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Otago Daily Times, Issue 11943, 17 January 1901, Page 4

The Church of England has suffered a serious loss by the death of Dr Creighton, Bishop of London, at the comparatively early age of 58. Just four years ago, when he was transferred from Peterborough to Loudon as successor of the present Archbishop of Canterbury, ifc. was little thought that Bishop Creighton would predecease Dr Temple, his senior by 22 years. Rather was it supposed that in the course of a. few years he himself would, in his turn, pass on from Fulham to Lambeth, and the surmise was subsequently strengthened by the success which he achieved in the London see. But he has been taken away in his prime of usefulness, and the untimely event will cause sincere regret beyond the confines of the Anglican community. If he had not become famous in the popular sense, he was certainly on the high road to no mean renown, and it is hardly too much to say that the outside world was beginning to regard him as the representative English Bishop of the day. Like the late Bishop Lightfoot and the present Bishop of Oxford (Dr Stubbs), he brought to the bench the prestige of high historical scholarship and accomplishment, and though he had no special gift of eloquence, he had a remarkable power of pregnant and lucid utterance, and few men could rise more effectively to the height of a great occasion. He was at his best in a representative capacity, so to speak,—speakiug for his church or his university before mixed or even international gatherings, and endeavouring, as ho always did, to minimise differences of thought and. make the most of points of union. Staunch Anglican as he was, without leanings to the Broad Church school of Stanley and Farrar, his churchmanship was nevertheless of a liberal order, and he was decidedly a persona grata among the Nonconformist bodies. He had made his mark in the House of Lords, — and, indeed, he had the full equipment of an ecclesiastical statesman. Nor must it be supposed that his episcopal qualities were mainly of the showy type: he was a very hard-working Bishop, earnestly desirous of improving the material and spiritual conditions of his immense diocese. A complete opportunity was not granted to him, however, and he has passed away with his work half-done,—missing the fulness of years which would probably have made his name a household word, at least in his own communion.