Agnes' workers, and Father Rowley could not show himself in Keppel
Street without being surrounded by a crowd of supplicants who with tears
and lamentations begged him to give up the new St. Agnes' and to remain
in the old mission church rather than be lost to them for ever. There
were some who even wished him to surrender the Third Altar; but in his
last sermon preached on the Sunday night before he left Chatsea, he
spoke to them and said:
"In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The 15th verse of the 21st Chapter of the Holy Gospel according to Saint
John: _Feed my lambs._
"It is difficult for me, dear people, to preach to you this evening for
the last time as your missioner, to preach, moreover, the last sermon
that will ever be preached in this little mission church which has meant
so much to you and so much to me. By the mercy of God man does not
realize at the moment all that is implied by an occasion like this. He
speaks with his mouth words of farewell; but his heart still beats to
what was and what is, rather than to what will be.
"When I took as my text to-night those three words of Our Lord to St.
Peter, _Feed my Lambs_, I took them as words that might be applied,
first to the Lord Bishop of this diocese, secondly to the priest who
will take my place in this Mission, and thirdly and perhaps most
poignantly of all to myself.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344