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* . . Oiii.'iiOiiiStonpalSiiciaty 
 
 T f .; '.R- -^ T^ "^ O- 
 
 LENTEN PASTORAL LETTER 
 
 OF THE 
 BISHOP OF LONDON. 
 
 John — by the Grace of God and the ap2)ointment of the Holy 
 
 See, Bishop of London, 
 To the Clergy, Religious Communities and Faithful of our Diocese 
 
 Greeting and Benediction in the Lord. 
 Dearly ] Beloved Brethren, 
 
 At the approach of this holy season of Lent, we deem it 
 our duty to address you some words of instruction and edifi- 
 cation. Our Blessed Lord has laid on tlie Bishops of His 
 Church the burden of instructing the faithful committed to 
 their charge in the great and saving truths of our holy 
 religion. " Go teach all nations ; teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have commanded." St. Matthew 
 xxviii, 19-20. 
 
 K is the duty and the happiness of these " sowers " of 
 the Gospel, to cast the divine seed of God's Word into the 
 soil of human hearts, in the hope that, falling upon good 
 ground, it may spring up and yield fruit a hundredfold — the 
 fruit of Christian virtue and holiness of life here, and the 
 rewards of eternal life hereafter. 
 
 Now there is no more fruitful source of instruction and 
 edification than the study of the life and actions of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. " He is the way, the truth and the 
 life; they that follow Him walk not in darkness.' St. John 
 xiv, 6. "He is the light of the world and the salt of the earth. 
 There is no salvation in any other, for there is no other name 
 
m 
 
 2 
 
 hikUt heaven given to men whereby we may be saved.** Acts 
 iv, 12. He is the model and pattern which we must imitate 
 in OTU- h'ves and actions if we would be saved, "for," in the 
 language of St. Paul, *' whom God foreknew He also pre- 
 destinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son." 
 liomans viii, 29. The knowledge of Him is eternal life. He 
 is our consolation, our hope, our happiness and our supreme 
 good; "for what have we in heaven," said the Psalmist, 
 " and besides Him what can we desire upon earth ; He is the 
 God of our heart and the God that is our portion forever." 
 
 The study of the life of Jesus was the constant occupa- 
 tion of the saints ; it formed their character and gave them 
 the supernatural courage and strength by which they over- 
 came the world, the devil and the flesh. St. Paul was so 
 pre-occupied with it that he professed to know nothing else— 
 ^' for I judged not myself to know anything among you Vat 
 Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 1st Corinthians, xi, 2. And 
 again, " Furthermore, I count all things to be but loss for the 
 excellent knowledge of .Jesus Christ . :y Lord." Phillipians 
 iii, 8. It was the knowledge of our Blessed Saviour that 
 inflamed the heart of the great apostle with divine love and 
 with the fire of apostolic zeal. He burned to impart this 
 saving knowledge to mankind, and on his bended knees 
 besought the eternal Father that He would communicate it 
 to a perishing world, in order to save and to sanctify it — • 
 '* For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is 
 named, that he would grant you according to the riches of 
 His glory, to be strengthened l)y His spu'it with might into 
 the inward man ; that Christ may dwell by faith in your 
 hearts : that being rooted and founded in charity, you may 
 be able io comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, 
 and lengtl:, and height, and depth : to know also the charity 
 of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be 
 filled with all the fullness of God." Ephesians iii, 14-19. 
 
 The more we study the character of our Saviour, the more 
 
8 
 
 briglitl}' its divine l)eauty will shine out upon us, the more 
 vividly the grand characteristics that stamped his mission as 
 divine will prosdut themselves to view. And it is well to 
 study attentively this heavenly picture, it is profitable to look 
 now on the face of our Christ, and, Veronica-like, to catch 
 the divine image and stamp it on our hearts. We live at a 
 time when a heartless and a blasphemous philosophy is 
 attempting to sap the foundations of Christian faith, and to 
 rob the world of the blessings and consolations of the Christian 
 religion. Hence, it is essential, in order to heal the bites of 
 this fiery serpent of an anti- christian philosophy and an nnti- 
 christian spirit, or to save ourselves from their destructive 
 influences, to look upon Him who was foreshadowed by the 
 brazen serpent in the desert, even om- Lord and Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ, who alone can sa\e us from the spiritual 
 dangers that surround us, and heals the wounds of the soul. 
 But who can adequately describe the life and character of our 
 Blessed Lord? or what pen can do them justice ? It is said 
 that a great painter once undertook to paint the likeness of 
 our Saviour. He had made a long and patient and i^rayerful 
 study of the subject, his heart and his mind were full of 
 it, his soul was aglbw with the fire of a holy inspiration 
 and with the light of artistic genius, he seized at last his 
 brush, with the purpose of transferring to canvass the 
 divine lineaments of our Saviour's countenance ; but, alas, 
 his heart failed him, his hand trembled, and, casting down 
 the brush in despair, he exclaimed that it was indeed im- 
 possible for mortal man to express on canvass the divine 
 beauty, majesty, and sweetness of the face of Jesus. A 
 kindred feeling mav well lav hold of the writer who under- 
 takes to describe the life of our Blessed Lord, and the character- 
 istics that marked his mission on earth. However, as men, 
 in order to see and admire the beauty and brilliancy of a 
 diamond, will turn it now on one side, now on another, so by 
 the aid of study and pious meditation, we may catch some 
 glimpses of the heavenly perfection of our Lord's character, 
 and may be able to convey some idea of the characteristics 
 of His mission amongst mankind. 
 
 (■ I 
 
 I 
 
'.'Li 
 
 Tlie constraining power that brought our Saviour down 
 from licaven, was His infinite love for man. He had created 
 man through love, He came to redeem him through love. 
 When man fell l)y the original transgression he lost the 
 justice and innocence in which he had ])een constituted, he 
 lost the sonship of God and the heirship of heaven; he 
 became an outcast from the face of his God, and the gates 
 of heaven were closed against him : he became a ruin and 
 a wreck, hke some beautiful temple, overthrown by a sudden 
 earthquake; his mind was darkened, his heart corrupted,, 
 his inclinations tended to evil as streams tend to the ocean, 
 and he was coadomned to the death, not only of the body, 
 but to the everlasting death of the soul. Who can heal this 
 wounded, blighted creature — Quis medchitiir ejus ?■ Who can 
 undo these appalling evils'? Wl.iat mighty and beneficent 
 power can lift up fallen man and restore him to his lost 
 privileges ? Who can atone to the justice of God for the 
 sins of men, and reconcile the guilty creature to the 
 01 ': j.ed Creator? What mighty arm can unbolt the gates 
 of neaven, and open them once more for man's admission into 
 eternal joys ? We find the answer to these questions in the 
 mystery of the Incarnation. Our Blessed Saviour came down 
 from heaven and became man in order to redeem and save 
 us. ** He emptied Himself," says St. Paul, *• and took upon 
 Himself the form of a servant ; " He stooped into the abyss 
 of our nothingness in order to lift us up, and to make us 
 once more the children of God and heirs of the kingdom 
 of heaven. The fact of the Incarnation is a miracle of love 
 far beyond the reach of human comprehension. The infinite 
 condescension of God, implied in the Incarnation — the great 
 and eternal God, infinitely perfect in all his attributes, all- 
 powerful, all-holy, all- wise, and all just, stooping into the 
 depths of our nothingness to save us ; this is an abyss of 
 mercy which the plummet-line of human reason can never 
 fathom. Now we find that his whole life and conduct on 
 earth were but the expression and manifestation of this 
 
infinite love and mercy as revealed to us in the fact of the 
 Incarnation. 
 
 When St. John was in prison for having denounced the 
 puhlic sins of Herod, he heard of the works of our Savioiu*, 
 who had just entered on His pubhc life, and sending His 
 disciples to Jesus, he said to Him : — *' Art thou He that was 
 to come, or look we for another ? And Jesus, making answer, 
 said to them : — "Go and tell John what you have seen and 
 heard. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, 
 'the deaf hear, the dead rise again, and the poor have the 
 gospel preached unto them." ]\[attliew xi, 2-5, 
 
 Our Blessed Saviour does not appeal in proof of His 
 Messiahship to stupendous miracles that startle and terrify. 
 He could have shown in a thousand ways the power that 
 belonged to Him in heaven and on earth ; His voice could 
 have controlled all the elements, arrested the motions of the 
 heavenly bodies, and suspended all the laws of nature. Ho 
 could in this way have amply proved His divinity, and that 
 He was indeed the Messiah that was to come to save a lost 
 world. But He appeals rather to His works of tender mercy 
 and compassion ; He appeals to His beneficent and gracious 
 manifestation of Almighty power in healing the ills that afflict 
 humanity, in relieving the wretched of the crushing burden 
 of their sorrows, in comforting the afflicted, in healing the 
 broken of heart, and binding up their wounds. Psalm cxlvii, 3. 
 *' Go tell John what you have heard and seen : — the Ijlind 
 see, the lame walk., the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, 
 the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to 
 them." 
 
 His whole life was marked by the most profound and 
 active sympathy for the poor, the sick, the afflicted, the 
 sorrow-stricken, and the care and sin-burdened men. His 
 whole Sacred Heart went out to them in tender pity, and in 
 practical and efficacious benevolence. For the poor He had a 
 special affection and tenderness. When our Saviour came 
 on earth. He found the poor crushed, ostracised, despised, 
 
 !' 
 
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a 
 
 h '■ y 
 
 ami abandoned. The ci\ili/ation of the Pa^^an world waa 
 then at its higlu'st ; but it was a cold, hcartlt'ss civilization ; 
 it was like a marole statue by Phidias, exquisitely i)eautiful 
 and radiant with the halo of artistic j^'cnius, but yet hard, 
 cold, unfeeling and pitiless. All its honour and favours were 
 for the rich, the powerful, the learned and the brave. 
 Honours were lavished on the poet, the orator, the sculptor, 
 the successful statesman and the victorious general ; but the 
 poor, as we have said, were utterly despised and abanf\)ned ; 
 they stood outside the sphere of charity and even of liberty. 
 Our Blessed Lord, who was the way, the truth and the life, 
 came to destroy error, to correct false notions, to teach men 
 the true value of things and the true relationshii) of man to 
 man, and to establish society on the basis of truth, justice 
 and charity. He sympathized with the poor, and by practis- 
 ing and embracing poverty himself, he made it a sacred 
 thing, and lifted it up in the estimation of mankind. When 
 He condescended to come on earth for our salvation. He 
 might have come clothed with great power and majesty and 
 surrounded by His angels ; He might have revealed His law 
 amid the awfnl scenes that witnessed the revelation and pro-* 
 mulgation of the decalogue ; He might have spoken His 
 heavenly doctrines in a voice of thunder, and bade the 
 trembling nations to listen and obey. But far different was 
 the plan adopted by our Saviour. He is born in the poverty 
 of a stable, His cradle is a manger. His royal robes coarse 
 swaddling clothes, his retinue an ox and an ass, his luxuries 
 darkness and cold. He grows up in poverty and associates 
 with the poor : he said that whilst the foxes had their holes, 
 and the birds of the air their nests, the Son of Man had not 
 whereon to lay his head. He made poverty one of the 
 beatitudes, "blessed are the poor in spirit, for of such is 
 the kingdom of heaven." He thus gave poverty a character 
 of sacredness, exalted it in human estimation, made it an 
 occasion of merit in the eyes of God, and reconciled the poor 
 to their hard lot by lifting up their thoughts towards God's 
 
eternal kinj^'doin, wliieli is the hcritaf^e of tin- i>oi»r, and in 
 which they will Im- ctornally rich, An<l lost, in tlic lapse of 
 ages, his hles.setl example and teachin<; on this poiui, nii<^ht 
 be forj^ottrn and abandoned, and the poor be once a<;ain 
 treated with contempt, ne^^lrct and cruelty, onr Lord idintities 
 himself with the poor, makes their cause his own, and 
 declares that on the ^reat accountin<j; day onr eternal lot will 
 be decided by the manner in which we shall have followed 
 his example, and obeyed and practiced his teachin<;s in rela- 
 tion to the poor, " I was hun<,'ry, and ye gave mt* to eat ,* 
 thirsty, and ye gave me to drink." And so, in every christian 
 age, his true followers have esteemed poverty, have deemed 
 it a holy thing, and have made it a duty and a hiippiness to 
 be merciful and compassionate towards the poor, rendering 
 their lot bearable and contributing towards their happiness- 
 ! who can estimate the countless ble«sings bestowed on the 
 poor, the lowly and the weak by this example and teaching 
 of our Blessed Lord. The hungry have been fed, the naked 
 clothed, the lonely and abandoned visited, the light of blessed 
 hope has been made to shine in the darkness of the dungeon, 
 the prison doors have opened to the captive, and the reign of 
 blessed charily, with all its mercies and commiserations, 
 has been inaugurated and perpetuated upon earth, making 
 the ** land that was desolate and impassable be glad, and the 
 wilderness rejoice and flourish like a lily, making it bud forth 
 and blossom, and rejoice with joy and praise." Isaias cxxxvi. 
 But our Blessed Lord not only practised poverty and 
 rendered it sacred, but he also embraced labour and toil 
 as the occupation of his private life, and gave them a dignity 
 and a merit which they had never before enjoyed. At the 
 time of the advent of our Saviour, labour had fallen into 
 utter contempt, was a badge of degradation and considered 
 as only fit for slaves. Working men were deprived of the 
 rights of manhood, were robbed of their liberties and civil 
 rights and w^ere reduced to the position of slaves. Both in 
 Greek and Roman civilization work had been made servile. 
 
 I ^ 
 
 ® 
 
6 
 
 and workin;^' men slaves* M ^ifi ^mc ol" Augu^.tus (Ju'sar, 
 tlieiv were upwards of si\ty in ill ions of slaves in the vast «> 
 ('iii[)ir(> over which he niltid. And those slaves were not 
 men on whose brows an Indian or an Afriean sun had burnt 
 the brand of slavery ; they were in blood and raec; the equals 
 of tlx'ir masters. In lioman law, a slave was not a person, 
 but a tiling'; he had, of course, no eivil or political rights, 
 he had no power to re(5eiv(! a legacy, no power of eivil action, 
 and was I'ntirely beyond the pale and protection of law ; he ^ 
 had not even religious duties or hopes. He was in everything* 
 absolutely subject to his master's will, who had the power of 
 life and death over him. Such is the frightful condition to 
 which millions of working men were reduced in ancient 
 civilization, when they were described by Seneca as having 
 ** fettered feet, bound hands, and branded faces." 
 
 Our divine Saviour became a working man, was a 
 carpenter and the reputed son of a carpenter, and for years 
 laboured and toiled with St. Joseph for his daily bread. He 
 thus made labour sacred, he exalted it in human estimation, 
 and gave it a dignity in the eyes of men and a power of merit 
 in the eyes of God. In the christian system, labour having 
 l)ecome ennobled by the action and example of Christ, the 
 working man rose in the scale of human estimation, he 
 ceased to be regarded a thing, and was looked upon as a man 
 possessing human rights and liberties and duties. Men, 
 whether free or ])ond, were taught the doctrines of eijuality 
 before God, who was their common father ; they were taught 
 the doctrine of human and Christian brotherhood, that in the 
 language of St. Paul — " in one spirit they were all baptized 
 into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or 
 free.'' 1 Corinthians xii, 13. " That thev were all children 
 of God by faith in Jesus Christ, that there was neither Jew 
 nor Greek, neither bond nor free, but that they were all one 
 in Christ Jesus." Galatians iii, 27-28. These blessed sounds 
 broke with the power and magic of delightful music on the 
 ears of the fettered slaves. Millions of human beings bowed 
 
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 alljwn under the intolerable lamlens anct unHpeakaf)lc Horrows 
 of slavery, lifted up their heads, raised their eyes towards 
 heaven, and he<;an to hope, (iradually, under tlie hlessed 
 and fruitful inlluenee of the example aid teachingH of our 
 Saviour, the fistters began to fall from the feHtca-iu}^' limhs of 
 the Hiaves, men learned their ri«»hts and dignity as well as 
 tlieir res[)()nsihilities, labour was ennoblt'd and sanetilied, and 
 the curse of slavery has disappeared from all christian lands, 
 never to return. Who can estimate the value of this mightv 
 result, this great moral revolution ! What bleisings has it 
 not conferred upon mankind! What fountiuns of tears Inis 
 it not dried up ! What broken hearts has it not healed i, 
 What unspeakable sorrows has it no^ banished ! What 
 burdens of grief has it not lifted up from the heart and soul 
 of man ! With what hope, what joy, what sunshine of liberty 
 and gladness has it not flooded the world, transforming it 
 from a pen of slaves into a home of christian freemen. 
 
 Another characteristic of our Lord's earthly mission was 
 his care and tenderness for the sick. His dcdight was to 
 })ring hope to the bed of the sick, to cheer their drooping 
 spirits, to relieve their sufferings and heal their diseases. He 
 cleansed the lepers of their most loathsome disease, and by 
 his healing touch restored their putrid llesh to its original 
 freshness and purity. By his merciful power the blind saw, 
 the lame walked and the deaf heard. Fever, the bloody tlux, 
 palsy and the dropsy, every manner of disease that racks 
 the poor body with pain, fills the mind with sad forebodings 
 of death, and finally dries up the very fountains of life, all tied 
 at his omnipotent command, or disapj^)eared at his healing 
 touch. They saw in him the author of all life, and vanished 
 in confusion from his Holy presence. '* And all that were sick, 
 he healed," said St. Matthew, viii, 16-17, " that it might be 
 fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying : — 
 * Jle took our infirmities and bore our diseases.' " How 
 beautiful is this characteristic of our Redeemer, and how 
 fruitful it has been in lasting benefits for the sick and 
 

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 10 
 
 the iiitinn in all the christian ages ! Those who have been 
 sick know how dependent the sick are on the kindlj' offices of 
 others, how they crave for sympathy and yearn for one word 
 of hope. The example of our Lord, and its blessed influences, 
 have soothed the agonies of the sick bed and lavished 
 sweetest sympathies on the sufferers, and have shed upon 
 them the blessed sunshine of hope. Under the potent 
 creative j)Ower of his divine example, men and women have, 
 in every Christian age, devoted themselves exclusively to the 
 care of the sick, for Christ's dear sake, and hospitals have 
 sprung up in every centre of population, like blessed 
 Probaticas, for the care and comfort of the sick and suffering. 
 Then what shall we say of his profound sympathy for the 
 sorrow-stricken and afflicted ? He knew that sorrow and 
 suffering would be the portion of the great masses of man- 
 kind that in this valley of tears man would have to drink the 
 chalice of sufferings to the bitter dregs. He therefore became 
 a man of sorrows himself, in order to sanctify sorrow, and to 
 make it holy and even expiatory of sin and its consequences, 
 and in order, also, by the magic power of his example, to 
 teach the sorrow-stricken, in every age, how to carry the 
 burden of their grief, and how to do so in a manner sub- 
 missive to the will of God, and pleasing to him. " We have 
 seen him," said the Prophet, " and there was no comeliness that 
 we should be desirous of him ; despised and the most abject 
 of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity, 
 and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon 
 we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities 
 and carried oiu: sorrows ; and we have thought him as a leper, 
 and as one struck by God and afflicted ; but he was wounded 
 for our iniquities and bruised for our sins-; the chastisement 
 of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed." 
 Isaias liii." And, through the mouth of Jeremiah, he exclaims, 
 " ! all you who pass by the way, come and see if there be 
 any sorrow like to my sorrow." Lamentations i, 12. He 
 drank the cup of suffering and sorrow to the bitter dregs, 
 
 
11 
 
 not only to expiate our sins, but also to sanctify our sorrows, 
 and to teacli us how to bear them. 
 
 Perhaps amid all the grand and beautiful characteristics 
 of our Sa^■iour'K life, there is none more endearing to the 
 human heart than his blessed compassion for the afflicted, 
 the mourners and weepers. The instances of this trait in 
 our Saviour's character, related in the gospel, speak to the 
 neart with a sympathetic power which human language is 
 impotent to command. We shall only refer to two of them. 
 The first to which we wish to call your attention is the case 
 of the widow of Naim. As o^^x Redeemer, accompanied by 
 his disciples, approached, on one occasion, this little town, he 
 met the funeral of the only son of a widow, as it proceeded 
 slowly and mournfully towards the cemetery. There were in 
 that funeral procession the usual circumstances that mark 
 such an occasion — the kind-hearted and sympathetic neigh- 
 bours, the weeping relatives, the corpse stiff and cold in death, 
 and there was the broken-hearted and widowed mother 
 following the coffin in which her earthly joy and hope were 
 enclosed. The sad spectacle was too much for the heart of 
 Jesus; he was moved to deepest pity for this weeping, 
 crushed and broken-hearted woman, and approaching her, he 
 said, " ! woman, weep not." He then went to the bier and 
 in a voice of command he said, '* Young man, I say to thee 
 arise." Death heard the voice of the author of life and 
 obeyed; the young man awakened into life and went home 
 with his mother, to be the comfort and the staff of her old 
 age. 
 
 The second instance of our Saviour's touching sympathy 
 for the bereaved and the sorrowing which we shall adduce, is 
 that which relates to the raising of Lazarus from the tomb. 
 A beloved brother, the guardian, prop and pride of two 
 orphan sisters, is torn from the family circle by the cruel 
 hand of death ; he is taken away in the prime of manhood, 
 in the midst of his usefulnes, and at a time when his 
 presence seemed essential to the well-being and comfort of his 
 
 ■ 
 
 

 12 
 
 sisters, and he is now four days dead and buried away in the 
 silent tomb. His place is vacant at the family hearth, there 
 is a sad void in the homestead that cannot })e filled up, there 
 is a beloved presence wanting ; and grief bitter and over- 
 powering, and sorrow speechless and inexpressible, because 
 too great for utterance have tilled the souls of the 'tereaved 
 and brc' en-hearted sisters. Our Lord came to console them 
 in their heart-anguish and agony, and the sisters rushed out 
 to meet him, and in an outburst of passionate grief, and in 
 those piteous accents that smite the heart, exclaimed, '* 
 Lord, if thou hadst been here our brother would not have 
 died. But now we know that whatever thou slialt ask of 
 God, he will give it to thee." To their earnest plead* 
 ing, to supplications, aided by the silent but irresist^ 
 able eloquence of tears, our Lord replied in words 
 of tenderest sympathy and hopefulness that can never 
 be forgotten, and that have shone ever since like a rainbow 
 of promise over christian tombs : — " Your l)rot}ier shall riso 
 again. I am the resurrection and the life ; ever37)ne that 
 believetli in me, though he be dead, shall live, and everyone 
 that liveth and believetli in me shall not tast(! death for ever." 
 And Jesus, seeing the grief of the disconsolate sisters, 
 groaned in spirit and wept, and going to the tomb wherein 
 Lazarus was laid, he cried with a loud voice : " Lazarus, 
 come forth." And presently, he that had been dead, came 
 forth from the tomb, a living man, and went home with his 
 sisters." John xi. How touchingly these instances of our 
 Saviour's tendei compassion s^jeak to the bereaved and 
 stricken heart ! What rays of blessed hope have they not 
 ministered to those who have been widowed or orphaned by 
 death ! But whilst they are calculated to console all weepers, 
 they have a special significance for those whom death has be- 
 reaved of their dear ones. Henceforward, if christians mourn 
 for the departed ones, they mourn not without hope. They know 
 that Jesus is " the resurrection and the life," and that those 
 who die in his holy church, and at friendship with him, will 
 
13 
 
 one day rise again to live for ever in the Kingdom of God^ 
 Death, therefore, has not absolute dominion over their de- 
 parted friends. These may sleep away for ages in their 
 forgotten graves, but in the spring-time of the resurrection 
 they will rise again in honour, in power and glory, to live 
 with Christ in his eternal kingdom. This hope is laid up in 
 the bosom of christian mourners, and in every age and clime, 
 has served to reconcile them to the death of their nearest 
 and most beloved. It is thus that our blessed Lord has 
 sublimated and sanctified sorrow and sufifering. He became 
 himself a man of sorrows; he bore those sorrows without plaint 
 or murmur, for" as a sheep before the shearers, so opened he not 
 his mouth." In his agony in the garden, when his soul was 
 sorrowful even imto death, he besought his heavenly father that 
 the chalice might pass away from him, but he added, "never- 
 theless, let not my will, but Thine, be done." He has thus 
 taught us, by his holy example, how to bear with patience and 
 resignation the trials of life, and, by uniting them to his 
 sufferings, how to make them expiatory and meritorious in 
 the sight of his eternal Father. Thus, sorrow and suffering 
 in the christian system, become a source of merit and of 
 sanctification, and, though our hearts may break with un- 
 controllable grief, we may offe]' them to God, all wounded and 
 bleeding though they be, and when thus offered, in union 
 with the sorrows and the agonized heart of Jesus, they 
 become most acceptable offerings in the sight of heaven. But 
 the example of om* Lord, on this point, has not only instructed 
 us how to bear our own trials and crosses with patience, but 
 it has also taught us to be kind anJ compassionate to those 
 who are in sorrow and affliction. He has given us an example 
 that, as he has done, so also we might do. And this blessed 
 and merciful example has been followed during the whole life 
 of his holy church. Wherever sorrows were to be comforted, 
 wherever tears were to be dried, wherever pain was to be 
 assuaged,wherever wounded and broken hearts were to be 
 healed and bound up, there, men and women, consecrated to 
 
 ' i : I 
 
 i 
 
m 
 
 14 
 
 k 
 
 Christ and animated by his spirit and example, were to be 
 found as ministering angels, happy to suffer and to die if only 
 th(;y could bring comfort and consolation to the suffering and 
 sorrowing members of the crucified Redeemer. God alone 
 can tell how much this sad world owes, in this respect, to the 
 teachings and example of its Saviour. 
 
 There is another class for which our Lord entertained a 
 special compassion and mercy, namely, sinners. In a 
 spiri%al sense they are blind and deaf, and lame, and sick, 
 and leprous. In the language of inspiration, they may con- 
 sider themselves rich and made wealthy, and as having need 
 of nothing ; but they are wretched and miserable, and poor, 
 and blind, and naked." Apocalypse iii, 17. They are poor 
 for they have lost their eternal inheritance. They are slaves 
 for they have lost the liberty of the children of God, and are 
 bound bj'the servitude of Satan. " Amen, I say to you, " said 
 
 Christ, ** that whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin." 
 ... . . ® 
 
 iJohn viii, 34. They are spiritually dead, for they have lost 
 
 the life of their souls. ! more wretched and more pitiable 
 
 far than the blind, the lame and the deaf, are sinners who 
 
 have lost the treasures of God's friendship, have forfeited 
 
 their rights to heaven, and have wrecked their innocence and 
 
 destroyed the very life of their souls. Our Lord came 
 
 primarily for the salvation of sinners, to seek and save that 
 
 which was lost. The primary object of his coming was not 
 
 to heal the diseases and ailments of the body, but to heal the 
 
 diseases and wounds of the soul ; was not to restore the life 
 
 of the body, but to restore the lost life of the soul, ii, then, 
 
 our Saviour wrought miracles for the healing of bodily 
 
 diseases and the restoration of the dead to life, ! what 
 
 miracles of mercy will he not work for the salvation 
 
 and life of the imperishable soul, for the happiness, 
 
 the endless bliss cf this living image of God, this immortal 
 
 being, the salvation of which is a greater work and a greater 
 
 good than the creation of the material world, than the glory 
 
 of the stars and all the beauties of the universe. Hence we 
 
15 
 
 find that bis whole life was one divine effort for the conversion 
 and salvation of the sinner. This was so markedly the case 
 that the Fharisees reproached him fov it and stigmatised him 
 as the friend of publicans and sinners. Whereupon our Lord 
 replied: ''Those that are well have not need of a physician, 
 but those that are sick; going therefore, learn what this 
 meaneth. I wish mercy and not sacrifice, for I am come to 
 call, not the just, but sinners to repentance." (Luke xv. 12-18.) 
 He likens himself to the good shepherd who leaveth 
 ninety-nine sheep in the desert and goes in search of the one 
 that is lost, and declares " that there is joy in heaven before 
 the angels of God upon one sinner that doth penance more 
 than ninety-nine just who need not penance." (Luke xv. 7.) 
 He is the father of the prodigal. A certain man, says om* 
 Lord, had two sons, and one was a prodigal, and the prodigal 
 taking his share of the father's substance, went into a foreign 
 country, and there wasted his fortune on riotous living. That 
 country was scourged by a wasting amine and the prodigal 
 was reduced to the necessity of feeding on the husks of swine. 
 So far the proligal was but the type and exemplification of 
 the base ingrititude and deep degradation of the sinner. The 
 poor prodigal entering into himself called to mind the home 
 of his father, its pure and innocent joys and the plenty that 
 abounded therein, and he said, ** I will arise and go home 
 to my father, and I will say to him, father, I have sinned 
 against heaven and before thee ; I am no more worthy to be 
 called thy son, make me one of thy servants." And when the 
 poor penitent returned, the father no longer remembered the 
 injury that had been done him nor the base ingratitude of his 
 erring son, but he received him with open arms and the 
 heart of a father went out in pity and forgiveness to his poor 
 returned child, all tattered and torn and travel-stained, but 
 repentant, he restored him to the protection and the privi- 
 leges of his home, and caused rejoicings to be made because 
 his son that had been dead was come to life again, had been 
 lost and was found." (Luke xv.) It is thus our Saviour treats 
 
 
/ 
 
 16 
 
 G 
 
 repentant sinners. No matter how base and black their 
 ingratitude, no matter how numerous and enormous their 
 offenses, though their sins were as red as scarlet and as deep 
 as crimson, thougli they were as numberless as the leaves of 
 Autumn, or as the sands of the sea-shore, the Father of the 
 prodigal — Jesus Christ — will receive the returning and repent- 
 ant sinners with open arms, and will restore them their lost privi- 
 leges and the friendship of God. His precious blood will blot 
 out their sins from the book of God's recollection, and the 
 tide of bis infinite mercies will rise above their wickedest 
 transgressions and drown them in eternal oblivion. 
 
 It would be too tedious to dwell on other instances 
 of our Saviour's mercy to sinners as related in the Gos- 
 pel, such as the forgiveness of Magdalen and of the woman 
 taken in adultery. We may well say with St. John, that 
 if all that our Lord said and did and suffered for the sal- 
 vation of sinners were written, the world itself would not be 
 able to contain the books that should be written. (Johnxxi. 25.) 
 "We shall only call attention to the last dread scene on Cal- 
 vary. We know that our Saviour is there offered up as a 
 victim for our sins. The Lord, said the prophet, hath laid 
 upon him the iniquity of us all. He was wounded for our 
 iniquities and bruised for our sins ; the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon him and by his bruises we have been healed. 
 Let us now ascend in spirit to the hill of Calvary to witness 
 the scene that is there transpiring, to assist at the bloody 
 but all-atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. He has 
 already hung nearly three long hours on the ignominious 
 gibbet, a spectacle to angels and to men. His life-blood is 
 ebbing fast through the five wounds until the fountains of 
 the heart are well nigh exhausted. An awful darkness is 
 stealing over Calvary's hill and wrapping it in its pitchy 
 folds ; the graves are being stirred with a strange life, for the 
 dead are awaking from their sleep of ages, startled into life 
 by the -ivine tragedy, and are about to walk through the 
 streets of the holy city. At this awful moment the Jews 
 
r 
 
 17 
 
 cease not to mock and deride our dying Saviour and to 
 scoflf at his untold sorrows and abandonment. One would 
 expect that our Lor J. in his justice would summon his 
 angels to destroy those guilty wretches and rid the world 
 of deicides, no longer worthy to live. But no ; our blessed 
 Saviour, summoning his remaining energies, and turning 
 up towards heaven his eyes that were swimming in tears 
 of agony and dim with the shadows of approaching death, 
 made a last appeal for mercy, saying : "0 Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do." And bowing his 
 head he expired. His last prayer offered up with his dying 
 breath upon the cross was for pardon and forgiveness for 
 the greatest sinners, the most guilty criminals that ever 
 profaned God's creation. 
 
 One drop of the precious blood of Jesus shed upon the 
 cross would have been sufficient to redeem a thousand 
 guilty worlds, and yet he poured it all out to the very last 
 drop to prove to us the infinitude of his love. His precious 
 blood atoned fully to the justice of (lod for the sins of 
 mankind, it blotted out the handwriting of death that was 
 against us and purchased us with a great price. His l)lood 
 was shed for all the children of men from fallen Adam down 
 to the last that will be born of woman. It ascended in its 
 redeeming effects up through the centuries to the beginning 
 - of time, and will descend in a tide of mercies to the consum- 
 mation of the world. The victim, it is true, was offered onl}- 
 on Calvary, but the blood of that victim bathed the world 
 in its saving tide, and washed the shores of all ages. It 
 gave infinite honor and glory to God, made full atonement to 
 the Divine justice, lifted up a fallen world and placed it once 
 more on the plane of its immortal destinies; it redeemed 
 mankind from the curse of the fall, liberated tliem from 
 the bondage of Satan and restored them to the glori- 
 ous freedom of the sons of God and to the heir- 
 ship of the kingdom of heaven. We may, therefore, 
 truly and in deepest gratitude say with the Church : 
 

 18 
 
 " certe neccbSJiiiiiui adib pciccatiim (juod Cliristi morte 
 deletum est." "() felix culpa ciuu' tak'in et tantum meruit 
 habere liedemptorem." "0 truly necessary Hin of Adam 
 which the death of Christ has Idotted out." "0 happy fault 
 that merited such and so great a Uedeemer." 
 
 But here we must conclude. 
 
 Were we to sjx'ak with the tongues of men and of angels 
 we could not convey an adequate idea of all the graces, mer- 
 cies, and blessings conferred upon mankind by our Blessed 
 Redeemer. We can only say with the Psalmist, that since 
 His advent "the earth is filled with the* mercy of the Lord." 
 Jesus is indeed our God and our all, the life of our life and 
 the treasure of our hearts : the Sovereign truth and the 
 Supreme good. He is the author and finisher of our faith, 
 the immovable anchor of our hope, the divine object of our 
 charity; He is our life, our sweetness, and our hope here, and 
 will, we humbly trust, be our exceedhig great reward here- 
 after. He is everything to us, " for it would have profited us 
 nothing," says the Church, " to be born if we had not been 
 redeemed." let us give him the whole homage and serv- 
 ice of our being ; let us love him with our whole heart and 
 soul, and mind, and strength. He is our God, let us adore 
 and worship him in spirit and in truth; he is our lledeemer ; 
 let us never cease to thank and praise him, "for the Lamb 
 that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity, and 
 strength, and honor, and glory, and benediction," (Apoc. v. 
 11); he is our Father, let us give him the obedience of dutiful 
 children. Let us give ourselves entirely to him as he has 
 given himself entirely for us. Let us often say to him in all 
 sincerity with St. Augustine, " beauty ever ancient and 
 always new, too late have 1 known thee, too late have I loved 
 thee"; and with St. Paul, "who shall separate us from the 
 love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or 
 nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the sword ? . . . 
 I am sure that neither death nor life, . . . nor any other 
 creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 
10 
 
 which is in Christ Josim our Lord." (Rom. viii. 35-HO.) There 
 is hut one thin<,s dearly l)elovcd l)rethren, that ean se')arate 
 US from the love of Christ, and that is sin. Tliis ia the 
 supreme evil, as God is the Supreme ^ood. Intwetni Clod and 
 sin there is an infinite distance, an invineihle contradiction, 
 an absolute opposition. Sin is the <j;reat enemy of (rod and 
 man, it has filhul heaven with mournin*^-, liell with \vailinjj;s 
 and lamentations, and tiic earth with untold miseries aud 
 calamities. It has brought [X'stilence, famine, sorrow and 
 death into the world, it has caused all the altlictions that 
 have fallen on mankind, all the si<j,lis that have ever been 
 heaved from the human ])Osom, all the tears tliat have ever 
 faDen from the eyes of men, it has wrun^ tears even from the 
 sacred eyes of Jesus himself, for if he wept over the <^rave of Laz« 
 arus and over the city of Jerusalem, it was because they symbol- 
 ized souls ruined find lost by sin. It was sin which nailed Jesus 
 to the cross and put him to an i<]fn()minious death. And so 
 enormous is sin in its intrinsic malice, and so injurious to 
 CJod, that St. Paul does not hesitate to say that they wbo 
 commit it *' crucify again tiic Son of God and make a mock- 
 ery of him." (Hebrews, vi. (J.) Since, therefore, sin is the 
 supreme evil, since it alone can separate us from Christ, and 
 render all that he has done and suffered for us vain and fruit- 
 less, we should detest it with out whole heart and soul, we 
 should sincerely repent of having ever committed it, and 
 during our whole lives, but especially during the lioly season 
 of Lent we should do our utmost by sincere repentance and 
 penitential works, and the worthy reception of the Sacrament 
 of Penance, to repair the injury done to God by our sins, to 
 obtain forgiveness of them, and to obta'.i the grace of serving 
 our Lord and Master in holiness and justice all our days. 
 
 The conclusions to be drawn from all that we have said 
 are briefly as follows *. 
 
 1st. We should love our Ijord Jesus Christ with our whole 
 heart and soul, for he first loved us and delivered himself for 
 us, and with St. Paul we should count all things as valueless 
 
 \ 
 
I: 
 
 20 
 
 and vile, provided wo {^'ain Christ and abide in his love and 
 friendship. 
 
 2nd. We shoiibi vuhic the salvation of our immortal souls 
 al)ove all things, and as the great end and object of our exist- 
 ence here, since Christ so prized them as to lay down his life 
 for them, and to purcliase them even by the shedding of his 
 precious l)l()od : and in order to urge ourselves to lal)or every 
 day tor our sahntion, we should fre([uently put to our hearts 
 and consciences the momentous ({uestion of our Lord : "What 
 dotli it profit a man to gain the whole world if he lose 
 his soul, or what exchange shall a man give for his soul.'^ 
 (Math. xvi. 28.) 
 
 8rd. Instructed by the teachings and example of our 
 l)lessed Lord, we should embrace poverty, toil, sorrows and 
 aMictions as coming from the hand of God. We should 
 accept them wMtli humble and patient resignation to the 
 Divine will, and sliould make use of them, in union with the 
 merits of Christ, as occasions of merit and means of sane* 
 tification, "for Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an 
 example that we should follow his steps." (1 Peter, ii. 21.) 
 
 4tli® After the example of (-hrist we should be charitable 
 to the poor, tender and compassionate towards the sorrowing 
 and attiicted, kind and attentive to the sick, and forgiving and 
 merciful to those who have injured us. " Blessed are the 
 merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." " 1 was hungry and 
 you gave me to eat, J was a stranger and you took me 
 in, naked and you covered me, sick and you visited me^ 
 (Math. XV. 35.) ^ 
 
 5tli. We should detest and abhor sin with all the energy 
 of our being, as it is the supreme evil, the great enemy of 
 Clod and man, the cause of all the calamities that have 
 scourged the earth, the fountain of all the bitter tears that 
 have fallen drop by drop from the eyes of man, and the 
 crucifier of the Son of God himself. We should heartily repent 
 of our past sins and firmly resolve, with the assistance of 
 God's grace, never again to fall into this dreadful evil. And 
 
 th 
 
21 
 
 in order ti) avoid this evil of sin and to be able to do the good 
 and to practise the virtues that God requires of us, we should 
 make use of the means of grace that (/hrist in his mercy has 
 instituted for this purpose, viz : fervent and constant prayer, 
 the frequent and worthy reception of the Sacraments, and 
 pious and regular attendance at tlie holy sacrilice of the Mass. 
 We should also avoid tho occasions of sin, for they who lovfi 
 danger shall perish in it. 
 
 M&y God in his mercy grant you the grace to practine 
 these salutary lessons and to carry them out in your daily life 
 and conduct. And we should make a special effort to do /-^o 
 during the holy season of Lent. During this time also tliy)se 
 who are able should faithfully observe the solemn fast pre- 
 scribed by the Church, and those who are not bound to fast 
 should observe the precept of abstinence and chastise their 
 l)odies and mortify their Hesh by other penitential works. ' 
 
 '* Jiehold now is the acceptable time, and now is the iday 
 of salvation." ('2 Cor. vi. 2.) "Let the wicked man forsake 
 his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return 
 to the Lord, and then he will have mercy upon him." (Isxias 
 Iv. 7.) "Let us cast off the works of darkness and pu^ on 
 tlie armor of light; let us walk honestly as in the day, not in 
 rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, 
 not in contention and strife, but put ye on the Lord .fesus 
 Christ." (Piomans, xiii. 14.) Yes, we must join the great 
 fast from sin with the fast of Lent, in order that the 
 latter may be really acceptable to our heavenly Father, and 
 beneficial to our poor souls. For of what avail will it be to 
 us if, whilst we fast in the body, our souls fast not from sin 
 and vicei* The fast from sin and wicked pleasures is the 
 perfect fast, without which the corporal fast will be of little 
 benefit. God rejected the fast of the Jews because on the 
 days of theii' fasting they continued to offend him by their 
 customary sins (Isaias Iviii.), and will he be better satis- 
 tied with us if we, in pretending to fast, are guilty of the 
 like inconsistency and folly ? We must, therefore, fast from 
 
1 
 
 all dishoneBty, calumny and detraction ; from immodest 
 words and acts ; from reading bad books and journals; 
 from drunkenness and rioting ; in fine, from every thought, 
 > word and action that would offend God and transgress his 
 Divine law. And whilst fasting from all such wickedness, we 
 must apply ourselves to good works and acts of mercy. *' Is 
 not this," saith the Lord, *' the fast that 1 have chosen ? " 
 " LooRe the bands of wickedness and break asunder every 
 burden. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy 
 and harborless into thine house ; when thou shalt see one 
 n^ked, cover him, and despise not thine own Hesh. Then 
 shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health 
 shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face. 
 Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall hear." (Isaias Iviii.) 
 
 Let us, therefore, spend this holy and penitential season 
 of Lent in accordance with the spirit and requirements of the 
 Church. Let all perform their Easter duty by worthily re- 
 ceiving the Sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Euchar- 
 ist, as we are commanded to do by the Church, under the 
 gravest penalties. Let us sincerely repent of our sins, bewail- 
 ing' them in the bitterness of our souls; let our cry ascend 
 daily to God for mercy and forgiveness, beseeching him to 
 look upon the face of his Christ, and for the sake of his 
 bitter passion and death to have compassion on us whom he 
 has redeemed in his precious blood. Let family prayers and 
 the Rosary be punctually said in every household; let the 
 passion and death of Christ be the subject of frequent thought 
 and reflection; and in this way we shall spend Lent in a 
 manner pleasing to God, and fruitful in blessings to our- 
 selves ; and we shall emerge from the gloom of Lent into 
 Easter joys, happy in the consciousness of having honestly 
 endeavored to promote God's glory, and the salvation of our 
 souls. 
 
 We request the Kevd. Clergy to visit their flocks during 
 this holy season, especially the lukewarm and the sinful, with 
 the view of inducing them to give up the evil of their ways 
 
and return to God and the observance of their religious 
 duties. We also reciuest the Revd. pastors to hold public 
 devotions in their churches at least twice a week, said 
 devotions to consist of the recitation of the liosary, or the 
 performance of the Way of the Cross, an appropriate instruc- 
 tion, and the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, which 
 we authorize to be given on those occasions. 
 
 The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the charity of 
 God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you 
 all. (11 Cor. xiii. l;3.) 
 
 This pastoral shall bo read in all the churches of the 
 Diocese at the earliest convenience of the clergy. 
 
 Given at St. Peter's Palace, London, on this the Feast of 
 St. Mathias, Apostle, 24tb February, A.D., 1881. 
 
 t JOHN WALSH, 
 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 i3y order of His Lordship, \ 
 
 William O'Maiionv, Secretary.) 
 
24 
 
 The following are the Lenten regulations to be observed in 
 this Diocese : — 
 
 1st. All days of Lent, Sundays excepted, are fasting days. 
 
 2nd. By a special dispensation from the Holy See, A.D. 
 1875, meat is allowed on Sundays at every meal, and at one 
 meal on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, 
 except the Saturday of Ember Week and Holy Saturday. 
 
 3rd. The use of flesh meat and fish at the same time is not 
 allowed in Lent. 
 
 4th. The following persons are exempted from abstinence, 
 viz. : — Children under seven years ; and from fasting, persons 
 under twenty-one; and from either or both, those who, on 
 account of ill-heaJth, advanced age, hard labors, or some 
 other legitimate cause, cannot observe the law. 
 
 5th. Lard may be used in preparing fasting food during 
 the season of Lent, as also on all days of abstinence through- 
 out the year by those who cannot easily procure butter. 
 
 The season within which all who have attained the proper 
 age are obliged to make the Paschal Communion, commences 
 on Ash Wednesday and terminates on Trinity Sunday.