Cosmo Gordon Lang
Sm,—Our loyalty to the departed seems to be supplanted by a mordant and ungenerous disparagement. And to the distress of his many friends our detractors are now hard at work on the biography of Archbishop Lang. Forty years ago he came to us here in the North, where for a time I had the good fortune to be one of his Archdeacons. It was to see the biggest halls in Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield packed with men hanging on his every word. It was to find a new breath of life spreading through the Church. Across all these years I have felt the stimulus of his amazing personality. As a young man he showed me what Christian leadership might be, and ought to be. He revealed to me the influence of great utterance. He taught me, in the closer contacts at Bishopthorpe, the potency of a disciplined life.
It is this picture of his outstanding brilliance and courage and devotion that I desire to emphasise. It is easy to see one another's frailties. It is wiser surely to use to the uttermost the special contribution that a great and courageous leader alone can give.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
Sefton Court, Liverpool. H. GRESFORD-JONES.
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