Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/341

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i857-1862 281 Wolff asked why he did not go on with the history. " It is not our custom at Rome," was the reply. At a much later period, when Wolff was a priest in the English Church, he was urged to sign the protest against the appointment of Hampden to the Bishopric of Hereford. He declined to do so. He had seen much worse things done at Rome. Thus there was a Titular Archbishop of Elvira, von Haffelin, against whom the Pope himself warned Wolff, as an atheist and as immoral, having a number of natural children ; yet six weeks later this man was made a Cardinal. It would be too long a story to tell how Wolff came to England and found in the Anglican Church just what his soul had craved for—sincerity, zeal, piety, freedom from superstition, and a sincere love of truth. Wolff, when at Cairo, about to start as a missionary to the Bedouins, was advised, as the best way to open their minds to the Gospel, to supply them with castor oil. He accordingly spent ten pounds on over a hundred bottles. That apostolate did not prove a complete success. Dr. Wolff was a very stout man, with a pronounced double chin. He was short-sighted, and screwed up his eyes. He possessed an unusually tall head, and a profusion of white hair. His pulse beat one hundred throbs to the minute, and his constitution was astoundingly robust. Of his absolute sincerity there could not be entertained a doubt. His conviction that Christ was the promised Messiah was the mainspring of his thoughts and acts. His first expedition to Bokharah was a piece of unrivalled daring. Naturally he was of a timorous disposition, but it was only at the first shock of alarm that he felt fear. A few minutes later he was composed and unflinching, resolved to prosecute what he had taken in hand, cost what it might. And he possessed unbounded faith in God, and a conviction that Divine Providence would shield him in all dangers. That he was irascible need surprise no one who saw the power and individuality of the man, and his determination to carry out his will coute que coute. But he was easily placated, and had a most tender heart. His voice was like the bellowing of a bull, and yet, unlike a bull's voice, it was capable of delicate modulation. He preached in the chapel on the text " Saul, Saul, why