Edward Hoare, M.A Part 10

"How rapidly and how unexpectedly do the greatest dangers take place!

Truly we are living on the brink of eternity, and a few hours may find us in the midst of it. May the Lord keep us with our loins girt and our lamps burning, and we ourselves as those that wait for their Lord. I am thankful to say I have got on very comfortably, but I am too old to talk all day, and nothing suits me so well as home. I sometimes think I must give up travelling altogether; but then when I find how much my poor services seem to be valued I have my misgivings. We have had really n.o.ble collections, no less than 78 in one little church holding little more than two hundred persons, the richest of whom were shop-keepers and professional men; and 60 in another church where the congregation, though rather larger, was very much of the same character. We have therefore still much to learn at home, and none more than I have. It seems that we are only at the beginning, at the very threshold of heavenly knowledge, but what we can see on the threshold is enough to fill the soul with praise and grat.i.tude."

"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _April_ 26_th_, 1870.

"I have really been regretting your absence from the feast of fat things which we have lately been enjoying at home, for I consider we have had privileges of a very high order.

"Our Pa.s.sion Week services were most profitable, and following as they did on Mr. Langston's Lent sermons, they tended, I trust, to put a seal on impressions already formed, though I cannot say I have yet had the joy of discovering any cases of marked conversion as their consequence. I have, however, met with those who I think have been aroused to further progress, and who acknowledge the help given with real thankfulness.

"I trust also that our C.M.S. anniversary may be regarded as a token of progress. There has been an amazing amount of interest amongst our younger parishioners on the subject of the African Bishop, {153} so that yesterday the Mission-room was quite full, and again both the Trinity rooms in the evening. There were so many last night that there were several standing by the door of the girls' room, and a collection of 14, containing an immense amount of copper. I confess I was anxious about our collection in church, especially when I found that we had not exceeded that of last year in the morning, but we picked up n.o.bly in the afternoon and evening. In the evening alone there was 45, so that before we left church the collection reached 120, and there were 11 additional sent on Monday morning. I hope I may regard it as the fruit of all the admirable sermons that we have lately heard, and if so I shall regard it with peculiar thanksgiving, as showing that there has been not merely religious excitement but true religious principle at work amongst the people. And this is what we all want. It is to be living under the combined influence of principle and emotion, of deep feeling produced in the soul by strong conviction of Christian truth.

"I have been very much urged to go to Cheltenham, and if I go I should immediately set out for my long journey. But I do so enjoy my quiet work at home that I sometimes think I must never go out again.

I ought, however, to be thankful for the privilege of being permitted to do the Lord's work anywhere."

In the autumn of 1870 Mr. h.o.a.re, accompanied by one of his daughters, crossed the Atlantic, and spent nearly three months in a pleasant tour through the United States. It was a delightful holiday, and was the means of greatly strengthening and refreshing him for work at home. He had many good introductions, and went about seeing all that he could of the people, public inst.i.tutions, and Church work, but beyond an occasional sermon Mr. h.o.a.re made it a time of rest. No letters appear to have been preserved relating to this tour.

To Lady Buxton, after her son's death:-

"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _August_ 22_nd_, 1871.

"I have thought of you so much lately and so affectionately that I must send you one line of loving remembrance, for I know how pleasant a thing it is to be remembered by those we love, especially when the remembrance leads to prayer. I am persuaded that very many have prayed for you under this very heavy sorrow. There are so many who feel the bitterness of it, all of whom connect you with it so intimately that I am persuaded there has seldom been a mourner more generally or more affectionately remembered before G.o.d.

"I think that solemn day at Fox Warren was, on the whole, very satisfactory. To me it was inexpressibly affecting to be surrounded by all the beauties of the most charming place, with his mind speaking in every brick and almost in every tree. I was so glad that I had paid him a visit there only a few weeks before-such a pleasant visit, and so remarkable for the charm of his society, although, poor dear fellow, I confess I was terrified about his health. But now all that is over, and, oh! how it does bring before us the overwhelming interest of the Heavenly Home!

'"My Heavenly Home is bright and fair; No pain or death can enter there.'

"I never remember to have felt more deeply the difference between things which can and which cannot be shaken. Oh, who can tell the blessing of an unshaken hope, an unshaken safety, an unshaken inheritance, and an unshaken home, all resting on unshaken promises and the unshaken covenant of G.o.d! These things which cannot be shaken must remain, and they will remain when all fair homes of this pleasant world are pa.s.sed away for ever. May G.o.d keep us by His own grace grasping them with an unshaken faith, that, when Christ either comes to us or summons us to Him, we may meet Him without surprise and receive an abundant entrance into His Kingdom."

Extracts from family-letters:-

"PATTERDALE, _September_ 14_th_, 1871.

"I have received two very earnest invitations to Edinburgh, and one to Australia. I do not suppose that I shall accept either of them, certainly not the latter until my return; but if I accept the former it will delay my return a week. But I do not think it likely.

"Our journey thus far has been most prosperous. We have had beautiful weather, and a very happy party: Keswick and Derwent.w.a.ter on Tuesday, Helvellyn and Ambleside yesterday, and Bowness and Patterdale to-day. As usual we have had several affectionate greetings, amongst others one from Sir - -, whom we met at Keswick.

We were both very friendly, but it was impossible not to feel that we were both under constraint from the sense of great divergence. We both scrupulously avoided any points of difference, but both showed clearly that there were too many rocks on which we might split at any moment. And yet I feel reproved by the zeal he had shown in his endeavours to do good to his guide. I am sure there are many lessons which we may learn from those who widely differ from us, and the more we value the blessed truths which G.o.d has made known to us, the more humbled we ought to feel at the want of fervour with which we endeavour to maintain them.

"To-morrow we hope to reach Carlisle, and I hope I may be prospered there. But I find it very difficult to work up much zeal about the Jews. What I do feel is entirely the result of Scriptural conviction, and not of any personal interest. The Jew in Scripture is certainly a much more interesting character than the Jew in Petticoat Lane. But we profess to act on Scriptural principles, and therefore ought to persevere, even though it be in the dark."

"CROMER, _September_ 28_th_, 1871.

"I am greatly pleased by your letter of this morning. It was indeed a most profitable sermon of Mr. Edmonstone's, and I have felt the powerful influence on my own mind of it and the life of Agnes Jones.

I trust, therefore, that my Cromer visit has been thus far really for good, and I feel, myself, a fresh stimulus for the sacred work to which the Lord has called us."

"ELY, _October_ 7_th_, 1871.

"I have been thinking of you all day in your return to the dear old home, and have almost felt disposed to envy you, for I am satisfied with holiday-making and begin to long for home. However, I have consented to return to Cromer from Nottingham, to pay a visit of a few days to your Uncle Richard, so that I expect to enjoy the hospitality of three of my brothers, which is very satisfactory to me. Nothing could have exceeded the kindness of all parties, and I am not without a hope that there has been some blessing on my ministry. But I cannot say it has been a time of rest, and I feel the want of repose more than I do at home. I suppose this is why I write so slowly, so badly, and with such difficulty that I am sure I never should do for Secretary to the C.M.S. {157}: the first long letter would knock me up for the day."

"NOTTINGHAM, _October_ 10_th_, 1871.

"I have been venturing on a speech this morning in which I think the Lord prospered me. I desired to speak for Him, and I was certainly most kindly received." {158a}

"CROMER, _October_ 16_th_, 1871.

"You need not be at all frightened about the Dean, for it is on Wednesday the 25th that he comes to us. The sermon, etc., is on the 26th, and on that day we ought to have an S.P.G. luncheon. I think it would be well to ask the Committee soon. The list may be found in the S.P.G. report, under the head 'Local' on the top shelf.

"I feel doubly interested in the thought of my return, and trust it may be with a greater realisation of our completeness in Christ Jesus and of the blessedness of working not merely for Him but in Him. I felt this most remarkably at Nottingham, and I believe it resulted in power, at all events on one occasion referred to in the paper which I have asked - to send to you.

"The Congress was very interesting, but too exciting. The week was one of great exhaustion, though I am thankful I was there, and I believe G.o.d gave power to those who were endeavouring to be witnesses for the truth. I cannot doubt but on the whole they did well and carried the people with them. With only one exception, they spoke with wisdom and power, like men who were being prayed for, as indeed we all were by many in the Hall. But the close attention, the hot room, the many friends, and the anxiety as to the issue took a great deal out of me, so that I am to-day really enjoying a quiet morning over my letters.

"Amongst others I saw a great deal of the Bishop of Sydney, and found him very strong about the Australian idea. {158b} He says it is the very thing that he has long desired for his own diocese. But I do not yet see the call of G.o.d sufficiently clearly to have my judgment really inclined to it. If the Lord makes His way plain, I hope to be ready to go, but G.o.d forbid that I should go one step without His orders."

From the Archbishop of Canterbury:-

"ADDINGTON PARK, CROYDON, _September_ 24_th_, 1868.

"To REV. ED. h.o.a.rE.

"DEAR MR. h.o.a.rE,-It will give me very great pleasure if you will accept the office of Honorary Canon of Canterbury, to which your standing in the diocese and the services which you have rendered to the Church by your zeal and ability in the discharge of your ministerial functions amply ent.i.tle you.

"Believe me, dear Mr. h.o.a.re, "Very sincerely yours, "C. T. CANTUAR."

The offer of an Honorary Canonry in Canterbury Cathedral, made in 1868 by Archbishop Longley, was the only dignity which he ever received; why this should have been the case is a question that has often been asked, and to which no satisfactory answer has ever been made. Canon h.o.a.re would have made an admirable Bishop: he was a born ruler and administrator; his intellectual powers and wide sympathies (for which those who knew him superficially gave him no credit), together with his power of inspiring enthusiasm in all his subordinates, would have been good qualities for that high position, and not the least advantages which he possessed were a fine presence and commanding personality.

But he neither sought nor wished for promotion, and remained to the last what he loved to be, a pastor in the midst of a devoted flock, with more opportunities of preaching the Gospel of Christ at home and throughout England than fell to the lot of most men, and, as one remarked to him when the subject happened to be referred to in a newspaper, "Man has not promoted you, but G.o.d has, by permitting you to be the means of bringing blessing to more souls than any one whom I know." Looking at the subject in that aspect, it is impossible to deny that his exceptional talents were specially suited to the sphere which he adorned, and thus we may believe that G.o.d overruled the apparent neglect of men for the greater advancement of His truth.

CHAPTER XI _PAROCHIAL MISSIONS_

Five-and-twenty years ago parochial missions were in a different position from that in which they stand at present.

There were very few mission preachers, and they had a good many difficulties to contend with. Some looked askance at the new movement and thought it savoured of Rome; others deemed it "exciting," and unworthy of the calm atmosphere of the Church of England.

It had not then been reduced to a science: missioners adopted their own individual methods, as seemed best to them. Canon h.o.a.re at an early stage of the history of the movement recognised its vast possibilities, and believed that it was just what was wanted to save the Church from stagnation, and arouse men from that dangerous respectability which enables them to repeat the General Confession, but which declines to particularise. All through his ministry his aim had been to reach individuals, and he saw the opportunities of so doing in the work of a mission.