as I was when I
listened, I was constantly impressed by the singular skill with which
his clear-cut phrases and lively illustrations put even familiar topics
into an apparently new and effective light.

The comparison made by my brother between my father's talk and his
writings may be just, though I do not altogether agree with it. The
'Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography,' by which he is best known, were
written during the official career which I have described.

The composition was to him a relaxation, and they were written early in
the morning or late at night, or in the intervals of his brief holidays.
I will not express any critical judgment of their qualities; but this I
will say: putting aside Macaulay's 'Essays,' which possess merits of an
entirely different order, I do not think that any of the collected
essays republished from the 'Edinburgh Review' indicate a natural gift
for style equal to my father's. Judging from these, which are merely the
overflowing of a mind employed upon other most absorbing duties, I think
that my father, had he devoted his talents to literature, would have
gained a far higher place than has been reached by any of his
family.[46]

My father gave in his Essays a sufficient indication of his religious
creed. That creed, while it corresponded to his very deepest emotions,
took a peculiar and characteristic form. His essay upon the 'Clapham
Sect'[47] shows how deeply he had imbibed its teaching, while it yet
shows a noticeable divergence. All his youthful sympathies and aims had
identified him with the early evangelicals. As a lad he had known
Granville Sharp, the patriarch of the anti-slavery movement; and till
middle life he was as intimate as the difference of ages permitted with
Wilberforce and with Thomas Gisborne, the most refined if not most
effective preacher of the party. He revered many of the party from the
bottom of his heart. His loving remembrance of his intercourse with them
is shown in every line of his description, and to the end of his life he
retained his loyalty to the men, and, as he at least thought, to their
creed. The later generation, which called itself evangelical,
repudiated his claim. He was attacked in their chief organ. When some
remonstrance was made by his brother-in-law, Henry Venn, he wrote to the
paper (I quote from memory), 'I can only regret that any friend of mine
should have stooped to vindicate me from any censure of yours'; and
declined furthe