________________________________________________
_ This move on Ernest's part was variously commented upon by his
friends, the general opinion being that it was just like Pontifex,
who was sure to do something unusual wherever he went, but that on
the whole the idea was commendable. Christina could not restrain
herself when on sounding her clerical neighbours she found them
inclined to applaud her son for conduct which they idealised into
something much more self-denying than it really was. She did not
quite like his living in such an unaristocratic neighbourhood; but
what he was doing would probably get into the newspapers, and then
great people would take notice of him. Besides, it would be very
cheap; down among these poor people he could live for next to
nothing, and might put by a great deal of his income. As for
temptations, there could be few or none in such a place as that.
This argument about cheapness was the one with which she most
successfully met Theobald, who grumbled more suo that he had no
sympathy with his son's extravagance and conceit. When Christina
pointed out to him that it would be cheap he replied that there was
something in that.
On Ernest himself the effect was to confirm the good opinion of
himself which had been growing upon him ever since he had begun to
read for orders, and to make him flatter himself that he was among
the few who were ready to give up ALL for Christ. Ere long he began
to conceive of himself as a man with a mission and a great future.
His lightest and most hastily formed opinions began to be of
momentous importance to him, and he inflicted them, as I have
already shown, on his old friends, week by week becoming more and
more entete with himself and his own crotchets. I should like well
enough to draw a veil over this part of my hero's career, but cannot
do so without marring my story.
In the spring of 1859 I find him writing -
"I cannot call the visible Church Christian till its fruits are
Christian, that is until the fruits of the members of the Church of
England are in conformity, or something like conformity, with her
teaching. I cordially agree with the teaching of the Church of
England in most respects, but she says one thing and does another,
and until excommunication--yes, and wholesale excommunication--be
resorted to, I cannot call her a Christian institution. I should
begin with our Rector, and if I found it necessary to follow him up
by excommunicating the Bishop, I should not flinch even from this.
"The present London Rectors are hopeless people to deal with. My
own is one of the best of them, but the moment Pryer and I show
signs of wanting to attack an evil in a way not recognised by
routine, or of remedying anything about which no outcry has been
made, we are met with, 'I cannot think what you mean by all this
disturbance; nobody else among the clergy sees these things, and I
have no wish to be the first to begin turning everything topsy-
turvy.' And then people call him a sensible man. I have no
patience with them. However, we know what we want, and, as I wrote
to Dawson the other day, have a scheme on foot which will, I think,
fairly meet the requirements of the case. But we want more money,
and my first move towards getting this has not turned out quite so
satisfactorily as Pryer and I had hoped; we shall, however, I doubt
not, retrieve it shortly."
When Ernest came to London he intended doing a good deal of house-
to-house visiting, but Pryer had talked him out of this even before
he settled down in his new and strangely-chosen apartments. The
line he now took was that if people wanted Christ, they must prove
their want by taking some little trouble, and the trouble required
of them was that they should come and seek him, Ernest, out; there
he was in the midst of them ready to teach; if people did not choose
to come to him it was no fault of his.
"My great business here," he writes again to Dawson, "is to observe.
I am not doing much in parish work beyond my share of the daily
services. I have a man's Bible Class, and a boy's Bible Class, and
a good many young men and boys to whom I give instruction one way or
another; then there are the Sunday School children, with whom I fill
my room on a Sunday evening as full as it will hold, and let them
sing hymns and chants. They like this. I do a great deal of
reading--chiefly of books which Pryer and I think most likely to
help; we find nothing comparable to the Jesuits. Pryer is a
thorough gentleman, and an admirable man of business--no less
observant of the things of this world, in fact, than of the things
above; by a brilliant coup he has retrieved, or nearly so, a rather
serious loss which threatened to delay indefinitely the execution of
our great scheme. He and I daily gather fresh principles. I
believe great things are before me, and am strong in the hope of
being able by and by to effect much.
"As for you I bid you God speed. Be bold but logical, speculative
but cautious, daringly courageous, but properly circumspect withal,"
etc., etc.
I think this may do for the present. _
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