“Aylsham, September 21st, 1893.
“I am very glad to hear of your prosperous settlement at Lynton. It is the place where your dear mother and I spent our first Sunday after our marriage, and I preached in the church, to the great satisfaction of the Vicar, who, I think, was Mr. Pears, afterwards Master of Repton: you appear to have gone to the other church. . . . Magee’s sermons have been very interesting, though I doubt whether they would meet the wants of those who are hungering and thirsting for life; they aim too much at intellectual brilliancy, and it is not by excellency of speech that souls are won.
“We came yesterday to this beautiful home. Certainly the lines are fallen unto them in very pleasant places, and I trust they have a goodly heritage in many souls won to their Saviour. But they have their difficulties, and who has not? As long as human nature is what it is, we shall find them everywhere, though different in different places.”
The following letter illustrates the affectionate feelings between the pastor and his people so manifest in this parish:—
“The Vicarage, December 13th, 1893.
“My dearly beloved Friends, the Members of our Communicants’ Union, and other Communicants in our Church,—
“I have been looking forward with the greatest possible pleasure to the prospect of our Advent gathering arranged for to-morrow, but it has pleased our Heavenly Father to take from me all hope of being present.
“I have greatly enjoyed those gatherings on former occasions, when it has pleased God to manifest Himself and His own grace in a peculiar manner to our souls. They have also been a source of especial pleasure, as they have given an opportunity for that loving, friendly intercourse which is so delightful amongst Christian friends, and so difficult of attainment in large parishes and large congregations.
“I cannot be with you to-morrow in bodily presence, but may I not thankfully adopt the first part of those words of St. Paul in Col. ii. 5–7, ‘For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ’? and may we not all accept this exhortation in the latter part, ‘As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving’?
“You observe he does not address us as persons for the first time seeking to know Christ, but as those who have received Him, and are permitted to walk, or spend their lives, in union with Him. If this be the case with us, how should our thanksgivings abound in every possible effort for His glory!
“With much affection, and many prayers,
“From your faithful Friend and Vicar,
“E. Hoare.”
It was at this time, when his bodily health was so feeble, his step slow and head bowed, that a visitor who had never heard him preach came to Trinity Church.
Knowing his reputation, the stranger had great expectations, but at first sight his heart fell within him; as he afterwards acknowledged, “I could not believe that old man in the pew was going to preach, but he got up into the pulpit with some difficulty, and then, it was the power of God!”
A clergyman friend who had known him intimately for forty years said of the aged preacher that “his ministry had grown in power up to the very end.” The chief cause of this was doubtless the life of prayer in which he moved and had his being. All who knew him were aware of this, and certainly he who has been permitted to peruse the sacred pages of his journal can no longer feel surprised at the marvellous success which attended that prayer-steeped ministry.
While upon this subject it is worthy of record that he often told those whom he wanted to help in their preaching that he prayed over his sermons more even than he prepared them, and the latter part took several hours of his time. When blindness came upon him, and others had to read for him and take down his thoughts for the preparation of his sermons, it was his custom to stand up by his study table and say: “Here is my mind, Lord; take it and use it. Thou knowest who will be there; give me the right thoughts and words, that I may speak as Thy messenger, for Christ’s sake!” And this prayer too was answered.
The following letters, written in the last few months of his life, show the clearness of his mind and width of his sympathy up to the end.
To the Rev. C. H. Dearsly, who asks, “How far is it Scriptural that female evangelists should address large mixed assemblies—or men only?”
“January 19th, 1894.
“Mrs. Fry used to draw a wide distinction between ‘prophesying,’ as in Acts ii. 17, and ‘teaching,’ as in 1 Tim. ii. 12, as she believed the former to be an appeal called forth in a special manner by the Holy Spirit, and so she justified her own ministry. I have often thought that there is some truth in her distinction, and I have never felt able to put a hindrance in the way of what may possibly be the movement of the Holy Spirit; so I have thought it safer to be passive in the matter, and not to forbid even though I have felt unable to support.”