some pledges of £500 loans, but I never in my life borrowed before, and would starve rather at any time, but here we are put to straits. That will raise the cost of the whole building to about three and a half lakhs, 350,000 rupees, alas!

'Mr. sent 1,000 rupees lately. Mrs. Montgomery raised 400 rupees at her bazaar. So funds come in, but it seems but a drop in the bucket compared with the great deficiency.

'The text on my bedroom wall comforts me amid anxious complications, "All things work together for good to them that love God." May we rest on this confidently, and find His love shed abroad richly.'

In June the same year the bishop wrote from Murree :

'Some very hard things are said of me now in connexion with the cathedral, yet the difficulties are, in the main, such as I could not possibly foresee or provide against. However, the matter does not trouble me nearly so much as many others. If the rather severe earthquake we had last night had swallowed the cathedral up, it would not have been so hard to me to bear as this want of men.'

From this time forward things began to brighten; the first part of the work completed was the chapter-house, and, as has been already noticed, it was dedicated at the bishop's third synod in November of this year. Then he was able to report:

'When we last met in conclave I expressed what appeared then a reasonable hope that our next gathering might be so happily timed as to coincide with the consecration of the cathedral, or motherchurch, of this diocese. Many efforts on the part of many of us have been unsparingly directed towards achieving this result, but our unroofed church seems to say "all in vain." During my absence of nearly eighteen months in Persia and England I was able to combine the needful recruiting of my own health with the duty of pleading over a larger area than heretofore in behalf of this fabric. Though the appeal was fairly responded to by members of the home Church, especially in the cathedral minsters, and in places where in longer or shorter furloughs at home I have held pastoral charges-Cheltenham, Burton-on-Trent, and Clifton conspicuously--still, as in the building of Zerubbabel's temple, many untoward "breaks and cataracts" have obstructed the even tenor of our church-building, and this synod at least cannot be immortalized by opening for the first time to expectant worshippers the doors of the "Church of the Resurrection "-to "praise the Lord because He is good, and His mercy endureth for ever." However, the nobler and more far-looking the ends of our works are, the

THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.

LAHORE AND TRURO 103

less does time enter into their ingredients, and the more reverently and contentedly can we say-" My times are in Thy hand"—when Thou wilt and as Thou wilt. You are aware that some 30,000 rupees are still required to putting the top-stone on the edifice, or about one-tenth of what has been already expended: a condition of our finances which may well mingle thankfulness with our disappointment, and stimulate us to be up and doing to wipe off the reproach of faintness and weariness in our good work. . . .

...

'In these perplexities of fund-gathering we have often felt calmed by the thought that of a Church, even more than of a State like Sparta, Lycurgus' words are true-that it is not its walls, whether of brick or brass, which fortify and beautify it, but its men. It was in man or men that our Ascended Lord received and gave gifts in divers lay agencies, as well as the ranks and orders of the clergy.'

6

Of this occasion the present bishop writes:

Bishop French set great store by ancient precedents and customs of the Church. When he held his third synod the chapter-house of the new cathedral was the only part roofed in. The bishop, bearing in mind Nicene precedent, decided to have one sitting of the synod in the chapter-house, though it was somewhat too small to be convenient, and that, at this sitting, the Lieutenant-Governor and not himself should preside, a copy of the Gospels being placed upon a stand in front of the President. I remember the difficulty experienced in getting at short notice a suitable copy of the Gospels by themselves. But the bishop was determined to have this, and nothing less or more, and he succeeded, as he generally did when he had made up his mind on any matter great or small.'

The concurrent work of building, and the personal affection of their bishops, drew a close bond of sympathy between Lahore and Truro. In February, 1886, the bishop wrote to Mrs. Gregg:

'I had by last mail a delightful note from the Bishop of Truro '. He tells me they have been praying earnestly for me and the Punjab church, that God would raise up some generous givers to finish our holy and beautiful house. The few large sums lately received must surely be ascribed to those loving and faithful prayers. We ought now to be able to finish what is really necessary without any more appeals home. It is almost incredible to me that I should be able to say as much as that.'

1 Dr. Wilkinson.

In September he could write to Mrs. Knox:

'There is a possibility of opening about Christmas; the interior effect is very pleasing and graceful. It is a comfort that if these churches are taken from us they will be at least Greek churches, and not mosques or temples. One hopes the Greek Church also has its saints, and that of these may be my successors in the see, if Russia dominates these provinces. I hope we have a little more work to do yet.'

A week later he wrote to Mrs. Gregg:

'You will be glad to hear that after a long Committee held last evening in our new chapter-house we came to the conclusion that the cathedral should be consecrated and opened for service (please God) on Jan. 25, the Festival of St. Paul's Conversion.

"The Lieutenant-Governor writes to me to day a most kind and cheering letter, expressing much sorrow at his enforced absence on the day of consecration. He says-“ I congratulate you from my heart on the completion of the noble edifice, and pray that it may be blessed by God to accomplish all the Christian objects that you have in view, and to be for all time a centre of light and spiritual life to the province and diocese." Is it not a comfort to have had such a Governor now for nearly five years? He goes to the Council of State after leaving us,-a rare and exceptional tribute to merit.'

TO CYRIL.

Lahore, Jan. 2, 1887.

This month is entered on with many sore misgivings and anxieties as regards the approaching day of opening the cathedral. On the whole, some anticipated difficulties have been taken out of the way, and a series of special mission sermons till Easter is a comfortable thought to me, mostly to be preached by the Delhi Brotherhood, who are sowing so many seeds of light and blessing in this diocese, I thank God. All through Lent they hope to furnish preachers. You will pray that this may be a season of blessing and of bringing some wanderers home, and of turning some enemies of the truth into friends. We propose not only the Consecration Service proper, but also a service for the Church workers of the diocese, and another for the Native Church. Possibly also a missionary service for Europeans. These all as key-notes of the uses to which the cathedral may, we hope, be devoted and which it may subserve.

God will counsel us by His spirit of counsel, I trust, to turn the occasion to account. There is a good deal of interest awakened, and some amount even of enthusiasm, which is rare in Lahore, except for visits of Royalty and a week of balls and

THE FINAL PREPARATIONS

105

theatricals! For once people are taken by surprise, and are startled at thinking in what a quiet stealthy way the cathedral has grown up to its present dimensions, and taken them by storm against themselves and all their predictions of discomfiture, and the finished structure has pleased them so much better than they ever thought they could be pleased. However, things will fall back into the status in quo ante soon again, and the opening day will suggest many objections and anticipations of failure our music will be poor, and the ornaments (for a cathedral) rather meagre and disappointing. But for this, experience prepares an old man like me, and I trust the Lord Himself will be pleased to say 'My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually'-then in that one blessing, all others we need and value most will be comprised.

The next letter to Mrs. Gregg, on January 8, will show how in the veriest details of his arrangements the bishop ruled his course according to God's Word.

Jan. 8.

The Lieutenant-Governor has given an edict for closing all the law-courts and Government offices, so that there may be a general holiday on that day. This is more than I could have expected, and shows a very kind feeling indeed upon his part.

. . There was a wish on the part of some to have a sort of monster lunch in the Montgomery Hall, but I have stood out for hospitalities of a more private kind at the houses of civilians and other well-to-do people, and this will be adopted, I think. At a huge lunch it often happens one is hungry, and another is drunken,' and there is much more expenditure of wine, bad waiting, and bad cooking. The model I have proposed to the people is Nehem. viii. 8-18. The Allahabad Cathedral is to be opened on Monday next (the 10th)-pretty well for India, two cathedrals in one month.

In the next letter to his brother at Wells, we see how the completion of his project led to a retrospect of all God's mercies to the family.

Lahore, Jan. 15, 1887.

Would that you were all near enough to take part with us in the solemn services, but I am sure your fervent intercessions will be with us, that the day may be one of quiet consecration of many souls for service. It seems a mystery to me that the cathedral is finished at last. I don't feel the least tempted to any proud boasting-I believe, because my most anxious concern of all it has not pleased God to grant me, i. e. a group of men, mighty in word and deed for pulling down the strongholds of sin, and planting and building up the Church of God.

And what are walls without the words of power and love and truth re-echoed from them? . . . I should like to preserve a record of the generous contributors in our archives; but as I should not like my own name to appear, I must forego this wish. But their record is on high, and it is a great privilege to us as a family to have been permitted for three generations to take a part in church-building, as well as in helping to build up the spiritual temple. And now in dear Cyril the fourth generation (as well as in the Knoxes and Moulsons) is honoured by finishing the century of Church work (I trust and pray in which God has accepted our poor efforts for His glory. May their children, and children's children, be as fresh links in the chain, and attain to something of the might and stout steady perseverance of our honoured father! Very much of the ability I had to found St. John's College here depended on what he and George Gordon contributed. I was almost despairing when his gift of £500 restored the needed courage and strength of purpose, together with a little nearer revelation which the Lord Jesus was pleased to give me of Himself, during the illness at Dharmsala in 1870, than perhaps I had ever had before. And so my own family and friends at home have a joint interest of a most precious kind in the erection of this fabric, which, when complete hereafter, will be a noble one, though I am not likely to live to hear of its being done, nor have I any wish to finish it myself, as a church for Quettah is far more needed.

At length the great day arrived. The extracts from the bishop's diary will show that all went well.

Jan. 25. A memorable day, in which God's goodness and loving-kindness was signally shown us. I do not know how to feel humbled and thankful enough. Altogether some Rs. 5,500 collected for offertory, but this was a small thing as compared with the hearty warmth and enthusiasm of the people who crowded together to witness and pour in their offerings. Some 1,100-others say 1,200-were gathered. . . . About 250 communicants at least. In the afternoon native Church service Dr. Imad-ud-din preached, Perkins and Sadik read lessons. . . . General M. said, "I have so enjoyed this day: I shall remember it all my life long." Many such kind words."

The bishop's sermon on Psalm lxviii. 9-11 ('A Shower of Freewill Offerings') was printed as a pamphlet.

1 The largest recorded offertory up to that time in an Indian church.

It

2 At the bishop's express desire, one aisle was set apart for soldiers, one for the native Church.