m 
 
 LIBRA RY 
 
 O F THE 
 
 U N 1 V ERS ITY 
 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 Preached in Addington Church, on Whitsunday Morninc;, 1883, 
 ON the occasion of the placing, by the parishioners, 
 
 OF A 
 
 NEW WINDOW IN THE CHUECH, 
 to the memory of 
 
 ARCHBISHOP TAIT. 
 
 WILLIAM BENHAM, B.D., 
 
 Rector. of St. Edmund's, Lombard Street; formerhj Vicar of Addi/ifjton. 
 
 Maidstone : 
 Printed at 13, Middle Row, High Street. 
 
 18S3.
 
 Some of the friends who heard this Sermon have expressed a 
 wish to read it. It was not composed with any view to 
 publication, but I shall be thankful if it shall prove in any 
 degree profitable or interesting as an explanation of the 
 beautiful memorial which the Addington people have put up to 
 the memory of their illustrious and loving parishioner, and I 
 know that what I have spoken concerning him will find an echo 
 in all their hearts. 
 
 My dear friend and successor, in his evening Sermon, brought 
 out two points which I have begged him to allow me to quote, 
 as I hardly touched upon them at all. 
 
 First, the connexion of Archbishop Tait's name with those of 
 his two predecessors, Augustine and Langton, illustrates first 
 his zeal for missionary work at home and abroad, and also his 
 statesmanship and patriotism. " He claimed for the laity that 
 they formed as true a part of the Church as the clergy did, and 
 refused to dissociate in any way the interests of the laity from 
 the interests of the Church at large." 
 
 And the second point is this. It is so beautiful and touching 
 that I quote it at length — " If you look at the words written on 
 the scroll round the head, you will find a line taken from a 
 hymn familiar to us all — ' Jesici, lover of my Suid.^ That hymn is 
 most closely connected with our recollections of him ; it is 
 associated with each of the great trials of his life. Again and 
 again it was repeated to him on his death-bed. We sang it at 
 that most impressive evening service when, at his own request, 
 we met to pray that his illness might be blessed, not only to
 
 his own soul, but to ours. Once again we sang it as we laid his 
 body to rest by the side of those he loved. And yet once again, 
 God willing, we will sing it to-night, as we welcome to its place 
 in our Church this memorial of our reverence and love. 
 
 " ' All my help from Thee I hring.'' Are not the words a fitting 
 expression of the simple trust in Christ which supported him in 
 the darkest days and under the heaviest trials ? " 
 
 I will only add that I have not attempted to elaborate my 
 Sermon, but print it exactly as it was preached, and dedicate it 
 affectionately to the Vicar and his people. 
 
 (i^j^r^^. 

 
 Eph. iv. 8. 
 
 "HE GAVE GIFTS UNTO MEN." 
 
 Once more we are called on to praise God, because as on 
 this day He sent His Holy Spirit down to give birth to the 
 Church for which His blessed Son had become incarnate, and 
 yielded up His life upon the cross, and risen from the dead. 
 The atoning sacrifice was finished, the price of the world's 
 redemption was paid, now came the first fruits of that sacrifice — 
 the world was to confess itself God's. The gift of the Holy Spirit, 
 as to-day, was to enable men to do this, and the truth which is 
 expressed so easily by the lips ought to kindle a real joy, a 
 real comfort to us, eveiy one, that God the Holy Ghost did come 
 into the world, did inspire men to believe that they had a Saviour 
 from sin, and a living Helper to abide with them always. 
 
 Gathered here in a small village Church, we know that there 
 are hundreds upon hundreds of congregations assembled to-day 
 all round the world thanking God that on this day of Pentecost 
 God taught the hearts of His faithful people, by the sending to 
 them the light of His Holy Spirit. Well, when we join in that 
 song of thanksgiving, shall we do it in form and our hearts not 
 go with it ? God forbid. Look to it even now. Think of your 
 own life. You have had much to make you sad, more to make 
 you happy. Once there were those by your side dear to you, and
 
 now they have returned to their dust in the churchyard outside, 
 and you still think of them so lovingly, and yet not unhappily ; 
 for kind nature, " busy with her hand of healing," has softened 
 down the jiain of parting, and you are able to look forward to a 
 time when once more you shall meet before the Throne of God, 
 and look upon the face of the Lord that redeemed you and 
 bought pardon for your sin. "Whilst you remain in the world 
 you can come aside from your daily work and daily cares into 
 this house and tell God of your needs, and go home comforted 
 and refreshed. And it is all because God the Holy Ghost came 
 down into the poor, weary, sinladen, darkened world, and gave 
 birth to the living Church, which is to bear witness by the 
 AVord and Sacraments of Life, that Christ has come and will 
 come again. 
 
 Ah yes ! it is the old, old story ; and yet if we will only 
 bethink ourselves, it will always be fresh to the very end of our 
 lives ; as fresh as each morning finds us to enjoy once more the 
 life and beauty of earth. You all know the hymn which speaks 
 of the sense each morning of new mercies, new perils past, new 
 thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. Even so each heart 
 that has learned its own sinfulness before God and its loose hold 
 of this life, and has laid hold on the hope of immortality, will 
 not let Whitsuntide pass over without remembering that all 
 these blessings and comforts are the fruits of the Spirit of Life, 
 which God gave us at this time. 
 
 We have once more heard this morning the manner of His 
 coming — the rushing mighty wind, and the tongues of fire, and 
 the Avondrous gift of speech. The same signs were repeated 
 afterwards, as we know from other chapters of the Acts ; but 
 soon these signs passed away. What then was left ? The Holy 
 Spirit is to abide with us for ever, Christ told us. There was 
 left first the power and grace, transfused into the Sacraments. I 
 am sure I need not remind you that these are no empty sig-ns, 
 but real means of grace depending, not on our poor words and 
 thoughts, but on the word and promise of God. You come to
 
 them, not because you feel good, but because you want to be 
 good, and believe tliat God will give you grace in tlieni to make 
 you good. There is the ministry ordained by the Apostles, and 
 continued unbroken until now. There is the written word 
 inspired by that selfsame spirit. There is His voice speaking 
 to the heart and conscience, whether by way of rebuke, or 
 exhortation, or comfort. All these are the work of the Holy 
 Gift of Pentecost. But we can go further. " He gave gifts 
 unto men." S. Paul, who quotes the words, explains two or 
 three verses further on, that these gifts are Apostles, Teachers, 
 Evangelists, Pastors. That is then, the gifts which He gives to 
 men are themselves men. It is not hard to understand that. 
 If you are blessed at home with pious wife or husband, or 
 dutiful children, or loving brother or sister, or kind friends, it 
 comes natural to say that God has given you such a blessing. 
 And here you have the Great Apostle talking in like manner 
 of the Apostles and Teachers and Evangelists, who have been 
 a blessing to the Church, as being gifts of God the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 It is this plain and simple truth which has led up to my dear 
 friend and brother inviting me to speak to you here to-day. 
 "With what thankfulness I come I cannot tell. Ten years is long- 
 to look forward to, how short a time to look back upon ! — and yet 
 what changes it has wrought. So many of the old familiar faces 
 gone like a tale that is told. But the Word of God abideth 
 ever. And they are gone not into cold forgetfulness, for the 
 Whitsuntide message tells of Life — of Life which has conquered 
 Death — Life Immortal. I have come, then, to say a few words 
 to you about your new window, and certainly no better day 
 could have been chosen for the occasion ; for what I have 
 to point out is that it bears witness of the gifts which the Holy 
 Ghost has given to men. 
 
 I speak to many who know the facts commemorated, but as 
 this is a village Church, I shall not hesitate to tell the story fur 
 the sake of those who do not know it.
 
 8 
 
 When Christ was born into the world our forefathers did not 
 live in this country. They lived far across the sea in Germany ; 
 the Britons lived here. Some 50 years later, the Romans came 
 and conquered them. The Eomans were heathen like the 
 Britons, but it is very likely there were a few Christians among- 
 the soldiers even then, and certainly, as Christianity spread 
 among the Eomans, it would be sure to spread in this island. At 
 first Christians were persecuted, and had to meet in secret ; but 
 300 years after Christ His religion became the received 
 religion, and then Christian churches were built here as else- 
 where. But in the middle of the 5th century, our forefathers — 
 the English — came, and they killed many Britons, and drove the 
 rest away to the west, and called them " Welshmen," which 
 means strangers, and the name remains to this present. Our 
 English forefathers were heathens for more than a hundred 
 years after they came, and we call our days of the week to this 
 day after the names of their heathen gods. They would not 
 accept the religion of the people they had subdued, and whom, of 
 cause, they hated, and they went on worshipping their idols, and 
 the churches were some of them turned into idol temples, some 
 were left to fall to pieces. As they landed, some at one place, 
 some at another, they founded several distinct kingdoms, till, as 
 we commonly reckon, there were seven kingdoms in the country. 
 The part we are in was part of the kingdom of Kent, and its chief 
 town was called Cmit-tcara-hyrig, that is, "Kent men's borough." 
 When you see the Primate signing himself Canttuir, it will 
 remind you that this is the old spelling, and that it means *' Kent 
 Man," and the name goes back to a time before the light of the 
 Gospel had shined upon us. 
 
 Now I will take you to the city of Rome. Just 1 300 years ago 
 a good ecclesiastic was living there, named Gregory. He was a 
 benevolent and tender-hearted man, whose good deeds for his 
 people and his Church were many ; he was a very precious gift 
 of God's Holy Spirit to the world of his own time. There was 
 one special evil which ho strove against unceasingly, and that
 
 was the slave trade. It was a common thing for traders to steal 
 children from every country of Europe, and sell them to be slaves 
 in rich men's houses, and Gregory use to buy them and then give 
 them their liberty, even urging his clergy to sell the Church plate 
 for the purpose. News reached him one day that a fresh cargo 
 of this cruel merchandise had just come in, and with sad heart 
 he walked down to the market place. There, amid swarthy 
 Africans, Syrians, Spaniards, he saw three boys of fair face and 
 golden hair ; such a sight as perhaps he had never seen before. 
 He looked at them lovingly, for he was always gentle towards 
 children, and asked what nation they were of. " They are 
 Angles," was the reply. " They would be angels," was his 
 answer, ' ' if they but knew Christ. ' ' He turned away from the sight 
 of them sorrowfully, but the memory of the scene sank deep into 
 his heart, and he wanted to go and preach the Gospel in their 
 country, only the people of Rome loved him too well to suffer 
 him to go. But when he became Bishop of Rome he sent 
 Augustine, the monk, with 40 companions, to preach to the far 
 off Angles. 
 
 It was on the evening of an autumn day. in the year 596, that 
 the devoted band were landed out of a ten-oared galley at Ebb's 
 Fleet, in the Isle of Thanet. Augustine sprang out first, "a 
 man of almost gigantic stature," says an old chronicle, '•' silver 
 haired and hollow of cheek, dressed in a long coarse woollen 
 robe, with a leathern girdle at his waist, and a scrip containing 
 all his worldly possessions." All of them knelt down on the 
 ground and sought the blessing of their Saviour and King. The 
 king of Kent, Ethelbert by name, went out to meet them, and 
 the meeting took place under an oak tree hard by. Not much 
 more than 50 years ago the old stump of the tree, which had 
 always been known as Augustine's Oak, was removed. Certainly 
 a sacred spot, though now there is nothing to mark it. Here 
 the missionary preached Christ by an interpreter, whom he had 
 brought with him. When he had finished, the king made 
 answer, " Your words and your promises are fair, but because
 
 10 
 
 they are new and doubtful I cannot assent to tliem, nor leave the 
 customs which I and my people have so long observed. But since 
 you have come hither as strangers, from a long distance, to deliver 
 to us what you believe to be right and true, we do not wish to 
 molest you ; nay, rather we are anxious to receive you 
 hospitably, and to give you all that you need for your support ; 
 and we do not forbid you to join all that you can to your faith." 
 No answer could be more wise or more j ust, and Augustine and 
 his 40 companions went fearlessly on to Canterbury. Your 
 picture represents him preaching there. Only a few weeks ago 
 the altar where he first celebrated the Commixnion was laid bare. 
 I saw it ten days since, and I am sure it would have rejoiced you 
 to see the absorbed interest of an American friend whom I had 
 brought with me to see it. The Lord was working with the great 
 missionary, and on Whitsunday next year — 1286 years ago to- 
 day (going by the season ; for "Whitsunday fell on the 2nd of 
 June that year) — he baptized King Ethelbert, and at Canter- 
 bury you may still see the very font.* So began Christian 
 England. 
 
 When He ascended up on High He gave gifts unto men. What 
 a gift was that, the gift of a Christian missionary, followed by a 
 Christian king, to our own dear country. Time passes, yet I 
 cannot pass at a bound to the next picture. I wish I could take 
 half-a-dozen sermons to tell you about Augustine's sucaessors. 
 Out of the complete list which lies before me — what a splendid 
 roU it is — I take a few names. Archbishop Theodore, a fellow- 
 townsman of S. Paul — for he came from Tarsus — was a man of 
 such ability and wisdom that, although the country was still 
 divided into many kingdoms, he was able to unite it, for the first 
 time, into one Church, and thus the Church of England is even 
 older than the monarchy, and was, in fact, the main instrument 
 
 * The identity of this font has hecn doubLed, but archaeological researches 
 have confirmed the old tradition. Mr. Loftus Brock, the secretary of the 
 Eoyal Archivologieal Society, pronounces for the bowl without hesitation, 
 but thinks the base may be later.
 
 11 
 
 in uniting the monarcliy. And not only so, but he established 
 schools all over the country, and thus subjected knowledge of 
 earthly things to faith in the invisible God. And thus he, too, 
 was a gift of the Holy Spirit of God to men. Here is Archbishop 
 Elthelred too, who moved King Alfred — not only the greatest 
 of English kings, but, as I hold, the noblest king that ever lived 
 — Archbishop Ethelred, who moved King Alfred to send a word 
 for Christianity to far-off Hiudostan ; and here is Archbishop 
 Plegmund too, in the same reign, who began the regular 
 arrangement of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the oldest English 
 history, the beginning of the magnificent records which any 
 Englishman pondering upon must rejoice over with a heart 
 swelling with thankfulness, or else must suspect himself of hav- 
 ing lost the precious gifts of patriotism and the sense of brother- 
 hood. Here is Archbishop Wulfhelm, who, when he crowned 
 Alfred's grandson, King Athelstan, at Kingston-on-Thames, 
 swore him to faithfulness on a copy of the Bible which is in 
 Lambeth Library, and drew up the form of Coronation which 
 has been used among our mouarchs down to Queen Victoria, 
 who, let us not forget to mention, is lineally descended from 
 that same King Athelstan. Here is Archbishop Dunstan too, the 
 first of the goodly roll of great English statesmen, wise to govern 
 men and direct kings. England would never have risen to her 
 greatness had she not been blessed with many such, gifts given 
 unto her by the self-same Spirit who came down at Pentecost. 
 Here is Elfric too, who shall be named as having written in our 
 marriage service the touching vow of fidelity, " to have and to 
 hold, to love and to cherish, from this day forward, till death us 
 do part." And here is Alphege, who was Arclibishop when the 
 fierce Danes broke into the country, over-ran it, burut down towns 
 and homesteads, and slaughtered the people by hundreds. They 
 seized Archbishop Alpliege in his capital city of Canterbury, and 
 dragged him with them towards London, because he withheld 
 from them the money which had been collected for the poor, and 
 in their wild fury they murdered him at I]ltham, and then,
 
 filled with remorse, buried him with honour in London, and 
 always afterwards held the church where they had done so in 
 special reverence ; and to this day it retains the name of St. 
 Clement of the Danes. The greatest of their kings afterwards 
 carried the martyr's bones to Canterbury, and he and his people 
 became zealous Christians and dwelt peaceably in the land, and 
 became a strength to it — a noble infusion of new blood into a 
 nation which had become somewhat weak and effeminate. Here 
 is Anselm too, mighty in the Scriptures, so gentle and saintly of 
 life that the great roll contains no sweeter, holier name. 
 
 All these came between Augustine and the subject of your 
 next j)icture — Archbishop Langton and the Great Charter. 
 Stephen Langton was the 43rd of the Archbishops. England 
 had already grown to an important place among the nations, and 
 was now one of the chief powers of Europe. Her towns had 
 become populous, and their burgesses were men of influence, 
 feeling that they had rights and duties of their own. The 
 Norman kings would have grown tyrants, and the one power in 
 the State which prevented them Avas the Church of England. 
 The Bishops saw that, if religion meant anything, it meant that 
 man is responsible to God, that he is a being with soul and spirit, 
 with a conscience, and, therefore, with freedom of will, and 
 danger of ruin ; and it would be easy enough to show you how 
 the Church was the bulwark of national freedom, and the 
 defender of such as were in need and necessity. On behalf of 
 the liberties of the Church and the poor, Archbishop Anselm had 
 been banished from the country, and Becket had been slain in 
 his own Cathedral. And now King John, utterly mean and 
 odious in character — yet not the coward and fool that he is 
 sometimes represented — had filled the country with crimes and 
 abominations. Great landholders and country townsfolk alike 
 regarded him with detestation, and took up arms against him. 
 Archbishop Langton set himself earnestly to bring about peace, 
 and he did so by drawing up the Great Charter — Magna Charta as 
 it is called — containing the assertion of the rights of the people
 
 18 
 
 against oppression by any ruler whatever. The story is a very 
 grand one in its preliminary details, but I have only to do with 
 the great scene. The king, driven to bay, for his friends had 
 departed from him, was forced to consent to sign it. Let them 
 come to Windsor Castle, he said, and he would do it. But the 
 barons and Langton were wary. No, they said, they would 
 rather not trust themselves in strong castles ; they would 
 rather meet him in open air. He ragsd at the message, but 
 they knew better than to yield, and he agreed to meet them at 
 Eunnymede, not far off, a meadow by the Thames. They even 
 stipulated for the day. Trinity Sunday was at hand ; they would 
 wait and adore the name of the Blessed Trinity, and on the 
 Monday afterwards the oath should be taken in that thrice holy 
 name. And they did meet that day. It was the 15th of June, 
 1215. The river was crowded with bargeloads of London 
 citizens, spectators streamed over the hill sides, while the king 
 stood silent and sullen. Langton read the Great Charter aloud. 
 It declared that the property of wards and widows should be 
 protected — a proof that there was good reason in that is seen in 
 the fact that not long before the owner of Addington had died, 
 leaving a daughter of fourteen as his only child, and the king had 
 forced her to marry one of his favourites ; the king was 
 prohibited from levying money at his own will ; law-courts were 
 to bo held at fixed places, and not to follow the king about 
 wherever he went ; fines for offences were to be proportioned 
 to the offence and assessed by a jury ; forest-laws, which set the 
 life of a buck at a higher value than a man's, were abolished. 
 But the key note of the Charter, the foundation of English 
 liberty, lay in this sentence — " No freeman shall be arrested, or 
 imprisoned, or deprived of his possessions, or outlawed, or 
 banished, or anyway ruined, nor will we pronounce sentence 
 upon him or allow judges to do so, except by the legal judgment 
 of his equals, or by the law of the land. To none wiU we sell 
 right and justice, to none deny it, to none delay it." The king is 
 said to have ground his teeth, as his manner was, when this
 
 14 
 
 passage was read, but he said nothing. The parchment was 
 signed, and next time yon go to the British Museum you may 
 see the document itself, blackened and disfigured with age, but 
 how full of suggestions of English greatness, English goodness, 
 English liberty, I need not add. And once more I would ask 
 which of us, contemplating the blessings which God has showered 
 down upon old England, the security in which her people have 
 dwelt, the blessings of liberty and good government, and an 
 unbroken line of monarchs, will doubt that men like Stephen 
 Langton was one of the Holy Spirit's gifts unto men ? Many 
 years afterwards it was found necessary to alter the position of 
 one of the walls of Canterbury Cathedral, to re-build it over the 
 spot where Langton is buried, but — honour to them for the 
 thought — they would not disturb the bones of a patriot so 
 honoured, so brave, and self-sacrificing, so they threw an arch 
 over the tomb, and left it untouched. Next time you go to 
 Canterbury, go into the Trinity Chapel, and there you will see 
 the tomb half in the chapel, half under the arch in the wall. 
 You will see the memorials of many great men, but there is none 
 nobler, more deserving of reverence, than the plain and 
 unornamented tomb of Stephen Langton. 
 
 If your window had twenty compartments, one could find 
 subjects for them. We have seen already how the noble army 
 of martyrs has had recruits among this roll of Primates. Two 
 others should be named — two who were beheaded on Tower Hill. 
 One was Archbishop Sudbury, beheaded by the mob in Wat 
 Tyler's rebellion, because he had preached against the superstition 
 of pilgrimages and the evil results which came from them j and 
 Archbishop Laud, on the chai-ge that he had sought to restore 
 popery in England. I cannot pause upon the evil influences 
 which for awhile perverted the mind of the nation against him, 
 they were not of his making ; but there are two points which I 
 cannot here pass by. One ground of the charge was that he had 
 endeavoured to introduce the Book of Common Prayer into Pres- 
 byterian Scotland. It was sent down there in 1637, and was
 
 15 
 
 appointed to be read for the first time on the 7th Sunday after 
 Trinity. You may remember the beautiful collect for that day — 
 ** Lord of all power and might," it begins. Indignant bigotry 
 raised an outcry against it, and when the minister began to read 
 the collect, a fanatic woman threw a stool at him, a riot ensued, 
 and a fierce civil war began. Well, last year, on the 7th Sunday 
 after Trinity, in the same Church, the Presbyterian minister 
 began the service with reading the same collect, and preached on 
 the beauty of the Liturgy. Last October I went down to bury a 
 friend in the very churcliyard where those Covenanters are buried 
 whose slaughter is described by Sir AValter Scott in Old Mortality. 
 I saw the graves and read the inscriptions. There were three 
 Presbyterian ministers present when I said our Service, and 
 they one and all exclaimed afterwards, "What a beautiful Service, 
 What a pity we have not got it." So much for Archbishop 
 Laud's Prayer Book. But may not his martyr's death have 
 helped to bring them to a better inind. Another charge was 
 that lie put up stained glass windows in Lambeth Chapel. So 
 he did ; and the people who put him to death broke them, and 
 Archbishop Tait restored them. And not a dog moved his tongue. 
 Eut a greater and better change than all is that the English 
 people, the working men and artizans, have come to love this 
 Liturgy, and to recognize the fitness of making it beautiful in its 
 external forms. They do not regard baldness and bareness as 
 meaning the same thing as devoutness. And let me not pass over, 
 without a word, the name of Archbisliop Cranmer, a thoughtful 
 and kindly man, a very learned man, a man of pure and high 
 intentions, a man too doubtless of serious faults of character. 
 You know that the great lleformation of religion began in his 
 days. Now if you ever read the history of the great religious 
 changes of the 16th century at home and abroad, you will find 
 that along with the blessings which they brought there were also 
 grievous evils. In many places men clothed their crimes and 
 shameful lusts with the name of religion. They ran into 
 horrible extremes of fanaticism, and prej)ared the way for
 
 16 
 
 downright infidelity, under the name of Protestantism. It was 
 80 both in France and G-ermany ; but in our own dear country 
 the Church was reformed, not destroyed; its life was not checked, 
 its very form was preserved uninjured. The Archbishop of 
 Canterbury still sits in the chair of Augustine, and Anselm, and 
 Langton, and Warham, the parochial divisions remain 
 substantially as Archbishop Theodore arranged them when he 
 wrought the English Churches into one, the sacraments are still 
 adminstered in the same manner, and, we may assert, with the 
 same words that were used in the primitive Church. How to 
 account for all this ? Not by the firmness of Archbishop Cran- 
 mer, for fii'mness was not one of his virtues ; it was because whilst 
 the whole world was tossing and heaving imder the storm, 
 Cranmer devoted all his strength to giving the English people 
 the Bible in their own tongue. I hesitate not to say that the 
 stability of the throne at this time and the affection of the people 
 for the Church, are owing to the value which from the very 
 beginning of the movement in England was set upon the Holy 
 Scriptures. When King Alfred was waiting in exile in the Isle 
 of Athelney, his foes swarming around him, he had only two 
 possessions in the world, and they were his harp — for he was 
 skilful with it — and his Bible, which he was translating into Saxon 
 for his people. And now, when you hear of his descendant. 
 Queen Victoria, going into cottages and reading the Bible to sick 
 and blind men, is it strange to feel that the heart of patriotism 
 and of loyalty to the old paths still beats strong and true ? The 
 reign of Henry VIII. had ugly features enough about it. There 
 were violent spirits who would fain have uprooted many a 
 landmark, but, as a matter of fact, the only change of any 
 moment wliich Cranmer made in public worship in his reign, was 
 to provide for the Scrii^tures being read to the people in English. 
 In the next reign, that of Edward VI. — let me note this 
 coincidence — it was on Wliitsiindaij, 1549, that the Book of 
 Common Prayer, in English, was used in public worship. The 
 Reformation came to a wreck under Queen Mary. Cranmer
 
 17 
 
 was burned in the fire, as were 300 more, and the people out- 
 wardly returned to the Roman faith. But one thing the perse- 
 cutors never attempted, and that was to take away the English 
 Bible which Cranmer had given them. It had become part of 
 the cherished heritage of the nation, and probably not a village 
 in England would have willingly suffered it to be taken from the 
 Church in which Cranmer had placed it. Peace returned after 
 five troubled years, and the wisdom of the Reformation settlement 
 has made itself felt to this hour, and we, assembled here to-day, 
 loving our Church and her services, can thankfully acknowledge 
 that God, in His guidance of that crisis, signally gave gifts imto 
 men. 
 
 If I were beginning my Sermon, instead of ending it, I could 
 unfold to you a history containing some beautiful features, of the 
 early planting of religion in America. There are certainly some 
 dark shades in the picture, and one ought always to fear vain- 
 glory in comparison of self against others. Yet it is not vain 
 boasting to contrast the history of the Spanish Conquests in 
 America with our own. There was a time when Spain possessed 
 nearly the whole continent, and the histoi'y of her zeal in rob- 
 bing and murdering the poor Indians and converting them to 
 religion at the same moment, exceeds in abomination almost 
 every chapter in history. And now Spain does not possess one 
 foot of ground on the American Continent. It has not been so 
 with our own nation. But I dare not carry you step by step 
 through the planting of the English Church on the Great Western 
 Continent. Let it suffice to tell that, in 1787, Archbishop Moore 
 and three of his suffragans consecrated three American Bishops 
 in Lambeth Chapel, and from that time to this the American 
 Church has grown in numbers and influence, and certainly can 
 show, at the present moment, as brilliant a body of preachers 
 as any Church in Christendom. I do not remember the exact 
 number of Bishops in the American Chvirch, but it must be near 
 upon seventy. I once asked the late Dean of "Westminster, after 
 his return from America, what he thought of the prospects of the
 
 18 
 
 Church there, and his answer was, " "When I went out I expected 
 little, now I see that the Church will carry all before it." Six- 
 teen years aj^o, several of the American Bishops came to England 
 to hold brotherly counsel with the Bishops of the English Church, 
 both at home and of the Colonies. The meeting left bright and 
 happy memories behind it. How could it be otherwise, with 
 Longley at the head ? Well I remember the presiding Bishop, 
 Dr. Hopkins, of Vermont, worshipping in our little Church here 
 on the day before the meeting, singing the hymns lustily, and 
 with a good courage, and hanging on the earnest words of Bishop 
 Selwjm, of New Zealand, whom he had persuaded to preach in 
 his place, he having first engaged himself to me to do so. That 
 meeting, however, was regarded as an experiment. It only 
 lasted three days ; but the experiment was so haj^py that they 
 always longed to come once more, and in fuller numbers, now 
 that success promised weU. And this brings us to our third 
 picture — Archbishop Tait receiving them. He did so first of all 
 at Canterbur}'. It was on St. Peter's Day, June 29th, 1878. In 
 the morning he joined with them at the Anniversary Service at 
 S. Augustine's CoUege, when one of their Bishops, Dr. Cleve- 
 land Coxe, preached a very moving and affectionate sermon, 
 and I remember well how they walked, with bated breath, through 
 the ruined Chajiel, under which the first Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury lies buried. I, myself, conducted two of them from 
 Margate a few days before to see the spot where he had landed ; 
 for scenes connected with the English Church are not more dear 
 to any of us than they are to the Americans. In the afternoon 
 there was a grand service at the Cathedral. It was crowded 
 from end to end, and the Archbishop received them seated in 
 what is called S. Augustine's Chair. None who witnessed it will 
 ever lose the sense of that solemn scene. That day month his 
 only son had died, and, at the close of his weighty words, 
 he turned specially to these Americans, " My brothers from 
 across the Atlantic," he called them, and talked to them 
 so earnestly, so impressively, and withal so simply of the kind-
 
 19 
 
 noss they had sliown lo his boy on his visit only a few short 
 nioutJis before. Tiie few pathetic words, iu harmony with 
 every one's thoughts that day, were the crowning point of the 
 day's ceremony. 
 
 I rejoice that this episode has been chosen as the illustration 
 of his life. No other could have been so happy. There were 
 other important and stirring scenes in his long episcopate. Take 
 for example the visits of himself and his wife to the cholera 
 districts in 1866 ; but here you have not merely a great Union 
 of the Church of England with her daughter Churches, the 
 representatives of the English-speaking Christians all over the 
 world, under a Patriarchate grander than Augustine himself 
 ever could have dreamt of; but blended with this in indissoluble 
 union one has the thought of the great sorrows of his life, 
 turned even in the very moment of their coming into the earnest 
 of an eternal and unfading hope ; and further there is the 
 memory of the beautiful courage which brought him in that 
 sad hour away from Stonehouse to come down to Canterbury 
 and go through his duty. Ages yet unborn will ponder upon 
 the record of that meeting. I have it from the Americans them- 
 selves that the ^yarm affection which has grown of late years 
 between the two nations, the reverential feeling with which our 
 cousins across the water regard the ancient land of their 
 fathers, must be attributed to the deep love which goes on 
 between the two Churches. 
 
 My friends, I do not think you expected me to come here to- 
 day to pronounce a panegyric on Archbishop Tait. I feel, indeed, 
 that while I personally reverence every step of ground on which 
 he trod for his kindness to myself, I revere jet more, if it were 
 possible, his public character and life. But you will not need to 
 have that dwelt upon. You all know it ; }0u know what a kind, 
 considerate, gentle neighbour you had in him. The greatest 
 men are the gentlest. This man, boi'n to be a prince among 
 men, to rule so iirmly and wisely, to be listened to iu the lligh 
 Court of Parliament with a reverence such as is accorded to
 
 20 
 
 few, and not surpassed to any, is there a cottager among you 
 who did not rejoice to see his pleasant face at your hearth, or 
 enjoying himself at the children's feast ? and is there any man 
 you ever met that you would sooner trust to minister to you in 
 the last hour of all ? But though you will thus remember him 
 in your own personal lives, that memory will in part die with 
 you, thox is a record which you have put up that he who thus 
 befriended the poor and ignorant also rose to the maguiticent 
 traditions of the Church of England, that he takes his place 
 among her worthiest and greatest fathers, that he recognised her 
 position as the greatest factor in our national greatness, an abiding 
 thread through the tangled history of more than a thousand 
 years. The student of the history of England, who regards it 
 with honest eyes, will find that, as in all other countries, so 
 here, political impiilses have gone from one side to another -nith 
 tremendous force ; but that here these impulses have been 
 moderated and controlled by a wonderful power, and that 
 power has been the Church of England. "When kings have been 
 self-willed and tyrannical, it has been the Church which has 
 checked them ; when their subjects have been lawless it has called 
 them back to obedience. At this present moment, I look in 
 vain in the news of any foreign country in the world to find what 
 I find in England, the Chiu'ch allying itself with science, with 
 social improvement, with humanising influences of every kind, 
 and its alliance accepted and acknowledged. It was the recog- 
 nition of the necessity of it which made Archbishop Tait a great 
 man. And his success was owing to the deep personal piety 
 which was the very root of his life. Starting from the belief 
 that his duty, and every man's duty in this world, is to glorify 
 God and live with Him for ever, the first sentence in the Scotch 
 catechism, which his eldest sister had taught him in his child- 
 hood, he looked upon all created things as ministers of that 
 Divine glory, all fulfilling the law of Christ. The fear of Grod 
 was his guide, and the love of God his animating princii)le, and 
 therefore, whilst always active and busiuess-hke, and enjoying
 
 21 
 
 his work, he nevertheless fulfilled, in a way that I, for one, have 
 seen in no other man, the Apostle's exhortation, " Pray without 
 ceasing." 
 
 Dear friends, you have put up your window to his memory — 
 a very beautiful memorial too. But there is one yet more 
 beautiful within your power. Remember the good words which 
 he has spoken to you, the beautiful example ■^'hich he has set 
 you, and let that toll ujion your life so long as it lasts. His 
 ardent desire, that for which I believe he would have given up 
 a hundred lives, was for the peace of the Church, and for the 
 holiness of its members. You can do something for that. You 
 can pray for it ; you can strive for it. 0, pray for the peace of 
 Jerusalem, for they shall prosper that love Thee. 
 
 And specially I call on you who are young. Many of us are 
 gi'owing old — it may be that our place here shall know us but 
 little longer — the future of the Church of England lies more with 
 you than with us. You be good and zealou.s Churchmen, pious. 
 God-fearing, manly Christian people, pure of heart and life, brave 
 for truth, zealous for the welfare of men. It may be that forty or 
 fifty years hence some of you who hear me may be living and 
 pointing to that window and telling your children how you saw 
 it on its first day here. Oh, that you may be able to say also 
 that you resolved afresh on that day that you would try to be 
 good Christians, to say your prayers, to make those prayers real, 
 to set an example to your fellow countrymen which should make 
 them love the Church of England, for the fruits of it which they 
 saw in you. I will go further and give you one sjjecial exhorta- 
 tion. Set ajDart one day in the week, and ask God sjDOoially on 
 that day to give peace to His Church, holiness to His Church, to 
 fill our people with love for it. I have said it to the young, I say 
 it to all. And if it shall commend itself to your conscience, good 
 Archbishop Tait's zeal will still live among us, and though he 
 rests from his labours his works will follow him.
 
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