544 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT -III 



stand something of the two currents of thought then show 

 ing themselves in the English Church. On a Sunday 

 morning I went to Christ Church Cathedral to hear the 

 regius professor of Hebrew, Dr. Jacobson, whom, years 

 afterward, I saw enthroned as bishop in the cathedral at 

 Chester. It is a church beautiful in itself, and conse 

 crated not only by the relics of mediaeval saints, but by 

 the devotions of many generations of scholars, statesmen, 

 and poets; and in front of the pulpit were a body of 

 young men, the most promising in Great Britain; yet 

 a more dull, mechanical discourse could not be imagined. 

 The preacher maundered on like a Tartar praying-mill; 

 very hearer clearly regarding his discourse as an Arab 

 regards a sand-storm. 



In the afternoon I went to St. Mary s, and heard the 

 regular university sermon, before a similar audience, 

 by Fraser, a fellow of Oriel College. It was not orator 

 ical, but straightforward, earnest, and in a line of thought 

 which enlisted my sympathies. The young preacher es 

 pecially warned his audience that if the Church of Eng 

 land was to remain the Church of England, she must put 

 forth greater efforts than any she had made for many 

 years; and he went on to point out some of the lines 

 on which these exertions should be made, lines which, 

 I am happy to say, have since been taken by great num 

 bers of excellent men of the Anglican communion. 



During the evening, in the dining-room of the Mitre 

 Inn, I happened to be seated at table with an old country 

 clergyman who had just entered his son at Oxford and 

 was evidently a rural parson of the good old high-and-dry 

 sort; but as I happened to speak of the sermons of the 

 day, he burst out in a voice gruff with theological con 

 tempt and hot toddy : Did you hear that young upstart 

 this afternoon? Did you ever hear such nonsense? Why 

 could n t he mind his own business, as Dr. Jacobson did!&quot; 



Nor did sermons from Anglican bishops which I heard 

 at that period greatly move me. The primate of that 

 day, Dr. Sumner, impressed me by his wig, but not other- 



