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CHAPTER XI.

EVANGELISTIC WORK.

OPEN-AIR PREACHING-EXETER HALL

SERVICES-WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND ST. PAUL'S-SERVICES IN THEATRES-PRIMARY CHARGE.

1857-59.

IMPORTANT as these controversies were, and deep as was the mark they left upon his whole Episcopate, it would be a simple mistake to suppose that they occupied in other than a subordinate degree either the interest or the energies of Bishop Tait. On the contrary, he was frequently accused in those early years of his Episcopate of devoting too little time to the governance of his Diocese, and too much time to the Evangelistic work, which the critics of that day regarded as belonging rather to 'the inferior clergy' than to a Bishop. He had throughout his life an excessive dread of what he described as 'overmuch machinery.' He used to complain, both at Balliol and Carlisle, that more time was spent in discussing, arranging, and systematising the work of the Foundation than in doing it; and when he came to London the same difficulty, as he thought, confronted him in another form.

Bishop Blomfield had set himself with untiring zeal, and with the largest personal generosity,1 to the task of Church-building in and around London, so as to overtake, if possible, the gigantic increase of population. Although

1 His own contributions to the Metropolis Churches Fund' and other agencies amounted to at least £25,000.

1857-59]

THE REAL NEED

251 he consecrated, during his tenure of the See, some two hundred new churches, there were still, when Bishop Tait succeeded him, a very large number of overgrown and unwieldy parishes provided only with a single church. Nor had the provision of new buildings realised, speaking generally, the intentions of their founders. It had been too often assumed that the erection of a commodious church in a populous locality would of itself, as a matter of course, attract a full supply of worshippers, and the snbscribers were puzzled and disappointed to find that many of the new churches were standing almost empty.1 The machinery was there, but no grist came to the mill. Some fresh impulse, some new enthusiasm seemed to be wanted, and Bishop Tait bestirred himself to supply the need. It is difficult for those familiar with the multifarious agencies by which Church work is now diversified in crowded parishes to realise the suspicion and even hostility with which the authorities, forty years ago, regarded any other ministrations of religion than those carried on in regular course within the Church's walls. What Bishop Blomfield had urged was that churches should be so multiplied as "to bring home to the very doors and hearths of the most ignorant and neglected of the population the ordinances, the solemnities, the decencies, and the charities of our Apostolical Church." But the encouragement of anything like mission preaching, out-door services, or other 'irregular' evangelistic efforts, accorded neither with his theories nor his example. Ready speaker as he was, he never, save on one memorable occasion, preached an unwritten sermon, and, in his earlier years at least, he objected to an address on week-days,

1 Bishop Blomfield had indeed, in his Charge of 1846, anticipated something of this difficulty, and pointed out the need of waiting patiently for results which might be long of coming.

even if delivered in the church itself, "as leading the people to over-value preaching and under-value prayers." Where there were two full services on Sundays, such week-day services were, in his opinion, not required.1 It is easy to conjecture, therefore, what his attitude would have been had 'revivalism' and other movements of the kind been started under his Episcopate. Bishop Tait's view was altogether different. In a sermon in St. James's, Piccadilly, on the Sunday after his consecration, he emphasised with all his might the need of more evangelistic work. At his first ordination, held a few weeks later, he was himself the preacher, and he took occasion to reiterate the same opinion with the same earnestness, beseeching the clergy to "go forth into the highways and hedges, and to proclaim in the simplest words at their command the Gospel of a living Saviour." Before he had been a month in office he presided at a great meeting held in Islington to launch a scheme for building twelve new churches at a cost of £50,000, and his speech on the occasion gave occasion to vigorous and, in some quarters, unfriendly

comment.

"It will be," he said, 66 a source of deep consolation to my venerated predecessor, Bishop Blomfield, in the affliction which it has pleased God to lay upon him, to reflect that he has been instrumental in building and consecrating within this Diocese upwards of two hundred churches. But it is impossible to read the public prints, and to think seriously upon the subject as it presents itself to us throughout the whole Kingdom, without acknowledging that there is a good deal to be said in favour of the arguments of those who maintain that these schemes of Church Extension had better, for a little time at least, be allowed to stand still. It is often urged, and with great plausibility, that building churches throughout the kingdom is something like the occupation of a conquered land; and there is an example ready

1 See Life, vol. i. p. 110.

1857-59]

ISLINGTON CHURCH BUILDING

253.

at hand in the case of Ireland. Garrisons were in former times stationed at intervals throughout that land, and fortresses were built for them to reside in; and yet no real conquest took place, for the inhabitants only retired to their fastnesses, and there remained unsubdued. And so it may be with the Church: additional churches may be merely the towers which contain the garrison, and the people whom we wish to bring within the pale may remain at a distance. It will therefore be wrong if we mistake the erection of churches for the spread of the Gospel throughout the land. It will, above all, be necessary to place in the churches faithful ministers of God's Word. And we must be very careful to use every means to bring in the poor. It is the upper and the middle classes who form the church-goers throughout this country; and a vast mass of the population are estranged, not only from the Church of England, but from the Gospel itself. Both in our crowded cities and in our remote country districts there is a very numerous body of the poor who cannot, and another who will not, enter the churches. Under these circumstances, when asked to preside at this meeting, I inquired, first of all, whether the churches are, as much as possible, made available, whether there are as many services in them as can well be performed, and also whether attempts are made to build up the Church spiritually as well as materially."

He went on to press the need of local sympathy and cooperation in the new endeavour, and promised to subscribe £600 as a pledge of his anxiety for its success.1

His next public act involved him in some controversy. It was announced by the Vicar of St. Alban's, Wood Street, that on New Year's Day, 1857, the Holy Communion would be celebrated at a quarter before seven in the morning, and the Bishop of London would deliver an address to the members of the Young Men's Christian Association. The Bishop immediately received letters from clergy and others, urging him to refrain from attend

1 The amount of this subscription to the local fund for a particular parish was of course exceptional, being more than one-tenth of his total income for the year, while he was at the same time encouraging many other efforts with almost equal liberality.

ing such a service, as many members of the association were Nonconformists, or, at all events, were unconfirmed, and could not therefore present themselves at the Lord's Table. The Bishop, however, adhered to his engagement, and spoke as follows in the course of his address :—

"If there are any here who are not members of the Church of England, I rejoice that they should show their friendly feeling by being present to hear the Word preached by her ministers, and to join in her Scriptural prayers, and in hearing those portions of the Word of God which our Prayer Book sets before us at this time. As to any such approaching the most sacred rite of Communion in our Church, that is a matter which they must weigh well with themselves. We invite those to approach who are baptized, confirmed, or ready to be confirmed. I can well understand those who are members of some other National Church rejoicing to communicate with the Church of England while they sojourn amongst us, without forsaking the Church of their country and home. I can understand, also, that many of our own countrymen, who from their early training have been kept apart from our Church, may, as years advance, feel a growing desire to unite with her as the great safeguard of Scriptural Christianity in the land, though they cannot resolve entirely to separate themselves from some other body with which they have many tender associations of kindred and of spiritual privilege enjoyed in times past. Still, I am bound to say, that that seems to me an unsound state in which a man of mature age and independent position hangs doubtful between one communion and another, not feeling himself really united with the Church, and ready to cast in his lot with it, though he loves its services, or feels that they do his heart good. There is always some danger of hanging loose between two systems, and thus failing of the helps which either, according to its means, endeavours to afford for the building up of the soul. But enough of these matters. We are met together to-day to worship in the Church of England, and we, her ministers, invite you in her name to this holy feast of love, as believing you to be anxious, through her teaching and her time-honoured Scriptural forms, to seek closer union with the Lord she serves. Her zeal in spreading the Gospel is her highest claim on your allegiance. We meet in our

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