Edward Hoare, M.A Part 16

To one of his daughters:-

"BALACHULISH, N.B., _September_ 13_th_, 1883.

"I hope you will enjoy a delightful Sunday at Thun. I do not look forward with much pleasure to ours, for I do not like the Scotch Church services. I was greatly distressed last Sunday at Oban. Oh, how earnest I should be that visitors to Tunbridge Wells should have the pure Gospel of the grace of G.o.d! It is grievous to think what many people are condemned to hear! May G.o.d make us faithful to His truth!"

"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _June_ 4_th_, 1885.

"I am getting on very comfortably with Confirmation candidates. The Trinity school-girls are improved. They are excellent in their knowledge, well up in the Catechism, in which they used to be so sadly defective. Of course it is extremely difficult for an old man like me to get into the secrets of their young hearts, but many of them, I believe, are more than in earnest, for I feel sure they are really resting on their Saviour. Poor dears! I hope they will be kept, but they are likely to be terribly exposed to all kinds of religious unsettlement. The Salvation Army is going to have a grand 'Battle' next week, and the rank and file is to consist of 'saved drunkards, liars, swearers, poachers, parsons, sailors, and nailers'!! So we are cla.s.sed with queer company! Is it of G.o.d? or is it strange fire? that is the question. But who can wonder if our young people are perplexed and confused?"

Written at the death-bed of his brother Joseph:-

"HAMPSTEAD, _January_ 16_th_, 1886.

"I could not come home to-day, for I could not leave him in his low estate, though I am not like some of them, in immediate apprehension of any change. I fear there may be still before us deeper depths than we have known yet, unless the Lord mercifully lifts him over them, as He did Miss Courthope. He is generally wandering, but frequently revives in a most curious manner when I speak to him. I firmly believe that minds clouded like his very often have a perception of heavenly things, and most especially of the sweet name of Jesus.

"I went this morning to C.M.S. on the subject of the February Meetings. It was very edifying, but I had to come away very quickly, as I wanted to be back. People were all most kind, so much so that I hardly knew how to bear it.

"Since then I have been to see Bishop Perry, who was very unwell yesterday, I believe from riding home after a tiring day at Islington in a cold hansom-cab when he had a carriage and pair in his stable wanting exercise! Such is mankind. I tell him that I am obliged to knock about in cabs and 'busses because I cannot afford anything better, but he ought not to think of it.

"When we shall be home no one knows. I do not think I can come home for Sunday if things go on as they are now doing, unless I am obliged to do so, and I see nothing to indicate any immediate change. But we are in the Lord's hands, hour by hour, with eternity full in view and the Lord Jesus almost visible. May we each one abide in His love!"

"HAMPSTEAD, _January_ 21_st_, 1886.

"Joseph at rest in the Lord."

"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _March_ 5_th_, 1887.

"I hope you are still prospering and that you have had as beautiful weather as we have had. I consider that the beautiful bright sunshine of our dear old England is to be preferred to that of the South of France, more especially if the latter is accompanied by earthquakes as a variety, and certainly we have all been enjoying it here. Last Sunday was one of the most lovely days I can remember, and I hope it was one in which we enjoyed some sunshine in our souls.

All the week too has been bright and happy, though we have had some fogs in the morning-just enough to teach us how G.o.d can clear away all that obscures the sunshine of His love. On Wednesday we had a most profitable sermon from Mr. Russell."

"MARDEN HILL, HERTFORD, _August_ 30_th_, 1887.

"Nothing can be kinder or more affectionate than everybody here. H- and M- are most pleasant, and I would not have missed coming to them here on any account, as I consider that at Cromer every one is in a non-natural condition and here they are in their own home. I wonder whether there is the same difference between myself at home and abroad. I suppose there is, though I do not see it.

"I hope you are enjoying Brittany. You surely did not leave Guernsey on your left as you were crossing. If you did I suppose it was to avoid rocks; and maybe we should all prosper more if we were more careful to avoid temptations as well as to overcome them; and I hope the Lord may so direct the path of every one of us that we may be kept from danger and guided safe into the haven of peace. I have been exceedingly impressed with these words in Jeremiah x.: 'The way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.' So my way, and your way, is not in ourselves, and I trust the Lord may direct all our steps for His own glory."

"ST. BERNARD'S, CATERHAM, _October_ 14_th_, 1887.

"I return Miss T-'s enclosure. Pray tell her that her confidence need not be in the least shaken by the proposed visit to the Old Catholics, for they are thorough Protestants in many respects. They withdrew from the Church of Rome on the decree of Papal Infallibility (I think in the year 1870), under that very remarkable man Dr.

Dollinger, and have been excommunicated by it. They call themselves 'Old Catholics' to distinguish themselves from the New, or Roman, Catholics, and they claim to hold the Catholic faith as it was before Rome introduced its errors. We ought, therefore, to rejoice at our Bishops taking them in hand."

To his daughters:-

"YORK, _May_ 27_th_, 1888.

"I know not why it is, but my heart is so full for you all that I cannot forbear from writing to tell you. You have been constantly in my thoughts since I left home, and oh, how I have desired that the Lord may give to each one of you every possible happiness! I thank G.o.d that I believe He has given us a very happy home, and one that can stand comparison with others; but I long to make it happier still and to do all that a father can do to help each one of you and to promote that loving, joyous spirit which is the sacred privilege of a Christian home. Certainly it has entwined itself very closely round my own heart; and now that I am away I seem to feel it more than ever. May the Lord be with you all, not only while I am with you, but when I am gathered to my own Home with the Lord Jesus!

"I am thankful that I have been prospered, and am quite well and had an easy journey. Everybody has been most kind, and I hope the Lord has accompanied the ministry. The morning sermon was a long way off and not exciting: I felt for the good man, for he seemed discouraged.

"The Evening Service in the Minster was magnificent. There was a grand congregation, and what with the n.o.ble building and fine music there was enough to make a profound impression, even if there had been no sermon.

"But I hope they had the Gospel in addition; I certainly desired to give it to them, and they appeared to me very attentive. I do not feel in much heart for speech-making to-day, for I am utterly out of practice. But 'what have I that I have not received?' so I must open my mouth to receive my message, and I hope the Lord will give it me."

"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _August_ 22_nd_, 1888.

"I rejoice to hear that you are prospering and enjoying Chamounix. I cannot doubt that you have a most pleasant, happy, and loving party, and I shall heartily enjoy a few bright days with you and another look at those lovely mountains. There they stand unchanged, while all their admirers pa.s.s by and are gone. What a picture of what is going on in life! There is only One who is not a mere pa.s.ser-by; but, thanks to G.o.d, He is unchangeable, and we need never pa.s.s away from Him.

"We had a very comfortable Sunday. I preached in the morning about Jehoshaphat, to my own great interest. But in the afternoon I had a very poor attendance of men, and preached the feeblest of sermons. I hope it may have confounded the mighty, for it certainly was one of the weak things of the world, and contributed nothing to the self-elevation of the preacher.

"I am now off to church to preach on holiness. May G.o.d make us partakers of His holiness!"

In the autumn of 1888 his blindness began. The doctors stated that it was due to no illness, but just a sudden failure of power. He could at first see figures and large objects more or less, and detect a placard on a wall, but faces were indiscernible and reading and writing an impossibility. Yet it made no difference in his manner or character, and his life was immediately adjusted to the new state of things. The writer well remembers coming into the Vicarage study one morning, and finding the vigorous old man of seventy-six commencing the task of _learning the Bible by heart_! "It was so important to have all quotations exact."

This work was continued for some months, but when it was suggested that there would be less labour and more profit in learning the raised type for the blind, the former plan was discontinued, volumes of the latter sort were procured, the characters mastered, and for the seven years remaining the beloved study was resumed under circ.u.mstances that would have discouraged most men of his age. Blindness did not stop his work-nothing of the kind; the regular Bible and annual Confirmation cla.s.ses were continued as before, the weekday and Sunday sermons as regularly prepared and preached. His daughters read to him pa.s.sages from books bearing upon the subject that he had in hand, and he arranged and cla.s.sified it in his own mind. Gentlemen and ladies in his congregation gladly undertook to come at stated hours and read to him books of various sorts, and so he kept abreast with all that was going on in the world of literature, and, as was his wont, met it for praise or censure in his sermons.

On Sundays it was touching to see the venerable old man ascending the pulpit, giving out his text, and then preaching with all his old fire and vigour. The accuracy with which he quoted his texts made it hard to believe that the preacher was blind. The same accuracy was remarkable in another way. There were few things in which Canon h.o.a.re took more interest than in helping the younger clergy. All through his career his Greek Testament readings have been sources of great blessing and help.

In the last few years of his life, since his blindness, he revived these readings, going rapidly through a book or group of pa.s.sages dealing with a subject. There are several now in Tunbridge Wells who remember gratefully and lovingly those early half-hours once a week; they can see him in his study-chair, surrounded by six or eight of the junior clergy with pencils and note-books-the mortal eyes sightless, but the eyes of his understanding being opened, and from his lips pouring forth a stream of words almost too rapid to take down, as he sketched forth the scheme, say, of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and then going into the details chapter after chapter, pointing out the notes of exegesis and different readings, and the light thrown by the Revised Version on each.

It was at this time, as the first birthday after his blindness drew near, that several members of his loving congregation subscribed together and purchased a splendid gold repeater watch, striking the hours, quarters, and half-quarters, as a birthday present for their old Vicar. The following letter, written with the aid of the typewriter which he had also learned to use after the loss of his eyesight, shows how much he appreciated this further proof of their affection:-

"TRINITY VICARAGE, _June_ 5_th_, 1889.

"MY DEAR MRS. PERKINS,-I hear that you have been the one chosen by your friends to convey to me the beautiful gift which I received this morning, so to you I must send my answer, and ask you to be so very kind as to a.s.sure all the dear people who have taken a share in it of the very great pleasure that their gift has given me. It was so kind of you all to think of me, and to mark by a birthday offering your loving interest in my welfare. But, as for your sending me such a beautiful present, I never for one moment thought of such a thing.

You have, however, selected a most useful and valuable form for your kindness.

"For many years I have been dependent on a repeater for securing, day by day, the sacred morning hours before breakfast; and many an hour has been secured to the study of G.o.d's most holy Word through the use of an old repeater left to me (as a legacy) by the dear uncle who gave me my t.i.tle to my first curacy.

"But the old watch, like the old master, has worn out, and I have been put to the greatest inconvenience; so that, if ever I have left home, I have been obliged to carry two watches-one for the day and the other for night.

"But now, by your gift, the difficulty is removed; and, if ever it please G.o.d to restore to me the privilege of spending my winter mornings in the study of His Word, I shall find it to be of inestimable value.

"Most heartily, therefore, do I thank all our friends through you, and trust that they may enjoy as happy and sacred morning hours as our Heavenly Father has so often given to me.

"Believe me, my dear Mrs. Perkins, "Very faithfully yours, "E. h.o.a.rE."

In 1889 Canon h.o.a.re was laid low by a severe illness which all expected to be the last. His family a.s.sembled around him, and his people thought that they never would see him again.

At this time, when all his friends thought that his call had really come, many letters were received at the Vicarage expressing the warmest sympathy and containing a.s.surances of fervent prayers. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote as follows to the Rev. J. Gurney h.o.a.re, who was at Tunbridge Wells:-