Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/72

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48
DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN

lower middle-class come. Of course, in so small a body, each Canon has a good deal of personal influence and has his own idiosyncrasies. My principal object has been two-fold: to preach the Gospel of Christ as applied to human life very directly and simply in the afternoon, and to work steadily for the national character of the Cathedral. Whenever any great man in Church or State has died, I have always had a special paragraph in my afternoon sermon. My desire has been that St Paul's should be known to sympathise with the joys and sorrows of the nation; and the Dean and Canons agree. We have always been, I think, a very united Chapter.”

“Then, I understand, you have been interested in suggesting and arranging special memorial or thanksgiving services, as occasion demanded?”

“Yes; we have in my time revived the ancient custom of having memorial services for members of the Royal Family and others of national importance, as was the use at St Paul's in pre-Reformation times and under different circumstances. With the help of Sir John Puleston, I introduced the annual Welsh service on St David's Eve, when the Cathedral is filled with Welsh people and the whole service is in their own language. Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Service at St Paul's was, I believe, the result of an article which Lord Frederick Hamilton, the editor, asked me to write for the Pall Mall Magazine on the