PAGE CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE AND BOYHOOD 1 CHAPTER II CAMBRIDGE 18 CHAPTER III RELIGIOUS STATE, AND EXAMINATION FOR DEGREE 30 CHAPTER IV VISIT TO IRELAND, AND PREPARATION FOR HOLY ORDERS 41 CHAPTER V ORDINATION AND FIRST CURACY 50 CHAPTER VI RICHMOND 70 CHAPTER VII HOLLOWAY AND RAMSGATE 92 CHAPTER VIII TUNBRIDGE WELLS 120 CHAPTER IX WORK IN VARIOUS PLACES 133 CHAPTER X DOMESTIC LIFE AND FOREIGN TOURS 143 CHAPTER XI PAROCHIAL MISSIONS 161 CHAPTER XII PARISH WORK 173 CHAPTER XIII THE BORDERLAND 187 CHAPTER XIV BOOKS AND SPEECHES 198 CHAPTER XV BLINDNESS AND SECOND ILLNESS 217 CHAPTER XVI REMINISCENCES 251 CHAPTER XVII PROMOTION 263 CHAPTER XVIII TRIBUTES 267
It is a common practice amongst remarkable men to leave on record some of the circumstances which have led to the formation of the leading features of their character.
But as the greater part of mankind is not remarkable, I think it just possible that some may be interested, and possibly some profited, by a few details of the life of one whose life has not been marked by incident so much as by abundant mercy, who has been led on step by step in the happy life of a parochial clergyman, and who at the close of it can say with reference to the past, “Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life,” and can add with reference to the future the blessed hope and determination of David, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
Of all the many mercies of my life the one that must ever stand first and foremost is the gift of my beloved father and mother. No words can describe the blessing of such parents, and I never can look back on the unspeakable privilege of such a parentage without adoring the sovereign grace which placed me under their parental care. When I observe the carelessness of some parents, the inefficiency of others, and the terrible training for evil to which I see multitudes of poor children exposed, I can only adore the sovereignty of God which on June 5th, 1812, committed me as a sacred trust to the very best of parents.
My father, Samuel Hoare, was a banker in the City. Both he and my mother, Louisa Hoare, { 2} had been brought up in the Society of Friends, and had not formally left it at the time of my birth, so that I was registered by that body, and at the time of my ordination I had to apply to the Westminster Meeting for a certificate of my birth. But they were both greatly influenced by the ministry of some devoted Evangelical clergymen, such as the Rev. E. Edwardes of Lynn, and the Rev. Josiah Pratt, and I believe it was very soon after my birth that they were together baptised. We young people were therefore all brought up as members of the Church of England, though, as my father never completely lost his early Quaker prejudice against infant baptism, we were not baptised till about the age of fifteen, when we were considered able to judge for ourselves.