Untitled - Electric Scotland

538 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvm.
congratulations on the burdens of new responsibility which it has
pleased God to lay upon you. But it may be one of the means
by which He enables you to sustain them, to know how much
clergymen of all opinions, popular and unpopular, have looked
up to you and trusted you. May your Grace be a witness to the
whole Church, as you have been to us in this diocese, that there
is a unity in Christ which no differences can destroy or even
impair."
Dean Hook wrote from Chichester :
"
I remember, though you may have forgotten, that when the
late Dean of Carlisle was nominated to the See of London, I took
the liberty of predicting the success of your labours, from my
acquaintance with the peculiar talent you possess for ruling
without showing that you rule the most unruly of men, the
clergy. My prediction has been fulfilled, for I believe that no
Bishop of London has accomplished so much as you have done.
... In my old age I again assume the character of a prophet,
and I foretell that the historian who shall succeed me will, when
he records your administration of the Province of Canterbury,
have to place the name of Tait among the most distinguished of
the many eminent men who have sat in the throne of Augustine.
I only hope that you will not forget that a Metropolitan is more
than a Diocesan, and that the weight of your character will be
felt throughout the Province. ... I am still devoted to the
Church s cause, and, having three sons and two sons-in-law, I have
the pleasure of knowing that they have inherited my loyalty. . . .
Perhaps they may be doomed to martyrdom, for I think in the
predicted falling-away there will be a persecution of the clergy of
all denominations. ... I am so near the end that I hope it will
not come in my time, for I am terribly sensitive, and should not
like to burn. The burning of a fat man would be awful ! I will
not congratulate you on having incurred fresh responsibilities,
but I may be permitted to congratulate Mrs. Tait on the tribute
paid to her husband s merits with an approbation, I may say, all
but universal. ... If our friend Stanley is appointed to
London, I shall turn Red Republican, and go in for Disestablish
ment."
His old Oxford friend and tutor, Mr. Frederick Oakeley,