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Training for the Ministry 1888-89
Barrow
Monday (June 27?)
Dear Father and Mother,
I have a very important question to ask you. Mr Henderson, the Vicar, presents his compliments to you, and says that he is greatly interested in me, and desires to help me on. Nothing will satisfy him but my going in for Holy Orders. Don't laugh! it's quite true. He wrote to the Principal of the Birkenhead College for a Prospectus this morning. He thinks that if I study with him until Easter I shall then be fit to enter the College. I should be there 2 years, and it would cost £200, and I want to ask you if it can be done. Don't let it frighten you. I know it is a lot of money, but I will find £100 myself if you will find the other. I think it can be managed. I am determined to do all I can in study with the help of God, and I believe a bright future lies before me.
It does seem wonderful the way in which the Lord has led me. I am sure He has brought me here. I often think of that night when I bought the "Christian" and saw the advertisement about the Church Army. Just going into that shop, and buying that paper was the means of altering the whole course of my life.
Please write back and let me know what you think about it.
Don't think of the money now but think of the distant future (if God should spare me).
The Vicar heard me speak the other night and was very pleased. He said many men in Holy Orders would be glad if they could speak as well. (Don't tell anyone else this) I am not boasting, because I know it is the gift of God.
I was with the Vicar all day Sunday. Have been staying with him since Friday, but don't see him much by day, as we are both at our work.
(The reason for my being at the Vicarage was this: the bed at the Mission Room was full of insects (fleas and bugs!) and when I told the Vicar he insisted on my coming to the Vicarage, having the mattress burnt and new ones put in.)
Fancy me some day being "Rev."
Goodbye - W.H.P.
The next letter is dated
July 4th 1887
My dear Father and Mother,
I received the Prospectus from St Aidan's College, Birkenhead this morning, and I find that it will not cost so much as I had expected. I think £160 will be quite sufficient.
The term begins on April 29th. The Entrance Examination Fee is £2.2.0 Term Fee £21.0.0 per term. There are 3 terms in the year, so this would make it about £70 the first year. Then there is bed linen and towels, washing, cap and gown, and books.
Mr Henderson recommends this college in preference to any other, as he went there himself.
I am getting on fairly well with Latin, and am just going to begin Greek.
(The date written in my Greek Grammar is July 4. 1887 so that exactly 3 months after leaving home I was beginning my studies for College.)
The Vicar encourages me, and says I am sure to succeed. He has more confidence in me than I have myself, it is so much higher than I had ever hoped to get; but by God's help I now mean to use every honest endeavour to succeed.
The Christian ministry is the highest and noblest office that any man can occupy, but, unworthy as I am, I cannot help feeling that God has called me to it, else why am I here? It is not my own seeking, and I suppose I should never have thoughts of such a thing.
How are you getting on with the haymaking? I sent you a newspaper on Saturday. You will see that we are having a very dry time here. Mills are stopping and altogether it is getting very serious.
I went though the iron works the other day. It is very interesting to see the way the pig iron is made. The works never stop, but work night and day, Sundays and all. All the men here work in the iron, steel, and wire works.
I like it very well here, especially as I have something definite to work for. I must then close.
With love to all
Your loving son
I hope you never show my letters to anybody.
These are all the letters preserved dealing with this period of my life.
I remained at Barrow 8 months. In July I went to the Keswick Convention, and in October I went to the Church Army Conference at Wolverhampton, in Church Congress Week. As I was so far south, the Vicar suggested that I should go on and see my friends at home. So I had a few days at Locking. In January, 1888, Mr Henderson went to Birkenhead, and while there saw the Principal of St Aidan's who strongly advised my entering the Preparatory Class before beginning the ordinary course. it was too late to make arrangements for spending a whole term in the Preparatory Class, so I arranged to go for a half term, entering in February.
(I revisited Barrow in July 1920, on the way to Keswick. Stayed 3 nights at Duke of Edinburgh Hotel. Saw several old friends, and enjoyed the visit immensely.)
I can never feel sufficiently grateful to Mr Henderson for all his kindness. There are few men to whom I owe more. It is almost certain that but for him I should never have been ordained. He was Vicar of St Paul's, Barrow, which contained the hamlet of Hawcote. He afterwards became Rector of St Pancras, Chichester. He was very popular in Barrow, and was a member of the School Board.
At that time the Vicar of St Mark's, Barrow, was the Rev T.J. Madden, another St Aidan's man, who afterwards became Archdeacon of Liverpool. (He died Dec 1915)
I worked very hard at Latin and Greek during those few months, and I think made very good progress, considering that I previously knew not a word of either.
I entered St Aidan's in Feb 1888. In the Preparatory Class there were I think 8 of us: Chaplin, Worden, Fraser, Pitt, Howarth, Beswick, Moore, myself. The Principal was Dr Wm Saumary Smith, afterwards Archbishop of Sydney, a man whom we all revered. The Vice-Principal was the Rev J.T. Kingsmill B.D. T.C.D. and the Tutor the Rev H.W.B. Crozier, M.A., T.C.D.
I spent two very happy years at College, and succeeded in getting the first place in each terminal examination, and gaining prizes for Bible, Prayer Book, Greek Testament, Divinity, Preaching, English Composition. My brother has preserved 3 letters written by me towards the end of my college course.
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