xxxvi CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 



received it ? " If, as he firmly believed, the student of science 

 was not only increasing the sum of human knowledge, but was also 

 consecrating his powers to the service of God, what possible reason 

 was there for petty self-glorification or for idle vanity 1 How could 

 the sense of mental powers or intellectual achievements dare to 

 fling its shadow upon the awful light which encompassed the God 

 of Nature ? Scarcely less remarkable than his humility was his 

 sincerity. In an age of exaggerated expressions and emotional 

 writing, it was a real lesson to listen to the conversation of one 

 who set a watch upon his lips with jealous care ; who never said 

 a word more than he really meant ; who was never betrayed into 

 the use of superlatives for the sake of effect, and who eschewed all 

 epithets of high-flown eulogy or extravagant depreciation. He did 

 not need to retract opinions which he had expressed, to qualify 

 admissions which he had made, to modify statements which he had 

 hastily uttered. He did not, when speaking, think of the impression 

 which he was making on his hearers. An inmate of the fabled Palace 

 of Truth could not have been less self-conscious or more perfectly 

 natural. This sincerity was especially conspicuous in his religious 

 faith. Deep and intense as his convictions were, he bore them in 

 his heart, not on his lips ; he shewed them by his life, not by his 

 words. Though he was always ready to obey the Apostle's maxim 

 by giving a reason for the hope that was in him, he did not think 

 it necessary to prove the sincerity of his religion by his vehemence 

 or his persistency in asserting it. When he had occasion to give 

 his opinion on sacred subjects, his utterances were as measured and 

 weighty, as unaffectedly simple, as free from all taint of insincerity, 

 as his ordinary conversation. 



It may be well to point out how influential his religious 

 example was. In the life of a University, where spiritual aims are 

 only too often overborne by intellectual and scientific interests, a 

 religious layman in many ways wields a greater power for good 

 than a clergyman. If he is really earnest, he is not suspected, even 

 by the most sceptical, of being actuated by self-interested motives or 

 professional zeal. The reality of his spiritual life appeals even to 

 those who are generally indifferent to religion. Such was the force 

 of Charles Babington's example during sixty years in the University 

 which he loved and served so well. Those who scrutinized him 

 most closely, could detect no inconsistency in his spiritual walk and 

 conversation. It was evident to the most careless observer that his 

 life was built upon the One Foundation, and that the truths which 

 he held had been proved by him to be the power of God unto 

 salvation. The consciousness of this practical power of true religion 

 led him to take a peculiar interest in the history of Christian missions. 

 In his opinion they pre-eminently justified the application to the 

 Christian church of the famous motto, 'Esse quam videri,' for there 

 could be no unreality about a faith which gave men strength to 

 renounce their whole past, to break the strongest ties which bind 



