THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF BUILDINGS ... 97 turbed, and I value their kind counsel. I cannot but feel however that if they knew the actual state of things they would understand my course better. I am trying to get the present design cut down from £30,000 to £20,000, so as to avoid all but what we really require to erect - a comely and durable fabric. But I do feel that, in presence of the great religious edifices of heathen and Mohammedans, to erect a mean and unsightly building would be a great disgrace to us and stigma on the Church of God, which I could not allow my bishopric to be marked by. . . . A stately and handsome church in presence of the huts of the New Zealanders would be an anachronism, but in the midst of an architectural people, and most self-sacrificing in what they spend on buildings devoted to sacred purposes, it would be a scandal that we should worship in a tomb belonging to a Mohammedan past. I am thoroughly convinced of this, and am constrained to act on this conviction, even if I were quite alone in my belief. There is much greater necessity, I feel sure, for buildings of character and distinction (within reasonable limits) in this land than in our own land. I feel at least that their erection wipes off a great reproach, independently of what they represent and effect as centres of Gospel extension and Church life. I dare not withhold my witness and that of my office from those who in this country are expending vast sums on schools, law courts, hospitals, museums, but are leaving the house of God to dwell not in curtains but in tombs. I am sure that many of the moderate High-Church party, to which I have always belonged, would be of one mind with me in this. By moderate High Church, I mean sound and strong Churchmanship, the Prayer-book all round, as truly based upon the Bible and the grand old evangelical teaching of our forefathers of that school. I know that you will all pray for me, that I may be held in the hollow of His hand, who alone can preserve us from every wind of false doctrine and the craft of them that lie in wait to deceive.' The wars of 1879 and 1880 were little favourable to the work of church building; but the bishop's indomitable energy converted every stumbling-block into a steppingstone towards the attainment of his heart's desire. The scheme for a memorial chancel to the fallen officers and a memorial transept for the native church in memory of his beloved friend Gordon, sprang out of these adversities. He wished that every interest within the diocese should find its centre in God's house of prayer. On January 16, 1881, he wrote to Edith: 'Officers are often writing to me now from different regiments about the memorial chancel: promises of £30, £40, and even £50 I have had this week, but then one-half will go for epitaphs, and onehalf, I hope, for the chancel. But I hope far above memories of the dead in the chancel will be memories of the Risen Saviour, who there at His table feeds His hungry and fainting ones; and above the thoughts of the partings will be many happy thoughts of the ingathering at the Father's house: as it says in a verse that I saw to-day : "Oh! to be there, Where the weary feet shall rest at last, Where the grief and the pain are for ever past, 'And yet it is sweet to be able to try to bring others to know of the Father's house, and to point them there, and to tell them something of the joy and peace in believing. May you, dearest child, and your dear schoolfellows, know this blessed peace amid all the rockings and the tossings of the storms of life, and in its most joyous, gladsome hours too.' Whilst vigorous in stirring others to be liberal, the bishop set them an example: for three whole years half his episcopal income was readily devoted to the work, and he was well backed up by all his family. He also made himself responsible for further sums. In May, 1881, there was a great committee, in which all were in favour of building not half only but all of Mr. Scott's design. 6 'I laid a plan before them,' said the bishop, for getting it built by contract in three years, making myself answerable for half a lakh (£4,333), but there would be three years to collect it in, in India and at home. This is to depend on Government giving half a lakh from imperial sources, besides the half lakh Sir R. Egerton promises from the Punjab Government resources'; and he added on June 3 following, 'It is a serious risk, but I hope to reimburse myself, of a good part at least, when I visit England, if not before.' In November the same year he reported to Mrs. Knox : 'The work of the foundations goes on steadily and solidly. Shall I ever live to see the top-stone? Not as bishop, I fear; but I must not despair, if only the hand of my God is good upon me.' And to Edith two months later: PHINEHAS' WIFE. A CHECK 99 'I like to walk down and see the cathedral building going on. It is slow, but steady. The choir and chancel of the Truro Cathedral is to cost as much as our cathedral altogether, except the steeples, which will be a long time in coming, I fear. I was reading this week of M. Olier trying to build the great church of St. Sulpice in Paris, but it was his sixth successor who finished it, so that others are disappointed as well as I.' In July, 1882, the bishop preached a sermon on Phinehas' wife and her zeal for God's glory, in the station church at Simla. It made some stir there at the time, one lady putting a valuable ring into the plate in answer to his plea for costly trinkets, like those the Israelitish women so willingly surrendered. I told the people,' says the bishop, 'I thought Christ might fairly upbraid us with the reproof, "I was a stranger and ye took Me not in," that is, in Lahore, providing no proper house for Himself and His word. The sermon, with another, was published, and in the following December brought him a present of £300 from Canon Linton A great comfort and refreshment, as I began to think that they were wholly fruitless and must have fallen flat on many readers. I hoped the missionary aspect of the cathedral would have stimulated hearts and called out sympathy, but God will not be indebted to us always and to our methods, but works for us in ways of His own.' In August, 1882, in a kind and sympathetic note, Sir Charles Aitchison told him that the Supreme Government would do nothing, though they would allow the Punjab Government to give the half lakh on condition that all the balance was paid up before March 30, 1885. 'I hardly know what it portends,' the bishop says, 'whether my being driven to resign my office or no. Some £9,000 have to be raised in about two years, and though many coffers in England would set me free with one stroke of the pen, yet past experience is not encouraging, and it will, if gained at all, be probably by hard toiling and plodding. However, I am not disposed to give up without an effort. Courage and faith and hope must not so soon give way. I have been brought through some severe crises, perhaps none quite equal to this, but I must not limit the Holy One of Israel and say- Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? There will be moments of partial despondency, but if God's will be on my side, and He is pleased to accept me, it shall yet be done.' It was this refusal that finally determined him to take his furlough the year following. It has been seen that on his journey through Persia he was still mindful of this one great object. The childish gift of sea-shells, the willing contribution of Armenian Christians, has been already mentioned, together with the knick-knacks that he bought and forwarded for the bazaar in London. Towards the close of his few months in England another heavy disappointment met him. 'Is it really so,' he wrote May 23, 1884, from Eastbourne, to Mr. Montgomery, the Lahore chaplain, 'that the Cashmere timber is only worth £500 instead of £1,000, and that thus £500 more must be added to the sum required to be raised? If so, I must give up my rest the last two months which I looked forward to, and plod and plead on still patiently and exhaustingly.' This shock to their financial progress inclined some of the Building Committee to hold their hands about continuing the towers. And the bishop wrote back in dismay to Mr. Montgomery to plead for the design in its entirety. 'I write especially,' he said on July 18, 1884, 'to entreat you to employ all your effort with heart and soul against leaving one of the cathedral towers unfinished. I have pleaded most earnestly in the cathedral behalf on this fundamental condition among others, that the whole design be completed at once and not in instalments. I trust the Committee will feel that it will be a wrong done to all concerned to stop short with a stunted and mutilated fabric. . . . We ought not to present the shameful and almost ludicrous appearance of men who began to build but were not able to finish... 'Let us make the long and strong pull required to complete the 225,000 rupees which, I gather from the archdeacon's letter, is sadly placed in jeopardy by the proved worthlessness of the Maharaja's timber.... The present is really of all our crises most serious, yet most full of hope, if we do not lose heart when one, just one more spurt of zealous determination, by God's blessing, may tide over our long struggle for victory against giant odds. 'I have exhausted my strength too much to attempt more pleading in pulpit or on platform. I must now comparatively keep quiet the next two months, or I shall have gained little or nothing by this furlough. I have nothing but scanty gleanings now to gather in.' On December 18, 1884, he wrote to Mrs. Sheldon from Lahore: 'There are still about £2,000 to raise for our mother-church: the chief loss, which has really amounted to about £1,600, has been through the unlucky timber. I am not going to allow my friends to collect any more for this object. They have exhausted themselves with noble effort, and nothing now remains but a loan to complete the building necessary, and to get all possible offertories and gifts out here, and the archdeacon, who is so very attractive a preacher, will be able to get sermons in England.' In April, 1885, his hopes received a further blow, the last to be recorded in this chequered narrative. The bishop wrote upon the 26th from Shahpur : 'All seems to make against me everywhere at present, and it seems a time of the Lord's controversy with us. I can but humble myself under His chastening hand. Added to other troubles, it now appears that the cathedral, even with one roof, cannot be finished for less than 50,000 rupees more, i. e. some £4.400. The finance department seems to have been ignorant that what was spent on the foundation, which was nearly £4,000, was not an item on the creditor's side between Messrs. Burne and Company (the contractors) and the cathedral authorities, but that beginning from the point where they found the building they contracted to finish it for three lakhs of rupees. So now we are pledged for £4,400 in six months' time. Messrs. Burne and Company will lend the money, but at 8 per cent., which would be £350 per annum, as much as all our offertories could do to pay the interest alone, and still the debt of £4,400 hanging over our heads ad infinitum. I only learned this mistake of the finance department two days ago, and felt struck to the ground by a blow most serious and disastrous. We are really in distress, and all I see that can be done is to try to borrow money from friends without interest. I give myself £500 this year somehow. Mr. M. Y. and Mr. L. offered to lend £500 each, so that, with mine, will do something; but still the debt will be over our heads like a Damocles' sword! I should be disposed to say-Stop short, and build no more than you have money for; but Mr. Montgomery and the Gardiners say-No, by all means finish, and get the money after. I hope to write three or four letters home by next mail to ask for |