“I had to say last night to him, dear friends, what, with shame and regret, I have to say to you now, that I ought to have known the Truth, and have been prepared, but because I was unconverted, I had failed to apprehend the fact of the Lord’s near Return.
“Yet, how often, on the third Sunday in Advent, have I, with many of you, repeated the Great Truth, in the collect:—
“‘O Lord Jesus Christ, who, at Thy first coming, didst send Thy messenger to prepare Thy way before Thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of Thy mysteries, may likewise so prepare and make ready Thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at Thy second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable people in Thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.’
“In the burial of our dead, too, how often have I recited, and have heard the words,
“‘Beseeching Thee that it may please Thee, of Thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of Thine elect, and to hasten Thy Kingdom; that we, with all those that are departed in the True faith of Thy Holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
“Again, the words of Paul in the matter of the Lord’s Supper ‘Till He Come!’ ought to have opened my eyes. But I confess, with shame, I have been blind, a blind leader of the blind——”
Visible emotion checked the Bishop’s speech, for a moment. Recovering himself, he went on:—
“A blind leader of the blind, because unborn of God. I ought to have known that Christ’s Return was near. I should have known it, had I been spiritually-minded, by the signs of the Apostasy which, (prophesied to precede the Second Coming of the Lord) have been having their fulfillment all around us for years.
“Since last night, I have lived a whole life-time. I have read the whole of the Gospels and Epistles, and, taking my true place as a lost soul before God, I have been born of God. And now, here, in this solemn moment, I bring to you the Spirit-taught knowledge that has been given to me.”