of then as "sound"
and "faithful," and "preaching Christ," can remember how the Epistles
were ransacked for texts to prove the "sufficiency of Scripture" or the
"right of private judgment," or the distinction between justification
and sanctification, while the Gospel narrative was imperfectly studied
and was felt to be much less interesting. The movement made a great
change. The great Name stood no longer for an abstract symbol of
doctrine, but for a living Master, who could teach as well as save. And
not forgetting whither He had gone and what He was, the readers of
Scripture now sought Him eagerly in those sacred records, where we can
almost see and hear His going in and out among men. It was a change in
the look and use of Scripture, which some can still look back to as an
epoch in their religious history. The other feature was the increased
and practical sense of the necessity of self-discipline, of taking real
trouble with one's self to keep thoughts and wishes in order, to lay the
foundation of habits, to acquire the power of self-control. Deeply fixed
in the mind of the teachers, this serious governance of life, this
direction and purification of its aims, laid strong hold on the
consciences of those who accepted their teaching. This training was not
showy; it was sometimes austere, even extravagantly austere; but it was
true, and enduring, and it issued often in a steady and unconscious
elevation of the religious character. How this character was fed and
nurtured and encouraged--how, too, it was frankly warned of its dangers,
may be seen in those _Parochial Sermons_ at St. Mary's, under whose
inspiration it was developed, and which will always be the best
commentary on the character thus formed. Even among those who ultimately
parted from the movement, with judgment more or less unfavourable to its
theology and general line, it left, as if uneffaceable, this moral
stamp; this value for sincerity and simplicity of feeling and life, this
keen sense of the awfulness of things unseen. There was something _sui
generis_ in the profoundly serious, profoundly reverent tone, about
everything that touched religion in all who had ever come strongly under
its influence.

Of course the party soon had the faults of a party, real and
imputed.[66] Is it conceivable that there should ever have been a
religious movement, which has not provoked smiles from those outside of
it, and which has not lent itself to caricature? There wer