ART. VI.-RELIGIOUS LIFE AT OXFORD.

It is likely that in many American homes the satisfaction that will be produced by the publication of the list of Rhodes scholars will be not unmixed with anxiety. What will be the effect of Oxford upon their Christian faith? In particular, will those who come from the denominations which correspond in America to the "Free Churches" of England be in danger of becoming proselytes to sacerdotalism? It is not long since in England itself many Nonconformist parents were deterred by fear of the "clerical atmosphere" of the university from sending their sons to Oxford, and it is not surprising if it should take even longer to assure observers at this distance that Tractarianism is not the characteristic note of the Oxford of to-day. It is not to be denied, of course, that the Church of England is still the paramount religious influence in undergraduate life, and that the associations of the place give it a rare opportunity of appealing both to the historic sense and to the æsthetic temperament. It is at Oxford, probably, that one sees Anglicanism at its strongest. Its ablest preachers occupy the university pulpit. Both Ritualists and Evangelicals are constantly displaying great activity, and an Episcopalian freshman, of whatever variety, will not lack for sympathy. But to a young Nonconformist who has been rooted and grounded in Free Church principles before leaving home, contact with Oxford Anglicanism is on the whole a healthy and strengthening experience. It tends to liberate him from a certain religious provincialism which he is likely to have brought with him, to show him the significance of aspects of truth and worship that he has undervalued, and at the same time to confirm his belief that the need for the Nonconformist protest and separation is still urgent. For if Anglicanism shows its strongest side at Oxford, it is there that it shows its weakest side also. The acquaintance that such a youth obtains with the motives of many of his contemporaries in their choice of the clerical profession is in itself enough to suggest one particular reason which requires the continuance of the Nonconformist Churches as guardians of the apostolic tradition.

The various academic reforms of the last century have now given complete religious freedom to the undergraduate who is not an adherent of the Established Church. The Anglican is required by his own college to attend so many "morning chapels;" the Nonconformist may substitute an equal number of "roll-calls." This is one of the results of that "disestablishment of religion in Oxford" which was so vehemently opposed by the High Church party, and which was referred to by Bishop King in his lament that it was now possible for a man to pass through his whole course without once praying. Attendance at any of the university services in St. Mary's is quite voluntary, for Anglican and Nonconformist alike. There is no longer any religious test for admission to any examination or degree (except B.D. and D.D.). No modern humorist will have an opportunity of startling the vice chancellor, at matriculation, by Theodore Hook's answer, "Forty, if you like," for no freshman will again be asked whether he is willing to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles. In proportion to their numbers Nonconformists have taken much more than their fair share of the honors of the university, particularly in theology. A contemporary of my own-a Primitive Methodist layman and now a professor in the theological college of that Church-not only won several of the highest university distinctions in theology, but obtained a college fellowship in the same subject. It is worth noting that last year's chairman of the Congregational Union is a distinguished Oxford man and was formerly fellow of his college, and that a recent president of the United Methodist Free Churches is a D.C.L. of Oxford. Oxford men are to be found to-day in the active ministry of all the leading Nonconformist Churches, some of them in the most difficult places of the mission field at home and abroad. In certain cases the college authorities, though themselves Anglicans, have warmly encouraged the preparation of undergraduates for the Nonconformist ministry, as in the conspicuous instance of the help given by Jowett to T. C. Edwards, the leader of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists during the last generation. It must be admitted that the Church of England has at various times won a considerable number of members, including recruits for its clergy, from Oxonians of Nonconformist origin; but in nearly

all the cases I have personally known the men who "went over" had already made up their minds to do so before they came up to the university.

So far we have been considering the negative side of the question-the exemption of the present-day undergraduate from religious disabilities. It remains to say something of the provision made for his religious welfare by the churches of the city. In connection with the Evangelical section of the Church of England there are various organizations for Bible study and evangelistic effort in which a Nonconformist may cooperate without any sense of restraint. The undergraduates who so astonished Mr. John Corbin by preaching in the open air at the foot of the Martyrs' Memorial probably belonged to one of these societies. As far as Nonconformists are concerned, I can speak with most intimate knowledge of the Wesleyan Methodists, with whom I was associated during 1882-86 under the successive pastorates of Hugh Price Hughes and George Stringer Rowe. The Methodist undergraduates "met in class" once a week at the minister's house, and formed also a Wesley Guild-partly club, partly essay society, and partly evangelistic committee-which visited the rooms of its members in turn. On one occasion, when our host was a Christ Church man, Mr. Rowe surprised us by the information that, as far as he could discover, this was probably the first Methodist meeting that had been held at Christ Church since the days of John Wesley. We served our apprenticeship by tract distribution, Sunday school teaching, and, in the case of those who went "on the circuit plan," preaching in some of the neighboring villages. Those who shared this experience will remember one village where the service was held in the clubroom of the public house, and another where the only convenient place of worship was a bakehouse, in which the perspiring preacher had to stand just in front of the oven. Two other denominations of Methodists besides the Wesleyans are represented in Oxford and the neighborhood, and give similar opportunities of usefulness.

The position of Congregationalism at Oxford has been entirely altered by the influence of Mansfield College, of which I shall speak presently. The local church in George Street previously

served as the place of worship for Congregational undergraduates. The Baptists have two city churches, but the Presbyterians are not yet represented. There has always been, since the abolition of the tests, a sprinkling of Scotch Presbyterians in the university, but there are so few Presbyterians in the city itself that the formation of a church of that order has been thought impracticable. The probability that several Rhodes scholars will be Presbyterians is, however, raising once more in the councils of the denomination the question of establishing a congregation at Oxford. While it is natural that each of the various churches of English Nonconformity should wish to be represented in the university town, the existence of Mansfield makes such direct representation less necessary than ever before, as far as the interests of the undergraduates themselves are concerned. Mansfield is not, like Balliol, Merton, etc., a constituent college of the university, but a theological school. It accepts no students save those who have already graduated in arts, though not necessarily at Oxford. Accordingly, it does not prepare for the university examinations, with the exception of the honors school in theology. It will thus be seen that the average Nonconformist undergraduate does not become a member of Mansfield, and does not attend its class lectures. At the same time, he receives real benefit from it in many ways. The Sunday morning sermon in Mansfield College Chapel is a kind of Nonconformist parallel to the official university sermon at St. Mary's. The list of preachers includes the names of the leading Congregationalist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist ministers in the United Kingdom. No less attractive than the Sunday morning sermons are the Sunday evening lectures delivered by Dr. Fairbairn himself. Further, Mansfield often secures the help of some suitable minister as a temporary college pastor. This minister-Dr. Horton, for example, has more than once exercised this functionresides in the college for about a fortnight, during which time he comes into personal touch not only with the men who are preparing for the ministry as members of Mansfield, but with the Nonconformist undergraduates in the colleges of the university. By rendering these services Mansfield has practically made itself the center and rallying point for Nonconformist university men of all

denominations, whether graduates or undergraduates. The freshman who makes himself known to its professors on his arrival at Oxford will be at once admitted to religious opportunities equal to those of his home church. And the cumulative effect of the work done by Mansfield during the last sixteen years has told upon the university itself in such a way that the path of the Nonconformist undergraduate has become far easier than before. Outside the university it has impressed itself upon the churches by the character of the men whom it has prepared for the ministry, some of whom, such as J. H. Jowett and C. S. Horne, are already recognized as leaders. Within the university it has made its mark by the distinction of its professors and the brilliant successes of its students. It has definitely raised the status of Nonconformity in the mind of the Anglican don and undergraduate, to whom it has communicated some suggestion of the importance of the Free Churches to the national life. In Matthew Arnold's university, at least, it has made the Matthew Arnold view of Nonconformity no longer possible. There has thus been removed a certain sense of isolation and eccentricity that was felt by the pioneers of thirty years ago; the student who dissents from the Established Church need no longer disturb himself by the apprehension that he is regarded by his contemporaries as an ecclesiastical freak.

In the history of this change one name will always stand out prominently above all others—that of Dr. Andrew Martin Fairbairn. Much-not too much-has been said of his profound and multifarious learning; but there has been a tendency to overlook his marvelous courage. When he first set up his desk in a hired house in "the High," the British Weekly truly said of his invasion of Oxford that there had been nothing like it since the charge of the Light Brigade. There must have been something of the Pauline spirit in a man who could thus risk his reputation on an enterprise which, in the opinion of some who knew Oxford well, seemed doomed to failure. It is difficult to speak without apparent exaggeration of the debt which the Nonconformist Churches of England owe to Principal Fairbairn for his tenacious faith as well as for his rare erudition. He has been assisted by a faculty which has made itself a reputation for scholarship as well as for success