303 poetry, historical knowledge, and profound spirituality have made of me a very humble and unworthy disciple. Neale was not a man of striking exterior, or of an ascetic cast of countenance. He was eloquent with his pen rather than with his tongue. Being short-sighted he read his sermons from a little book held close to his eyes. He preached without action, and his voice had a nasal twang like that of an American. He wore black whiskers and his hair rather long. When men's hearts were failing them for fear, and everything in the Church seemed gloomy, then John Mason Neale came forward with words of encouragement. He began thus : "I remember going with a friend to an eminent physician ; every symptom showed that he was labouring under a serious, usually fatal illness. The physician told him that the organic injury was very great, very dangerous. But this was not the only inquiry. He proceeded by examination to elicit the facts that the general health was good, the appetite good, the constitution vigorous. Then he changed his tone, and spoke of disease being lived out, of organic injury being repaired, of the efforts of Nature proving successful: he hoped that it might be so in the present case. And the event proved that his hopes were well founded." Taking this as his theme, Neale proceeded to show that from the time of Edward VI onward, although the Anglican Church had suffered from many a blow, and had fallen into fits of religious dyspepsia, and had been brought very low, her organic functions had never been impaired, nor had her constitution been altered. The proper attitude for a Churchman to assume should be one of trust, and confidence in the future. " Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." " In your patience possess ye your souls." The Gorham Judgment produced a result of serious moment to the Established Church in England. It used to be said that any incumbent of dubious orthodoxy might hold a benefice if he were capable of holding his tongue. But the Gorham Judgment showed that a beneficed incumbent in England might contradict an article of the Creed, deny any doctrine in the offices of the Church which he professed with his mouth, and yet maintain his benefice with impunity.
