A CITY-RAINBOW. And, as I walked amidst the rain, That drizzled through the o'erhanging smoke, Thus in desponding mood I spoke : 'O, boyish hopes, so high and bright, That wont about my path to shine! The very gold on which I live Comes from another's poverty; And I must face the world alone, That makes no lovely flower unfold, That lies unheeded where it fall, Or of its story this is all "It made another's comfort less." But now the rain had ceased, and lo! Symbol of hope and faith and cheer. With rising hope, as I surveyed This omen on the rain-cloud cast, A simple thought, and yet it served 61 Before passing to his University life, his elder brother's recollections of Alfred's earlier life should be given : 'I saw less of Alfred than any other member of our family did. While he was at home I was at school or following my profession. My holidays seldom synchronised with his. Unfortunately, I have not preserved his letters to me; I regret the loss much, as many of them contained notes on the books he was reading, remarks on questions of current interest, and, once or twice, sketches of, or rather hints upon, essays and articles he was writing. My recollections, of course, go farther back than Arthur's. I remember Alfred at Southampton as a very venturesome child. I have a distinct recollection of his escaping through the back garden and making his way to the beach, where he was found quite undismayed by his loneliness. I remember, too, what I fancy was one of his earliest retorts. His father objected to his going down to a rather risky place 'two days running." He answered immediately, "But I'll go this day walking." never 'Both before and after his going to Crosby I was particularly impressed with his dogged perseverance. He was satisfied till he had got to the bottom of a thing. If a difficulty lay in his way—whether or not its solution was wanted by his teachers—he attacked it resolutely. I never knew any one at his age--and I have a fairly wide experience of school-boys -who realized so thoroughly the meaning and uses of education. He seemed always conscious that he was fitting himself for future work. One wet holiday, soon after he first went to the Manchester Grammar School, I caught him endeavouring to translate aloud, and without dictionary or grammar, a part of the Anabasis he had never read before. He had recently read Macaulay's account of the method in which the younger Pitt was trained by his father for a public speaker. Alfred began at once to train himself on the same plan. I believe he continued the practice long after he became a preacher.' OXFORD UNIVERSITY. 63 CHAPTER V. THE RELATION OF METHODISM TO ITS MOTHER THE HE intense practical interest which Alfred took in the relation of Methodism to the University of Oxford formed so strong an element in his life that a glance at the question in his Memoir seems relevant and indispensable. The subject is not unimportant. Much misconception prevails as to the religious characteristics and condition of our oldest University. It is usually regarded as the habitat of High Churchism, the traditional stronghold of an exacting and encroaching ecclesiasticism. This notion has resulted from the temporary despotism of Archbishop Laud over his own Alma Mater, the intermittent dominance of the Laudian theory, and the vigorous resuscitation and seductive presentation of that theory by leading minds in Oxford some fifty years ago. The fact is that the contending theological schools, and the most diverse ecclesiastical hypotheses, have had in Oxford their distinguished representatives and their alternate triumphs and defeats. A faithful religious history of Oxford would be no insignificant contribution to the Church history of England. At the close of the fourteenth century Oxford was the fortress of Lollardism, Wycliffe himself being an Oxford man. Oxford has been the arena of the fierce and fluctuating conflicts between Protestant and Papist, Puritan and Anglican, Calvinist and Arminian, High Church and Latitudinarian. When John Foxe, the martyrologist, was at Brasenose, the English Reformation, in its wind-rocked cradle, was grappling sturdily with its stifling enemy. During the reigns of Edward and Elizabeth, Oxford was decidedly Genevan both in doctrine and Church principles. When Robert Burton, author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, was at Brasenose, and for some years before and after, Calvinism was in the ascendant, through the influence of successive Vice-Chancellors and Regius Professors of Divinity. When John Howe and the fiery Erbury were at Brasenose, under the principalship of Dr. Daniel Greenwood, a distinguished Puritan scholar and divine, Presbyterianism and Independency were in all but absolute possession of the University. Oxford was the Thermopyla of civil and religious liberty against the invasion of Popish despotism under James II. The influence of Oxford Puritanism on Wesleyan-Methodist teaching, chiefly through the works of Howe, has been powerful and most salutary. On Whitefield, the Calvinistic Methodists, and the Evangelicals, it was very strong, mainly through the writings of Owen and Goodwin. That it was the days when Oxford was the champion of Protestantism that Wesley regarded as its palmy days is plain, from his most remarkable sermon on "How is the faithful city become a harlot!" (Sermon cxxxiv.). He exclaims: 'How faithful she was once to her Lord, to whom she had been betrothed as a chaste virgin, let not only the writings of her sons, which shall be had in honour throughout all generations, but also the blood of her martyrs speak.' And he alleges in proof of her subsequent unfaithfulness 'two or three men of renown who have endeavoured to sap the very foundation of our Church, by attacking its fundamental' doctrine, 'and, indeed, the fundamental doctrine of all Reformed Churches, viz., justification by faith alone.' He instances the great Broad Church preacher, Archbishop Tillotson, and the great Anglican divine, Bishop Bull. Coming nearer to our own day, we find that, so far is Oxford from having been the peculium of High Churchism, the our most notable and powerful religious movements in modern JOHN WESLEY'S FEELING TOWARD OXFORD. 65 times have originated in that University-Methodism, Plymouth Brethrenism,* Tractarianism, and the main stream of rationalising tendency in English theology, which is indicated by the names of five eminent Oxonians: Dean Milman, Frederick W. Robertson, Dean Stanley, Professor Jowett, and Matthew Arnold. It should be remembered that, if Oxford produced John Henry Newman and Hurrell Froude, it also produced Francis W. Newman and James Anthony Froude. In the studious stillness of this city of colleges have sprung up the most stirring and pervasive currents of religious life, as the cyclone of the Atlantic is said to be generated in the silent prairies of the West. The affection which John Wesley cherished for his Alma Mater is touchingly indicated in the sermon from which I have just now quoted, in which he speaks of Oxford thus: 'My tender parent, by whom I have been nourished for now more than twenty years, and from whom, under God, I have received those advantages of which I trust I shall retain a grateful sense till my spirit returns to God.' But for a hundred years the University seemed closed against Methodism, as the pulpit of its church had been closed against John Wesley. Up to the date of Alfred's matriculation, very few Methodists who had graduated at Oxford brought their Methodism away with them, and scarcely any had retained their Methodism in after-life. Hence a strong feeling naturally prevailed in the Wesleyan Conference and the Connexion generally that an Oxford career was very perilous to a young man's Methodism. This feeling found severe expression from the lips of a highly and justly influential ex-President, a warm advocate of intellectual culture, at the next Conference after *Mr. Benjamin W. Newton, the leading mind of the original fraternity at Plymouth, was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford; and, it is stated, first broached the idea and attempted its realization in Oxford. It must be remembered that the now Cardinal Newman was for a time a Plymouth Brother. F. Not. JH Newman) |