ADDRESS. The Right Rev. BISHOP ABRAHAM, Canon and Precentor of Lichfield, late Bishop of Wellington. I Do not understand that, when I have to speak on the Church's influence upon Public schools, I have merely to show how piety and religious emotions may be brought to bear upon the youth in our schools. Doubtless that is one essential province of the Church's work; but genuine piety and religious emotions may be brought to bear upon the lads of Nonconformist schools. I have rather to how how our own great branch of the Holy Catholic Church of Christ-how the grand historical Church of England has influenced, is influencing, and may hereafter influence the great Public schools of the country. I. Now the specific duties of the Church are in their degree the specific works of Christ Himself; and as Christ was and is Prophet, Priest, and King, so the Church has to perform the teaching, or prophetical office, the ruling, or kingly office, and the priestly office. I will apply these tests to our Public schools, as regards the past (not going further back than my own lifetime), the present, and the probable future. 2. As regards the teaching, or prophetical work, that the Church did in the early part of this century for public schools, it was almost nil. Take this instance :—Archbishop Sumner was an assistant master at Eton about the year 1815. Mr. Justice Patteson was one of his pupils. He told me that that godly man, Archbishop Sumner, never breathed one word to him about religion, or any religious duty, from first to last; and yet all the time Patteson knew that Mr. Sumner was spending his leisure hours in visiting among the lowest class in Windsor-that he was solacing his godly soul with Evangelistic efforts in the most degraded purlieus. Forty years after that, when Canon Furse, as Mr. Carter's curate, went amongst those haunts of vice, he found a man still living in sin, and hating the life he was living, who told him that no man had ever cared for his soul but that one good master of Eton, whom the tone and customs of the school did not allow to breathe a word of religion to his pupils. For some twenty years more, the moral fibre of the school was unstrung and relaxed. 3. And this deathlike torpor held all Public schools alike spellbound, till, to his own honour, and to the benefit of all other schools, that great and good man, Dr. Arnold, broke through all trammels, and asserting himself to be a pastor of the church, as well as a schoolmaster, preached sermons from his own heart to the hearts of the Rugby boys for fourteen precious years. From and about that time, the Church, as represented by Dr. Moberly and Dr. C. Wordsworth at Winchester, by Dr. Christopher Wordsworth and Dr. Vaughan at Harrow, by James Chapman and Edward Coleridge at Eton, dealt with boys as Christian gentlemen, having souls as well as hearts and minds. 4. And if you ask me in what definite modes the Church informed the minds and hearts of our Public school boys, I would say distinctly, By presenting to them what the Prayer Book presents to them—the privileges and responsibilities of Holy Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist. The Church addressed them as members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven. In the same spirit they were prepared for confirmation, and "certified by the sign" of laying on of hands that God conferred still greater gifts of his Holy Spirit on them; and the Church led them on to the reception of the very Body and Blood of Christ, in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Such was the teaching or prophetical work of the Church for thirty or forty years, and the moral fibre was strung again, and "all taut." The 5. I pass on to the present relations of the Church as regards that office. head masters are still for the most part clergymen of the Church of England; but among the assistant masters laymen predominate, and, as far as I can learn, give the prevailing tone to the religious teaching in the schools; and that may be described as intellectual rather than spiritual. I am by no means a "laudator temporis acti." As a boy I lived under the old regime, and in the transition period. As a master, I lived under the influence of the great Catholic Revival, which began at Oxford; and I can remember one of the leaders of that movement, who used to come to Eton very often, saying that he came there to observe the meeting of the Church and the world. And since those days I have had a son at Eton; and I am bound to say that the moral and gentlemanlike tone is as high as ever, the intellectual standard of the whole school higher, but the teaching, or prophetical office of the Church, has contented itself with what Cardinal Newman long ago called "our common Christianity"—that is, the residuum of belief on which all Christians were agreed. This was to be expected, from the predominance of the lay 00s; and instead of the "whole counsel of God," the Public schools teach so much of the Bible as no one can object to. 6. I have not said a word as yet about the kingly or the priestly office of the Church. The ruling work and discipline of the Church has always been exerted more or less in our schools. Even the poet Cowper, who reviled, in his "Tirocinium," the schools of his day, acknowledges the power and dignity of their early discipline. "In Colleges and Halls, in ancient days, 7. I pass on to the priestly office of the Church in Public schools. My Lord, no doubt you will be saying to me, I feel it acutely. Nevertheless it would be cowardly to shirk the subject. None of us can read the earnest appeals of parents, especially mothers, in the newspapers; none of us can hear of the White Cross Army, and its pure aspirations, without knowing that there is the greatest need of the priestly office of the Church being exercised in our schools, but with the greatest caution and delicacy. May I say one word about my own experience as an Eton master? I never sought to exercise that office; I even shrunk from it. But my Ordination vows were upon me; the Exhortation of the Holy Communion required the priest of God's Church to exercise his office when asked for. Wounded and contrite hearts would not be denied; and I can only say that, when I look back upon the results, "Wisdom is justified of all her children ;" and I emphatically add that if you eliminate the clergy from the Public schools, you will rob your children of their best heritage. 8. I will now bid you look at the priestly office of the Church in another of its aspects, namely, that which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls (v. 2) μεтριoτа0ɛīv. The priest is one "who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity." May I tell you, my Lord, and this Congress, a story affecting two noble spirits that have lately, and almost at the same time, passed to their rest. One was William Spottiswoode, of Christian and scientific renown; the other was Edward Coleridge, the Eton master. Many of you may have read that William Spottiswoode was at Eton as well as Harrow. I am ashamed to have to say that Eton most unjustly sent away the boy of fourteen years of age for a most petty reason. The head master, Dr. Hawtrey, is a man whose name I can never mention without affection and reverence. On that unfortunate occasion he forgot his administrative skill. He rashly threatened to expel any boy that let off fireworks at the Windsor Fair, on the 5th of November. The thoughtless boy, William Spottiswoode, committed the petty offence, and was dismissed. Never shall I forget Edward Coleridge's earnest appeal on his behalf. The priest of the Church superseded the schoolmaster. The head master pleaded his word and his oath. Edward Coleridge pleaded their common Master's absolving power for master and boy, but in vain. And so Eton lost one of the greatest mathematicians of the century, because the Church had forgotten μεтpioжa0tív. 9. And now, in conclusion, what are the future prospects of the Church in her relation to the Public schools of the land? Probably in the immediate future the governing bodies and the school staff will be more and more laicised, and the religious teaching will be less and less Catholic. Still, there is a point of view from which even at once I look forward to great strides in advance being made. I look upon the almost universal rule that prevails in every great Public school, that the boys shall maintain a mission in some neglected town parish, as one of the most truly Church movements of the day. I look forward with great confidence to the future of Retreats for masters, and White Cross Guilds and Temperance Guilds for boys. Those are essentially Church movements; and if we can bu: uphold the Catholic Faith with Evangelical practice, there will be a great future for the Church of England, whatever happens to her. 10. But how are we to uphold the Catholic Faith in spite of the tendency to oust the clergy from the prophetical office of the Church? If laymen do succeed, as Kegan Paul in the Nineteenth Century wants them to succeed, in ousting the clergy, the injury to society will be greater than what was done in past times, when the clergy virtually eliminated the laity. How is this to be prevented? I only see one way, and that was the course that J. Stuart Mill pursued when he and his colleagues first determined to try and get their principles recognised in the Universities and in Parliament. I learnt many years ago how he and some of his friends, such as Charles Buller and Sir William Molesworth, agreed to master the chief instruments of learning and systems of philosophy that obtained in the English Universities; and then, after mastering them, and their Professors, to substitute the newer and more Liberal, not to say Radical, systems in their place. To this we owe Mill's Logic and Political Economy, which have so marvellously influenced English thought in the last half century. Well, then, I say the Church, if she is to hold her own in our Public schools, must "insense" and train up earnest young men to be both first-rate scholars and mathematicians, or physicists, and also for the Truth's sake to become clergymen. By merit they will claim their place as teachers, and by the weight of their personal characters they will draw masters and boys to the Cross of Christ, and to the eternal truths Christ's Church is commissioned to proclaim. May I, in conclusion, paraphrase and adapt some well-known mottoes, and say Christus docet, Christus regnat, DISCUSSION. The BISHOP OF BEDFORD. My object in asking for a few minutes to-day is simply to bear my testimony to the value of that system which has been already alluded to, namely, the system by which the Public schools have taken in hand mission work in our great overcrowded parishes in London and its neighbourhood. I, of course, naturally look upon that work from the side of those who are benefitted by it in the mission districts themselves. The first acquaintance I had with the work when I went up to London, four years ago, was at the laying of the first stone of the Winchester College mission church, and I had the great gratification of consecrating that church the next year. Since then the parish has been entirely completed, an endowment has been assigned to it from one of the city parishes, and Winchester has (very properly, I think) migrated in its mission work to its own diocese. But we have other work of the same sort going on, and I may especially mention the Eton mission. There are parishes in my East London sub-diocese which fill me with happiness, and there are other parishes which fill me with the very opposite feeling. But I must say this, that of all those which fill me with happiness there are very few which do so more than the Eton College mission district, at the head of which is a worthy nephew of him whom we have so heartily welcomed amongst us here, I mean Canon Carter. Just to give you a small inkling as to the sort of man we have there, and the sort of work he is doing, I may mention that a little while ago he asked me to come and meet the working men of his district whom he had invited to meet their bishop, and to talk over the reasons why working men do not go to church. Of course I gladly went. First of all Mr. Carter asked them to tell us why they did not go to church, or any place of worship, and said we wanted to know what their wishes were, what difficulties they had, and what we could do to improve things, as we felt that they had a right to speak their minds like anyone else. The first two who spoke were very disagreeable fellows; they did not talk about the matter before us, but spoke against religion generally, and we began to think that we had got into a hornet's nest. But after these two had had their say, man after man got up and condemned them, speaking kindly of the Church and religion, and giving us their opinions openly and honestly. With the exception of the two I have mentioned, the tone was thoroughly good, and the discussion was not quite without its fruit; for Mr. Carter tells me the most offensive of the two men has since taken the pledge, and is now a steady man, and, although he does not attend church, he does go to some place of worship, whereas he did not before. Marlborough School has also started a mission, and there again I am thankful to say we have a capital man working, Mr. Noel Smith, who is winning the hearts of the people, and is the right man in the right place. Besides these there are other schools following in the same line. King's College School is helping liberally to support a mission district, although the boys are of a different class, and cannot do so much as those of the other schools named. I visited Harrow, and there spoke to the boys about taking up a mission district, which they have done, though not in my part of London. School after school is catching the infection, and following in their wake. There cannot be a doubt that this work is a great blessing to the poor districts. And now one word about the blessings to the boys themselves. I have had the privilege of speaking about the work at Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Marlborough, and King's College, and if there is anything which cheers one's heart and makes one full of happy thankfulness, it is to see the boys of our different schools throwing themselves heartily into this work, and taking such an interest in benefitting their poorer fellow-countrymen. I do not think they could be more hearty or enthusiastic in any matter-not even in the Oxford and Cambridge race, or the Eton and Harrow match. This is a great blessing to the boys. Surely it is teaching them in the best possible way lessons of unselfishness and sympathy with those for whom naturally they might not have great sympathy and teaching them, moreover, how to bridge over that gulf between class and class which is such a peril to our social condition. The boys, when they came up to London, naturally visit their mission district, and they there learn something about what the poor are like. They learn that they are of the same flesh and blood and share in a common humanity with themselves, and I cannot help thinking that their after-life will be the more generous and sympathetic for their intercourse with the poor when young. I am quite sure of this, that a lad at Eton, Winchester, Harrow, or Marlborough, whatever his profession in after-life, will, if once brought into contact with this mission work, be more ready to throw himself into that blessed work of helping to brighten the lot of the poor and suffering-a work in which we do thank God we have so many of our earnest and high-minded laity working so self-denyingly. There is one more point I would mention. I hope many of the boys of our great schools—the best and the strongest and the most intellectual of them-will look forward to working some day more distinctly in this great work, and to giving their lives to labour for God among His poor. I believe, and surely my little acquaintance with East London can hardly deceive me, that there is no career more worthy to fire the ambition of one who is gifted either with high position or with this world's wealth, or with great talent, than the ambition of serving God in one of our great and poor and over-crowded parishes. If you could only see for a moment what a wonderful response there is, when a young man, in the true spirit of English honesty, and English manliness, and English sympathy, goes into one of these poor parishes and stands side by side with the working men, showing them that he has not come there to patronise but to help them as a brother, you would not doubt about the blessedness of the work. The reception such a man will get will fill his heart with joy. It was only the other day that a clergyman, who had come from a luxurious country parish to one of my poor parishes in the East End, wrote to me to tell me of the blessings which came to him every day and filled him with thankfulness, and made his life one psalm of praise. The Ven. EDWARD BALSTON, Archdeacon of Derby. OUR Public schools are Church schools, in their foundation, training, end or purpose. Were we to examine their ancient statutes, we should find them agree in this, that they were intended for the promotion of God's glory by the education of the young. Their system of training is based upon individual liberty, and mutual confidence between master and boy. Unlike other schools-as in a French Lycée the boys are trusted out of sight. This principle pervades every part; is a truly Church principle. The end to be attained is the foundation-work of intellectual development-the discovering to each one the existence of more or less mental power, tested and sharpened by conversation, i.e., being with others, wherein lies the special advantage of rightly-directed, well-controlled emulation, not to be found except in the midst of numbers, with this one overruling principle thoroughly understood, that the lowest as well as the highest receives his due meed of encouragement and praise, according as he is believed to have done his best. A further end is, the foundation-work of moral development, out of which may grow the fruit of a truly Christian life. The average time during which a boy is passing through a Public school is five years-from 13 or 14 to 18 years of age. The work of a Public school, therefore, is a limited work. It embraces the time during which the child is passing into the man; when the will is strong, bodily activity almost without limit, unwearied; the germ of thought gradually unfolding, and action beginning to be based upon knowledge of rules or principles. Whereas before the child did what it did by impulse, or obedience to others, or in unreasoning innocence, during this period of which we are speaking, he learns to know what is right, what wrong, as applied to this or that action which it comes in his path to perform. Think how this is shown in matters of school duty which he would gladly escape; in the choice of companions, upon which so much depends; in the yielding or not to questionable allurement, or fascinations from within or from without. It is in this first opening of moral lifethe first efforts of reasoning power-that the character of the future man is being determined. His surroundings, then, should be of the highest, truest, noblest character. The atmosphere in which he lives should be such as to encourage growth, and give vigour and energy to all branches of his being; but he must be like the forest tree rather than the greenhouse plant-he must learn to endure the trial of evil, as the tree endures the wind and storm, which strengthens and makes firm its roots. The great difference between the Public and the private school lies in the presence of evil. In the private school pains are taken to keep boys out of the reach of evil; in the Public school it is the very essence of his life that he must encounter it; it is that by which he is tried and strengthened. Herein is Church work apparent; and the Public school stands out as the Church's offspring, to do the Church's work. This work may be summed up under two heads-training and teaching; training, ie, watching the moral conduct; teaching, i.e., imparting knowledge for the development |