1 844-] 



SCHOOL SERMONS. 



65 



service, and the other in the evening. They have some 

 families with great knowledge and taste for music, so that, 

 except at York Minster, I don't know when I have heard the 

 mass-music better performed than there. 



" After service, walked back to Rawtenstall over the same 

 lovely country, with Venus, and the new moon, and the last 

 tints of sunset; having interesting conversation all the way. 

 I got a little hoarse with speaking louder than necessary on 

 Saturday (I have not yet learnt how to manage the voice in the 

 open air), and this made it necessary to exert myself very much 

 on the Sunday to overcome it ; so that I am tolerably hoarse 

 this morning, but nothing else, and I feel very fresh, and not 

 at all Mondayish, though I have walked from Rawtenstall after 

 an early breakfast." He was very desirous that we should 

 enjoy together what had given him so much delight, so I 

 agreed to preach the school sermons at Rawtenstall that 

 summer ; and in the previous week we walked to Stonyhurst, 

 Mitton, and Padiham, where we looked, not in vain, for the 

 hospitality of his musical friend, Mr. Holland. The zealous 

 people thought it would be quite a scandal if two preachers 

 should be in the town without any preaching ; so the bellman 

 was sent round, and in our walking dress we united in a service : 

 Philip extemporizing his "proxy " sermon. 



He was entirely in his element at anniversaries : the 

 crowded assemblage for an unsectarian and benevolent object, 

 the hearty and carefully practised singing, and the sight of the 

 children (" I feel more pleasure at looking round at boys' faces 

 than anything else ") called forth all his powers and best affec- 

 tions. This year he visited Kidderminster. He was very 

 nervous at preaching to the congregation to which his father 

 and mother had belonged in their youth,* and his mother was 



schools. The spontaneous tokens of regard for others, and disregard of 

 himself, left a lasting impression. His sermons were on the "Wedding 

 garment" — how it is to be woven ; and the "Joy in heaven." He notes, 

 r Felt great delight in pleading for Christ." 



* A gentleman who knew his family, a churchman, came intending to 

 give £i 9 but was so much delighted that he wrote a cheque for £20 on the 

 page of a hymn-book. He felt such pleasure in his generosity that he 

 made the same gift to this and other schools in subsequent years. 



F 



