Untitled - Electric Scotland

1 860-68] ST. MATTHIAS, STOKE NEWINGTON 437
ecclesiastical, educational, or even political, Bishop Tait
and Mr. Brett were in frequent and sometimes stormy
opposition to one other, but Mr. Brett never lost an oppor
tunity of expressing the respect and regard which, through
all these controversies, he entertained for his Diocesan.
In a rousing speech, for example, which he delivered to
the English Church Union on June 2Oth, 1865, he refers
as follows to Bishop Tait :
"
I wish it to be distinctly understood that I intend no
reflections whatever on our Diocesan. I have had some
personal
very earnest contentions with him on matters of principle, but I
must say he has always met me as a Christian man should do.
He has maintained his opinions, and I have maintained mine,
and when he has found that the principle which I have con
tended for has been right, he has yielded up his own opinion. I
feel great respect for him, not only for his office, but personally
for the many great efforts which he displays in advancing the cause
of the Church, and also for acts of personal kindness to myself,
and especially for tender sympathy in times of bitter trial. . . .
Therefore, whatever I say must not be taken personally to his
l
Lordship."
The consecration in 1866 of St. Peter s, London Docks,
the enduring outcome of Mr. Lowder s energy and faith,
was an important day in the history of the Ritualist move
ment. Strained as his relations had for a time been with
the Rector of the Mother Church, 2
Bishop
Tait had never
ceased to encourage and support the devoted workers in
Mr. Lowder s mission district, now formed into a separate
parish. The magnetism of Mr. Lowder s personal in
fluence, not less than his untiring devotion to the people
committed to his care, had lived down active opposition
even in the worst purlieus which he was trying to reclaim,
and on June 30, 1866, the friendly feeling which he had
1
Life of Robert Brett, p. 153.
2
St. George s in the East, see pp. 232-249.