great London mission was given. Rightly used, and not too frequently, mis- sions may be a source of much spiritual power and blessing to a parish. Along with missions, retreats began to be given in the English Church. A modified or shortened form of retreat is to be found in the parish Quiet day. These have quite a distinct ethos from those of a mission. In the mission, the Church is mak- ing an aggressive effort to win souls to Christ. It is a St. John the Baptist work, and a call to re- pentance. In the retreat, God calls us to receive a Gift. He says perhaps to the weary, "Come ye apart into a desert place and rest awhile. ' ' To the soul reaching out for a higher life, and asking ' ' Where dwellest Thou ? ' ' He says ' ' Come and see. ' ' The spirit of a retreat is that of solitude, con- PASTORAL WORK 129 templation, communion with God. At a mission we are called to repent, to break with the world, to be indeed converted. In the retreat, Christ gathers us by His own visitation into a fuller in- corporation with His own life. Retreats are a law of God's dealing with us. The great gifts of God to men have mostly been given to retreatants. Christ entered into His work after a retreat of forty days in the Wilderness. St. John the Baptist was prepared for his by his long novitiate in the desert. The Apostles kept theirs with a ten days' prayer previous to the gift of Pentecost. It is to St. John at Patmos that the great vision of the Church is given. The power of the retreat lies largely in its solitude. The soul goes apart to the dear and only God. It rigidh^ shuts out the world, one's duties, and one 's cares. It is in solitude that Christ speaks to the soul, one cannot tell when or how. It may be by some text, or word of a conductor, or interior inspiration. As it is the still lake that reflects the heavens, so it is the still soul that is receptive of God's inspiration. Therefore those retreats given to clergy in which the idea of a conference is mingled, fail of their intended effect. All conver- sation amongst the clergy should cease during the retreat. Discussion of any matter, especially theo- logical matter, disturbs the soul. The soul should hold itself in loving stillness and expectancy, wait- ing upon the Lord's action. It is the same with a Quiet day. A priest can do much for his people by giving them such a day, perhaps several times a year. They can come, say 130 A JOURNEY GODWARD at nine, and beginning with a devotional Eucliarist, remain till some four or five o'clock in the after- noon. This will enable the conductor to give them two meditations, an instruction, and perhai3S a short praise meeting. The retreatants' should be provided with religious books. Luncheon should be provided by Church workers. Silence should be kept. Two or three Quiet days may be held advan- tageously in a parish; one in Lent, and one in Advent. The object of the exercise is to develop a more warm, loving, and personal union with our Lord. What a beautiful motto that is, ' ' Jesus only, Jesus always, all for Jesus." CHAPTER VI. AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE. "Feed My lambs: Shepherd My sheep." There is or was, little done in our theological seminaries to prepare priests to perform their office as having the cure of souls. "I w^as," said one whom I well knew, "pitchforked into the min- istry"; and one had to learn for oneself. The English clergy are a body well-trained intellectu- ally, of high moral standing, and with the instinct and honour of gentlemen. It is, as a class, one of the best furnished and spiritually-minded of any national clergy, but until lately, not trained in the science of morals, or spiritual direction. Con- sequently, as a high Roman ecclesiastic said, he had no doubt the Anglican clergy as confessors would decide questions rightly, but they might give reasons so untechnical as to make the Roman Curia howl! A priest, if he is to hear confessions, should go to confession himself. How can he, if a keeper of vineyards, keep them, if he keeps not his own? How can he discern the faults of others if he does not learn much of himself? I remember being in 132 A JOURNEY GOD WARD retreat under Mr. Carter, and of going to him as the conductor, for my regular confession. I had some few faults to state. Mr. Carter did not, in his counsels, say much. Good and wise directors seldom do. But what he did say was like this : ''Do not these faults all come from one root sin ? ' ' which he mentioned. On going away, I foolishly said to myself : "How can one who has only heard one con- fession of mine, understand me ? " It was not long, however, before, as by a light from heaven, I saw he had pierced to the very hidden root of my char- acter and failings. The priest's calling is to perfection. This must be his aim. He has no right to live like ordinary Christians. To win souls to Christ, he must preach the Cross from the Cross. He must not be governed by a love of money, or lead a life of ambition. He must be willing to work where God in His Provi- dence places him, however lowly it may be. It is not the great city that makes the great man, but the true man is great in the little town. The priest must teach humility and self-sacrifice by his o^^^a example. Before confession was so conmion a practice, he might not have felt it his duty to resort to it. But in a sincere evangelical spirit, he will not wish to neglect any means Christ has left in His Church for our advancing sanctification. In my Fond du Lac tract, No. 4, on Absolution in God's Word, I have met all the popular objections made to it, after studying the conference between the high and low churchmen, held at Fulham Palace in 1902. The director of souls guards himself from that AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 133 spiritual pride that esteems himself better and wiser always than the soul he directs. The shep- herd must often see that a number of his sheep are ranging up the mountain of sanctity far higher than himself and nearer the Lord. He will avoid an arbitrary exercise of authority, of going beyond what the Prayer Book warrants. He must exercise a Godly common sense. For St. Theresa said : "In choosing a confessor, between piety and common sense, choose the latter." He will be careful to train souls, not so much to depend on his judgment, but train them to strengthen their own consciences and rule themselves. His duty is like that of a wise mother, who goes behind the little one she is teaching to w^alk, and with outstretched arms guards it against the fall ; the priest, in like man- ner, should go behind his penitent, striving to fix his gaze on the Christ that goes before. For God is the soul 's best guide, and even if a soul, in learn- ing, sometimes falls, he can turn the very fall to good, by teaching the soul humility and a more constant dependence on His help. A priest should not be content, either for him- self or his people, to remain in a merely moral state, and mechanicaUy to observe the Church's ordinances. He must be, and strive that his peo- ple shall also be, converted. Conversion is a turn- ing away from self, sin, and the world, and a turn- ing to God. It is a supernatural work. It is super- natural in its efficacious cause, which is the Holy Ghost, and supernatural in its effect of our becom- ing new creatures. It may come in some marked way, and with groaning and fear, as the soul comes 134 A JOURNEY GODWARD to see its lost condition. Or it may be the Holy Spirit comes as gently as rain into the fleece of wool. It may be more or less sudden, like the con- version of a Paul, or progressive and continuous, as the development of a Timothy. What hinders the spiritual advance of so many ^ "Why is it, " said a holy man, ''that so man}^ Chris- tians seem to be walking up and down on a level terrace, and ever remaining where they are in the spiritual life, without advancement ? ' ' After much consideration, he concluded because they were lack- ing in an abiding sorrow for sin. I learned this truth in my early days from Fr. Faber, to my soul's great profit. I have never forgotten to pray that God would give me an abiding sorrow for sin, a fear of its little beginnings, a hatred of all that is con- nected with it, and a humble trust in Christ's ac- ceptance and the cleansing of His precious Blood. But how natural it is, having experienced Christ's loving pardon and our acceptance, and possession of His peace, to think no more of the past! It should be remembered as a ground of our faith, as we realize the mercy of its great deliverance. He has plucked us as brands from the burning. He has opened His arms and gathered us into their safety, as our true City of Refuge. However great our sins may be, He knows them all, and He who knows us, forgives and loves us, and we can trust that love. By all His mercy towards us, lifting the poor out of the dust, and the beggar out of the mire, we grow and increase in our love to Him. An abiding sorrow does not depress, but lifts up the soul into yet greater peace. It is not inconsistent with an AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 135 increasing joy. "The more," I have been led to say, many a time, "the more, O Lord, I know Thee, the more I grieve that I have ever offended Thee; yet the more I sorrow, yet the more I love." The spirit of holy fear is another blessed gift of God that goes with the purificative state. It is a reflection of the wrath of God, for as God loves, so He hates. He hates all that is wrong and evil. And as that wrath blows through us, like some mighty wind, it drives away the temptations of the enemy. Hatred of sin develops moral character. Earl Beauchamp said he divided men into two classes: "those who believed in a day of judgment, and those who did not." It is this virtue, that, rightly cultivated, makes the difference between being in the world and not of it. It is like the difference between a ship being in the water, and the water being in the ship. Bound to struggle against the world, it is sometimes asked, "What is this wicked world I am told to shun % ' ' The world, as an evil force, is whatever one finds to come be- tween his own soul and God. In dealing with souls, the priest must try to establish in them fixed principles of conduct, and a firm purpose to seek after holiness. The pilgrim in an old allegory was to say often, "I am nought, I have nought, I desire nought, but to see Christ, and to come to Jerusalem." "To go forth to the strife without fixed principles, is," said Liddon, "like embarking on a voyage freighted only with sugar plums." And principles are strengthened into habits by every act of the will, saying "No" to what is wrong, and "Yes" to what is right. In 13i6 A JOURNEY GODWARD one of the greatest practical sermons of the last century, on the Pharisees, by Mozley, he gives the true tests of character: particular virtues, he shows, whether they are natural virtues or virtues of imitation, do not make the being good. A new form of evil was developed, when it was seen that good actions might be the outcome of bad motives. It is the heart that must be reformed, and our life "Christ-led, and Spirit-controlled." I was taught, and taught others seeking perfec- tion, to make a short daily examen, but without scrupulosity. I am speaking about those who do not fall into grave or mortal sins, but are only affected b}^ their natural temperament or desire. Now nothing is sinful in which the will does not consent. Persons must not be disturbed because bad thoughts are injected somehow on the surface of their minds. Unless we knowingly take delight in them, no sin has been committed. ' ' Those dogs, ' ' said St. Francois de Sales, ''continue barking because they are not let into the house. " " Where wast Thou," said St. Catherine of Siena, "when I was so tempted?" and the Lord's interior answer was, "I was ever at thy side." We may not be able never to commit a venial sin, but we may gain a desire not to do so. Some venial sins will always be committed, just as some dust will always be settling on our carpets. It is not wise in the latter case to seek the removal of the dust by picking it up with a pin, but to give the car- pet a good sweeping. So our inner peace is main- tained, and our venial sins are removed, by acts of loving contrition, as well as by confession. AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 137 But along with the examen of the day past, a useful practice is that of forecasting in the morn- ing, the coming day. You know perhaps of some trial or some person you will have to meet, or some hard duty you will be called upon to perform, or some temptation which is liable to beset you. Fore- cast them, and go out to the day's work, asking God's protection. Take some text of Holy Scrip- ture or command of the Master that will meet your case. Remember how, by Holy Scripture, our Lord defeated Satan, and defend yourself out of the same armoury. Are you likely to be disturbed by assaults or trials? Think of the soul of Christ, calm as a summer's lake, when in the midst of the raging and excitable mob. If some misfortune is hanging over you, take refuge in His most sure promises of succour and support. ''When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the floods, they shall not overwhelm thee. ' ' ' ' Though the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be on the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold ; and there shall be no herd in the stall: yet I will rejoice in the Lord: I will joy in the God of my salvation." Or, if the death of someone is imminent, let Him whose tears flowed at the grave of Lazarus soothe your own grief. He takes souls away, let us believe, at the time it is best for any one to be called. If likely to be tried by some temptation, let His word be your strength: *'I wdll make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it," If infirmities of age are drawing on us, or the great shadow is 138 A JOURNEY GODWAED approaching, He has promised that "as the days so shall thy strength be." If some bright, earthly joy is to be ours, let us not forget Him in it, who teaches us ever to rejoice in Him, and is *'our song and our salvation." I found it to be a help to some of my penitents to teach them how to fight over their lost battles. I think I got this from Dr. Pusey. It is an especially useful practice in conquering the sins of the tongue, and in the government of the interior. Persons of an active temperament are constantly giving way to quick or angry retorts. Or, if they conquer this, they retain sore feelings, and critical thoughts of others. Or they give way to gossip, and gossip is one of the greatest enemies to charity and the ruin of good works. Persons think that by gossip we mean reporting stories to the discredit of others. It is not only this, but it is the reporting of foolish, idle, unnecessary incidents involving criticisms of character. The government of the tongue is one of the hardest lessons to learn. The tongue is the murderer of reputations. It destroys good works, by premature criticisms. "We ought to have," said Liddon, "a heart filled with the love of God, the mind of a judge towards ourselves, and that of a mother towards other people. ' ' The tongue needs sharp schooling and rigid discipline. Now, one way to acquire this is to fight over our lost battles. When you have failed, sit down and consider the failure. What was the cause of it? What aroused you? Bringing back the circum- stances may, if you thmk yourself to have been in the right, arouse your quick feelings again. AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 139 Cassian, the great ascetic, said he found he could be put out if his flint did not strike in his cell. I have known persons greatly agitated because a drawer would not open, or dinner had been late, or some little household accident had taken place. Think over what it was that disturbed your interior. Then think what a saint would have done under like circumstances. What, in respect to a person who has troubled you, would have been the sweetest and most gentle reply 1 Think what should have been your interior under the trying circum- stances. Then kneel down and pray that when it happens again you will act or speak according to your resolution. You probably will break it. And one reason is because you are taken by surprise. But if you continue the practice, a habit will be formed, a mould will be provided for your words or actions, into which your words will easily run. ''I had," said a great surgeon, an oculist, " to per- form a certain operation a great many times, and perhaps hurt a good many eyes before I learned how." This method, which is applicable only to a certain class of faults, has been found of benefit to many. I have tried to inculcate the practice of humil- ity, as lying at the foundation of all virtues. It has not often been noticed that humility is a great defence against sins of the flesh. Many are the ascetic rules given for subduing our unruly appe- tites. Persons struggling against them often pray earnestly to God to quell these desires. They some- times ask, "Why has God allowed them?" But He puts the soul in the body just as He put Adam 140 A JOURNEY GOD WARD in Paradise, to keep it and subdue it. Nothing that God has made but is good; and sin, as St. Augustine says, is unregulated or uncontrolled de- sire. Now God does not pour grace into us like into a vessel. But why does He delay so long since I have so earnestly prayed? Well! The reason is, because you are lacking in humility. If He gave you victorious grace S]3eedily in answer to your prayer, you would ^Drobably become puffed up with pride and the power of your self-control. You would naturally become hard and severe in your judgments toward others. God cannot give you grace to overcome any sin or temptation until you become properly humbled and filled with a spirit of charity. Again, humility is necessary for the advance- ment in holiness. God, it has been said, could not practise it in glory, and so He came to earth to do so. God loves the virtue which in the creature is a recognition, not only of his sinfulness, but of his nothingness. Humility is one great lesson which we learn from the Incarnation, the Babe in Bethlehem, the obedience of the workshop, the dis- grace of Calvary. God has revealed it to us as the way of exaltation. To ascend, we must first descend. In order to abide securely in God here- after, we must first be emptied of self-love and pride. Here let me quote some rules of the saintly Pusey : ' ' Keep ever present with thee the knowl- edge of thine own infirmity. Take patiently any humiliation from others. It is a precious gift of God. Humiliation is the way to humilit}^, as AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 141 patience is to peace. If thou endurest not to be humbled, thou canst not be humble. Mistrust thy- self in everything. Mistrust self, trust God. Be afraid of the praise of others. If there be good in thee, own it at least to be God's, and give Him the praise. If blamed, do not excuse thyself, unless respect or love or the cause of truth and God require it." The deep preaching of the need of holiness by Pusey and others led naturally to the resort to the confessional. In the English Church it had always been practised, but rarely. The Church herself bore witness to it in her Prayer Book. In the Exhortation of the Communion office, it invited persons to come to the priest to receive the benefit of counsel and absolution, "That he may receive the benefit of absolution together with ghostly counsel and advice. ' ' In the Visitation of the Sick, the priest was to urge the sick man to a confession of his sins, and to the penitent he was to pronounce the absolution in the indicative form: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left power in His Church to absolve all sinners that truly rejient and believe in Him, of His great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and by His power committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In the American Prayer Book, in the only office had with an individual soul, the priest is solemnly to warn him of the great danger he is in and urge him to confession. The form of absolution is the precatory one, given in the Holy Communion office. The difference between the Anglican and the 142 A JOURNEY GODWARD Roman Churches is that while in the Eoman Church confession is made obligatory, it is left to the conscience of the individual in the Anglican Church when to use it. A question has arisen where confessions are best to be heard. There was a time when they were often heard in a vestry or sacristy. This, however, is open to grave objections. It is for the protection of the priest and penitent that the}^ should be held elsewhere. Some priests have there- fore adopted the practice of hearing them in the church, letting the penitent kneel at the altar rail. But however persons may object through preju- dice to what is called a confessional, that is the better and the Prayer Book way. For whenever the Prayer Book requires anything to be done, it implies the means by which it is to be done. It does not name explicitly a lectern, but as it re- quires the Scriptures to be read, this requirement involves the place, and the stand or lectern on which the Bible is to be placed. The Prayer Book requires, in certain places, hymns and canticles to be sung. It does not say there shall be an organ or musical instrument, but sanctions, as an accom- paniment of the human voice, an instrument. It bids the people come to the priest to obtain absolu- tion and counsel and advice, and thereby sanctions some place where persons may meet, for con- fidential conference, their priest. There are various ways in which confessions may be arranged. The priest may be in one room or com- partment, and the penitent in another, with a slide between the two. This would allow of penitents AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 143 coming who are unknown to the priest, and the confession being made in such privacy that the penitent would be undisturbed. We must hope that the unreasonable prejudice against what is called a "confessional" will pass away. The Scriptural argument for confession is very clear. God alone can forgive sins, but He hath committed all judgment now unto the Son. Christ, as the Son of Man, has received delegated authority to forgive and to judge. ''And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. ' ' In virtue of His oifice as the Son of Man, Christ said, ''But that ye may know the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then said He to the sick of the palsy. Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house. ' ' Speaking to the penitent Magdalene, He said, "Thy sins are forgiven." Our Lord, after His resurrection, gave to His Apostles power to act in His name. He breathed on them, and said unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are re- mitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." As the Apostles were sep- arately commissioned to preach, to bind, to adjudi- cate doctrine, to heal, to bless, to ordain, to baptize, to offer the Eucharist, so here the power to absolve was separately given. A gift of the Spirit was bestowed by breathing, to show that the ministra- tion was to be by word. It gave the Apostles a grace, but the gift of the Spirit differed from that of Pentecost, when He came down personally to abide in His Church. Others than the Apostles 144 A JOURNEY GODWAED were present, to sliow that the gift of reconcilia- tion, while individually applied by the minister, was also to be exercised by the whole body of the Church in restoring the lapsed. We tind thus St. Paul exercising this power of f orgivenessj as in the case of the sinning Corinthian, of whom he said, having forgiven him, "If I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, forgave I it in the Person of Christ"; and St. James declared upon the confes- sion of the sick man, "If he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." The power was extended through all time, for since Christians are always liable to fall into sin, there is just as much need for their comfort and assurance now as in the days of the Apostles. So we are taught in our Prayer Book that He hath given power and com- mandment unto His ministers to pronounce absolu- tion. While perfect contrition of the baptized brings forgiveness, absolution by the priest brings assurance plainly and fortifies the soul against further fall. In the early days the Church required in many cases public confession, but, in her wisdom, she has altered her practice. The power of absolution is inherent in every priest. The privilege of resorting to it is the right of every layman. The spontaneous desire by peni- tents for an assurance of pardon argues the Church's possession of a power to satisfy it. It was not to rest upon the doubtful authority of feel- ing or faith in an election, but in the communicated word, through His priests, of Christ's own pardon. In the preparatory Hebrew dispensation, con- AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 145 fession was made at times in the priest's presence, and the priest could offer on the penitent's behalf a sin offering. But all the strengthening that that blood could do, was to reconcile the Jew to his cov- enanted state. It could not take away the guilt and penalty of sin. Nathan the prophet might have a special message to give to David, assuring him of forgiveness, but under Judaism the guilt and stain of sin could not be removed. But now, unto His priests, Jesus has entrusted the ministration of His Precious Blood wherewith all penitents may be sprinkled and all sins be blotted out. No sinner is so vile but the Sacred Heart is open to him ; no sins are so loathsome that the Precious Blood cannot cleanse. No matter how obdurate and rebellious, how old in sin, how in- veterate in relapses, the abounding mercy per- sistently offers pardon. Jesus declared He came to fulfil Isaiah's prophecy, "to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to captives, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. ' ' The year of Jubilee, so inaugurated, has not passed away. The tones of the silver trumpets are ceaselessly proclaiming deliverance to sin's captives. It was not to be their privilege only who knelt at His feet to hear His life-giving word, "Son, Daughter, thy sins be forgiven thee," but everywhere, until the end of time, penitents should have given them by Christ, speaking through His priests, the same blessed assurance of His pardon. In this holy mystery, Christ comes seeking us. As if we were His only care. He makes search for us as the Good Shepherd. He comes to find us in 146 A JOURNEY GODWARD our wandering, to rescue us from the thickets wherein we have been caught, to take us up tremb- ling and with bleeding feet ; and in His own arms to bear us safely back to the Fold. He comes as the good Samaritan, to save us, robbed and wounded and ready to perish. But ere He bears us to the shelter and care of the Inn, He first probes and cleanses our wounds, and pours in the oil and wine ; and setting us on His own beast, reconciles us to Himself. We are wanderers from Jerusalem, and Christ must come and walk beside us and light again the torch of Faith in our hearts, ere He can enter in and abide with us, and we discern Him in the breaking of bread. In the Holy Eucharist, He invites us to be His guests at the Marriage Feast. Baptism, and Absolution for our post-baptismal sins, provide the wedding garment. Weekly Com- munions are fraught with danger, if souls venture into the King's presence unprepared. In the Eu- charist, Jesus summons us to the Banquet of His Love, and by His loving washing of our feet He prepares us for it. Confession is not only for the weak, the falling, the sin-stained, but for the soul as it advances in grace. It has been likened to medicine, a remedy for sickness ; but it is also health-food for the con- valescent. As the soul grows in love, it deepens in its contrition. It feels more and more the stain of little sins. Its cry is "Amplius"; "Wash me more and more." Jesus, in His tribunal of mercy, draws us with an increasing attraction. The soul advanced in piety, comes to confession because Jesus loves her to come. He bought the right to AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 147 forgive at the price of His own costly Passion. He loves to exercise the right, and to cleanse His dear child more and more. No mother loves to adorn her infant as Jesus loves to adorn with increasing grace and beauty, His elect. Confession and abso- lution have a fresh meaning to them, and they re- sort to the mystery as a means of increasing love. Again, let me state a practice which I have found applicable to myself, and helpful in training others. We are bidden to follow the example of our Lord, that we may be made like unto Him. But we feel that we are sadly in need of the power to do so. Let me here then say two things : one about Christ, the other about how we can receive His life into us. One of the deepest truths concerning our Lord is that ''He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." How, we ask, could He, as God, be tempted or really tried; and yet, if not really tried, how can He be an example to us? He was capable of being tempted in this way: He as man had come to fight out man's lost battle. He might use His divine power to work miracles for the benefit of others, but not for the deliverance from pain of Himself. He must be hungry, and not turn the stones into bread. He must suffer on the Cross, yet not deliver Himself of the pain. He must suffer the insults of the blows and spitting, and yet be as the lamb led to the slaughter. He must know the awful desolation on the Cross, and yet rise above it by His act of praise. We might dwell on every point of His life, and show how m 148 A JOURNEY GODWAED Body and Soul and Spirit He was tempted, and by His victories developed virtues in humanity. Now we want these virtues to pass into us. So let one make a meditation on the example of our Lord, on any one virtue won by some victory in a time of trial. Let the soul bring it home to himself how, when insulted, our Lord exercised meekness; when interrupted, exercised patience; when deserted, forgiveness; when lied against, silence; when tried, moral courage; when sought to be entrapped, His marvellous consideration; when raised on the Cross, His wonderful love. The soul must realize the actual trial and the victory wrought by Christ. Then, to make this practical, go to the Holy Eucharist. Take any one of the virtues, especially that which you need, and ask our Lord to communicate it to you. You go to the Blessed Sacrament, not only to receive His Body and Blood, but His soul, and a communica- tion of His divine life. You ask Him that the same victorious effort in Him when, say rightly indig- nant, He preserved His peace, may pass in to you. Take each virtue of our Lord, one by one. And thus seek it from Him in the Eucharist, gradually forming such prayer as this: "Meekness of Christ, make me meek. Patience of Christ, make me patient. Fortitude of Christ, make me enduring. Gentleness of Christ, make me gentle. Long suffer- ing of Christ, make me long suffering. Prayerful- ness of Christ, make me prayerful. Moral cour- age of Christ, make me courageous. Self-sacrifice of Christ, make me self-sacrificing. Unselfishness of Christ, make me unselfish. Faith of Christ, AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 149 give me faith. Love of Christ, fill me with Thy divine love." Thus as the virtues of Christ pass into each individual soul, the whole body of the faithful as the Bride of Christ will reflect the beauty of her Lord. The Church herself becomes thus the extension of the Incarnation. Our Christian life would not be complete with- out a realization of the work of the Holy Ghost. In order to understand it, we may think first of the work of the Spirit in the Old Dispensation. Now the external work of God as manifested in Crea- tion is the work of all three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. But by what is theologically called the Doctrine of Appropriation, the Holy Ghost is the uniting and sanctifying principle or energy. His work within the Blessed Trinity is to unite the three in love. In the days of man's sinfulness, we find Him striving with man to bring him back to God. But He was like the dove that went forth from the Ark and could find no resting place within man's nature. With man's spiritual development, we find Him bestowing gifts upon men. He gave to some like Aholiab, gifts of cunning work- manship for the adornment of the Temple. He gave gifts of leadership to Moses, of generalship to Joshua, inspired Deborah and Gideon, gave strength to Samson, powers of healing to Elisha, of wisdom to Solomon ; He lit up the minds of the prophets to behold the vision of the coming Messiah; He pleaded with His people, calling them again and again away from idolatry and back to the worship of the true God. But His operation was like that described as ''moving on 150 A JOURNEY GODWAED the face of the waters." His gifts were those of prevenient and actual grace : Prevenient, as going before and calling to penitence ; actual, as bestow- ing gifts for the performance of His purposes. But during all this time, the Holy Spirit did not dwell in humanity. For humanity was un- cleansed from its sin. It was not yet reconciled by the Atonement to God. But at last a home was made for the Spirit. When the pure and sinless humanity of Christ was united to the Divine Nature, the long-sought desire of the Holy Ghost was fulfilled. He could unite humanity to Himself by entering in and dwelling in it. So the Spirit was given without measure unto Christ. The exulting joy that filled the Spirit on this entry is beyond the conception of man. He not only could enter in because the humanity of Christ was sin- less, but that humanity, miited to the Divine Nature, was capable of receiving His incoming. It is a most blessed truth that the humanity of our Lord was ever guided by the Spirit. He was led by it. His human soul corresponded to its influence and guiding. The Holy Spirit was with Him in all time and all circumstance: when He lay a babe in His mother's arms, when He worked in the workshop, when He spoke from the Mount, when He worked His miracles of mercy, when He met the temptations of Satan, when He was all night in prayer, when crushed in sorrow beneath the olive trees of Gethsemane, when hanging on the Cross, and when rising triumphant with the keys of death and hell in His hand. The Holy Spirit knew every action, every word; inspired every AS A CONFESSOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE 151 thought, ruled every motion. The tenderness, the beauty, the all-sufficiency of this relation, with its joy and blessedness, surpasses thought. Now this is the blessed truth concerning us Christians. The Holy Ghost, having thus dwelt in Christ, with- out being separated from Him, comes from Him into us who are members of His Body. Christ having ascended does not send the Holy Ghost to us as a person separated from Himself, but He comes from Christ into us, to reveal Christ in us and unite us to Him. We are thus brought nearer to our Lord than the Apostles were when He was visible in the Flesh. We have within us a living witness to all that He was, and did, and now is. The Christian state is thus a supernatural one, and the Christian is filled with a supernatural life, by vir- tue of which he sees and knows Christ, and is be- coming more like Him. He is part of the New Creation or condition of things which is being evolved out of the old. He is part of the great "Becoming" movement which leads the Christian on to a further and consummated union with God. CHAPTER VII. THE DIOCESE OF FOND DU LAC. The committee in charge of the Bishop's anni- versary appointed Dr. Dafter to write an account of the state of the diocese on the Bishop's taking charge of it. Dr. Dafter had been connected with it from its foundation, in which he had taken a prominent part. He had been one of the leading clergy, president of the Standing Committee, and delegate for many years to General Convention. His paper is as follows : The Diocese of Fond du Lac. A Paper hy the Rev. William Dafter, D.D. In any statement of the condition of the diocese of Fond du Lac during the period marked b}^ the death of our first Bishop and the consecration of our present honored and beloved diocesan, one word suffices for an epitome. Poverty was every- where. The diocese had been born thirteen years before in a time of financial distress; prematurely born, some thought, and it subsequently has been sub- jected to the discipline of feebleness and poverty. THE DIOCESE OF FOND DU LAC 153 But at no time were conditions, from the financial viewpoint, so distressing as just previous to tlie consecration of Bishop Grafton. The reason for this is not hard to find. Even as Maine is called the Pine Tree State, so might the diocese of Fond du Lac, in the days of Bishop Brown, have been called the Pine Tree Diocese. For the fortunes of the business community are linked inseparably with those of the religious com- nmnity. It was then but natural and to be ex- pected that, with the passing of the pine tree, the knotless saw-log, the huge piles of lumber that marked the sites of busy mills on every stream of any size, there would come a change. The change did come. It came suddenly— almost as between suns. And its effect was no less great upon the Church than upon the business life of this part of Wisconsin. For more than a score of }■ ears before the time to which I refer, the great lumber interests had been building small towns— towns which later were to become branches of the diocesan tree. Upper- most in the minds of the pioneer timber "kings" was the problem of converting pine trees into cash in the quickest possible manner. They were for the most part men from other states, from large cities. As a rule they cared little for the towns they were building. When the timber was gone and there was nothing left with which to satisfy their desires, they departed, taking their millions with them. The legacy which these men left be- hind for the dwellers in the towns they had created was poverty. In place of the virgin forest they 154 A JOURNEY GODWARD left cut-over or burned lands, denuded of their wealth; lands in many cases not considered of enough value to warrant paying taxes on them. And in what had been the lumbering towns there remained only the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, a population which scarcely knew which way to turn in order to provide bread for the hungry. A few years before, men had been scarce in this section of the state. There were no contract labor laws in those days, and the result was that for- eigners were imported to work in the woods and in the mills. Virtually none of these was qualified to cope with the conditions presented when the tmi- ber was exhausted. In most cases a single means of gaining a livelihood was offered. It was to con- vert the cut-over, burned, denuded pine lands into farms. But the men, the imported foreigners, left behind by the lumber "kings," were anything but farmers. To wrest wealth from the soil by grow- ing crops required an evolution which only time could accomplish. And in the interim everywhere was poverty. These were the conditions that con- fronted him when our present diocesan came to us in 1889. The remembrance of the struggles and self-de- nial of our first Bishop, who with so much heroic faith and labour laid the foundations of this diocese, come freshly home to us at this time to enkindle our interest. The general condition of the diocese was so perplexing and discouraging that Bishop Brown once said he was the first THE DIOCESE OF FOND DU LAC 155 Bisliop of Fond du Lac and he feared he would be the last. I mention this only to show how discouraging the outlook seemed. It was not said by the Bishop by way of discouragement, for Bishop Brown's faith was pre-eminent and by it he overcame obstacles that would have appalled a less spiritual man. He was so full of the love of God and fellow- ship of the Holy Ghost that his hopefulness would see light where others saw only gloom— always be- lieving that God would bring light out of the darkness. In 1888 there were connected with the diocese thirty-three clergymen, of whom about eighteen were engaged actively in serving. The salaries of the clergy averaged $368 per annum aside from the small stipends paid by the board of missions. The value of Church property in the parishes and mis- sions was $208,901, and on this there was an in- debtedness of $29,571. The endowment fund for the support of the episcopate amounted to $8,189, In addition there was St. Monica's School, in charge of a small sisterhood of that name, which did noble work under great trials and with heroic faith and self-sacrifice. Upon this institution there was an incumbrance of $13,000. The Cathe- dral had been partly restored and rebuilt after the fire of 1884, and upon it there was an indebtedness of $15,000. There were two missions in the diocese that had attracted more than local notice, and, to the mind of Bishop Bro^^^l, gave promise of extraordinary and far-reaching blessing: one, to the German 156 A JOURNEY GODWARD peoi)le under the leadership of Mr. Karl Oppen, formerly a Lutheran minister; the other, to the French and Belgians in the peninsula just north of Green Bay, known as the Old Catholic Mission, under the leadership of the Rev. J. Rene Vilatte. Bishop Brown was singularly and specially in- terested in these two movements because they seemed to him to promise a practical solution of the difficult problem of how to deal with the ques- tion of Catholic reform among the foreign popula- tion drifting from the old moorings in the unrest of our American life. Unfortunately the leaders in both these move- ments, starting out as mendicants, soon wandered from the straight path. Perhaps the less said about them the better. Mr. Oppen 's work came to naught and he has been called to his account. Con- cerning Mr. Vilatte, I am at a loss for words to express myself. The financial condition of the diocese gener- ally at this time was so distressing, so apparent on every hand, that it were needless almost to refer to specific instances of seeming misfortune. In all the diocese there were only nine parishes termed self-supporting, together with forty-odd mission stations, which, to say the least, were not self-sup- porting. But to add to this burden there had been a series of disasters, as they appeared, which can- not be passed without mention. In an address to the council in 1888, Bishop Brown spoke of the burning of the Cathedral and of Grace Church, Ahnapee, and of the destruction of St. Paul's Church, Oshkosh, by a tornado; also. THE DIOCESE OF FOND DU LAO 157 of the loss of the twelve years' savings of the Oneida Indians for a new church through the failure of a bank in Green Bay. "All this," he said, "makes up apparently a budget of woe, but not so in reality. It only shows that the onward path of the Church is hard. It is a great trial of our piety and energy. But that good will come out of the seeming catastrophes I have never doubted. I trust that the rolling away of the dark clouds may reveal some blessing." And the blessings came in due time. God, in His great mercy, relieved him of his heavy burden, and gave him rest before the worst of the great storm had burst upon him, saving him from a broken heart, which surely must have been his had he lived a few months longer. When Bishop Brown, on his dying bed, knew that the end of his labours and trials had come, and his dearest friends gently urged that he would be so greatly missed, he replied sweetly, but forcibly : "No sentiment. All will be well, whatever may happen. ' ' I have quoted here his dying words. The clouds were rolling away and the heavens were open. He saw by faith that the toil and hardships he had suffered were not in vain; that God's blessing would be upon the diocese, and that where His blessing is, man's feeble work would be conse- crated to endless good. He saw by faith that the blessing would surely come. And it did come— in the peace of God vouchsafed to him and in the suc- cessor God raised up in answer to his prayers and ours. CHAPTER VIII. THE EPISCOPATE. "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." I had never thought of it as a possibility of coming to myself. It was like a thunderbolt out of the blue. I had visited a parish in Fond du Lac diocese one summer, taking supply work, and had stayed a few weeks at Nashotah. I had known Bishop J. H. Hobart Brown, my predecessor, and he had preached for me at the Advent, when attending the General Convention in Boston. He was younger than myself, and it was not likely I should survive him, nor was there the least likeli- hood of my being his successor. He broke do"wn under the strain of worry and work, and fell like a soldier shot down at his post. A most excellent priest was chosen to succeed him, but he declined, and subsequently I was elected. But it did not come without some blessed morti- fication. The Church at large did not desire me. I was a Catholic, and a religious. Dr. deKoven had been rejected, or forced to withdraw. Why should one who had the bad reputation of being an advanced man be confirmed by the Bishops % I was VIEW OF THE SANCTUARY, ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, FOND DU LAC. THE EPISCOPATE 159 glad to know that my own Bishop, Dr. Paddock, voted for me. Perhaps the confirmation of my election was owing largely to the action of Dr. Potter, the Bishop of New York. He wrote a let- ter which was largely made known, in my favour. He became ever to me a wise counsellor and helpful friend. He was truly a broad, liberal, ecclesiastical statesman. He wrote me once, when giving me permission to officiate in his diocese, that he ''did not care to say how much he agreed with me, lest people should think him a heretic!" He seemed best to understand my position of being an evan- gelical at heart, while in belief a liberal Catholic. I believe also Phillips Brooks, as a member of the Standing Committee, in the greatness of his heart, voted affirmatively, and I was finally confirmed by the House of Bishops. There was one other thing connected with the election that brought its own trial, and so purify- ing blessing. In my human eagerness for the spir- itual life and union with God, I had once, in my ignorance or pride, asked the dear Lord to give me a stigmata. A wiser and more humble spirituality would wait on what He gives, and not ask for one. Now a stigmata need not be given in the body, but in the soul, and so it came to pass. After giving my young life to the parish work in Baltimore, and having been promised the rectorship when it was vacant, I was rejected. I had a vision of the work that could be done there, and it was with some disappointment that I relinquished it. Again, what could have been more dear to me than the Society of St. John? Yet there came a 160 A JOURNEY GOD WARD strain in our relation to it, and at what I believed a call of duty to the American Church, I was forced to leave it. The mental suffering at that time, with all the wrench involved, was so great that I felt I could scarcely live. Then I had founded St. Margaret's Sisterhood in America, and it again with my warm, enthusiastic nature, had become something of a spiritual idol, from which my heart was to be weaned. Because I was leaving the Cow- ley Society, the sisters had asked me to resign my chaplaincy, which I did. One day I waited from the early Mass to three o'clock in the afternoon at the Altar, seeking light and strength from God to help me bear it, and direct me in my going. With the Advent parish I had been connected from my early days. To secure a promised peace, and so help souls, I gave up to the English Fathers the old Church on Bowdoin street, which I had pre- ferred for my proposed religious order, and I took the new one. But though I had done so, there re- mained in the corporation of the parish a majority who were opposed to me. God did indeed so bless the work that all efforts failed. I now say, and for many years have said, "God bless them all." It was wonderful how love and grace triumphed over misunderstandings, and all the contending parties finally became reconciled. The bones that were united were stronger than before the fracture. With love seen in all, the reunion was a marvellous token of the power of divine grace. What, among worldly men, would have led to endless strife, was overruled by God to the sanctification of souls and the increase of His Kingdom. THE EPISCOPATE 161 I had one thing more to bear, that my election to the Episcopate was actually opposed within the diocese by a priest who had been a life-long friend and for whom I had made many sacrifices and suf- fered much. But my affectionate nature needed this further wounding in heart that I might become more detached in spirit, and the supreme love of God should become more victorious in me. I would not dare to say this, save with the hope that some poor brother, who feels himself heart-wounded, if not heart-broken, may find through the pain and suffering an ecstacy of joy, and pass onward and upward into a fuller union with the Lord. On entering upon my Episcopate, I was soon made aware of its condition. Quite a number of the clergy had left, so that there were only eighteen engaged in active work. There were some twenty parishes or missions vacant. Not only had the mis- sions run down, but in some places, I was told, the people did not want the services resumed. Here, in the West, the men were absorbed in their business enterprises and the struggle for their family main- tenance. The wave of materialism and its outcome, agnosticism, had made them indifferent to religion. They left it and its support, as they said, to the women, whose resources were confined to fairs, sales, sometimes dancing parties, and other enter- tainments. The duty and privilege of giving to God in the way of supporting His Church was lit- tle appreciated. The doctrine of the position of the Church was imperfectly understood. At the See City, the Cathedral had been built after a fire that had destroyed the former building. It was 162 A JOURNEY GODWARD somewhat spacious in its proportions, but destitute of all Church furniture, having neither pulpit nor lectern, and it had a most forlorn and empty ap- pearance. A Churchwoman who came out from Boston to my consecration could not refrain from crying as she saw its destitute and midevotional appearance. It had to be cheaply built, and poorly roofed on account of lack of means, so we had to suffer at times from the frequent downpours. The expense of heating it, which was not always suc- cessfully done, was a great burden. It had been running behind in its expenses, and a debt of some $15,000 had accumulated. To see it now, one can scarcely recognize its former condition. My own resources were, at that time, limited to my salary of $2,500 and a few hundred given me by my old parish for missionary work. I made some appeals to the East, and preached two or three sermons ask- ing for aid. I had thought that, as I had gone out on the firing line, and a great opportunity for the cause had been opened, there would have been an interest aroused in its report. But my sermons failed to bring in any substantial support. Per- haps it was my fault, not knowing how to present my case. I remember preaching in a large city church, and receiving on that occasion the sum of $9. At another, an old friend came forward and gave me $10. I spoke at a missionary meeting in a large city, and heard the remark made: "What does he come here for? He is not a Missionary Bishop;" and I got nothing. Only on two occa- sions do I remember getting a few hundred dollars. I am not blaming anyone unless it is myself. THE EPISCOPATE 163 The Catholic party is not gifted with much wealth, and in the East it is absorbed in its own parish work. That I have been aided financially is true, but the aid has come from a very few individuals, who have known and trusted me, and given to the cause which I represent. But it did not come in the beginning. I was in no way disheartened. I had a very rich Father. He owned the whole universe. I was His child, and I knew He would give me all that was needed. To share, however, in Christ's riches, one must share in His poverty. So I began as best I could. My religious training had accustomed me to go without comfort, and instead of keeping house I took two rooms, and boarded at ten dol- lars a week. This went on for some years. This left me something financiall}^ to work with. My owTi idea has been, all that I am and all that I have belongs to God. Like a faithful servant, I must only take out of His treasury sufficient to meet the proper expenses of food, raiment, travelling ex- penses, and shelter. The diocese was poor, but for that reason I had been sent to it. What interested me from the beginning in my Episcopate was the work which opened to me among the Indians. Upon a government reserva- tion of about twelve miles by nine there were set- tled a portion of the famous tribe of the Oneidas. Their previous home had been in central New York state, where they had originall}^ formed part of the Confederation of the Six Nations. The influence of this great confederacy, which was called the Long House, extended from the St. Lawrence to 164 A JOURNEY GOD WARD the Gulf, and at its great Coimcil the Oneidas were second in the order of precedence. The tribe was the oldest of our Church's Indian missions, start- ing under the direction of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1709, four of the Iroquois Sachems crossed the ocean, and present- ing to Queen Anne belts of wampum as token of the loyalty of the Six Nations, begged her, since "we have had some knowledge of the Saviour of the world," to send them missionaries. The missions established had varying success, and were not with- out opposition. Lord Conbury, the royal GoA^ernor at New York, summoned Mr. Moore, one of the missionaries, before him. The Governor had him arrested and imprisoned in Fort Anne. The alleged irregularity was "the celebrating the Blessed Sacrament as often as once a fortnight," which frequency he, the Governor, was pleased to forbid. After the Revolution, the Mohawks, having been loyal to the British Crown, retired to Canada ; the Oneidas remained. Bishop Hobart, conse- crated Bishop of New York in 1811, began at once a visitation to the Oneidas, and confirmed at that time a class of 89. As showing their spirit, I quote from an address made to him by the Chiefs. "Rt. Rev. Father: "We salute you in the name of the Ever- adorable, Ever-blessed, Ever living, Sovereign Lord of the Universe. We acknowledge this great and Almighty Being as our Creator, Preserver, and constant Benefactor. We re- REV. CORNELIUS HILL. THE EPISCOPATE 165 joice to say, we see now that the Christian re- ligion is intended for the good of the Indians as well as for the white people. We see and do feel that the religion of the Gospel will make us happy in this and the world to come. "Et. Rev. Father, as the head and Father of the Holy Apostolic Church in this State, we entreat you to take a special charge of us. We are ignorant, we are poor, and need your as- sistance. Come, Venerable Father, and visit your children, and warm their hearts by your presence, in the things which belong to their everlasting peace." The Oneidas had in 1823 and following years moved to Wisconsin, and had purchased from the Menominee Indians, with the approval of the United States Government, the reservation on which they now are. The white man's greed, how- ever, sought to deprive them of it. The Govern- ment was influenced to make proposals to them for a removal to the much farther West. They had among them some notable chiefs. Skenandore was one ; Daniel Bread, a famous orator, was another ; and also Cornelius Hill, who eloquently, and with a patriotic spirit, rejected the proposals of the Gov- ernment. "The whites," he said, "are not will- ing to give us time to become civilized, but we must move to some barbarous country as soon as civiliza- tion approaches us. The civilization at which I and the greater part of my people aim, is one of truth and honor ; one that will raise us to a higher state of existence here on earth, and fit us for a blessed one in the next. For this civilization we 166 A JOURNEY GODWARD intend to strive— right here where we are— being sure that we shall find it no sooner in the wilds be- yond the Mississippi. Progress is our motto, and you who labour to deprive us of this small spot of God's footstool will labour in vain. We will not sign your treaty; no amount of money can tempt us to sell our people. You say our answer 'must be given today. ' You ' can 't be troubled any longer with these council meetings. ' You shall have your wish— and it is one you will hear every time you seek to drive us from our lands. NO!" This chief, who for many years was the inter- preter in the Church's services, was subsequently priested by me. In seeking the spiritual development of the tribe, I quite agreed with the policy of Bishop Hobart, who held that civilization and Christianity must go forth together. The Indian must be taught and helped both to pray and to work. The Indian's inherited instincts do not tend to make him easily an agriculturist. By origin and environ- ment he was a born hunter. He was lord of a ter- ritory hundreds of miles in extent. The lakes and rivers were full of fish, the woods of deer. He moved his temporary residence as the season tempted him, with the freedom of a lord. How is he to be taught to settle down to farm work ? He loved his horse, but had no affection for a cow. He was not laz}^, but he did not like steady occupation. If we look now at the tribe, we see them settled in comfortable homes. The old log hut, or the tepee, has passed away. The men and the women are dressed in the same costume as the whites. A THE EPISCOPATE 167 creamery has taught them the value and the profit of stock raising. They raise good crops. They have a fine parish house, built at the expense of some $10,000, which gives a meeting place for lec- tures and for recreation. They have also a fine band. A hospital is on the mission ground, and one of the Indians is a professionally trained physi- cian. The large church, with its chancel 40 feet deep, capable of holding some 800 or 1,000 persons, was erected largely at their own expense. A noble work has been done, especially among the women, by the Sisters of the Holy Nativity, which has established a branch house on the mission grounds. The Sis- ters have introduced amongst the women the lace industry, which brings in no small profit. They have given instruction to the candidates for Con- firmation, and, assisted by an interpreter, general instructions to the congregation before Evensong on Sunday. But above all, it is by their personal influence and sympathy and living amongst the people that they have done so much good. The Indians resort to them, knowing they will do any- thing for them that lies in their power, whether it be the reading or the writing of a letter, the solu- tion of a problem in surveying, the giving of advice in trouble or perplexity, comfort in sorrow, small gifts in time of need, medicine or delicacies in sick- ness, spiritual help and teaching, resolution of questions in morals, a text of Scripture explained, a lesson given in some new lace stitch, some aid when an old Indian comes definitely "to get un- crossed" as he puts it. Their social interests 168 A JOURNEY GOD WARD naturally centre round their church. We find a number diligent in their attendance at the Holy Eucharist, which is offered every Sunday and sev- eral times in their chapel during the week. Their deportment in church is most reverent. They have not the emotional characteristics of the black people. There is a reserve and dignity of bearing amongst the Indians. I have been im- pressed with the realit,y of their Christian life. Here, and perhaps nowhere else in our Church, is to be seen a service of public restoration to Com- munion. To hear them sing the Te Deum, which they only do on special occasions— to an old in- herited chant with a "Hallelujah" at the end of each verse— is most inspiring. With the aid of Cornelius Hill and others, I translated an abbre- viated form of our Holy Communion office into the Oneida language. The growth of the tribe in intel- ligent Churchmanship and spirituality has kept pace with its advancing civilization. There was another feature of the diocese that interested me and presented its own problem. In Wisconsin a greater number of nations are repre- sented than, I believe, in any other state. It has been said that near seventy per cent, of the popula- tion were foreign, or descendants of foreigners. Here we have Germans, French, Swedes, Belgians, Norwegians, Danes, Icelanders, Polanders, Bul- garians, Italians, Greeks, and Armenians. I felt that I had foreign missions dumped down at my front door. The problem was how to reach these various nationalities. Was the Episcopal Church here to be merely the Church of emigrants from THE EPISCOPATE 169 New York or New England '^ Had the Church a power to reach members of these several nationali- ties and supply their spiritual needs '^ If she were Catholic in her doctrine and worship, she certainly could meet all nations. It is with intense satisfac- tion that I feel she has done so. The Church planted in localities where most of the people were Swedes or Bulgarians or Belgians, has found a footing, and congregations have developed. Of course some adaptation or accommodations have been made. Thus, for instance, the Lutherans have to be carefully treated in respect to their con- firmations. With the advice of some of my fellow Bishops, I have ruled that I do not require the adult Lutherans to come publicly forward for Con- firmation. They have already witnessed their be- lief in Christ before a Christian congregation. They have received, too, a pastoral blessing, which is good as far as it goes. On being admitted to our communion, I have only asked them to come at a separate service, and receive the laying on of the hands of a Bishop, and so gain the grace of con- firmation. The Belgian Old Catholics, also, much inter- ested me, as they had done my predecessor. A number of Roman Catholics situated in Door County, and who are mostly Belgian, had broken away from Rome and taken the position of Old Catholics. Bishop Brown laid the situation before our Bishops in Council. They agreed to let Bishop Bro^vn take charge of the work as Bishop, and permitted the use there of the Old Catholic Liturgy 170 A JOURNEY GODWARD used in Switzerland. It was to form thus a sort of uniat Church. Bishop Brown informed me of these facts, and Bishop Williams, our Presiding Bishop, also, when I became Bishop, confirmed this statement. A Frenchman of the name of Rene Vilatte, who had left the Roman Catholic Church and taken charge of a Presbyterian place of worship at Green Bay, applied to Bishop Brown. He became, ac- cording to the official record, a candidate for Holy Orders in our diocese. In order to shorten the time of his candidacy, and meet the requirements of his new worl^. Bishop Brown sent him to Switzerland. There Bishop Herzog, acting for Bishop Brown, and at his request, ordained him, he, Vilatte, taking his canonical oath of obedience to the Bishop of Fond du Lac. He was given charge of this Old Catholic mission, the property of the church and buildings belonging to our diocese. He was partly supported out of the dio- cesan funds, sat in the Council along with the other priests belonging to the diocese, and was visited by the Bishop, who confirmed his candi- dates, and was, like any other clerg}Tnan, under the Bishop's jurisdiction. The work, however, was a very small one, though exaggerated reports were given out about it by Vilatte, who, being ambitious to become a Bishop, applied to the Old Catholics in Holland. He proposed to me to be consecrated as a ''Bishop- Abbot" to the American Old Catholics and as a suffragan to myself ; but the canons of our Church did not allow of this, and as I had no au- thority to do so, I refused his request. Neither did THE EPISCOPATE 171 I think him either morally or intellectually fitted for the office. I consulted with the Rt. Eev. Dr. Williams, our Presiding Bishop, as to what I should do. Act- ing under his advice, I wrote the Archbishop of Utrecht that I would transfer Vilatte from my jurisdiction to that of His Eminence if he so wished. In this way our Church would be relieved of Vilatte, and not responsible for having any con- nection with him. I pointed out to the Archbishop that all the property of the mission belonged to our diocese and was legally held by it. In case of his accepting Vilatte, he, Vilatte, would be obliged to leave this work, and I would appoint some other in his place. The Old Catholics of Holland declined. Sub- sequently, Vilatte repudiated my jurisdiction and left our conmiunion, whereupon, according to our canons, I was obliged to depose him. He had lost, when he left, the confidence of all our clergy and people. He subsequently obtained a Consecration from some Bishop in India, who, I think, was de- ceived by his statements as to his relation to myself and the extent of his work. The American Bishops declared his episcopal orders to be void. Subse- quently he submitted to and re-joined the Roman Communion. Again he left Rome, and has become an ecclesiastical wanderer. But the work in my diocese has gone on, and I have now three parishes under three priests, where the Old Catholic ser- vices are continued. In all this difficult matter, difficult for a young Bishop, I consulted our Pre- siding Bishop and followed his counsel. We did 172 A JOURNEY GODWARD not wish to further a scheme which would make Vilatte a Bishop, nor did we wish to offend the Old Catholics of Holland. Bishop Williams, in stat- ing the matter, as he did subsequently, to the House of Bishops, warmly commended the course I had taken, as having saved the Church from what might have become a great scandal, like to that of the Mexican affair. Educational Work. It was a source of joy to me to find that my predecessor had in 1886 started a small home school for girls, which he had placed under the care of a sisterhood of widows called after St. Monica. It occupied two lots near the Cathedral, and had about a hundred and forty feet of front- age. The buildings were old, and at the time Bishop Brown passed away they were much in debt. It is a mercy that this good, faithful Bishop did not laiow or realize the amoimt. The debts of which I became aware did not seem to decrease, and after a time I had to employ an expert, and then found that the indebtedness was at least $7,000. I could have let the school go into bank- ruptcy, but it would scarcely have paid its credi- tors ten cents on a dollar. A failure of this kind would have brought scandal on the Church and greatly injured its standing amongst the people. I think I was made ill by this new strain, which I have only partially stated. But I was enabled by the good offices of friends to pay off the debt and to reorganize the school. At the request of the sis- ters and on my nomination the Rev. B. Talbot Q Q O o1 W O H < Pi o THE EPISCOPATE 173 Hogers took charge of it in 1893. We began to sell the old buildings and to erect, gradually, a large stone one. But, as all my works have suffered from put-backs, or Satan's assaults, so I had an- other. A good Churchwoman, a widow, of my dio- cese, consulted me about the making of a will. I said first, ' ' There are your two boys to be provided for." "They will have," she said— and she was a most devoted mother— "all that is good for them. My own means I wish to give to the Church in our diocese. ' ' On one occasion, she said to me, ' ' I have left you a large sum of money." I said: "Of course, it is for the Church and I will so dispose of it." She was taken ill and then told me : "My will is in the bank, and my brother" (who was one of its chief officers) "is my man of business." On my inquiring of him, after her decease, about his sister's will, he said she never left any. I could do nothing, save pray that my good angels would come to my aid. They did. The will was never found, but the man was found out to be a great de- faulter, and was sent to the United States prison. The school, taking the name of Grafton Hall, was finally completed. It is a grand stone build- ing, with a slate roof, a frontage of a hundred and eighty feet, with a wing extending a hundred and fifty. It is admirably equipped and furnished. It has its own artesian water supply and electric light- ing and heating plant. It now occupies five acres or more of land. It is practicaHy fire-proof. Every young lady student has her own room. There has been no serious illness during the whole 174 A JOXJRNEY GODWAED fifteen yestrs since its construction. There are about 100 students in all in the departments. The educational work is divided into three sep- arate departments. There is a Preparatory or Grammar School, which has a building by itself and has mostly day scholars. Then there is the Academy or High School grade, and lastly, the Seminary, or Junior CoUege, which covers three years of college work. There are also the affiliated departments of music, domestic science, art, and physical training. The Academy is accredited by the State University. The graduates of the Sem- inary are admitted on our diplomas to the Univer- sities for the Sophomore and Junior years. It is incorporated under the general statutes of the State, which require all its income to be used for school purposes. It can thus pay no dividends and it is free from taxation. It is without expense for rent and so its rates are low. It has a faculty of twenty teachers. Its school life is marked by brightness and happiness and fair diligence in study. Religion is not forced upon the students, but enters into their life in a voluntary and healthy way. Reaching the best of our western society, the influence of the institution is growing every year. It needs, as all educational institutions do, an endowment. I cannot thank God enough— as I have seen class after class go out, trained in good religious principles and well equipped for life's duties— for the privilege given me in estab- lishing this noble work. the episcopate 175 The Cathedral. Bishop Brown had been, when a priest, greatly interested in the cathedral system. He had been largely consulted in drawing up the statutes of the Cathedral at Albany. When he came out to the diocese, he had the intention of establishing the system here. He got St. Paul's parish. Fond du Lac, to take steps to change its parish organization into that of a Cathedral. It was part of the scheme that the owners of the pews should relinquish their rights and establish the custom of free sittings. My own feeling has ever been in favour of a church thus open to rich and poor alike, but my experience has been that some endowment or pledge-envelope system is ne- cessary for its support. It was especially necessary here, where the expense incident to a Cathedral or- ganization was large, and the congregation not wealthy. Although it has a daily Celebration and the offices are daily said, its whole yearly expense for fuel, lights, sexton, organist, choir, and clergy is within four thousand dollars. This is not so much as a small city mission in the East requires for its maintenance. Yet this small amount is not met by the ordinary voluntary offerings of the people. Our Cathedral, I may here say, needs a partial endowment. It was a great act of faith on the part of Bishop Brown to give up a settled in- come derived from pew rents, and it has been a struggle on the part of the people to keep out of debt. The Council of the diocese accepted St. Paul's 176 A JOURNEY GODWAED as its Cathedral church, and imposed upon Bishop Brown the duty of drawing up its statutes, but he died before he had accomplished this work. I took it up very slowly. There had been at this time in America two t3^pes of a Cathedral. In one the Bishop was in the place of a Rector, and the so- called Canons were practically his assistants. In the other case, and it was where a i^arish had been dignified with the title of a Cathedral, the Rector, to whom was given the title of Dean, continued to be Rector. In the first instance, the Bishop was everything, everybody being under him. In the second he was nothing, or his authority was largely controlled by the Rector. In the diocese, as in Al- bany, a complicated system of a larger and a smaller Chapter was established. It seemed to me that the machinery was cumbersome and com- plicated. In our Cathedral system, the Bishop is the Dean. The heads of our schools, which are thus connected with the Cathedral, are ex-officio Can- ons. Another Canon, who is responsible under the Dean for the spiritual care of the people, is nomi- nated by the Bishop and chosen by the chapter. He has charge of the Sunday school and of the par- ish visiting. The rights of the laity are secured by an election, at Easter, of four laymen. The diocese is represented by its Treasurer and the Archdea- cons. It is to be noted that there is no one person who exercises the power that a Rector does in an ordinary parish. Rectorial powers are distrib- uted. All the Canons have equal rights in the Cathedral, and take part as directed by the Dean THE EPISCOPATE 177 in the services. The lait}^ can call on any one Canon for baptism, or marriage, or funeral, and can resort to any they please for confession. The Dean publishes and posts in the sacristy a monthl,y list of the daily celebrants and monthl}^ preachers. The question of ritual is a somewhat difficult one. It is important that a certain uniformity should be observed, and that changes should not even b}^ the Bishop be arbitrarily made. It is therefore expedient that there should be a book of Customs regulating the chief points of ceremonial and ritual. This is drawn up by all the clerical members of the Chapter, and cannot be altered by the Bishop, save after deliberation and vote of the Chapter. This protects all parties. The harmon- ious working of this system has been a proof of its efficacy. It has been, with modifications, adopted elsewhere. It differs so from the English method that it may be called the American Cathedral System. The Convent. The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity is es- pecially devoted to the Devotional Life, the help of souls, and the aid of the clergy. The life is based on the three counsels of perfection. Pov- erty, Chastity, and Obedience. But as every Com- munity has its own expression of the life and should be adapted to its own kind and Church environment, so it is with ours. The Religious Life has passed through many phases, has been se- verely attacked by the world, and has not been 178 A JOURNEY GODWAED without its own faults. To love a simple life, and so to practise poverty, is to imitate the Master. It is both a healthy life, and a witness against the luxury of the world. But as is well known. Re- ligious professing individual poverty have sought Avealth for their orders. In Scotland, for instance, a large portion of the landed estates was in the hands of the monks. The history of Religious Communities shows how drastic reforms were needed to remove this and other evils. In the Nativity Sisterhood, a Novice is at liber- ty to dispose of her income at her own discretion, and when inheriting property at the time of pro- fession, makes a will, disposing of her property with due regard to any claims of her relations. The extremes of asceticism are avoided. In respect of food, the order is bidden to take into consideration "the laws of health, that are better understood now than formerly, and to avoid mak- ing a rule of diet so strict as to require dispensa- tion, for it is far better to have a moderate rule ob- served than the appearance of keeping a severe one which must be broken." In respect of chastity, her rule declares, hers is not an enclosed life. In union with the missionary spirit of Jesus, the Sister mingles with the world, that she may win souls to Him. It is not by killing her affections that she will do this. She will love her Superior, her Sisters, her relatives, and those to whom she ministers. The heart is not to be dead, but living with the love of God. It is a saying of a saint that "we do not love God more by ceasing to love our fellow men." The love of our fellows EPISCOPAL RESIDENCE AND CONVENT OF THE HOLY NATIVITY, FOND DU LAC. THE EPISCOPATE 179 must not come in between us to separate us from the love of God, but should help us to rise into the fulness of His love. The exaggerated way in which obedience has been developed in some orders has made us find its limitations. It is limited in three ways: by the moral law, by the Church's authority, and by the object which the institute proposes to itself. Thus, no one can be command- ed to violate a moral precept, to disobey the purposes for which the sisterhood was formed. The basis of all profitable obedience must be love ; the love of God, and of all others in Him. Based on these broad principles, the sisterhood has proved a singularly happy and united one. CHAPTER IX. SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS. I will give poiver unto viy tivo witnesses. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlestichs stand- ing before the God of the earth. I must apologize to my readers for introducing so much instruction into my book. One could write a book full of anecdotes concerning the persons one has met, and details of old controversies which have passed away. I have said enough about the facts of my own outward life to satisfy curiosity, and will try to give some notion of my spiritual one. It is only with the intent of encouraging souls, poor and weak as mortals are, and helping them on, that I have been willing to write what I have. My readers and friends must let me preach a little and not merely write for their entertainment. There were two things which necessarily en- gaged my Episcopal attention. The first was the degree of latitude permitted as to belief in Hoh^ Scripture. According to the Church's teaching, Christianity is based upon a Person, Jesus Christ. The Church declares that as God has inspired the writers of Holy Scripture, He is to be regarded as its author. But the Church does not require us to believe in the Scriptures, but to believe in God, SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS 181 in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Catholic Church. The relation of the Bible to the Church is this:— she has separated some of her writings from others, which she calls her Holy Scriptures. She determines what writings are to be put in this class ; and by the power of the Holy Grhost dwelling in her, she interprets them. She teaches her children the Faith which she has re- ceived from the beginning, and she cites her Holy Scriptures as a witness to it. In our day there has been a more scientific in- vestigation concerning the origin of the Books of Holy Scripture than ever before. The Church has no opposition to the investigation of science in any department of knowlege. Nothing has so far been demonstrated that contradicts the dogmas she has declared essential. We may allow, for instance, the allegorical character of the early chapters of Genesis without denying the sinful tendency found in man's nature by reason of heredity. Man has fallen away from God. The late papal pronouncement forbidding a denial of the literal historic account of the origin of man and woman, and the story of the serpent and apple, is much like the condemnation of Gal- ileo and the Copernican theory. This denial had papal sanction. Now again Rome goes against modern science and its discovery. To deny what is called the Darwinian theory, or the evolutionary process, is as unwise as to deny the truth of the world's diurnal revolution or orbit about the sun. The one exception the papal decree allows, is that the "day" of Genesis may be an indefinite period. 182 A JOURNEY GODWARD Now the discovery of the law of progress in the nat- ural world, rightl}" understood, is in favor of the doctrine of the progressive development of man (in and through the Incarnate Lord) , into a final union with God, which secures sinlessness and eternal life. The grand mistake of Rome is not only in its denial of the truth revealed in nature, and dis- covered by science, but in its theory that God, hav- ing made a perfect and supernatural being who fell by sin away from God, came and died in order to restore man to his former condition. There is a partial truth in this. But the larger one is that God, in spite of man's sinfulness, came to forgive and lift him up into a higher degree of union and life in Himself than he had before. In the Incar- nate One, creation advances to- its completion. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of progress, and we attain to our new union with the divine life through Him. Again, in respect of the Holy Scriptures: the Anglican Church stands for truth. It places no ban on research into the origin of the various biblical books. It encourages priests and laymen to study God's Holy Word. Nothing that science can discover concerning the origin of the books, or the method of their compilation, can affect their corroborative value as to the teaching of the Church. It is by living in the Church, and pri- marily listening to her teaching, that the written word is best understood. What the Holy Spirit has enlightened the Church to read out of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit put into it, to be so read. Differences of interpretation may exist SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS 183 about different texts, but the mind of the Spirit is to be found in the Church's common and enduring consent. Further let us say that the Anglican Church, along with the Primitive, requires nothing to be held as of faith but what is so proven by the written word. The Church teaches by the living witness of her organization, by the Creeds and Sacraments, and her children, responding in life, become incorporated with the Truth and are pos- sessed with it. By authority. Scripture, and prac- tice, the truth is believed in and known. The next matter of importance in my Episco- pate was the teaching of the Church's Sacramental system. As in the order of nature God gives us His gifts of life, and its maintenance through or- dained instrumentalities, so it is in the spiritual order. The Holy Scripture and the Sacraments are the two witnesses standing before the Temple of the Church and they, by written word and ac- tion, declare the Faith. They are two independent witnesses. The Holy Scriptures are the Word written, the Sacraments are the Gospel in action. They are the two candlesticks which give us the Gospel light, the two olive trees filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit. They have power with God to bring down blessing from heaven, and if any man hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth. War will be made against them by earthly powers and the earth will rejoice over them and they shall be accounted as dead, but they shall arise and stand on their feet, and great fear shall fall upon their enemies. The Sacraments have a harmony between them- 184 A JOURNEY GODWARD selves. In the order of time Baptism is the first, because to live, one must be born. Confirmation is next, because, being born, one must be clothed, or protected by heavenly armour. The Eucharist is next, for we must be fed in order to live, with the Bread from Heaven. Penance follows as the rem- edy for the soul's sickness. Marriage gives sub- jects for the Sacraments, and the Holy Orders give ministers for them. Unction comes last, being for the good of the body, and for commendation of the soul to God. The Sacraments correspond with the Church's needs. Baptism gives us spiritual children. Con- firmation makes them the Church's soldiers. Pen- ance gives them back alive to her. The Eucharist provides a sacrificial work and feast upon the sac- rifice. Orders prolong the personal ministration of Christ within the Church. Marriage reveals the mystery that the Church and Christ are one. Unc- tion declares the abiding of the Spirit and prepares the Church's children for the meeting with their Lord. The Sacraments declare our union with Christ. In Baptism we are made members of Him. In Confirmation we are united to His Mission. In Ab- solution, cleansed by His Blood. In the Eucharist we are incorporated into Himself. In Holy Orders united to His priesthood. In Unction we receive of His health and peace. In Matrunony we are joined in Him to one another. The Sacraments are encyclopaedic in their char- acter as witnesses of the Gospel. Baptism reveals the doctrine of the Blessed Trinitv. The Holv Eu- SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS 185 charist bears witness to the truth of the Incarna- tion, and our Lord's Death and Passion. The broken Bread and the outpoured Cup declare the mystery of His Atonement. The Eucharist wit- nesses to Christ's abiding Presence in His Church. Union with Him is the source of all resurrection, and the bond of union which makes His Church indissolubly one. Ceremonial. I have dealt with the legality of the Church's ceremonial in the last three chapters of my work entitled A CatJiolic Atlas. My legal studies con- vinced me that the Ornaments Rubric in the Eng- lish Prayer Book refers to a time anterior to the First Prayer Book of King Edward YI. With a legal argument which I A^enture to think unanswer- able, I demonstrated that the only position as- signed by the rubric to the priest at the Consecra- tion of the Elements was what is popularly called the Eastward position. Moreover, I have shown that the rubric at the end of the Communion Ser- vice does not, literally and legally construed, for- bid the Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament. It is an argument which I have not seen stated else- where, but which I believe to be thoroughly sound and in conformity with the rules of legal construc- tion. Twenty-five years from now, when the inherited prejudices of our Bishops have been so broken down as to allow of an impartial judgment, I do not doubt that the legality of Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament will be generally acknowledged. 186 A JOURNEY GODWARD It was reserved in the early Church, to which we ap23eal, and carried to the sick. We cannot reject this use without rejecting the authority of an- tiquity. It is explicitly allowed in the Scotch Lit- urgy, and so cannot be held to be against the teach- ing of the Thirty-nine Articles, which are part of the Scotch book. Our own American Prayer Book requires the consumption of the consecrated ele- ments that '^remain after the Communion." It thus differs from the English, which refers to that which remains when the whole Service is con- cluded. The ''Communion is over, and, according to the Rubric in the ordering of priests, the Com- munion is done" before the Service is ended. The American Rubric relating to the consumption of the elements, thus refers only to those which have to do with the Communion of the people present. It does not apply to what the Priests might set aside for the Communion of the absent sick. I have given my reasons why the English Rubric, honestly and legally construed, was set forth for the prevention of irreverence, and not to forbid reservation, and technically construed, it does not do so. There are those who, from theological rea- sons, do not think the Blessed Sacrament should be extended beyond its purpose of Communion. Now Reservation for the sick does not do this. But it is to be observed that the spirit of our Prayer Book does not so limit its use. For unlike the custom in the Roman Church of the Priest consuming the Blessed Sacrament after his own Communion, the Anglican rite compels the Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament not for Communion, but for SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS 187 purposes of devotion. She has taken the Gloria in Excelsis from its original primitive position at the beginning of the Service, and her children are com- pelled to utter this great act of praise and prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. She reserves it thus, not for Communion, but for de- votion. In America, freed, thank God, from State in- fluence and from questions arising under the Eng- lish rubric, I officially declared to our Council that our Prayer Book was to be interpreted in conform- ity with the traditions of the Universal Church of Christ. Our official ruling as Ordinary, and so publicly declared, was that the Eucharistic vest- ments, the mixed Chalice, wafer breads, the East- ward position, lights on the Altar or borne in pro- cession, and incense, were the allowed usages of the diocese of Fond du Lac. I also ruled that the Blessed Sacrament might be reserved for the sick, and carried to them. Moreover, I said to my clergy: *' Whenever your people wish the anoint- ing prescribed by St. James, you know that the oil is consecrated by us, as it was by my predecessor, and so none need be without the means used for the body's recovery or the comforting grace it brings to the soul at the time of its departure." For my own part, in conformity with a report of the conomittee of the House of Bishops on Epis- copal vestments, which recognizes the legality of the use of cope and mitre, I adopted these in the beginning of my episcopate, without any adverse remark on the part of my people. So it has come to pass that the present generation of churchmen 188 A JOURNEY GOD WARD have always seen the Bishop) in vestments which distinctively mark his office. In traveling about my diocese, it has been my habit to present to the Churches and missions the Altar ornaments in places where they did not have them. I would give as memorials of my visitation, candlesticks, Altar desks. Altar Crucifixes, cruets for the lavabo, censers or gongs, Eucharistic vest- ments, and, whenever an Altar was built or re- stored, I insisted that there should be a Tabernacle upon it. As a result, the five points are, with one excep- tion, universal, and there are over twenty Masses daily offered in the diocese. Here where, sixty years ago, the Indians were roaming through the forest, and Christianity was almost unknown, we have such a revival of Catholic worship and teach- ing as Newman in his days at St. Mary's never dreamed of as possible. It is through the daily Sacrifice of the Altar, and the revival of the re- ligious life, that the Church's victory is assured. The diocese is served by a body of spiritually minded and earnest clergy, and the success of the assertion of the Church's principles, as embodied in her Prayer Book and worship, is influencing the dioceses of the middle West. Should these words find favour in the heart of any Catholic-minded layman to whom God has entrusted much means, he may be moved to aid this work financially. We need endowments for our mission work. Cathedral, our sisterhood, and women's college. My relation to the denominations has been most friendly. They have ver}^ often placed their SCRIPTURE AND THE SACRAMENTS 189 churches at my disposal when wanting to preach in some locality where we had no church building of our own. As a token of their friendly regard, the University of Appleton, which is under Methodist administration, gave me the degree of LL.D. It has been with me a study how, without sacrifice of principle on either side, Christians can be brought into recognized fellowship. We must all admit that our divisions have been a hindrance to the extension of Christ's Kingdom. We must try to eliminate sectarian jealousy and rivalries. We must recognize all the baptised as united to Christ and so to one another in Him. We should not let differences of opinion separate us. While theo- logical correctness without a living, loving faith fails to unite savingly to Christ, errors of belief, if not wilful, do not do so. Let conferences among the clergy take the place of pulpit controversy. Let us avoid that irritating spirit of proselyting which our Lord condemned. When persons feel that their religious body has done what it can for their spiritual growth, no one objects to their changing their religious Church connection. We shall all do most for the Kingdom by growing in personal holiness, and, so coming closer to Christ, come closer to one another. CHAPTEE X. TWENTY YEAES IN THE EPISCOPATE. The following is a paper prepared at the re- quest of the Committee and read by the Rev. B. Talbot Eogers, D.D., at the Jubilee anniversary. Dr. Rogers was the first priest ordained by Bishop Grafton, and has been connected with the diocese for twenty years. In his positions and offices of Archdeacon, Canon of the Cathedral, Warden of Grafton Hall, member of the Standing Committee and Mission Board, he has had special facilities of knowing the diocese, its needs and growth. ''Fight the Good Fight." By the Bev. B. Talbot Bogers, D.D. A widowed diocese had exercised her sover- eign privilege and called a priest to come and be her Bishop. In the providence of God she was led to do what no diocese in the Anglican Com- munion had done since the Reformation. She called a religious, one who had been a member of a religious order, had helped to found religious orders for women, and had stood uncompromis- ingly for thirty years for the Catholic religion. It was a great step, taken in faith, prompted largely by her poverty and need, and encouraged TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 191 by the teaching of her first Bishop, and the mem- ory of de Koven, to whose genius and devotion the diocese owed much in its first days; and lastly, it was under the leadership of Fr. Gardner. Com- ing to the diocese under Bishop Brown, he had won the confidence of the clergy and laity by his splendid abilities and utter self-sacrifice. At his suggestion and urgent counsel, Fr. Graf- ton was elected by a strong vote of the clergy and a majority of the laity as the second Bishop of Fond du Lac. Bishop Brown seemed to give the seal of his approval when he wrote in his journal, on the occasion of a visit to Boston, that the ser- vices at the Church of the Advent were probably the most satisfactory to be found anywhere in the American Church. But the diocese hardly re- alized the significance of that choice. It almost shuddered when it discovered what it had done. The Church at large awoke and rubbed her eyes. Opposition was aroused, and it seemed for a time as though another de Koven were to be sacri- ficed to appease blind prejudice. But help arose from an unexpected quarter. Bishop Henry C. Potter wrote a letter to Dr. Winslow of Boston, giving his unqualified endorsement of Father Grafton, condemning any outside interference and unwise prejudice. That letter, by permission of the writer, was given a wide circulation. It res- tored confidence to those who were called to con- firm that election. Bishop Potter remained an un- faltering friend to his dying day. The Church at large has done more than confirm that election. She has three times followed the example. But 192 A JOURNEY GODWAED we had first choice, and we may well thank God that good use was made of the opportunity. The election took place November 13, 1888, but the consecration was delayed until St. Mark's Day, April 25, 1889. The order of the procession is interesting now as indicating the participants and many associa- tions. It was as follows : Lay members of the Reception Committee. Delegates to the Council. Lay members of the Cathedral Chapter. Lay members of the Standing Committees of Fond du Lac and Milwaukee. Sisters of St. Monica and of the Holy Nativity. Choristers of All Saints' Cathedral, Milwaukee. Seminarians with crucifer and banner. Clergy of the Diocese of Eond du Lac. Clergy of other Dioceses. Cathedral Clergy. Representative of the Clerical Association of Massachusetts. Clerical members of the Standing Committees of Fond du Lac and Milwaukee. Master of Ceremonies. The Bishop-elect, with his attending Presbyters, Rev. Wm. Dafter and Rev. Walter R. Gardner. The Presenting Bishops, Gilbert and Knight, with Chaplains. Bishop Burgess, as Preacher, and Chaplain. The Co-Consecrators, Bishops Seymour and Kniekerbacker, with Chaplains. Bishop McLaren of Chicago, and the Presiding Bishop, with his Chaplain. There was a large and interested congregation. The building was bare; hardly more than four walls and an Altar. As we look back to that day, surely we may agree wdth the one who has left an accomit of that service : ' ' On a review of the whole, we are filled with devout thankfulness, and are impelled to say Laus Beo!'^ TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 193 These twenty years have been strenuous. The seven years of our late President's activity are but a partial illustration of what our Diocesan has been about these twenty years for Christ and His Church. ''It matters not what corner of the room you place me in, I will build the fire hot enough to warm the whole room, ' ' is one of his mottoes. And having spent these twenty years next the fire, I assure you there have been times when it was very warm. In a time of great need for clergy an appeal was sent as an advertisement to some of our east- ern Church papers : ''fire and blood. "We need young men filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit and inebriated by the blood of the Holy Sacrifice." The appeal was answered. Young men came and went to the front with noble self-sacrifice and devotion. But there was always more work waiting to be done, and, as the work developed, more plans and work at the center. During the first summer, with the aid of Na- shotah students, Fr. Merrill, the General Mission- ary, reopened eighteen closed churches. This work was continued later, first under one Archdeacon and then under two and three, with the present missionary organization. Those near our Bishop have felt at times that they were tied to the wheels of a racing chariot. "The King's business demands haste," has been 194 A JOURNEY GODWARD another favorite motto. Those who tried to hold the pace may have lost their heads and done fool- ishly, but with perseverance they never dropped from heart failure. "Press on the Kingdom," has been the constant word of cheer and encourage- ment, always reinforcing our feeble efforts with generous and loyal support. I have tried to go through some of the writings of these twenty years. It has been my privilege to hear all the Council ad- dresses, but I little appreciated what a mine of Church teaching they contained. They should be republished separately. It needs more than a year to re-read what the Bishop's ready pen has produced. A few months, with other obligations, have not been sufficient. Each department of the- ology and Church history has paid tribute to his needs and been enriched by his expression. One print-shop working overtime could not keep pace with him. And at times three publishing houses have been busy with his writings. His various books and pamphlets have run into many thou- sands of copies. At the same time all the work of organization and initiative of new enterprises has never slacked. What priest these twenty years has ever been able to outrun his Bishop ? What one is there who has not found work planned ahead of him? Did one ever go in vain for suggestion or advice 1 Has our Bishop, to this hour, slacked one jot in his marvel- lous powers of enterprise? To join with him is to take hold of the handles of a galvanic batter3^ One may be tempted to let go and run away. But Faith and Grace challenge each other. His pow- TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 195 ers of organization and unwearied enterprise re- mind one of what we read of empire builders. Has he ever restrained or held back any priest in new enterprises? Has he not always been ready with suggestions ahead of any that we planned ? Many have been the workers who turned back. Some have returned and been given again a cordial welcome. But in these twenty years about a hundred and thirty have gone from us. It has been no small part of the Bishop's cares to se- lect new candidates to fill these constantly recur- ring vacancies. He had begun his sixtieth year when conse- crated; a time when most men seek, and rightly claim, rest and leisure. In the required record of his work he frequently duplicated such activity as this: "During these ten days I traveled nearly two thousand miles and preached seventeen times." So multiplied have been the achievements of these twenty years that it seems like trying to bring order out of chaos simply to recount them. Yet nothing chaotic marks that work. Absolute plan and definite purpose have marked its every step. No by-motives or variation from his duty have ever been apparent. On the contrary, with almost cruel insistence he has steadily refused to be drawn aside to other and more flattering prospects. How often have individuals with visions tried to interest the Bishop or lead him aside from his fixed purpose and all-mastering responsibility ! He had married this diocese for weal or woe, and he would be faithful to that union. A book agent with flattering offer tried to in- 196 A JOURNEY GODWARD terest the Bishop. It was a time when diocesan missions bore heavily and funds were low. The Bishop told the needs of his missionaries. The agent on leaving left fifty cents for diocesan mis- sions. With all the varied capabilities of a widely ex- tended cosmopolitan career, the Bishop undertook this work. From the country districts of Mary- land and the slums of London, from Boston culture and Oxford learning, and from travels in many lands, here he has used all these varied associa- tions. It is easy to say that the active clergy have in- creased from eighteen to more than fifty, but stop and think what it really means. Each man added means a new sphere of labour, an equipment of Church propert}^ in which the Bishop has always assisted and generally done the major portion. Then must come the steady annual support of the work ; the patient nursing of the feeble effort and small band of the faithful ; the absolute observance of every appointment as one who must give ac- count of their souls. How well I remember when a change of train time upset the schedule. But the appointment must be kept. It was thirty miles away and but three hours from service time. There had been one of those unusual spring storms, a foot of snow on top of a foot of mud. An experienced liveryman undertook the venture for the Bishop's sake— his best team and a single carriage. A telegram was sent and off they started. At times the driver got out of the carriage to prevent its overturning TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 197 in a snow drift, and again the horses were wallow- ing in mud up to the hubs. They reached their destination ; the class was waiting and a large con- gregation. The Bishop returned by train ; but the liveryman took all the next day to get back. But the utmost heroism and devotion could not make successes of every enterprise. There have probably been as many failures as successes. And failures always cost more than success. Not all the long list of clergy that have gone out from the diocese have accepted metropolitan churches. Some have made shipwreck, and the Bishop was left to gather up the flotsam. It is easy to say that twenty-eight new churches have been built, sixteen of them handsome buildings in stone and brick. But what a struggle each one of them represents ! What planning, sacrifice, and anxiety, each one an effort that was almost a failure ! How frequently the Bishop bore the major burden, and too often the final anxiety and effort necessary to turn a fail- ure into success. Fifteen guild halls, twenty-one rectories, do not complete the story. A number of rectories and guild halls gave place to something better or were sacrificed for a new church. The Choir School, Grafton Hall, the Convent and Mon- asteiy, the Oneida Foundation, and Cadle Home, all represent much effort, prayer, and anxiety. The Old Catholic enterprise and the new Na- shotah have been burden enough for one man. The Cathedral, from bare walls on a corner lot, and with $15,000 debt, gradually developed, with two additional stone buildings, cloister, garth, and ar- 198 A JOURNEY GODWARD tistic devotional adornments within, freed from debt, and with $20,000 endowment. Such a simimary of the year's improvements could have been given each year, as in 1891, the second year of his Episcopate, when he wrote as follows : "Looking over the diocese, there is scarcely a church in which some material improve- ments in Church property have not taken place. ''Trinity Church, Oshkosh, which set the diocese so excellent an example of heroic faith in church building, has largely reduced its in- debtedness and made fair progress toward the day of consecration. It is also proposed to build a new rectory, and it has done what is worthy of all commendation, increased the rector's salary. ''St. Peter's Church, Ripon; Trinity Church, Berlin; St. Peter's Church, Sheboy- gan Falls; Grace Church, Sheboygan; St. James' Church, Manitowoc; St. Paul's Church, Marinette; St. John's Church, Wau- sau; St. Mark's Church, Oconto; Christ Church, Green Bay; St. Andrew's Church, Ashland ; have all been enriched by decora- tions, repairs or altar adornments, and some of these parishes at Easter had a surplus on hand for contemplated improvements. "The mortgage of $300 on St. Joseph's Church, Antigo, has been discharged. TWENTY YEAES IN THE EPISCOPATE 199 "The mortgage on the rectory at Wausau has been duninished. ''At the mission at Two Rivers, $400 has been subscribed for a new church. "The Church of the Holy Nativity, Jack- sonport, has been completed at an expense of $600, and the property and rectory very much improved. "At Appleton, a rectory, valued at $3,000, and a guild house valued at $600, have been built. "At the Church of the Intercession, Stev- en's Point, a new stone altar has been built, and in addition to these improvements a rec- tory valued at about $3i,000 has been erected. "Grace Church, Ahnapee, has been built at a cost of $1,500, and paid for. "At Oakfield, $2,000 has been raised, and new lots bought and paid for, for the erection of a small but handsome stone church. "Two thousand dollars has been given for the building of a chancel and guild house at Hobart Church, Oneida, and $650 towards im- provements in the rectory. ' ' The Cathedral has been adorned by the erection of a rood screen costing $1,500, by the fitting up of St. Augustine's Chapel at a like cost, the purchase of lots on the east side at $3,100, and of the house on the west corner of Sophia street, which is to be used for the re- sidence of the Senior Canon, at a cost of $4,500. All these have been paid for. 200 A JOURNEY GOD WARD "I have also on hand as a gift, $500, to be used for the church at Antigo, when the churclmien at Antigo are ready to meet it with a like sum. And another $500 for the new mission at Merrill and Tomahawk, where the work has begun so auspiciously under the care of the General Missionary. ' ' Each year of the twenty some new enterprise in Fond du Lac, and out in the diocese, has been car- ried through. So great his faith, so large his am- bition for Christ and His Church, one enterprise was not enough ; man}" at the same time and always Avith insistent haste. "The King's business re- quires haste," was often repeated; "Press on the Kingdom." And when others would come to the Council depressed and discouraged, clergy leaving, work failing, no matter what the difficulties, the contrast between their discouragement and the Bishop's hopeful cheerfulness was almost hu- morous. The divine character of his work is il- lustrated by the remarkable way in which he wrung success from failure. A hundred clergy left with oft repeated tales of discouragement, failure, de- feat. Not so the Bishop. A failure was always met with new plans, harder work. But greatest of all, in the face of imminent bankruptcy, lifting debts, and building on hopes, so often frustrated, he has made over this entire diocese spiritually. That was the initial plan and underlying motive all the time. Others had made a Catholic parish; some en- dured, but many failed to maintain their stand- ards. But here was a chance to make a Catholic TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 201 diocese, and this has been the unfaltering purpose. The progress made justifies one in believing that under God it has been practically accom- plished. Much remains to be done on our part. The Bishop has fulfilled his task, and we are here to felicitate him on the fulfilment of his purpose, and to pledge ourselves in loving appreciation to carry on this his great work. God wills it. And His work will go on until from parish to diocese, and from diocese to prov- ince, the entire Church shall be influenced and Catholicised. With all but a diocesan uniformity of ritual, with from ten to twenty daily Masses, with conver- sions secured by repentance, and with confessions increasing rapidly, with a fuller instructed and ripened body of lay churchmen, there is surely cause for devout thankfulness. The story of the diocese is the Bishop's life. He gave himself wholly to its service. How loy- ally he stood by his clergy, how lovingly he encour- aged the laity, and all the time making history in the Church of God ! What a standard for the priestly life he holds up as he counsels, *' Thither the Priest should daily resort to offer the Holy Sacrifice, or recite the Divine Office." And again to the laymen he says: ''Are you striving more fully to enter into the rich heritage you have received from your spir- itual forefathers? Every instructed churchman becomes a power in his community. We may all differ in unessential matters amongst ourselves, but we should stand shoulder to shoulder, and 202 A JOURNEY GODWARD heart to heart, in all Church work. You have re- ceived an anointing from on high and are kings and priests unto God. It will be by the example of our own lives, consecrated and sealed as they are in Confirmation, that you will draw others to the Church. The characteristics of a Churchman should be his manliness, high sense of honour, in- tegrity in his dealings, sobriety in his speech, beauty of his family life, intelligent patriotism, hu- mility before God, and love of His worship. "Let us ask. Do you give of your means as you might in support of your Master's service? Do you give as a matter of principle ? Do you give in proportion to what you expend upon your own comforts and personal luxuries ? Have you found it to be a pleasure to give to God? Do jou give with generous hearts ? Have you provided for the support of your parish by some provision for it in your wills?" I think we little realized the permanent value to the Church of the ruling that he made in one of his Council addresses on the subject of Ritual: "Thankful that we in America are free from state control and the perplexing limita- tions of the English rubric, that our Prayer Book here is to be interpreted in conformity with the traditions of the universal Church of Christ, as Ordinary, our official ruling is, that the Eucharistic vestments, mixed Chalice, wa- fer bread, eastward position, lights on the Altar or borne in procession, and incense, are the allowed usage of the Diocese of Fond du Lac. TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 203 "In introducing incense, this Christian symbol, into your churches, our suggestion is that first your people, being instructed, should desire it on their part, and next that it be confined at first to the great festivals. ''It is also our ruling that the Blessed Sac- rament may be reserved for the sick. "Wherever also your people wish the anointing prescribed by St. James, you know that the oil is consecrated yearly by us, and none need be without that authorized means of obtaining God's blessing on the means used for the body's recovery or the comforting grace it brings to the soul. As Christ loved the poor and sick and suffering, let the Church go forth on her mission, wanting in none of her divine gifts." As one reads the record of this Episcopate, one is struck by the youthful enthusiasm with which each response from others was welcomed. Begin- ning this life work when most men are retiring from active avocations, his life work even to old age has been sealed with the miracle of perpetual youth. His marvellous powers of initiative seem never to wane. "Press on the Kingdom!" Practically every parish and mission has been enriched and advanced by his munificence. The diocesan properties have increased by more than half a million ; the churches beautified and the ser- vices reformed toward the beauty of holiness, and with the holiness of beauty. 204 A JOURNEY GOD WARD It was natural that the religious life should have been restored to the Church and firmly estab- lished amongst us. But that such overflowing abmidance should have come from his poverty is l3ut another proof of the divine character of his work. ' ' Make your work holy within, and God will take care of the outside, ' ' was his one word of en- couragement to the workers in a forlorn hope over- whelmed with poverty. The promise and prophecy have been more than fulfilled for those who took him faithfully and literally at his word. We might recount the triumphs of each year,- the numbers baptized, confirmed, ordained, the retreats for clergy and women, the missions, the work of the sisters, the consecration of the Cathedral and its twenty-fifth anniversary, the election and consecra- tion of our beloved Coadjutor who has done so much to increase and strengthen the missions of the diocese, to strengthen the stakes and lengthen the cords of the diocese, both within and without. For God's good purposes, we trust, the diocese has been advertised as perhaps no other diocese has en- joyed in the Anglican Communion. And it has been a joy to us, though begun in persecution, and not without the continued seal of God's approval, it has certainly brought us an abundant reward and God's blessing every day. For we have been partakers with our Bishop of the fulfilment of God's promise, that goodness and mercy shall fol- low him all the days of his life and he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. His good works with their blessings have fol- lowed him continually from the days of his first gift TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 205 of himself to God. So single has been his purpose, so consistent his career, that the friends of his youth have refreshed him still and supported his enterprises, and God has added to them. And as he would be the first to say that it was God's goodness and grace, may we not recognize that grace of God that has shown itself in all His saints, and see the scintillations of its glory, as with the orthodoxy of an Athanasius, the eloquence of Chrysostom, and the theological acumen of Augus- tine, he has sought to press the Kingdom ^ And that leads to the consideration of the in- fluence of these twenty years outside this diocese. Pardon us for a just pride in some of the outside enterprises in which our Bishop has been active. The religious life throughout the Anglican Communion was placed in a new light and greatly strengthened when our Bishop was consecrated, and continues to feel the good effect. The Confra- ternit}^ of the Blessed Sacrament, of which in the United States he is the Superior General, has grown and broadened its interests. Nashotah has been rebuilt and ref ounded by his influence. Legis- lation in General Convention has not been unin- fluenced by him and those who rallied to his leader- ship. His work amongst the Old Catholics and the Eastern Church, by his visit to Eussia and by cor- respondence, has done the Church a tremendous service. And his writings are circulating through- out the Anglican communion. The Bishop of Lon- don wrote words of warmest commendation, and from Australia another Bishop wrote : ' ' I am giv- 206 A JOURNEY GODWAED ing Christian and Catholic to my lay readers to use in place of sermons." And that we might claim his praj^ers for all the days to come with more confidence, I could, recount to you the miracles in his life amongst us. How frequently his guardian angels protected him from harm and did his bidding ! On one occasion, when a i^riest, the car left the track and the flooring was broken up under his feet. He has traveled on a freight train, and when that had to be abandoned, struggled forward in the dark to the engine with his baggage, and climbing into the cab, ridden to his destination. That was a thrilling experience on a dark night. At Sturgeon Bay the long bridge turns an abrupt corner out over the water. On one of his early trips to Door county, the team ran away on that bridge, and as they made the turn, the car- riage tipped and ran for some distance on the wheels on one side only. Why it did not turn over into the bay, his angels alone can tell. Again, I was with him on a drive to Gardner, when night came on and with it a terrible wind storm. Trees were blown down across the road, and finally the way was lost. The team were spir- ited young horses. But they were led astray to safety, for a change had been made in the road and a narrow causeway of boulders had been built very high and was incomplete. Had it been attempted in the dark, a serious accident would undoubtedly have taken place. A farmer with his lantern guided him to safety. But time would fail me to tell of horseback rides, and railroad crossings, and TWENTY YEARS IN THE EPISCOPATE 207 many other escapes from which, as by miracle, his life was spared. We may well thank God for the glories and the miracles of this Episcopate, and felicitate our Bishop for the days that are past and to come, ad multos annos. CHAPTER XI. MY LIFE IN CHRIST. "Christ in me, the hope of glory." Every life is full of the wonders of God's provi- dential care. The great Love watches over us, and leads the responsive soul onward. It turns our very falls into stepping-stones for our progress. Every soul in glor}^ will look back on a providen- tially-lighted way and a guiding Hand. There will arise from all the saints an eternal song of thanks- giving to Him who redeemed us. How unwearied was the love that perpetually restored and renewed us ! How great has been His goodness ! And how great His mercy! However lastingly progressive shall be the response of our love ! Angels adoringly love Him, but can they love Him as we must, who have been saved by His Precious Blood? The saints in Glory adoringly praise Him for the thou- sand pardons that perfected them in grace. The Christian soul here in its time of struggle, while feeling its sinfulness, yet trusting in the merits of Christ, presses on to the mark of its high calling. Every soul is a marvellous monument of divine grace and its secret is with the Lord. At one time I made a slight record of some of my meditations, revelations, and experiences. Out MY LIFE IN CHRIST 209 of some notes made for my own personal use, I ven- ture a brief record. They contain nothing but what is conmion to the spiritual life, but may be found useful. Meditation on the Vision of Jerusalem. I recall a meditation on the Visioyi of Jerusa- lem, and its Temple. The Prophet was seen walk- ing at night about the deserted city. He beholds the destruction of house and Temple. The solitude of the city fills him with fear. He hears the cries of the wild animals, or the more mournful sound of birds. He is depressed with the hopelessness of its restoration. Once it was so beautiful, so full of light, so glorious with its Temple service. The songs of Zion have ceased. The sacrifices no longer plead from the altars. The mark of God's dis- pleasure has settled on the city in consequence of its sin. So the soul makes a review of its own life. What gifts, intellectual and spiritual, has it not re- ceived? What has it done with themf What of good has it accomplished ? What disasters seen in every department of its life ? How faithless it has been with promises. How did it not betray the Lord, sold Him for some worldly gain, denied Him from moral cowardice, deserted Him for a life of ease, crucified the Lord afresh ? Why cover up the ghastly facts ? ' ' Why longer deceive thyself V In contrast with what thou might have done or been, what a failure! What should be the fruit of our meditation? The sight itself is a gruesome one. The soul cries out, ''Oh my weakness, my weak- 210 A JOURNEY GODWARD ness!" A holy fear, deep, permanent, abiding, should be ours. Again : Our nature is not, as Luther taught, to- tally depraved. It is a good, though an injured, one. In every soul there shines a light from heaven. The wounded man, whom the good Samar- itan succoured, was robbed and left half dead. The life was yet in him. So it is with us. Yet the ex- tent of the weaknesses, infirmities, tendencies of our nature, must be realized if we are to lay a deep foundation on which to build our spiritual life. How can we get such a vivid realization of our con- dition as to work in us a permanent distrust of self ? Now in Holy Scripture we have a mirror of man's nature. We can look into it and see ourselves. We have not committed all the sins recorded there, but have we not in us the germs of them all? It is a good spiritual exercise to go through the Bible, and acknowledge oneself in spirit guilty of the sins there recorded. What was the sin of Eve but im- bridled curiosity and disobedience? What that of Adam, but preference of his wife to his duty to God? What Cain's sin, but envy, with its natural culmination in murder 1 Look at the sins of the Patriarchs. Abraham, through lack of faith in God's protection, tells lies. Jacob, though reverent and thankful to God, is crafty and deceitful. Joseph, as a youth, is self- conceited and boastful. So with Israel's great leader. Moses, the meekest of men finally, never- theless gave way in earlier days to anger and killed an Egyptian. He, too, who had been with God in the Mount, throws down and breaks the Tables of MY LIFE IN CHRIST 211 the Law. Aaron, the High Priest, enticed by the people, makes a golden calf and leads Israel into the sin of idolatry. How did not Miriam fall into sin? How did not Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebel against authority? How did not Achan sin by ill-gotten gain? And Eli by parental indul- gence? And Gideon through love of popularity, and Samson by sensuality, and Saul by assumption of priestly office, and Jeroboam by setting up a schismatical religion? How is not the record of Holy Scripture blotted by the rebellion and idola- try and sins of Israel? And is not the root of every one of these sins to be found in ourselves? Do not the sins of pride, vainglory, boasting, envy, jealousy, ambition, covetousness, anger, sloth, sen- suality, have beginnings in our own nature ? Study the sins of the tongue alone : its untruth- fulness, its self-praise, its detractions, its cynicism, its gossiping; and see, ''out of the heart, how the mouth speaketh. ' ' How self-deceiving we are, how unwilling to see our own faults. How touchy we are, when criticised. How we measure our good- ness by a worldly standard. How we consider our- selves good, because we are restrained by our social position from wrong doing. How secondary mo- tives control our action. How feebly is the prin- ciple formed in us, that we are to do right because it is right. It will therefore help us to pray by help of the Holy Scriptures, seeing in the sins there re- corded a witness against ourselves. We must realize also that our sins are worse than those of the old times, because we have sinned against God Incarnate, against greater light and 212 A JOURNEY GODWARD grace. Have we not forfeited all claim on the mercy we have so abused ? Have we not so many times promised, and not kept our promises, as to have no trust in ourselves ? If the saints in glory knew us, would they not say, as we do of a worth- less character, "Give him up'"? Might they not say : ' ' Such an one cannot be made holy, and so be made fit for heaven. He is only half-hearted in his efforts. He has no desire or standard, save to be respected by society. There is no spirit of self- sacrifice or zealous love of God in hun. Give him up"? But we have not to deal with saints, how- ever compassionate they might be. We turn to our Blessed Lord and to Calvary. We turn to the in- finite mercy and the inexhaustible merit. We hear His world-wide invitation, ''Come." He has made a full, perfect, and sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. He who died for all, died for us individually. He can do what man cannot— blot out the past. He can cast all our sins behind His back. He can wash us in His precious blood. He knows the marvellous power of His transform- ing grace, and He says, "Come"! Meditation on the Seed. I find recorded a short meditation On The Seed. Some of it falls on the hard wayside. It falls on the jDath trodden down by commerce with the world. The heart has become callous ; the ear paralyzed to the Gospel call. The soul has become indifferent to religion. It has passed, unconverted, into the thinness of middle life. It has become dis- illusionized, and wise in its own conceited expe- MY LIFE IN CHRIST 213 riences. On the hard, laminated surface of its ra- tionalizing unbelief the seed falls as on a marble pavement, the soul becomes agnostic. Perhaps troubles, trials, disappointments, have soured the former love and zeal. Into this state a religious may come. God keep me from it. The seed falls upon the shallow ground, where there is little depth of soil. The result is a character ever promising, but not doing; unstable as water; resolving, but never conquering. How much of this has been our case! Have we ever really taken up the cross ? Has the Christian life been a daily battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil? Have we been in deadly earnest in the pursuit of holiness! Steep and craggy is the up- ward pathway. Fortitude, discipline, persever- ance are as necessary as for an Alpine climber; watchfulness, self-sacrifice, endurance as needful as for a soldier. Again, the seed so falls that the riches and cares of the Vv^orld spring up and choke it, and it brings no fruit to perfection. This state is not that only of one inmiersed in money-getting, or pleasure, or statecraft, or professional service; it enters into clerical life and the religious state. The soul gets so absorbed in the outward as to forget the inward; so anxious for an ostensible success as to neglect the hidden and spiritual; so desirous for the world's applause that that of Christ is disre- garded ; so seeking wealthy aid as to become sub- ordinate to its worldly influence. There a re- ligious may find his own ruin through seeking the 214 A JOURNEY GODWARD success of his society. God save us clergy from this peril ! For my own part, I had to say : ' ' The hard pathway must be ploughed up by the Cross. ''The shallow ground so remade as to receive more soil by meditation and self-discipline. ''The thorns must be dug up and cast away, though the operation will be painful." Meditation on the Tares. Consider the Parable of the Tares. The for- mation of Christian character is a slow process. Think what it ought to be. Our Christian life is a supernatural life. It has a supernatural end, a union wdth God in glory. Now a supernat- ural end can only be attained by supernatural means. No man by the cultivation of mere natural virtue and by principles of philosophy, can attain heaven. Christians are the adopted sons of God. They have been made partakers of the Divine na- ture. They have been incorporated into Christ. It is promised that they should be filled with all the fulness of God. They are to go on from strength to strength, and attain a perfection in Christ. But look at thyself, soul. Why these cares ? These little mortifying sins ? These daily imperfections ? These interior disquietudes? These faults of speech ? These little irritations ? This gloominess or despondency ? Why is not thine interior always calm, quiet, peaceful, resting with God? Some of these faults may come from our own selves, but also it is true that an enemy hath done this. Hating us with a malignant hatred, and plotting against us with a tremendous experience in the art of ruining MY LIFE IN CHRIST 215 souls, Satan attacks the Christian with little and subtle temptations. If he tempted them to commit great sins, he is aware they would repulse him. But if he can only get them to commit a number of little ones, these will harden into habit, or the poor soul be thrown into a state of despondency. But Satan, with all his craft and knowledge of man, is ignorant of grace, and grace continually baffles him. Let it ever be remembered that God is never discouraged with us, because He knows His own power. And all those spirits, despondency, melan- cholic feelings, come either from physical causes or from Satan. The latter is said to sow the tares when the Christian man sleeps. Now natural sleep implies a suspension of our conscious control of our bodily energy. The Christian sleep denotes the uncon- trolled working of our nature. As natural sleep is compatible with many activities of the imagina- tion and mind, and in a somnambulistic state one does many things as if awake, so it is with the Christian who is spirituall}^ asleep. He believes himself to be awake. It is this that is so danger- ous, because it leads on to a self-satisfied, false peace. False peace relies on an ignorance of God, and of its own state. ''God is merciful," it says. Most truly so ; but He has extended that mercy in and through the cross, and man cannot reject that mercy and have it too. When the soul realizes its dangerous condition, then, and then only, is it ready to turn to Christ. Then he is in the condition of the prodigal who feels the wrong he has done his father, and longs. 216 A JOURNEY GODWARD by confession of his fault, to make what reparation he can. The sense of his misery may set him thinking; but it is the thought of the Father's love that leads him home. Meditation on the Love of Christ. Our Lord laid aside His garment in token of His laying aside His glory-raiment and girding Himself with the bandage of our humanity; and, stooping down, He took the soiled feet of the Apos- tles into His hands, and washed them and wiped them with the towel wherewith He was girded. "Now are ye clean," He also said, "through the word which I have spoken unto you." How unselfish is His love ! We are so insignifi- cant; only like a single grain of sand upon the great stretch of beach. We are so little every way. We cannot compare ourselves with the angels in their obedience, or wdth the saints and martyrs in their love. In the spiritual life, thousands, every way, surpass us. We are not necessary to the ad- vancement of the Kingdom. Realize what kind of characters we are ! What weakness, what instability is ours. If friends really knew us as w^e know ourselves, how little would they esteem us ! Now our Lord does know us. He knows us through and through. He knows our secret faults, our rebellions, our irresolutions, our murmurings, our backslidings. In contrast with His shining holiness, our sinful souls are black with corruption. How^ much greater is our guilt than that of the heathen, or of the ancient Jews, or even of those MY LIFE IN CHRIST 217 who betrayed Him and put Him to death! Yet He who knows us, loves us ! He has never ceased His pleading prayer, "Father, forgive them." He has never ceased knocking at our heart's door, though we have refused to listen. How long-suf- fering has His love been ! How forbearing ! How amazingly patient! He has forgiven, when He might have condemned. We have been unfaithful to Him, and He has not put us away. He has for- borne with us in spite of all our ingratitude, way- Avardness, and rebellion. We have wasted His grace and grieved His Holy Spirit, but His love has been unwearied, and His Good Shepherd care unceasing. What if a servant of ours had been as unfaithful with the things committed to his care? How presumptuous we have been ! How heedless of calls and warnings ! Think also how true His love has been. His chastisements are sure tokens of it. By the with- drawal of His grace, He has made us realize its need. By the misery we have felt at its loss. He has given us a proof of its reality. By the with- drawal of sensible devotion He has pained but strengthened us. By the cutting our hearts to the quick, and the removal of some idol, He has puri- fied them and made them single. By leaving us to our own devices. He has shown us our pride and folly. He has roused us to new efforts, and the soul has gone out in the darkness, and been beaten and wounded like the Bride in the Canticles, but has again found Him. Blessed thus are the chastenings of the Lord ! And every soul can say. 218 A JOURNEY GODWARD ''It is good for me to have been in trouble," if it has learned by it this spirit of deep humility. Meditation on the Ten Virgins. Every new advance is connected with a renewal of penitence. The tree must push its roots out wider, sink them deeper, if it is to rise to a further height, and be clothed with a fuller foliage. Many times have I meditated on the parable of the Ten Virgins as one full of warning to the ordinary Christian and to the religious. All of the ten be- long to the same band or class. They are types of all Christians. They are united in the same holy cause. They were believers-in, and lookers-out, for the same Lord. They made the same profession of faith. They went forth together as Church mem- bers of the same society. They all had lamps in their hands, alike in outward appearance. The lamps were all lit and burning. The passers-by would see no difference between them. Yet there was one which led to a terrible result and a fatal division. The sleep of death falls upon all of them alike. They awake at the coming of the Bridegroom. Then, alas ! five find the fiame in their lamps flick- ering and just going out. What then was the dif- ference between the wise and the foolish virgins? The wise had taken oil in their vessels with their lamps. The foolish had neglected to make this wise provision. They were like unto those who say, ''Why so much devotion, so much church-going? Such careful Lent keeping? Such self-examina- tion? Such use of confession? Such separation MY LIFE IN CHRIST 219 from the world?" The wise, on the other hand, thought they could not be too careful, too devout and self-sacrificing, make too good use of all the means of grace, could not love the Lord enough, or do too much for Him. So when the day of Grace is over, and priest and sacraments are no longer to be had, they come with lamps extinguished to the door, and beg ad- mittance. But it is shut to them, and they are for- ever shut out. Most sad of all His words are these words of Christ, ' ' I know ye not. ' ' He does not say He had never known them, but He laiows them not now. Is there anything more painful in all the Gospel? It is the case of those who have not been bad, but just foolish. They were wise in their own conceit. They w^ere criminally foolish and so just missed the proffered end. With a lit- tle more care, a little more earnestness, a little more sacrifice, a little more devotion, they might have gained entrance into the heavenly state. But they just missed it! What an awful remorse will be theirs! What an arousing the thought should be to us, and to me ! Meditation on the Words : '' Ye Know Not What Spirit Ye Are Of." We are under the influence of two guides : the human spirit and the divine spirit. One reason many Christians make so little progress is that they do not recognize the human spirit as their most malignant enemy. They have been fairly suc- cessful in fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil, leaving the most subtle and persistent enemy unattacked. 220 A JOURNEY GODWARD The liunian spirit is the most composite one. It is a composite of the weakness and tendencies of our fallen nature, together with our physical tem- perament and natural disposition as they have been affected by our education and environnient. It shows itself, generally speaking, in liberty; in warm and exaggerated expression, eagerness and impulsiveness in manner; in its self-opinionated- ness in speech. In respect to the body, it is usually on the side of ease, comfort, pleasure, and sensual gratification. Mentally, it shows itself in criticism of others, cynicism, love of smartness of speech, gossiping, tenacity of opinion. In the heart and will it shows itself in anxieties to get its own way ; in apprehensions and foreboding concerning trials, in restlessness and fluctuations of spirit, despon- dencies, and morbid states of feeling. It makes us impatient under trials and troubles. It causes hot feeling in prayer to be mistaken for the inspira- tion of the Holy Spirit. It gives, sometimes, great facility in doing good actions to which our active temperaments impel us. It puts on the disguise of a virtue, like zeal, which is not for God, but for self. It is often full of ambition to do great things for God, to be loiown, admired. It is full of the love of power. It is very touchy about its reputa- tion. It is very sensitive about failures. It is filled with shame rather than with repentance about its own sin. Some remedies suggested: There is the old maxim of the saints, ' ' Wherever you find self, leave self." Try to practise mortification of speech. Unite yourself with the silences of our Lord under MY LIFE IN CHRIST 221 trial. Practise control of the thoughts, the idle ones, foolish ones— day dreams. Pray that the Holy Spirit may rule your emotions, fears, hopes, and joys ; that He may govern, mortify, and purify them. However much we may strive to mortify the human spirit or self love, Christ only can give it its mortal wound. It requires great courage to ask Him to take us in hand and do it. It cannot be done, but by giving us great pain, either bodily or in the way of great humiliations. He alone can cauterize this malignant evil. The Christian soul must cease to worry about its own acceptance. Sometimes it feels the shame of its own sins so deeply that it doubts whether God can ever forgive it. It is tempted to sink down under the burden which is intolerable. It says, " If I could only live my life over again, how different, in some things, would it be ! " Now all this is a manifestation of this same human spirit, impatient of itself. It wants to stand in its own righteousness. It allows this spirit thus to gnaw away the secret of its peace. Now the converted and absolved soul has Christ's forgive- ness. He has sealed His promise by absolution. He has acknowledged us as His own children, washed in the Precious Blood. He has blotted out our transgressions. He has cast them behind His back, and they have no longer existence. He clothes us in His own righteousness. We must leave look- ing at self, and look to Him. He is the author and fmisher of our faith. We must believe and trust in His word. We must let Him do it all, and have all the glory, throughout eternity, of redeeming us. 222 A JOURNEY GODWARD We cannot live our lives over again. Probably we should fail the same way if we did. But Christ can give us something better. He can restore us, and give back the years which the caterpillar and the palmer-worm have wasted. He is the Divine Potter, and can recast and remake the marred ves- sel ; He can create a new heart within us, and make us new creatures in Him. He is able to restore every grace which we have lost or wasted, for He can do abundantly more than we ask or think. He gives us a ncAv life in Himself. Meditation on Humility. Cease not to meditate on humility, and trust in God. In order to ascend, we must ever descend. When Simon Stylites stood on his pillar and showed it w^as by divine command, through his obedience to the Bishop, he heard a voice saying unto him, "Dig deeper." In order that w^e may have a detached and free heart, that we may ascend into union with God, we must realize not only our sinfulness, but our nothingness. I remember walking in the woods one day, and, on a log which stood in the midst of a little open- ing, listening to a little insect as he rubbed his wings together and so made one plaintive note; whether it was an acted prayer or song of praise could not be discerned. The little opening in the woods, with the blue sky and clouds above it, was to that little creature its universe. How like that insect was I. How circumscribed my vision and knowledge. How insignificant my being. I was but a little speck upon this little s^Deck of a planet. MY LIFE IN CHRIST 223 I was only like a mote glittering in the sunbeam, along with billions of others. But the great Father knew me, and I knew Him. Christ had promised that He and the Father would come and make His abode in us, and He had done so in little me. His presence filled my little being with an everlasting song of rejoicing. I, like the little in- sect, could utter one note of praise: Glory be to Thee, O God! Dearest, I love Thee, let me love Thee more ! Again, the sight of our nothingness makes me a martyr to love. What can I do for Thee, my Blessed Lord ? Could I lay down my life for Thee it would be less than if an insect should die for a great world's monarch. I give myself, and all I am, and all I have, for all eternity, to Thee and Thy loving service. It is of Thy marvellous good- ness Thou art willing to accept so small an offer- ing. Love with an increasing love consumes us by its fire. Yet, O Lord, increase the torment, till it more perfectly unites me with Thee ! The love that loves me, makes me return His love. O Lord, I cannot return a love like Thine. My love is so little and so weak. Give me of Thy love, that with Thy love I may love Thee. Empty me of myself, and fill me with Thyself. Darts of fire from Thy sacred wounds pierce my innermost heart. Destroy the germs of self-interest, self- seeking, self-deceit, self-love, in me. May I be crucified to the world and the world crucified to me. If Thou givest me to drink out of the cup of Thy Passion, hold Thou Thy cup to my lips. I cannot live without partaking of it. It is thus I 224 A JOURNEY GODWARD hold communion with Thee. I must suffer or die. I accept all my sufferings, my heart-wounding, my rejections, my trials— all that once broke my heart and wrapped me in painful darkness. For it all I bless Thy dear name. Bless Thou all my ene- mies. I love them for Thy sake, and would gladly die for them. Only, dear Lord, let me now die in Thee. The soul that realizes its nothingness and union with God asks for nothing, desires nothing but His will. I am, dear Lord, Thy servant and slave. I ask Thee not to help plans of my own de- vising, but use me as Thou seest fit to carry out Thy plan. Give, O Lord, what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt. Let • come what will come. Thy will is welcome. My joy, dearest Lord and God, is that Thou hast Thy will, and the joy that Thou hast in having it is my joy. Let there be only one will between us and that Thine own. I have no spiritual ambition for greatness, or place in the Heavenly City. The last and least is all too good for me. But O dearest and best and loveliest, my all in all, my Joy, my Treasure, my Life, hide me— a little thing— in Thy life. I joy that Thou hast the blessed angels and joyous saints to worship and serve Thee. Make me, O Holy and Blessed One, what Thou wouldst have me to be. Show Thy glory in transforming the sinner into a saint ; the worst of sinners into the least of saints. Fulfil Thy blessed will in me to Thy greater glory and the good of others. my life in christ 225 Extract from a Meditation on the Text: "Out OF the Mouth of Babes and Sucklings Hast Thou Perfected Praise." I found a letter written to the late Mother Superior of St. Margaret's, Boston, from Europe in the seventies, which expressed my spiritual con- dition in a time of trouble. ''Let us leave self, and wait on God's will. Seek His glory every way. Have no interest of our own. Learn to rest on His merits, and in His love. Here is the secret of spiritual peace. We need not die to come to this great rest. Even now the means are given us. The wings of the Dove will carry us thither. Sorrow and trial does its blessed and blessed-making work. Even now, laiown to some, He gathers souls into His peace. He hides them in His Tabernacle. The inner doors of the Passion are opened. The un- known depths of Divine Love reveal their awful, entrancing loveliness. Such as these have received a death-wound in their souls. They live, not so much as He lives in them. Though in the dark- ness, suffering or deserted, misunderstood or be- trayed, alone in their enforced solitude, or feeling life's great burden, yet His peace takes possession of them. They cling, not to Him, so much as He enfolds them in Himself. His love so asserts itself ; they love all, forgive all, bear with all. They can only rejoice and thank Him, as every trial or dis- tress makes more real His presence within. They know their own secret and their secret trysting- place with Him. For them the morning of the Resurrection is ever breaking. Round about them, the aurora of the Ascension is ever pouring its 226 A JOURNEY GODWAED transforming light. They come to trust wholly to Him, rely solely on His merits, His righteousness, His love. Trusting wholly to His cleansing Blood, they desire, for His, their dear One's sake, a cleans- ing of all the stains in the robe of His giving. But uneasiness or disquietude about self, the}^ know not. They are in Him, and He in them. Their wills and their hearts rest in Him. There is but one will and heart between them, and that is His. There is but one love-beat animating their life. They became children to enter the Kmgdom of Heaven ; they must become something more to show forth His praise. They are as babes at the breast, held in His arms, controlled by His will. They are babes, yet spouses also. There is, too, the matured love that knows His love, knows His will. His mind, and His work. And the love-united soul in it, watches or furthers His interests, finds its joy in the joy of its Lord. Thus the will sleeps, but the heart waketh. The will sleeps in His arms; un- conscious as a babe, it is borne in His arms along the terrible precipices; or like babes, sheltered at their mother's breast, while famine and pestilence and death are abroad. But their hearts are awake, and they love increasingly the love that loves them, with the love He gives. Let us pray Him for this union and this rest. Let us wait on His good pleasure. Be patient with self. Make acts of trust in Him. Thank Him for privations, hmniliations, losses, and be in all things resigned to His blessed and blessed-making will." MY LIFE IN CHRIST 227 For practice I add some acts of devotion : ACTS OF FAITH. Blessed art Thou, Wonder-worker of Creation's Mystery. Blessed art Thou in its development in the Incarnation. Blessed art Thou in the Sacrament of the Altar. Lord, I believe in Thee. Holy and Merciful One, the Burden-bearer of our sins, O Thou, the Sin Victim, by whose stripes we are healed, Blessed Jesus, whose Precious Blood cleanses from all sin, 1 rest on Thy merits and in Thy love. ►^ All glory be to Thee, Jesus Christ, reigning at God's right hand, All glory be to Thee, ever abiding in Thy Church, All glory be to Thee, dwelling in the hearts and wills of Thy people. With heart, mind, and will, I adore Thee. Hail, most gracious Saviour, dying for us on the Cross, Blessed art Thou, rising triumphant from the grave, Blessed art Thou, hidden in Thy sacramental cloud, until the day of Thine unveiling. I love Thee. May I love Thee more. All glory be to Thee, whom the choirs of angels worship, Blessed art Thou, whom Thy saints in glory adore, All laud to Thee, whom Thy Church in patience serves. To Thee I give myself, and all I have and am. Hail, most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, Incarnate God and Man, Hail, our Prophet, Priest and King, our Redeemer and Advocate, Hail, dearest Lord, our Mediator, Saviour, and our God. Blessed Jesus, Thou art our All in All. Blessed and Most Holy One, our Ee-maker, and Re-Creator, Blessed Life of our life, and Soul of our soul, In whom we are re-created and accepted in the Beloved — I look for Thy glory and rejoice in Thy Love. ►I- 228 A JOURNEY GODWARD ACTS OF RESIGNATION. I resign myself, my body, soul, and spirit, to Thy loving care and keeping, who loves me, and whom I love. I resign myself to suffer what in Thy good pleasure Thou shalt let befall me, that it may bind me more closely to Thee. I am content to serve Thee with the abilities and means Thou givest me, and to be little in the sight of men. I renounce all affection of creatures that hinders my supreme love of Thee, I renounce government by the world's maxims, being governed by Thee. I purpose to take up my Cross daily, and follow Thee, trusting in Thy promised aid and deliverance in the time of trial. I will live for Thee, and in Thee, taking this life but as a proba- tion and training school for heaven. ACTS OF LOVE. Lord, what is there in Heaven or Earth that I would desire beside Thee? Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? Lord, here am I, send me. Let all that is within me bless Thy holy Name. Lord, I love Thee. Help me to love Thee more. Jesu, Thou art my love, my All-in-all, Sweetness of my heart, Joy of my Spirit. Jesu, my Refuge, my Peace, my Riches, my Resting Place, my Joy. Too late have I known Thee, Infinite Goodness and Beauty, ever-ancient and ever-new. Hold me fast, dear Lord, and let nothing pluck me out of Thy Hand. Abide with me, dear Lord, for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent. CHAPTER XII. AN INSTRUCTION. "Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh" We have here the three great principles of the spiritual life and its union with God. Gold stands for love, frankincense for praj^er, myrrh for mor- tification. It was from Fr. Baker's Sancta Sophia that I learned that the saintly life could be resolved into two activities, mortification and prayer. Fr. Baker held, in contrast with the Jesuit system, to the tra- ditions of the older Fathers and the Benedictine Rule. He has long been noted for his wisdom and spiritual attainment. "Whose secret life and published writings prove To pray is not to talk or think, but love." Mortifications are of two classes— the imposed and the voluntary. It is the part of a Christian to suffer with resignation all that God's Providence sends, whether such external things as sickness, be- reavements, worldly losses, injuries, or internal ones, as inward distress of mind, dryness of soul, withdraAvals of comfort, periods of darlaiess, deso- lations of spirit. Concerning external mortifica- tions, the soul must first resign itself to them, knowing that all that God wills is for the best. It must then advance from the degree of submission 230 A JOURNEY GODWARD to conformity with God's will. It wills what He wills, because He wills it. It says in union with its Lord, not only, "Thy will be done," but ''Not my will but Thine." We vohmtarily mortify our bodies by ruling our appetites. All that God has made is good and is to be used. Sin is unregulated desire, and the misuse of creatures. While we may use all things given for the glory of God, we may deny ourselves in some, and so make our offering to Him. But our voluntary mortifications, however, are only profitable and meritorious when done in charity. The erroneous Indian philosophy, which regards matter as evil, practises asceticism to free the soul from it. The Christian practises self-denial in order to be more conformed to his Lord and be united by love to Him. The true-hearted bride desires to share in the life of her spouse and es- teems it a privilege to share His hardships with Him. There are various ways by which we may disci- pline ourselves— by abstraction, solitude, silence, and by preserving tranquility of mind. We may abstain for instance, from engaging in works not pertaining to us; or from doing what belongs to us to do, with affections centred on them and not directed to God. In considering what we should do in any matter, we are to ask ourselves not whether it is a good thing in itself, but whether we are called on to do it. Many persons, neglecting this, busy themselves with their own plans, and not with those designed for them. Again, we may practise retirement from the AN INSTRUCTION 231 world by not letting ourselves be immersed in it. Our duties to society should be subordinate to our duties to Christ and His Church. The Christian soul must not be like a gay butterfly flitting from one flower to another in search of worldly pleasure, but like a soldier, girded and armed against the enticement of a worldly life. We may practise silence by keeping ourselves from gossiping and de- tracting conversation; from murmurings against God's dealings with us, and vain disputes with our fellows. We may mortify our wills by acts of resig- nation to God's providences and dealings with us. We may mortify our hearts by detaching them from any earthly idol, and making God our Su- preme Love. We may mortify our tempers and tongues by sharply schooling the latter and pray- ing for our enemies. We may offer up all our bodily or spiritual pains to Christ crucified, and re- joice in suffering with Him. It is the law of the new Creation. Prayer. What gravitation is to the material universe, prayer is to the spiritual one. By that we mean that it is a fundamental law. God wills to be moved by prayer, and God governs the world. Prayer also keeps man in communion with God, and God is the life of the soul. Our spiritual life depends upon it, as the body does upon the air. It is a perpetual source of light and warmth and growth and joy. It is the most divine action that a rational soul is capable of. By it we are united to God, in increasing degrees of union, and by it all 232 A JOURNEY GODWARD grace and good are obtained. The Christian soul, aided by the Spirit, prays to God in Christ, and God, according to Christ's promise, hears and answers our prayers. He will answer them to our own spiritual advancement, as He said, "Whatso- ever ye ask in M}^ name, it shall be done unto you. ' ' He will answer our prayers for temporal blessings for ourselves or others, according as He sees the answers will be beneficial to them or to us. I have sometimes been asked, "How shall we obtain answers to our prayers 1 ' ' God has, it is my experience, been perpetually answering them. If I want anything, temporal or spiritual, I go to the Father, as His child, being sure that if it is for my or another's good He will give it to me. I often say to myself, ' ' I have an awfully rich Father, for He owns the whole universe; but I don't want any- thing except He gives it me; for my joy is not in the gift but in my dear Father as the Giver." So I am alwa3^s happy and contented and in Avant of nothing. First, I would say to anyone : Before you pray, try to think what is the will of God. Will this, for which I pray, forward His interests? Desire nothing but what He wills. Be perfectly content that He should refuse your request if it is not His will. I have known persons to pray for the life of some relative or friend, and be sorry afterwards, when the person turned out badly, that they had done so. If one is praying for some spiritual good to be done oneself, either by the removal of some tempta- tion, or the acquisition of some virtue, remember AN INSTRUCTION 233 that God is less likely to take away the temptation than to give strength to bear it; for we become holier, not by the absence of temptation, but by vic- tory over it. Again, we find that God answers our prayers for virtues by allowing a trial. The soul prays for faith. Now faith is not poured into us like a liquid into a vessel. Faith is the victory over doubt. So if we pray for more faith, the advanced soul is more likely to have doubt. So, if we pray for the overcoming of our temper God answers by allowing trials of temper to come. God may deal differently with the young novice in religion. He, in His tender care, takes the lamb up into His bosom. But He strengthens the advancing soul by spiritual discipline. Again, He gives answers slowly. He does so to strengthen us in perseverance. He does so because He would train us in prayer. He does so because He would have us more gratefully prize the gift, when it comes. He does so because He loves to hold communion with us, and reveal to us the secret of His divine heart. Show me Thy face, said Moses ; and he saw it on the Mount of the Transfiguration. The prayer of Zacharias was heard and answered when it had become a seemingly physical impossi- bility. At times every devout person desires to know God's will in his regard. Some question of duty has presented itself. He is called on to make a choice between two lines of action. He is to take up a certain work, and leave a certain position. He wishes to know God's will. How shall he do it? 234 A JOURNEY GODWARD He betakes himself to prayer, and prays over the matter before God. Possibly he argues the matter, stating the pros and cons in his prayer. But in this way he is more likely to get at his own will than at the will of God. Let him, m prayer, seek to get into a state of absolute indifference as to what God may decide for him. When this has really been done, let him wait, and by some provi- dential act, or the realization of some strong argu- ment on one side, he may conclude this is God's voice. But if, as it may occur, no sign is given, then whichever way he acts will be in conformity to the will of God. In respect to interior inspirations, those of the human spirit, or even of Satan, are often mistaken for God's leadings. No inward inspiration can be trusted which is not in conformity with the teach- ing of the Church, and any such should be most carefully scrutinized as probably doubtful if it is against lawful obedience. To keep in the spirit of prayer during the day, one should practise ejaculatory prayer. It is a simple exercise on waking to make the sign of the Cross and to utter the Holy Name. Thus the first act of the day, and the first words we speak, will be directed to God. Public Prayer. It is very blessed to unite with the other mem- bers of the mystical body in prayer and praise. Many persons complain that they suffer from wan- dering thoughts. It is not the greatest of sins, but it is a spiritually expensive one. One remedy is to try, in public worship, to realize God's presence. AN INSTRUCTION 235 To the degree in which you can keep Him before you, your prayer will be profitable. Some are helped by realizing the presence of our Lord. You have come into the Presence Chamber of the Great King. With the eye of the soul look to Him, and to Him address your prayer. Make a practice of this, and for a time do not think of the words. The words may be said mechanically. But if the soul in its devotion is fixed on the object to whom its prayers are addressed, we should pray effectively. It would be prayer, even if we said no words at all. Just the sense of God's presence will fill the soul with a special peace. In saying the Psalter, remember it was our Lord's own Prayer Book. It was written purposely for Him ; and for its highest use, for His recitation of it. There are many things in it you may not comprehend, but we may say them, in union with our Lord, just as a little child says its prayers after its mother. In saying the Psalter in the choir, where it is said antiphonally, it makes it more devotional to insert after the colon in each verse, some word of adoration or love. Take such words as ''Blessed God," or "Dearest Lord," thus: "Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies. Holy God." "Make me to go in the path of Thy com- mandments, dearest Lord." "Let Thy loving mercy come also unto me, O Lord Jesus." Saying the Psalm in this way makes it more de- votional. It helps to deliver us from a mechanical recitation, and the formalism of a routine service. Meditation. There are persons who get puzzled by the rules 236 A JOURNEY GODWARD given for meditation, and say they cannot medi- tate. Let them begin by what I have called "Pray- ing on a subject," then they will find it easy. Let them kneel down and read over some small portion of Scripture and think "That is God's word to me." Let them intersperse their own prayers with the reading. Take for instance the Ten Commandments, or the Beatitudes, or the Twelve Fruits of the Spirit, or some parable; or let them take their own life, and think how God has blessed them, protected them. Let them think over the many, many causes of thanksgiving, and say in prayer, I thank Thee, O Lord, for each and every one of them. Let them take the great mysteries of the Faith, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Gift of the Spirit, the Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. Let them bow down before God, and repeat over and over again: "I adore Thee, I love Thee." Or say such praise as this : "O sweet Lord Jesus Christ, full of grace, I thank Thee for these mercies. Blessed is Thy most holy life, Thy Pas- sion and Thy Death, and blessed is the Blood Thou sheddest for us"— adding the separate blood shed- ding. Of meditation, there are two kinds or methods : the modern one, which has its prelude or picture, then the discourse upon the subject taken by the understanding, which consists in asking such ques- tions as Who 1 What ? Where ? With what means ? Why? How? Then follows an application to one- self : What practical lesson am I to draw from it ? What motives to persuade me to follow that prac- AN INSTRUCTION 237 tice? How am I to act in the future? And then the will and affections, turning to God, hold a col- loquy with Him. The older method, which has the traditions of the desert and of the holy order of St. Benedict, is more simple, if less logical, in arrangement. The soul places itself in God's presence with acts of adoration, thanksgiving, love, joy, resignation, contentment. Different temperaments are drawn to adopt one or other of these methods, both of which are good. But a time comes that devout souls, when prac- tising the former method, leave it and advance to the degree of affective prayer. The soul no longer discourses so much with its understanding about the mysteries of religion, but by acts of the will and heart, grows in further union with our Lord. These acts are first enforced by the will, but subsequently are voluntary and spontaneous as the outcome of God's indwelling in the soul. "My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the Living God. ' ' All things become to it a matter of prayer. It loves God, it rejoices in God, it cannot cease to praise Him. All things that come, whether sor- rows or trials, are only food for the elevation of the soul in union with the Divine Life. Not I that live, but Christ lives in me. And so the soul passes on to the state of con- templation. It becomes less active; it becomes more and more passive. It no longer labours and struggles. It is no longer engaged in such active warfare. Its natural powers become more qui- escent. It has gone out of self and is resting in God. 238 A JOURNEY GODWAED It does not work so much, as God works within it. It is full of a diviner peace than that which came at the time of its conversion. God is its All- in- All. Its persistent maxim is '*God only." It has been vouchsafed so ghostly a sight of the Pas- sion, that the old nature has been mortified, and God lives within the soul. O the sweetness, the blessedness of a state which is a foretaste of Heaven ! There is granted also to some favoured souls, whose humility is such that God can trust them with His gifts, a degree of prayer or communion with God called the "prayer of quiet." St. The- resa was its great apostle and teacher. I have Imown souls myself so held in the embrace of God that their natural faculties were held in a passive state of stillness, and without words uttered, they communed with God and God with them. One law of this prayer they learned to obey— not to seek it but to let God give it; not to cling to the state or vision, which is known to be of God, because it does its work. Love. The Gospel of Christ is the Gospel of love. It reveals to us that God is love, and His love to us. As love itself, it binds in oneness the Ever-Blessed Trinity in an eternal jubilation of joyous exist- ence. God, in the Eternal and Ever-Being-Begot- ten Son, and the Eternal Procession of the Holy Spirit, has the all-satisfying fruition of His own love. His love overflows in the mystery of creation. It reflects His nature and attributes. It advances AN INSTRUCTION 239 to its perfection in the Incarnation. Therein God joins it to Himself by the union of the Divine and Human Nature of Christ in the Person of the Eter- nal Word. Love flows from its Incarnate Source in the Person of the Holy Spirit, who fills the Church and transforms it into a likeness of Christ. It makes the Church, thus sanctified, the Bride of God. The Church in its completed fulness has been seen from all eternity, and been predestinated in its means of justification, and the completeness of its numbers, and the elevation of its sanctified life. God is Light, and the Light is Life, and that Life is Love. Our life is as nothing worth unless transfigured by the active presence of the loving God in us. His love is a redeeming and justifying and sanctifying love. His love is a purifying, il- luminating, transfiguring love. His love is a di- vine love, a penetrating, triumphant love. It is a love beyond our measuring, permanent, inexhaust- ible, because it is the very love which is God Him- self. It surrounds us by its providence. It pleads with us by His Spirit, invites us by its compassion, embraces us in its mercy, re-creates us by its grace, makes us partakers of the divine nature, fills us with the spirit of adopted sons, perfects us in the fulness of God, b}^ His indwelling. It leads us on to the eternal reign of God Incarnate. We are to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Our love for God as the product of His grace is a living principle of action in us. Nature with its powers and imperfections, remains, to be used and 240 A JOURNEY GODWARD to be ruled. For a Christian, the dominant motive of action in us is the love of God. By the constant assertion of it, it strengthens into a habit. Habit, when formed, becomes kingly and rules the soul. It must rule even if it has to take the sword of discipline and mortification for a sceptre. This applies not only to the body, but to the mind and heart. It arms itself with the holy resolve to do all things for the love of God, that it may be less un- worthy of His love. It never ceases to sweep the house diligently by self-examination, and to search for the lost draclnna. As fire burns away the mould on the metal, so our imperfections are destroyed by perfect love. As the love of God grows in us, it grows, like the love in God, out of itself. It has tasted of the divine fruit, and knows its sweetness. Experience has revealed ''how gra- cious the Lord is. " It lives in another than a mere material world. To it, there is no joy like the peace of God "which passeth understanding." Filled with love, it desires to work for others. It hears the cry of humanity lying in darkness. It feels the weakness of the Church, wounded and stricken by divisions. It may be able to do a little, but it must not wrap its talent in a napkin and bury it. If we cannot go forth, as priests or sis- ters, yet in every parish, and in every department of society, there is work to be done. The principle of the Incarnation which God brought do^\Ti from heaven to save us must be our example. The soul on the rock saved from the angry, raging waves, must not be content with its own safety, but must stretch down its hand to some fellow creature still AN INSTRUCTION 241 struggling in the waves for life. Why hold back the sacrifice of the things of this earth, when look- ing down from heaven is seen the face of the Blessed Lord ? Why let our human fears conquer us, when it is the omnipotent word of the Master that bids us "Come"? We are living in days when the last great bat- tle between Christ and His foes is on. Let us not be like the children of Ephraim, who, being har- nessed and carrying bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle. There is no cause for which a man can live so worthy of efforts as the cause of Christ. Nothing is so worth loiowing as the will of God in our regard; nothing so worth doing as obedience to His will. Let us be up and doing- most happy if we can lay down our lives for Christ's dear sake. As love becomes the ruling principle within us, it fills our whole nature. The soul, being emptied of self love, attains to a heavenly calm and assured peace. As we become one with God, God puts Himself at our disposal, for our wills are His. Secured in the love of God, the soul passes safely through the purifying desolation which may beset it. Even here, God fills it with the sweetness and light of joy and transformation, and becomes the life of its life and the soul of its soul. O Lord, in Thy tender mercy, give me an emp- tied heart, a heart emptied of all worldly desire, ambition, and all self-seeking and self-love. Give me a detached heart, made free, even by Thy discipline, from all inordinate affections. 242 A JOURNEY GODWAED May it be set on Thee, as the supreme Lover and Governor of my soul. Give me, O Blessed Lord, a humble and lowly heart, like unto Thine own. Hide me, Dearest, in Thine own hiddenness, and fill me with Thy peace. Give me, O Jesus, my King, my God, a resigned heart. May Thy will be done in me, and by me, and may I have my joy, in that Thou hast Thy will. Give me, O Lord, ever present in Thy Church and people, a recollected heart. May I guard Thine indwelling as a sacred trust. Give me the chivalry and the loyalty of a true knight of Thine. Clothe me with the heavenly armour. And grant me per- severance unto the end! S. SAVIOUR'S, MOSCOW. CHAPTER XIII. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION. "0 Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem!" I ever laboured for a restoration of outward union between all Christian bodies. When the Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity was founded, I became an active member of it. It has always been my custom in consequence to say daily a prayer for a united Christendom. I have desired to see the restoration of Chris- tian fellowship between the separated portions of Apostolic Christianity. It would be a great bene- fit to Christ and the extension of Christ's King- dom, if the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Western ones, the Latin and the Anglican, could cease their warfare and work harmoniously to- gether. Nor should we of the Anglican Commun- ion withhold our sympathy from those sectarian bodies that have gone out from us, but pray that the breaches may be healed. I have always been kindly received by the latter. When a priest serv- ing in Boston, I was asked by the Baptist denomi- nation to address their clergy on the subject of Church work. I have taken part in services with them which were of a national character. I have been asked to address their congregations on the 244 A JOURNEY GODWARD position and teaching of our Church. On one occa- sion, quite a number of the ministers belonging to the various denominations in the heart of one of our large cities asked me to conduct a retreat for them. They had heard about retreats, as means of spiritual progress, and desired that I should give one to them, leaving all arrangements in my hands, and making me its sole conductor. I do not think any union with the sects can be brought about by dealing with them in their cor- porate capacity. The ties which now bind them together are too strong to allow of an absorption or confederation. They regard their prosperity as a token of God's blessing on their organizations. Nor would a better state of feeling be produced by what is called an "Open pulpit." This would not only more surely convince them of the rightfulness of their separation and sectarian theology, but would be at the expense of the disruption of our own Communion. But possibly separate congre- gations might be brought into union with us by the allowance of a temporary use of a service ap- proved by the Bishops of a Province, and a con- tinuance of the administrations of the former pas- tor, for a time, as a lay reader. When a body, or a congregation, should desire union with us, they might wait for a time before receiving the Sacra- ments, which, until their own minister was or- dained, would be supplied by a priest of the Church. Concerning restored communion between the Apostolic Eastern, i.e., Russian and Greek, Churches, the Western, i.e., Eoman and Anglican, CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 245 we must note a distinction between unity and union. Our Lord prayed that His Church might be one as He and the Father are one. Now He and the Father are one by unity of possessing a common Nature. It is an organic and indestructible unity. It is this kind of unity that He prayed should be that of His Church. This unity of the Church is secured by those gifts of sacramental grace which, uniting all the members to Christ, make them par- takers of His nature, and brothers and sisters of His one family or flock. By this union with Christ, an indestructible unity is secured. So that all members of these various branches of the Church, united to Christ, and having His life flow- ing, as it were, in their veins, form one body in His sight. Christ also prayed for union. He prayed for such a visible union as that the world, seeing all nationalities united together by the tie of Chris- tian charity, should have therein a witness of His divine mission. What has happened has been that this union or intercommunion has been disturbed. As Christ prayed for union we should also pray for its restoration. But we must always pray in submission and conformity to the will of God. How do we know that it is His will that the separated portions of Christendom should be united? Is there any inti- mation of it in Holy Scripture? Did He desire the reuniting of Israel and Judah after their sep- aration? Did He not forbid the conquering of one portion by the other ? How is it in respect to the Christian Church ? It fell into the same sin as 246 A JOURNEY GODWARD Israel in desiring a visible head, and as in the case of Israel, disunion was the result. What is to be, according to the divine will, the course of His Church on earth? It is not to conquer the world, and to make the world good. It is to gather out of the world those who are to form the Kingdom of Righteousness, which is to last forever. The world is in opposition to Christ and will become more so as time goes on. The world will treat the Church, which is the coming Bride of Christ, as it treated Christ. It will graduall.y reject ortho- dox Christianity for some rationalized theology of its own making. It will gain a foothold within the body of the Church itself, which will be the source of its division. Christianity, as a world's victor, will be a failure. Its true victory will be found in its faith in Christ, which will not thereby be dis- turbed. Now it is this that Christ prophesied of His Church. His Gospel will be preached first of all as a witness to all nations. But as the end draws nigh, the powers of the Church will be shaken. The glory of Christ's Deity, who is the Sun of Righteousness, will be obscured. The stars of heaven, that is, the Bishops and Priests of the Church, will fall away. The sign of the Cross, that is persecution, will be seen. The outward garment of Christ will be rent by divisions. While the bones of the mystical Body of Christ cannot be broken, for the unity of the Body is indestructible, yet all the bones, as symbolical of the union and co- ordinate working of each part, will be out of joint. The outer framework of the Church, like the ship CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 247 in which St. Paul sailed, will suffer shipwreck. It is of those in this Gospel Ship that Christ said to Paul: ^'Lo, I have given thee all that sail with thee. ' ' He never made such promise, we may note in passing, to St. Peter. He only preached out of Peter's boat as representing the Old Dispensation, and brought Peter to confession of his sinfulness. But no security was pledged to the Old or the New Dispensation organization. Peter's boat began to sink, and St. Paul's went to pieces. The Church must thus calmly look on to the end. There will be, it is true, at the second coming of Christ, a deep religious movement within the Church, just as there was at His first coming. But Christ has promised no triumph of the Church over the world. While then we may pray for outward union, we must be content with the real unity of the Body of Christ. We cannot say that it is God's will that the different portions of disunited Christen- dom will ever be united. We must not say, as if we knew with absolute certainty, that outward union is what God wants. There are reasons why it may be otherwise. The prophecies, at least, do not point that way. While for a long portion of ni}^ life I hoped for the reunion in Western Christendom of the Anglican and Latin Commun- ions, after the Roman rejection of our orders, which was in itself, I believe, a great blessing, the union seemed a practical impossibility. The Holy Spirit in the last century has been striving with the Anglican Communion, to regain its full heri- tage of faith and worship. And, with some degree, the Anglican Church has made a loving response 248 A JOURNEY GOD WARD to God. She has done penance for her sins. She has made acknowledgment of her faults. She has extended her love to her separated brethren. Her sons and daughters have given themselves with heroic devotion to the cause of Christ. The Faith as taught from the beginning throughout the ages, and as announced by all portions of Christendom, has been held with revived energy. The Holy Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist has been largely restored as the one great worship of the Lord's Day. Responding to the Spirit's call, she has put on her glorious ceremonial as an expres- sion of her faith and love. She has aroused her- self from her Erastian slumber like a giant re- freshed with wine. On the other hand, the same Holy Spirit has been pleading with the Latin Community; plead- ing with her, through the Anglican Church, through the Eastern Synods, by the Old Catholic movement, by the stirring call of the Modernist, by the movement in favor of a liberal Catholicity, and by those whom Rome itself would call her loyal and faithful children, to cease to be papal and to become more Catholic. The modern mon- archical absolutism of the Papacy, which makes the Pope the source of all jurisdiction, gives him an exclusive legislative power, makes him the judge of all controversies, the doctor and teacher of the Church apart from the Councils, is a Papacy different in kind from the honour, precedence, and, lawful influence given by tradition and canon law to the Pope as the first Bishop of Christendom. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 249 He refuses our acknowledgment of his primacy, demanding a submission to his supremacy. He claims, on the non-Patristic interpretation of three texts, the Forged Donation of Constantine, and the Forged Decretals, a power as of divine right which the ancient Church knew not of, ana the Eastern and the Anglican Churches, without faithlessness to their Lord, cannot acknowledge. But the question between the Anglican and Roman to-day is not that of the sixteenth century. While the Church of England, with some mistakes, it may be admitted, sought in legal fashion, and by appeal to the ancient faith, to reform herself by conforming to Apostolic traditions, the teaching of the Fathers, the doctrines of the Councils, and by common consent; Rome, repudiating an appeal to history, has widened the breach in Christendom by adding doctrines like those of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and Papal In- fallibility, to her Creed. In her claim to a tem- poral sovereignty she has surrounded herself with the pomp and splendor of an earthly court. By her love of power, her worldliness, centralized dic- tatorship, and her Italian policy, she contravenes the injunction of our Lord, "My Kingdom is not of this world." We may pray for Rome's con- version; but only a moral earthquake, as terrible as the physical one which destroyed Messina, can shatter the Papacy and make possible a reunion with her. We turn gladly and more hopefully to the East- ern Churches. Rome's one term of union is 250 A JOURNEY GODWARD summed up in the word "submission." We must submit, and be incorporated in her. We must submit, and become papalizecl. Now the Eastern Church does not ask us to submit. In h-er great love she only asks, "Are we of the same faith?" Have we kept the faith of the Fathers, as she cer- tainly has ? If we are one with her in faith, then she opens her heart, and says, "We are brethren." A way, then, to union with the East, is first of all to develop union within ourselves. The differ- ent schools in the English Church do agree, we believe, in the same creed, the same great princi- ples of the faith, and use the same Book of Com- mon Prayer. Whatever tends to the minimizing of party spirit, to the better understanding of one another, tends to the unity of Christendom. It is at home that the effort of union must first be made. We must be practically one amongst ourselves, and this unity is consistent with a diversity of al- lowed ritual and ceremonial. Let this be brought about, and union, we believe, in Christian fellow- ship with the Eastern Churches, A\dll not be far distant. It may be interesting here for my readers to read a letter of mine, sent to the Most Rev. Arch- bishop Antonius ; also a report I made after a visit to Russia to the Bishops and members of our Com- mission on Ecclesiastical Relations ; and also a let- ter addressed to Antonius, the presiding member of the Holy Governing Synod of Russia, and to the Synod, through him : ANTONIUS, METROPULITAX OF ST. rETERSBURCJ church unity and union 251 Report to the Commission on Ecclesiastical Relations. ''To the Bishops and Members of the Commis- sion on Ecclesiastical Relations: "Reverend and Dear Brethren: "Having been brought into personal and friendly relations with some of the members of the Russian Orthodox Church, including the Rt. Rev. Bishop Tikhon and the Most Rev. Antonius, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, I was urgently requested by some, among whom was the Russian Consul General Lodygenski in New York, to visit St. Petersburg in the interest of Christian fellowship. At the same time, as a member of our Commission, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Huntington, our chairman, gave me a letter, accrediting me as a member of our body to the Russian Church. "I was also honoured by the following let- ter, given under the hand and seal of our late Rt. Rev. Presiding Bishop, Dr. Clark : '' 'To the Most Reverend Antonius, Arch- bishop and Metropolitan of St. Pe- tersburg : " 'Will you allow me to introduce to you the Right Reverend Charles Chap- man Grafton, D.D., Bishop of Fond du Lac, in the United States of America, who is visiting in Russia in order to learn all that he can of the Church in that country, and also to give information, wherever 252 A JOURNEY GODWARD it is desired, of the condition of the Church in this part of the world? It is his wish, and that of many others, to es- tablish and continue fraternal relations between the Eastern Church in Russia and the Church in America. " 'Any attentions, therefore, which may be shown him, or any aid that he may receive in his investigations, will be warmly reciprocated by the Church in this country. '' 'I am, with great respect, " 'Your affectionate brother in Christ, " 'Thomas M. Clark, " 'Presiding Bis]iop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. " 'Newport, Rhode Island, " 'August 18th, 1903u' "The object of my visit, as stated in this letter, was to obtain information concerning the Orthodox Church, and to give any in- formation of the condition of the Church in this part of the world. The Presiding Bishop also stated that it was the wish of many here to establish and continue fraternal relations between the Eastern Church in Russia and the Church in America. "Our Secretary, Fr. De Rosset, also wrote and requested me to prepare a report on the question of the rapprochement of the Angli- can and Eastern Communions to present to CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 253 the Commission at the coming Convention. It is in consequence of this request that I lay this report before you. "I sailed from New York on the 22ncl of August last, returning on the 8th of Novem- ber. I was accompanied by the Rev. Sigour- ney W. Fay, Jr., who acted as my chaplain, and was joined in England by W. J. Birk- beck, Esq., who also accompanied me to Rus- sia. Mr. Birkbeck is probably well known to you by his writings. His knowledge of the Russian language and his many years of inter- course with Russian ecclesiastics and with persons of high social position, made his assistance in obtaining our desired informa- tion most valuable. He had also accompanied the Archbishop of York when he visited Rus- sia as a representative of the English Church at the Coronation of the Czar. "During my stay in Russia I visited St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Troitsa Mon- astery, not far from the latter city. ' ' On arrival at St. Petersburg, it being the Feast of the Holy Cross, I attended the service at the Lavra, or Monastery of the Alexander Nefsky. It was on a Saturday evening. There were about 3,000 persons present in the congregation, a large part of whom, as I found was the case in almost all their services, were men. "On Sunday, accompanied by the Honor- able Vladimer Sabler, Senator, the assistant 254 A JOURNEY GODWARD to the Procurator-General of the Holy Synod, I attended the liturgy at the great Church of St. Isaac's, and was received within the Icon- astasis, during the service, and afterwards was welcomed by Bishop Constantine, one of the Coadjutor Bishops of St. Petersburg, and the Dean of the Cathedral. "During my stay in St. Petersburg I saw Alexius, the Exarch of Georgia, who is a mem- ber ex officio of the Holy Synod. The Holy Governing Synod consists, we may say ex officio, of the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, who is the President, the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kief, the Exarch of Georgia, and other temporary members, among whom was my friend. Bishop Tikhon. "During my stay in St. Petersburg I had many conversations with General Kereef , who has taken such a deep interest in the union of the Churches. He has published several pamphlets concerning the relations of the dif- ferent communions to each other. From him I obtained a great deal of information as to the attitude of the Russian laity toward their Church and on the subject of restored inter- communion. "My own impression of the laity corre- sponds with that of the late Bishop Creighton, that the Russians are the most religious na- tion in Europe. While it may be said that the English are the most practical, the French the most logical, the Germans the most learned, the Italians the most artistic, and the FATHER JOHN OF CRONSTADT. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 255 Americans the most freedom-loving, of Russia it may fairly be said that, as a nation, she is the most religious. It is certainly one proof of this to see the enormous congregations, composed so largely of men, assembled in their churches. At St. Saviour's, Moscow, the great church built in thanksgiving for Rus- sia's deliverance from Napoleon, I saw on an ordinary Sunday a congregation of eight thousand or ten thousand persons. In every railroad station, public building, in every pri- vate house, are to be seen icons, or sacred pic- tures, which not only remind persons of sacred subjects, but bring forth in most public places acts of devotion. Nor is this a mere matter of external piety; the religion reaches into their business affairs. It is conunon for the great merchants of Moscow to hold religious services in their places of business once a year, to offer thanks to God for the way in which they have been prospered, and to make sub- stantial aclaiowledgment of it by offerings to the Church. The popular idea with us that the Russians are given excessively to drink is disproved by statistics, which show that since the Government has abolished saloons, the amount of liquor consumed per capita in Rus- sia is less than that taken in England or America. ''I was also honoured by a visit from that holy priest, Fr. St. John Sergieff. The sim- plicity, earnestness, and piety of this remark- able and wonder-working man was most strik- 256 A JOURNEY GODWARD ing. One could not but be drawn to him by his deep evangelical spirit; nor, when one came to know him and learn of his life, doubt of the many wonders God has seen fit to work through his prayers. He was a living wit- ness to the truth that in all ages and in all portions of the Catholic Church God is rais- ing up persons to a supernatural degree of holiness and sanctity. "It would be interesting, if I had time, to enter into the great missionary spirit of the Russian Church, their missionary societies, and the evangelical work which is done throughout Siberia, Japan, and elsewhere.. In examining their training of their clergy for the priesthood, I noticed that there was an ecclesiastical school and seminary in every diocese, and in addition there were three or four academies. In these academies, the higher grade of students, selected from the others, received a higher education, and were trained for professors and the higher walks of the ministry. "On my arrival the MetroiDolitan of St. Petersburg was absent, and, upon invitation of the Archbishop and Metropolitan of Mos- cow, I went thither, proceeding first to the famous Monastery of the Troitsa, where I spent the Feast of St. Sergius, with his Excel- lency Vladimir. It was a wonderful sight to see the many thousands of pilgrims who had assembled thither to keep the feast; and the blessing of them by the Metropolitan, from the VLADIMIR, METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW. [The portrait is inscrilK'd. in Russian: "1903, September 28th. To the Most Reverend Charles Grafton, Bishop of Fond du Lac, in remembrance of Vhidimir, Metropoleet of Moscow."] CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 257 parapet overlooking the great courtyard, was a touching spectacle. "Here I made a visit to the Ecclesiastical Academy and the Seminary, where I was entertained, and where I had many speeches of welcome made me by the professors. On my return to Moscow, I was the guest, with the others of my party, at the Monastery of St. Michael, in the Kremlin. We received every attention from the prior Innokenti, who has since been consecrated Bishop of our Pacific Coast and Alaska. "It would be tedious and unnecessary to mention the various visits made to different ecclesiastics and the Church's institutions, where we were everywhere most warmly re- ceived. On my return to St. Petersburg, I was entertained by the Dean, Bishop Sergius, and the professors at the Academy. Here the students met me with the usual hymn of salu- tation, and in my progress through the institu- tion, I was addressed at different points by the students in speeches in Latin, Greek, and English. Subsequently, I had interviews with His Eminence Antonius, and dined with him and the Exarch of Georgia, the Archbishop of Novgorod, Bishop Tikhon, and others of the Holy Governing Synod. ' ' With the Metropolitan, I discussed freely the matters relating to the intercommunion of our respective Churches, and presented to him a letter which I had prepared on the subject. This letter, by the good offices of 258 A JOURNEY GODWARD my friend, Mr. Birkbeck, was translated into the Russian language. There is much that I would like to state concerning the Metropoli- tan's kindness and sympathy, but which would hardly be a matter for so formal a report. To this letter I received subsequently a formal acknowledgment, which was brought to me in America by Bisho]3 Innocent. Our communi- cation was referred by the Holy Governing Synod to a special commission of theologians to report thereon. At their request, I have sent them a number of books relating to our Church and its Constitution. Subjoined to this report is a copy of the letter which I addressed His Eminence. "I would say that the letter has been sub- jected to a not unkindly criticism by Pro- fessor Sokoloff, and which was carefully re- plied to, removing some of the misconceptions of the Professor and answering some of his argiunents, by the Rev. Sigourney W. Fay, Jr. This correspondence is to be found in the American-Russian Messenger. ''The result of our visit certainly has been to awaken inquiry and to promote kindly feeling between the two Churches. The prac- tical result we may strive for is such a mutual recognition as to allow of the Orthodox Church giving to our people, when abroad and unable to receive ministrations of their own clergy, the Sacraments in time of need, and of our performing the same kindly offices for their people when in like situation. CHUECH UNITY AND UNION 259 ''Again and again I was impressed with the conservative spirit of this ancient Church, using throughout all these ages the ancient liturgies inherited from Saints Basil and Chrysostom. The Eastern Church, it should be remembered, has not, to any great extent, come under the rationalizing spirit of Western scholasticism, or gone through the necessary but disturbing influences and convulsions of the Reformation. She has preserved, better than any other portion of Christendom, the ancient faith, though, of course, with its East- ern setting of ceremonial and worship, and her attitude towards us is in striking contrast with that of Rome. Rome, as the Eastern ecclesiastics said, asks of us and of you Angli- cans submission. The Papacy, with its claim of supreme monarchy and universal jurisdic- tion, demands and can demand nothing less. The only way of union with the Pope is by surrender of our inherited Catholicity, the destruction of our constitutional Episcopal system, and absolute submission to the Papacy. Of all this the Eastern Church knows nothing. Like ourselves, she is Catholic, but not Papal. She does not ask us to submit to her. She only asks, in the interest of Christian fellow- ship, whether we hold the same inherited Catholic faith. If we do, we are brothers. And if we are brothers in the faith, then we are one. ''As the Holy Governing Synod has ap- pointed a Commission, my suggestion is, that 260 A JOURNEY GODWARD a similar Commission be appointed by our body, consisting of its chairman, two other Bishops and two clergy, and who shall be a committee to correspond and confer with that appointed by the Synod, and of which Bishop Sergius, the President of the Academ}^, is its head. "C. C. Fond du Lac/' Letter to the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. ''To His Eminence the Most Reverend Arch- bishop Antonius, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga: ''Accept, we pray you, our greeting in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God of God, Light of Light, by whom and in whom alone salvation is to be found and who ever liveth and reigneth, the Head of the Mystical Bod}^, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. "We have taken the liberty of sending you by the Right Reverend Bishop Tikhon, who has so endeared himself to us, and has most kindly undertaken this office of charity, a few theological books illustrative of our Church's position and teaching. ' ' They may not add anything to your pres- ent extensive knowledge of our communion, but may convey to you our humble desire that the holy Orthodox faith so providentially pre- served by you may become better understood by us, and that by God's grace the two Church- es may grow into greater accord and fellow- ship. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 261 "You will in your goodness not despise our littleness, or some peculiarities that have come from our inherited Westernism, but will, we believe, make generous allowances for the defects and the evils to which a Puritan invasion in the past and our present environ- ment in America have exposed us. The Catho- lic Revival is gradually developing within our communion and we ask for it joiiv sympathy, encouragement, and prayers. "Our Church has preserved the Apostolic Succession and the three holy orders of the ministry, and in her formularies has not de- parted, we humbly trust, from any essential or dogma of the Orthodox faith. There has been of late years a great revival of spiritual life in the whole Anglican Communion, a better comprehension of the Catholic and Orthodox theology, and a growing desire for a recognized fellowship especially with the ven- erable Churches of the East. "May we venture to say to your Holiness that in the approachment of the two Commun- ions, that portion of the Anglican Church which is in the United States stands the near- est to your venerated body. Politically the governments of the two countries, Russia and the United States, have always maintained most happy relations, and our Church here in America is unlike the Church in England, in being free from any State control, and so free to act in its recovery of Catholicity and its intercourse with other Churches. The Thirty- 262 A JOURNEY GODWARD nine Articles do not form a portion of our Prayer Book, though bound up with it, and subscription to them is not required by us as it is in England. Our Liturgy and Eucharist differs from that in the English Book in that the doctrines of the Priesthood, Altar, and Sacrifice are more explicitly and fully stated. Our Canon for the Consecration of the Holy Elements is far more full, with a distinct offer- ing and presentation of the Holy Sacrifice, and has the formal Invocation of the Holy Ghost. ''We use for the most part leavened bread in the Holy Eucharist, though unleavened wafers are allowed. It has been an almost universal custom with us to mingle a little water with the wine before the consecration of the elements. When some years ago an effort was made by some to forbid the use of incense, our Church refused to pass any pro- hibitory canon. We have, however, to ac- knowledge that this scriptural and evangelical symbol is as yet but very partially used among us. In Baptism immersion is provided for by our rubrics, but pouring, not sprinkling, is allowed, which is usually done three times, one at the mention of each name of the Blessed Trinity. We hold that there is but one . 'Apxv in the Godhead, and that the Holy Ghost pro- ceeds from the Father as the One Eternal Source and Fountain of Life, through the Son. While holding this faith as one, we believe, with yourselves, there seems to be a growing I CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 263 feeling that tlie Filioque Clause which, with- out Ecumenical authority, was added to the Creed, should be omitted. "Along with yourselves we repudiate the Papal Supremacy and Rome's modern dogmas of the Papal Infallibility and the Immaculate Conception. We reject the Romish doctrine of Purgatory and the relief of the souls of the faithful b}^ the application of the superabun- dant merits of the Saints through the Papal system of Indulgences. We venerate Mary, the ever Virgin and ever Blessed Mother of God, but do not hold with Roman doctors that she is the Neck of the Mystical Body of Christ and that all graces must pass to us from Christ the Head through her. We accept all that the recognized Ecumenical Councils of the Church have decreed, and as the canon of the English Church requires, hold that the Holy Scriptures should be expounded in con- formity with the teachings of the ancient Fathers. ''Yet we have to confess that our Church is not all that the Divine Master would have it be, and the cruel marks inflicted by the stripes of past ages can be seen upon her. Like one recovering from a long illness and just regaining strength, we turn to the East, and stretch out our hands and ask for sympa- thy and counsel and Christian fellowship. "The future of the world's progress lies chiefly with the Slavonic and the English speaking peoples. The progressive colonizing 264 A JOURNEY GODWARD work of the Latin race is mostly done. The Latin Church can no longer dominate the West. Recognition and established fellowship between the Eastern and the Anglican Com- munions, as it would do so much towards forwarding Christ's Kingdom, is that for which we earnestly pray, and make known in our great Master's Name our desires unto you. "Asking ever your remembrance at the Holy Altar, with our profound esteem and reverence in Christ, "Your most humble servant in the Lord, "C. C. Fond Du Lag.'' Letter to the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. "To His Eminence the Most Reverend Anton- iuSy Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, Presiding Member of the Most Holy Governing Synod of Russia and Archimandrite of the Lavra of St. Alex- ander Nevshi: "It is with deep respect and fraternal charity we address you and through you the Most Holy Synod of the Orthodox Russian Church. The Church in the United States of America has established a Commission, con- sisting of nine Bishops together with a mun- ber of priests and others of learning and influence, on Ecclesiastical Relations. We hereby transmit to you a letter from the Right CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 265 Reverend the Bishop of Central New York, who is its presiding officer, certifying our membership of the Commission, and we have received a formal request from its secretary to prepare a report after conference with yourselves on the relation between the two communions. "Together with these we are honoured in being the bearer of a letter from our venera- ble Primate, the Right Reverend Dr. Clark, the Bishop of Rhode Island, who was the old- est living Bishop in Christendom, and who, since we set out on our journey, has passed to his rest ; and who bade us communicate to you his brotherly greetings in our Lord and the desire of his heart that as the Church is one in union with her divine Head, so unity may find an increasing expression in Christian recognition and fellowship. ''There seems to be, if we mistake not, a growing desire among Christians in these latter days, now that the multiform opposi- tions of Satan, and the foretold sign of the Son of Man (the cross of persecution) are becoming more manifest, together with an increasing spirituality in the Church (like the promised budding of the fig tree), for Christians everywhere, under the promptings of the Holy Spirit, to draw together, and to beckon to their partners in the other ships to come to their aid. And it is to the ancient and venerated Churches of the East, so invulner- able in their inherited orthodoxy, so clear in 266 A JOURNEY GODWARD their conception of the Church as a spiritual organism of which Christ is the everliving and ever present Head, that we of the farther West naturally turn. We turn to the East and look towards Jerusalem with the eyes of children towards a mother. "Turning to those things on which we are agreed, we may say that both communions regard the Church as a Divine Society foun- ded by Christ Himself, which is visible in so far as it is upon Earth and invisible in so far as it is in Heaven. Both alike regard it as one spiritual organism of which the Incarnate Son of God is the Head and the Holy Spirit is the indwelling Light and Life. And our mutual conception of this Church is that it is one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. ''Both agree that the Church is a race of kings and priests, but while all Christians par- take of the priesthood, they are not all pastors. We agree that the hierarchy consists of Bish- ops, priests, and deacons, and that these minis- ters succeed by an ordination from the Apos- tles. ''We concur in holding that the Church hath authority in controversies of faith. We alike believe that the Holy Spirit dwells with- in the Church, certifying its utterance by the agreement of the whole Body. We believe the Holy Spirit guides the Church into all Truth by bringing to its remembrance all and what- soever the Lord revealed, and enabling it to preserve the faith once delivered to the saints. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 267 "Both Churches regard as Holy Scripture those books of which there was never any doubt in the Church, and hold the Holy Scrip- tures to be the Word of God. We believe that the Church is limited in her definitions to the original Depositum Fidei, which is contained in Holy Scripture as it is received and inter- preted by the Church, which is the witness and keeper of Holy Writ. Of what is and what is not contained in Scripture, the Church is the final and authoritative judge. We thus agree in professing the faith, which we alike hold, to be a sacred deposit to which nothing can be added and from which nathing can be taken away. "We have thus as points of agreement the same belief concerning the Church, the priest- hood, and our conception of the sacraments as channels of grace, and the necessity of our union with Christ by a living, loving faith is like your own. "Together we condemn the following er- rors of the Church of Rome : "We reject the Papal monarchy, with its claims to a supreme pontificate separate from the priesthood as possessed independently or inherently of legislative, judicial, and execu- tive power, as being the Head of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, the Centre of Unity, the source of all jurisdiction. "We reject the additions made to the Creed by Pope Pius IV. and the more modern dogmas of the Papal Infallibility and the 268 A JOURNEY GOD WARD Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. '*We alike repudiate the Roman doctrine of a purgatory of satisfaction, and of a treas- ury of saintly merits dispensable by the Rom- an Pontiff, and of indulgences. "We both reject in our common belief in the Communion of Saints, the Latin idea of servitude which would make us not only desire and ask for their prayers and offer on their behalf, but suppliantly invoke them for grace or mercy or salvation. "We both reject all the rationalising pro- cesses of the Latins concerning the grace of God and the sacraments, and especially their audacious reasonings concerning the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord. And we both affirm that it is the same carnal rationalising, the same reliance on natural reason, which causes dogmas to be added in Rome and taken away in Geneva, and which by confounding Faith and opinion has de- stroyed the assurance of the Faith both among the Latins and Protestants. "Turning now to matters requiring ex- planation, one probably is in the non-use by us of the term Transubstantiation. Let us state what our doctrine is and why we do not use this term. "The Anglican Church has had a double contest, one in the deliverance of herself from Latinism and the other from Protestantism. At the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 269 century there was a popular belief known then as the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, which held that the elements at the time of consecration were so physically changed that they ceased to exist and remained in appear- ance only. This the Reformers rejected on the ground that it overthrew the nature of a sacra- ment, which must consist of two parts. When on the other hand Protestantism denied the reality of the Presence of our Lord's Body and Blood, then, in the seventeenth century, the Anglican Church made further and more explicit statement of her doctrine and embod- ied it in her official Catechism. She then de- clared that the outward part or Sign was bread and wine, but that the inward part or Thing was the Body and Blood of the Lord. She moreover stated that the grace or benefit the faithful received was the strengthening and refreshing of their souls. By making these distinctions between the Sign, the Thing, and the Grace, the Church condemned the subjective theory of Protestantism. For we are not taught by our Catechism that the out- ward sign or form is the eating or drinking of the elements, but that the outward part or sign is the bread and wine ; and we do not say that the inward part is the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ, but that the inward part or Thing is the Body and Blood of the Lord. "This doctrine was protected in the Arti- cles of Religion. For though never regarded 270 A JOURNEY GODWARD as a Confession of Faith, and the one on Gen- eral Councils (the 21st), having been omitted in America, and signature to them not being by us required, yet they may be referred to in explanation of the doctrine contained in the Catechism, which is of universal obligation. Thus it is said in Article 28 that the Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. Here the objectivity of the presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament as occasioned by the conse- cration is asserted, for the Body to be given and taken must be there before it is received. And as to the heavenly and spiritual manner, we read in Aquinas, Summa III. 75, that the Body of Christ is not in the Sacrament in the manner in which a body is in a place, but in a certain spiritual manner which is proper to this Sacrament. In heaven, It (the Body of Christ) exists after the manner of a Body, but in the Sacrament It does not exist after the manner of a body (in that it does not occupy space), but in a spiritual manner {De EucJiar- istica, v.). "In Art. 28 we read that the means where- by the Body of Christ is received and eaten is faith. It does not say made present by faith, nor given by faith, but received and eaten by faith. Here, too, our Reformers followed Aquinas, who says: 'In order to understand the excellency and heavenly dignity of this sacrament, it is to be noted that although all the sacraments of the Church have their effect CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 271 by the faith of the Passion of Christ, and also from faith and through faith profit only the faithful unto salvation, this is nevertheless to be said most especially of the Sacrament of Faith.' "Our 29th Article states that the wicked eat not the Body of Christ ; and the wicked who receive the Sacrament are not thereby made partakers of Christ. The Article in its Latin form uses accipere and sumere for receiving, percipere for the interior eating or manduca- tion of the Lord's Body. It thus says that they, the wicked, eat and yet they do not eat. They eat because they receive the sacrament, nevertheless they eat not because they do not percipere, partake of Christ. "Our Church believes in a change or fiera- fioXr], effected by the consecration. Before that act the elements are simply bread and wine ; after that they are what our Lord's holy Word declared them to be. His Body and Blood. This change, effected by the power of the Holy Ghost, is a divine mystery. We do not, like the Latins, dogmatise about it. As the term transubstantiation as used in the West is popularly understood as involving the Aristotelian distinction between substance and accidents, we do not use it. We believe your great and saintly theologian Philaret elimina- ted these terms from translations prepared by him of the Council of Bethlehem. If you could explain to us that your use of the term does not involve as a dogmatic statement the 272 A JOURNEY GODWARD Tridentine exposition, we see no reason why we should not be in accord. "Another subject for explanation con- cerns the saints. We believe as well as your- selves in the Communion of Saints.' We recognise the fact that the Church is a liv- ing spiritual organism and that a constant stream of prayer flows from us to those now with the Lord in glory and from them to us. We know that they without us are not made perfect, but that their graces here and their glory there were obtained by the united pray- ers of the Church past, present, and future— prayers which were foreseen, or rather always present in the sight of the God. And we believe that we also benefit by the prayers which they offered while on earth and still offer in heaven. We do not object to asking God to accept their praj^ers for us, nor to what is called an oblique invocation, and since, if they know our prayers at all, it is by a revela- tion of God, it would seem that there is no doctrinal difference between direct and indi- rect invocation. We, however, agree not with the doctrine of the Romans which sets up the relation of patron and client between those who are brethren and introduces the idea of servitude between the children of a common Father. We desire the prayers of all saints, not as omnipotent or omnipresent, or as in themselves sources of grace or virtue, but as Avorshipping together with us in the Church of God. We reverence profoundly above all CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 273 the saints the Ever Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, but are shocked at the position as- signed her by Roman theologians as the Neck of the Mystical Body through whom, from the Head, all grace must pass. "What we desire explanation from our Eastern Brethren is, the prayer in their offices. Most Holy Mother of God, save us. Have we received the correct interpretation of it when we are told the use of the word 'save' is similar in its theological meaning to the ex- pression of St. Paul when he said he became all things to all men that he might save some ? Does it mean with you, that the Blessed Ever Virgin was an instrument or minister of the Incarnation and the second Eve, as St. Justin and St. Irenaeus have written? Do you not with us repudiate the Latin idea that she is a co-Redemptress ? Afraid as we are of modern Romanism, will you, out of your ortho- doxy, not allay our people's fears? "Concerning the number of the divine mysteries it does not appear to us that there is any essential difference between the Church- es. The Anglican Church holds that there are two which are generally necessary to sal- vation, and five other ' commonly called sacra- ments.' It is to be observed that the word 'general^' in the Catechism, which is written in Elizabethan English, does not mean 'com- monly' as is now the use, but 'universally' as it is used in our English Old Testament. As being 'means of grace' the above seven belong 274 A JOURNEY GOD WARD to the same category. But we make a distinc- tion and divide tliem as your theological writer Komiakoif did. There are Two which belong to the Church considered in relation to Christ and the Church's eternal being, and others as concerned with the Church on earth in its temporal and militant condition. The matter and form of the Two were ordained by Christ and are unalterable; the matter and form of the others are subject to the regulation of the Church. The anointing of the sick has fallen largely into disuse among us, partly, we be- lieve, from a rejection of the Roman belief and practice that it was to be used chiefly as a preparation for death. But we have a pre- scribed office for the sick. We administer Confirmation, following the Apostolic custom of laying on of hands of the Bishop only, while you allow the priest to minister with chrism blest by the Bishop. We believe the grace conveyed by either mode is the same. ''The greater barrier perhaps between us is our use of the Filioque in the creed. This we inherited through our connection with Western Christendom. May God in His great mercy and love so enlighten us that this cause of division may be removed. It is certainty to be admitted as a great satisfaction that there is between us no difference in doctrine. We both believe in but one apx^ in the Blessed Trinity. We both deny that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son in the same man- ner in which He proceeds from the Father. CHURCH UNITY AND UNION 275 We, of the Anglican Church, accept the doc- trine of St. John Damascene. If then we believe the same Faith, why may we not come to some agreement? We see, or think we do, how impossible it would be for the Orthodox Eastern Church to alter its expression of the Faith. To do so would involve an acknowl- edgment of the Papal Supremacy and its right to make an addition to the creed. We on the other hand have broken with the Papacy, and our retaining it involves no such conse- quence. The great difficulty with us is this: If we should omit it, many of our people might say we were tampering with the creed, and so revolt from the Church, and be led to Rome. While some might be willing to make this change, probably the majority would not, for they would so fear the result that it might tear our Church asunder. If we placed in our Prayer Book a note with the creed that the Filioqiie was not part of the original, or had not received ecumenical assent, might not the difficulty be removed '^ "Finally we venture to think that the number of the Councils presents not so difficult a matter for agreement as it may seem. The only question arises in respect to the seventh or the second of Nice, and it is not concerning the canons but the doctrinal decrees. It is well known that the Council enjoined that supreme self-surrendering worship, Latvia, should be given to God only; that reverence and honour (T6/M7;TiK^7r/t>o