Life of Father Ignatius of St. Paul, Passionist (The Hon. & Rev. George Spencer).

by Pius a Sp. Sancto

Whether candidates for orders, or even the ordained of the Anglican Establishment, take this view of their position, one cannot be sure; but, from the acts and words of Mr. Spencer, we can form a tolerable conjecture of what he thought and intended when he took deacon's orders from Dr. Marsh, Protestant Bishop of Peterborough, on the 22nd December, 1822. He makes no preparation whatever, nor does he seem to fancy that it is an action that requires any. He gives an account of the ordination, which he was pleased to call, "talking of business," when making his arrangements for it, a few pages back in the Journal, and, as a piece of business, it is gone through by him. We transcribe his own words:—

"Sunday, Dec. 22. I breakfasted with Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Gregory at the inn (Peterborough) at 8. At 9, two others of the candidates, Mr. Pearson and Mr. Witherall, joined us, and we went to the palace, from whence the bishop led us into the church, when we were ordained. The service took an hour, including the Sacrament which he gave us. I commenced my church-reading then by reading the gospel in the service. I went (a clergyman) to the deanery. At 11 we went all together from the palace to church, when Mr. Parsons preached a good long sermon—at us very palpably. We then went to a cold collation at the palace till evening church, which we attended. After that we received our letters of orders and licences, and paid our fees."

It may be said that this is a very nice little account squeezed into a journal, and one could not expect enthusiastic bursts about the gift of the spirit and the power of the Church, in a book allotted to the bare recording of events. So be it. But there are enthusiastic exclamations about less important things in that same little book, and if ordination looked anything to Mr. Spencer than a condition sine qua of his getting fixed in his future position, he would have noted it. The absence of deep religious feeling at this period of his life may account in a great measure for this coolness; but perhaps the not believing there was anything sacramental in the rite itself may give a more satisfactory explanation. To wind up the matter in a few words—he said grace for the family at dinner that evening, and then read his novel quietly in his room, because the day was not favourable for any field sport.

These few explanations were deemed necessary for appreciating the tenor of his life from this moment forward. It will run counter to all anticipated results in the direction of excellence, and will even go far beyond what its first evidences would warrant one to expect. He looked his position in the face at the very outset: he saw that he had souls to look after, and he knew that he could not do that without a course of consistent conduct beseeming his character. For the first few days things went on much as of old. The family were still spending the winter in Althorp, and he joined in all the pastimes by which they whiled away the short days and cheered the long nights. It was requisite, however, that the cousins and nearer relations, should see and hear George in his new position, if it were only to have something to talk about when they came to London. Accordingly, he assisted in the Communion Service on Christmas Day by administering "the cup," first to his father, and then to others. He did not "think the thing so formidable," and it wore off the apprehension he had of appearing in public sufficient for him to give his first sermon on Sunday, Dec. 29. It was on the Birth of Christ, and he says, "Althorp and Duncannon were my audience;" whether they were a whole or a part of the audience, it is not easy at this distance to discover.

He might be now considered fairly launched into his new element. The rector of Great Brington, a Mr. Vigoreux, was away on the continent, and the parish was left to the care of the young curate. He had three or four villages, numbering about 800, in his parish, some distance apart, and he lived in Althorp himself. On the 1st of January, 1823, he sets vigorously to work, and, regardless of wind or weather, walks out from breakfast until about six o'clock every day, visiting the people. After the first few days he gets quite interested in the work, and is cheered on by his success in making up differences, consoling the dying, and assisting the poor. Two notes from the Journal will illustrate how he felt with regard to this visiting:—"Feb. 10. Went to Little Brington, where I paid 20 visits among the poor. Feb. 11. Visited 15 or 20 houses; this work is very amusing to me now. I hope I shall never get tired of it, or be disgusted by bad success to my lectures."

The principal work he tries to accomplish by his visits is, the supplying those deficiencies he finds in the people with regard to what he conceived to be sacraments. His very first round through the parish showed him how few were up to the mark of good Christians. Many Dissenters chose to dispute his right to lecture them, and were not slow to produce clauses of protection for themselves; and his having "a discussion with one roaring Methodist," did not lessen the difficulty of making them tractable sheep. Discussions proved to be a means of widening the breach, and simple kindness left things where they stood. Something positive he must mark out as a duty to his flock, and then exhort them to it. Instinct led him to the sacraments. He found great numbers unbaptized, believing in a spiritual regeneration, and scoffing at the idea of heavenly virtue being in a drop of water; he found more still, and these among the baptized, who had as little love for the Lord's Supper as he had himself once. Now these could very easily be managed by exhorting them to read the Bible, lending them a copy if they had not one, recommending family prayers, and kindness and justice towards all men. Mr. Spencer thought otherwise. He began with baptism, and within the first fortnight of his clerical life he baptized the nine children of a blacksmith. This was a good beginning, and encouraged him to persevere, but he did not find many so malleable as the offspring of this son of Tubal Cain.

In the next sacramental duty he did not see his way so clearly as in the first. In the Church of England, the Sacrament, as it is emphatically called, must be administered three times a year, may be once a month, and cannot be unless there be a number of communicants. Giving the Sacrament once a week is considered very High Church, and to give it every morning is going a little too far. Superstitious reverence and indifference keep the majority away from this rite, and few come, except they get a monomonia for manifesting their godliness in that special direction. This fact will account for Mr. Spencer's hesitation, when he took to Christianizing his flock by making them approach the Sacrament. He makes many promise to come, and gets a neighbouring clergyman to administer it in their own houses to some decrepid old people, who could not come to church. He preaches on this, and "hopes he has not been wrong;" he discusses the propriety of his proceedings with his older brethren in the ministry. The result seems to confirm him in his ideas, and he preaches a second time, and gives appendices to his sermon in every visit, about going to the Lord's Supper. He still "hopes he is not wrong." He works very hard at this point, however, and on the first Easter Sunday of his ministry, he gives God thanks and prays against pride, at having 130 communicants. There was another little incident on the same day as a set off to his success in beating up the parish; when he opens the sermon-cover from which he used to read his MS., he finds he had put the wrong sermon there, and had to preach extempore the sermon he intended to have read: of course, it was not to his satisfaction, though the people scarcely knew the difference.

One sad event cast a cloud over the beginning of his clerical life: the sister he loved so much, and whose company and conversation he thought more than an equivalent for the gayest party, Lady Georgiana Quin, died in London. He was very much afflicted by it, and even in after-life he would be deeply moved when speaking of this sister. He did not delay long in London, but came home in a day or two after the funeral.

Excepting this short interval, his time was spent at home in the most ardent fulfilment of the duties his fervour imposed upon him. Not only did he go about from house to house, but he would spare a day or two, in each week, when he went into Northampton for the sessions, and visit the neighbouring clergy. It was his custom to discuss points of duty with them; to invite them to Althorp, and spend evenings in clerical conversation. He accompanied them on their visits to the sick and other parochial employments, to learn, by a comparison of the different ways of each, which would probably be best for himself. He reads such books as the "Clergyman's Instructor," and other books of divinity and sermons; he never fails to write a sermon every week, to catechise the children on a Sunday, visit the schools, and try to make every one as faithful in the discharge of their duties as he was in his own. About Easter some members of his family came to Althorp, and he relaxes a little for their sakes, and freely joins them in all his former amusements; not, however, omitting any of his visits, especially to the sick and dying.