Untitled - Electric Scotland

iS 4 9-53] APPOINTED DEAN OF CARLISLE 151
you will prove that you have still the same mind, now that you
are not a College but a Cathedral Don. Again, may I ask you to
forgive me if I suggest another subject for serious thought ? Can
not you as Dean be kind to some of the poorer clergy ? It is quite
painful to see how great people forget our Lord s command to invite
those who cannot repay them. At Salisbury, if a Bible or Mis
sionary Meeting bring the poor clergy in, they may (except in one
or two cases, as when the Bishop happens to take the chair) seek
refreshment at inns. Now, this ought not to be ; for great luncheons
are provided when the rich come in to infirmary sermons, to which
they and their wives and their daughters go,
while the utmost
a poor clergyman can expect is a dinner for himself occasionally,
while his wife and children may go anywhere. Do, my dear Tait,
be kind to the poor clergy. And if the Whigs carry you up higher,
and make you a Bishop, never forget the advice of a truly affec
tionate friend, who does long to see you breaking through the
miserably unchristian customs of most Cathedral dignitaries, and
proving yourself to be one who is willing,
not to make a show in
society, but by simple-minded preaching of the Gospel, by self-
denying simplicity of habits and tastes, by self-humbling endeavours,
to show kindness to the poor in all classes, to earn from your
Master the name in your Deanery of a good and faithful servant."
The following from a former pupil is one among several
l
of a like sort :
" To you, sir, more than to any one else do I owe the soften
ing of more than one harsh prejudice against the Church of Eng
land, for in you I found a liberality towards those of other sects
for which I had never given the members of that Church credit,
and I cannot but rejoice that there will now be wider scope for
its exercise. There would be but little enmity from Dissenters
to the Church had they been treated by the ministers of that
Church as you have treated me."
Before he finally resigned the charge of the School he
was called upon to meet a somewhat serious attack. The
Guardian newspaper, in reviewing a book written by Mr.
Highton, one of the assistant masters, warned the public
in impressive tones against the character of the religious
The writer afterwards took Orders in the Church of England.