A Spiritual Pilgrimage (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916. Excerpt: ... a very good one of its kind. We had clergy among the masters, but I cannot recollect a scintilla of interest being shown in the spiritual welfare of any boy belonging to it. True, we had prayers every morning, the usual modified Prayer Book form; and what was called "divinity" had a certain place in the examinations; but no attempt was ever made to suggest to us that these things were more than a form; and I am sure that is how the boys felt about the matter. It never entered our heads that our religious exercises had any special importance. I now passed through a pagan period, as I suppose most boys do. My childhood's experiences sank into the background; I knew better than to talk about them. My associates were healthy-minded young savages, purely secular in speech and aim, and I became something of a savage myself accordingly. The dreamer of dreams sank into a dreamless sleep; only the adventurer and hedonist remained awake, more awake than heretofore. Health continued bad, but I managed to do pretty well in my classes notwithstanding, and finally became a student teacher with no salary. This led on to other work of the same kind, part of it in elementary schools, which I still think was a mistake; it would have been better to take the headmaster's advice and push straight on for the university. My father's removal from one circuit to another prevented this, as also no doubt his large family and comparatively slender means. At length I was appointed junior master in a small high school in Cheshire, the headmaster of which was a clergyman and Oxford honorman. This event marked an epoch in my adolescent life, for, as the whole tone of the school was Anglican, and I had to teach the Church catechism and prepare boys for the Oxford and Cambridge local exam...