:

since set at rest; and it was merely from his unwillingness to let others bear alone what he conceived required to acquiesce in what I think a wrong opinion upon it, I must decline compliance." On these grounds he long hesitated to take Priest's Orders, at least unless he had the opportunity of explaining his objections to the Bishop who ordained him and it was in fact on this condition that, after his appointment to Rugby, whilst still in Deacon's orders, he consented to be ordained by the Bishop of his diocese, at that time Dr. Howley; as appears from the following extracts from letters, of which the first states his intention with regard to another situation in 1826, which he fulfilled in 1828, in the interval between his election at Rugby, and his entrance upon his office. 1. "As my objections turn on points which all, I believe, would consider immaterial in themselves, I would consent to be ordained, if any Bishop would ordain me on an explicit statement of my disagreement on those points. If he would not, then my course would be plain; and there would be an end of all thought of it at once." 2. "I shall, I believe, be ordained Priest on Trinity Sunday, being ordained by the Bishop of London. I wished to do this, because I wished to administer the Sacrament in the chapel at Rugby, and, because as I shall have in a manner the oversight of the chaplain, I thought it would be scarce seemly for me as a Deacon, to interfere with a Priest; and after a long conversation with the Bishop of London, I do not object to be ordained."

This was the last time that he was troubled with any similar perplexities; and in later years, as appears from more than one letter of this period, he thought that he had, in his earlier life, overrated the difficulties of subscription. The particular subject of his scruples arose from his doubt, founded chiefly on internal evidence, whether the Epistle to the Hebrews did not belong to a period subsequent to the Apostolical age. It may be worth while to mention, that this doubt was eventually removed by an increased study of the Scriptures, and of the early Christian writers. In the ten last years of his life he never hesitated to use and apply it as one of the most valuable parts of the New Testament: and his latest opinion was inclining to be the belief that it might have been written, not merely under the guidance of St. Paul, but by the Apostle himself.

to be an unjust odium, that he joined in a measure, from which he would at this period have been naturally repelled, both by his desire to allay those suspicions against him which he was now so anxious to remove, and by his conviction that the objects which he most wished to attain lay entirely in another direction.

The

But in proportion to the strength of his belief that these objects, whether social or religious, lay beyond the reach of any single measure, or of any individual efforts, was the deep melancholy which possessed him, when he felt the manifold obstacles to their accomplishment. His favourite expression, ἐχθίστη ὀδύνη πολλὰ φρονοέντα πὲρ μηδένος κρατέειν, might stand as the motto of his whole mind, as often before in his life, so most emphatically now. Sermon on Christ's Three Comings," in the fifth volume, preached in 1839, truly expresses his sense of the state of public affairs;-and in looking at the general aspect of the religious world, "When I think of the Church," he wrote in 1840, “I could sit down and pine, and die." And it is remarkable to observe the contrast between the joyous tone of his sermons on Easter Day, as the birthday of Christ's Religion, and the tone of subdued and earnest regret which marks those on Whit Sunday, as the birthday of the Christian Church:-"Easter Day we keep as the birthday of a living friend; Whit Sunday we keep as the birthday of a dead friend."

Of these general views, the fourth volume of Sermons, entitled "Christian Life, its Course, its Helps, and its Hindrances," published in May, 1841, is the most complete expression. It is true, indeed, that

in parts of it the calmer tone of the last few years is disturbed by a revival of the more polemical spirit, which, in the close of 1840 and the beginning of 1841, was again roused against the Oxford school of Theology. That school had in the interval made a rapid progress, and in some important points totally changed its original aspect: many of those, who had at first welcomed it with joy, were now receding from it in dismay; many of those, who had at first looked upon it with contempt and repugnance, were now become its most active adherents. But he was not a man whose first impressions were easily worn off; and his feelings against it, though expressed in a somewhat different form, were not materially altered; he found new grounds of offence in the place of old ones that were passing away; and the Introduction to this volume,-written at a time when his indignation had been recently roused by what appeared to him the sophistry of the celebrated Tract 90, and when the public excitement on this question had reached its highest pitch, contains his final and deliberate protest against what he regarded as the fundamental errors of the system.

Yet, even in this, he brought out more strongly than ever the positive grounds on which he felt himself called upon to oppose it. "It is because my whole mind and soul repose with intense satisfaction on the truths taught by St. John and St. Paul, that I abhor the Judaism of the Newmanites, it is because I so earnestly desire the revival of the Church that I abhor the doctrine of the priesthood." And this volume, as a whole, when taken with the one which has been already noticed as preceding it a few

years before, may be said to give his full view of Christianity in its action,-not on individuals, as in the first volume, or on schools, as in the second,but on the world at large. But whereas the Sermons selected from the ordinary course of his preaching, in the third volume, speak rather of the Christian Revelation in itself,-of its truths, its evidences, and its ultimate objects, so the fourth, as its title expresses, was intended to convey the feeling so strongly impressed on his mind during this last period, that these objects would be best attained by a full development of the Church or Christian society, whether in schools, in parishes, or in States.

CLXVII. TO REV. J. HEARN.

Rugby, November 23, 1838.

It would be a great shame if I were to put off writing to you till the holidays, and especially after the long and kind letter which I have received from you. I was purposing to write long ago, and to return both to you and Mrs. Hearn my wife's and my own sincere thanks for your kind hospitality to us at Hatford, and to assure you that we both enjoyed our visit exceedingly, and have often since recalled it to our memories; sometimes, I fear, with almost a disposition to envy you the peacefulness and the comfort of your very delightful Parsonage; the image of which, as I knew it would, has haunted me at times almost painfully, like the phantoms of green fields which visit the sailor when he is attacked with sickness far out at sea. When one is well, there is a kindling pleasure in being borne rapidly over the great sea, and living in all the stir of the great highway of nations. But when health fails, then what before was pleasantly exciting becomes harassing; and one indulges in a fond craving for rest. Here,

thank God, I have not suffered from failing health, but I have been much annoyed with the moral evils which have come under my notice; and then a great school is very trying. It never can present images of rest and peace; and when the spring and activity of youth is altogether unsanctified by any thing pure and elevated in its desires, it becomes a spectacle that is as dizzying and almost more morally distressing than the shouts and gambols of a set of lunatics. It is very startling to see so much of sin combined with so little of sorrow. In a parish, amongst the poor, whatever of sin exists, there is sure also to be enough of suffering; poverty, sickness, and old age are mighty tamers and chastizers. But, with boys of the richer classes, one sees nothing but plenty, health and youth; and these are really awful to behold, when one must feel that they are unblessed. On the other hand, few things are more beautiful, than when one does see all holy and noble thoughts and principles, not the forced growth of pain or infirmity or privation; but springing up as by God's immediate planting, in a sort of garden of all that is fresh and beautiful; full of so much hope for this world as well as for Heaven. All this has very much driven the Newmanites out of my head; and indeed, while I am here, I see and hear very little of them, but I quite think they are a great evil, and I fear a growing one; though on this point I find that opinions differ.

I could not express my sense of what Bunsen is without seeming to be exaggerating; but I think if you could hear and see him, even for one half hour, you would understand my feeling towards him. He is a man in whom God's graces and gifts are more united than in any other person whom I ever saw. I have seen men as holy, as amiable, as able; but I never knew one who was all three in so extraordinary a degree, and combined with a knowledge of things new and old, sacred and profane, so rich, so accurate, so profound, that I never knew it equalled or approached by any man.