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FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER 



FATHER POLLOCK 
AND HIS BROTHER: 

MISSION PRIESTS OF ST. ALBAN S 
BIRMINGHAM. 



WITH A LETTER FROM THE 

RIGHT REVEREND CHARLES GORE, D.D. 
LORD BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM. 



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i 



i i 

1 / i 

NOV 21984 



TO THE GLORY OF GOD 

AND IN EVER LOVING AND GRATEFUL 
MEMORY OF 

TWO OF HIS SAINTS. 

Eastertide. 1911 



THE AUTHOR OF 

FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER 

HAS RECEIVED THE SUBJOINED LETTER FROM 

BISHOP GORE. 



Bishop s Croft, 
Birmingham) September 9, 1911. 

Dear , 

/ have not time at present to read through your Memoir 
of the Brothers Pollock, but I have often thought that there 
ought to be some memoir of them and their work here. They 
seem to me to have made a real impression on the imagina 
tion of Birmingham, and to have been powerful pioneers in 
spiritual work among us. I have been struck with the many 
instances in which, since I have been bishop here, individuals 
mostly men have told me of the change in their lives 
which these true Evangelicals brought about, not so much by 
their words as by their self-sacrificing lives. I suppose that 
their strength lay in their whole-hearted love of individual 
souls. I do not think that they regarded themselves as 
political or municipal reformers, but the words of " Father 
Tom" which you quote on page 50, are memorable words 
they supply the right motive for real social reform, and they 
are as much needed to-day as they were when they were 
written. I wish your Memoir all success. 

Believe me to be, yours truly, 

0. BIRMINGHAM: 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. THE SPRING OF THE DAY ... 1 

II. SOWING THE SEED . . . . .9 

III. STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER" . . 17 

IV. THE DAY S WORK . . . . .34 
V. FATHER TOM S "PROLOGUES" ... 55 

VI. SOME LINES OP CHARACTER . -. .64 

VII. FATHER POLLOCK AND His BROTHER . . 77 

VIII. TOWARDS EVENING 86 

IX. THE SUN-SETTING . . . . .- 91 

IN MEMORIAM . . . . , . 100 
SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF FATHER 
POLLOCK AND His BROTHER 102 



The quotations and selections from Father Pollock s books, 
and the Litanies and Hymns by Father Tom, are inserted by 
kind permission of Colonel A. W. Alsager Pollock. 



Father Pollock and his Brother, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SPUING OF THE DAY. 

" Heaven within the reed 
Lists for the flute note ; in the folded seed 
It sees the bud." 

D. GBEENWELL. 

AMONG the countless names of holy and devoted 
Priests whose noble lives make glorious the annals 
of our English Church, none are more worthy of 
honour than those of Father Pollock and his 
Brother, the Mission Priests of S. Alban-the- 
Martyr, Birmingham. 

The names of Father Pollock and Father Tom 
were household words in Birmingham during their 
ministry there, but little other fame has been 
accorded to them. They were just two plain 
Mission Priests, humble, unobtrusive, self-sacrific 
ing, saintly, spending and being spent to the utmost 
of body, soul, and spirit in the service of their 
LORD. Both brothers were richly gifted, physically 
and mentally, as well as spiritually. Those who 
knew them sometimes thought it strange that two 



2 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

men, apparently so fitted for a far different sphere, 
should have spent their lives in toiling amongst 
the sordid slums of a great smoky town. 

There was, indeed, something unique and striking 
in the career and personality of each. 

Father Pollock, with his noble, earnest, spiritual 
face, beautiful in feature his eyes were remark 
ably so but still more beautiful in expression ; 
his tall, commanding presence, his irresistible charm 
of manner, the perfection of simplicity and courtesy, 
made up a figure which, once seen, was not easily 
forgotten. In later years his tall figure became bent 
with the burden of frail health and many cares 
and sorrows, and the sweeping chestnut beard was 
frosted white. 

Father Tom, tall, erect, and soldier-like in bear 
ing, was quite as handsome and attractive in a 
different way : with his keen, bright eyes, and 
authoritative, but always kindly voice, he had 
more of the soldier than of the mystic about him ; 
though the bearing and actions of both brothers 
bore witness to their soldierly descent. Both had 
always much sympathy with soldiers; and Father 
Pollock inscribed one of his excellent little manuals 
of devotion " to soldiers, by a soldier s son." 

The grand old motto noblesse oblige found visible 
embodiment in their lives, belonging as they did 
to a race rich in noble records. There is another 
untranslatable French word, prud homme meaning 
the perfection of Christian chivalry and upright 
ness which exactly describes the character of 
Father Pollock and of his Brother. 



THE SPRING OF THE DAY. 3 

The early home of these future heroes of the 
Cross was in the then unspoiled and very lovely 
Isle of Man. Both were born at Strathallan House, 
close to Derby Castle. " Vaughton s Hole," as their 
unlovely mission district in Birmingham used to 
be called, must have been in sharp contrast to the 
scenery with which they were familiar. 

Father Pollock and his Brother were the sons of 
Major Pollock of the 43rd Light Infantry, a hero 
of the Peninsular War. It is not exactly true, as 
has been often stated, that Major Pollock " led the 
forlorn hope at Badajoz." The true statement of 
the incident has been supplied by Lieutenant- 
Colonel A. W. Alsager Pollock, nephew of the 
brothers Pollock, who writes as follows : 

" The following extract from The Historical Records 
of the 43rd Light Infantry, describing the assault on 
Badajoz, gives the actual facts : 

The soldiers swung themselves down cheering lustily. 
At the bottom of the ladders, Lieutenant Pollock, 43rd, 
who was in command of Lord Fitzroy Somerset s company, 
with Cooke, Considine, and Madden, met Captain Duffy of 
the regiment, who exclaimed, " Pollock ! they (meaning 
the storming party and the forlorn hope) are all wrong ; 
they have gone to the 4th Division breach " pointing at 
the same time to the small one. Thus undesignedly this 
company were the first up to the sword blades. 

" Lieutenant Pollock was almost immediately 
struck down, severely wounded, and in the course 
of the fight his three subalterns were also wounded. 
Lieutenant Pollock did not lead the forlorn hope, 



4 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

but was accidentally called upon to lead his com 
pany in the attack upon the breach which the 
forlorn hope ought properly to have assaulted. 

" Captain Lord Fitzroy Somerset, the future Field- 
Marshal Lord Raglan, was serving on the staff of 
the commander-in-chief, and in his absence Lieu 
tenant Pollock, the senior subaltern of the regiment, 
commanded the company. 

" In the assault on Badajoz, the 43rd Light 
Infantry lost 20 officers and 335 sergeants and 
rank and file killed and wounded. Of Lieutenant 
Pollock s company, only 1 7 men were unhurt." 

Major Pollock is frequently mentioned in the 
annals of that time, particularly in the history of 
the 43rd, by Sir Richard Levinge. The stories 
show him to have been a brave soldier, of cool head 
and warm heart, and able to inspire his men with 
his own invincible courage. We read of his carry 
ing two soldiers, either really or professedly, unable 
to march, up a hill on his back (during the retreat 
to Corunna) ; and again, of his entering the " ditch " 
before Badajoz with 98 men, and coming out of it 
with 41. 

In the History of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, 
by Captain J. Hanbury Williams, we read : 

" The loss of the 43rd exceeded that of any other 
regiment. The day following the fall of Badajoz, 
as Lieutenant Pollock, of the 43rd, lay wounded in 
his tent, a private of his company brought him an 
offering of three fine fowls, remarking that they 
would make fine broth. This man had been a 
rather disorderly character, and Pollock had on 



THE SPRING OF THE DAY. 5 

many occasions administered punishments. He 
was, therefore, surprised by the act, and said, 
Howard, you are the last man in the company 
from whom I should expect such attention. 

" Sir, replied Howard, I have gratitude. You 
might have had me flogged twenty times ; but, sir, 
you always punished me yourself, and I have 
gratitude. " 

There was not a very great difference in the ages 
of the Priest-Brothers, the elder, James Samuel 
Pollock, being born on March 16, 1834, and the 
younger, Thomas Benson Pollock, on May 28, 1836. 
When James Samuel, fresh from his contempla 
tion of a monkey on a barrel-organ, first saw the 
little brother who was to be so much to him, 
" Very like mukkey ! " was his unflattering re 
mark. 

From the scanty records that remain, the brothers 
seem not to have been without the spirit of mis 
chief which, some time or another, possesses most 
boys. Father Tom, who never lost an opportunity 
of exalting Father Pollock at his own expense, used, 
as an instance of the latter s superior truthfulness 
when they were boys together, to relate that two 
cats were once tied together by their tails. Upon 
the discovery of this piece of mischief by the 
father of the supposed delinquents, the following 
conversation ensued : 

" Tom, did you tie those cats tails together ? " 

"No." 

" James, did you ? " 

" No ; but I held them while Tom did." 



6 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

He also tells the following touching little story 
against himself : 

" One evening, when I was just old enough to be 
trusted with a gun, I was on my way home after a 
day s shooting. There was a charge in the barrel, 
which I wished to get rid of before going into the 
house. A little hedge-sparrow perched on a bush 
before me, and without a thought I shot it. I 
went to pick it up. It lay on the grass on its 
side wounded, and as I came up, it turned its head 
towards me. As long as I live I shall never forget 
the look in that little bird s eye. It seemed to 
say, as plainly as looks could, You have killed 
me. What harm did I ever do you ? And what 
good am I to you now ? I was as thoughtless as 
most boys of my age, but I felt myself utterly 
shamed. I would have given all the money I had 
to bring back the life that was the bird s all. I 
often now, after twenty-five years or more, seem to 
see that little bird s eye turned on me with gentle, 
pitiful reproach." 

In later years both brothers were very fond of 
dumb animals ; those who knew them will remember 
their handsome Skye terriers, especially " Guy," 
and the little chairs which used to be placed for 
them on the hearthrug in the parsonage dining- 
room of a winter s night. 

Father Tom was himself a great lover of birds. 
The sparrows at the parsonage were always pro 
tected, and he would often himself separate the 
feathered combatants in a sparrow-fight. Looking 
one day at a picture of S. Francis preaching to the 



THE SPRING OF THE DAY. 7 

birds, " Ah," remarked Father Tom, " they could 
teach him a great deal more than he could teach 
them." 

Speaking of birds, a poetical aspirant among his 
flock once owed much gratitude to Father Tom. 
Had it not been for the kindly correction of his 
pen-stroke, the " stricken warbler " of a certain poem 
on a dead lark would, to the lasting confusion of 
the budding poet, have been depicted as lying 
among the clover blooms with " a bullet through 
its breast ! " 

Father Tom was very fond of canaries, of which 
he had many, and upon one of the last occasions 
on which he spoke to the writer of these pages 
he mentioned the beauty of some nestlings he had, 
and said twice, "Be sure you come and look at 
them." 

It may be added, as a touching and beautiful 
incident, that upon each occasion, when, " in the 
bleak mid-winter," the remains of these two Saints 
of GOD were committed to the earth, a robin red 
breast carolled sweetly while the Burial Service was 
being read. 

A characteristic anecdote of their early days, 
which reads like a foreshadowing of the future 
before them, relates that the brothers, having dis 
covered a desecrated font which was being used as 
a horse-trough, removed it bodily to the churchyard. 

Both the brothers were graduates of Trinity 
College, Dublin, Father Pollock taking his B.A. 
degree in 1858, and his M.A. in 1861. 

Father Tom gained the Vice-Chancellor s prize 



8 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

for English verse in 1855 ; he took his B.A. degree 
in 1859, and his M.A. in 1863. 

Of their days at Trinity College, Dublin, Father 
Pollock used to describe how his brother, who had 
not then thought of taking Holy Orders, was carried 
by main force to the Divinity lecture room by 
his fellow-students and compelled to listen to the 
lecture. This may be considered the inauguration 
of his work as a Priest. He really intended to be 
a doctor ; he studied medicine, and had walked the 
London Hospitals, and was described by his poor 
people, in the early days of the mission, as " young 
Tom Pollock, im as is alf a doctor." 

Father Pollock was ordained Deacon in 1858 by 
the Bishop of Chester. His first curacy was at 
Bowdon, in Cheshire ; and he was afterwards curate 
of S. John the Evangelist s, Hammersmith. 

Father Tom took Deacon s Orders in 1861, and 
was ordained Priest by the Bishop of Lichfield on 
the Feast of S. Thomas, 1862. His first curacy 
was at S. Luke s, Leek ; and he was curate of 
S. Thomas , Stamford Hill, London, from 1863 
to 1865. 



CHAPTER II. 

SOWING THE SEED. 

" There calming all alarms, 

Thy Cross of Love was traced, 
Outstretching salutary arms 
To bless the waste." 

A. MATHESON. 

FATHER POLLOCK came to Birmingham in 1860. 
A great part of the story of S. Alban s Mission will 
be best told in his own words, taken from VaugJitons 
Hole : Twenty-Jive Years in it, a little book brought 
out by him in 1890, and upon the title-page of 
which he, with singular appropriateness, inscribed 
the symbol of the conquering cross of Constantine. 
" I came," writes Father Pollock, " to Birmingham 
on Holy Innocents Day, December 28, 1860, and 
on the following day accepted the assistant-curacy 
of S. Paul s, Ludgate Hill. After the mid-day 
service on my first Sunday in Birmingham, January 
13, 1861, I asked my Vicar, as soon as we came 
into the vestry, whether the congregation was as 
large as usual. He said it was, and I began to 
realise what work in Birmingham meant. The 
Vicar of S. Paul s, the Rev. J. P. B. Latimer, was 
in bad health; most of the work was left in my 
hands. The population was 16,000; the church, 



10 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

which would hold 1400, was miserably attended; 
there were daily services morning and evening, and 
almost daily funerals. 

" Even in those days of inexperience I saw the 
uselessness of a pewed church in a parish like 
S. Paul s. I remembered the large church in a 
Manchester suburb where I held my first curacy, 
with its great congregations on Sundays morning, 
afternoon, and evening; and my own little school- 
chapel in the country, with its very primitive 
arrangements and promising work. I talked with 
my Vicar, and asked for a small chapel or mission 
room, free and unappropriated. He consented ; a 
site was chosen, and a very modest scheme pro 
posed. But he soon put an end to my hopes 
by telling me, as the result of his efforts, that 
Birmingham people did not understand mission 
work. 

" After twelve months at S. Paul s I broke down, 
and had to resign my post. A year after this I 
was able to take a London curacy ; but my thoughts 
often turned to Birmingham. Every visit to my 
friends at S. Paul s caused what Mr. Latimer called 
an effervescence of the mission chapel idea, or 
brought up the alternative expedient of making the 
parish church free and unappropriated. Nothing, 
however, was done, and our efforts were abandoned. 

" As soon as the schemes for mission work at S. 
Paul s came to an end, I received a communica 
tion from Dr. Oldknow s parish of Holy Trinity, 
Bordesley. Some members of the Plain -Song 
Choir were eager to assist in carrying out the wish 



SOWING THE SEED. 11 

of their Vicar, who, seven or eight years before, had 
selected a site in Leopold Street, and wanted a 
mission chapel there. The conventional district 
which Dr. Oldknow offered had then a population 
of about 4500 poor people. There was no church, 
Dissenting chapel, mission room, school, endow 
ment, grant, or any other spiritual provision for the 
inhabitants. I accepted the work, and came into 
residence on the Vigil of S. Peter, June 28, 1865. 
I was licensed by the Bishop of Worcester on 
August 2, 1865. 

" In my preparations for commencing the mission 
one thought filled my mind, and I lost no oppor 
tunity of expressing myself strongly regarding it. 
I determined not to build a little highly-decorated 
chapel for the spiritual edification of a favoured 
few, but to provide a large temporary building, 
offering a welcome to all who would come and 
claim their share in its privileges, trusting that 
the large congregation so collected would in time 
feel the need of erecting a permanent church. 
However, Dr. Oldknow, of whose kindness and 
generosity I cannot speak too highly, would not 
permit the building of anything that was not per 
manent. Accordingly, two friends united with me 
in guaranteeing the sum required for building a 
small mission church in Leopold Street. 

" My brother, the Rev. Thomas B. Pollock, had 
recently given up his curacy in London. Our 
mission chapel of S. Alban-the-Martyr was opened 
on September 14, 1865, and he came to be with me 
on that occasion, intending to spend a fortnight at 



12 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

S. Alban s. His fortnight has extended to twenty- 
five years, and not without a reason. Year after 
year he has felt it his duty to decline all offers 
of other work, though some had real claims upon 
him. For S. Alban s has always been passing from 
one crisis to another, and we have never had a 
season of quiet or peace which gave us an oppor 
tunity of separating. Whenever I have thought of 
going away and the thought has forced itself upon 
me many times considerations of honour or duty 
have always made it necessary for me to hold on till 
some new opposition was met, or some new difficulty 
surmounted. And the same reasons have forced 
my brother to continue the struggle by my side. 
Because our work was thwarted, it was strengthened 
by his help. 

" Our little church," continues Father Pollock, 
" was built in seven times seven days, and the 
opening octave gave the work a tone, right or 
wrong, which it has maintained faithfully ever 
since. The arrangement of the services was the 
result of a careful forecast of what would be the 
authorised settlement of questions in dispute. As 
we carried out all our arrangements on the day of 
opening, and have scrupulously avoided all changes 
during a quarter of a century, we have been able to 
devote all our attention to the more serious concerns 
of our people. 

" The mission church soon proved too small. A 
statement, issued in January 1867, said: On 
every week-day since the church was opened we 
have had a good congregation of poor people 



SOWING THE SEED. 13 

belonging to the district ; frequently the number 
of worshippers is nearer 200 than 100. On nearly 
every Sunday since the church was opened we 
have been obliged to send away a number of people 
for whom no room could be found ; frequently we 
have had two rows of forms in the centre passage. 
Many of our poor people have given up coming to 
church on Sunday evening; having been so fre 
quently turned away from the door, they have given 
up the attempt in despair. During the first twelve 
months of mission work the number of communions 
made exceeded 3000. The need of a larger build 
ing was urgent, and an appeal issued about this 
time ends with these words : S. Alban s Church 
will be wholly free and unappropriated the first 
church built with this design in the great metropolis 
of the Midlands. " 

A committee was now formed to raise money to 
build a larger church; a considerable sum was 
raised, but not enough to satisfy the Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners. This difficulty, though no light 
one, would no doubt soon have been surmounted. 
But the committee were spared the trouble of 
making fresh efforts of that kind, for a much more 
formidable difficulty sprung up in the shape of 
Protestant opposition of the most bitter and un 
compromising character. This opposition did not 
merely take the form of hard words, or letters to 
the local press, or violence to the church and 
clergy, but was of so practical a kind that it 
delayed the formation of the district for six years, 
hindered the work of the church, and was the 



14 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

occasion of incalculable loss of time and money 
which would otherwise have been devoted to the 
spiritual edification of the people. Father Pollock, 
when referring to the great difficulties as to the 
forming of the district of S. Alban s, says : 
" Every one appreciates the wisdom and justice of 
the good Bishop [Dr. Philpotts] of Worcester." 

He also, with evident gratitude, records : " My 
brother, the Rev. Thomas B. Pollock, who came to 
spend a fortnight with me in September 1865, 
had worked at S. Alban s for more than four 
years. All that time he officiated by permission of 
the Bishop without a formal license. Everything 
was uncertain. Any day the promoters of the 
mission might despair, or feel themselves obliged to 
put an end to it. My brother wrote to the Bishop, 
asking his lordship s direction with regard to 
being licensed. On December 16, 1869, the 
Bishop wrote : I am content that you should 
still continue to serve there [" S. Alban s Chapel "] 
without a license. The Bishop added : I need 
hardly say to you, in answer to your remarks about 
the present state of the proposal for a permanent 
district in connection with S. Alban s, that the 
subject is one of much anxious and almost painful 
interest to me. I have tried in vain to reconcile 
conflicting views, so that an end might be put to 
uncertainty. I can only counsel patience. " 

The counsel of the good Bishop was put in 
practice. The two Mission Priests were not to be 
daunted by any difficulty ; and after six years 
continual and wearisome struggles S. Alban s 



SOWING THE SEED. 15 

emerged triumphant, but hampered with a load 
of debt. 

The Rev. J. S. Pollock was licensed to the 
incumbency in November 1871. 

In spite of all difficulties and hindrances the 
spiritual work went on. The congregation so 
outgrew the original mission chapel that more 
accommodation was absolutely necessary. It was 
therefore decided to erect a building which, in 
case of emergency, might be sold and converted 
into a manufactory. The architect provided a very 
church-like and convenient structure, consisting 
of apsidal chancel, nave, and three small vestries, 
which cost 1500. It had free kneelings for 480 
worshippers, and was opened with great thankful 
ness and rejoicing, under license of the Bishop of 
Worcester [Dr. Philpotts], on March 7, 1871, a 
few months before the district was legally formed. 

Two years after this S. Patrick s Mission was 
opened, and in 1881 the magnificent Church of 
S. Alban in Conybere Street was completed, after 
innumerable difficulties, but burdened with a heavy 
debt, which it took nine years to defray. 

The two devoted Mission Priests had indeed to 
endure hardness and to suffer persecution for 
conscience sake before this result was achieved. 
During the years of the " old S. Alban s," Church 
life in Birmingham was at the lowest ebb, and narrow- 
mindedness and bigotry were rampant. 

In connection with the opposition and violence 
encountered, Father Pollock tells what he calls " one 
of Dr. Oldknow s best stories of the early days 



16 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

of the Catholic Revival in Birmingham." " A 
parcel came to Dr. Oldknow s house ; it was large, 
and the charge for delivery was not small ; so he 
declined to receive it. A letter came from Bishop 
Pepys, censuring Dr. Oldknow for acting in a manner 
which excited people s feelings against him. The 
Bishop explained that a man had written to com 
plain that he had sent Dr. Oldknow a halter, 
requesting him to hang himself with it, and that 
Dr. Oldknow had refused the parcel ! The repri 
mand administered to the writer of the epistle is 
not on record." 



CHAPTER III. 

STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 

" Some souls there are 
Who, when they smite it, bring 
Forth from the hardest rock its hidden spring." 

LYTTON. 

IN a chapter of Vaughton s Hole, entitled " The 
Bother," Father Pollock describes some riotous 
proceedings, and their ostensible cause, which com 
menced in 1867, and continued more or less for 
nine months. 

His account is as follows : 

" I arn anxious to explain at once that ritual had 
nothing to do with the S. Alban s riots. As might 
have been expected, it was imported into the con 
troversy ; but it had no connection with its origin. 
I need not attempt a detailed history. As in deal 
ing with other parts of S. Alban s experiences, I 
must content myself with a few salient points. 
Many people, who knew nothing about the circum 
stances, were greatly exercised by the Excom 
munication Case. A long word fitly introduces a 
long controversy. Moderately instructed Christians 
are familiar with the practice of ministers of all 
denominations with regard to participation in the 
ordinances of their different religions. Some church- 

17 B 



18 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

people have read the long Rubric at the beginning 
of the Holy Communion Service in our Book of 
Common Prayer, and have seen the painful respon 
sibilities resting on the clergy in certain cases. 
Whether the action I took is altogether warrantable 
or not, I do not mean to argue about it now. At a 
meeting of the communicants of S. Alban s, held at 
the beginning of the trouble, I gave a full and faith 
ful account of my action in the matter. Reporters 
were present, and my statement appeared hi full in 
the Birmingham papers. My address of explanation 
was given in reply to an address of sympathy, as 
follows : 

" We, the undersigned communicants of the congrega 
tion and district of S. Alban s, desire to express our 
sympathy with you under much misunderstanding and 
misrepresentation, and to assure you of the confidence of 
your own people. We desire now, especially, to thank 
you for the jealousy with which you have defended GOD S 
Altar from desecration, and relieved us of a grievous 
scandal. We trust and pray that you may always have 
given you the same zeal for GODS House and boldness 
in rebuking sin. 

"The address was signed by 137 communicants, 
and the church only held 450 people. The signa 
tures were all written in a very few days. Some 
of those who signed were present in church when 
the Sentence of Excommunication was said to 
have been delivered. No one was present when, 
in the open church, after Divine Service, I spoke 
quietly and, I believe, kindly to the person 
censured, urging that scandal caused made com- 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 19 

munion at S. Alban s improper, and advising com 
munion at some other church, and advice from 
some other clergyman : this was the only excom 
munication. 3 I have said that a general account 
of The Bother is all that I need attempt. It 
might be enough to say that on every week-day for 
three weeks my brother and I were conducted to 
our house, after evening service, by the police ; and 
that on every Sunday evening for about three 
months we had a similar escort. We did not, as 
far as I remember, ask police protection. It was 
given because it was considered needful. The 
people of the district, as a body, took no part in 
the disturbances, except to protect themselves and 
S. Alban s clergy from the attacks of strangers. 
One friend of mine, when the mob came past his 
house, sent all his family upstairs, and put the 
poker in the fire : he was then ready to give a 
warm reception to intruders if they came ! The 
mob consisted mainly of roughs, who gladly obeyed 
the call of agitators not knowing or caring what 
it was all about. In addition to the Birmingham 
contingent, strangers appeared in the neighbourhood 
on those Sunday mornings, asking for the church 
where the riots were ; they came from the country 
to see the battle, not to take a side in it. Only 
one person, as far as I know, got benefit from The 
Bother. A publican near the church had two 
barrels of sour beer; the noxious stuff was not 
wasted, for the rioters drank it all ! " 

An immediate outcome of "The Bother" was 
what Father Pollock, with a kind of grim humour, 



20 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

styles the " riots proper," and which he thus 
describes : 

"The riots proper if I may be allowed the 
phrase began on Sunday, October 13, 1867. 
I was celebrating Holy Communion at 11 o clock. 
The little church had been in great part occupied 
by a crowd of roughs. As soon as I announced 
the services on S. Luke s Day, and the Harvest 
Festival on the following Sunday, the conclusion 
of this statement, the newspaper says, was greeted 
with shouts of laughter. The same report says: 
The Rev. T. B. Pollock next took his place in the 
pulpit to preach a sermon . . . the preacher kept 
his temper admirably, and, waiting calmly until 
each successive burst of coughing had exhausted 
itself, proceeded with his discourse, until it was 
brought to an abrupt termination in this wise. For 
some minutes the clamouring outside for admission 
had been increasing in loudness, and at length a 
sudden rush was made at the door, which gave 
way, and in a moment what had before been an 
exceedingly disorderly business became a wild 
tumultuous row. Women screamed, men impre 
cated, shouted hurrah, catcalled, groaned, and 
emitted the most discordant yells which, with some 
little experience of contested Parliamentary elec 
tions, the present writer has not heard excelled. . . . 
There seemed every probability of an attack upon 
the Altar, to resist which the choristers left their 
places, and ranged themselves in a body in front of 
it. I need not further describe the scene and its 
termination. The chief promoters went away in 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 21 

triumph, though they had not succeeded in forcing 
the clergyman to communicate the person censured. 

" Our manner of life on Sundays after this was to 
remain in church or schools from the time of the 
mid-day service till the police deemed it prudent 
to take us home generally at a late hour at night. 
Those picnics in the little schoolrooms have 
memories connected with them that are not 
altogether unpleasant. The clergy, with some 
members of the choir and some Sunday-school 
teachers, occupied one schoolroom ; the police had 
the other room beside it. Our food was sent us 
from home ; we had a convivial tea-party before 
evening service. The crowd lingered about all 
day; they boo-ed vigorously whenever the church 
bell now the bell of S. Katherine s, Stanhope 
Street began to ring for service. One Sunday 
they were specially demonstrative, and the inspector 
of police would not allow us to leave the church 
till nearly ten o clock. Then the police cleared a 
passage in Leopold Street, and the crowd, deceived 
by this ruse, congregated there. In the meantime 
another body of police took us out by the Dymoke 
Street gate. To avoid the crowd we walked by a 
roundabout way to my house, with an escort of 
about thirty policemen and as many more men of 
the congregation. 

" One week-day evening we were all vested and 
ready to go into church for the usual daily service. 
The verger came in and informed us that a mob 
was on its way from town, with implements to pull 
down the church. At the end of the Psalms for 



22 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

the day the verger came to rne, and said, on the 
authority of the police inspector, that the mob was 
coming near the church. We all knelt down, and 
I said the Grace, &c., at the end of the service. 
Then we returned to the vestry. Our people must 
have known the danger ; but, after we passed, they 
did not omit to kneel down, according to their 
custom, for a concluding private prayer. Then all 
got away in time ; and the police .with their sabres, 
which not then only had they to exhibit, drove 
back the mob. 

" I wanted to go to London ; but renewed attacks 
were expected daily, and I had to wait for a time of 
peace. Things looked quieter, and I went away. I 
was talking with a man in a shop, and he casually 
remarked, What a sad thing about your church ! 
I asked him what he meant, and he told me 
that the Evening Star of that day announced its 
destruction. He got the paper for me ; the 
account was exaggerated, but on my return I found 
that not only were the windows broken, but the 
iron sashes were displaced by stones. One of the 
rioters got astride on the roof of the chapel, and 
tried to tear away the iron cross at the east end. 
The police disturbed his work, and the cross still 
keeps its place on S. Alban s Girls School, Leopold 
Street. 

"All this time our congregations were undimi- 
nished. The people came as diligently as ever to 
their church, though they had to make their way 
through the mob, and were admitted one by one by 
the policemen who guarded the doors. A few wet 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 23 

Sundays damped the zeal of our opponents, and 
early in 1868 they deserted S, Alban s. Then I 
was unwell, and absent for some months. The 
indignation of some good people was greatly excited 
by my recovery and return to Birmingham. They 
memorialised the Bishop, and reorganised the riots. 
One Sunday morning we had the usual rough con 
gregation in the church, and the same howling 
multitude greeted us when we came out. My 
brother at once formed a wise determination. We 
had moved to a new house, and he thought it well 
not to take the mob there. He proposed to me 
that we should go to New Street, and let loose the 
malcontents. We walked together down the street 
with a mixed multitude of worshippers and rioters 
attending us. When we got near the Queen Street 
entrance to New Street Station we quickened our 
pace to get near the front of the procession. The 
porters at the gate admitted my brother and me, 
and then promptly shut the gates in the face of 
every one else. We walked over the bridge, took a 
cab in Stephenson Place, and while friends and foes 
were looking for us went quietly home. 

" My brother then wrote to the Stipendiary 
Magistrate, Mr. Kynnersley, and stated our case hi 
the following words : 

" HIGHOATE, BIRMINGHAM, 
May 24 (1868). 

" SIR, As a vigorous effort is being made to renew 
the riots at my brother s church, will you allow me, 
in as few words as possible, to state our case ? 

" For four months last year we were outlaws. Our 



24 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

services were interrupted continually, and we were 
followed home night after night, and even at mid 
day, by a crowd of roughs. Every kind of filth and 
blasphemy was shouted after us in the hearing of 
the police. Not one man was interfered with. We 
did not want the police for protection ; we could 
easily have done that ourselves. They were useless 
in preventing us from being grossly insulted. 

" For four months my brother has been an invalid, 
unable to do any duty, and for some time in a state 
to give real ground for alarm, through the over- 
excitement which he had to undergo, besides his 
trying work. He has just returned, still delicate ; 
and I, almost worn out myself, have been ordered 
to take a long rest. Now we are threatened with 
the same thing over again. ... At our church 
to-day some eighty of the worst roughs mixed 
themselves with our congregation, and when my 
brother and I started for home, the old hooting 
began. We would not go home, but went to New 
Street Station, crossed it, and took a cab. The 
police would do nothing to stop the hooting or the 
following till I asked them to go away and let us do 
it. Then one man was arrested. . . . The thing 
can be stopped at once. If it is not by the police 
our people are resolved to do it, and we cannot urge 
them to longer forbearance. ... As I said before, 
we do not want the police for protection ; we can 
do that very well. We want to be able to worship 
free from interference, and to go home without 
insult. I think we have a claim for this. We get 
no pay for working in a large and neglected district. 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 25 

Our church was built by private subscriptions, and 
is maintained by those who like it. I do not think 
we can be blamed if we feel strongly the injustice 
of our being looked upon, as we plainly are, in the 
light of outlaws ! I may say again that our people 
are so incensed by the wantonness of the conspiracy 
now, that I apprehend the most serious consequences 
if the movement is not crushed at once. That it 
is a conspiracy there is not the smallest doubt. I 
heard of one man offering 25 to keep the riots 
up before. And it is well known that many were 
regularly paid. 

"Apologising for troubling you, and for writing 
at such length, I am, faithfully yours, 

"THOMAS B. POLLOCK. 

" The offender referred to in this letter was fined 
forty shillings and costs, and a promise of imprison 
ment without option of fine in the next case. This 
put an end to The Bother. 

" The Stipendiary Magistrate s prompt action was 
a strange contrast to the inaction of a civic 
dignitary, who, during his season of brief authority, 
had to visit S. Alban s one Sunday evening when 
a surging mob threatened destruction to us all. 
He walked with me up and down outside the 
church before service, and spent his time and mine 
in commenting on my duties as a priest with a 
faithfulness that no Bishop has ever shown 
towards me. It was in vain that I ventured to 
remind him that the question of the moment was 
not what I had done, but what he could do. Having 



26 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

decided the religious question to his satisfaction, he 
showed his skill in matters belonging to his own 
office by walking after service a few yards with my 
brother and me, drawing the police across the road, 
and sending us to walk home alone. I am quite 
sure he did all in good faith, and that he did not 
consider that there might be other streets besides 
Leopold Street by which the mob might reach us. 
As it happened, the mob were strangers, and did 
not know our new streets and hilly fields in the 
dark; so we got home just before they arrived in 
force. The papers said we ran : this is not true. 
We heard the scuffle outside. We did not hear 
till afterwards that a friendly neighbour, a Non 
conformist minister, went up to one of the leading 
religious zealots, and asked him, Don t you remem 
ber when I saved you from being hanged, when 
you were drunk and were going to murder your 
wife and children ? That night a man went to 
his house near S. Alban s district, and said that 
he had lost his hat, but he didn t mind, for he had 
done for Pollock s brother ! He made a mistake ; 
the poor fellow they jumped upon opposite my 
house was a friend of mine, one of the best of men, 
son of an eminent Nonconformist minister. He 
sent for me, and I found him in bed. 

" I suppose no one will tell me that The Bother 
helped the work of S. Alban s. It got us new 
friends, who came simply because we were perse 
cuted. It deepened our characters, and gave us 
that strange power that nothing else can give. But 
it confirmed and stereotyped the position of isolation 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 27 

which, against our will and strong desire, had been 
forced upon us. The fact that such things were 
continued from month to month, and that nearly 
all our clerical brethren, having in vain appealed to 
the Bishop to put us down, left the mob to do it 
in another way, without their interference these 
things helped S. Alban s to stand, but, unhappily, 
they made it stand alone" 

Father Pollock continues : 

"All the quiet, undermining work of the Aston 
Trustees at the office of the Ecclesiastical Com 
missioners during the six years, 18651871, did 
not close the mission. The violent efforts of the 
rioters during the nine months, September 1867 
May 1868, did not wind up the whole concern. 
Their combined forces about the middle of the 
longer period, full of great crises, must have effected 
their purpose if S. Alban s had not been very 
strong. What the Trustees and the rioters to 
gether failed to do must have been done by a third 
ally, the monster memorial, if the Bishop of Wor 
cester had not been very brave." 

Before the one which Father Pollock calls the 
" monster memorial," three other memorials had 
been sent to the Bishop. The desire of the 
agitators was to induce the Bishop to " cause a 
change to be made " in S. Alban s district, or to 
revoke the license of the said Rev. J. S. Pollock. 
The reply of the Bishop was : " I can only counsel 
moderation and forbearance on all sides." 

With regard to the " monster memorial " sent in 
to the Bishop on December 7, 1867, and bearing 



28 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

23,000 signatures, for the removal of Father Pollock 
from S. Alban s, " Diogenes," in a rhymed version of 
the New Memorial against Ritual, says : 

"About the way the names were got, the less 
that s said the better." 

The line puts the whole matter in a nutshell. 
The whole number of signatures were obtained in 
three weeks, many by most unfair means. Some 
of those who signed the petition confessed that 
they did so when drunk. Father Pollock tells two 
pertinent anecdotes in this connection: 

"A few months ago I was visiting a sick man 
near S. Alban s Church. Another man was sitting 
by the fire. He said he knew me, but perhaps I 
had forgotten him. He told me his name, not a 
common one; and I at once told him I remem 
bered him very well, and that more than twenty 
years before that time he lived in Angelina Ter 
race in S. Alban s district. I went on to say that 
I could tell him something more that he had 
signed a paper asking the Bishop to send me away 
from S. Alban s. The man expressed his surprise, 
and repudiated the idea warmly. I told him not 
to trouble about it, for I had at my house his 
certificate to prove that he signed the paper when 
he was drunk. I have now before me the certifi 
cate f in question, signed by the man and his son, 
declaring that we were drunk. " 

The second story is this : 
" Some years ago, when S. Alban s schoolrooms 
were used as polling-booths at an election, my 
brother, the Rev. Thomas B. Pollock, went to the 



STORM AND STRESS-^-" THE BOTHER." 29 

schools in the course of the afternoon, and said to 
a man he met there that he hoped all was going 
on quietly. Yes, pretty well, said the man ; but 
there was a big fellow here making a noise about 
my giving the voters beer. Now you know, sir, as 
well as I do, that the most of them didn t ought to 
have votes, for they know nothing about it. And 
when you go to explain things to them, if you don t 
give them beer, they won t listen to you. " 

It was also a matter of common knowledge that 
the " memorial " papers were " filled up at the pay 
ing price of one shilling per hundred " ; and Father 
Pollock s own record of signatures shows that very 
many of his poor people thought they were signing 
for not against their beloved and revered Mission 
Priest. 

" The promoters of the memorial," continues 
Father Pollock, " by the very fact of promoting it, 
showed that they knew nothing of the people whose 
signatures they requested, and of their slender ac 
quaintance with ecclesiastical controversies. About 
the date of the memorial, a worker in the brick 
fields near S. Alban s Church was overheard say 
ing to his companion : They had a young man 
at the Chapel, and they powered water on his yed, 
and called him Joseph ; wait till old Pollock comes 
up here, and we ll heave a brick at his yed. My 
brother was preparing a man for Confirmation. 
The man did not know whether he had been 
baptized or not. His parents were appealed to; 
they reported that he was not baptized, for when 
he was born there was no such thing about. " 



30 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Referring to the " emphatic explanations " given 
to make people sign their names against S. Alban s, 
Father Pollock remarks : 

"We soon experienced their force in the treat 
ment we received, not in S. Alban s district, but in 
districts near, and sometimes in distant parts of 
Birmingham. 

" For example, one day two Black Country 
curates had been visiting us ; my brother and I 
were walking with them part of the way to New 
Street Station. The usual cries greeted us before 
we parted. Our two friends, soon after leaving us, 
were passing the door of a public-house where some 
men were standing. One of the men took his short 
pipe out of his mouth, and said in a confidential 
tone : And them as associates is just as bad. " 

It is very interesting to read that during these 
troublous times at S. Alban s it was through the 
influence of the Brothers Pollock that Lenten and 
Advent mid-day services for business men were 
introduced into Birmingham, and held at S. Philip s 
Church. The promoters of the idea were not then 
known ; but, says Father Pollock : 

" The services are continued still, and doubtless 
have been helpful to many who know nothing about 
their origin." 

The agitators against S. Alban s failed to attain 
their object. It was in vain that they urged the 
Bishop to " revoke the license of the said Rev. J. S. 
Pollock, who is only a curate licensed by your 
lordship." Dr. Philpotts, who was a friend to the 
mission through all its troubles, would not take 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 31 

any such step. His reply was simply, "I cannot 
adopt the opinions of the memorialists, or take the 
course of action which they advise." 

The personal effects of " The Bother " upon the 
two Mission Priests are thus summed up : 

" S. Patrick s had not been open a year before 
my brother s health gave way. He had been strong, 
and had conducted the whole work during my long 
absence from ill-health after The Bother. He 
in his turn was obliged to go away; he spent two 
winters in France and Italy." 

Father Pollock adds : 

"When my brother went to the Continent for 
the first time, three out of the four clergy were 
disabled. I was one of them; and I packed up 
all my goods, feeling quite uncertain as to whether 
I could return or not." 

When speaking of these serious illnesses and his 
sojourn on the Continent, Father Tom used always 
to say that he was given back to his people in 
answer to their prayers. Father Pollock, with a 
truly Christ-like faith and charity, says concerning 
these troubles and those who caused them : 

"If any word I have used seems to express a 
thought of unkindness to those who have opposed 
us most, let me say in all sincerity that I do not 
mean, or feel, any such thing. I believe in my 
heart that the highest and most religious motives 
prompted many that have appeared to us to be 
hinderers of GOD S Word. We deserve no credit 
for dismissing unpleasant thoughts about the past. 
For all things, by the mercy of GOD, and spite of 



32 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

our many errors, have worked for good and made 
us prosper." 

Bishop Gore, in a sermon preached at S. Alban s 
on its twenty-fifth anniversary, stated the case very 
clearly when he said that " the Brothers Pollock, 
by force of sheer goodness, lived down misrepre 
sentation, slander, and persecution, going about 
their business with the sole purpose of doing what 
they conceived to be their duty. . . . The cause for 
which they stood, so far as it was a cause of doctrine 
and ceremonial, had won the day, and the present 
generation was entering into their labours." 

Shoulder to shoulder the Priest-Brothers fought 
and won their battle. Their splendid courage, their 
untiring diligence and self-sacrifice, their singleness 
of purpose, their devoted, saintly lives, gained for 
them in the end universal love and esteem. 

Shortly before Father Pollock was called to rest, 
it is the Record which thus speaks of his work : 

" S. Alban s is the High Church stronghold in 
Birmingham, and much as we deplore the char 
acter of the teaching, we gladly recognise that in 
organisation and efficiency it is one of the best- 
worked parishes in the city. The district is not 
very inviting now ; but it was worse when the 
Brothers Pollock came, and they at times met with 
very rough treatment at the hands of some of the 
more violent of the people. But they held on, and 
pursued their work with diligence and self-sacrifice, 
with the result that now they are universally re 
spected, and by none more so than the clergy of 
the city. There is on all hands heard the most 



STORM AND STRESS "THE BOTHER." 33 

laudatory testimony, not only to their work, but to 
their life ; and on Sunday night the capacious and 
stately church was filled with a large, reverent, and 
hearty congregation. It may be, indeed, that their 
success is a personal victory rather than a triumph 
for their cause, for the large congregations they 
have built up are not to be found in any other 
Ritualistic church in the city. But there the fact 
remains that at S. Alban s the work is a pronounced 
success, and we freely and ungrudgingly say so." 

But the health of both brothers, neither of them 
physically strong Father Pollock was born with a 
weak heart was seriously impaired, and, humanly 
speaking, their term of mortal life shortened by 
these severe trials. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE DAY S WORK. 

" The love of JESUS would not let them rest." S. WESLEY. 

THE full Catholic Faith was ever taught at S. 
Alban s, and set forth in a stately ceremonial which 
never varied during thirty years. From the begin 
ning of the mission work in 1865 it had always a 
voluntary choir of communicants. 

Here is Father Pollock s own statement concern 
ing what sort of doctrine was taught at S. Alban s. 
It is quoted at length from " Vaughtoris Hole" 

" It is, perhaps, still supposed by some people 
who know nothing of S. Alban s that it is a school 
for Ritual, and that our people are well posted 
up in what some one called the postures and 
impostures. A closer view would let them see 
that all such questions were well considered and 
done with at S. Alban s twenty-five years ago. 
And if they questioned the clergy, they would be 
surprised to find how many details of that subject 
have been forgotten in the pressure of more import 
ant matters. While many good people, clergy and 
laity, have been learning and advancing, we have 
been forgetting, and remaining as we were at 
first. 

84 



THE DAY S WOKK. 35 

" If any one desires to know what we have taught 
our people, I point to what has been done with 
regard to the great subject of Holy Baptism. If 
we have failed as we have hi many things, we 
have great cause for thankfulness here. We have 
not promoted new fads, nor have we introduced, as 
some tell us, a religion of our own. We have 
pressed the old-fashioned Church doctrine, the 
Church of England doctrine of Baptism, as taught 
in the Bible and the Church Catechism. Let me 
be understood. People may divide themselves 
into parties as they will ; there is one division into 
two parties which the Church makes, and she keeps 
wide asunder those who belong to the two religions. 
The great vital question for each soul is not where, 
or in what direction, or in what garments the 
Priest stands all proper questions in their own 
subordinate place but where he stands before GOD. 
The Church tells him plainly ; nay, that there may 
be no mistake about a question of life and death, 
she bids him say it for himself. She makes him 
affirm in his early childhood that he was at a 
certain definite time made a child of GOD. She 
tells him to make that fact the starting-point of 
his religion; and by implication she denies and 
repudiates all other methods of making the start. 
If some people, in and out of the Church, refuse to 
believe the blasphemous figment of Baptismal 
Regeneration, she asserts it in defiant, definite 
terms. She does not by any judgment of charity 
or cruelty declare that to be true in the case of 
every baptized child which she doubts in the case 



36 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

of any one. It was the vindication of this cardinal 
doctrine of the faith by Dr. Pusey which gained for 
orthodox Churchmen long ago the dignity of being 
called Puseyites. That holy and venerable man, 
who through evil report remained to the day of his 
death firm and unshaken in his allegiance to his 
mother who taught him, vindicated her Scriptural 
views of Holy Baptism in one of the famous 
Tracts. We follow not Dr. Pusey only, but the 
Bible and the Church, in asserting the same truth. 
We rejoice to see that the Church bids all her 
baptized children claim their places in her and in 
the family of GOD. That gift, bestowed by free 
grace alone, without any works, merits, or deserv- 
ings on their part nay, in the time of their 
unconscious infancy she declares to be the begin 
ning of the application of GOD S salvation to the 
soul. It is life, though, like natural life at its 
beginning, it is weak, and hi danger of death. 
What may come before it is something different 
from, something less than, being born of water 
and of the SPIRIT ; what comes after it is not a 
monstrous third or fourth birth, but a re-quickening 
of that which, perhaps, was ready to die. That 
gift, as the Church teaches, her children got; this 
they must keep ; this they must return to if they 
fall. This first new birth they must not let go till 
they enjoy its consummation in the other day of birth 
when they will be children of the Resurrection. 

" I am anxious to emphasise all this, because it 
is important for all men to understand that the 
Church s controversy against doubters, far or near, 



THE DAY S WORK. 37 

concerns the way and method of salvation. This one 
article of the faith being accepted, all the rest 
comes as a matter of course. If the washing of 
water be not a mere putting away of the filth of 
the flesh, but a being buried and risen with CHRIST 
in not apart from, or signified by, but in 
Baptism, then the Bread and Wine are not a weak 
revival of Jewish symbols, but are what the LOKD 
verily, verily says they are. And, if such holy 
mysteries are dispensed, it stands to reason that 
their dispensers must be carefully set apart and 
authorised, and that the community within which 
they are dispensed must be an organised body, to 
which all should flee, and from which none should 
depart." 

Speaking of another aspect of Holy Baptism, 
Father Pollock once begged his people not to delay 
bringing their children until they were old enough 
to exclaim at the Font, as did one little girl whom 
he baptized, " I ll tell my mother what you ve done 
to me ! " 

Concerning the ceremonial at S. Alban s, Father 
Pollock tells this story in his Vaughton s Hole : 

" Speaking of the influence of Church ritual, 
Dr. Oldknow remarks: A Wesleyan Methodist, 
who lately witnessed the procession of priests and 
choristers proceeding from the vestry to the chapel 
of the (S. Alban s) mission in this parish, singing 
a hymn as they went, told one of the clergy that 
he could not help bursting into tears. I shall not 
leave my own place, he added, but for all that I 
shall come and see you sometimes. " 



38 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

It may be mentioned, however, that the use of 
incense was discontinued by Father Pollock in 
obedience to the injunction of his Bishop. 

The brothers were, both in doctrine and practice, 
good soldiers of JESUS CHRIST. Father Pollock has 
been called " a people s parson " and " a teaching 
Priest." The names are fitly bestowed, and are 
just as suitable to Father Tom. One who knew 
them and their work well, and was associated with 
it, says that " as Mission Priests they stood on a 
pinnacle." The keynote of their devoted lives may 
be found in the title, " a servant of servants," which 
the younger was wont to apply to himself. They 
lived themselves in the plainest and simplest 
manner. They made themselves personally respon 
sible for debts on the church and schools, and by 
sacrificing much of their patrimony in the Isle of 
Man, and by untiring efforts to gain help from 
others, the Mission Priests of S. Alban s raised 
100,000 in twenty years for church and school 
work in their district. 

S. Alban s was worth 150 a year, but Father 
Pollock maintained three assistant clergy, besides his 
brother and himself, six lay-readers, and four sisters. 

Of what condition were S. Alban s people Father 
Pollock gives a vivid picture in reply to some who said 
that S. Alban s had " a very wealthy congregation, 
able to pay for all that is wanted." " In reply I offer 
no opinion of my own, but quote from the column 
of our Baptismal Register marking Quality, Trade, 
or Profession of father, and give all the entries for 
the last 100 baptisms of our twenty-five years, and 



THE DAY S WORK. 39 

the first 100 baptisms of the twenty-sixth year: 
Baker, barman, basket-maker, bedstead polisher, 
blacksmith, bone-turner, boot-finisher, bootmaker, 
brass-caster, brass-dresser, brassfounder, bricklayer, 
bricklayer s labourer, brickmaker, brushmaker, bur 
nisher, butcher, cabinetmaker, cab proprietor, car 
penter, carriage-lamp maker, carriage-lamp spinner, 
carter, carver, chandelier maker, chandelier worker, 
clerk, coach axle-tree turner, coach- painter, collier, 
commercial traveller, compositor, cook, cooper, 
coppersmith, currier, electro-plater, electro-plate 
finisher, engineer, engine-driver, engine-fitter, factory 
worker, fender maker, file-cutter, filer, fireman, fitter, 
French polisher, fruiter, gardener, gasfitter, general 
dealer, glassblower, grate-fitter, gun action filer, 
gun-maker, hairdresser, horse dealer, horse keeper, 
house painter, iron plate worker, jeweller, labourer, 
lamp maker, leather bag maker, machinist, mail- 
cart driver, maltster, metal-roller, millwright, 
moulder, nail-caster, packer, packing-case maker, 
painter, paper-cutter, paperhanger, pin pointer, plane 
maker, plasterer, plumber, police-officer, purse 
maker, railway guard, railway porter, refreshment 
house keeper, rule maker, saddle-tree maker, slater, 
stableman, stamper, steeplejack, stick-dresser, 
stoker, stove-maker, surgeon, sweep, tailor, thimble 
maker, tinner, tinplate worker, tube drawer, 
upholsterer, Venetian blind maker, vice maker, ware 
houseman, wire drawer, wire weaver, wood paviour." 
The " surgeon " was very probably Dr. J. W. 
Taylor, the eminent specialist, a saintly and beloved 
physician, author of the Coming of the Saints, some 
time churchwarden of S. Alban s, and a contributor 



40 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

to the pages of The Gospeller, who was but recently 
called to his well-earned rest. 

Of the people of S. Alban s Mission, whose 
" quality " he has just stated, he writes : 

" These are our people not merely the inhabit 
ants of the district in which we work, but our 
people in a higher sense those who accept our 
ministrations and seek the ordinances of GOD at 
our hands. The 50,986 copper coins which they 
contributed to the offertory last year, gave another 
proof of their attachment to S. Alban s. And, let 
me add/ these good people have an attractive power 
peculiar to themselves. The history of our town 
parishes is a history of change, retirement, and pro 
motion. No other district in Birmingham has 
retained the same Priest for the last twenty-five 
years ; two Priests at S. Alban s are in the twenty- 
sixth of their work there. 

" The three parts of the work must be maintained. 
But whatever we do, we must not neglect the definite 
mission work for which S. Alban s was founded. A 
show church would be an absurdity, as well as a 
profanity, in S. Alban s district." 

Among the good, loving people of whom Father 
Pollock speaks so affectionately, and who of their 
penury gave so willingly, was an inmate of the 
almshouses near S. Alban s Church, who collected 
no less than 36, 5s., chiefly in pennies, from her 
poor neighbours. 

The beginning of S. Alban s Mission was in a 
small building, called disparagingly by some " the 
shed." What it had grown into at the end of the 
labours of Father Pollock and his Brother may be 



THE DAY S WORK. 41 

judged from their last announcements on the covers 
of The Gospeller, their Parish Magazine. 

DISTRICT OF S. ALBAN THE MARTYR. 

S. ALBAN S, S. PATRICK S, S. COLUMBA S, and S. 
KATHARINE S contain 2260 kneelings, all free and unappro 
priated at all services. 

HOURS OF SUNDAY SERVICES, Sunday Schools, and other 
Sunday work, see " S. ALBAN S CLOCK." 

WEEK-DAY SERVICES at S. Alban s : Holy Communion, 
daily except Thursday, 7.30 ; Thursday, 8 ; Mattins, daily, 
11 ; Litany, Wednesday and Friday, 7.30 P.M. ; Evensong, 
daily, Choral, 8. Sermon at Evensong on Friday. 

S. Alban s Church is open all day for Private Prayer. 
The Clergy may be seen after any Service, or by appoint 
ment ; Saturday, 12, 5, and 8.30. 

HOLY BAPTISM on the first Sunday of each month, at 
4 P.M., and every Thursday, at 8 P.M. during Evensong. 
No Fee of any kind for Baptism. Ghurchings a quai-ter of 
an hour before any Service, except Evensong on Sunday 
and Friday ; no Fee, but Offerings may be given. 

Baptisms in the eleven years, 1884 to 1894, 8237. 
January, 1895, 66 ; February, 53 ; March, 64 ; April, 36 ; 
May, 71 ; June, 50; July, 57; August, 42; September, 
56; October, 59; Total, 554. 

S. ALBAN S CHURCH SOCIETY. 

S. AGNES HOME and ORPHANAGE. 

SISTERHOOD OF THE HOLY NAME. 

SUNDAY SCHOOLS. See S. Alban s Clock. 

DAY SCHOOLS. Five Schools ; accommodation, 1450. 

GUILD OF S. GEORGE. 

GUILD OF S. KATHARINE. 

GUILD OF S. PATRICK. 

GIRLS FRIENDLY SOCIETY. 



42 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

S. ALBAN S DORCAS SOCIETY. 

NEEDLEWORK GUILD. 

MOTHERS MEETINGS conducted by the Sisterhood of S. 
Agnes and by the Sisterhood of the Holy Name. 

POPULATION OF S. ALBAN S DISTRICT. In 1865, about 
4500; in 1871, 8766; in 1881, 12,723; in 1891, 13,444. 

A glance at the S. Alban s Clock, a striking 
feature of the parochial organisation, will show how 
Sundays in S. Alban s district were spent. 



SAINT ALBAN S CLOCK. 

JESUS CHRIST 
The same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. 

Every Sunday in the District of S. Alban the Martyr , 
Birmingham. 




7 fHoLY COMMUNION 
7.30 HOLY COMMUNION 



S. Alban s. 
S. Patrick s. 



THE DAY S WORK. 43 

8 fHoLY COMMUNION . . . . S. Alban s. 

9.30 Bible Class for Men . . . Leopold Street. 

10 Sunday Schools Leopold Street. 

10 Sunday Schools Highgate Street. 

10 Senior Classes for Girls . . S. Katharine s. 
10.30 fMattins S. Alban s. 

1 1 f HOLY COMMUNION and Sermon S. Alban s. 
1 1 Mattins and Sermon . . . S. Patrick s. 

11 Children s Service . . . . S. Katharine s. 

3 Sunday School Leopold Street. 

3 Sunday School Highgate Street. 

3 Bible Classes for Young Men Leopold Street. 

3 fBible Class for Men . . . S. Alban s. 

3 Senior Classes for Girls . . S. Katharine s. 

3 Senior Classes for Girls . . S. Patrick s. 

3 Bible Class for Women . . H. N. Home. 

3 Infants School S. Agnes Home. 

4 fSunday School Service . . S. Alban s. 
4 Sunday School Service . . S. Patrick s. 
4.30 Parish Library S. Alban s Depot. 

6 fLitany S. Alban s. 

6.30 f Evensong and Sermon . . S. Alban s. 

6.30 Evensong and Sermon . . S. Patrick s. 

6.30 Children s Service . . . . S. Katharine s. 

7 Evensong and Service . . S. Columba s. 

Services at S. Alban s Church, Conybere Street, are 
marked thus "j". 

Of the position of affairs in S. Alban s Mission in 
1890 Father Pollock writes: 

" Our plant is excellent and well placed ; and 
the generous, self- sacrificing zeal of our loving 
people has made it, for the present, free from debt 



44 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

and danger. They proposed to raise 1700 to 
pay off the balance of the church building debt, 
as a thankoffering at the end of our first twenty- 
five years work, and in four months they raised 
2200. In our four churches, some slight altera 
tions now being made give us room for more than 
2200 worshippers, every kneeling free and unappro 
priated. We have the largest of the day schools 
in Birmingham that are not under a Board ; two 
or three of the Board schools exceed our accommo 
dation. And S. Alban s schools are in a high state 
of efficiency." 

The schools of S. Alban s Mission were especially 
dear to the heart of Father Pollock and his Brother. 
Both of them often said they would sooner lose 
their church than their schools. 

Looked at in a merely secular light, their day 
schools were excellent and among the best in 
Birmingham ; from a religious point of view, their 
influence for good is incalculable when we think of 
the thousands of children who received Christian 
education there. Here are some of Father Tom s 
own words about " Our Schools " : 

" Our Schools ; we love them ; though all else be weak, 
They are our strength, and for themselves can speak. 
We want to make them stronger, and to give 
Help to the earnest ones whose work will live 
In those whom for both worlds they teach and train, 
And educate in conscience and in brain. 

We do not think the R s are only three, 
We think Religion first of four to be. 



THE DAY S WORK. 45 

These little ones are given to our care ; 
Betray our solemn trust we cannot dare ; 
We re bound to them and GOD to do our best, 
And as we bring them blessing we are blest." 

Both the brothers were extremely fond of chil 
dren, and in their walks through the district were 
ever accompanied by a train of often smutty-faced 
and ragged little lambs. One who was intimately 
associated in the work of S. Alban s Mission 
writes : 

" I have several times seen, when walking along 
the streets with Father Pollock, the children kiss 
the hem of his cloak as he passed along; but I 
think he was quite oblivious." 

One of his favourite stories concerned a little 
girl, who teased her father so persistently to come 
to the Mission Chapel that he exclaimed at last, 
" You would worry the leg off an iron pot." 

Father Tom had pet names for his small friends. 
One dear little golden-haired lassie he always called 
" Shiney," because he never saw her without a smile 
on her face. He was wont to say, with more than 
a measure of truth, that he knew more about the 
babies than many of their own mothers did. The 
comment on his verses " Mother and Child," by an 
excellent mother, not one of his people, who read 
them unaware of their authorship, was " None but 
a mother could have written those lines." Father 
Pollock used himself to confess that he almost 
broke down whenever he read the Lesson about the 
little lad (2 Kings iv.), and there was a poem, 
" Little Evelyn," by the Rev. Basil Edwards, which 



46 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

he said he could never read without tears. He 
would never turn away any boy from Sunday School, 
and he was lenient with the failings of this part of 
his flock. " Boys," he used to say, " always rhymes 
with noise " : of which fact there is small doubt. 
But both Father Pollock and Father Tom could be 
stern enough when real wrong-doing or irreverence 
was in question ; and there was one game, " Kiss-in- 
the-ring," which was never allowed either at the 
Christmas gathering or the Summer excursion. 
The last-named event was a day of days at S. 
Alban s. The whole neighbourhood used to turn 
out to see the great procession from the schools in 
Leopold Street to Camp Hill Station. The procession 
was accompanied by the brass band and drum and 
fife band, and carried many banners. Upon one 
occasion, says the Parish Magazine, " No less than 
1189 boys and girls, with 210 teachers and friends, 
assembled. Two special trains bore this great 
gathering of youth and happiness to Kingsbury." 
The trains were sometimes more than filled. The 
present writer has seen the parcel rack laden with 
laughing little ones, for whom no other room could 
be found. 

It was almost always fine weather for the ex 
cursion into the country. Father Tom used to tell 
the children to pray for the Angels to put all their 
wings together and keep the rain off. 

On the day of the excursion the two brothers 
belonged to the children, and they did what they 
liked with them. It was a sight to see the return 
procession, which the whole neighbourhood again 



THE DAY S WORK. 47 

turned out to meet and admire, and dear Father 
Pollock, with his hat encircled with wild flowers, 
looking very tired, but happy, and, as some said, 
like a sacrificial victim decked with garlands ! 

Father Tom was wont to say that "as a rule, 
when people are happy, they are good," and after 
one of the happy school treats he wrote : 

" I was teaching a large class of children. Our 
school excursion to the country, a few days before, 
had been very happy. The weather had been 
perfect, and all had gone well. I spoke to the 
children about it. I asked them who had most 
pleasure in seeing their enjoyment. Every hand 
was held out. I told them to answer together ; all 
said at once GOD. They were surely right, and 
happy are those who learn thus to think of their 
Heavenly FATHER as One who loves to look upon 
His children s joy, and can enter into their feelings 
about all He gives to make them glad." 

The procession of children from all S. Alban s 
Mission Sunday Schools on Festival Days was 
another great sight, which all the district turned 
out to see. The children perambulated the parish, 
and then assembled with their banners and the 
drum and fife band at S. Alban s Church in 
Conybere Street, where a very impressive little 
service was conducted by Father Pollock. 

No picture of S. Alban s Mission can be complete 
without the mention of two names that of Sister 
Emma, with her rosy, winter-apple face, bright eyes 
like a bird, and brisk, cheery manner. Her alert 
figure, in grey cloak and bonnet, was familiar in 



48 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

S. Alban s district for many years, and she has been 
truly called the " right hand of the Brothers Pollock 
throughout their long and stormy life at S. Alban s." 
She survived them by some years. Of her work 
at S. Agnes Home, Father Tom s Christmas " Pro 
logue" of 1892 says: 

" No words can tell, for no one really knows, 
What to S. Agnes Home S. Alban s owes. 
That quiet wisdom and that steady force, 
Like sun and air, we take as things of course. 
But things we take for granted while we use them 
We wonder what would happen should we lose them." 

The boys from S. Agnes Home used to serve the 
Altar in S. Alban s Church, and there were some 
among them of whom the Church might well be 
proud. 

The other name is that of good old Thomas 
Litchfield, the Cross-bearer for many years, whom 
the present writer remembers as an always vener 
able figure in S. Alban s procession, and who also 
survived Father Pollock and his Brother, living 
himself to a patriarchal age. 

Of the parochial work of the two Mission Priests 
volumes might be written. Men of high intellect, 
culture, and refinement, more fitted, seemingly, for 
the quiet of a cathedral close or a university quad 
rangle than for Mission Priests, must have found 
much that was uncongenial in the grimy slums of 
Vaughton s Hole. But none could have guessed 
it, for the heart of each was in S. Alban s. At any 
hour of the day and night, in all weathers, were they 



THE DAY S WORK. 49 

ready to answer the calls of their people either for 
spiritual or material aid, and though neither of the 
brothers was ever strong in health, they never 
spared themselves. One anecdote of Father Pollock 
will show how his parish work was done. One 
bitterly cold night, when he was far from well, a 
call came from a remote part of the district. Late 
though it was, Father Pollock set off at once to the 
place, where he found a man very ill, and in a state 
of great destitution, there being neither food nor fire 
in the house. With no thought of his own fatigue 
or frail health this devoted Priest returned to his 
house, with his own hands filled a barrow with coal 
and wood, wheeled it himself to the miserable abode, 
kindled a fire, and remained with the sick man all 
night. This incident was related in a Dissenting 
pulpit the evening of the Sunday on which Father 
Pollock was called to his rest; and the preacher 
concluded his narrative by the question, " Which 
of us would have done that ? " Such deeds were 
but matters of course with the Priests of S. Alban s. 
One of their people, who knew the mission from 
the first, on being told of the above incident, re 
marked that it was nothing compared to the things 
done by Father Pollock and his Brother during the 
terrible smallpox time. 

Concerning the terrible smallpox time, Father 
Pollock himself only says that " throughout S. 
Alban s district the visitation was very severe. As 
soon as the smallpox came to Birmingham it 
attacked S. Alban s district, and, when it had left 
nearly every other part, it lingered with us. A list 

D 



50 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

of streets was published in the papers, giving the 
number of cases in each ; two of our streets were 
very near the top of the list. For many months 
our poor people suffered severely." 

Those who knew anything of the methods of 
Father Pollock and his Brother can read much 
between the lines of this plain setting-down of facts. 
Some of Father Pollock s remarkable stories of the 
supernatural have to do with the dreadful days of 
the smallpox epidemic. 

Father Tom took a special interest in the im 
provement of the sanitary condition of the crowded 
district in which he worked. The remarkable letter 
he wrote to the Daily Post drew widespread atten 
tion to the subject ; and the improved state of 
sanitary affairs in S. Alban s parish was no doubt 
due to his spirited action in this matter. A few 
extracts from his letter may fitly be quoted here : 

"We found and support great hospitals. Most 
of the outlay on these ought, I solemnly believe, to 
be spent on prevention. We knock a man down 
with one hand, and hold out sticking-plaster with 
the other. We poison men, and then buy costly 
antidotes." 

" When epidemic breaks out, people turn up 
their eyes and talk of Providence. I have no 
patience with this ignorant slander of the Almighty. 
Men lay to the charge of GOD what is done by their 
own greed and dullness." 

" If I breathe bad air, or live in dirt willingly, I 
am a suicide. If I force others to do this, or do 
not do my best to help them, I am a murderer." 



THE DAY S WORK. 51 

A good illustration of the practical interest 
Father Tom took in the temporal welfare of his 
poor people is given by a little story from his 
parochial experiences, which he calls " Down Stairs," 
and relates in his own dry, racy fashion : 

" The right and usual way of going down is to 
put one foot before the other. Sometimes very 
often, it is to be feared the feet go wrong, and the 
head goes first. This happened to an aged person 
about a fortnight ago. I saw her to-day. Her 
head is wounded severely, and she has sustained 
other serious injuries. 

" For want of a nail the shoe was lost, 
For want of a shoe the horse was lost. 

For want of a rope or rod or some simple con 
trivance of the sort, several people fall and hurt 
themselves. 

"Some of the stairs in our new jerry-built houses 
are awful to look at. In some streets the two 
flights of stairs commonly are in one straight line, 
and it is a service of danger to go up or down. No 
wonder that a good old woman said to me some 
days ago, I pray to the LOKD before I go down 
stairs, and I pray to the LORD when I go up. And 
well she might if she lived in one of the houses I 
describe. 

" But, as I said, a rope securely fastened might 
be a great comfort in guarding against danger to 
old and young, and in lessening the trials of the 
feeble." 

A similar instance from the present writer s own 



52 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

knowledge will show how Father Tom endeared 
himself to the hearts of his people. He one day 
went to see a parishioner who was very ill, and 
found his wife in great distress. Her husband, a 
very stout, heavy man, had taken the fancy that he 
would be more comfortable if his bed were turned 
round, and there was none in the house who was 
strong enough to do it. Father Tom at once went 
away, and returned immediately with the S. Alban s 
verger, and together they moved the bed with the 
sick man in it into the position he desired. 

The Mission Priests of S. Alban s were indeed at 
all times ready to spend and be spent in the service 
of their flock (the grapes in their greenhouse were 
just enough, as they said, for their sick people). 
This willingness of service was sometimes abused. 
Father Tom used to tell a story of a man, described 
as being very ill, to whom he was summoned one 
Good Friday after he had taken the Three Hours 
Service and was much exhausted. The messenger 
was asked whether, as the Priest was so tired, the 
next day would not do. But, being assured the 
case was urgent, weary as he was, Father Tom 
set off, to find his importunate parishioner suffering 
from the effects of a drunken revel, and to be con 
fronted with the appeal, " Oh, sir, if you ll only pray 
the beer out of me this time, I ll never touch it 
again." 

Father Tom s medical knowledge stood him 
in good stead hi his parish work. Frequently he 
used to take out the children s teeth for them ; 
some of the little ones, if they had a loose tooth, 



THE DAY S WORK. 53 

would save it till Father Tom s next parochial visit, 
and he has been known to dress very carefully and 
tenderly the scalded foot of one of his old people. 
It -is on record that this patient would willingly 
have retarded recovery for the sake of his attend 
ance! 

Father Pollock was out among his people during 
the fearful gale of November 1890, when Lord 
Cantelupe s yacht went down; and a bitterly cold 
morning with deep snow in February 1895, when 
they were out at the early Celebrations, was to both 
brothers the last straw of the heavy load they had 
carried unflinchingly for so long. Both were at 
this time in very weak health, and neither of them 
had strength enough to throw off the ill effects of 
the chill and their exertions of that day, and the 
life of each might then have been numbered by 
months. It was no marvel that they came to be 
regarded with an almost idolising affection. 

How the poor people felt about their Parish 
Priests is best described in the words of one of them 
just after Father Pollock s death. " We felt as if we 
had lost everybody belonging to us." The scenes 
at the funerals, within a year of each other, amply 
justified the saying. 

The literary labours of the Priest-Brothers, no 
small part, indeed, of their day s work, and inextri 
cably interwoven with it, need only be mentioned 
here, as they are considered at length in another 
chapter. 

Very weary and exhausted at the close of each 
day must these toilers in the LORD S vineyard have 



54 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

been. Talking one day to a young member of his 
flock upon the subject of reading in bed, " People 
go to bed to sleep," Father Pollock remarked, and 
added that he himself always repeated " Sun of my 
soul," the last thing at night, and was usually 
asleep before the first verse was finished. 



CHAPTER V. 

FATHER TOM S "PROLOGUES." 

" Give me the man who bears a big load lightly, 
And looks on grave things with a blithe face brightly." 

GOETHE. 

FATHER TOM S original, inimitable rhymed "Pro 
logues," written in the metre of Pope s " Essay on 
Man," and showing a very keen and shrewd, yet 
altogether kindly and charitable knowledge of 
human nature, are unique in character. Each 
" Prologue " contained an epitome of the last year s 
history, and these records in rhyme give an ex 
cellent idea of the work of S. Alban s and of the 
spirit in which that work was done. The reading 
of the " Prologue " by its author, in his own dry, 
humorous manner, was one of the chief attractions 
of the Christmas social gatherings. 

The " Prologue " selected and quoted almost at 
length is the last ever produced, being recited at 
S. Alban s Christmas gathering, 1894: 

PROLOGUE. 

Another, yet another ! so we tell 
That years are born, and ring their parting knell ; 
Each as it comes fresh promise seems to bring, 
Each seems to fly away on swifter wing. 

55 



56 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

The hours that men so slowly learn to prize 
Seem less in number and of smaller size, 
For, stretch them as we may, they cannot hold 
New claims born daily, crowding on the old. 
Time is not wasted while we rest awhile, 
Or with some pleasant sport our cares beguile. 
No heart is merry idly and in vain 
That doeth good, like medicine in our pain. 
S. Alban s keeps its thirtieth Christmastide, 
And we are few who, working side by side, 
Through all those years have had the joy to share 
Together all its varied strife and care. 
And year by year, as welcome friends we gain, 
Old friends we miss, who in our hearts remain. 
Their memory must inspire our heart and will, 
Our work must show their spirit with us still. 
The men of old shrank not from utter loss ; 
They bravely faced the lions and the cross. 
Now men are traitors to their cause, and fear 
To own their faith, because the godless sneer. 
In times of peace they feebly cast away 
What heroes won in many a fiercest fray. 
Ours be the heart of those who onward pressed 
To find new work, not selfish ease and rest. 
Shame if the smallest vantage ground be lost, 
Which those before us won with toil and cost. 
Shame, if degenerate and faithless grown, 
Our highest aim is but to hold our own, 
To live in pleasant mutual admiration, 
To care for self, and call it concentration. 
We have what others wrought, in trust and charge, 
To deepen, broaden, strengthen and enlarge. 
Our gains reveal the wants that still abound ; 
The lights that shine show darkness all around. 
S. Alban s as a Mission lives and grows ; 
No other name, no other calling knows ; 
We tend the tree that lifts its towering head, 
So fruitful branches will their shadow spread ; 



FATHER TOM S "PROLOGUES." 57 

We make the centre strong that it may prove 
A sun, around which other lights may move. 

Our profits have a limit, only one ; 
Tis measured by the work that can be done ; 
And that upon the workers and the size 
Of what we well may call our factories. 
We started with what scoffers called a shed ; 
It proved too small ; we built a Church instead ; 
In cottages and shops we opened schools, 
Untrammelled there by the Department s rules. 
We tried to look before us, and provide 
For what was coming, using as our guide, 
With wisest prudence, not our cash in hand, 
But what the needs around us might demand. 
Rashness in dealing about stocks and shares, 
Is business foresight with our sort of wares. 
There is a bank on which the Church can draw, 
Managed by no hard economic law ; 
Blank cheques are in the hands of faith to sign, 
Dishonoured never by the Bank Divine. 

S. Alban s stands, a monument to those 
By whose united gifts and prayers it rose : 
A witness to the world of higher things 
Than those to which the earthly spirit clings ; 
A home where rich and poor may feel the rest 
Unknown to stranger, or to passing guest. 
Its ever open door, its frequent bell, 
Of holy brotherhood and welcome tell ; 
Its walls already show the mellowed tone 
That age bestows on blended tile and stone, 
While arch and roof and pillar and arcade 
Show softening harmonies of light and shade. 
We know and love it better year by year, 
And crowding memories make it grow more dear. 

S. Patrick s Mission is of age ; it pleads 
With modest confidence its rights and needs. 
The Sunday Schools to such dimensions grow, 
That Church and every Schoolroom overflow, 



58 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

And like the ancient dweller in a shoe, 
We often simply know not what to do. 
Small girls are restless, and we know that boys 
Must always be a word that rhymes with noise, 
And classes jostle, close packed side by side ; 
To conquer in a school, you must divide. 
Bravely the worried teachers persevere, 
Upheld by hope that some relief is near. 
We must not spoil their work, or drive away 
The elder boys and girls who wish to stay, 
But whom we must make up our minds to lose, 
If what they come to get we long refuse. 
At present we are cabined, cribbed, confined, 
The Church is hid where it is hard to find : 
We want a Church that passers-by can see, 
We want to set the iron building free 
For other uses tis a want that presses ; 
So every one who knows the facts confesses. 
We have the ground ; tis paid for and our own ; 
We ask no guarantee or friendly loan ; 
We will not mortgage, or in reckless way 
Fresh needless burdens on S. Alban s lay. 
We wish to work for duty, not for pride, 
And keep our banker s pass-book as our guide. 
That shows us how some hundreds volunteered 
Before appeal or statement had appeared. 
We dare not doubt that when our needs are told, 
The means shall be forthcoming as of old. 

Are Schools worth keeping P so the faithless ask, 
To whom school work is but a weary task ; 
Who only reckon up the care and cost, 
Forgetting what would follow were they lost. 
Who feel not for the lambs, whom Angels high 
Are ever watching o er with jealous eye. 
Some ask rate aid, and are content to share 
With aliens what is all the Church s care. 
Let us be sure that it is better far 
To trust in Him Whose own the children are, 



FATHER TOM S "PROLOGUES." 59 

Than trust rate-payers, and by gold beguiled, 

To part with more than half of every child. 

This would not be to safeguard, but to slay, 

And all that is worth keeping give away. 

The Church s Schools are Hers ; they are not ours ; 

We hold a trust ; we have no selling powers. 

If we are faithless, men will hear our name 

In after days with anger and with shame. 

We want to educate, not merely teach, 

To watch o er every child, and give to each 

That which for all its nature will provide 

For all its life a sure and upward guide. 

We want such teachers as, through all the day, 

Teach both by what they are and what they say, 

Not hirelings whom rate-payers might employ 

To force through standards so much girl or boy. 

You say that this means money, self-denial ; 

It does, and now the Church is on her trial. 

Shall we lose life to save the cost of food, 

Betray our greatest vantage-ground for good, 

And bring upon our niggard souls the guilt 

Of tumbling down what those before us built ! 

No niggard souls are yours ; you ll do your part, 

As you have ever done, with cheerful heart ; 

You ll show your sense of blessings you receive, 

You ve learned the blessedness of those who give. 

The Sale of Work has not been held for nought, 

Thanks to the workers and to those that bought ; 

But surely we can pay our debts without 

A way so wearisome and roundabout ; 

If all will give what honestly is due, 

The burden will not crush the willing few ; 

The blessing, too, will be more widely shared, 

And time and toil for other work be spared. 

How many works there are that, year by year, 
With growing strength and growing claims appear ! 
The Guilds, the classes, it is hard indeed, 
To keep them all in mind and know their need. 



60 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

The orchestra deserves a grateful word, 

From time to time it makes its voice be heard. 

The drums and fifes shrill pleasant uproar make ; 

The neighbours say it keeps their babes awake. 

Three new departures prove our keen desire 

To have each year fresh irons in the fire. 

The Lad s Brigade will happily employ 

The restless energies of many a boy. 

The Class for Men on Sunday afternoon, 

Long waited for, will count its hundreds soon. 

The working men have found a home at last, 

Their wandering life in tents will soon be past. 

The Club will open with the opening year, 

The house is taken, and the way is clear. 

Too clear the rooms of fittings who ll supply them, 

From unused stores, or give the cash to buy them ? 

We want chairs, tables, and we can t afford 

To buy a bagatelle or billiard board. 

The gift ef a piano would be pleasant, 

We ll have them all, though maybe not at present. 

Then papers of the week and of the day, 

And pictures too to make the walls look gay. 

This wearies you ; for you have come to hear 
Not tales of work, but words of restful cheer, 
To banish thoughts of care, and live awhile 
As if all faces always wore a smile. 
Together let us try with all our powers 
To brighten, as they pass, these social hours ; 
Let us be merry, helping, every one, 
The common cause of friendliness and fun. 
S. Alban s must unite us all as friends, 
Who meet together as the Old Year ends, 
United by our common memories, 
And common hopes and aims and sympathies. 
The New Year s wishes that our lips express 
Will rouse to seek each other s happiness : 
Let us remember through the coming year 
The words of greeting we have spoken here ; 



FATHER TOM S "PROLOGUES." 61 

And one in hearty fellowship aspire 
To work the ends we say i that we desire. 

A previous chapter contained some lines from 
one of Father Tom s " Prologues." The following 
extracts from various years are also well worth 
quoting, for the gems of thought and wisdom they 
enshrine. 

"Another Christmas brings its thoughts of cheer, 
We speed the parting, hail the coming year ; 
We think of work accomplished, battles won, 
And brace our strength for what must yet be done. 
We learn, while looking back upon the past, 
How dangers yield, and troubles do not last ; 
The hardest task, that strains our faith and skill, 
Is but a task worth doing with a will. 
With but one life to live, who would not choose 
A lot that sloth or cowardice would refuse, 
The fortunes of a struggling cause to share, 
And with the brave and earnest, do and dare ? " 

And again 

" We are not thoughtless, though we are not sad. 
The truly thoughtful are indeed the glad, 
For Christmas joy its conquering light can throw 
Where hangs the shadow of earth s darkest woe. 
Let weak-kneed folly mope with downcast eyes, 
Let us be strong, be merry and be wise. 

If grudge exist, or loss of confidence 
No matter what the plea or the pretence 
That in this Holy Season has not died, 
Let him who hugs it carry it outside. 



62 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Let idlers quarrel ; we have not the time, 
Who feel that lack of diligence is crime ; 
The waste of energy we can t afford 
Which lays aside the spade to wield the sword. 



The passing year goes by to come no more, 
It leaves of good and hope a goodly store. 
Prepared for light and dark of coming days, 
We fearless face their yet untrodden ways. 
The records of the past this truth declare, 
That triumphs are for those who do and dare ; 
And though the future no one can foretell, 
With duty s soldiers all is always well." i 

Again 

" True friendship neither years nor space can sever, 
True friends, where er they are, are friends for ever. 

And 

" We must forbear and bear, and try to feel 
What seems unkind is often only zeal, 
Like Marryat s hero, who, the book declares, 
In purest zeal, once kicked a man downstairs." 

To conclude, there is a wealth of true wisdom in 
these trenchant lines on education 

" Some people think they have a revelation 
Vouchsafed to them alone on education ; 
They talk of things self-evidently true, 
As if of things quite wonderful and new. 
They boast of things that they have just found out, 
Which long ago the Church knew all about ; 



FATHER TOM S "PROLOGUES." 63 

And then in quite superior tone they preach 

To those who taught them all that they can teach. 

And they put on a manner wondrous wise, 

Like kittens with their newly-opened eyes, 

As if the things which they begin to see 

Were things that only now begin to be." 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOME LINES OP CHARACTER. 

" Blending their souls sublimest needs 

With tasks of every day, 
They went about their gravest deeds 
As noble boys at play." 

HOUGHTON. 

THE characters of the two Priest-Brothers were in 
some respects a contrast, the elder being more 
enthusiastic, and less calm and cautious than the 
younger. Father Tom, no doubt, had an excellent 
head for business, and was very shrewd and prac 
tical; though Father Pollock was not so much in 
the clouds as some were apt to think, and could be 
very practical when there was occasion if the welfare 
of one of his people was concerned. 

Both were ardent, untiring battlers for the right, 
brave champions of purity and truth. True to the 
spirit of his own soul-stirring lines 

" We are soldiers of CHRIST, Who is mighty to save, 

And His Banner the Cross is unfurled ; 
We are pledged to be faithful and steadfast and brave 
Against Satan, the flesh, and the world. 

We will master the flesh, and its longings restrain, 

We will not be the bond-slaves of sin, 
The pure Spirit of GOD in our nature shall reign, 

And our spirits their freedom shall win," 

64 



SOME LINES OF CHARACTER. 65 

Father Tom during his last year of life, under the 
nom de guerre of " An Old-fashioned Man," entered 
the lists in the cause of purity against a very 
popular but unsavoury novel which a kindly- 
meaning but mistaken friend had given him, hoping 
he would enjoy its perusal ! It is good to know 
that " An Old-fashioned Man " had the best of that 
battle. 

Both the brothers were intensely lovable and 
sympathetic, whether in joy or sorrow. Father 
Tom s two simple words, " I know," to one who 
was trying with difficulty to tell out a tale of 
sorrow, had in them a whole world of indescrib 
able consolation. Each had also in a high degree 
the gift, precious to all workers, priceless to a Priest, 
of seeing the best in every one, and if he could not 
see it, of believing it was there. Of brightness, 
another invaluable gift, both brothers had a large 
endowment. They had neither time nor inclina 
tion for melancholy musings ; and their strong, 
bright faith made them both optimists, though the 
natural disposition of each was also happy and 
cheerful. Father Pollock was, so to speak, more 
sparkling. He seemed to bring the sunshine with 
him, and to take it away when he left. 

Shrewd and practical though Father Tom might 
be, his sense of strict rectitude was ever predomi 
nant. " I don t want a bargain. I wish to pay the 
fair and proper price," was his reply to a friend 
who had offered to procure, as " a great bargain," 
a Shetland pony which Father Tom wished to give 
to a small relation. 

E 



66 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Father Pollock, as well as Father Tom, had a 
keen sense of humour, and the conversation of 
either was a mental treat. They had an in 
exhaustible fund of good stories, and could tell 
them well. One of the former s was of two rival 
parish clerks in the days of three-deckers and 
barrel-organs. Both were enthusiastic performers, 
and tried to outvie each other in the realistic 
method of their playing. One of these boasted 
how he could make his instrument describe the 
" hailstones and coals of fire " of Psalm xviii. 
" Ah," retorted his rival, referring triumphantly to 
Psalm lix., " but you should hear mine grin like 
a dog, and run about through the city ! " 

Father Tom used to tell of an inexperienced 
cleric who, having an old-fashioned Bible wherein 
the letter " s " was printed long like an " f," before 
him, read a passage from the Prophet Ezekiel thus : 
" The fathers have eaten four grapes, and the chil 
dren s teeth are set on edge." He could enjoy 
a joke against himself, and would relate, with a 
twinkle in his eye, how on his inquiring of the 
bookseller concerning the sale of one of his volumes 
on the Psalms, he had been told that it was much 
bought and liked by old ladies. 

Father Pollock fairly bubbled over with merri 
ment at times. A humorous picture, of his own 
painting, occurs to the mind of a certain wedding 
festivity, where he had a particular antipathy to 
bride-cake he held the hostess in rapt attention 
by his charming conversation. But all the while 
his hand, holding the slice of bride-cake, was behind 



SOME LINES OF CHAKACTER. 67 

his chair, to the supreme delight of a lucky dog, 
who was there surreptitiously regaled. 

Another of his stories told how, when he was 
paying parochial visits to a public-house in the 
district about the middle of the day, a man was 
overheard commiserating " poor Mr. Pollock," who 
had no one to send, and had " to fetch his beer 
himself." 

Father Tom had a peculiar dry humour of his 
own, very apparent in his terse and trenchant 
remarks, and in his "Prologues" and his manner 
of reading them. His eyes were ever keenly ob 
servant, and would twinkle with fun when, on a 
parochial visit, he said to a little maid answer 
ing the door, and vainly trying to dispose unper- 
ceived of a jug in her hand, " You took me for 
the milkman ! " 

There is a fine touch of subtle humour in the 
heading of some papers Father Pollock wrote 
periodically for The Gospeller : 

" BOOKS WITHOUT NAMES. 

" Under this heading it is proposed to notice 
from time to time certain publications which it is 
well to review, but not well to advertise." 

The same subtle sense is observable in the fol 
lowing little piece found among Father Pollock s 
Gospeller MSS. : 

"THAT FACE. 

" It is right to ask questions in a right way. 
But there is a wrong way, too often followed. 



68 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER 

Some people with little experience or knowledge 
are wont to sneer at truths which wiser men hold 
firmly. In one case of this kind, a looking-glass 
was held before the caviller, and he was asked 
whether such questions suited that face." 

All beauties of the natural world were appreci 
ated to the full by both brothers. 

Father Pollock, as the present writer recalls, 
seemed one day quite unable to take his eyes off 
a pot of coral moss (a pretty little green plant 
with bright scarlet berries) which he said was a 
fit ornament for a poet s table. 

He had an intense love for beautiful scenery, and 
would often, as hi the following instance, illustrate 
his sermons by his holiday experiences : 

" I was once walking through a wild, mountainous 
district. It was a fine evening in summer. The 
calm solitude, the glories of the setting sun, the 
blue expanse of heaven, the few clouds passing 
across the sky, the steep hill in front all reminded 
me of the Transfiguration. It was the 6th of 
August. I remarked to my companion that it was 
a pity we had not a hymn-book to sing the hymn 
appointed for the Feast. He took the hymn-book I 
wanted out of his pocket. When we reached the 
top of the mountain we stood there and sang the 
hymn. Need I say how we realised the wonders 
of the holy mount ? 

" The 6th of August in each year is the Feast of 
the Transfiguration, as you will see in the Prayer 
Book Kalendar. Do we think enough of the glories 
of that day ? " 



SOME LINES OF CHARACTER. 69 

Father Tom is the author of the following word- 
painting : 

" SUNSET DAWNING. 

" From my Diary in Lapland. 

" The sunset I saw at Haparanda, at the extreme 
north of the Gulf of Bothnia, was never to be for 
gotten. The sun only dipped behind a hill, and 
was hidden for scarce half-an-hour. We lost little 
of his light, and sunrise came before the loveliest 
sunset I ever saw had passed away. As we stood 
on the river s bank, we were fairly awed by the 
dreamlike beauty of the scene. The water was 
like a mirror, smooth and clear, imaging everything 
around with a wonderful distinctness. 

" Some men were sweeping a wood-raft down 
stream, and each dip of the oars seemed to break 
the silence with a shock. There were no other 
sounds, but now and then the playing of a fish, or 
the melancholy cry of a water-fowl. On the river s 
farther shore was a large white church, and the 
shadow of its ghostlike form, and of the green 
mound on which it stood, was marked on the water 
in sharp, clear outline. All along the banks, deep 
shade brought out in marvellous contrast the 
silvery glow of part of the stream where the rays 
of daylight clung. To the north was the pretty 
wooden church of Tornea, standing out against the 
sky in bold relief, with every turn of its quaint, tall 
spire and belfry marked. On one side of it there 
was a blaze of light where the sun had just gone 
down. One cloud was there, alone in the heavens, 



70 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

as if to hold the rays, and give them a resting- 
place for a while. Gradually the glory grew 
fainter, and the light changed from shade to shade 
of colour. And now at the other side of the church, 
which had been in deep shadow, a light gleamed 
along the edge of the hill. We could hardly 
believe it at first, but there before us was sunrise 
coming, ere the sunset rays had died. We saw the 
light of one day waning, and the light of another 
dawning. They blended together. Touching the 
little church on one side was evening, touching it 
on the other was morning. We stood gazing on 
the strange scene of beauty till the sun rose in a 
cloudless sky and blazed upon us over a blue hill. 

" I watched the sunshine pass away 

One night, in that far northern clime, 
Where, through the pleasant summer-time 
The night is but a gentler day. 

I felt the music swelling high 

Of nature s holy, ceaseless psalm, 

The river flowed so deep and calm, 
I could not hear it moving by. 

Few sounds the breathless silence stirred, 

The plash of fish beside the shore, 

The dipping of a distant oar, 
The cry of wandering water-bird. 

Twas nearly midnight : in the west 

One cloud lay low along the hill, 

As if it lingered there until 
The sinking sun was laid to rest. 



SOME LINES OF CHARACTER. 71 

The heavens were spotless ; o er them shone 

A quiet and a ruddy glow, 

That deepened towards the west, to show 
The path by which the sun had gone. 

There all was lit with strangest hue, 
And past the cloud a glory gleamed, 
And up the sky the crimson streamed, 

The low hills wore a deeper blue. 

A wooden church, with quaint, tall spire, 

Rose on the river s farther bank, 

And where the sun in glory sank, 
Its western walls were bathed in fire ; 

While, to the east, in deepest shade, 

Its outline stood against the sky ; 

The wondrous splendour glowing nigh 
A darker shadow o er it laid. 

And now the light burned low and faint, 

But lovelier as it paler grew, 

And o er the changing sky it threw 
Such tints as only GOD can paint. 

It seemed as if with failing might, 

But holier beauty, died the day : 

I watched to see it pass away, 
And leave the quiet world in night. 

Lo ! while I gazed, a sudden ray 

Gleamed where the sky and mountain met, 
Where all had been in shade as yet : 

I thought it soon would melt away. 

But brighter I beheld it shine, 

And farther, higher, radiance throw, 

And burnish with a deepening glow 
The hilltops clear and waving line. 



72 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Before me there at once were seen 
The sunset and the break of morn 
A dying day a day new-born : 

The quaint old church stood up between." 

That Father Tom was a poet of no mean order 
is now universally acknowledged. He was the 
inventor of the metrical Litany, and in this par 
ticular form of hymn-writing his compositions are 
unrivalled. The Litany Appendix, which was in 
regular use at the " old S. Alban s," was written 
by him. It is a perfect treasury of melody and 
devotion, and also contains some lovely hymns, one 
or two of which are reprinted among the " Selections " 
which conclude this memoir. Some of Father 
Tom s most beautiful hymns, " We are soldiers of 
CHRIST," " Weep not for Him Who onward bears 
His Cross to Calvary," &c., and also his Litanies, 
have found a place in several of our hymnals. 
Two hymns in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 
" My LORD, my Master, at Thy Feet adoring," and 
" O scorned and outcast LORD," are his translations 
from the French. Of the first of these Father Tom 
used to complain of an alteration made by the 
compilers in the last verse which he rendered, and 
which stood in the original, " O Victim, slain by 
love." 

With characteristic modesty he used to say of 
himself : " I am only a rhymer, and I do not pro 
fess to be more than a mechanical builder up of 
lines." He would sometimes facetiously style him 
self a " foolometer," alluding to his being such a 
stickler for correct scansion. 



SOME LINES OF CHARACTER. 73 

Father Pollock did not write poetry. He once, 
however, gave a very interesting lecture on the in 
congruities of English spelling, in proof whereof he 
quoted these lines 

" Life s rough lough I travel, though 
Cough and hiccough plough me through," 

showing how each word, were spelling consistent, 
might be pronounced in seven different ways. 
"These lines," added the lecturer, "are the only 
poem I ever composed in my life." But this being 
so, Father Pollock none the less had the eye and 
heart of a true poet. No one could listen to his 
sermons or read his writings and not be quite sure 
of this. He was also very musical, and had a voice 
of great sweetness. 

Father Pollock s literary work was of the most 
extensive and laborious kind, though he has left 
only two completed volumes of any considerable 
size Out of the Body and Dead and Gone behind 
him. His little devotional and instructive manuals 
are well known and widely circulated. One of the 
latter, the Catechism in Story, is a remarkable monu 
ment of thought and labour. Father Pollock took 
an intense interest in everything relating to the 
supernatural, and the unseen world. The two 
volumes above named, which are of great and 
lasting interest, bear witness to this. 

Some extracts from Out of the Body are given 
among the " Selections." 

The following, from the " Introduction " to Dead 



74 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

and Gone, is very characteristic of the mind and 
spirit of its author : 

" A quaint old writer says : When a certain 
Frenchman came to visit Melancthon, he found him 
in his stove, 1 dandling his child in the swaddling 
clouts with the one hand, and in the other holding 
his book and reading it. I ask no indulgence for 
my book because I have been constantly engaged 
in pastoral work. The two go well together : in 
this case one has helped the other." 

" Mr. Ruddle ends his story of an apparition thus : 
I being a clergyman, and young, and a stranger in 
these parts, do apprehend silence and secrecy to be 
my best security. I want no security for myself. For 
Dead and Gone I desire some such success as this : 
Some bought my book on purpose to laugh at it, 
and lent it to others for them to do the same, to whom 
GOD blessed it ; and who, instead of laughing at it } 
wept over it, and had their faith encouraged by it. " 2 

The writer of the present pages has heard Father 
Tom say that neither he, nor his brother, much as 
the latter would have appreciated such, ever had 
any personal experience of supernatural revealings ; 
while their sister, one of the most matter-of-fact 
and practical of people, could have related remark 
able incidents from her own experience. 

Some of Father Pollock s narratives from Dead 
and Gone, which there is little doubt were derived 
from his own immediate knowledge, are included 
among the " Selections." 

1 Father Pollock quotes from Fuller s Holy State. In Lloyd s Ency 
clopaedic Dictionary " stove " is defined as a room artificially heated. 

2 William Huntingdon, S.S. (Sinner Saved). 



SOME LINES OF CHARACTER. 75 

To those who knew anything of the parochial 
work of these Mission Priests, who would often visit 
forty houses in one afternoon, and hi cases of ex 
treme illness see a sick parishioner two or three 
times in one day, the literary labour they got 
through is simply a marvel. The authorship of 
the Daily Sound was not generally known until 
Father Tom had passed away. This priceless 
volume, which takes its place in Christian litera 
ture by the side of the Imitation of Christ, had long 
been read and prized by all schools of religious 
thought. Our late beloved Queen Victoria had a 
copy upon her dressing-table for years before she 
knew, if ever she did know, by whose hands its 
pages were penned. 

The Gospeller for July 1909 contains a touching 
little story of the Daily Round. 

" Amongst others who volunteered to serve their 
country in the South African war were a number of 
men of the Lancashire Hussars. Before leaving 
their homes I gave to several who lived in my 
parish (Ashton-in-Mansfield) a copy of the Daily 
Hound, of such a size as could be conveniently 
carried in their tunic breast-pocket, with an earnest 
request that they would endeavour to read the daily 
portion. I had subsequent means of knowing that 
this was generally done. One of these (Abel 
Ogden) died in the war. Some weeks after his 
death I received a letter from the Chaplain who 
attended him at his last moments, and who dis 
covered my name and address in the book. He 
wrote to inform me that Ogden said to him he had 



76 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

only on one or two occasions (when in active service) 
failed to read the daily portion, and that it had 
been the greatest comfort and support to him in 
those terrible days of the war. He passed away in 
peace with the Daily Round at his side. The good 
Chaplain also wrote to his bereaved mother, and 
sent to her the few things her son had left behind 
him. W. J. MELVILLE." 

The present Bishop of London (Winnington- 
Ingram) in one of his Lenten sermons testified to 
the value of this work, saying that the Daily Round 
was " one of the best devotional books for daily 
reading, and one which could be used year after 
year without tiring of it." 

This volume, the two on the Psalms, and 
the beautiful and helpful papers that enriched The 
Gospeller, and were afterwards collected into the 
volume Daily Life, must, not to mention his poetry, 
have cost Father Tom an immense amount of time 
and labour. He had in contemplation, very shortly 
before he was called away, a collection of transla 
tions from French hymns, to be called Lyra Galli- 
cana, which he intended to prepare in conjunction 
with one of his friends whose own poetical efforts 
he had himself helped and encouraged hi a way 
never to be forgotten. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Is there record of any that loved better ? " 

The Two Noble Kinsmen. 

" WHEN Cato of Utica was asked who was his best 
friend, he replied, My brother. 

" But next to him ? 

" My brother. 

" And who after that ? 

" Still my brother. " 

The little old-world story brings before the mind 
irresistibly a vivid picture of Father Pollock and 
his Brother. One of the most beautiful features 
of their lives was the affection which knit the two 
Priest-Brothers together. It was of such a nature 
that one could not, and cannot, ever be thought of 
apart from the other. Father Tom was, as he said, 
" wedded " to his brother, who, next to his Divine 
Master, was his one ideal, the centre of his life and 
hopes. 

His love for his brother was amply returned : 
many who knew both thought that, had the younger 
been called to rest first, Father Pollock would not 
have survived him many days. As it was, Father 
Tom practically died with his brother, though his 

77 



78 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

bodily frame lingered on earth for almost a year 
after. 

The two brothers were inseparably united, and 
no thought of parting could be endured by either. 
Father Tom refused preferment because he would 
not leave his brother, or seem to be put above him, 
and was therefore content to remain, as he phrased 
it, " a common curate " all his life. As he often 
said, when he first came to Vaughton s Hole, he 
" thought he could not stay a week." He ended 
by remaining till his death, and during all that 
period scarcely ever, if at all, preached a sermon in 
any other parish. He was the chief mover in all 
affairs of business, and was wont to say half jestingly, 
" My brother would have been in the workhouse 
long ago but for me." 

Yet in their spirit of giving, which was princely, 
as in all else, the brothers were as one. When a 
legacy of 1000 was once left to one of them, 
almost his first words were, " What shall we do 
with it?" 

Until Father Pollock s last illness the two 
brothers always waited upon each other. Indeed, 
during the greater part of then* mission work in 
Birmingham they lived by themselves. They had, 
however, for four years she was taken to rest on 
Holy Innocents Day 1884 the comfort of the 
companionship of a sister, much older than either 
of them. Old friends will remember her genial, 
sensible face, and her quaint bonnet with blue 
strings. This sister Anna Elizabeth, Father Pollock, 
and Father Tom, were the sole survivors of a family 



FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 79 

of eleven. The title-page of Father Pollock s book, 
Dead and Gone, bears the following pathetic inscrip 
tion : 

"To my 

BROTHER AND FOUR SISTERS, 
who rested from their labours 

before I entered into mine, 
this effort to promote faith in 

HIM 

Whom having not seen we love, 
and communion with 

them 
whose faces we see not, or have not seen, 

who live, and have not left us, 
is dedicated, with a brother s love." 

Father Pollock and his Brother had the deepest 
love and veneration for their sister, and took the 
utmost care of her. The present writer remembers 
hearing her ask, after tea, when the hour for Even 
song was approaching, " Is it a fit night to go out ? " 
and Father Tom s characteristic, carefully worded 
reply, " That depends upon who wants to go." 

In all their labours of love, literary and parochial, 
as well as spiritual, the Priest-Brothers were indis- 
solubly linked together. During Advent and Lent, 
and at other seasons, Father Pollock s sweet musical 
voice would be heard at the close of Evensong 
singing the alternate verses of one of his brother s 
beautiful Litanies, of " The Four Last Things," " Of 
Penitence," or " Of the Church." 

Father Pollock used to say that his brother 



80 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

went about the house humming the tunes of these 
Litanies, and that, for his warning, he related to 
him the terrible story of a man who was driven crazy 
by his search for rhymes ! Father Tom would tell 
with much relish this story against himself, empha 
sising the dire result ; the poet s after life being 
devoted incessantly to such exercises as " bent, 
spent, rent, went, lent," &c. &c. 

The Gospeller, S. Alban s Parish Magazine, already 
alluded to, is mentioned more particularly in this 
chapter as being a striking example of how in their 
literary labours the brothers were co-workers for 
GOD. 

The aim and scope of " The Gospeller. A Church 
Paper, conducted by Mission Priests," is set forth 
in an announcement of " Our Twenty-ninth Year," 
written while Father Pollock was still upon earth. 

" The Gospeller has been prepared from the first 
number till now by Mission Priests who had a 
spiritual aim and no other in editing it. They 
continue their work, and have no intention of 
deviating in the slightest degree from the straight 
course which has been followed during twenty- 
eight years. Mission work has, for the most part, 
suggested the subjects treated and the mode of 
treating them. We labour to promote practical 
religion, and to teach it in words easy to be under 
stood. Our doctrine has not varied ; because it is 
not ours, but the authoritative testimony of the 
Church of England. 

" The Gospeller is not a business speculation, pro 
moted under the name of the Church or of Religion. 



FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 81 

It has a definite work before it, and invites the 
co-operation of faithful Church people." 

The " definite work " was, as its editors were 
careful repeatedly to explain, to " teach in plain 
English the full doctrine of the Catholic Church." 

The Gospeller was a large and very important 
part of the mission work of S. Alban s in days 
when magazines of Catholic tone and definite 
Church teaching were very few, The Gospeller, 
especially in its old broadsheet or quarto form, 
found its way into hands which would not have 
picked up the more conventional Church periodicals. 
It was widely circulated, but not being " a business 
speculation" it was never a financial success, and 
was, like other good works of the Mission, largely 
assisted from the private purse of its Founders. 

The parochial sheet Almanac, now so universally 
popular, was originally " The Gospeller Almanac," and 
started from S. Alban s Mission. 

The editors of The Gospeller were also large con 
tributors to its pages. All the unsigned articles 
it contained were written by one or other of the 
brothers, and all the unsigned verses were from the 
pen of Father Tom. Gospeller volumes have now a 
unique value, as being the only record of Father 
Pollock s able and brilliant sermons. His preaching 
was practically extempore, and his scanty sermon 
notes offer small material for reconstruction. Father 
Tom always wrote his excellent practical discourses 
out at length. Another striking example of their 
united literary labour may be found in the " Intro 
duction" to Resting Places, one of Father Pollock s 

F 



82 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

admirable little manuals of devotion, taken in con 
nection with Father Tom s " Litany of the Path of 
Life." 

PART I. Life is the gift of GOD. Faith is the first 
resting-place of the soul. Born of water and of the SPIRIT, 
we can take our place in the New Creation. 

PART II. But life is a precious thing. It needs support, 
and is exposed to enemies. We forget that we were purged 
from our old sins. Then the gift of Health is needed, and 
it comes in GOD S appointed way of repentance. 

PART III. When the healing has been in some degree 
perfected, the weakness of disease departs, and new 
Strength comes from the HOLY GHOST in answer to fervent 
daily prayer. 

PART IV. But the strength is itself a danger. It needs 
Rule to guide and restrain it all the day. 

PART V. When the rule is fixed, then the duties of 
daily Work in the world may be safely entered upon, and 
Christian families may call upon the Name of the LORD. 

PART VI. The next most needful " measxire " is the 
Food which the LORD commanded to be received. For 
after the hard work of life, daily bread must be supplied 
for the strengthening and refreshing of our souls. 

PART VII. Now it is the time of Rest. Temptation and 
affliction will not disturb a peace which passeth under 
standing, or destroy our great and endless comfort. 

PART VIII. Seven things only may be spoken of 
now. But there is an eighth. Life, Health, Strength, 
Rule, Work, Food, Rest, are nothing if every " Christian 
Year " does not lead the soul nearer to the final result of 
all the manifestation of their perfection, the crown of 
their plans, the "running over" of their "measure," the 
" fulness of Joy " in GOD S Presence for evermore. 

JAMES S. POLLOCK. 
Epiphany, 1877. 



FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 83 



LITANY OF THE PATH OF LIFE. 

[The following Litany is taken from the Litany Appendix, by 
the Rev. Thomas B. Pollock, M.A. ; other contributions from my 
brother are marked by his initials. The Litany of the " Path of 
Life " is placed here as an epitome of Resting Places in its new 
arrangement. The " Introduction " follows the same train of 
thought ; it is the recapitulation of a companion volume, The 
Measure of Faith, in which the details of the system are fully 
explained.] 

I. LIFE. GOD from all eternity, 

Ever-living One in Three, 

All Thy creatures live by Thee ; 

Dwell within us, Life Divine, 
May our life with glory shine, 
Joined in holy bonds to Thine ; 

II. HEALTH. Healer of the sin-sick soul, 

Thou canst make the wounded whole 
Evil yields to Thy control ; 

Let Thy pardoning grace restore, 
Balm upon our bruises pour ; 
Bid us go and sin no more ; 

III. STRENGTH. Strength of souls infirm and frail, 
Making brave the hearts that quail, 
Only help when foes assail ; 

Nerve us for the holy fight, 
Give the sevenfold gifts of might, 
Clothe us in Thine armour bright ; 

IV. RULE. LORD of all, Whose forming will 

Gave the worlds their place to fill ; 
Ruling all in order still ; 

Make our path and calling plain, 
Our unruly wills restrain, 
Guide us till the end we gain ; 



84 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

V. WORK. LORD, Whose works Thy power declare, 

And Who callest men to share 
In Thy work by toil and prayer ; 

Give us love and holy fear ; 
May we, while we labour here, 
Serve our GOD with conscience clear ; 

VI. FOOD. LORD, our life s support and stay, 

Giving us from day to day 
Daily bread for which we pray ; 

Give us wisely what we need, 
And our hungering spirits feed 
With the " meat and drink indeed " ; 

VII. BEST. Shelter when the storms are high, 

Shield and help when foes are nigh, 
Rest for Whom the weary sigh ; 

Rest and sweet refreshment be, 
Give a heart from evil free, 
Calm in faith and love of Thee ; 

VIII. JOY. Joy of the Angelic Throng, 

Theme of man s eternal song, 
Source of joy for which we long; 

Be our joy on earth s dark shore, 
Cheer us till our cares are o er, 
Be our joy for evermore. 

A similar instance of co-operation is afforded by 
a little four-page leaflet, Your Children for God, 
published by the S.P.C.K., consisting of an earnest 
address by Father Pollock, and of Father Tom s 
touching and beautiful verses, " Mother and Child." 
It was the custom at S. Alban s for one of these 
leaflets to be given to parents bringing their little 
ones to Holy Baptism. 



FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 85 

To conclude with a very touching token of their 
devoted affection for each other. Father Tom 
during the last months of his earthly life collected, 
only " because my brother wished it," his own poems 
with an idea of publication, and he also intended 
to publish Father Pollock s writings on the unseen 
world. He did not, however, live to carry out either 
of these projects. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TOWARDS EVENING. 

" Death and Time bring on the prime 
Of GOD S own chosen weather." 

W. E. HENLEY. 

THE work of S. Alban s Mission, under its two 
saintly Founders, assisted by many faithful and 
self-sacrificing helpers, both clergy and lay, went 
on with steady growth for thirty years. The bless 
ing of GOD was upon it, and it was given to the 
Mission Priests to enter in some part into the fruit 
of their labours. 

To quote Father Tom once more 

" Faith ventured on in works by faith begun, 
The means were ready as each work was done ; 
Each step of progress opened to the view, 
And gave the spirit for some effort new. 
While all the time the great machine was moving, 
And, more than this, enlarging and improving. 
Men wonder how S. Alban s kept alive, 
And, spite of all, could even grow and thrive ; 
We do not dare to ask the why or how, 
In thankfulness we marvel, and we bow." 

To re-quote Father Pollock s noble conclusion of 
Vaughtoris Hole : 
" All things, by the mercy of GOD, and spite of 

86 



TOWARDS EVENING. 87 

our many errors, have worked for GOD and made 
us prosper." 

That these two devoted Priest-Brothers had 
human frailties, and may have made mistakes, is 
of course true ; though one of their people and 
most valued friends, wholly true-hearted and loyal, 
yet a keen, shrewd business man, fully alive to any 
error or failing, one whom none would accuse of 
hero-worship or " romancing," who had seen the 
Brothers Pollock in every circumstance and under 
every aspect, writes, May 1, 1911 : " If all that 
constitutes human worth counts, they stood the 
severe test of personal contact and intimate re 
lationship through long years. And through it all 
we remember nothing but what is good and noble : 
. . . greater knowledge only meant greater love 
and devotion." 

And who could think of failings and mistakes 
who listened to Father Tom s words from S. Alban s 
pulpit on September 8, 1895 ! 

"Next Friday is Holy Cross Day, and we enter 
upon the thirty-first year of our work here. People 
congratulate us upon what we have done here ; but 
we ask, dearly beloved, your sympathy and your 
prayers for forgiveness, and that we may do better 
during the little time that remains to us it can 
not be very long. We mean, as we have lived, to 
die among you. We shall not die anywhere else. 

" When I think of the generations of children 
that have passed under our influence in our schools, 
that there is hardly a house we pass in which we 
have not ministered at a dying bed, I say it in all 



88 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

honesty and in deep humility, my own feeling is 
one of shame, and I trust you will not fail to give 
us your earnest prayers." 

The last years of the two devoted servants of 
GOD were overclouded and disturbed by their ever- 
increasing delicacy of health, and by anxieties and 
difficulties concerning the erection of the new 
Church of S. Patrick, a project upon which Father 
Pollock, in particular, had set his heart. An ad 
vertisement of a famous soap was then much in 
evidence, and " He won t be happy till he gets it ! " 
was Father Tom s characteristic comment on his 
brother s pertinacity. 

There was real and urgent need for the new 
church. Father Tom alluded to this in his 
Christmas "Prologue," 1894, already quoted, and 
in their joint appeal for S. Patrick s Church, 
November 1894, are these words: 

" Let no one say The tune is not come, the 
time that the LORD S house should be built. The 
need is urgent. We must not admit a thought of 
delay. Our thousands of poor people cannot be 
left longer without the home that so many of them 
desire. The children and young people who crowd 
our schools and classes demand our protection and 
care. Zealous and faithful lay-workers must not 
be discouraged by coldness or hesitation. And our 
own consciences will be easier if we obey the call 
of Him Who loveth a cheerful giver. " 

But there is little doubt that into Father Pollock s 
strong desire for the new church, besides his ever 
dominant motives, the glory of GOD and the good 



TOWARDS EVENING. 89 

of his people, there entered a loving wishfulness 
that his brother S. Patrick s had always been 
regarded as " Father Tom s Church " should have 
a new building as spacious and noble as S. Alban s, 
Conybere Street, which had ever been known as 
" Father Pollock s Church." 

When, on November 18, 1896, the new Church 
of S. Patrick was opened, one of the Mission Priests 
of S. Alban s had passed to his Eternal Rest, and the 
other was too ill to be present at the ceremony. 
It was remarked that by a strange accident, which 
acquired a sinister significance, the bell, when rung 
for the opening service, tolled twice and stayed. 

Father Pollock had been much out of health 
since February 1895. He was not able to join 
the annual excursion to Kingsbury in July, but 
was on the platform at Camp Hill Station to see 
his people off. 

On Sunday, July 12, he preached at S. Alban s 
a beautiful little sermon on "The glory that shall 
be revealed" (Rev. viii. 18), of which the following 
is the substance : 

"S. Paul knew what he was saying when he 
wrote I reckon, calculate. We take his words 
as of one well able to judge. We know in ourselves 
that they are true. 

" We see first the glory in our LORD, Who, be 
cause He is GOD, must be glorious, whatever form 
He takes. Yet His words are old, nearly 2000 
years, and He sometimes seems, though He is not, 
to be far away. 

" (2) We see this glory revealed in the Apostles 



90 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

and Saints. In those of old, and in those nearer 
our own day, who followed their footsteps. 

"(3) We see this glory in little children, who, 
compared to us, are innocent and pure. We read 
it in the eyes of that great mystery, a little child. 

" CHRIST says, Come unto Me, all ye that are 
weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
This is for us ; but for us is no such word as He 
says to the little children: Suffer the little chil 
dren to come unto Me, and forbid them not : for of 
such is the Kingdom of Heaven 

" Yet we can see this glory even in ourselves 
in times when we feel GOD S nearness, a real com 
munion with Him, a sense of forgiveness, and a real 
desire and longing to be with Him and to be like 
Him. All these are foretastes of the glory to which 
GOD will one day bring us, and compared with 
which all affliction is light." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SUN-SETTING. 

"Their sun goes down, but as the glow 
Is fading on the clouds of time, 
It rises in a purer clime 
Whose light we wait and long to know." 

FATHER TOM. 

TOWARDS the end of July 1895 Father Pollock 
again became ill, and was sent away for three 
months for change and rest. He returned to S. 
Alban s in the early autumn, seemingly benefited 
by his visit to Scotland ; but it was with a hope 
that trembled into fear that his people heard him 
on September 15, 1895 (three months before he 
was called away), announce from the pulpit " James 
Pollock desires to return thanks to Almighty GOD 
for recovery from sickness." 

His recovery was only temporary. On Sunday, 
November 1*7, he preached his last sermon. On 
the 23rd of that month the foundation stone of 
the new S. Patrick s was laid by Earl Beauchamp. 
Both Father Pollock and his Brother looked 
extremely ill. The appearance of the former was 
painfully fragile, and one of his people was heard 
to remark, " He has got gloves on, poor dear ! " It 

91 



92 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

was the first time any one had seen him wear 
them. He was, however, able to be present at 
S. Alban s tea party on November 27, and the 
words of both brothers on this last occasion were 
most touching. 

During Advent, 1895, Father Pollock again 
became very seriously ill, and a deep shadow of 
foreboding fell over the whole parish. 

He recovered slightly once or twice, and on the 
fourth Sunday in Advent, December 22, 1895, a 
day never to be forgotten, Father Tom felt able 
to leave him and come down to the Choral 
Eucharist at S. Alban s. But during the Celebra 
tion an urgent message called Father Tom from 
the Altar. His place was at once taken by one 
of the assistant clergy. The Divine Service was 
continued; and for the first time in the history 
of S. Alban s, the Priest at the Altar wore no 
vestments. 

There were some long moments of anguished 
suspense, and then the solemn music of Chopin s 
" Funeral March " told the kneeling flock that their 
beloved Pastor was in Paradise. 

The grief of that bereaved flock is a thing not 
to be described or dwelt on. The following lines, 
written by one of them, and much treasured by 
Father Pollock s brother, express what was in those 
stricken hearts : 

" He whom Thou lovest, LORD, is sick. Our hearts 

For many days this mournful burden bore : 
Then came Thy call ; and our loved shepherd feeds 
Thy flock on earth no more. 



THE SUN-SETTING. 93 

The lamp, that long before Thine Altar burned 
With flame so pure, is from the Temple reft, 
And we, who in its beams sure guidance found, 
In gloom and grief are left. 

He whom Thou lovest. Was it not, dear LORD, 

A very token of Thy lovingness 
That Thou didst with the signet of Thy Hand 
His parting moments bless ? 

That he, who ever with deep love was filled, 

And adoration for Thy Gift unpriced, 
Should be called upward in the blessed hour 
Of solemn Eucharist ? 

He whom Thou lovest. While his children knelt 

The sacred pledges of Thy Love to claim, 
Thine Angel, with glad tidings of great joy 
To his still chamber came. 

While with those sheep for whom his life was spent 

His soul was knit in that Communion blest, 
And prayer s sweet incense for him Heavenward soared, 
He entered into Rest. 

He whom Thou lovest. LORD, to that dear Love 
We leave him, while our eyes with tears are dim : 
By our hearts anguish we may faintly know 
What is Thy love for him. 

A Brother, born for sore adversity, 

Be, LORD, to him, whose life is rent in twain, 
And grant us all in peace around Thy Feet, 
JESU, to meet again." 

Father Tom was not in time to see his brother 
alive. 

" I am alone for the rest of my life," was his 



94 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

heart-broken cry when told that his best beloved 
had gone from him. 

The scenes of the week that followed were 
indelibly stamped upon all who saw them. The 
empty, crape-hung stall, the surplice and stole laid 
upon it, the coffin before the Altar and no one 
who was present could ever forget Father Tom s 
face as, standing in the chancel, he placed with 
his own hands every wreath upon his brother s 
bier. 

Father Pollock was laid to rest in Moseley Church 
yard on the Feast of S. John the Evangelist, 
December 27, 1895. There had been an early 
Celebration at S. Alban s Church at 7.30. Then 
came the funeral service, with a church filled with 
mourners, and the long procession to the church 
yard, a procession how different from those which 
the whole neighbourhood had so often turned out 
to see, and then the laying in the earth of all that 
was mortal of him who was to so many their dearest 
and best. 

Father Pollock was in his sixty-second year, and 
among other points of resemblance, the term of 
their earthly span was almost the same, Father 
Tom being just over threescore when his call came 
to go up higher. 

The entire route of the funeral procession was 
lined with silent crowds on that December day; 
for there was no one in Birmingham, whatever 
might be his religious opinions, who did not respect 
Father Pollock. The churchyard was filled with 
a throng of mourners, amongst whom were the 



THE SUN-SETTING. 95 

children of S. Alban s Mission, sobbing as if their 
hearts would break. It was characteristic of 
Father Tom that even in this hour of deepest 
sorrow he took thought for the children, and 
arranged that they should be driven to the 
churchyard in brakes. 

Many words of eulogy were spoken and written 
about the saintly Pastor whom GOD had taken to 
Himself, but it was in the hearts of his people that 
his truest epitaph was written. 

The saddest year of Father Tom s life had now 
begun. The desire of his eyes had been taken 
from him, and he was, as he said, " alone." His 
brother had been all to him, and it made the heart 
ache to hear of his coming, as he did, into the 
empty house, and forgetting what had happened, 
calling " James, James," at the foot of the stairs. 

He never occupied his brother s stall, and the 
asterisks (* * *) with which on The Gospeller cover 
he had marked the absence of Father Pollock s 
name, remained till his own name was also missing. 

His own " in memoriam " words preceding that 
empty space are these : 

"He who for thirty years guided and inspired 
the work of S. Alban s rests from his labours. Let 
us all pray that the Divine care and blessing may 
abide upon the work for which he lived and for 
which he gave his life." 

The star of Father Tom s life had set. He was 
in the most delicate state of health, and seemed to 
know that the shadow of death was hovering near 
him also. " Ah, you ll lay me there before the year 



96 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

is out," he said, as he was standing one day near 
his brother s grave. 

But Father Tom was a soldier, of the sort that 
dies game. A true hero of the Cross, he, though 
with trembling hands and bowed shoulders, took up 
the burden of his life and mission work again. He 
went in and out among his people, preached and 
visited as long as he could do so. At the earnest 
desire of his people, though he did not feel, and 
was not physically, fit, he accepted the vacant cure, 
and became Vicar of S. Alban s. On the occasion of 
his institution in March 1896, his words to his 
people were : 

"It is with great misgivings I have accepted this 
work. I never wished to be beneficed. I do not 
feel physically fit for it, and have other misgivings, 
known only to GOD and myself. I would much 
rather have taken a subordinate position, but this 
has been represented to me as impossible. I must 
leave altogether or take the position I have accepted, 
and which, I am told, is the united wish of the 
communicants of S. Alban s. I thank GOD for two 
things one, for the helpers I have in the clergy ; 
the other, for your great sympathy, not your sym 
pathy to me personally. This is not the place to 
speak of that which will be one of my tenderest 
memories while life shall last, but of your sympathy 
in this work. 

" I have accepted, and now throw myself upon 
GOD and your prayers. I know you will pray and 
strive for this work, which is weakened by the loss 
of him who is gone from us in body, not in spirit, 



THE SUN-SETTING. 97 

and who intercedes for you, and whose joy, if pos 
sible, is made greater by seeing his work prove by 
its continuance that it is of GOD." 

This was Father Tom s mind. Having accepted 
the charge, he would have fulfilled it to his very 
utmost. But our loving FATHER does not lay upon 
His children impossible burdens. Father Tom could 
not have carried on their lives work without his 
brother, and he was not called upon to do so. 

His health continued to grow weaker. He was 
obliged to go away from Birmingham, and it seemed 
sad that a part of his little remaining time should 
have been spent in a spot so uncongenial and " un- 
peaceful " as a large Hydropathic Establishment. 

A few extracts from letters written during that 
time will speak for themselves : 

"It is not pleasant," he wrote in March, "to be 
chained down and unable to see people about whom 
I am anxious." 

In a later letter, alluding to lengthened absence 
from work : " It troubles me much to throw so great 
a burden of work on other men." 

One of his letters says : " I am putting in a 
window in memory of my brother. The subject 
is the Resurrection, my brother s favourite." 

Other letters when, as he said, " I do not mend 
so quickly as I should like," contain pathetic 
words. 

" I do long to be home among the people of 
S. Alban s, who are almost all I have to live for." 
And again, " I trust I may look forward to my exile 
ending." 

G 



98 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Sorrow could not make Father Tom selfish or 
faint-hearted, or anything but what he had ever 
been. He would have struggled on for the sake of 
his people even under his fresh and overwhelming 
load ; but his " exile " was indeed near its ending. 
He became very seriously ill in October, and was 
brought back to Birmingham. After some weeks 
of great suffering for his illness was most painful 
and trying he also fell asleep on December 15, 
1896, within just a week of the anniversary of the 
passing of his brother. Those who had been so 
truly lovely and pleasant in their lives were not 
long divided, and Father Pollock had but to wait a 
short time in Paradise for the brother he so ten 
derly loved. 

Again the flock of S. Alban s were sorrow-stricken, 
this time with a double grief, and again through the 
silent throngs that lined the streets the mournful 
procession passed ; and on the Vigil of S. Thomas, 
and also that of his own Ordination, the dear form 
of Father Tom was laid to rest with his brother. 
His own beautiful hymn, " We are soldiers of 
CHRIST," was very fitly sung over this " good 
soldier s " grave. To quote the words of his funeral 
sermon : " There was one thing he could not do 
he could not give up. Retreat was the one thing 
impossible to him, and so he died at his post 
thirty years Curate, ten months Vicar, of S. Alban s, 
Birmingham." 

Of Father Tom, no less than of Father Pollock, 
it may truly be said that he lived and died for 
S. Alban s Mission. They gave to it their pros- 



THE SUN-SETTING. 99 

pects, their hopes of preferment, their money, their 
patrimony, and their health, for the anxieties of 
their work, and their unceasing and almost in 
credible exertions, undoubtedly hastened the day 
of their departure. Their removal from this world 
was a loss not only to S. Alban s Mission and to 
Birmingham, but to the whole Church. 

Of none of CHRIST S toilers has it ever been more 
true to say that they died in harness, and of none 
are we more certain that they now, to use Father 
Pollock s own words, experience " the running over " 
of their " measure," " the fulness of joy in GOD S 
Presence for evermore." 

A lovely little poem, " The Beech in the Forest," 
by E. H. Mitchell, which either by design or coin 
cidence appeared in the issue of the Church Times 
containing the notice of Father Pollock s call to 
rest, concludes with these lines 

" It is fashioned by pain for a glorious part, 
For the Face of GOD is carved on its heart." 

They are a fitting and beautiful description of the 
life of each of these two sainted Mission Priests. 



3n flfeemoriam 

J. S. P., T. B. P. 



t 



JFrast of . 3oiju ! Figil of S. 

<iranst!it, 1895. Efjotnaw, 1896. 



In the rich harvest of his autumn hours, 

When ripened fruitage held the place of flowers, 

GOD called him Home, whom He had only lent 

To show how Heaven may with earth be blent. 

It was mid-winter, dark and drear, and chill, 

When he was borne into the churchyard still, 

By those, who must their dearest and their best, 

Beneath the green low grasses lay to rest. 

The air was thick with sobs and falling tears, 

The throbbing of the Death March filled their ears, 

When, through the storm of sorrow there was heard 

The clear soft treble of a little bird, 

For in the light of winter, wan and pale, 

Was warbling sweet the autumn nightingale. 

A voice uprose from all that weeping throng, 

" Bird, our hearts are breaking, hush thy song ; " 

But ever, o er the tones that told of pain, 

Still heavenward rose the little bird s sweet strain. 

" Is not your depth of sorrow known to Him, 

Whose eyes beside the open grave were dim ? 
100 



IN MEMORIAM. 101 

With him, indeed, ye know that it is well 
Who in his hour of triumph, nobly fell. 
Meetly ye lay the palm-leaf on his breast, 
A victor, whom his King has called to rest, 
Who, now at peace in blessed Paradise, 
Waiteth until the Easter morning rise. 
While this hard lesson now ye spell with tears, 
Let this low carol whisper in your ears, 
Soon will all sorrow be for ever gone, 
Love is eternal ; therefore I sing on. " 

ISA J. POSTGATE. 



SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF 
FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

" Here are thoughts that inspire thought ; they stir up the 
thoughtless, they beckon to greater heights those that climb the 
mount." FATHER TOM in The Gospeller. 

From " Out of the Body." 

GOD teaches us that whatever will be hereafter may 
be here. GOD, Who has the past, present, and 
future all before Him, may set any one of the three 
before us, as He wills and when He wills. And 
there is no wonder in all this. The only wonder 
we know of is GOD. When we believe in GOD, 
all wonder ceases, and only begins again when 
wonders cease. 

From " Out of the Body" 

This doctrine (of conscious life after death) does 
not exalt mind or matter. It simply glorifies GOD, 
Who made them both. It claims undying life for 
the spirits and bodies of the departed. It dries 
the tears from all eyes and both cheeks. It does 
not wipe one eye and leave the other to be con 
sumed with grief. You mourn the spirit that is 

gone : it tells you that the spirit lives, and that it 

102 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 103 

is not too far away to return. You mourn the 
body that you see no more : it tells you that the 
body anticipates its resurrection, and has lost none 
of that loveliness that made it dear. You wonder, 
" Do they love us still ? " The answer is, " Yes, 
but not as they once did." What was superficial 
and unmeaning is cast off with the burden of the 
flesh, and lives only in union with the inane verses 
that express your " stony griefs " and befit the 
" Cemetery Company s " grave. But what was deep 
and true in that love burns deeper and more fond 
than ever. It is not a ring on the finger, but a 
warm gush from the heart. It is not distance that 
has made the heart grow fonder. But the pure 
see GOD; and the nearer the saint you love has 
approached that Presence, the more eager is the 
desire to communicate with you in love. 



STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL. 
From " Dead and Gone" ] 

I. M. A. R., 21 T Street, Birmingham, was 

dying of typhoid fever. One day, shortly before 
her departure, she seemed to be in a state of 
unconsciousness. She said, " One two three " 
(a pause after each word), " I baptize thee in the 
Name, &c." She repeated the whole form of 
Baptism, and the form of reception into the Church, 
as in the Book of Common Prayer. Her age was 

1 "All the stories selected are," a note by Father Pollock states, 
" derived from private sources." 



104 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

fourteen years; she was very often at church on 
Thursday evenings, when children were baptized at 
S. A s Church. 

II. A clergyman went to the General Hospital 

at B to see Mr. D , who was dying of 

typhoid fever. Returning from the hospital, he 
met the sick man s brother, and went back with 

him to the fever ward. Mr. D first talked a 

little to his brother, and then called for the clergy 
man, and said to him, " I have seen a glorious 
sight! I was in a dark cave, and could see 
nothing, till at last I saw a very bright light the 
TRINITY ! " These were almost, if not exactly, his 
words. As he spoke, he raised himself up in bed, 
and said the last words with great vehemence. He 
then sank back exhausted, and departed a few days 
after. 

III. Mr. C , a farmer in the Isle of Man, 

departed in February 1872. S. Luke s Church, 
where he is buried, is near his house, and is at the 
foot of Garrahan, a mountain near the central point 

of the island, a wild, remote district. Miss P , 

who has a farm near Mr. C s, one of her 

servants, Mrs. G , the wife of the farm steward, 

Mrs. C , and another neighbour, Mrs. K , 

attended the funeral; they all knew the departed 
well. The four women walked behind the rest as 
the procession moved through the fields to the 
church. The men in front sang hymns as they 
went. All the four women heard another choir. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 105 

That it was another choir, and a reality, they knew 
by these marks : 

1. The tune was not the same as that sung in the 
procession. 

2. The second choir sang most sweetly, now 
softly, now loudly, with " expression " such as 
they never heard before or since. 

3. The sweet music went on, while the men in 
the procession made pauses in their singing. 

4. The singers did not go on with the procession, 
but seemed to be on one side at a little distance, 
and the voices died away gradually as the funeral 
went on. 

Inquiries were made afterwards, but no one could 
explain the mystery. 

IV. One Sunday, in the autumn of 1873, a 
clergyman visited a destitute family resident in his 

district who were in great distress. Mr. A , 

a working man, told his story as follows. He 

lived in Upper K Street, Birmingham. He 

had three children, two of them boys John, aged 
three years, and Charles, aged one year and six 
months. The elder was run over by a coal-cart 
near his father s house, and was killed. From the 
time of his death the younger brother refused his 
food. As he walked along the road he called his 
lost brother. A great part of the day he sat on 
the stairs repeating his name. His parents, at 
last, after about a fortnight, took him to a doctor, 
who said he was pining from grief, could not be 
cured, and would very soon die. They laid him 



106 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

in his bed : still he kept calling to his brother, and 
speaking to him as if he was with him. His father 
was in the room with him when he departed. The 
child had been speaking to his brother as usual, 
when suddenly he seemed to make a great effort 
to raise himself up in the bed. While doing this 
he threw up his hands, and said with great eager 
ness, "Stop ! stop ! stop ! I m a-coming ! " and 

departed. Mr. A told the story as a mystery 

which he could not understand. He dwelt on the 
apparent presence of the departed child with his 
little brother, and seemed to consider the last 

words as conclusive. Mr. A is an ignorant, 

idle, matter-of-fact working man. His third and 
only child has since died, and he has enlisted. 

V. A working man, living at D Street, 

Birmingham, had a remarkable dream in April 
1873. He thought he stood beside a coffin which 
was half in the ground and half out of it. Some 
persons seemed to be present, but he did not dis 
tinctly see them. Addressing them, he expressed 
his reluctance to be put into the coffin, which he 
supposed had been put there for him. The reply 
was that half of him should go into it. The next 
day there came to him suddenly a corpse-like smell, 
that he always perceives shortly before the death of 
one of his relations. About a week after, his wife 
was attacked by smallpox, and died after two days 
illness, the disease assuming a specially malignant 
form. At the time of his dream all his family 
were in good health. The smallpox had not 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 107 

broken out in the neighbourhood, it was only in 
two or three houses. 

VI. Mr. G was an assistant surgeon in the 

Navy. He was engaged to be married to a lady 
in Ireland, but the engagement was broken off. 
He was afterwards in his ship, sailing somewhere in 
the South Seas. As he leaned over the side of the 
vessel one still evening he saw what seemed to be 
a small white cloud coming towards him. As it 
drew nearer he saw it was a woman, and presently 
he distinguished the features of the lady to whom 
he had been engaged. She came quite near and 
looked at him, then she vanished. He took a 
note of the time, and, when he got home, learned 
that the lady had departed this life at the time she 
appeared to him. 

VII. A person well known to me told me that 
she was staying in the house of an aunt, with her 
two cousins. One of them one morning was low- 
spirited and moody. At last, going up to her aunt, 
she burst into tears, and said 

" I saw grandfather last night." 

" Nonsense, child, you know he is not here ; don t 
be fanciful." 

" But I did see him." 

" Then you were dreaming." 

" Aunt, I was quite awake, and he came in at the 
window and stood at the foot of my bed ; he looked 
just as he always looks, but I was frightened, and 
covered my head over with the blanket. When I 



108 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

looked up again he was still there, but the third 
time he was gone." 

The grandfather died, as they heard afterwards, 
just at that very hour when she saw him. The 
poor girl fasted and wept the whole of that day. 

VIII. A working man had a vision one night 
He saw his father and mother, who had died some 
years before. They stood before him ; an Angel 
stood between them, and a serpent was near the 
Angel s feet. He felt a sting in his breast; the 
serpent stung him, as he thought. The pain made 
him start up and leap out of bed. Presently he 
went into bed again ; the pain had not yet left him. 
The figures then vanished away. His wife saw 
nothing. He was at the time a sober, industrious 
man. About a year after the vision he became a 
drunkard. He has kept his family in poverty and 
misery ever since. A clergyman visited him one 
Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1873. Talking 
of his sins, he told the story. He said he had often 
told it before, but none seemed able to explain it. 
Every one said "It s a vision"; and that was all 
they could say of it. 

IX. Mrs. R , Highgate Street, Birmingham, 

was one night in great trouble on account of her 
husband s cruelty. Her husband was in the room ; 
she felt very ill, and was sitting up in the bed. 
She saw her infant, that had died a few weeks 
before. She recognised his features and his 
dress, but noticed that his feet were bare, and 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 109 

that he had a crown upon his head. He was 
floating in the air, about midway between the floor 
and the ceiling. She saw him for a minute or 
more, and stretched out her hands to try to go to 
him. When she told this story to a priest, he 
asked her if she was not thinking of her child 
before she saw him. Her answer was, " No, not a 
little bit." 

X. " W died at 11 P.M., 28th Nov. 186." 

On the anniversary of his death, Miss , my 

brother, and I, agreed to keep it by the use of a 
short service of prayer at the hour of his decease, 
followed by an office for Spiritual Communion. 

Miss was at home, my brother in the north 

of Ireland, and I in my own room. 

I said the first part of the service, and then 
rested until twelve on my bed, without undressing, 
and awoke thoroughly refreshed when the clock 
struck. 

Although not yet Christened, I was intending to 
join the Church, and therefore ventured to use the 
second part of our service. I had been present 
about three times at Holy Communion in a small 
brick mission church. I had not proceeded far 
before I appeared to be in a large Gothic stone 
church, and was kneeling at the south end of a 
brazen communion rail. My brother was on my 

right, against the wall; on my left was W 

himself, transparent, but perfectly life-like ; beside 

him Miss , darker, but no less plain ; beyond 

her a lady whom I took for her mother, who had 



110 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

been dead ten years, and whom, although I had 
never seen, answered to all descriptions I have 
heard before or since ; then an aunt of my own, 
lately dead ; a brother of mine, who had been dead 
four years, and who was not a Churchman ; behind 
him my grandparents, also not Church people, and 
others I had known. As I proceeded with my 
prayers, the vision grew more and more distinct. 
I ventured to glance round, and beheld lofty stone 
arches, and the whole of a vast church thick with 

kneeling worshippers. I noticed that Miss 

and my brother were the only persons still living, 
and that they were darker and more substantial 
in appearance. As I proceeded with the "Act of 
Spiritual Communion," a figure, such as that of our 
SAVIOUB is usually represented, vested in Eucharistic 
robes, came slowly down inside the rail from the 
north side, staying at each kneeler, and whispering 
the words of administration to each. When He 
came to me there was a silence, not of reproof, 
but of solemnity. He vanished, after standing 
before my brother, and the vision gradually faded 
as I finished my prayers. I waited until it had 
nearly disappeared, and then, as the clock struck 
two, got into bed ; yet I had scarcely seen the last 
of it, when, having to be at the works early next 
morning, I put out my light and fell asleep. I am 
confident that I was perfectly wide awake during 
the whole time, and had no reason to doubt that 
I had been so next morning. Within the next 
day or two I described the vision to three of my 
friends. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. Ill 



WANDERING THOUGHTS. 

Whence come wandering thoughts in prayer ? 
From different sources. Not denying the spiritual 
influence, we must assert a natural cause. The fact 
is that people s thoughts wander in prayer just as 
they wander at other times. They are rightly called 
" distractions." 

What man of active mind can endure to be tied 
down to one train of thought at a time ? True, 
some things are so intensely interesting that they 
absorb all the mind s conscious energies. The 
mind may be quietly pursuing its own secret opera 
tions without the owner s knowledge, and the man, 
as far as he knows, is thinking only of one thing. 
Yet the fact that some trains of thought are so 
absorbing helps to prove my point, for other and 
lesser objects sometimes claim attention. They are 
little, comparatively speaking, and a superficial ob 
servation is enough for them ; the mind can afford 
no more. All the time those little things float over 
the surface of the mind, a deep under-current is 
moving on apace, and the " ground -swell " agitates 
the surface of the deep ; nay, it sometimes goes so 
far as to paralyse the faculties that are engaged 
in those superficial operations. There are various 
strata of thought growing to perfection in all active 
minds, and existing in greater or less variety in all 
minds. 



112 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER, 

COLINTRAIVE. 

One day last summer I stood on the deck of a 
steam-packet, and observed how the water of a 
Scotch island reflected the different parts of the 
landscape beyond it. Nearest the surface I noticed 
a house which was on the margin of the sea. 
Around it and below it I saw the trees and shrubs 
that were around it and above it. One layer of 
trees appeared below another. I observed that 
what was deep down in the water was high up 
on land. 

Presently I saw in deep water a bright and 
beautiful layer of sunshine and verdure. Where 
did it come from ? I saw it in the water as I saw 
the other things. But I had seen them on land; 
this I had not seen there. Why? I looked up 
and saw at once the explanation. I had not looked 
high enough before. Now I saw what I ought to 
have seen at first. For, high above, and far beyond 
the house and the trees, stood the distant hills, with 
the sun s glory shining upon them. 

" Twas ever thus." The shallowest view of life 
in this lower world of ours sees houses and lands 
and riches; and it finds nothing further, nothing 
deeper to experience. More thoughtful people, and 
those who have had larger knowledge of this world, 
look deeper, and see the difficulties and trials 
mixed with what is more hopeful and they wonder 
what will be the end of it all. Faith sees further : 
faith cries, " Out of the depths." It is not that 
faith is despairing. Little faith may doubt. But 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 113 

great faith sees " the end of the LOED." The cheer 
that lightens it comes " from above." The distant 
hills, the strong mountains " declare the glory of 
GOD," Who shines upon them. 

Then " out of the depths " need not mean out of 
misery and because of it. The Christian s cry out 
of the depths is " Abba, FATHER," " Our FATHER, 
which art in heaven." He endures " as seeing Him 
Who is invisible." The invisible GOD makes His 
goodness to " pass " by, as in the case of Moses. It 
passes as the sun s light passes from one range of 
mountains to another. Itself " without variable 
ness," it creates all the varying lights and shades 
that illustrate its unchanging love. 

Since that day in the summer of 1894 I have 
cared less for these lines of a favourite hymn 

" Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene ; one step enough for me." 

But perhaps these words of the next verse will 
make them true 

" So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on 

O er moor and fen, o er crag and torrent till 
The night is gone." 

The " heaviness " of night is followed by the 
" j ov " f the morning what Joel calls " the 
morning spread upon the mountains." Only let 
us not complain if " earth-born clouds " hide the 
glory of heaven. 

The Eucharistic Presence does not depend on 

H 



114 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

our faint efforts, though the joy of It is lost when 
we cease to strive. And though our blindness hide 
the light of GOD S countenance, let us know that 
" GOD is light, and hi Him is no darkness at all." 
" The light of seven days " is reserved for all who 
love light rather than darkness now. 

" Out of the depths " means " from the height 
above." Heaven s glory is revealed in earth s 
misery. The martyr s crown has jewels of its own. 

GOD S CARE FOR Us. 

It is a great effort of faith to believe that GOD 
made all things, and that He takes special care of 
each person. Do you believe that the Almighty 
FATHER cares for you and takes care of you, that 
He plans your life and all its concerns ? The LORD 
JESUS says He does, and so you must believe it 
without any doubt or demur. 

GOD S care for all living creatures is set forth 
by the LORD JESUS in these words : " Are not two 
sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them 
shall not fall on the ground without your FATHER " 
(S. Matt. x. 29). "Are not five sparrows sold for 
two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten 
before GOD " (S. Luke xii. 6). You know that GOD 
did arrange the circumstances of the deaths of 
innumerable beasts and fowls used in sacrifice by the 
Jews, directing what animals were to be used, their 
description and their age. Sparrows were not used 
in sacrifice, but GOD cared for them. Be they even 
the " mint and anise and cummin," to which no 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 115 

special regard was paid in Jewish sacrifices ; yet the 
care He bestows on them shows us that we are not 
to regard great things only, but to consider little 
faults and little duties too ; for " He that despiseth 
little things shall fall by little and little." And 
each sparrow, you observe, is taken care of. If two 
are sold for a farthing ; and if, as the LORD says, a 
fifth is added when two farthings worth are pur 
chased, even the odd one is known and its fate 
noted by the Heavenly FATHER, though men regard 
it not. 

" Doth GOD take care for oxen," and for sparrows ? 
Yes, otherwise the argument of the LORD is unmean 
ing. But, if we believe this, we understand and 
take comfort from the text that tells us " we are 
of more value than many sparrows." GOD S care of 
the lower proves His greater care for the higher. 
Strange that people should use an opposite argu 
ment when judging their brethren. A Christian 
man is careful of the small details of holy living 
and holy worship ; forthwith his neighbours come 
to the conclusion that he neglects the weightier 
matters of the Gospel forgetting the precept of 
the LORD where He enjoins both : " These things 
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 
undone." 

Now observe how this Fatherly care is described 
by the LORD. 

Let us begin by noticing two passages that will 
help to make the doctrine easier by limiting its 
scope, and in a measure explaining it. 

JESUS said, " Love your enemies, bless them that 



116 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them which despitefully use you and persecute 
you." And why ? Here is the reason : " That ye 
may be the children of your FATHER which is in 
heaven : for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
on the unjust " (S. Matt. v. 44, 45). Compare our 
LORD S words respecting " the Galilseans, whose blood 
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." JESUS 
said, " Suppose ye that these Galilseans were sinners 
above all the Galilseans because they suffered such 
things ? " He gives another example : " Or those 
eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and 
slew them, think ye that they were sinners above 
all men that dwelt hi Jerusalem ? " He answers 
both questions Himself: "I tell you, Nay: but, 
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish " 
(S. Luke xiii. 1-5). 

These two passages illustrate the doctrine that 
GOD S " tender mercies are over all His works." We 
must believe this. GOD made all things very good. 
GOD does not desert the work of His hands. Man 
in his sin and degradation is not forsaken by GOD 
or forgotten by Him. GOD lets His laws take effect 
for the preservation of the wicked who defy Him. 
And, on the other hand, He does not usually inter 
fere with the course of Nature when those who are 
good act unwisely and sacrifice the life which He 
has given. He rules the world by the beneficent 
laws which He has established. But the fact that 
those laws are beneficent is not intended to encour 
age the wicked in his rebellion. And the fact that 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 117 

those laws sometimes bring trouble upon the good 
is not intended to dishearten them, as if GOD did 
not interfere on their behalf, or as if He did not 
really care for and desire to keep them safe. 



BOOKS. 

Good books prove that there are good men and 
women to write them. Some of the writers do 
not enter upon their work with the highest 
motives, nor perform it in the best way. But 
their effort has something good in it, and we 
must not be so uncharitable as to call that good 
evil. 

Some writers of religious books are plagiarists. 
But it may be that they copy because the matter 
they " edit " is better than what they can produce. 
And if they infringe no right, and confess their 
obligations, who shall say that they are wrong ? 

Other writers are visionaries : they follow their 
own fancies, and do not keep the proportion of faith. 
But let us give them credit for what they see, and 
only be guarded against the errors that cloud their 
sight. 

Many more are said to be hypocrites. Perhaps 
some of them are. But the accusation is not easily 
proved, and the labours of the unworthy have often 
edified men more righteous than they. There are, 
besides, many writers who speak beyond their 
experience. And why not ? Do not preachers the 
same ? May we not speak and write of things as 



118 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

they ought to be, that we may save our own souls 
and those that hear us ? 

One objection remains. There are many men 
who write books for mercenary ends. Of writ 
ing books there is no end, because of making 
money there is no end. Put the case fairly, and 
you will see that the " authors who have ruined 
their booksellers " are not so numerous as the 
authors who have impoverished themselves. And 
even if, in this respect, or in any others I have 
mentioned, the writers are faulty, let them at least 
have the credit of choosing a good subject in which 
they are interested. And another consideration 
must be added. How many men have been edified 
by their own works ! Do not preachers speak to 
their own hearts, and " take the alarm they give " ? 
Surely it very often is the case that a sermon which 
seems to have no effect on the congregation speaks 
loudly to the heart of the preacher. 



SOME POEMS BY FATHER TOM. 

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 

" As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a 
man, and the face of a lion on the right side ; and they four had 
the face of an ox on the left side ; they four also had the face of an 
eagle. Ezekiel i. 10. 

HAIL, very GOD, as Man our weakness sharing ; 

Yet awful in Thine all-prevailing might ; 
Hail Victim pure, the due of sinners bearing ; 

Hail, Truth Divine, the very Light of light. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 119 



Saint Matthew. 

We know that Thou art Man, we watch Thee sleeping 
In manger laid, and wrapped in swaddling clothes ; 

We see Thee tears of human sorrow weeping 
With friends who mourn, and over Sion s woes. 

Of woman born, Thou art indeed our Brother, 
In all things like Thy brethren save in sin ; 

Thou f eelest all we feel, as can no other ; 
The glory Thou hast won we live to win. 

We own the power of Thine example holy, 
With bands of love it draws us after Thee ; 

We gladly hear a Master meek and lowly, 
Who goes before us, saying " follow Me." 



Saint Mark. 

We know Thee GOD, and in Thy gentle meekness 
We see the strength of an Almighty will ; 

Resistless power is veiled in human weakness 
The ends of love and wisdom to fulfil. 

Thou art Man s Champion ; evil quails before Thee ; 

The winds and waves their Maker s voice obey ; 
No fainting souls in vain for help implore Thee ; 

Disease and death and sin resign their prey. 

We worship Thee, in utter shame most glorious, 

Through darkness pressing surely towards the light, 

Of death and hell the Conqueror victorious, 
Proclaimed the SON of GOD, enthroned in might. 



120 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 



Saint Luke. 

The types and shadows of the Law fulfilling, 

Thy life on earth was lived, Thy death was died ; 

Thine offering of Thyself, a Victim willing, 
The one atoning Sacrifice supplied. 

No sin Thou knewest ; yet for us, the sinning, 
Thou was content our dying life to share 

Obedient unto death, our pardon winning, 

And opening Heaven to bring us with Thee there. 

Our hope, LORD, is in Thy Mediation, 

For Thou art GOD, and Thou with man art one ; 

We plead Thy merits, that in our salvation 
Thy FATHER S loving will and Thine be done. 



Saint John. 

Incarnate Word of GOD, the Ever-living, 
Thy Presence still is hid by lowly sign. 

Faith knows that Thou Thyself art with us, giving 
The treasures of Thy truth and grace Divine. 

Enthroned Thou art in glory, far above us, 
Yet we can rise to Thee in thought and heart ; 

We know that Thou dost think of us, and love us, 
And come to raise us up to where Thou art. 

We know Thee true, and in Thy word confiding, 
Obey Thy call and thankfully adore ; 

Thou dwellest in us ; and in Thee abiding 
Thy Life Divine is ours for evermore. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 121 

TWO DAYS. 

March 25. 

INCARNATE GOD, the world, in darkness groping, 
Through ages long desired to hail Thy light ; 

The nations strove, in want and weakness hoping, 
Till GOD from Heaven should come in love and 
might. 

Thy chosen race believed and loved the story 
Of blessing promised to their sires of old ; 

They longed for Thee, their King, their LORD, their 

Glory, 
Whom prophets word and holy rite foretold. 

December 25. 

O Word made Flesh, in human nature dwelling, 
We see GOD S glory, mirrored in Thy Face ; 

We hear Thy Voice, of love and mercy telling, 
We come to learn Thy truth and win Thy grace. 

We follow Thee, O Teacher meek and lowly, 
Thy Life can make our daily life Divine ; 

We trust Thee, slain, the Just for the unholy, 
To bring us to our FATHER and to Thine. 

SAVIOUR MOST LOVING. 

SAVIOUR most loving, bending before Thee, 
Sinful and mourning, Thy mercy we crave ; 

Leave us not hopeless, LORD, we implore Thee, 
Thou hast redeemed us, hear and save ! 



122 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

Fountain, where sinners find ever flowing 
Streams that wash all their defilement away ; 

To those pure waters thankfully going, 
We would for mercy and cleansing pray. 

Gentle Physician, mortal ills healing, 

Bending in love o er each sin-stricken soul ; 

Come, all Thy care and goodness revealing, 
Strengthen our weakness and make us whole. 

Shepherd most careful, warn us when straying, 
Guide us in paths where Thine own feet have trod, 

Led by Thy call, Thy dear Voice obeying, 
Bring us in peace to the fold of GOD. 

Light where the path is shadowed and dreary, 
Friend of the hearts that in loneliness pine ; 

Help of the poor, and Strength of the weary, 
Where is the love that is like to Thine ! 

LORD, Thou dost love us, for Thy love sought us 
When we were wandering in deserts alone ; 

LORD, Thou dost love us, for Thy Blood bought us, 
And Thou wilt never forget Thine own. 

LORD, we would trust Thee, doubting Thee never, 
Help us in faith on Thy Word to recline : 

LORD, we would love Thee, keep us for ever 
Near to that tenderest Heart of Thine. 

LORD, we would follow where Thou dost call us, 
Patient in sorrow and valiant in fight ; 

May we be true, whatever befall us, 
Journeying on to the Land of Light. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 123 

There, LORD, with gladness laying before Thee, 
Each heavy cross we have carried so long, 

Crowned with Thy blessing, we shall adore Thee, 
Singing for ever the triumph song. 



FAITHFUL SHEPHERD. 

FAITHFUL Shepherd, feed me 
In the pastures green, 

Faithful Shepherd, lead me 
Where Thy steps are seen. 

Hold me fast, and guide me 

In the narrow way, 
So, with Thee beside me, 

I shall never stray. 

Daily bring me nearer 
To the Heavenly Shore ; 

May Thy love grow dearer, 
May I love Thee more. 

Hallow every pleasure, 

Sanctify my pain, 
Be Thyself my Treasure, 

Though none else I gain. 

Give me joy or sadness ; 

This be all my care, 
That eternal gladness 

I with Thee may share. 

Day by day prepare me 

As Thou seest best, 
Then let Angels bear me 

To Thy promised Rest. 



124 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

By Thy Cross and Dying, 

JESU, hear my prayer ; 
Daily grace supplying, 

Bring me safely there. 



LITANY OF THE CHURCH. 

JESU, with Thy Church abide, 
Be her SAVIOUR, LORD, and Guide, 
While on earth her faith is tried ; 

Arms of love around her throw, 
Shield her safe from every foe, 
Calm her in the time of woe ; 

Keep her life and doctrine pure, 
Help her patient to endure 
Trusting in Thy promise sure ; 

May her voice be ever clear, 
Warning of a judgment near, 
Telling of a SAVIOUR dear ; 

All her ruined works repair, 
Build again Thy temple fair, 
Manifest Thy presence there ; 

All her fettered powers release, 
Bid our strife and envy cease, 
Grant the Heavenly gift of peace ; 

May she one in doctrine be, 
One in truth and charity, 
Winning all to faith in Thee ; 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 125 

May she guide the poor and blind, 
Seek the lost until she find, 
And the broken-hearted bind ; 

Save her love from growing cold, 
Make her watchmen strong and bold, 
Fence her round Thy peaceful fold ; 

May her Priests Thy people feed, 
Shepherds of the flock indeed, 
Ready, where they call, to lead ; 

May they live the truths they know, 
And a holy pattern show, 
As before Thy flock they go ; 

May the grace of Him Who died, 
And the FATHER S love abide, 
And the SPIRIT ever guide ; 

All her evil purge away, 

All her doubts and fears allay, 

Hasten, LORD, her triumph day ; 

Help her in her time of fast 
Till her toil and woe are past, 
And the Bridegroom come at last ; 

May she then all glorious be, 
Spotless and from wrinkle free, 
Pure and bright and worthy Thee ; 

Fit her all Thy joy to share 

In the Home Thou dost prepare, 

And be ever blessed there. 



126 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 

JESUS MY ALL. 

IN a world of sin and care, 

Weary and oppressed, 
Unto Thee I lift my prayer, 

JBSU ! be my Rest. 

Narrow is the way I go, 

Oft I turn aside, 
When I fail the path to know, 

JESU ! be my Guide. 

Oft the shadows gather round 

Hiding all things bright ; 
When no hope or cheer is found, 

JESU ! be my Light. 

Oft the storms of trial lour, 

And my fears increase ; 
In each dread unquiet hour, 

JESU ! be my Peace. 

Oft with Satan s host I wage 

An unequal fight ; 
When I meet their force and rage, 

JESU ! be my Might. 

Soon shall earthly toil be past, 

Ended all my strife ; 
When in death I lie at last, 

JESU ! be my Life. 

While I live and when I die, 

Ever hear my call ; 
Now and to Eternity, 

JESU ! be my All. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 127 



GOD KNOWETH. 

DANGERS threaten all around, 

Foes gather nigh ; 
Sin and misery abound, 

GOD knoweth why. 

Sad the grief, and pain, and scorn, 

We suffer now ; 
But from evil good is born, 

GOD knoweth how. 

Sin and woe shall pass away, 

And we shall then 
Hail the Everlasting Day, 

GOD knoweth when. 

In the Holy Land of Rest 

Homes we may share 
With the Angels and the Blest, 

GOD knoweth where. 

We will faithfully endure 
Whate er befall, 

This our strength that we are sure- 
Goo knoweth all. 



A CONSCIENCE VOID OF OFFENCE. 

I GIVE to every man his right, 

As in my Heavenly FATHER S sight 

With word and deed sincere : 
As one who bears a Christian name, 
I guard my honour free from blame, 

I keep my conscience clear. 



128 FATHER POLLOCK AND HIS BROTHER. 



FOUR THINGS THAT MAKE A MAN HAPPY. 

I. THE world despise ; 

Account its honours and its pleasures nought. 
II. Look on no man with scornful eyes ; 

He is thy GoD-born brother, by thy SAVIOUR bought. 
III. Thyself despise ; 

Thou knowest well thy weakness and thy shame. 
IV. Above man s censure calmly rise ; 

Be true to GOD and right, unmoved by praise or 

blame. 

So Heavenly peace thy steadfast soul shall know, 
And see life s tempests raging far below. 



1 "SIRS, YE ARE BRETHREN." 

OH, why should we revile our brother s creed, 
Or brand his failings with a scornful name ? 

For, do not we more Heaven-taught wisdom need ? 
Are they weak sinners 1 are not we the same ? 

We dare not spend our time in endless strife. 

A work we have more blessed, happier far ; 
And ours is but one frail uncertain life, 

Whose moments all too short and fleeting are. 

Around us Woe s down-trodden victims lie ; 

Our help and sympathy with tears they claim ; 
And sinners, day by day, in darkness die, 

Who scarce have heard the loving SAVIOUR S Name. 

1 Across the MS. of these lines some one has written " A good 
ideal of hit own life." All who knew Father Tom will endorse this 
opinion. 



SELECTIONS FROM THEIR WRITINGS. 129 

And we are called to cheer the fainting soul, 
Each feeble lamb with careful hand to guide, 

To point the sick to Him Whose Word makes whole, 
To lead the penitent to JESU S side. 

Be ours to choose the path of lowly love 

And patient work our meek Redeemer trod : 

Are we provoked ? it all is known above, 
And we may bear what is endured by GOD. 

LORD, speak the word, and bid our wrangling cease, 
That we may give our days to work and prayer ; 

Oh grant from Heaven a dawning of that peace 
Which they enjoy who love and serve Thee there ! 



THE END. 



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