rs always expatiated on Justification by Faith only. I
cannot recall any other subject; and, even in enforcing this,
"Pulpit-eloquence," topical allusions, and illustrations whether from
nature or from books, were rigidly eschewed. "As dull as a sermon" is a
proverbial saying which for me in early boyhood had an awful truth.

It has been stated in an earlier chapter that I discovered the
Sacramental System of the Church by the simple method of studying the
Prayer Book. Certainly I got no help in that direction from my spiritual
pastors. The incumbent was, I should think, the Lowest Churchman who
ever lived. He was a Cambridge man; a thorough gentleman; well-read;
wholly devoted to his sacred calling; and fearless in his assertion of
what he believed to be right. (He once refused to let Jowett preach in
our pulpit, though the noble patron made the request.) He was entirely
insensible to poetry, beauty, romance, and enthusiasm; but his mind was
essentially logical, and he followed his creed to its extremest
consequences. Baptismal grace, of course, he absolutely denied. He
prepared me for Confirmation, and he began his preparation by assailing
my faith in the Presence and the Succession. He defined Confirmation as
"a coming of age in the things of the soul." I perfectly remember a
sermon preached on "Sacrament Sunday," which ended with some such words
as these, "I go to yonder table to-day; not expecting to meet the Lord,
because I know He will not be there." I have seldom heard the doctrine
of the Real Absence stated with equal frankness.

All my religious associations were with the Evangelical school, of which
my parents were devoted adherents. My uncle, the Rev. Lord Wriothesley
Russell (1804-1886), had been a disciple of Charles Simeon at Cambridge,
but had completely discarded such fragments of Churchmanship as lingered
in his master's teaching. My mother (1810-1884) had been in early life
closely allied with "the Clapham Sect"; and our friendship with the last
survivor of that sect, Miss Marianne Thornton (1797-1887), linked us to
the Wilberforces, the Venns, and the Macaulays. My acquaintance with
Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885) I have always esteemed one of the chief
honours of my life. He combined in a singular degree the gifts which
make a Leader. He had an imperious will, a perfervid temper, unbounded
enthusiasm, inexhaustible energy. Any movement with which he was
connected he controlled. He brooked neither oppos