Untitled - Electric Scotland

266 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xi.
as well have been left unspoken. The reception accorded
to the Charge of Bishop Tait gave, by its very warmth,
abundant evidence of what the public view of such utter
ances had hitherto been.
"The day on which the Charge was to be delivered," wrote
the Guardian in a critical and cautious article,
"
was looked for
with extraordinary interest and even anxiety. There are said to
have been nearly a thousand London clergy gathered on that
day under the dome of St. Paul s an ecclesiastical army, for it
was nothing less, impressive if not unparalleled in mere numbers ;
but to a Churchman especially* suggestive from the place where
it was for the first time held, and very solemn from the thought
of the vast and unspeakably important interests which depended
under God upon the men there gathered under one roof.
Amongst such reflections one of the foremost must be the awful
responsibility of him in whom spiritual agencies, so many and
powerful, centre for direction. It was evident that the Bishop
keenly felt the importance of the occasion, not only from the
earnestness and emphasis of his delivery, but from the elaborate
completeness and finish bestowed on the Charge both in matter
and composition. . . . Truly now, if ever, the mitre is lined
with thorns, and to draw up a Charge, such as was delivered on
Wednesday last, is as delicate and difficult an undertaking of its
kind as a man can have laid him."
upon
Other newspapers, not usually giving much attention
to matters ecclesiastical, devoted articles and correspond
ence columns to the subject for several weeks after the
delivery of the Charge.
" A
Christian, a gentleman, and a man of sense, is the Bishop
of London, and the ample, unreserved view which he has taken
of church questions in this country, in the metropolis, and in
certain parishes, abounds with evidence to the qualities which
he possesses for the post assigned to him."
Again :
"Bishop
Tait has well won his first laurels. Had words as
free from ambiguity, had plain outspoken designation of the