Edward Hoare, M.A Part 12

_Nov._ 15_th_.-_M._ Propitiation: (1) Divine, Rom. iii. 25; (2) Complete, Heb. ix. 12; (3) Final, Heb. ix. 28; (4) Satisfies conscience, Heb. ix. 14; (5) Sufficient, Heb. x. 18.

_E._ Heb. xii. 24: "The blood of sprinkling." Speaks of complete atonement, full remission of sin, Heb. x. 22, ix. 22.

_Nov._ 16_th_.-_M._ Forgiveness: (1) Present, Psalm x.x.xii. 1; (2) Complete, Micah vii. 19; (3) Dependent on atonement, Rom. iii. 25; (4) First gift of the New Covenant, Jer. x.x.xi. 34-"for."

_A._ To Mothers. Heb. ii. 13: "I will put my trust in the Lord...

. Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given me."

_E._ Job ix. 29: "If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?" (1) The difficulty; (2) The remedy-"the Daysman" or Mediator, ver. 33.

_Nov._ 19_th_.-_M._ Justification, Rom. v. 110: (1) Five blessings from, vv. 15; (2) Through reconciliation, ver. 10; (3) To whom given, vv. 6, 8, 10; (4) When given, vv. 6, 8-"yet."

_E._ John v. 28, 29: "The hour is coming." (1) The voice; (2) The resurrection; (3) The separation.

_Nov._ 18_th_.-_M._ The New Birth, John iii. 116: (1) The necessity, ver. 7; (2) A spiritual change, ver. 6; (3) By the sovereign power of the Holy Ghost, vv. 5, 8; (4) Found before the Cross of Christ, vv. 1416.

_A._ To Church-Workers. Zech. iv. 110. (1) "By My spirit"; (2) The mountain removed; (3) Christ will finish His work; (4) Small things; (5) Christ the King and Priest supplies all, ver. 3.

_E._ John v. 25: "The dead shall hear." (1) Dead conscience; affections; hope, etc.; (2) The dead hear; (3) The dead live.

_Nov._ 19_th_.-_M._ Sanctification: (1) In the heart, Psalm xl. 8; (2) The standard, 1 John iii. 3; (3) The difficulty, 1 John i. 8; (4) Progressive, 2 Peter iii. 18; (5) By the use of Scripture, John xvii.

17; (6) By the sight of the Lord Jesus, 2 Cor. iii. 18; (7) Must follow, not precede forgiveness, Jer. x.x.xi. 33, 34.

_E._ Matt. xxvii. 46: "My G.o.d, My G.o.d, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

(1) The imputation of sin to Christ; (2) The certainty of complete satisfaction; (3) The burden of unforgiven sin.

_Nov._ 20_th_.-Prayer-Meeting. Psalm x.x.xiv.: The song of the delivered.

_Nov._ 21_st_.-_M._ Psalm cxix. 94: "I am Thine." (1) By the gift of the Father, John xvii. 2; (2) By redemption through the Son, 1 Cor. vi. 20; (3) By the life-giving power of the Holy Ghost, John vi.

63; (4) By personal surrender to G.o.d, Rom. xii. 1.

_A._ To Men only. 2 Cor. vi. 18: "I will be a Father unto you."

_E._ Exod. xxi. 5: "I love my master; I will not go out free." (1) The new master; (2) The old master.

_Nov._ 22_nd_.-Jude 24: "Him that is able to keep you from falling."

Summary: (1) Finished propitiation; (2) Free gift; (3) Life-giving power of the Holy Ghost.

CHAPTER XII _PARISH WORK_

Some men are in great request as preachers and speakers outside their parishes, but for some reason or other they are not very useful at home.

It was not so with the subject of this memoir. The prophet in this case was honoured in his own country. On Sunday mornings, three-quarters of an hour before service began, many aged and poor paris.h.i.+oners might be seen making their way into the church to secure good seats. In Holy Trinity the free seats are more in number than those that are appropriated, and some of the former are in the best part of the church; all these were filled long before the hour for the commencement of service. As eleven o'clock drew near the congregation were in their places, and the aisles were filled with strangers in every available spot waiting in the hope of some possible seat. It was a common thing in the summer for as many as a hundred to go away unable to get accommodation.

The writer well remembers the profound impression which the Sundays used to make upon his mind. The old Vicar and his curates were in the vestry in good time robed and ready; {174} having knelt in prayer, there was a silent interval, and exactly to the moment when the clock in the tower struck, the vestry door was opened and they pa.s.sed out into the church.

Sometimes this was a slow work, as the people stood close together; some were sitting on the pulpit stairs, and the clergy had to thread their way to the chancel rails.

When service began the cus.h.i.+ons at the rails were all occupied by wors.h.i.+ppers kneeling upon them. Canon h.o.a.re generally took part in the service, which was conducted in the simple old-fas.h.i.+oned way, read, not "toned down" in the manner now so prevalent.

When the preacher ascended the high pulpit it was an impressive thing to see that great congregation, over sixteen hundred in number, ranged beneath in the body of the building and around him in the deep galleries, waiting for his words. His prayer before the sermon was a very striking one, and it was always in the following words: "Almighty G.o.d, our Heavenly Father, who hast purchased to Thyself an universal Church by the precious blood of Thy dear Son, and hast promised that the Holy Spirit should abide with us for ever: may we now enjoy His sacred presence! May He direct the word which shall now be spoken, and apply it with Divine power to all our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Those sermons were wonderful, delivered so well that few could believe them to be written discourses, which they were; with changes of tone which made the sentences impress themselves upon the memory; the manner so solemn, as befitted the amba.s.sador, and yet so pleading, as became the father. The eloquent language attracted the intellectual mind, and the remarkable simplicity of expression appealed to the simplest understanding. The _matter_ of these sermons was, however, their great charm.

The atonement wrought by Christ was their great theme. Many preachers, when enlarging upon other subjects, bring in this doctrine at the close of their discourse, but with Canon h.o.a.re the great foundation of our faith, viz. the subst.i.tution of Christ for the sinner, and His finished work of propitiation applied by the Holy Spirit, was always visible, not as a thing to be brought in at the end, but _already there_, as the centre and pivot of all that he said; hence no doubt the power of his words, and withal as a thing much to be observed was the extraordinary freshness with which he was able to present, Sunday after Sunday, the old story of the Cross, old but ever new.

Very powerful were those discourses, for they were full of teaching. The preacher was a deep student of his Bible,-"After diligently working down into it for fifty years," he used to say, "I am still only scratching the surface!"-and he possessed moreover an unusual power of imparting knowledge; he was pre-eminently a teacher, and among the many privileges which his curates enjoyed none was so great as the Scriptural teaching which they received in their Vicar's sermons. After the preacher had concluded there was a short prayer, followed by the blessing, and then, with nothing to take away the impression of the solemn words to which they had listened, the congregation dispersed. There were three or four services in the Parish Church every Sunday, besides the shortened Morning Service in the hospital and Mission Service in the large Parish Room; there were also five Sunday Schools, and many cla.s.ses on the same day for old and young men, women, and senior girls.

Though in his vigorous days he always preached twice, he was in the habit of opening the princ.i.p.al boys' school every Sunday morning, and in the afternoon visiting one or other of the various schools and cla.s.ses, finis.h.i.+ng all by slipping into the afternoon service in time to hear the sermon preached by one of his curates. By these means he kept in touch with everything going on in the parish.

The weekday work was enormous and varied. The Parish Room, so called-really a large building containing a hall and different rooms-was occupied nearly every hour of every day in some part or other; and in the parish at large every conceivable kind of agency for the temporal and spiritual good of rich and poor was to be found, all animated by real energy and spiritual power. Many a time have the workers heard from their Vicar's lips, "Let us not be content with machinery; what we want is _Life_."

The Sunday Evening Services in the Parish Room were deeply interesting.

For half an hour beforehand the volunteer choir sang hymns to attract the people in, and workers went into bar-rooms and common lodging-houses to bring in any who would come.

It was a very moving sight, about three hundred people, some of them degraded in vice, packed close together, joining in the familiar hymns, and listening with attention to the speaker. Canon h.o.a.re often said that, intensely as he delighted in the opportunity, it was at times more than he could bear to realise the depth of sin in which many lived who were gathered together at these services-the responsibility of the preacher seemed on such an occasion to be so enormous.

Except as occasional workers, he never would allow the regular church-goers to attend the Mission Room services. "This service is not for you," he used to say; "it is a stepping-stone to the church." And such it was. The process of transformation used to be watched with interest in those cases where some poor degraded creature, either there or at the Temperance meetings, was led to "take the first turn to the right, and then go straight on," as Bishop Wilberforce once tersely put it. Soon the ragged clothing improved, the whole appearance altered; after a while it might be said of such that, clothed and in their right mind, they sat at the feet of Jesus; and then by degrees moving on to the church, they might be seen at the Lord's Table, or sitting in the adult Confirmation Cla.s.s in preparation for that sacred privilege.

There were low slums in that parish, but, as Canon h.o.a.re used often to say, "The Church of England can and does reach the lowest of the low, and can bring the Gospel to bear upon the vilest, _without the aid of a fiddle or a flag_!" One practical difficulty met him at first in the Parish (or Mission) Room services. Many a poor tramp, weary and footsore, used to say when asked to come in: "I have eaten nothing since the morning. Can you give me food? I want that more than the service."

When these answers were reported to him Mr. h.o.a.re used to say, "And if I were in their place I should make the same reply." It then became a matter of consideration what could be done to remove this difficulty, and yet not give anything like a bribe to induce people to come to these services for a paltry motive. After a great deal of thought and consultation with the workers, it was determined to give a slice of bread and cheese to any poor hungry ones who were not residents, but pa.s.sing through the place, and in the cold weather a mug of coffee was added.

This plan worked admirably; only a few asked for the food, but those received it, and what had been a very real hindrance at the first was satisfactorily removed.

Most if not all of our Religious Societies were well supported in the parish, but the three in which Mr. h.o.a.re seemed to take the warmest interest were the Church Missionary Society, the Church Pastoral Aid Society, and the Irish Church Missions. For the first and last of these three there were, besides the Great Hall meetings, crowded gatherings for the poorer paris.h.i.+oners in the Parish Room. Canon h.o.a.re was an incorporated member of the S.P.G., and had an annual sermon for that society, but of course the Church Missionary Society had the love of his whole heart. What he was to that society every one knows, and he infused some of his missionary enthusiasm into the town, and especially his own parish.

The Church Missionary Society anniversary was indeed a "field-day." Long prepared for, it was antic.i.p.ated with keen interest; the best deputations came down, and nearly every church in the town joined in the celebration.

Canon h.o.a.re generally preached in the old Chapel of Ease in the morning, but always occupied his own pulpit in the evening of that day, and what a thronged congregation there was on these occasions! The whole soul of the preacher seemed to go forth in his subject, and his hearers were thrilled by the trumpet call of that missionary sermon. In later years the thought of his dearly loved son and daughter working for G.o.d in China brought a special and personal interest into his words-not that he spoke of them, but somehow one could feel that they were in his thoughts. The collections on these occasions were very large; in former years 100 was thought the proper thing as the result of the Anniversary Services in Trinity Church, but gradually the amount crept up until about ten years before his death, when on one anniversary, in his absence through illness, it was suggested by the evening preacher that it would be a cheer to their beloved Vicar if 200 were reached; and right liberally was the appeal answered. After the sermon two gentlemen came into the vestry to inquire the amount collected, "for," said they, "whatever the deficit may be, we will make it 200"; but their kindly help was not needed, as more than that sum was already counted out upon the vestry table!

From that day 200 was looked upon as the proper sum from Trinity Church for the Church Missionary Society anniversary.

The parish schools for boys, girls, and infants were all first-rate, and Canon h.o.a.re prided himself upon having the best boys' school in the diocese; but he was not content with the welfare of his own schools-it was his wish to strengthen all Church schools in the town. We hear now a good deal about the confederation of Church schools. More than twenty-five years ago the Vicar of Holy Trinity started such a confederation. Every Church school in Tunbridge Wells elected its members, and sent them to the periodic meetings, where matters of interest were discussed, weak points strengthened, and preparation made for dangers that threatened. This was only one of the many things in which his statesmanlike ability showed itself; Edward h.o.a.re was one of those "men that had understanding of the times, to know what (the spiritual) Israel ought to do." The power of such men is readily felt and acknowledged. "All their brethren are at their commandment."

It would be impossible to write about the work in Holy Trinity parish without alluding to the Ladies' Bible Cla.s.s. This was a remarkable feature of his ministry, and, like most of his works, was going on before it had been suggested or thought of in other places.

This was not a Bible-reading, but a cla.s.s for teaching by preparation beforehand, and at the time by question and answer. The answering was, of course, not compulsory, but nearly every one present in the large a.s.sembly of ladies took part.

The teaching was marvellous; sometimes it was a topic or a life in Scripture, sometimes a portion of the Prayer-Book or the Articles. The mastery of the subject and the power of conveying the same clear knowledge to other minds were very striking. Some have even said that they considered this cla.s.s to have been his greatest work in Tunbridge Wells. The enthusiastic letters which have been received during the past thirty years from generations of young people who, having been taught by him, went forth into life educated and fortified in religious truth, testify to the fact that these cla.s.ses formed in many an instance the real turning-point of life.

Twice in the period that he was Vicar of Holy Trinity a Parochial Mission was held, the respective missioners being the Rev. Rowley Hill, afterwards Bishop of Sodor and Man, and the Rev. H. Webb Peploe. Each time it was a grand success, greatly owing, under G.o.d, to the prayer and preparation which preceded it. The second mission was remarkable for the number of men whom it reached; at the services for men only there used to be two thousand listeners crammed into the church. Being well followed up, these missions left a glorious mark in the parish. Canon h.o.a.re used often to quote the words of some foreign pastor, "The Church of England is the best in the world at throwing the net, but the worst at drawing it in," and he always added, "Let _us_ not fall into that error, but draw in the net"; and so he did. How familiar to the ears of his old curates were the words that he often said on Sunday morning from the pulpit at the close of some instructive sermon, "If there are any who would like this matter explained further, I shall be glad to see them this afternoon in the Parish Room at a quarter past four"; and he has often remarked, "I have never given this notice without getting some earnest souls who wanted help."

"Pray for people and look out for G.o.d's answer," was the direction that he used to give to his workers, and in this lay surely one of the secrets of his great success as a pastor. The characteristic of Holy Trinity parish was "Life"; the Holy Spirit was manifestly at work in the place, blessing the various agencies among rich and poor, young and old, arousing, renewing, converting, and edifying.

One of his loving fellow-workers thus recalls an experience of this in the earlier years of Canon h.o.a.re's ministry at Tunbridge Wells:-

"I recollect well a great spiritual movement that took place over the whole parish, then undivided except by St. John's. People, men and women, came to us, chiefly of course to him, asking for help in their spiritual state-people who had been living entirely secular lives.