Untitled - Electric Scotland

1863-68] THK BISHOP S KKPLY 523
functions, you ought to state the whole case to him, that you may
ascertain his views respecting your return to ministerial duty.
Unless there is some good reason to the contrary, it seems
natural to seek to be re-admitted by your former diocesan ;
and
at all events, if you were nominated to any sphere in my diocese,
I should think it my duty
"
to refer to him.
2d. It would, I grant, be undesirable to provoke any public
discussion of your grounds for abandoning and for re-assuming
your ministerial functions, which grounds, as I have said, I learn
from your letter are not fully understood by those with whom
you have acted in their real depth, and in connection with the
painful private struggles of doubt and disbelief through which
you have passed.
"
But I think it is certainly your duty to see that, so far as
you can, any who have by your example been unsettled in their
allegiance to the Church or fortified in their already formed
objections to it, should learn that you have been convinced of
your error and that you now earnestly desire that they should be
guided by your present and not by your former views of truth.
"
I would again add further, that under the peculiar circum
stances of your case, I should think that for a time some quiet
sphere of ministering amongst the poor would be better for your
own soul and more conducive to your ultimate usefulness in the
ministry than any prominent post.
"
That God by His Holy Spirit may be your guide and stay,
for the Lord Jesus Christ s sake, is my hearty prayer. Believe
me to be, my dear Sir, faithfully yours, A. C. LONDON.
"
P.S. On my return home I shall be ready to see you any
day by appointment."
Several interviews took place, and the clergyman
returned to active ministry in the Church of England.
Among the Bishop s papers is a large amount of corre
spondence about the origin of the Speaker s Commentary.
Valuable as, in some respects, he felt the book to be, and
indefatigable as were the pains taken by its publishers, it
was always to Bishop Tait a source of keen disappoint
ment that so great an enterprise had not been carried out