FATHER STANTON'S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1746, 10 May 1913, Page 9

FATHER STANTON'S DEATH

AN ORIGINAL AND MANY-SIDED - CLERIC. Tho Rev. A. H. Stanton, curate of Sfc Alban's Anglican Church, llolborn, London, died on March 28, at tho residence of his sister, at Pakenhill, near Stroud, wltero ho had been slaying for soma time oil account of his health. Father Stanton had been curate of St. Alban'a since the church was opened in 1802. Tho following "special memoir" appeared in tho "Westminster Gazette":— Arthur Homy Stanton has died in th« town which gavo him birth, where his father was a manufacturer. Father Stanton was born on Juno 21, 1839. Ho waa educated at Rugby uiuler Dr. Goulbum, and at Trinity College, Oxford, wh'ero he took his degree in ISG2. After being at Cuddcsdon lor a short time lie was ordained in the same yc-ar by the Bishop of London (Dr. Tail) to the curacy of St, Alban'a, Holborn, where ho remained for life, never (as ho used laughingly to say) having had any offer of preferment 6ave from a Chicago butcher, who guaranteed him a thousand a year if ho would go to that city. He began his work in a cellar iu Grevillo Street, and the church was not consecrated till tho following; year. Mr. Stanton was the most unconven> tional of tho English clergy, an out-and-out Radical, a member of t'lie Liberation Society, and attended regularly tho latt Dr. Parker's Thursday morning lecture— a fact tho world learnt with somo astonihsuicut from Archdeacon Sinclair. Hii sermons for years attracted vast congre. gations to St. Alban's, and ho also preached in West End cliuTches to eccuto means tor the maintenance of tho St. Alban'a staff. On ono occasion Bishop Wilborforcs and Sir Robert Phillimorc were at St. Alban's on a Sunday immediately following- Mr. Mackonochie's suspension, and a member of tho congregation recalls the Bishop chaffing the preacher after service, and complimenting him on t'ho Evangelical character of his sermon. Mr. G. W. K. Russell, in an interesting magazine sketch 1 , recalled the Bishop's exact words describing his impression of Father Stanton's preaching: f'Sta lon prcachcd a careful, earnest, practical, sermon on fasting; its duties, uses, difficulties, and temp, tations—thoroughly Evangelical, but rather an imitation of Liddon." One of tho most striking features of Father Stanton's sermons was tho influence they had not only on those who abhorred his opinions but also on people of all sorts and conditions who' rarely darkened a church door savo when ho vas preaching. Ho was, however, not only a great preacher. Ho was one much sought out as a Confessor, but ha always taught that Confession in the English Church . was voluntary. His mothers' meetings and excursions to tho sea. his clubs—where his allowing a reasonable amount of liquor and of cardplaying brought down on him tho indignation of Mrs. Grundy—his unrivalled humour, his bonhomie, and common sense made him universally a favourite. Asked one day if he was going to allude in the pulpit to tho Lambeth Judgment on Incense and Lights, he replied: "I da not propose to refer to 'l'affaire Templa et Alaclasan'"; and to a strong Protestant who remonstrated with him in a train as to his Romanising ways ho said: "At this moment I am preparing a sermon on the terrible neglect of Biblereading and Sunday observance, two of tho worst evils of our'/day. I liopo you do not think that a sign of Romanism." Ho was never at a loss for apt reply to any attack, and it was only among those who did not know him that ho had any enemies. Very .strict clergy and ecclesiasticallyminded laymen were often shocked al finding the "Eefereo" in the reception room at St. Alban's. Many Judges were among his congregation at St. Alban's, und have ofteu expressed their surprise at the insight of the preacher into the habits, sorrows, sufferings, and sins of the people with which they wore so familiar. The loss of this earnest, original, and many-sided cleric will be lament, od by a very largo number of inon ami women, not only in; tho Church, but in the world at large—and it will be recalled that only a fortnight ago the Bi.shop of London offered Father Stanton the vacant prebcndal filivU at St. Paul's Cathedral, a belated official recognition of his work in London, but the offer had In bo declined on tho grounds of ago and ill-health.