The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-04-13 00:00:00

From the Spectator.)

-
The great religious teacher, who will long be chiefly
remembered as chaplain of Lincoln's Inn—though as
Professor in King's College, London, as the centre of
the Christian Socialist movement which ended in so
great an impulse to co-operAive work, as Prineipal of
the Working Men's College, Great Ormond greet, to
which he contributed so 'arm ly both time and money,
and, finally, as Professor of Moral Theology and Philo-
scphy at Cambridge' he has even greater titles to
public gratitude and fame—died on Easter Monday,
m the 68th year of his age, after two or three weeks'
illness, and was buried at Highgate Cemetery by
the Rev. J. I,lewelyn Davies on Friday, amid signs of
general mourrtiog not often even on the faces of the
rich and poor alike, a choir of his own working men
having sung the hymn over his grave. A memo.
rial had been hastily got up asking for a place for Mr.
Maurice in Westminster Abbey, to which the Dean
of Westminster had acceded; but the family, no
doubt influenced by sympathy with his own intense
humility preferred a private funeral at Highgste ;
and so it was. If Westminster Abbey is reserved for
those whose names will still be famous centuries hence,
we do not know that Mr. Maurice's friends could have
claimed a ?lace for him there, for his favourite subjects
were too little popular for his books to be widely known

after the rr...t charm of his personal influence is for-
gotten. But ceitenty few of those of our own genera-
tion whose names will 11,e in English history or
literature have exerted so proftamd qid so permanent
an influence 9,..3 Mr. Maurice. His learnhig se a theo-
logian and philosopher was patient, deep, and acctsrets.
His didactic works were numerous, and full to °vet-
liown JI living conviction. But powerful as they
were, the post clef Ms personal simplicity and humility
could never be fully tran.f.rce4 69 them.

The A thearesim says :
" Most of the newspapers have mentioned tha fhe
late holesaor Maurice was in early life the author of
a novel called .17.z.,0a,e Conway; or, the Brother and
Sister. We believe we are net going too far in telling
the following store about it. Illr. Maurice hold the
novel to the late Mr. Bentley eoinevrbcre about the
ear IS3O ; but the ex.itenient cans.' by the Reform
litla LA, unfavourable to light litersture, Mr. Bentley
did not issue :t till 1831, when he had quite lost sight
of its author, then a nrate in Warwiekt•hire. The
villain of the novel was called Captain Marryat ; and
Mr. Maurice, who first learnt of the roblication of
his book from a review in our columns (Atitcmcion, No.
335, p. 239), had soon the pleasure of receiving a chal-
lenge from the celebrated Captain Marryat. Great
was the latter's astonishment on learning that the
anonymous author of Euelace Conway had never beard
of the biographer of Peter Simple, and, being in Holy
Orders, was obliged to decline to indulge in a duel."

On Sunday evening, at Westminster Abbey, the
Very Hes., the Dean preached to a large congregation.
The Words of the text were from the 19th verse of the
20th chapter of St. John's Gospel—" Peace be with
you." At the close of his sermon, which lasted nearly
an hour, the Dean paid a warm and feeling tribute to
the memory of the late Professor Maurice, whose
whole life, from its beginning to its close, was a
vivid example of the gift of peace in all its senses.
Doubtless many in that church had seen, and many
others, high and low, had heard, of the life-long labours
on behalf of Christian truth and Christian love that
endeared to thou.:ands of his fellow countrymen the
name of Frederick Maurice. In one sense, indeed, his
was a life not of peace but of constant warfare, of war
against all that was mean and base and false. it was
a life not of peaceful ease but of incessant, unwearied
toil ; a bush ever bunting, and am it burnt consumed
with its own inextinguishable zeal for God's house and
for God's honour; burning with a fiery flame that con-
Binned the mind and the body that enclosed it. It was
also a life not withdrawn from the turmoil of earthly
concerns. He lived in the very thick of the stirring in-
fluences of our time. He was an English citizen
even more than he was an E:.glish Churchman,
and while clinging passionately and ,lev, !edly to the
ages of the past, was full of all the thoughts fool
events of our own momentous century. Nuts wave of
speculation in Europs, not a public eat of joy or
soi•roiv in England, but called f, is a svuqw.thetic or
indignant cry front that travailing 110141. And yet, in
all senses of the word, he was the most peaceful and
pacific of men. Amid the strife f townie, awl .he war
of parties he remained self-poise,: 'ld independent, his
utterances sometimes flashing wit ,nol so' .
and sometimes obscure, but always speaking mom ins
own heart and conscience that which he truly found
there and believed in. Having dwelt at some length
aud with much eloquence on the deceased's nobleness
, of mind and integrity of character, the Dean urged his
hearers to imitate his example.

A newspaper correspondent points out as a coincidence
which has not been noted, the fact that Mr. Maurice
died in the same month as both his father and mother.
The inscription on the tombstone at Highlfate Ceme-
tery bears testimony to this fact :—" Sacred to the
dear memory of Priscilla, wife of the Rev. Michael
Maurice. Born December 18, 1774; died April 21,
1854. A'RO of the Rev. Michael Maurice. Born
February 3, 1767; died April 6, 1855." The remaining
portion of the inscription commemorates Priscilla
Hurry, their fifth daughter ; Miu-y Atkinson, their
second daughter; Jane Esther, their sixth daughter,
the widow of Archdeacon Hare, who died in 1834 ; and
William Powell, their son.in-law.