Edward Hoare, M.A Part 13

There seemed to have been no special cause for it-no mission-no exciting preaching; it was caused by his careful parish work and ministry. This went on for, I think, about two months; we kept it very quiet, spoke of it only to a few prayerful people, but they were praying for it; at length, however, it got out, and a few unwise persons-some of whom were Church people and some were not-got down Revivalists and hired the Town Hall to throw excitement into the work. Immediately it ceased! I build no theory or argument upon the fact, I merely say what I noticed."

The same writer continues thus:-

"About that time we began the Evening Communion, and I recollect well our astonishment at the result. Such a number of new faces whom either we did not know or never saw at Holy Communion! Servants, lodging-house keepers, wives of working men, whom practically we had been excommunicating by having the Holy Communion only at the hours when we had hitherto celebrated it."

All who had the sacred privilege of working with Canon h.o.a.re in his splendidly ordered parish will agree in this, that two clauses of our Church's Creeds were ever before his eyes: one was the note of all his preaching; the other, the motive and reward of all his work.

"I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins."

"I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of Life."

This chapter, which describes some of the parochial work of the parish, would not be complete without a reference to a great organisation which, though not of the parish, yet annually a.s.sembled in it, viz. "The Aggregate Clerical Meeting." Shortly after his appointment to Tunbridge Wells, at a time when no conferences of clergy, now so common, had been thought of, the idea of the great spiritual benefit to be gained by such an annual gathering made Mr. h.o.a.re determine to try the experiment.

Having consulted with some friends, he sent invitations to the members of seven "Clerical Societies" in the neighbouring parts of Kent, Suss.e.x, and Surrey, to a.s.semble in Tunbridge Wells in the month of June for a series of meetings, not for the public, but for themselves, lasting over two days, with a sermon in Trinity Church on the evening of the first day and a celebration of the Holy Communion in the morning of the day following.

All invited guests were given hospitality in the houses of kind friends.

The Conference thus a.s.sembled met annually for about forty years, and from the first to the last meeting Canon h.o.a.re was its President, although on two occasions illness obliged him to depute another as the chairman. From its small beginning it soon spread, sending its invitations through the South-East of England, although drawing the greater part of its members (who numbered altogether nearly five hundred) from the three counties named above. Laymen too, "introduced by a clergyman," were invited to attend, and gladly availed themselves of the opportunity. Most of the great Evangelical men have preached at its annual gatherings, and papers and addresses of the greatest possible interest have been given at these meetings. All however who have attended on these occasions will agree in this, that the one thing to which every one looked forward was the closing address of the President.

Precious words were always given him to speak, full of spiritual experience and loving exhortation.

The value of conferences like these is now acknowledged everywhere, but it is only due to the one whose memory we affectionately cherish that the credit of originating them should be here given to him whose foreseeing mind recognised the blessings such meetings would confer.

CHAPTER XIII _THE BORDERLAND_

The most important crisis of Canon h.o.a.re's life was now drawing near-a time which, though it seemed to be full of trouble, was really a period of blessing to himself, to his congregation, and to a far wider circle than his own devoted people.

In a former chapter there was a reference to the invitation which, issuing first from his old friend Bishop Perry of Melbourne, was taken up by other Australian prelates, viz. that Canon h.o.a.re should visit Australia in about two years' time and make a mission tour throughout their dioceses in the princ.i.p.al towns. The project a.s.sumed a tangible shape, and details began to be considered; the whole thing, including the journeys each way, was calculated to take ten months. He _was_ absent from his parish for almost exactly the very period, and at the very same time during which the Australian tour would have taken place, but his absence was due to the consequences of that Roman fever which nearly cost him his life. When Canon h.o.a.re first spoke of this to the writer it was with the deepest solemnity; he said: "I am never quite satisfied in my mind as to whether the Lord had not a specially humbling message for me in that fever; the Australian plan was given up because I thought I ought not to be so long away from my parish, and it has sometimes seemed to me as if He, by laying me by for the very time that I should otherwise have been away, may have meant me to learn that my presence here is not so important after all, and that He can carry on His work by other hands."

This is thoroughly characteristic of the way in which our beloved friend seemed always on the alert to detect his own weak points, as well as to gain from trial its intended blessing. Australia was given up, and several months afterwards he decided to take a short holiday in Rome during part of Lent.

The following letters describe his enjoyment of the place, but at the same time we can detect signs of the penumbra of the dark shadow that was swiftly approaching.

To his eldest son:-

"ROME, _March_ 3_rd_, 1873.

"So after all my misgivings, doubts, and hesitations, here I am really in Rome, and already profoundly interested in the place. We arrived on Friday evening and put up at a new hotel opposite the Russie, where alone we could find a resting-place; and to-day we have moved into some lodgings at the top of one of the highest houses on the top of the highest hill in Rome. We have been triumphing in the thought of our fresh air, but the conceit of some of us has been a little diminished this morning by being told that there is nothing so unwholesome in Rome, that nothing is so healthy there as a low and crowded situation, and that no Roman would accept our privileges for love or money; but this we keep to ourselves.

"On Sat.u.r.day K- and I went to St. Peter's, and my expectations were more than realised by the magnificent area and perfect proportions.

There is something most solemnising in the magnitude and vast open s.p.a.ce perfectly uninterrupted by any arrangement for worshippers, and a second visit this afternoon has only confirmed my first impressions. I thought to-day that it appeared to have grown since I saw it on Sat.u.r.day.

"Then we went to the Forum, which I have been feasting upon again to-day. I imagine that the excavations have been extended since you were here, but I doubt whether in the Forum much has been discovered.

And really nothing is wanting. But how strange that the villain Phocas, whose edict has led to so much discussion, should be the one whose one column should stand out by itself in the best preservation of them all! But all one's ideas of human greatness are dwarfed by the Coliseum. What must the place have been when crowded with people! It must have contained all the inhabitants of the city, and a good many over, and must have ill.u.s.trated St. Paul's expression 'so great a cloud of witnesses.' I suppose that Christian martyrs did not much care for lookers-on, but had their minds wholly absorbed by their G.o.d and the wild beasts which were to devour them, but it must have been an awful ordeal to face such a host of enemies, and how inconceivable it is that such thousands could be brought together for the pleasure of seeing their fellow-men torn to pieces! Truly man is a fallen creature, born far above the beasts, but fallen far below them!

"I was greatly entertained by an American gentleman, who said to me that as they had gone so far in America as to give the suffrage to every man, they had better go a little further and give it to all the horses, for intelligent persons might drive them to the poll, which they could not do with ignorant men."

To his eldest daughter:-

"ROME, _March_ 16_th_, 1873.

"We have all been greatly interested by your report of the ordination. {190} It seems to me that everything was ordered for us exactly as we could have wished, and if I had sat down to plan it for myself I do not think I could have planned anything more completely to my mind. So blessed be G.o.d for the abundance and carefulness of His mercy! How I have thought of our young clergyman to-day! I wonder whether he has been preaching. He has not written much to me, but I cannot be surprised at that when I consider the absorption of his mind. What a delightful birthday for him!

"I am sorry to say I cannot give a very good report of myself. Rome has thoroughly disagreed with me, and the disagreement has brought on so much pain in my back that between the two I have had very little power of enjoyment. Still there has been so much to enjoy that, notwithstanding everything, I have enjoyed a great deal very much indeed. But the thing I should enjoy more than anything in the world would be to get home, and I am very much disposed to turn my steps homeward instead of going on to Naples. But nothing is fixed at present, or even discussed. It is only a floating idea in my mind, and may come to nothing.

"It has been strange to spend a second Sunday in retirement. I was engaged to preach both days, but could not venture on either, and now I should not be surprised if I left Rome without opening my lips in public. How different G.o.d's plans are from ours! My plan was that I should be so very useful, and carry on here the same blessed work the Lord granted at home. But G.o.d's plan was to keep me still and to let me learn quietly by myself. And I really hope He has been teaching me, and that these two Sundays especially have not been without their blessing. I am quite sure that those who teach most have the greatest need of learning the deep things of G.o.d and the secret windings of their own hearts.

"I have not told you about Rome, for you know a great deal about it better than I do. The great, grand old ruins stand out as magnificent as ever, speaking witnesses to the failure of the world's greatness. 'Broken greatness' seems written on them all. And modern Popery goes on its way, I should really think, more idolatrous than ever-the most vulgar, tawdry travesty of the simple Christianity of the Catacombs. But I am not going to write a book, so hoping that G.o.d has been teaching you at church as I believe He has been teaching me at home, and wishing you every one every possible blessing,

"I remain, etc., "E. h.o.a.rE."

Mr. h.o.a.re returned to Tunbridge Wells for Pa.s.sion Week, and was stricken down by the deadly fever which had taken hold of him in Rome. For several weeks he was desperately ill. Sir William Jenner came down two or three times to see him, and the daily bulletins were looked for by the whole town with the deepest anxiety. A daily prayer-meeting was inst.i.tuted, and was thronged by those who joined in the most earnest supplications to Almighty G.o.d for his restoration. He recovered, being to all appearance simply prayed back to life by his people. The physician before named considered it a most remarkable case, for his patient had lingered too long on the Borderland to make recovery seem possible. In the summer, so soon as he could travel, he was taken away for change, and he did not return until the autumn, nor even then to work.

The following letter from Archbishop Tait was one of very many that poured in upon him at this time, and the Aggregate Clerical Meeting, which he had inst.i.tuted several years before and of which he was President, presented him with an illuminated address signed by some hundreds of clergy, in which they thanked G.o.d for his recovery and welcomed him back to health.

From Archbishop Tait:-

"STONEHOUSE, ST. PETER'S, THANET.

"_June_ 6_th_, 1873.

"THE REV. CANON h.o.a.rE.

"MY DEAR MR. h.o.a.rE,-Your long and trying illness has made us feel much for you and your family. I trust that now our Heavenly Father is restoring you to health. May He long continue to you and to us the blessing of your preservation in health and usefulness amongst us; and may He in health and sickness give you every support from the Holy Spirit.

"Yours sincerely, "A. C. CANTUAR."

To one of his daughters:-

"HAMPSTEAD, _August_ 13_th_, 1873.

"You and I have had so little correspondence lately that you must almost forget the sight of my handwriting, and though, I am sorry to say, the want of practice has led to a great disinclination to exert myself or to take any trouble, I really must begin again.

"We are still here, and not at sea, as we proposed to be, for last night it was so stormy that the family in general and your uncle in particular decreed we should not go by ship. I do not think K- is sorry. So now we propose to go by train, which I always declared I would not do. But the pair of sons and daughters is more than any resolutions can withstand, so (D.V.) we go to York to-night and Newcastle to-morrow.

"On Sunday I hope I may hear Gurney preach: when shall I be doing it again myself? It seems sometimes as if I had forgotten how.

"Remember me very particularly to the Parrys. I have often thought of the Bishop's {193} visits to me when I was ill, and sometimes regret that I did not invite more good ministers to visit me. But I doubt very much whether I was capable of receiving much good. Indeed I am humbled to find even now how little power of receiving I appear to have. I have been talking to people with a view to my own improvement, but I am very stupid. Some things I cannot understand at all, as, _e.g._, this new doctrine of 'Perfection.' I cannot criticise it, for I have not yet discovered what it is or what its advocates really mean. I have been talking to E-, A- G-, and Mc- about it, but I do not know that I understand much more in consequence; and I have been reading a very interesting American biography, but that has not helped me much more. So I begin to think I must be content with the old paths, those blessed paths in which so many saints of G.o.d have walked and followed Christ. Let me and my dear ones be found walking there in the new and living way, and we may well indeed be thankful. May nothing ever turn us to the right hand or to the left, but be taking a step forward! For what other purpose has this sickness been sent? Oh, thanks be to His Name!"

"CROMER, _October_ 2_nd_, 1873.

"I do not suppose I shall reach home till Friday or Sat.u.r.day. I am not surprised at your feelings about yourself, for we have all had a shake which must leave its loosenings. Besides which we are not going home as usual to full work and happy activity, and it is impossible not to feel the difference. But there is no reason why we should not be returning to a winter of peculiar enjoyment. There is a joy in work, but there is great peace in quiet, and if the Lord grant His presence we may be more happy together than if we were under the full pressure of the ministry. I believe that we shall all be of one mind in the Lord, as we have ever been in former times, and I am looking forward to very great enjoyment.

"It is delightful to me to hear how much G.o.d has blessed Mr. Money's ministry, {195} and most pleasant to find how G.o.d has made my absence such a blessing to the people.

"I enclose you Robinson's letter, as I think you will be interested by it. Certainly he has been a capital curate and friend, and I have to be most truly thankful for his help. The Lord sent him when He foresaw I should need him, and so He will always provide."

It has been mentioned that, during Canon h.o.a.re's illness, the whole town was stirred with affectionate anxiety on his behalf. Prayer was offered up for his recovery in the churches and all the Nonconformist places of worship, and the common testimony to his character, in the conversation that was heard in the shop and the street, was that it was not his preaching nor his intellectual powers which appealed to their feelings so much as the sterling integrity and faithful consistency of his Christian life.