The Opening of the Seamen's Mission Church, Newport,
January 18th, 1887.
We should remember the duties and responsibilities which rest on an Archbishop. He has a vast correspondence, in which there is not a single letter that he can write without weighing every word. He is not like ordinary people, who are able to scribble off their correspondence; for if a word in a letter from an Archbishop is in the wrong place, it may upset a college or cause a revolution. If you study the history of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, beginning with St. Augustine, then going on to Lanfranc, to Anselm, to Theodore, and down to Benson and Temple, you will, I believe, come to the conclusion that I have reached—that whilst many of the men who have gone before him have filled great parts in making the history of the nation, there is not one whose character, whose powers of speech, and whose earnestness in carrying out his duties, exceeded those of the present Archbishop (Dr. Temple).
Seventy-fifth Anniversary of St. David's College, Lampeter
October 9th, 1902.
"There is not one whose character, and whose powers of speech exceeded those of the present Archbishop (Dr. Temple)."
[THE TRIALS OF THE CLERGY.]
Bishops and Clergy have to deal with all sorts of communications from parishioners. I remember one case where a clergyman received a letter telling him he would never do for St. Phillip's because he was altogether too quiet in his preaching, and not half sensational enough, but that if he would preach in a red coat in the morning, and with no coat at all at night, he would be just the man for the job. As to the Bishops, they have so much to do that one of them—Bishop Magee, of Peterborough, I believe—summed up the situation by saying that people seemed to have an idea that a Bishop had nothing to do but sit in his library with the windows open, so that every jackass might put in his head and bray.
Church Luncheon, Newport,
May 16th, 1900.