The Portland daily press., 1885-10-29
CANON FARRAR.
Sketch Of This Eminent English
Divine.
Leading characteristics as
Preacher.

/
boys, which, like ''Tom Brown" while they
are inspired by the loftiest spirit, have the
| virile glow of actual boyhood. They were
| written, as such books must be, from actual
| experience, and were a part Of the fruits OF
many years of infinite and sympathetic asso-
citation with boys in great English public
| school. Born in Bombay, Canon Farrar
| himself was educated at King Williams Col
| lege in the Isle of Man, and at Kings Col
| lege, London, and he not only had his own
| career as a schoolboy to draw on for these
| stories, but becoming an assistant master at
| Harrow under DIR. Vaughn and DIR. Butler,
| the life of that foundation was opened to
| him in all its varieties. Harrow is, perhaps,
more typical than Eton. 1t was to it that
distinguished American in London sent his
sons because it was, he said, the only school
where no special honor was attached TO
rank, and there is an old story that when
scholar happened to be duke he received
fhree EXTRA kicks from his fellows. Later
Canon Farrar became head master OF mari
| borough College, and he held this post with
great distinction from January, 1871, I'LL
| April, 1876. But it is notas pedaagogue, nor
| as writer of fiction, that he will be vel
| coined when he arrives, but as one Oh Lne
| most eloquent of living preachers. The
master of style which is at once remark
able for its depth of feeling, vivid imagery
and rich vocabulary, the sentences OF Farrar,
written or spoken, blaze with rhetorical
iewelry. and, when moved by his subject, the
Splendid flight of his imagination OUT
distances all the anticipations OF the listeners
and dazZles almost blinds, by the brilllance
of the display. He is word painter, and,
whatever his subject may be. he invariably
makes it picturesque. AS James says OF
Gautier, ''the image, the object, the scene,
stand arrested by his phrase with the
healthy glow Of truth oyertaken." He does
not use his gift idly, however, seldom, nor
on secular subjects, though in 1860 he pub
lished ''The Origin of Language in 1865,
Chapters on Language and IN 1917,
| books on Greek, and occasionally his name
appears attached TO some essay in popular
| periodical But his oratory and literature
| are both consecrated to MS Tellgion, How
broad that religion is; how enlightened, how
| charitable, how little restrained by the
| barbed wire fences of sectarian pharisaism,
| his great American cOnstItuency-th0sew VINO
have read his books and sermons-need not
be told. His religion is the religion OF mercy
of forgiveness, of immeasurable love. "God,
he says, sis the Lord God, merciful and
gracious, long suffering and Of great mercy,
forgiving iniquity and transgresslon and SIN,
S1E yeIB Because Ss he gas loves us not Not so for
Gods severity is all love; but because SIN Is
the one deadly enemy which he must destroy
in us lest it destroy us, and we, with IL, de-
stroy ourselves. He must destroy 1t Tor our
SakeS, because, as you VIII near just now LII
glorious music:
''The greatness of his mercy reacheth
Unto the heavens
And His truth unto the cloudsP'
Perhaps the most remarkable OF Canon
Farrar's works is Eternal Hope" series
| of sermons preached in Westminster Abbey
| during November and December, 1877, In
which the doctrine OF eternal torment Is
| eloquently and passionately refuted. "Inat
| there is terrible retr1bution upon I'M
| penitent sin, both here and hereafter, that
| without holiness no man can ever see the
| Lord He says: "That sin cannot be for
| given until it Is forsaken and repented Of;
| that the doom which falls on sin Is both
But there are four elements In the current
opinion which l consider to be as unsuP-
ported by Scriptures as they are repugnant
to reason which are matters OF oplnion. 9nly Gyg
and not of faith; which the church OF God
has never dogmatically sanctioned; which
have furnished to the atheist his most In
disputable argument and caused TO tne
Christian-if he be a thoughtful Christian
his most intolerable pang. 1t Is these accre-
| tions of the true doctrine, and these only,
which | have shown reasons to repudiate
| and condemn. These four clements-whlch
make the popular view far darker
| than that held in the Roman church,
and far darker even than that Of
| ST. Augustine-are: First, the physical tor
ments, the material agonies, the 'sapiens
| ignis' of eternal punishment; second, the
| supposition of its necessarily endless dura-
| ton for all who incur it; third, the opinion
| that it is incurred by the vast mass OF man
| kind; and fourth, that it is doom passed
| irreversibly at the moment of death on all
| who die in a state OF sin how tright1ui are
| the facts which they must face who hold
those common opinions-if they, indeed, In
| any way realize the meaning of their own
| words-is obvious to all, and have given
| some proofs of it in their own words.
| How any man with heart Oh ply
| in him-any man VINO has the faculty OIL
| Imagination even in the lowest degree de-
| veloped-can contemplate the present condl-
/ tion of countless multitudes OF the dead and
/, of the living viewed in the light OF sucn
| opinions-how he can at all reconcile them
| either with all that he learns of God and Oh
| Christ, that he learns in Scripture and by
| inward experience-how, as he. walks the
| streets and witnesses the life OF our great
| cities, he can enjoy in this world one mo-
| ment of happiness, however deeply ne may
| be convinced of his own individual saliva
| ton, is more than | can ever understand.
| And it is really painful to think that In THIS
| matter the Roman Catholic Church, so rigid
/ ly tenacious of what she conceives to be
| purity of doctrine, so intensely opposed to
| anything remotely resembling the spirit OF
l scepticism, so inhexibly resolute in opposi-
/ tion to heresies, so rich in her motherhood OF
| sanity souls, has held doctrine more merci-
| full, less void of pity than the current belief
/ of modern ProteStantS."
| The doctrine of hell, of everlasting IRE, is
| to him the greatest of all stumbling blocks in
4 the path of faith and, in refusing to accept
/ it, he believes that we add incomparably to
| our love of God and to the grace, the hope,
the dignity, the happiness OF human life. :
Canon Farrar was ordained deacon In
| 1854 and was admitted into priests orders
| by the Bishop of Ely in 1857. In 1876 he
became canon of Westminster Abbey ana
rector of ST. Margaret's, and in 1888 he was
l I'D Axah nf hhnU
His promotion to a bishopric is probably
only a matter of time but it is prob
able, also, that the multitude OF readers
will always think of him as "Canon" Farrar
| He usually breaches in st. Margarets, the
little church which adjoins the northern en-
trance of the abbey, by the side of which
edifice it might suggest to the irreverent a
tender alongside three-decker. Although
longing to an earlier period than the reigns
of the Plantagenets, the original church was
built before the conquest, and stood until the
reign of Edward l., when it was almost
| wholly taken down and rebuilt. As it stands
now, It is plain gothic structure, with some
interesting monuments and magnificent
stained glass window which was presented
to the church by Americans, in memory OF
Sir Walter Raleigh, whose headless body lies
under the chancel floor. On this window Is
| verse by James Russell Lowell.
"The new worlds sons, from England's breast we
| drew
| such milk as bids remember whence we came,
| Proud of her past from which our present grew,
This window we inscribe with Raleigh's
name."
The church, the living of which is in the
| gift of the abbey, has had many celebrated
| ministers-Dr. 0utram, the oriental scholar
| DR.. Sprat, afterward bishop of Rochester
Richard Widmore, the historian ef the. alb
| hey, and Dean Milman. 1t was one of the
| ministers who received a sharp reprimand
| from George Ill, soon after his accession,
| for his fulsom fattery of the King in the
| pulpit, his majesty informing the minister
that he came to church 'to hear God prais-
| ed, not himself" But it is safe to say that
at no other time has so distinguished and
| numerous an audience gathered within the
| walls as on the occasions when Canon Farrar
breaches. He is a man of bulky presence,
| though not stout, and carries himself erect,
without any of the droopings of oyerstudi-
business. His face is typically English, not
unlike that of Rev. Dr. Courtney of st.
| Paul's, Boston. tbs full, open, candid, and
his manner in the pulpit reminds one Of the
Boston preacher. 1t Is persuasive, intimate.
pleading, and is aided by rich voice which
falls on the ear like music. He has deep
| sympathles with America and Americans, and
think may say, as Julian Hawthorne said
recently of another person, that he feels that
this country is ''the PROV of the vessel; there