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xvi INTRODUCTION.
His practical efforts among his parishioners were appreciated. He wrote that he "had tumbled into a" sad parish, — eight hundred people, and nearly four hundred rabid dissenters." His preaching was very popular; but the "rabid dissenters" found great scandal because he threw open his rectory grounds on Sunday afternoons, and allowed the young men to play cricket and foot-ball. The moral improvement manifested in the village overcame all opposition.
During his two years at Elton, in addition to his exacting duties, which kept him up half the night, a number of the young men used to meet at the rectory every night at twelve o'clock, and spend an hour in prayer; while on the eves of the great feasts these devotions were kept up for hours, in spite of the rap-pings and other noises, apparently made by mysterious agencies. Faber wrote a number of Lives of the English Saints, and brought out his "Sir Launce-lot," — a poem in ten books, — also a volume of shorter pieces.
His position was almost unendurable; he sought relief in vain from his confessor. He fasted rigorously, carrying it to such extremes that he sometimes fainted while reading morning prayers; and, among other self-imposed penances, he wore a thick horsehair cord knotted round his waist.
In the autumn of 1845, Mr. Newman and a number of other friends joined the Romish Communion. He |
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