The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-20 00:00:00

DEAN STANLEY ON DICKENS.

The Telegraph declares that Dean Stanley caught the
true drift of the public feeling, when, to an audience re-
presenting all classes of Englishmen, and in what may be
called the imperial Church of England, he poured forth A
heartfelt and eloquent tribute to the memory of the great
writer who has enriched his countrymen with imperishable
types of what is beautiful and good, tender and
loving, humorous and grotesque, monstrous and
revolting, in humanity. At the risk of spoiling
the artistic harmony of his stories, Dickens called upon
the rich to help the poor, the strong to help the weak;
and for spreading that most Chrittian lesson lesson by the
fire of his genius he will be held in undying remem-
brance by the great stricken throng of humanity who were
his lowly clients, Speaking in presence of the newly-
closed 'grave, Dean Stanley said that it might
seem to contain the remains, not only of the
great novelist himself, but of the beautiful natures to
whom his genius gave unpying form. Those natures
live, and will be his best monument. That he himself
well knew the fact, was attested by the profoundly inter-
esting extract which the Dean read from the deceased
writer's will. His writings are one long protest against
bigotry and sectarian narrowness, one long appeal to what
is purest and most loving in human nature, one affirma-
tion of belief in a Christianity which is deeper than the
wrangling tenets of the sects. "In that simple faith,"
said Dean Stanley, " Charles Dickens lived and died."

PERPETUAL DIVISIONS.
The Daily News says Mr. Beresford Hope vnd his
friends appear to have adopted the policy expressed in
the words " Divide and conquer." They divided ten
times on Friday night upon the Clerical Dis-
abilities Bill, and by dint of factious perti-
nacity gained their point. In conformity with that
rule of the House, according to which a motion
for adjournment may not be proposed a gaiu„
without some intermediate proceedings, the motion
that the House do now adjourn was succeeded by, and in
its turn followed upon, the motion that the debate be now
adjourned, ten times in succession. At last even the
atrocious mind of Cato, or in other words, the iron spirit
of Mr. Bouverie, was subdued ; and declaring, with a sigh,
that nothing could resist an obstinate minority, he yielded.
The Clerical Disabilities Bill is, therefore, referred to a
Select Committee, to which Mr. Beresford Hope
looks, if nob to resolve his scruples es to the
indelibility of holy orders, yet to find a course of action
compatible with the views of the sacerdotalist party in
the Church of England. In the meantime, an act of
simple justice is indefinitely delayed, and a great Liberal
majority is neutralised, because a few ecclesiastical
Tories were ready to sit u p for four hours, if necessary,
to divide the House, while Liberal politicians were de-
termined, come what may, to be in bed.

DEAN STANLE Y ON CHARLES DICKENS.
An immense congregation assembled yesterday after-
noon in Westminster Abbey to listen to the sermon
preached by the Dean of Westminster on the death of
Charles Dickens. The doors were opened at half-past
two, but the people gathered about the doors as early as
half-past one, and as soon as the gates were opened every
seat was filled. The family and relations of Mr. Dickens
were seated in a gallery in the south transept. Unfor-
tunately, Dean Stanley was suffering from severe in-
disposition, and preached with manifest effort. He apo-
logised for the weakness which prevented him from
makiug his voice sound as far as he could wish, and this
was the greater loss to those beyond its reach, from the
beauty and appropriateness of the sermon. The Dean
found a singularly apposite text in the Gospel of the day,
the parable of Dives and Lazarus. He said if the Scrip-
ture of the day and the incident of the week directed
their minds to the same thoughts, and naturally illus-
trated each other, the attraction became irresistible, and
the lesson which they gave was doubly strengthened. The
parable of the rich man and Lazarus was the parable of para-
bles. It was a tale of reallife—so real, that they could believe
that it was not history ; but nevertheless Dives and
Lazarus were as much imaginary beings as Hamlet or
Shylock. The parable showed the sacredness and value of
fictitious narrative, and it were well we should see how the
Bible sanctioned that particular mode of instruction,
which was, in a special sense, God's gift to our own age.
No works were so penetrating as those of the novelist.
They reached those who never read history or
sermon. It was this that gave them their power.
Coming to the consideration of the particular gifts of
Charles Dickens as a writer, the preacher continued,
" This was not the place to speak at length of those
lighter and more genial qualities which he possessed, such
as render his death, like that of one who rests beside him
almost , an eclipse of the gaiety of nations.' Let
others tell elsewhere of his brilliant, delicate
satire, of his kindly wit, of his keen and
übiquitous sense of the grotesque and ludicrous."
The great lesson of his writings was represented in the
parable of the day. The moral which the parable intends
us t o draw is the very same which is drawn with unex-
ampled and unrivalled force throughout the writings of our
lost instructor. Dives and Lazarus were prototypes of those
classes so vividly pourtrayed by Charles Dickens. It is of
the vast outlying mass of unseen human suffering that we
need to be so constantly reminded ; of the contrast be-
tween things as they are in the sight of God and in the
sight of man. It is the difficulty of realising this which
makes the parable of Lazarus so vitally necessary for our
society as it was for the men to whom it was first spoken.
It was the part of him whom we have lost to make the
rich man, faring sumptuously every day, fail to see the
presence of the poor man at his gate. The
suffering inmates of our workhouses—the neglected children
in the dens and caves of this great city—the starved,
iil-used boys, in remote schools, far from the observation
of men—these all felt a new ray of sunshine poured into
their dark prisons, and a new interest awakened in their
forlorn and desolate lot, because an unknown friend had
pleaded their cause with a voice that rang through the palaces
of the great as well as through the cottages of the poor.
After speaking of the tenderness with which the master
hand of the departed writer drew the pictures
of the virtues and affections hidden in dark places,
the Dean concluded by reading a touching pas-
sage from the will of Charles Dickens, dated
May 12, 1869. After the most emphatic injunctions re-
specting the inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly 1
private manner of his funeral—injunctions that have
been carried out to the very letter —he thus
continues :—" I direct that my name be inscribed in
plain English letters on my tomb. I conjure my friends
on no account to make me the subject of any monument,
memorial, or testimonial whatever. I rest my claim to the
remembrance of my country on my published works, and
to the remembrance of my friends in their experience of
me in addition thereto. I commit my soul to the mercy
Of God, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; and
I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide them-
selves by the teaching of the New Teseament, in its broad
spirit, and to put no faith in any man's narrow con.
struction of its letter here or there." In that simple and
sufficient faith he had lived and died, and bade them live
and die, and the best memorials they could raise to him
were the works of purity, of kindness, of unselfishness, of
which he had showed them the value.
After the beautiful anthem "When the ear hard him"
had been sung, and the service concluded the congregation
dispersed nearly all passing out7hyPoet's corner, to look at
the last resting place of Charles Dickens.