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النشر الإلكتروني

THE CONSECRATION DAY

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was a warm outpouring of his heart in faith and gratitude. One passage, on the part the Church should play as a uniting bond of East and West, must find its place in this biography.

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"Likewise the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord to be His servants, to love the name of the Lord, and to cleave unto Him; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My House of Prayer : their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on Mine altar for Mine House shall be called a House of Prayer for all nations." I plead with you with all entreaty (as called, however unworthy, to be your chief pastor in Christ) that these sons of the stranger be not rejected and outcasts here. Long after my grey hairs are gone down to the grave may it please God-if ever unbrotherly exclusion should be practised here to call to your and your children's remembrance the solemn appeal and challenge which God makes to you through me to-day "The sons of the stranger: even them will I bring." Let this church be a mother-church indeed, with all the tenderness and depths of sympathy, the loving place, in the arms and heart and home, of the true mother; and not the chill, distant, jealous regard of the typical step-mother. Let none begrudge the poor and the stranger the provision God Himself has made for them. Let no bitterness, or invidious exclusiveness of race or station, find place in this sanctuary, of which the word has been spoken, "My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all people."

To some of us it will be a cheering and stirring thought that in a temple such as this-built where it is in these far border lands of our empire-we cannot help being reminded of those old prophecies, in which the gospel of the kingdom and the preaching of Christ the Reconciler and the Consummator are foreshown as the meeting-ground where the long-severed East and West shall meet at length. All through the later predictions of Isaiah the isles of the sea are challenged to listen to the voice of God's messengers; to come forth out of their concealment; and for a season at least to take the place of Israel after the flesh-to become God's witnesses, and His fellowhelpers in the extension of His Word of Truth. Thus in several passages the islands and the lands of the sunrise or the morning are called to clasp hands, and band themselves together in this holy enterprise, by which man shall be elevated and enlightened, and God's long-suppressed truth vindicated and proclaimed! So in Isaiah xxiv, "Wherefore glorify ye the Lord from the sunrising; even the name of the Lord God of Israel from the islands of the sea': and again in chapter xlii, three times the isles are summoned of God to have a privileged share in

this consummation. May not the students of prophecy then be of good courage, and believe that it is no dream of wayward or playful fancy at all, but a hope founded on calm sober reason, that here in this fabric may be a meeting-place, in which the isles of the West and the lands of the sunrise shall find their children joining hands more and more in holy rivalry for truth and love and holiness; for resisting all that is evil, and promoting all that is good that even such a thing might happen as (St. Chrysostom tells us in one of his sermons) happened in one of the Greek churches in Constantinople? He was about to preach himself, but a Gothic priest came into the church with a number of his people, and he, the Greek archbishop, gave up his pulpit for that day. And so before the polished Greeks was heard the rough and (then) uncultured tongue of our northern forefathers, and they learnt the lesson in that simple occurrence, that in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, Briton nor Hindu, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ all and in all. Wondrous blendings and interminglings of Western islands and lands of the sunrise--of their tongues and thoughts and peoplesmay these solid walls which encircle us to-day long be spared to witness! May the sum and substance of it be "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, to the men of goodwill."'

Lastly, this victory of purposed good was but regarded as a call to deepened consecration and more directly fruitful and spiritual work. He wrote from Sialkot on January 29:

'The Lahore C. and M. Gazette sent by this mail will explain pretty fully the events of the 25th, which have filled my heart with thankfulness and praise. It seems almost too good to be true that a work of such magnitude and such important bearing, I trust, on the future of the Church of God in this province, has at length been completed, and the house been opened for Divine service, and dedicated to the name and worship and glory of the Triune Jehovah. To Him be all the praise, and may man be in the dust humbled and silent before Him whose works are indeed worthy to be praised and had in honour. . . . It was feared the church would be too dark and the voice of the speaker inaudible, but, as regards the chief part of the church at least, both these fears have proved to be ungrounded. I confess I did not think the critical and cold community of Lahore capable of so much hearty enthusiasm; most especially in what concerned Divine worship and church consecration, but the crowds that gathered of all ranks, far and near, and the influx of offerings in quite unprecedented generosity on that day, proved me to be in the wrong, and my faith far too weak.

WORK ENDED. WORK BEGINS

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'How our beloved father would have brightened and his eyes beamed at hearing that another church had been added to those which we as a family had been privileged to erect! . . . Do pray for me that the many congratulations which I receive every day may be laid all and each at the feet of Him who must bear the glory, as He shall build, even HE shall build the temple of the Lord. . . . As I got into church before service a telegram of warm congratulation from Sir Charles Aitchison and Lady Aitchison was put into my hands with £20 in a cheque. . . . Over forty clergy came, so the procession was lengthy and the singing hearty. The general effect within is certainly striking, though of course it does not vie with an English cathedral. Out here it excites surprise, as beating what has hitherto been seen. Now the great end to be accomplished is all before us; and I feel my anxieties are begun. The material building I left to other hands, but in the spiritual I am called to take my part, and to call others to do theirs. May the Lord perfect that which concerns us, and strengthen our hands for this good work.'

CHAPTER XX.

CHURCH-WORK AMONG THE NATIVES.

'A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.'-Isa. lx. 22.

For conquering Clive, or Wellesley's mightier name,
The wide world echoes to the trump of fame;
Yet have there been, who loftier praise have won,
Undaunted Schwartz or saintly Middleton.

England hath many such; she little knows

What to their secret championship she owes ;

Their prayers, which night and day to heaven aspire,
Bulwark her empire with a wall of fire,

And arm the happy land that gave them birth

With power to build the throne of Christ on earth.
Shall Britain then

?

Fond questionist be still!
I said she may; I dare not add she will!

HANKINSON.

THE English work made most demand upon the bishop's time and energy, for English Churchmen, in spite of every missionary effort, outnumbered tenfold all the native Christians; but yet the native portion of the church, perhaps, was even closer to his heart and his affections, his first and early love. His high sense of episcopal authority might lead at times to strained relations with the great Societies, yet, even when the tension was severest, such differences were but as lovers' quarrels that renew men's love. In speaking of some such divergence from the committee of the C. M. S. he said, 'I shall be always nearer to them, I believe, than to any other body of men in doctrinal,

THE BISHOP'S MISSIONARY INTERESTS

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if not in ecclesiastical, matters.' When he resigned his bishopric he was still willing to serve under them and plead for them. All through his bishopric he was in fact, if not in name, a missionary still. He found some ' compensation for the diminished time that he could give to missionary preaching in the increased weight that his office gave his counsels, and so this chapter will present him in part in his old rôle of missionary worker, in part as missionary statesman, viewing the whole field from a higher vantage-ground.

The first great service that he did the native church was in placing in a clear light for all time the right of himself and his successors to take full part in missionary teaching. The next was in strongly claiming for the natives their due right in the cathedral. They were considered in its least detail. No symbol was allowed a place in it that could offend the Moslem's horror of all images, or foster superstition in any recent convert from a base idolatry. In proposing to allocate one aisle for their special benefit at all times, and in securing them one service (with a native preacher) on the day of consecration, the bishop was but acting on his one consistent policy, or rather principle, of welding into solid Christian unity the diverse classes of his scattered diocese.

Dr. Imad-ud-din, the preacher on that day, has sent some reminiscences, and extracts will suffice to show the impression the bishop had produced upon a native mind of more than ordinary culture :

Bishop French was an uncommon man. I have not yet seen another like him. We do now and then meet with learned, good, godly, and earnestly pious men in the Church. But Bishop French was possessed of some qualities over and above these; ... his spirit was generally found to be basking in the sunshine of God's countenance, and his eyes habitually manifested beatific communion with Him.

When I was a lad of fifteen or sixteen French was a handsome young clergyman. He joined the Agra Church mission at the beginning of his career, and applied himself to the study of Hindustani. He was often seen going briskly hither and thither in the streets and lanes of Agra, sometimes giving copper coins

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