Life of Father Ignatius of St. Paul, Passionist (The Hon. & Rev. George Spencer).

CHAPTER V.
Prospects Of Widening His Sphere Of Action.

Towards the close of the year 1834, Earl Spencer died. George, of course, felt it deeply; he loved his father with, if possible, more than filial affection, for he could look up since his childhood to his paternal example; and all the virtue he was able to practise during his younger days, despite the occasions into which he was cast, he attributed chiefly to the influence of his father's authority. The country lost a statesman, and the Catholics an advocate in the noble earl; his death was therefore regretted by more than his immediate family; but there was one great reason why his son felt so deeply—his father had not died a Catholic. There were many things to make up for his exclusion from the mementoes of his son in the mass, as not being one of those qui nos praecesserunt cum signo fidei; such as, his real natural goodness, his acting up to his lights, and his kind treatment of his son; but they were, of course, poor, weak assuagements to the stern fact that he could not pray publicly for the repose of his soul, and only, by the merest conditional permission, even privately. Father Spencer goes shortly after to Althorp. The new earl thinks proper to prohibit his brother speaking to any except those of his own rank while visiting there. He had, of course, his reasons, but it was a sore trial to Father Spencer, who ever loved the poor, and never felt so happy as when exercising his patience in listening to the detailed account of their sufferings, or in trying to relieve them by words or alms. He put up with it, and a thank God soon made him at home amid lords and ladies for the time of his short stay.

It may strike some person as a very strange thing that this illustrious convert and great saint, as he really was and appeared to be, should be shut up in a poor hamlet whose name does not appear even on railway maps, and not located in some resort of pride and fashion. But the Honourable and Reverend George Spencer had seen enough of fashion and gentility to be thoroughly disgusted with both the one and the other. He understood no way of going to heaven except that which Our Lord pointed out to us and went Himself first for us to follow, the way of the cross in poverty and humility. Hence he applied to Bishop Walsh for the poorest and worst mission in the diocese. If one will not be inclined to give this good Bishop credit for forwarding the apostolical intentions of his young priest, let him know that there might be also a more inferior motive why he should accede to his request. Priests with private incomes can better subsist in poor missions than those who depend on the charity of their flocks; and we find at present that many, who have property of their own, are appointed, notwithstanding the honourable and creditable prefixes to their names, to missions which are not able to support a priest from their internal resources. These two reasons put together will account for the placing of the Hon. and Rev. George Spencer in the mission of West Bromwich.

St. Thomas defines zeal, "an intense love by which one is moved against and repels whatever is detrimental to the good of his friend, and does his best to prevent whatever is against the honour or the will of God." Alphonsus Rodrigues says: "It is the love of God on fire, and a vehement desire that He should be loved, honoured, and adored by all; and so intense is it, that he who burns therewith tries to communicate its heat to every one." This effect of zeal is the special gleam by which the shining of great saints can be distinguished from ordinary servants of God. They are filled with the love of God, they overflow with it, and dash off floods that sweep down vice and sin by their impetuosity. When obstacles occur to show that the time is not opportune, or that the sluices should not yet be drawn, the saints are far from languishing into ordinary ways. No; the springs are open afresh, their hearts are filling the more they are pent up, and seek avenues on every side and in every way in which they may possibly allow some heavenly water to escape. Such was the zeal of St. Chrysostom, who would be blind if his audience could but see. Such was the love of St. Francis Xavier, who went through unknown and almost inaccessible regions to convert the heathen. Such was the love of St. Teresa, who sighed that she was not a man, because her sex and state forbade her to be an apostle. Such was the Psalmist, when he said, "The zeal of Thy house has eaten me up."

The difference between heavenly zeal and fanaticism is, that one is willing to be directed, the other breaks the bonds of authority. One acts sweetly and consistently, the other intemperately and rashly. One distrusts self, the other begins and ends with self.

Father Spencer was full of zeal. It was, in fact, his zeal that brought him into the Church. Now that he found himself commissioned to propagate God's kingdom, his zeal arose to that of the saints, and began to burst forth and devise means by which that kingdom could be speedily and perfectly spread. He devised plans for the sanctification of the clergy by introducing a kind of religious life amongst them; he formed plans for the perfection of the laity, after an old but abandoned model, which will be described; he had conceived plans of founding a religious institute, of which a devout soul he knew was to be first rev. mother; he had plans of preaching, away at some place or places which he does not tell us about; he had plans for finding out the secret by which the Jesuits became such successful missionaries; he had plans of going to Cambridge for an installation, and bearding the lion of heresy and error in his very den;—and all these he proposed from time to time to his director and diocesan superior, but all met the one fate of being drowned by the cold water thrown upon them. He complains a little, in a letter he wrote at this time, of "the slowness of Catholic prelates with regard to schemes;" but after being told to lay them aside, he resigns himself with perfect submission. He finds out, in a short time, that the Catholic prelates were right, and he drops his wings completely, by saying: "I am resolved to give up forming plans for the future, and I shall try to gain more love of God and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. This again He must give me, and Mary must gain it for me; or rather, I must charge her to persevere in making this request for me, whether I forget it occasionally or not." Besides the crossing of his plans, he has another cross to endure; he loves to visit Hagley, where Lady Lyttelton, his sister, generally lived, and he is received only on condition that he will not speak of religion. This he feels hard, as he loved this sister very much, and thought he could not show a greater proof of his affection than that of communicating to her, if possible, what he prized more than his life—his faith.

One plan he forms, however, which does not meet with the disapproval of his superiors, and that was, to go to London and beg among his aristocratic friends for funds for a new church he intended building at Dudley. He seems to have succeeded pretty well, as there is a nice gothic church there at present, which was built by him. We have only one peculiar incident of his first begging tour.

He took it into his head to go and ask a subscription of the Duchess of Kent, mother to our Queen. He was received kindly by the Duchess, and the Princess Victoria was allowed to be present at the conversation. Father Spencer spoke for some time about the lamentable state of England, on account of its religious divisions; he gave a short account of his own conversion, and wound up by putting forward the claims of the Catholic Church to the obedience of all Christians, as there ought to be but one fold under one shepherd. It may be said that he formed a very favourable opinion of the Princess from this meeting; he said once, when relating the story: "I considered the Princess very sensible and thoughtful. She listened with great attention to everything I said, and maintained a respectful silence, because she sat beside her mother. I had great hopes of her then, and so far they have not been disappointed. I hope ye will all pray for her, and we may one day have the pleasure of seeing her a Catholic." This he said in 1863, and then he was firmly convinced that the Duchess herself had died a Catholic.

He returned soon to his mission in West Bromwich, and writes, in a letter to Mr. Phillipps: "I had a project in my head when I returned, more extensive than any that filled it of late. That is, going to Dublin to see if there I might find some unknown mine out of which I could draw what I want for Dudley. This soon grew into the thought of a tour round Ireland, and the subject of collecting alms for Dudley soon began to look trivial and secondary. I could hardly contain myself at the thoughts of preaching all over Ireland the conversion of England, and exhorting them all to forget their earthly miseries in the view of our spiritual ones, and to begin to retaliate the evils they have endured in the way of the true Christian, not by violent opposition, but by rendering good a thousandfold, or rather beyond reckoning." This scheme was put off for some time, by the advice of the Rev. Mr. Martyn, who seems to have been his director.

In the beginning of August, 1835, Father Spencer got a severe attack of illness: it proceeded principally from over-exertion. He began to spit blood, and as soon as his friends heard of it, his sister, Lady Lyttelton, and his brother-in-law, Lord George Quin, came for him and took him to Hagley, where he might be carefully nursed until he should recover. They set him down to say mass in Stourbridge, and allowed him all the spiritual aid he wished for, even going so far as to invite a priest to come and stay with him, and make Hagley his home for the time. This was in keeping with their usual kindness, and Father Spencer never forgot it; nay, he would treasure up the least act of kindness done him by any one, much more so when received from those who differed from him in religious matters. He writes now, apparently under the shadow of death: one thing looks strange to him when he thinks of dying, that he cannot see why God gives him such a strong desire for an apostolic life if it be not sometime carried into effect. "It may be that He will give me the merit of the desires without their accomplishment, but this seems less probable. His will be done. I only mention this to prevent your being discouraged on my account. What is an illness in His sight? It is easier to restore me my vigour than at first to give it to me. Let us only wait prepared for quick obedience to His call, whether for this world or the next." In another letter, written about the same time, he says: "What I am further to do must be decided by my present bodily director, Dr. Johnstone, to whom for my correction and humiliation the Bishop has committed me."

It seems most likely that he wrote the autobiography during this illness; it has the marks and tokens of his then state of mind upon the first part of it at least.

After his recovery there is talk of his being made a bishop, and some of his friends are doing their best, by writing and so forth, to help his promotion to the mitre. No better idea can be given of the way he felt with regard to this matter, than by introducing a letter he wrote at the time to one of his friends:

"I know you are as eager about everything that concerns me as about your own matters; and that you are now boiling to come and be busy about this most interesting affair. Yet it will prove better to go on quietly. To be sure I should exult if it please God of His own will to enlarge my powers and faculties of advancing His kingdom, trusting to Him to furnish me with graces sufficient; but the call must be clear, and His will manifest, or, I thank God, I have made up my mind to answer, I stir not. And how can I know this but by the rule of obedience? Many reasons strike me pro and con. immediately; but these I had better not meditate upon. I shall leave it to Dr. Walsh to decide whether I accept or do not. I cannot be right any other way. If he chooses to hear me plead the cause for myself, stating what I think are the motives pro and con., I will do it when he likes; if not, it is certainly better not to go against him. I was at Prior Park three years ago, when Dr. Baines knows that I refused the offer of an Irish clergyman to propose me for an Irish bishopric, on Dr. Walsh's judgment, and he approved of that decision. No doubt he will of this."

We hear nothing further of this, so it is likely Dr. Walsh judged it proper for him to refuse the contemplated honour.

CHAPTER VI.
Newspaper Discussions, Etc.

From the end of the year 1835 to the middle of 1836, Father Spencer was more or less engaged in newspaper controversy with some ministers. The first champion of Protestantism, or rather assailant of Catholicism, he condescended to argue with was a Mr. Gideon Ouseley. This gentleman is described in a letter written at the time as a "Low Church parson, or Methodist, of Armagh." There may be some distinction between the two characters, but it is only fair to say that we freely grant him the benefit of the doubt. They had a paper fight about the usual topics of controversy, beginning with mis-statements of doctrine from Mr. Ouseley and explanations from Mr. Spencer, and continuing through a very brisk parrying of logical thrusts to a conclusion which ended by the newspaper refusing to insert any more letters. Some good effects may have been produced by the controversy, which seldom happens, and also some breaches of charity; but there is one circumstance worthy to be mentioned, though perhaps it cannot well be traced back to The Watchman newspaper, that this same Rev. Gideon Ouseley is, at the time these pages are writing, the officiating chaplain of the soi-disant monks of Norwich, Br. Ignatius and his companions.

The next adversary was a Mr. Dalton. Father Spencer expends some very good arguments on him, among others, the following in the first letter: "You and other Protestants may say that they consider this doctrine (transubstantiation) unscriptural; but the arguments by which you endeavour to impugn it never are scriptural. I once used to argue against it myself, and the best arguments I could find were from reason." There may be fault found with this argument, because a thing could be unscriptural, though its denial or refutation were not; but F. Spencer establishes the positive side of the question afterwards. And the argument was good thus far that its denial is an Article of the 39, which should be proved by "sure warranty of Scripture." He does so in a passage which begins thus: "If Scripture be appealed to simply, I know not how any one can deny that it speaks altogether in our favour, whenever the Eucharist is mentioned or alluded to. When we are asked for proofs of our doctrine we invariably begin by an appeal to the simple words of Christ given in Scripture. 'This is my body,' 'This is my blood,' which, taken as they stand, can agree with no doctrine but the Catholic."

F. Spencer thought he had a gentleman to deal with in his adversary, but found that he had overrated the attributes his charity supposed him to possess. He pointed an argument upon the unity of our teachers as contradistinguished from sectarian ones, by bringing in Mr. Dalton and his brother us an example. At this Dalton took offence, and F. Spencer made a most ample and beautiful apology. This evoked all the bile of his opponent in a flourish of trumpets, by which he boasted of a post relinquished in the argument, which really argued gain in F. Spencer as a Christian antagonist. He flung out then in glorious confusion—imperfect councils, bad popes, Spanish inquisitions, just as they came to hand. When Spencer saw this, he thought of answering him according to his folly, and instead of analyzing his "concentrated lozenge," wrote something in the style of cudgelling him for the fun of the thing next time. Here is an extract from his next letter, which is produced more as a specimen of his humour than of his logic:—

A sentence of Mr. Dalton's letter ran thus:

"But let me first remind you what our view of private judgment is. Do we mean that every man may set up as an interpreter of Scripture, that every shoemaker and ploughman (as Catholics say) may become a preacher? By no means; we recognise authority when it is scriptural, and believe that an authorized ministry is God's mode of extending the Bible."

Father Spencer replies:—

"Now this sentence suggests so many reflections to me that I hardly know which way to begin with it. I will first try what a little paraphrase will do, and explain what I think might perchance have been in your mind when you wrote it, and you may tell me whether I am near the mark before I make further comments on it. I would figure you to myself as reasoning thus with your self:—The right of private judgment must be maintained in some form, or else even we ministers shall not be able to stand our ground against the Romanists. If we allow of any reasonable notion of Church authority when we talk to them, they will hook us up again, and we shall not be able to assert even our own liberty to interpret as we like. But, on the other hand, if we put away talking of Church authority when we mount our pulpits, and impart the word to our hitherto obedient poor followers, they will begin to ask themselves, what need, then, is there of our reverend guides? Why should we pay any more tithes, and seat rents, and church rates, and Easter offerings, and the like? Yea! then would be sad danger that our craft would come to be set at nought, and the Temple of Great Diana (the Church of Great Elizabeth) would be reputed for nothing, and therefore we must teach people that there is such a thing as ministerial authority at least, if we cannot make much of an attempt to prove ecclesiastical authority; we must take care to maintain that to be capable of being a minister, a man must be able to read the New Testament in Greek, and the Old in Hebrew, at least, have a smattering of Hebrew, or else we shall have shoemakers and plough-men setting up opposition without being able to put them down; for they will be able to match us in what we must hold forth as the grand proof of the ministry, viz., that a man should be able to quote texts at pleasure, and talk about them so rapidly and unintelligibly as to make a congregation think him mighty wise and deeply spiritual. Such are the men who must be proclaimed worthy of great honour and admiration, but, above all, of ample revenues. Never mind how many contradictory systems enter into their respective reverend heads, we must persuade the people, as long as they will swallow it, that they all speak by the Holy Ghost. It would, indeed, be more according to Scripture and reason, if all who professed to be led by the Spirit taught one doctrine; but this we can never bring about, unless we all get back to popery: and, indeed, it is not needful, nor even expedient, for the purpose we have before us, which is not to speak sound words which cannot be reproved, but such words as will keep together our congregation, and suit their tastes. Now as the tastes of men are so various, it is absolutely necessary that the doctrines we give them should vary too, and, therefore, as we know that Bible truth is but one, and the Bible, nevertheless, is the book out of which we must all pretend to teach, we cannot sufficiently praise the cleverness of those gifted individuals, who, by organizing a sort of skirmishing ministry, to take the place of the old uniform heavy phalanx of the Romanists, one fit to extend the truth of the Bible, so as to suit the tastes of all sorts of men, have enabled so many of us to extract from the pockets of all a genteel maintenance for our wives and families. I have in this paraphrase found myself obliged to pass over one word when you speak of God's mode of extending the truth of the Bible. This operation, I think, God had never anything to do with. I believe that 1,800 years ago, God did, by his only Son, institute a ministry as his mode of preserving the truth of the Bible, but extending the truth of the Bible is a very different sort of affair. These words, though rather obscure, yet seem to convey very felicitiously the idea of what the Gospel ministers of the present day have accomplished, that is, making the Bible truth so extensive as to embrace all the various contradictory systems—Church of England, High, Low, Evangelical, et hoc genus omne. But the time would fail me to tell a tenth part of the glorious variety which the spiritual bill of fare of the nineteenth century presents to the dainty taste of our countrymen. This plan of truth extension is a wonder which was reserved for the wisdom of our preachers to contrive and to develope, under the guidance of a wiser spirit than that of man, and yet certainly not the spirit of God. The ancient saints had no more idea of it than Archimedes had of a hydraulic press. I have taken the liberty of playing upon your exposition of authority, to show how vain it is to attempt to uphold anything like a legitimate authority, and the right of private judgment together. I do not wonder that you got rather into a perplexity in trying to explain how they may be reconciled. The Church of England has tried to explain this matter in her 20th Article, but finds it too hard. She just says, 'the Church hath authority in controversies of faith,' but leaves it to her children to guess whether this authority be divine or human, infallible or fallible, granted her by the King of Heaven or the king of England. She intimates, indeed, that it is not quite to be depended on, by the next words, in which it is said, 'it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God's word written:' but again we are left to divine who the judge is, who is to keep the Church in order: is it the king, or every licensed preacher, or every single Christian? ..... Ah! these Articles are troublesome things. I have known what it is to be under those shackles, and what it is to be set free from them."

In the next letter, his opponent complains that Father Spencer has hurt his feelings, and made his heart sicken, which complaint the wily priest, as he was termed, began to answer thus:—

"I have heard of certain ladies who have recourse to a method something like this to escape being kept in order by their husbands, and who silence everything that is said against their humours by falling into hysterics. A tender husband will once or twice perhaps be melted by the alarming spectacle; he will run and fetch the smelling-bottle, ring for the servants, beg pardon, and say pretty things to compose his dear partner's mind again. But when he finds that as soon as she has gained her point she gets well directly, and is more saucy and wilful than before—if he wishes to be happy, or to make her so—he will be what she calls cruel next time, and let her get well by herself till she is tired of fainting fits. Now, sir, I have once been tender-hearted over you .... I apologized .... In the next letter you took advantage of this to make an impertinent remark. This discovered to me that your feelings need not be so tenderly dealt with, and I proceeded with my disagreeable questions, and shall still do so at the risk of your telling me in the next letter that I have not only sickened you, but made you quite faint away."

After thus sickening his delicate friend, he sums up in the last letter and answers the difficulties objected to him very well indeed. We forbear introducing purely controversial matter, except in as far as it bears upon the peculiar gifts or manner of Father Spencer. There is nothing but what any ordinary priest of fair acquirements could have said in defence of our doctrines in the remainder, except that the answer to the hackneyed objection about some councils being of doubtful authority is very clearly and forcibly given.

A third champion entered the lists before these had been "conquered" enough to think themselves qualified "to argue still." This was a Rev. W. Riland Bedford. Indeed, he was so impatient of distinguishing himself by the honour of having once engaged with so respectable a foe, that he could not wait until Mr. Dalton was ousted. Besides, it is very likely he thought Mr. Dalton was missing fine opportunities of giving clever strokes, by spending too much time in quarrelling with the ungenerous hits of his adversary or, perhaps, he thought he did not take the proper instruments of warfare. However, he made a grand stroke, and aimed also at what he believed to be the most vulnerable, as well as the most defenceless, spot in the person of F. Spencer's system. Here we might be corrected by the Maid of Lille, who said, very pertly, to Mr. Spencer once: "Catholics have no systems." They have doctrines. At all events, Mr. Riland Bedford did attack F. Spencer, and lest he might lose by being single-handed, a brace of them—Revs. Messrs. M'Ghee and himself—made an onslaught on Revs. Messrs. M'Donnel and Spencer, thereby intending, of course, to make a grand breach in Popery. The subject of their letters was the treating of certain sins by our moral theologians. F. Spencer made use of the usual line of defence here, but he added also an argumentum ad hominem. "St. Paul, in the chapter above referred to (Rom. i.), tells us that there were no sins more prevalent in his day, and none more destructive, than that grievous class of sins to which these questions relate. The afflicting experience of the pastors of the Church leads them to fear that no less awfully in these times and in this country, do habits of the like crimes make ruin of thousands of souls; and your own recollection of the University, where, I suppose, you were educated for holy orders, must convince you that our fears are not unfounded. For what must be expected in the body of the people, when, among those who are preparing to be their pastors, at the most critical time of their life, there are so few who dare openly to withstand the prevailing fashion of iniquity, and so many who profess to despise morality and chastity as a thing to be ashamed of." F. Spencer was tripped up in some allusions he made to a Protestant attempt at a prayer-book, of which there were two or three editions; but, since he happened not to be correct as to one edition, and to miss something about another, still, though his argument was not thereby weakened, but Rev. Mr. Riland Bedford thought it was, and so, or nearly so, the matter ended.

F. Spencer was induced to begin this paper controversy by the hope of conveying some information about Catholic dogmas to those who would not read Catholic books, but would, and did, read newspapers. Shortly after, he learnt, by one instance, what little good generally comes of this kind of contention. He paid a visit to Hagley, and, in a conversation with Lord Lyttelton, asked him if he had seen the Birmingham Gazette lately. "Yes," replied the other, "but delicacy forbade me to allude to your share in that concern." The sum of it was that his lordship thought George under a perfect delusion, and wondered he was not confounded at such powerful refutations as his adversary's were. All F. Spencer wrote looked to him perfectly trifling; so much so, that he had made up his mind to take George in hand himself, and convert him back again, and was then actually getting up some little theology to aid him in doing so more summarily. This George took in very good humour, and hoped good from, especially as Lord Lyttelton appeared to be the leader in the family in point of religion. He was doomed to a sad disappointment; for Lord Lyttelton died shortly after this conversation, and, as far as documentary evidence goes, without having had another conversation with Father Spencer.

CHAPTER VII.
Private Life And Crosses Of F. Spencer.

It could scarcely be supposed that the self-denying, laborious life of F. Spencer in West Bromwich, which has been already alluded to, could be one of those effervescent fits that pass away with the newness of change, when one remembers his life as a Protestant minister. He did not abate one iota of his mortifications or labours, but he became systematized with them, and managed, under the advice of his director, to keep from extremes. He no longer scrupled paying for a conveyance, if he thought the object of his journey was worth more than the coach-fare. For letters, he followed the same rule, though, as he was in a position to obtain franks very frequently, he had not so much difficulty to put up with in the matter of paying heavy postage. To bear these remarks out, we have some of his own letters, but the letter of a lady, who made his acquaintance some time about 1835, and had frequent opportunities of observing him up to the time of his becoming a Passionist, will be more satisfactory than snatches of sentences here and there, which accidentally tell what he was doing.

"In the year 1835 I first became acquainted with the Catholic religion, and, in consequence, with the Hon. and Rev. George Spencer, who instructed and afterwards received me into the Church. From that time till the present I never for a moment doubted of his extraordinary sanctity. He never in all his discourses with me, which were numerous, spoke of anything but with an aim to the glory of God. I knew his housekeeper at West Bromwich, a very good woman, who has been dead many years. She told me that she many times found him, very early in the morning, cleaning his own shoes, and she dare not let him see her for fear of confusion. She often remarked that he spent a very long time in the exercise of prayer and meditation. He was so zealous for the salvation of souls that whenever he saw any new comer in his chapel he would find them out, go to their houses and speak with them; he thus brought many into the Church. Although he was insulted in all kinds of ways, on his walks, he rejoiced and thanked God for all. When he opened his mission in Dudley, rather than go to a public inn he slept, wrapped up in a large rough cloak, on the bare floor of what served as for sacristy, and continued to do so for some time until he had a proper place prepared. Many nights at his own home he used to disturb the bed a little, but it was found that he had not lain in it at all for the whole night. When he was instructing me in the year 1836, he broke a blood-vessel, and though the blood literally flowed from his head into a dish, he continued on the instructions. He visited the sick constantly. On one occasion he went to see a poor woman, who had not one to attend her; she became very restless whilst he was there, and wanted to go downstairs; he wrapped her up in a blanket and carried her down. She was no sooner down than she wanted to be brought up again; he brought her up, too; she got quiet then, listened to him, and after a short time expired before he left the room.

"At one house where he visited, a child was suffering from a bad mouth, so that it was quite distressing to look at it. Father Spencer laid his finger on the child's tongue, and said, 'It will be well;' in a half-an-hour afterwards it was quite well. Once my grandmother was at the point of death; he came and blessed her, and in a day or two she was quite well." Miraculous cures are wrought very frequently by priests' blessings. "Whatever thou blessest shall be blessed," is not pronounced in vain at their ordination; and "we must," as Father Ignatius would say pointedly to those who reflected little on them, "remember that our Lord's words do deserve some little attention." Faith can remove mountains, and it is only proper and just that faith could do something less. Since the faith of the person "made whole" is often as powerful as the faith of the servant of God, each side escapes the vanity of having wrought wonders, by attributing the effect to the other. "He generally went to the kitchen himself, or other places, to get what he wanted, and would often do without a thing, rather than trouble his housekeeper or a servant, if he knew them to be engaged. He wished to be not only his own servant, but the servant of everybody as far as he could. He used to beg of my father and me to pray that he might become poorer than the poorest man we ever knew. He even once asked my father to pray that he might become so poor as to be compelled to lie down and die in a ditch. I never saw him out of heart or in the least discouraged, however difficult a case he might come across: he would generally say, 'We must go on, rejoice and thank God; it will all come right in the end.' One of his former high-up friends and he were walking by a lunatic asylum once, and his friend remarked that he should soon be fit for admission there. This he used to relate with as great glee as if he had received a first-rate compliment, perhaps greater. When he visited our house in the country once, he struck his head against a beam somewhere, and I was astonished at hearing him exclaim, 'Served me right.'"

Several dear friends die about this time, and the conflict between affection and religious detachment is beautifully pourtrayed in the yielding of the former to the latter by several remarks of his own and others, which we subjoin.

He hears of the death of Cardinal Weld about the beginning of the year 1837, and thus writes to Mr. Phillipps about it: "You have heard, of course, of Cardinal Weld's death. I have felt that it is to me like the loss of a father almost; for he treated me as a child, as no doubt he did a great many more. But we must not give way to sorrows, for we have enough to do with our feelings in the battle against present evils, without wasting them on evils which are irremediable." The next death he heard of was that of the Honourable George Quin, a nephew of his, and he wrote to Mr. Phillipps: "That is another warning to us to pray better for the remainder, when one of our four families is carried off before the fruit of our prayers appears." Somewhere about this time Lord Lyttelton dies also, without having succeeded in the project he formed last year, nor did poor Father Spencer succeed much in bringing him over to his side. He always respected this good brother-in-law, and the feeling was returned. He felt greatly for his loss, as well as for the bereavement of his sister. To add to his trials, a change comes over the relations between him and his family. Hitherto it was stipulated that Father Spencer was to be always received as a welcome guest provided he never spoke on religious subjects. The Bishop thinks it, as of course it was, unfair to place restrictions upon him, and not leave the matter to his own discretion. It was not quite becoming for a priest to pay visits, and keep his lips closed by contract on everything that was proper to his sacred character. On the other hand, the family did not like to have their agreeable parties disturbed by controversy, which was likely to draw out hotter words than was suitable to the state of things. Both sides had some kind of reason to show, and Father Spencer was placed between them. He communicated the decision of his bishop to the more influential members of the Spencer family, but he found they would not bend. He cheerfully gives up visiting, and even consoles some of his friends who manifest their concern that he should be debarred a pleasure so innocent and apparently so justifiable. How much he felt this, notwithstanding his cheerful resignation, may be seen from the following testimony, of one who knew him well, to the affection he had for Lady Lyttelton, his sister, who still survives:—

"In the year 1837 Mr. Mackey (Mrs. Mackey writes the letter) was engaged painting a picture for Father Ignatius, for his chapel at West Bromwich, and we saw a great deal of him. He was devotedly attached to his sister, Lady Lyttelton, and he often used to speak of her loving care of him when a boy; and once, when I quoted those lines of Gray:—

he was much affected, and said he had not heard them since his sister, Lady Lyttelton, repeated them to him after recovering from an illness when he was young. There was, also, a song he sang occasionally at our house, because she liked it, and had taught it to him. He sang it with such feeling that it always moved me to tears, and as soon as I heard of his death I began to sing it, and it kept recurring to me all day. I seemed to rejoice for him in the song. These are the words: they are Moore's:—

He was always very much moved when speaking of Lady Lyttelton."

It was no small sacrifice to submit with cheerfulness to the circumstances which prevented him visiting this sister, now that she had become a widow and had need of a consoler to help herself and children to bear their affliction. He simply says: "I find all my crosses and vexations to be blessings; and directly I made the sacrifice of feeling to duty, God sent me the best set of catechumens I have had yet. Among others, a man and wife who have been male and female preachers, among the Primitive Methodists, or Ranters."

His great friend and director, the Rev. Mr. Martyn, was the next of whose death he heard. This good and virtuous priest was more than a friend to Father Spencer. He served his novitiate to the work of the English mission, under his direction in Walsall, for three months before he came to West Bromwich. He had been his confessor and guide in all his practices of piety until now. He managed his affairs with as much interest as if they were his own; he was ever ready with his counsel and assistance, and seems to have taken the Dudley mission as soon as Father Spencer had built the church there. Father Spencer preached his funeral oration, and paid the last tribute of respect to his mortal remains in the very spot where he so often profited by his counsels. Here there was no cause of regret, except for the good priest's widowed flock, for his saintly life gave strong hopes of a blessed eternity.

It was said, in a former chapter, that he gave all his money to the Bishop, and had sums given him now and again, of which he returned an account at stated times, to see if the way in which he spent them would be approved of. It may be interesting to know how he kept these accounts. Fortunately a few leaves of the book in which they were noted have been found among his papers, and from them we make the following extract:—

To this may be added, that on the credit side he puts his instalments from the Bishop, and every single penny he gets in the shape of offerings, seat-rents, alms, &c., &c. There have also remained, between some of the leaves of this account-book, a few little slips of paper, on which he pencilled whatever he paid or received when away from home, so as to be able to note it down when he came back. It may be well to remark that the extract given above cannot be taken as an average of his expenditure, as December is a month when bills come in thicker than in other months of the year.

It will be remembered that this mode of managing his household affairs, was the result of the trial Father Spencer made of the vows of religion in his secular state, which has been alluded to in a former chapter.