CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. 1875-1879. Letters from Dr. Liddon-Letters to his Brother, Wife, and Son-Serious CHAPTER XI. 1880-1886. ... vii PAGE ... 197 "The Life and Genius of Calderon "-Letters to Dr. Maturin-To the Lord ... 213 RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH: LETTERS AND MEMORIALS. CHAPTER I. 1864. "For I was thankful now that thus I was Compelled, as by a gentle violence, To look and learn-not merely left to spin Fine webs and woofs around me like the worm, Till in mine own coil I had hid myself, And quite shut out the light of common day, And common air by which men breathe and live- Of woe that might in some part be assuaged, Of sin that might be lessened in some part, Heaven in its mercy did not suffer me To live and dwell wholly apart from these." R. C. T., Anti-Gnosticus, ON New Year's Day, the Feast of the Circumcision, 1864, in Christ Church Cathedral, Richard Chenevix Trench was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin, in the presence of an immense congregation, by the Primate of Ireland, Archbishop Beresford. The writer (unknown to the editor of these Letters) of a little book, called "One Moment," dated January 1, 1885, VOL. II. зу B privately printed just after Archbishop Trench's resignation, will forgive the publication of the following extract : "On the 1st of January, 1864, I was one of a crowded congregation, assembled in Christ Church Cathedral, to take part in the service for the consecration of Dean Trench, Archbishop-Elect of Dublin. "The name of Dean Trench had long been familiar to me. I had been introduced to his prose writings by one dearly loved and, at that time, not 'lost,' but 'gone before.' I had read many of his poems. His writings had quickened my intellectual powers, had poured floods of light on my reading of God's Word, had deeply impressed my imagination; and he had brought with him to Ireland a prestige, theological, intellectual, and personal, which might well excuse a great longing and an earnest desire to see himself. And so, as I said, I found myself one of the large congregation assembled that day within the walls of Christ Church Cathedral-Christ Church as it was in 1864, very unlike in its interior arrangements, as in all else, from what it is in 1885. And I am afraid that, if I tell the whole truth, my feelings that morning partook more of expectation and curiosity than of devotion. "I was in a front pew longitudinally parallel with the aisle, and, therefore, perfectly well placed for seeing the procession as it passed slowly onwards to the chancel. "I saw the Archbishop-Elect most distinctly, and yet how can I describe what I saw ? "I can recall it perfectly. Bidden and unbidden, it rises constantly before me; yet I feel wholly powerless to convey to others the impression that his countenance as I saw it during that one passing moment has left for ever both on memory and heart. His personality passed me by almost unheeded. I knew not if he were tall or short, of goodly presence or the reverse. I was only conscious of seeing a figure unrobed, when all around were robed in white, and carrying in his hand what I supposed to be a small Prayerbook; not out of harmony with his surroundings-far from it -but, as it were, apart from them, moving, as it seemed to me, upon a higher level. "But what impressed me so deeply during that one moment was the countenance itself, its utter un-self-consciousness, its deep humility, its intense devotion, its almost divine spirituality.* "It was as if those beautiful words had been realized to the full, Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear;' and that the Spirit, invoked soon after in the 'Veni Creator,' had already descended upon him in all His fulness; and, as he passed on, the thought flashed through my heart, 'What, save the power of a true, living, personal God, could so illuminate the countenance of any mortal?' I felt as if in very truth I had seen the sevenfold Spirit of God resting upon him-the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the Spirit of knowledge and true godliness, the Spirit of holy fear;" and from that one moment all things, eternal and unseen, seemed invested for me with a depth of reality they had never had before. "Since then I have passed through many experiences of spirit and of heart. I have had flashes of doubt. Who, in these days of, perhaps, too great mental activity, has escaped them? I have had days and hours of sorrow and of joy. I have had hopes and fears. But I can truly say that the countenance of Archbishop Trench as I saw it during that one moment of my life, expressing, as it did, the deepest devotion and the most perfect realization of the Unseen, and rising, as it does, entirely unbidden before my mental vision, has dispelled doubts, soothed sorrows, sanctified joys, strengthened hope, and calmed fear, by leading me to realize for myself, as nothing else has ever done, the personal existence of that living God, whose power and Spirit were so vividly portrayed before me in that one moment of my life. "I cannot, and do not, doubt that there were many others "There were many, I believe, praying," he wrote the same day to Bishop Wilberforce, "and quite conscious of the significance of the act which was being done, quite irrespective of the insignificance of him on whom it was being done. The Primate went through the service with a solemn grandeur for which I was not at all prepared." |