“Tunbridge Wells, May 29th, 1893.
“To Miss Gray.
“My dear Madam,—I have received your letter with very great interest and thankfulness. How little do we know either the where or the how or the when it may please God to make use of any effort in His service, and how little I thought that my two small books had found their way to the hearts of any of God’s people in America! I am the clergyman of a large parish, and they were printed chiefly for the use of my own parishioners, and God has made use of them in His own way and far beyond my expectations. I am thankful to say that the coming of our blessed Lord is more and more the joy of my heart, as I am persuaded it is the central part of our Christian hope. I trust it has pervaded the whole of my ministry; but I have not published anything to be called a book upon the subject, though fragments have been occasionally printed in our local press. I am sending you the sermons recently printed, though only one refers directly to the Advent of our Lord. I am very glad to hear of your meeting for the Study of the Prophetic Word. At one time we had such meetings here, at which we discussed with great brotherly freedom the bright hope pointed out to us in Prophecy, and I believe I learnt more from those Christian conferences than I have ever done from all the books in my library. I trust the Lord may grant you all a similar blessing, so that when our blessed Saviour returns in His glory you may be able to greet Him with the words: ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.’ ‘This is the Lord; we have waited for Him: we will be glad and rejoice in His Salvation.’
“Believe me very faithfully yours,
“E. Hoare.”
To one who was losing her sight:—
“Marden, June 8th, 1893.
“Dearest —,—May the Lord give you a happy birthday to-morrow! You have your heavy trial hanging over you, but I trust that in God’s leading you may have a bright and happy year, and may have a clearer sight of your Heavenly Father’s boundless love than you have yet enjoyed. I trust that we may both have the eyes of our understanding enlightened, that we may know better what is the hope of our calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. It is my unceasing prayer that I may see these things clearer and clearer. And I am sure that, if He manifest Himself more clearly to my soul, I shall be more than repaid for the failure of my earthly vision. Your case is different to mine, for you have every hope of complete restoration of sight. But we are one in the desire for heavenly light, and I trust the Lord may give it to you abundantly through the new year, and that I too may enjoy a share.”
Extract from a letter to one of his married daughters:—
“Tunbridge Wells, August 3rd, 1893.
“We thank Him also very heartily for the happy week spent with you. It was absolutely impossible that greater care and kindness should have been shown to the old man, and I wish you to know how successful you were in giving me a comfortable, pleasant, and happy week, so that I was well repaid for the effort of the two long journeys, and shall ever retain a happy memory of that pleasant visit.
“I was very glad to see as much as I did of the three dear sons, and felt exceedingly interested for them all, as I could see in each one that he had a special claim on our loving and earnest prayers.
“It was also a great gratification to me to make the acquaintance of your future daughter. Oh, how I hope that the voice of rejoicing and salvation will be in their ‘tabernacle’! With dear love to them all, to the two boys arriving from school, and above all to yourselves at the head of such a family,
“Your most loving Father,
“E. Hoare.”
The autumn of 1893 was remarkable for the number of visits which Mr. Hoare paid among relatives in Norfolk and elsewhere. He spoke of it as one of the pleasantest holidays that he had ever spent.
Earlham, his mother’s old home, a name so familiar to many through Mr. Hare’s recent volumes on the Gurney family, was revisited, and he delighted in pointing out places in the house that reminded him of childish romps and adventures. A week was spent at Cromer, where, as usual, a great gathering of the clans took place. Here he met his beloved sister-in-law Lady Parry, and, at the house of his favourite cousin, Lady Buxton, he gave a Bible-reading in her spacious drawing-room to a gathering of some fifty or sixty friends and relatives.
An eye-witness has described this impressive scene. The old man, blind, but mighty in the Scriptures, took for his subject the prayers for “teaching” contained in the 119th Psalm, and those who listened felt that he had been taught of God, and that another prayer in the same Psalm had been answered in his case: God had opened his eyes and permitted him to see wondrous things in His law.
The Sunday following he preached in the grand old church at Cromer. Many remember that occasion; and when the writer paid a visit to that place a year later, he met an old man who spoke of this sermon with enthusiasm, and said that he thought it one of the best that he had ever heard from the aged preacher’s lips.
No less than seven homes of his children and relatives were visited by him at this time, and it was from one of them, towards the close of this pleasant holiday, that the following letter to one of his daughters was written:—