A NAVY CHAPLAIN.* LIVES may be worth writing, and even
worth reading, for various reasons. Some men are exceptionally great, and their example
• Recollections of a Chaplain is ths /Loyal N.V. Compiled and Edited by his Widow. London: W. H. Allen and Co. 188& may be expected to inspire ordinary folk with a worthy ambition; others have succeeded against enormous difficulties, and their experience may fill despairing men with hope ; other men have been a part, great or little, of history, and their private and public doings may require to be studied to appreciate the movement of historical events, apart from which they them- selves seem to be uninteresting nonentities ; and others may have been intimately connected with some important institution for many years, so that its history may be conveniently viewed from the inside by means of their personal memoirs. To the last class belonged the Rev. W. Guise Tucker, who for nearly fifty years was connected with the British Navy ; but after perusing this volume of his Recollections, prepared by his widow, we confess to a feeling of disappointment. The picture of life on board a man-of-war is so slightly sketched, that it HOMO not to differ materially from life in a quiet country parish ; and the chapters which deal with the period when Mr. Tucker was attached to any ship are principally filled with accounts of holi- day trips on shore. One gathers that he only kept a journal during these trips, and that of his working days there were very few materials for drawing a full-length picture.
It is instructive to note the way in which England discharges her conscience towards her seamen, who, even more than the land forces, are necessarily removed from all ordinary moral and religions restraints. Since the days of the Tudors, the law has provided that every ship-of-war should have the "public wor- ship of Almighty God solemnly, orderly, and reverently per- formed, according to the liturgy of the Church of England," at least once every Sunday. When Mr. Tucker entered the Navy fifty years ago, 33 ships out of 180 carried Chaplains, who rarely officiated outside their own cures, so that the remaining 147 vessels were dependent on the Captain for their solitary Sunday service. Commanding officers were forbidden to allow any religions book to be received on board that had not been "approved and pointed out by Dr. Cole, the senior Chaplain of Greenwich Hospital;" but we axe told that as the worthy "Dr. Cole was not in communication with the 147 smaller ships-of- war, this approval was not easily obtained, and no tracts were furnished by him; whilst the few religious books supplied by the Admiralty were too often kept nailed up in the purser's stores in the holds of the vessels, so as to be returned into store after the three years' voyage in good condition for reissue to another ship." On the smaller vessels, therefore, religion was solemnly brought out and paraded one hour in each week, and for the rest of the time was carefully "nailed up" to keep it clean from contact with daily life, save haply in the case of vessels com- manded by officers who were disposed to encourage facilities for voluntary religious gatherings. Even on the larger vends the Chaplain greatly depended on the Captain's caprice for any opportunity to go beyond the single stipulated service. "Rarely was the Holy Communion administered publicly in the place where prayer was wont to be made. Confirmations were unknown. Obtaining a place wherein to assemble the men voluntarily for Bible instruction and prayer was often a very difficult matter for the Chaplain. Even his visiting the sick was dependent on the goodwill of the surgeon." There might be some reason in the last restriction. The Chap. lain's only compensation lay in the fact that the exposure of his" whole private life and conversation day by day to the constant scrutiny of his congregation," gave him a means of influencing through personal character that might be more effective than unlimited religious minis- trations. When, in 1865, Mr. Tucker became head of the Naval Chaplains, and in that capacity "the official adviser of the First Lord of the Admiralty respecting everything connected with the spiritual welfare of the naval service," he devoted his energies to improving the position of the Chaplains. He succeeded in pomading the Admiralty to issue a circular ordering that in ships-of-war bearing a Chaplain—one wonders why the other ships were not included—a place of prayer should be set apart. He took great interest in promoting the more frequent celebration of the Holy Communion. He remodelled the catalogue of books issued to all her Majesty's ships, and took pains to secure that the books should be available for reading, instead of being "nailed up in the purser's stores." He also brought out the Royal Naval Song-Book, which was "designed to impart to the decks of all her Majesty's ships melodious music, combined with words of pure and noble sentiment."
Mr. Tucker was only nine years at sea, and was then appointed to the chaplaincy of the Dockyard and Naval
Hospital at Malta. It was at this point that the editor appeals to have joined the hero of her story,—in other words, they were married ; for on p. 123 (as in Acts xx., 5) the word we" appears without any previous warning. In another respect we are reminded of the Acts of the Apostles in the early part of this book, for Mr. Tucker in his holiday trips was constantly treading in the footsteps of St. Paul, visiting Troas, the Seven Churches of Asia (or, rather, their sites), Damascus, Athens, Malta, and Rome. From these journeys we will only quote the following description of a view of the plain of Magnesia ad Meandrem, which was, in Mr. Tucker's opinion, "too beautiful to remain unnoticed. Before us was the plain of Magnesia, bounded by its mountains at a great distance, which now were distinctly azure; between them and the foreground was a grove of olive-trees, that whitened to the brilliancy of polished Biker, and towards this grove, from the bottom of a deep precipice, ran a clear, rapid stream, that foamed over rocks, and unbosomed in a defile of the mountains, which was adorned on both sides with elegant though not gigantic trees."
Almost the only exception to the land character of the book is an account of the naval proceedings in 1840, when, to quote Mr. Tucker's own phrase, England "had determined to commit the mistake of violently wresting Syria from the Viceroy of Egypt, to make it once more Turkish soil." Though he regarded it as a " mistake," he does not seem to have guessed that it might possibly have been a " sin " on England's part ; on the other hand, he thought he saw clearly that we were being employed to inflict punishment on Egypt for her sins. In the midst of the horrors of the conflict, he writes
" Alas ! I was constrained to return to the true explanation of the destruction we were cansing, and could not but suppose it to be sin and idolatry—the only causes of human misery. We now began to witness some of the lamentable effects of our exertions. A man was seen carrying away the body of a woman, whom [sic] we could but conclude had been killed by our own shot Wee this con- genial to my feelings ? Far from it. But it was a lesson of human misery, and instructed [We] in the fearful attributes of that Almighty Being whose auger bad been provoked thus to pour out his vengeance."
And, again, after success had favoured our side, he says "How merciful is our God ! and how plainly does he now fulfil the prediction that Egypt should be still 'base,' yea, the 'basest of kingdoms,' at the very moment when there appeared a prospect of her being able to acquire independent greatness." One could wish that Mr. Tucker had followed Mr. Ruskin'e example, and looking over this passage in later life, had appended the note :—" This sentence is a mere piece of pious insolence. No mortal has any business with God's intentions, or pretence to insight into them."
It will be readily gathered that Mr. Tucker was a rigid Evangelical Protestant, and we find him making elaborate apologies "in exoneration of Captain (Sir W.) Peel" for having, when a young Lieutenant, received on board as his guest, daily companion, and teacher in Arabic, a Roman Catholic. The book concludes with extracts from sermons and papers which contain nothing of any importance ; doubtless his influence as a clergy- man rested on his "walk and conversation," and on the fervent manner in which he told old truths, rather than on any originality in his preaching. Probably he very fairly gauged his own capacity, besides describing his practice, when he says
"We are too elaborate in our sermons and abound too much in information, and do not leave enough to the force of truth. I have frequently riveted and electrified my congregation by the mere delivery of a single text, the troth of which has been irresistibly and strongly impressed upon my own mind."
The printed extracts from his sermons do not read very im- pressively; but they may possibly have " electrified " his congregation by the manner of his delivery.
His most elaborate essay seems to have been a pamphlet called Sursum Corda ; or, the Lord's Supper a Commemorative Covenant Feast—a Communion—not a Sacrifice, nor an Act of Worship or Adoration, written to prove that by this service "for a time the minds of the faithful are taught that all suppli- catory or precatory acts of worship are in abeyance, in order to give opportunity for a reverent mental and spiritual feasting upon the blessings which have been asked for." The argument is supported by ample references to the use of the word "com- munion" in the New Testament ; but no attempt is made to group its various meanings, or to show how they naturally come out of the etymology of the Greek word yetureavls, or of the word "communion" itself. Is it possible that he had forgotten his Latin and Greek, perhaps neglecting those languages in
favour of Hebrew P for elsewhere we find him saying,—" There is a growing feeling in this country that Latin and Greek enter into the education of youth too exclusively, and that other languages have an equal, if not a larger claim upon our regard. I allude especially to the Hebrew, which forms the root of the tree of languages." We have never before heard that the growing feeling in this country against the exclusive study of Latin and Greek was in favour of Hebrew as a snbstitute, nor are we aware of any aohool of philology that regards Hebrew as "the root of the tree of languages."
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