GREAT ANNIVERSARIES
IN NOVEMBER.
By the Rev. A. R. Buckland, M.A., Morning Preacher at the Foundling Hospital.
The British calendar never lacks interest. There is not a day which does not recall for us some great name in our country's history, some victory of peace or in war. Let us put ourselves in mind of a few of these—not necessarily of the most familiar or the most striking, but of some which more especially speak of movements and workers in the religious and philanthropic life of the nation.
November is the month in which the Long Parliament met, and William of Orange landed in England; it is the month of Clive's defence of Arcot, of Hawke's battle in Quiberon Bay, and of the soldiers' fight at Inkerman; it is the month that saw the birth of William III., of Laurence Sterne and Jonathan Swift, of Sir Matthew Hale, of Richard Baxter, of William Cowper, William Hogarth, Henry Havelock, John Bright, and Frederick Temple; it is the month in which Adam Smith published his "Wealth of Nations," and Charles Darwin his "Origin of Species"; it is the month in which Cardinal Wolsey, John Milton, and Admiral Benbow died; it is the month which saw the State pageant many this year have called to mind, the funeral of the Duke of Wellington.
RICHARD BAXTER.
(After a Contemporary Engraving by Robert White.)
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
(After a Drawing by Count D'Orsay.)
Sir Matthew Hale (born November 1st, 1609) is but one of the many judges who have joined to eminence in the law the example of a devout mind and a life of religious zeal. He administered justice in the times both of the Commonwealth and of the Restoration. Stillingfleet and Baxter were amongst his friends, and his life of austerity witnessed to his consistent sympathy with Puritan ideals. Before him there came John Bunyan, for the then heinous crime of frequenting conventicles. He wrote with equal facility upon law, morals, and theology, and his MSS. are still amongst the treasures of Lincoln's Inn.
DEAN SWIFT.
Richard Baxter (born November 12th, 1615) had a career of singular variety. Sometimes thought of only as a pioneer of Nonconformity and the author of the "Saint's Everlasting Rest," he shared in the startling changes of his period. He had tried in early years a courtier's life; he received holy orders from the Bishop of Worcester; he was for a time a chaplain to the Parliamentary forces; he was on Cromwell's Committee to "settle the fundamentals of religion"; he was, a few years after, a chaplain-in-ordinary to King Charles II.; he might have been Bishop of Hereford; and he lived to be tried for sedition before Judge Jeffreys. He is known to many, who are not familiar with his other works, by the hymn "Lord, it belongs not to my care." Curiously enough, this hymn is said to have been repeated, during his last illness, by the late distinguished physicist, Professor James Clerk Maxwell, who also is a November worthy, born on the 13th of this month.
WILLIAM COWPER.
(From the Painting by G. Romney.)
Dean Swift (born November 30th, 1667) had little of the divine about him, though he obtained an Irish deanery and aspired to an English bishopric. Politician and satirist, some of his books are still eagerly read by those who have forgotten the circumstances which produced them, as well as the defects which stained his character. William Cowper (born November 15th, 1731) is a pleasanter memory. The Christian Church is not likely soon to forget the "Olney Hymns" and their authors, although Cowper's descriptive poetry and his letters are less familiar than they might be. And "John Gilpin"—can he ever be forgotten? With these authors we may reasonably join a moralist who taught by another art. William Hogarth (born November 10th, 1697) reproached the vices of a licentious age with a power of pictorial satire which has never been excelled. He was one of the group of distinguished artists who associated themselves with the early history of the Foundling Hospital.
THE LATE SIR H. HAVELOCK, K.C.B.
(After the Portrait by F. Goodall, A.R.A.)
Of Christian soldiers, who has appealed to us more strongly than Henry Havelock (died November 24th, 1857)? "So long," it has been truly said, "as the memory of great deeds, and high courage, and spotless self-devotion is cherished among his countrymen, so long will Havelock's lonely grave beneath the scorching Eastern sky, hard by the vast city, the scene alike of his toil, his triumph, and his death, be regarded as one of the most holy of the countless spots where Britain's patriot soldiers lie." As with many another man, his religious character owed much to the influence of his wife, a daughter of that Marshman whose name will always be remembered in the history of Indian missions. To Outram the dying man could say, "I have for forty years so ruled my life that when death came I might face it without fear." "Principles alone," wrote Havelock, "are worth living for or striving for." The words might stand as a motto for the life of John Bright (born November 16th, 1811), Christian statesman and orator, one of the many members of the Society of Friends who have left their names writ large in their country's history. The men who remember the struggle for Free Trade are passing away, but the part played by John Bright is not likely soon to be forgotten.
November has not been a month fruitful in the foundation of philanthropic and religious organisations. But to those who have watched the progress of the temperance movement in England, who remember the difficulties of its pioneers, and the obloquy which often fell upon them, November has a claim as the birth-month of one of the earliest and hardest of the temperance workers—Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury. Born in the Ionian Isles on November 30th, 1821, he has, all through his manhood been a vigorous exponent of the total abstinence cause. From the first he recognised no bounds of denomination in its support, and although he has been a great power to the Church of England Temperance Society, he has always lent his voice and influence to other agencies working in the same great cause. He has an invaluable helper in his wife, in both temperance and diocesan work.
ARCHBISHOP TEMPLE.
(Photo: Russell and Sons, Baker Street, W.)
