The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1903-11-06


I tury ago had many notes that are-and.
| as some of US cannot. but think. happily
! wanting I'm ours. The great law OF re-
| action had been at work In the mind and
life OF the bishops ancestry, and aris-
! ing as ID did out OF an age OF great
| laxity and self-indulsence. tine religious
cult OF that ancestry took on an austere
and prohibtive aspect.
The office OF religion seems 10 have
| consisted largely In saying: Thou shalt
mott and the influence OF what we may
! call the Hebrsic type OF Christian dis
ciplcship considering for what the He
! braic type OF religion was originally call
cd into being). was singularly and pathc-
! tically severe. Can you not see the boy
| who grew up I'm IL and who afterward,
| thank God, was TO grow out OF IL. strug-
| Cling with contradictions which taught
| him. OH the one hand. that God wes his
Father. and. on the ether. that HE wor-
ship and service on the Lords Day was
10 be attended by austerities and i'm
positions which made OF its recurrence
! a terror. and of it's observances an un-
endurable burden7
You might walk in the garden on the
! Sabbath Day. but you could not pluck
and apple; and when youngS Thomas
March Clark having graduated with
credit at what was then Yale college.
went South To famous theological semi
nary which stood for the traditions OF
his forefathers. he did not find those
traditions in any smallest degree modi-
fed nor ameliorated; nor the theology
for which they stood one whit less stern
and damnatory.
lie was then. himself looking forward
to the ministry: and his "reminiscences
tell u.s. as he was often fond OF telling
10 his contemporaries and 10 Younger
listeners who sat at his feet with af-
fectionate reverence. how one day he
n -. a. a. tI.C
town I'm which he was theological stu
dent and heard there the prayers OF the
Book OF Common Prayer. Here" said
the bishop was communion which re-
lieved me OF tho burden OF public ex-
temporaneous prayer-for which had
no gift -
LITURGY rs UNIVERSAL.
But the bishop was mistaken. No one
who ever heard him preach could doubt
that, II he chose. he could lift the match
less voice In petitions which were as ex-
pressive OF the wants of a whole people
as they were appropriate 10 a public &C.
casion. What did come TO pass when
young Clark heard for the first time the
| ncompa rable liturgy Of the church was
! this. that he realized not only its beauty
and dignity and simplicity. but, most of
all. its conprehensivness. that note in II
which his whole intellectual endowment
4
The liturgy is the growth OF ages, the
devotional expression Of minds 81 various
individual characteristics. various nur-
ture. various experiences and various en-
vironment And therein IL has that note
of largeness and comprehensiveness
which Is the note Of that divine religion
which is, In Its very nature and essence
! neither Oriental nor Occidental. but uni
versaL
At any rate those services IN the lit
| tie church Of which the father OF the
! present bishop OF South Dakota (the Rt
| Rev Dr william Hobart Hare) was at
| that time rector would seem 10 have been
| young Clarks point of departure; and,
thought he took no Immediately decisive
step. the leaven continued 10 work. and
few years later We find him rector Of
Grace church I'm the city of Boston.
| No more valuable picture OF those times,
the closing years OF the decade between
! 1890 and 1910 and the opening years Of
the decade that followed. has ever been
written than is TO be found in Bishop
| clarks "reminiscences" II Is marked by
| large reserve, as was Inevitable in the
record Of one who was himself so con-
spicuous a hgure In the history which he
| tells. And II Is 10 be read In the light of
| this further conslderation--that II is the
picture Of period OF transition. a period
81 whose drift and tendencies they who
were a part of Il could only imperfectly
| judge.
DATED BACK To CHILDHOOD.
We must go back 10 the days OF the
| English Reformation n we would under
| stand the complex and contradictory in
| huences which produced in the Episcopal
| church those two great schools into
which at the beginning OF the last CEN
\ tury ~ was divided. Young Clark found
! himself. by an inevitable attraction
drown to one Of them. and was supposed
to have been Identified with IL long after
/ he had parted company with some Of
| its most cherished traditions But is was
inevitable, with his emperament and
mental characteristics. that he should 1nd
himself unable 90 rest IN the inheritance
| of n past which was itself n period of
transition and which failed 10 recognize
that hnality IL as little true note Of
mems opinions as infallibility.
And so Il came 10 pass that this rare
mind. resting upon the Rock Of the Eter-
nal Ages, believed nevertheless. with
John Elliott that God hath yet more
light 10 break out OF His holy Word" and
watched reverently for its appearing
NV own knowledge OF DR.. Clark as
he then was began when I was a lad OF
some IL years Of age I'm Philadelphia.
had come there a year or two before
when my father was consecrated bishop
Ol ftIuSSlNdIuds dnu we 0tO gone. my
brothers. my stepmother and I, to wor-
ship. after the orderly fashion OF those
days. In the church nearest TO the epis-
copal residence. But Its rector now long
dead. though a good man. was not-I sup
pose at this distance l may venture 10
say it-an interesting preacher. and my
stepmother took me with her I'm occasional
excursions on Sunday afternoons 10 81.
Andrews church. OF which DR. Clark
was then rector. There was begotten
thus habit. which survived long after
DIR. Clark left Philadelphia and went 90
Boston TO be assistant minister Of Trinity
church. on the Greene foundation. where
nearly n quarter OF a century later I fol-
lowed him--to Hartford and TO Rhode ISL
and a. your bishop. From these various
cures he returned from time to time 10
preach In Philadelphia. and do not think
that he ever did 30 that ! did not. 80
lopg AZ lived In Philsdelphls hear him.
OF coLLooUfAL PREACHING.
There were many reasons for thi.. for