CHAP, iv.] CHURCH AND PARISH 27 



characteristics of the Deity ; His boundless power, His 

 holiness and other characteristics of His majesty. With the 

 mention of each characteristic he put the question, " Does 

 this give you a claim for acceptance ? " until he came to the 

 climax, " His love," with the words "but His love, that you 

 may trust." Perhaps if the good man had known how 

 these words would abide to old age as a comfort to one 

 who was then amongst the youngest of his congregation, 

 it would have given him pleasure. 



The Archbishop of Dublin, the celebrated Dr. Whately, 

 also preached at this Chapel, and I heard him deliver 

 his grand sermon on "the doubts leading to the assured 

 belief of St. Thomas." I suppose this time was what 

 in some circles would have been called my " awakening," 

 but we in our family neither thought nor spoke of these 

 things ; and any allusion to such matters would have 

 brought on me (possibly very rightly) an awakening of 

 another kind, which would have entirely disinclined me 

 to favour the family with any religious views, beyond 

 what might be shown in behaving with propriety and above 

 all doing as I was bid to the best of my ability. 



Reverting to early recollections of ecclesiastical matters, 

 or things in which the clergy might have been expected, 

 ex officio, to interfere, there certainly was room for im- 

 provement, but this was not peculiar to the olden time. 

 Some of the curious circumstances of which accounts 

 reached my young ears are better forgotten. One thing 

 that I remember was the very different position relating 

 to sporting, and also to the divergence in dress from the 

 great precision now in vogue. A clergyman of somewhat 

 high position, being, I suppose, pressed for time on one 

 occasion, performed the funeral service in his " pink " 

 visible beneath his surplice. Another, subsequently a 

 favourite with all his poorer parishioners for his kindness, 

 when a candidate for orders, was encouraged by his father 

 to the necessary mental labour by the promise that if 

 he passed his examination he should have a double- 

 barrelled gun ! In a locality not far from the edge of 

 Monmouthshire, I myself saw the incumbent of one of the 

 small livings with his coat off loading a manure cart ! He 

 comes back to my memory as doing the work quietly 

 and gravely, and with no more appearance of derogation 

 than if he had been budding the roses in his garden ; 

 still the work must have taken a considerable amount of 

 time from the purposes of his ordination. 



