The sun., 1890-12-06
Tho Coming Religious Campaign.

The Coming Religious Campaign.
An advertisement in the newspapers OF
last Sunday gives notice Of the opening OF q
religious campaign in this town which Is
sure to be exciting, and may stir up q
spiritual awakening Of extraordinary depth
and magnitude:
NCATHER 1GNAT1Us O. g. B., Evangelist Monk Of
the British Church. will preach. D. ". Sunday
next Dec L At Cooper Union Hail. At II and $50. and
Chieksring Hall at 73o All seats free. See handbills
at Chickering Hall"
Father IGNAT1Us Is the English Protestant
monk who disturbed the gayety of New
-ort last summer by series Of searching
appeals to sinners and frank exposures OF
Che wickedness Of pleasure-loving society.
He will come hither from Boston, where also
he has profoundly agitated the rather stag
cant current of the Puritan religious senti-
ment OF this day. Both the Bishop of Rhode
Island and the Bishop of Massachusetts re-
fused to countenance the evanRelistic efforts
of the Anglican monk, and, therefore, in those
New England towns he has conducted his
simple services in public halls. and even
has received and accepted Invitations
to make his exhortations from pulpits other
than Episcopalian. Mere matters Of form
are OF little concern to him as compared
with the vital essence of Gospel truth which
he believes himself commissioned to impart
to men. When he prayed no prayer book
was visible. writes a Boston Presbyterian,
describing one Of his meetings. he poured
out his soul before GOD with all the rapt
ardor Of camp-meeting saint" His great
desire Is to present JESUS to men as living
personality, yearning for their deliverance
from all evil, tender, compassionate, full Of
loving kindness. and alone capable Of their
rescue from sin and from the diseases OF the
social system.
The preaching OF WH1TEFIE1D himself
was not more evangelical, according to a
current definition Of the term; and Father
IGNAT1Us is more truly soldier Of tho
Cross, for he has abandoned all earthly
pleasures and distractions that he may give
his undivided thoughts and efforts to the
spiritual campaign. WH1TEFIELD was a
married man. He took to him widow for q
wife, and his stormy conjugal experiences
must have tended to perturb his soul and in
terfere with his entire conservation to his
holy mission. His life was not austere. But
Father 1aNATIUs Is a celibate, monk, with
no family cares to weigh him down. He Is
an ascetic, who disdalns all carnal pleasures,
chooses life of poverty and self-abnega-
tion. and goes forth into the spiritual battle
without scrip or purse coarsely robed, with
hempen rope for a grdle. sandals on his
naked feet, and his frame and features paled
and pinched by lasts and vigils.
Yet he Is a man who was born In an atmos-
phere Of luxury and refinement and amid
aristocratic surroundings Before he took
his monastic VOWS he was the Rev.
JOSEPH LEICESTER LYME. and with his 90
cial advantages he might easily have re-
mained a fat and prosperous clergyman of
tho English Establishment But twenty
seven years ago he gave them all up to en-
ter upon mouastic lie of separation
from the world. He chose St. BENEDICT
for his model, forsaklng all the ties OF the
flesh, casting aside property and friends,
and welcoming tho r!dcule and persecu-
ton which his attempt to Introduce
monasticism into the English Church
provoked Having gathered about him a
few Jealous spirits, he established the Order
OF St. Benedict, and opened in a cow shed
what has now grown to be the partially com.
pleted Llanthony Abbey In the mountains oi
Wales. Here the strictest monastic disci.
pAluo AS OU6cINcuS put tIle iLotlIuUlOU uds
bee. e. ::<om successful and the monks have
found their chief encouragement in evan.
gelizing missions. These have been marked
by Q contagious enthusiasm in England, and
now that Father IGNATIUs has begun tc
attract attention In this country because o
the novelty Of his methods 50 far as Episco,
palians and Protestants generally are con
cerned. he IL likely to arouse enthusiasm here
He will open his religious campaign in New
York, too, without the Episcopal disapproya
which shut him out o: the Boston churches
He comes by the express invitation of BishoI
POTTER, and with license 10 preach in the
Episcopal churches Of the diocese. His mis-
sion accordingly Is to be regular and under
the ecclesiastical benedictlon. But, as the
advertisement with which We began an
nounces, 1t will be conducted more especially
at the Chickering and the Cooper Uniol
halls, In pursuance OF the monks plaI
OF drawing to his meetings those whom
tho churches do not attract. Besides
Sunday services. he will hold frequen
weekday meetings. and throughout th
month will expend every effort to intiam
the people with the fire which burns In hi