4th of February, 1872, and went into residence there on the 11th of
the following October. The Vice-Chancellor who matriculated me was the
majestic Liddell, who, with his six feet of stately height draped in
scarlet, his "argent aureole" of white hair, and his three silver maces
borne before him, always helped me to understand what Sydney Smith meant
when he said, of some nonsensical proposition, that no power on earth,
save and except the Dean of Christ Church, should induce him to believe
it. As I write, I see the announcement of Mrs. Liddell's death; and my
mind travels back to the drawing-room and lawns of the Deanery at Christ
Church, and the garland of beautiful faces

"Decking the matron temples of a place
So famous through the world."

The 13th of October was my first Sunday in Oxford, and my friend Charles
Gore took me to the Choral Eucharist at Cowley St. John, and afterwards
to luncheon with the Fathers. So began my acquaintance with a Society
of which I have always been a grateful admirer. But more exciting
experiences were at hand: on the 20th of October it was Liddon's turn,
as Select Preacher, to occupy the pulpit at St. Mary's. The impressions
of that, my first University sermon, have never faded from my mind. A
bright autumn morning, the yellow sunlight streaming in upon the densely
crowded church, the long array of scarlet-robed doctors, the preacher's
beautiful face looking down from the high pulpit, with anxious brow and
wistful gaze. And then the rolling Latin hymn, and then the Bidding
Prayer, and then the pregnant text--_He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;
but the wrath of God abideth on him_. Are we listening to St. John the
Baptist or St. John the Evangelist? The preacher holds that we are
listening to the Evangelist, and says that the purpose of St. John's
Gospel is condensed into his text. "If to believe in Him is life, to
have known and yet to reject him is death. There is no middle term or
state between the two.... In fact, this stern, yet truthful and
merciful, claim makes all the difference between a Faith and a theory."
And now there is a moment's pause. Preacher and hearers alike take
breath. Some instinct assures us that we are just coming to the crucial
point. The preacher resumes: "A statement of this truth in other terms
is at present occasioning a painful controversy, which it would be
better in thi