Untitled - Electric Scotland

378 LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xiv.
house. 1 Craufurd read a lesson in Chapel daily till Thursday,
when he left us for Eton; and the little girls
*
presided at the
organ. Our American brethren were much touched by the
presence of Craufurd and the children, and the part they took.
"On the 24th the whole party started from Fulham in
carriages, some to the station, and some to go with me. We had
Holy Communion in the chapel at Lambeth at n. A goodly
array gathered from all parts of the earth. The only English
Bishops absent on principle : York, Carlisle, Durham, Ripon,
Peterboro , Manchester. The Bishops of Exeter, Chichester,
Bath and Wells, and Hereford are all ill. The sermon by the
Bishop of Illinois was wordy, but not devoid of a certain kind of
* 1
impressiveness. The subject was not clear We fill up what
is behind in the sufferings of Christ. The characteristics of the
Episcopal work, flAu/ ets. The Bishop of Oxford was very much
afraid of ridicule attaching to us all if the sermon were published,
as the hospitalities of the week were not very like afflictions.
There certainly was an unreality in the sermon. The best part
of it, one American Bishop pointed out, was a passage contrast
ing the world and the Church.
"
I like the Bishop of Illinois, and though certainly it appeared
to me that he was too fluent, I do not know that I should have
thought more of his wordiness if our American brethren had not
spoken of it as they did, telling the story of a great speech
which he made in their Convention. The speech ended, the
Bishops retired, and in the room in which several were spending
the evening was a new Dictionary. What is it ?
* You will see
on the title-page that it professes to contain 4000 new words.
4
Let us begin by returning thanks that our brother of Illinois had
not seen it, or he would have gone on for ever.
"After the first day we did not meet again in Lambeth
Chapel. In the great dining-hall in which we sat, surrounded
by the pictures of the Archbishops, we had a few prayers at the
commencement of each of the four sittings, and those who were
our guests assembled each morning and evening in Fulham
Chapel.
" As
to our discussions, it is impossible now to recall them all.
The Conference decided not to admit the Press, to have only
Most of the Bishops who were living in or near London, including
Bishop Gray, were invited to dine daily at Fulham during the Conference,
and fifteen Bishops spent the week there as the Bishop of London s guests.