But while it represented the parish, it left the vicar quite outside.

He had a voice, but nothing more.

He was not the centre--the controlling spirit.
He bore it meekly enough, so far as he was personally concerned; but he grieved about it in connection with his deep religious feelings and his Church.

The Church was not in the front of all, as it should be.

It was hard after all his labour; the rebuffs, the bitter remarks, the sneers of those who had divergent views, and, perhaps worse than all, the cold indifference and apathy of those who wished things to remain in the old state, ignoring the fact that the law would not suffer it.