IT is with much sorrow that we notice this month the death of Mr. John Kensit, the well-known Protestant lecturer, which took place at Liverpool Royal Infirmary on Wednesday morning, the 8th October. The circumstances, which have led to the death of Mr. Kensit, give an exceptionally painful interest to the event. Mr. Kensit has died as a martyr to the cause of Protestant truth.
The brief but sad narrative of the occurrence is as follows:— Mr. Kensit addressed a meeting at the Claughton Music Hall, Birkenhead, on the evening of Thursday, the 25th September, and after the meeting was over, proceeded to the Woodside landing stage, where he was followed by a crowd of young men. “When approaching the pay gates, Mr. Kensit was observed suddenly to fall, and on being picked up it was found that he had sustained a severe wound over the left eye. The weapon with which the wound was inflicted was a round steel file, which must have been hurled with considerable force.” Mr. Kensit was then taken to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. A youth named John M’Keever was arrested about a week later in connection with the affair, but the case at the time of writing (22nd October) has not yet been tried. It is very plain, however, that Mr. Kensit received the heavy blow from the hand of one who was animated with the murderous spirit of the persecutor. According to reports, Mr. Kensit was recovering from the effects of the wound when an attack of double pneumonia set in, which resulted in his death. The news of this sad event came as a great shock to the friends of the Protestant cause, and produced a profound sensation among all classes of the community. Deep and widespread sympathy has been felt with Mrs. Kensit and family in this sore bereavement, and kind messages in testimony of the same have been received from numerous quarters. A funeral service was held, with a large and crowded congregation, at St. Clement’s Church (Rev. C. Musgrave Brown’s), Toxteth, Liverpool, on Friday, 8th October.
Mr. Kensit’s body was then conveyed in a hearse, attended by an extensive procession, to Edgehill Station, and was thence transferred by rail to his home in London, where it was interred on Saturday, in Hampstead Cemetery. It was estimated that the crowd of people who lined the route of the procession in Liverpool numbered over 20,000; while in London also, the people appeared in their thousands. Before interment, a service was held in St. Mary’s Church, Kilburn, and an appropriate address was delivered by the Rev. F. S. Webster, Rector of All Souls’, Langham Place. Among other clergymen who officiated we notice the Rev. James Ormiston, Bristol, the respected editor of the Gospel Magazine. Many ministers and representatives of Protestant Societies were present. In fact, an exceptional degree of sympathy has been evoked by Mr. Kensit’s death, even from those who did not sympathise with his religious methods. We trust that the sympathy will be followed up by an increase of zeal and activity in the cause of Protestantism.
Very special interest has been taken in the case of Mr. Kensit, junior, to whose imprisonment as a Protestant witness reference was made in our last issue, and who was in Walton Gaol at the time his father was suffering in the Infirmary. It was felt, however, as some relief to the painful situation, and some comfort to the afflicted family, that young Mr. Kensit was permitted by the Home Secretary to visit his father for a short time before the end, and that, when the news of the latter’s decease was intimated, he was entirely liberated as an “act of grace.” On the day of his release he sent the following telegraphic message to the King:—”His Majesty the King, Balmoral Castle,—This morning I received my release from Liverpool Prison. Feeling this to be the outcome of your Majesty’s gracious intervention, allow me, on my own behalf and that of my mother and sisters to return to your Majesty our most fervent gratitude. This act of grace will be highly appreciated, not only by myself and family, but also by all who have at heart the upholding of freedom of speech and our national Protestantism.—JOHN ALFRED KENSIT.” A similar message was also sent to the Home Secretary,
The death of this Protestant witness, at the comparatively early age of forty-nine years, gives rise to many reflections. It shows us that the spirit of violent persecution is not buried in the past, but still lives. All the advance of civilisation has not eradicated this spirit from the heart of man. The present age boasts of its charity and toleration in religion, but it is mainly a charity towards error, and a toleration of evil systems. Under the cry of freedom of opinion there is a decided intolerance of uncompromising and unadulterated truth. Should the assailant in the present case prove to have been a Ritualist—as there is every probability he was—he has given proof that Ritualism is a persecuting system, and that it is of the same spirit as Romanism, which inculcates the extermination of heretics by the sword. Should it possibly turn out that the assailant was a Romanist, he has given a new proof that his religion is unchanged with the progress of centuries, and is animated by the same cruel spirit as of old.
What are we to think of this incident in relation to the future? It is fitted to give the impression that Protestants are about to pass into a period of stern trial and suffering. To use a common figure, it seems as if we were on the edge of a volcano that is ready to burst. The fires of persecution are slumbering, but they may break forth at some unexpected moment with a degree of violence that we have at present little or no conception of. Some sparks have already been ejected that may portend what is to be experienced in the future. There is just another reflection of a more pleasant nature that occurs, namely, that this violent attack on Mr. Kensit may defeat the very end it was intended to accomplish. It may awaken alarm in the minds of the people as to the character, methods, and doctrines of the Ritualists. Popery was the one thing that the most liberal minded Englishman of former days could not endure. Popery is clearly coming in like a flood in this High Church movement; and if there is really a spark of the ancient love of truth and freedom left in the hearts of Englishmen, they will rise up as one man at the present crisis and say to Ritualism, “Thus far shalt thou come, but no further.” We fear, however, that the time of reformation is not yet, and that the delusion will increase to a much greater extent before that time comes. Something, however, might be done at the present moment towards the preservation of our civil liberties, if the death of Mr. Kensit were laid to heart by the rulers and people of our country.