The Consecration of the Bishop of Sodor and Man will long be remembered, both at York and Sheffield; for no one can have been present on that occasion without having been profoundly impressed by the sight of the overwhelming congregation, and the many tokens of deep interest manifestly taken in the service. So many of the Sheffield people desired to be present that two special trains were prepared for their accommodation, by which there arrived no less than seven hundred persons. The Dean having heard that they were coming did all in his power to give them a welcome. The whole space in front of the Communion-rail was filled with seats, and in the admission of the crowds who were pressing into the Cathedral precedence was given to the visitors from Sheffield. But, notwithstanding all the efforts of the Cathedral authorities, I am sorry to say that a great many failed to get in. Before the Sermon I sat in the stalls, and to avoid the crowd in the choir I was conducted into the nave, and so outside the choir to the pulpit. In the course of that walk I saw hundreds who were unable to obtain admission. Some were standing in the nave, and others straining to see and hear through the glass screen by the side of the choir. When the door was opened to let me in I cannot say how I longed to take them all in with me. But that was impossible. The whole place was packed, and every available standing-ground in the neighbourhood of the pulpit was full.

Nor was it a mere sight-seeing crowd. I found myself surrounded by people who were manifestly there for higher ends, and who listened with as fixed an attention as any preacher could desire. But the most remarkable part of the service was the Holy Communion, with which it closed. At the end of the Prayer for the Church Militant there was a pause, in order that those who did not intend to remain for the Lord’s Supper might retire; but of the great crowd near the rail very few went away. At first it seemed a doubtful question whether they understood that the time was come for them to go; but it soon became evident that they perfectly understood what they were doing, and that they were remaining to partake of the Lord’s Supper. The bread and wine originally prepared was quite insufficient for such a number of communicants, and it was necessary to send out for an additional supply. When once the service began everything was done that could be done for the comfort of all that were present; but as the whole space in front of the rail was filled with seats, all of which were occupied, and there was only one narrow passage by which the communicants could both approach and retire, and as there were eight persons administering, it was impossible to secure that solemn stillness which we sometimes enjoy in our parochial churches. But nothing could possibly be more interesting. There I saw not only ladies and gentlemen, but many who appeared to me to be mechanics, and, scattered through the crowd, numbers of young men.

When I looked on that mixed body of communicants, and observed the earnestness, the seriousness, and the apparently deep devotion with which they gathered round the Table of their Lord; and when after the service was over I saw them pressing round their beloved Vicar, and many of them reaching out their rough hands once more to grasp his with a true, hearty, loving grasp, and heard them wishing him a blessing, I could not help giving thanks to the God of all grace who gave that day such a testimony to the faithful reaching of His Gospel. For what were the means employed for the attainment of such a result? Not music, not form, not the claim to priestly power, but the plain, simple, loving ministry of the Gospel of the grace of God. Between three and four years my dear friend had been preaching the great doctrines of Scripture—such as conversion to God, justification by faith, free forgiveness through the finished atonement, and, new life by the power of the Holy Ghost—and God had blessed that ministry to the ingathering of a people to His name. This was the work of which we that day witnessed the fruit, and I trust the effects on all of us who witnessed it may be that we may work on in our various spheres of labour more than ever resolved, by God’s help, to stick fast to great principles, and more than ever encouraged to trust His promises, and look out for great results.

E. H.

Tunbridge Wells,
August 29th, 1877.