New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-14
WILLIAM GEORGE WARD.
A CHAPTER IN RELIGIOUS PROGRESS.


The subject of this biography held con-
spicuous and important relation TO that movement
within the Church Of England which, opening
more than fifty years ago with the celebrated
Tracts for the Times" proceeded with ever In
ereasing violence of agitation until a crisis had
been reached which issued in the secession Of
group OF distinguished Angl'csnS both clerical and
lay to the Church of Rome, and the coincdent
COLLAPSE OF the .so-called Troctarian Movement
Not that this collapse was in any true sense
cessation of vitality The separation of Newman,
Word, and the rest, certainly changed the course
of the movement and diverted il from the ends
until then specially aimed at; but the two
schools of Ritualism and Evangclcalism, which
since 1850 have exercised so deep an influence
upon Anglicanism, had their rise in the contro-
versies which marked with such storm and stress
the progress of religious thought during the
prevalence of the Oxford movement
1t is easy, looking back from this distance, to
perceive the sources Of the CONSERVATION which
the appearance of Tract 90" excited, though at
the time many things conspred TO disguise inc
real character of the dominant opposition. The
Oxford movement emphaticaly one Of re-
form Apathy and laXIty had for long time
been paralyzing the Anglican Church The heads
OF the Church had become with some notable en-
captions worldly minded, Indifferent slothfui
The inferior clergy went through their duties
perfunctorily The breaches made by dissent
were unrepaired Nothing was done to maintain,
still less TO extend, the influence of the Church
upon tho people. The sympathy and close
affliation with the poor which has ever been so
important principle of the Roman Catholic
polty was conspicuous by its absence in the
practice of the Church of England. Languor and
decay wero everywhere apparent in the body and
it was the perception of this dangerous state OF
things that inspired Keble Newman, Pusey ana
the other Tractarans TO the work upon which
they entered with 50 much more zeal than fore
sight William George Ward was man whose
mind was a most singular composition. 10
strong mathematical faculty he united a POSITIVE
passion for dialectjcs and mystical tendency
which in the end determined his vocation. 10
might be said that his intellect was mediaeval IN
its cast but that in early manhood he showed a
marked prediction for the uncompromlsng
rationalism of the Mills and Comte.
The period was one in which Biblical eXegesis
in England remained crude and primitive Der-
man criticism and scholarship were hardly KNOWN
None of the Tractarian leaders had any acqualh'-
ance with them, and this fact accounts 1or "haV
might. from the point Of view Of modern scholar
ship, be considered a great waste OF time ana
friction of temper in the discussion of issues
a follower of John Stuart Mill, but he heard
Newman. and the latter's doctrine took hold al
most Immediately upon an intelligence which, un-
consciously to the man himself, was controlled
always in the last resort by the spiritual ele~
ments Even his son. who has undertaken thS
interesting and suggestive work as LABOR OF
love- but half understands the influences which
dominated Ward. What they were may b. best
collected from his remarkable book, " The Ideal
of a Christian Church. truly one of the most
manful. candid, eloquent and profoundly sprtual
compositions to be found anywhere. Inc WIFI
ing of il was forced upon him, he being whit ne
was The Tractarian movement originally almeu
at restoring the Church TO the purity, sancuV
and devotedness of the seventeenth century. ANY
nractical endeavor TO restore ancient doctrines
and rituals necessitated close study OF the rules
and rubrics of the Church. Such an eXamina-
+,on led n an EXPOSITION of the methods of COM
nromise upon which the Church of England was
established after the Reformation. AT this point
divergence began among the leaders of the move
mani Some with Pussy, desired to reform the
Church from within and bring it into harmony 50
far as might be- with Roman doctrine and pracuce'
The other school, Of which Ward represented the
ultramontane element gradually came TO lnsist
that the only remedy lay in the bodily return OIL
the English Church to Rome, as pentent. IN
absolute submission.
The glarng impractlcabty Of such a pro-
cramme in country so saturated WIN ,he
Protestant spirit so informed with lnsuhcuNe
hostility TO all foreign spiritual rule, never oc-
curred to Ward though it certainly dld occur 10
Newman who held back while his younger col
league was forcing the hands of the Irac'arlanS'
ond even seeking TO engage them far beyond the
most daring flights Of their Imagination warn
sav that Newman was being charged with dis
Nervousness in relation to Tract ~. lie oe-
Beved that the mistake of his more cautious
friends Law in efforts to soften the significance Oh
their pretensons. He therefore, with charac~r-
istic inpetuositv, rushed into the held WIN HIS
Ideal of a Christian Church." and franKy IT.
clared therein that he held himsef-as an AheHc'n
prest-warrsnted in holding every Roman ooc'finc'
He had previously raised unappcasabie
storm by asserting that be had subscribed 10 Ihe
Thirty whine Articles in non-natural sense vi
course this declaration brought upon him the
charge of Jesuitsm, and seriously injured DIS
c.pse all mental evasion and shutting beng
necularlv abhorrent 10 the kind of men upon
whose INDICTMENT the destiny Of the movement de-
nended In vain Ward labored to show that 1t
was impossible TO subscribe the Articles in nat
ural sense. for that they were mutually destruct
i've and inconsistent not only with one announcer
but with the Prayer Book The non-naturaI
sense none the less shocked the puDhc mlnd'
and was regarded as evidence OF deliberate duplc-
ity and disloyalty.
The publication of the Ideal OF Christian
Church" brought matters 10 crisis so far as
Ward himself was concerned. The college headS
were urged to act, and they did so. de was al
lowed an opportunity TO defend himself, ana dlu
so in one Of the most gallant trucuient utterly
impohtic Of speeches The Times OF the day
said OF it: Mr.. Wards speech occupied some
what more than an hour he spoke Win re-
naysable rapidity, but at the same time with
creat ca)mness and self-possession-with the air