Transcribed from the 1888 William Rice edition ,
SERMONS
BY
Rev. Canon HOARE,
AND
Rev. W. MAY,
Preached in BrenchleyChurch, 26 February, 1888.
ALSO
NOTES OF THE LAST SERMONPREACHED BY
Rev. F. STORR,
12 February, 1888.
LONDON:
WILLIAM RICE, 86 FLEET STREET, E.C.
From the Guardian, Feb. 29th, 1888. [3]
On Saturday, February 25th, the mortal remains of the Rev.Francis Storr, for thirty-four years Vicar of the parish, wereburied in the beautiful churchyard of Brenchley. The snowlay thick upon the ground, but the sun shone bright in heaven,and the outward scene symbolised and reflected the feelings ofthe mourners—the blank sorrow of a bereaved parish, and therejoicing that the last prayer of their beloved pastor had beengranted, and that he had been summoned home before increasingyears had necessitated that resignation of his work and ministrywhich would have been to him a living death.
His work was well described by Canon Hoare, who preached thefuneral sermon:—“He was a true specimen of a devotedparish clergyman. He p. 4did not take much part in thingsoutside his parish. Most thankful should we have often beenif we had had more of his help and counsel in matters concerningthe diocese and the Church. But the parish was his sphere,the parish was his home, and the parish was the one object forthe benefit of which he spent his life.” The Bishopof Dover writes,—“No one could possibly behalf-an-hour in his company without seeing a transparentlyChristian character, the chief features of which were personalhumility and genial sociability.” And the Archbishopof Canterbury writes,—“My last day in Brenchley, andmy walk and talk with him were one of the never-to-be-forgottendays. The labour and the love which turned an affliction sogreat [his blindness] into a gain, were indeed in the very spiritof St. Paul and of his Master.”
Born in 1808, and educated at Harrow and Queen’sCollege, Oxford, he entered the ministry in 1833 as curate ofUp-Waltham, in Sussex, where he often exchanged pulpits withArchdeacon (now Cardinal) Manning. In 1837, he wasappointed to the rectory of Otley in Suffolk, through theinstrumentality of the present Bishop of Norwich, who, with aconscientiousness which was in those days rarer than now, refusedhimself to hold two livings. The parish had never beforehad a resident incumbent. A dilapidated and empty churchwas speedily restored and filled. The young preacher withhis striking presence, clear voice, and impassioned delivery,attracted a congregation not p. 5only from his own parish, but from theneighbouring villages, where in those days such preaching wasunknown, so that hearers from twenty-three different parisheshave been counted at one Otley service.
In 1846, he was presented by Lord Tollemache, who as a nearneighbour had seen and appreciated his work at Otley, to theliving of Acton, in Cheshire. Acton is a la