The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1883-04-04

VI ludnCldl quSS1lOuS, eIC. CeCouu, W
take an active part in religious affairs as
Christian, and not as a mere Church
man; Third, to avoid calling for new
rights, privileges, grants, etc.-but to
show the zeal and capacity of the Church
to be the Church of the people; Fourth,
to lessen political and other animosities,
to guard public morality, and to come
forward whenever the interests of hui
mainly were at stake" Unfortunately,
Bishop Wherefore chose to disregard
every one of these admirable suggestions,
and to pursue course directly opposed
to them. He became a politician and
made speeches in the House of Lords on
the Corn Laws, the duty on sugar, and
other secular matters. He treated of re-
ligious questions from churchly and
very high churchly point of view. He
agitated for an enlargement of Church
power not merely as against the secular
authority, but as against dissent. He
aggravated political animosities and APP
peared as the champion of one section of
the Established Church. He became the
partisan of certain ecclesiastical opinions
and of one political party. He suspend
ed his hopes of preferment on the preva-
lence of these opinions and on the sue
cess of this party. His prospects of ad-
vance in the hierarchy depended on the
falling down of one Prime Minister and
the elevation of another. Had Lord
Aberdeen continued in power a little
longer, the Bishop of Oxford would have
been translated to Durham, but before
the vacancy occurred, the ministry fell
The disappointment of Wilberforce is
seen in his bitter wall" the only gov
eminent which could or was minded to
be fair to the Church overthrow be-
cause of six miles of road not made from
Balaclava to Sebastopol. Lord Aberdeen
had fully proposed to offer me Durham
with a view to York"
This was his Lordship's comment on
that great disaster of the Crimean war.
Well may the reviewer say, that those
who remember the dire suffering and ma
tional loss, and imminence of national de-
feat and disgrace, which the absence of
those six miles of road entailed, are apt
to be little impatient of Church inter
ests and Church promotions being at the
moment uppermost in the mind of pa
triot"
The Bishop eagerly undertook the
making and unmaking of cabinets; he
" was intensely anxious to keep Palmer
ston out; he wanted the Peelites to re-
fuse to join him; he wanted Lord Aber-
deem to go to Lord Derby and propose a
coalition, or better still, that all should
fail to form a government, and office re-
vert to Lord Aberdeen as the only pos
sible minister" This is not an agreeable
spectacle; one of the high dignitaries of
the Church scheming to defeat the ma
tlonal will in its choice of Prime Mn
lister, that he might attain the end of his
ambition-an Archbishopric Here is
another edifying passage: "In 1862 the
Primate died. York went to Canter.
bury, and DIR. Thompson the Bishops
former curate went to York. Mr.. Glad
stone did his utmost q. e., to make Will
berforce Archbishop Of York; but Pal
merston was obdurate. The only crumb
of comfort to DR.. Wherefore was that
he understood from the Dean of Wind
sor that if London had gone to York,
Oxford would have gone to London"
" 1t was hard upon the Bishop" adds
the reviewer. He lost his promotion
" from his party spirit, his personal an
tipathies, from that flaw in his character
which inspired so much distrust and
from his continual intermeddllng and
striving after advancement" A salutary
warning is herein given to all those who
make the Church of God an instrument
of personal ambition, and emphasis to
the fundamental law of His kingdom
laid down by our Lord "Let him who
would be chief among you, become the
servant of all. " 1t is not by place, power,
and pomp, that one attains the first rank
in Christ's Church, but by gifts, by
graces, by service. Unselfsh devotion
to duty, and not restless aspiration for
high Office is the true ladder by which
are scaled the heights of public conf
dence and divine approval.
Self-seeking may defeat itself in two
ways: by uniting one for the present
task, and by arousing the opposition of
jealousy, envy, and malice. A striking
of these great moral princi-
pies is furnished by the life before us.
In spite of splendid qualities, of personal
magnetism, and OF the efforts of friends,
Bishop WHEREFORE failed to attain the
highest dignities, was banked in his am
bition, saw inferior men elevated over
him, and was a disappointed man.
The following most extraordinary ex-
tract from the Bishops diary discloses
the treacherous waters over which he
sought the haven Of preferment, and the
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