Chương Chương 54 · 第54章

. This move on Ernest’s part was variously commented upon by his friends,

the general opinion being that it was just like Pontifex, who was sure

to do something unusual wherever he went, but that on the whole the

idea was commendable. Christina could not restrain herself when on

sounding her clerical neighbours she found them inclined to applaud her

son for conduct which they idealised into something much more

self-denying than it really was. She did not quite like his living in

such an unaristocratic neighbourhood; but what he was doing would

probably get into the newspapers, and then great people would take

notice of him. Besides, it would be very cheap; down among these poor

people he could live for next to nothing, and might put by a great deal

of his income. As for temptations, there could be few or none in such a

place as that. This argument about cheapness was the one with which she

most successfully met Theobald, who grumbled more _suo_ that he had no

sympathy with his son’s extravagance and conceit. When Christina

pointed out to him that it would be cheap he replied that there was

something in that.

On Ernest himself the effect was to confirm the good opinion of himself

which had been growing upon him ever since he had begun to read for

orders, and to make him flatter himself that he was among the few who

were ready to give up _all_ for Christ. Ere long he began to conceive

of himself as a man with a mission and a great future. His lightest and

most hastily formed opinions began to be of momentous importance to

him, and he inflicted them, as I have already shown, on his old

friends, week by week becoming more and more _entêté_ with himself and

his own crotchets. I should like well enough to draw a veil over this

part of my hero’s career, but cannot do so without marring my story.

In the spring of 1859 I find him writing—

“I cannot call the visible Church Christian till its fruits are

Christian, that is until the fruits of the members of the Church of

England are in conformity, or something like conformity, with her

teaching. I cordially agree with the teaching of the Church of England

in most respects, but she says one thing and does another, and until

excommunication—yes, and wholesale excommunication—be resorted to, I

cannot call her a Christian institution. I should begin with our

Rector, and if I found it necessary to follow him up by excommunicating

the Bishop, I should not flinch even from this.

“The present London Rectors are hopeless people to deal with. My own is

one of the best of them, but the moment Pryer and I show signs of

wanting to attack an evil in a way not recognised by routine, or of

remedying anything about which no outcry has been made, we are met

with, ‘I cannot think what you mean by all this disturbance; nobody

else among the clergy sees these things, and I have no wish to be the

first to begin turning everything topsy-turvy.’ And then people call

him a sensible man. I have no patience with them. However, we know what

we want, and, as I wrote to Dawson the other day, have a scheme on foot

which will, I think, fairly meet the requirements of the case. But we

want more money, and my first move towards getting this has not turned

out quite so satisfactorily as Pryer and I had hoped; we shall,

however, I doubt not, retrieve it shortly.”

When Ernest came to London he intended doing a good deal of

house-to-house visiting, but Pryer had talked him out of this even

before he settled down in his new and strangely-chosen apartments. The

line he now took was that if people wanted Christ, they must prove

their want by taking some little trouble, and the trouble required of

them was that they should come and seek him, Ernest, out; there he was

in the midst of them ready to teach; if people did not choose to come

to him it was no fault of his.

“My great business here,” he writes again to Dawson, “is to observe. I

am not doing much in parish work beyond my share of the daily services.

I have a man’s Bible Class, and a boy’s Bible Class, and a good many

young men and boys to whom I give instruction one way or another; then

there are the Sunday School children, with whom I fill my room on a

Sunday evening as full as it will hold, and let them sing hymns and

chants. They like this. I do a great deal of reading—chiefly of books

which Pryer and I think most likely to help; we find nothing comparable

to the Jesuits. Pryer is a thorough gentleman, and an admirable man of

business—no less observant of the things of this world, in fact, than

of the things above; by a brilliant coup he has retrieved, or nearly

so, a rather serious loss which threatened to delay indefinitely the

execution of our great scheme. He and I daily gather fresh principles.

I believe great things are before me, and am strong in the hope of

being able by and by to effect much.

“As for you I bid you God speed. Be bold but logical, speculative but

cautious, daringly courageous, but properly circumspect withal,” etc.,

etc.

I think this may do for the present.