Religion

A calling to Mill Hill

On leaving Cambridge, as a young man with a deep Christian faith, McClure had at least one offer to become a Pastor within the Congregational Church, the Nonconformist denomination of which he was a lifelong member. However, he decided his vocation was to education and as a layman in the church, rather than as an ordained minister.

When he was offered the position of Headmaster of Mill Hill in 1891, he understood it as a calling by God, partly because he had not formally aplied for the position, but rather it had been offered to him.

As he said in his Mill Hill centenary speech: ‘I felt that I had received what used to be known as “a call from the Lord” not, like some calls from the Lord, to a larger salary, but to larger service; to greater emoluments, but to greater responsibility.’

Mill Hill was the perfect fit for him, having been founded 84 years earlier in 1807 by a union of three Nonconformist denominations – Congregational, Presbyterian and Baptist – originally as the Protestant Dissenters Grammar School. Although an accurate description, he later explained his dislike of the negative connotation associated with dissent, preferring the more positive aspects of Nonconformism, not least that it was unique among the country’s boarding schools in being non-denominational and ‘devoted to freedom in theology and religion.’

Following one memorable Old Millhillians Annual Dinner in 1912 after 21 years of Headship, he said:

Vision of education

McClure’s Christian faith was at the heart of his vision of true education and, ‘the development of moral and spiritual power was... something to be much thought about and much prayed about.’

The School did not have a Chaplain at that time, but as Headmaster he carried out many of the Chapel roles now associated with chaplaincy, as well as offering spiritual and pastoral care to boys and their families. He also presided at many Old Millhillians’ weddings and any subsequent baptisms, and sadly at too many funerals. In many ways, we might say that the School became his Congregation. Indeed, in his final speech at the end of his year as Chairman to the Congregational Union he said as much: ‘I too, though not a minister in the stricter sense, have a “cure of souls’; so I speak to my fellow-ministers as a brother and a friend.’

Academic achievement was a priority, but for McClure, the development of moral and spiritual power in the boys was an even higher priority as he expressed in his first speech to parents following his appointment. ‘To see a boy morally and spiritually strong, full of reverence for all that was really great and good, and loved by his fellows on account of these things, was to realise what true education meant and was of infinitely greater importance than prizewinning, prizes being after all, but the whips by which boys are goaded to activity.’

PrinciplEs of Nonconformism

Few would detract from that conclusion either during his lifetime, or when reflecting on his contribution to Mill Hill 100 years later.

To understand Mill Hill, and the origins of McClure’s Nonconformist Christian faith, we must briefly go back to 1662. At this pivotal time in British church history, Protestant dissenters rejected Parliament’s 1662 Act of Uniformity that required clergy to give unconditional assent to use only the services found in the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer, together with a requirement to take an Oath of Canonical Obedience to the Church of England Bishops. In that year, over 2,000 clergy refused to ‘conform’ to this Act, an act of ‘dissent’ which led to them losing their livings. This exodus of clergy came to be known as ‘The Great Ejection’ and signalled the birth of the Nonconformist Christian denominations.

The Chapel

It is fitting that Sir John McClure’s ashes and later those of his wife Lady Mary McClure are laid to rest in the School Chapel, as he was largely responsible for its existence. In his early days as Head, he described himself as being ‘brazen’in his ambition for a new Chapel to be built, which was to be the third in the School’s history. This was to replace the second Chapel which we now know as The Large, because it was too cold and too small to accommodate the School’s growing numbers. He set up a Chapel Fund for this vision to be realised and it was opened on Foundation Day 1898. For 24 years in this beloved Chapel he led School worship, prayed, preached, played music and sang, and those of us who follow him are forever grateful that his ambition became a reality. He would be delighted that ‘his’ Chapel is still at the very heart of the Mill Hill pupil experience.

His final resting place in the Chapel walls near the Head’s stall lies under the Isaac window, which was dedicated to him on Old Boys’ Day in 1922. Overhead, above the window there is a mosaic of angels, together with McClure’s initials and the dates of his tenure at Mill Hill. On the outside of the Chapel, the place is memorialised with a large stone tablet inscribed in Latin which includes the words;

‘In loving memory of John David McClure M.A.; LL.D.; D.Mus... the beloved Headmaster of this School upon whose interest he lavished his every purpose, endeavour and physical power, until he raised it from a humble position to greater prominence.’

As a mark of respect, it became a long-standing school tradition that when boys passed this place on their way to Chapel every day, they removed their hands from their pockets and kept a respectful silence.

In 1912, McClure was invited to give a speech commemorating the 250th anniversary of this event. Apparently, his words caused some controversy, but they give us an insight into his broad and generous understanding of Christian faith. To the consternation of some, he refused to condemn the existence of the established Church of England. Rather he sought to find ways of building bridges of reconciliation, making a plea to ‘bury bitterness and recrimination.’

The Commitment to Religious Freedom and the Absence of Conformity

This approach was to characterise McClure’s attitude to Christian faith while at Mill Hill. Even though he was a committed member of the Nonconformist Congregational denomination, he did not believe it was the duty of the School to espouse a particular version of Nonconformist Christianity. Rather, the essence of Nonconformism was to resist any Christian faith that required unthinking conformity; hence the reason why Nonconformist churches came to be called the Free Churches. He believed that the founders of Mill Hill, ‘wished only that the atmosphere should be absent which puts a premium on conformity.’

He was certainly against proselytising and trying to convert people to a particular faith, for that would go against the spirit of freedom of thought that is at the heart of Nonconformism. It was not the business of the School to train boys to be Nonconformists although he was passionate that the boys grew up to exemplify the faith and values of Christianity, both in word and deed.

I nter-denominationalism and core Christian teaching

The Mill Hill of McClure’s era was made up of pupils from different Christian denominations, largely from the Nonconformist Free Churches and the Anglican Church of England and he saw this as one of the strengths of Mill Hill: ‘this inter-denominational character is not the least of many advantages of the School. The intelligent understanding of another’s faith might surely lead to the strengthening and development of one’s own.’

To further emphasise his interdenominational approach to faith, comically he once said:

‘I admire that man who on being asked whether he was a Papist or a Baptist replied that he was neither, being a dentist.’

Indeed, he rightly argued there was not sufficient time in school to focus on the differences between Christian denominations. Rather amusingly he points out that: ‘The body of Truth on which Protestant scholars are agreed is so great, and the ignorance of boys so vast and appalling, that I have never had either time or inclination to discuss with them, or present to them, those points in which substantial differences exist.’ Hence, McClure sought to teach and preach the common core of the Christian faith and to find the shared ground between different expressions of Christianity. ‘We seek here to teach that which is characteristic of all Christian faith, but specially distinctive of none.’ Therefore ‘the School Chapel is extra-diocesan and extra-parochial, and in consequence Ministers of many denominations preach to the boys…’

Respecting family religious traditions

McClure understood the importance of family background for Christian faith and honoured each pupil’s faith inheritance. ‘Religious belief is and ought to be with all of us largely a matter of heredity. It is part of the manifold inheritance which a man receives from his fathers. His birth determines his religious education, the examples of religious life which are set before him for his admiration; the attitude in which he regards the great problems of life; the forms of worship in which he expresses the deep things of the soul. No one who is worthy of the name of Man will lightly value that heredity, or lightly leave the faith of his fathers.’

Delightfully, he encouraged his teachers to adopt what we might call a version of the Golden Rule, by urging them to consider how they would like their own children to be treated at school.

This was, ‘to abstain from anything that may injure the feelings or insidiously change the peculiar denominational opinions of any of his Christian pupils… and must do to the children of others as he would that others should do to a child of his.’ He emphasised that the teaching at Mill Hill ‘was interdenominational in that it aims at helping a boy to live up to the best that is in him, and to realise the higher possibilities of his parents’ form of Faith.’

Embracing different faith perspectives

While not jettisoning his unshakeable Christian belief, one suspects that his broad acceptance of different Christian faith perspectives would have led to his embracing the Mill Hill culture of today, which is enriched by the presence of pupils from many different world faiths and religious traditions. There are strong indications of this. As a young man and undergraduate, he was a founding member and elected President of the Religious Equality Society, and it is said that: ‘He loved the best minds and spirits of all ages and of all faiths, and his wide love of literature was an indication of his desire to have fellowship with the spirit of man in all its noblest creative endeavours.’

This embrace of a wider spiritual understanding was also found in later life. In the aftermath of the First World War, in 1921, the year before he died, McClure wrote to a Professor in Liverpool: ‘I share to the full your belief that a spiritual brotherhood of the human races is the only solution for our difficulties, and the only hope for the world… We shall never realise the ideal in our day, but at least we can help the cause, and bring the happy time a little nearer by our efforts.’ He would be proud of Mill Hill today, which 100 years on, shares this vision and works towards the same end.

Christian Social justice:

M c Clure’s early influences and support for the poor

McClure believed in social justice as an expression of Christian faith and conscience. Although fully biblical, this emphasis may partially result from his own origins in Wigan, where as a child he witnessed first-hand the hardships of a Lancastrian coal-mining community. Additionally, he would have been acutely aware of the social injustice that Nonconformists had only been allowed full entry to Oxbridge since 1871, just 11 years before he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. Whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge, he actively supported the local churches operating in the poorer slum areas of the city. He joined the Undergraduate Preachers’ Society, regularly preaching in the surrounding Free Churches of Cambridge. Even at that early age, McClure was a gifted and popular speaker, and he was constantly asked to return.

Christian missionary work at home and overseas

Before Cambridge when teaching in Leicester, McClure was heavily involved in a Working Men’s Institute at Castle End and this too had an impact on his religious commitment to equality. He believed in a Christianity that reached out to others, a later expression of this was that he helped to establish the first Union Church on Mill Hill Broadway in 1908. Indeed, this emphasis on social justice was evident in very many ways while he was at Mill Hill.

He encouraged boys to join the missionary work of the church overseas and was proud that there were more volunteers from Mill Hill for such work than from any other similar-sized school in the country.

He also supported missionary work at home, most notably the famous London Missionary Society.

A very telling example of his belief in Christian social justice came in 1903 when an Old Millhillian was murdered near St Pancras, ironically on Peace Night.

McClure spoke of the School obtaining ‘Christian revenge’ for his murder, by which he meant becoming even more involved in helping to solve the social problems in that part of London.

I suspect he would be full of pride that an Old Millhillian now gives his name to one of the most important and prestigious buildings in that part of London, and indeed the world – the Francis Crick Institute, adjacent to St Pancras Station.

Encouragement of personal service

He lamented those boys who did not seek to reach out to help others. For him, noblesse oblige, the Christian duty of Millhillians to help those less fortunate than themselves, was non-negotiable. There is no doubt that he would be fully supportive of Mill Hill’s current ‘A Better Chance’ bursary scheme launched in 2009.

He never lost sight of the fact that many other children in the country had their early lives disfigured by poverty and ignorance and did not have the benefits of a Mill Hill education. On one occasion he lamented: ‘Many of our boys fail to make much of their lives because they never realise any call to personal service.’

Such was his desire that the pupils at Mill Hill would respond to the needs of others with Christian acts of charity, he once had these famous words by the Quaker missionary Stephen Grellet printed on cards and distributed amongst all the boys in School:

‘I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.’

Instilling Puritan values

Furthermore, McClure had a grander vision that Mill Hill would truly be a national institution that the country would be the poorer without, not simply for the education that its pupils received, but for the values that it sought to inculcate. This vision has received renewed focus in recent years with the School’s confident interpretation of its Latin motto ‘Instilling values, inspiring minds.’ For McClure, these were the values of Christian Puritans, the spiritual ancestors of the Nonconformists from two centuries earlier. He thought that, ‘Mill Hill existed in order that all that was best in the old Puritan spirit might be embodied in the life of today.’

Today we often refer to Puritanism in a derogatory manner, but McClure thought that the future strength of England depended upon the positive Puritan moral values being taught and lived out by individuals in society. He once told his daughter that pre-eminent among these virtues was: ‘Righteousness, not Love… because Righteousness implies both Truth and Love, whereas Love (looked upon by most people as the virtue par excellence) was apt to degenerate into mere sentimentalism unless wedded to Truth.’

The reputation of Mill Hill for nobility of character

Typically, this theme of compassion for others, demonstrated throughout his life, repeated itself in the very last sermon he preached. He made a plea for his hearers to care for the unhappy and forlorn, suggesting that on our journey through life, we should: ‘dig wells of comfort and strengthening there for those who should travel the same uncertain path.’

For above all else, McClure believed that the School should produce boys with nobility of character.

For him, education was not simply about classroom instruction or imbibing facts. He wanted the embodiment of a righteous, truthful and loving Christian to be synonymous with being an Old Millhillian.

‘O Lord, our heavenly Father, by whose Spirit mankind is taught knowledge, who givest wisdom to all them that ask thee, we beseech thee to prosper all colleges and schools of sound learning; and especially to bless all who serve thee here, whether as teachers or learners.

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Help us to labour diligently and faithfully, not with eyeservice but in singleness of heart, remembering that without thee we can do nothing and that in thy fear is the beginning of wisdom.

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Open our eyes to know thy marvellous works and enlighten our minds that we may understand the wondrous things of thy law. Enable us ever to set thy holy will before us, so that our fellows, now and in the days to come, may be the better for our studies here.

~

Finally, we pray for all those who have gone forth from this School, that they may be so guided and strengthened by thy Spirit, that being true disciples of Jesus Christ, they may live blameless and faithful lives to the glory of thy holy name. Amen.’

He believed that boys who left the School had a duty to live out these Christian moral values, which in turn would enhance the reputation of the nation’s foremost Nonconformist school. Hence, McClure’s beautiful School Prayer contains petitions for those who had left the School, as well as for those who were still part of it.

Public worship, the King James Bible, prayer, silence, hymns and liturgy, preaching Public worship

The saying was very often heard that: ‘McClure was greatest in the School Chapel.’ and, ‘Chapel was, after all, where most boys remember him.’ He steadfastly believed in the importance of public worship, and delivered a magisterial conference address on this subject in May 1919, during his year of office as Chairman of the Congregational Union. He understood that public worship was indispensable as it is, ‘a seeking not only of communion with God but also of communion with our fellow men [and women], and neither communion can be fully realised without the other.’ Drawing on his experience of leading services for the boys at Mill Hill, he confidently told the Conference that, although public worship has its limitations, ‘One can feel reasonably sure that there is not a single portion of any service of public worship which fails to appeal with special force to someone present and bring to him comfort, strength, peace, or inspiration.’ Such assured words encourage those who are still tasked with leading Chapel services at Mill Hill.

The Bible

Although other translations of The Bible may contain the same meaning, and its power ultimately lies in its ability to transform lives, McClure acknowledged and revered the clarity and beauty of what we now call the King James Bible. He thought that, ‘The English Bible is the best example of a very rare occurrence – a translation which far exceeds much of its original in literary beauty… and to it almost all great writers of English prose owe an incalculable debt.’

It is said that his reading of The Bible aloud in Chapel was memorable, such was the tone of his voice and the power of his intelligent reading. His secretary, Miss Grace Hill said of him, ‘I think no one who ever heard him read The Bible aloud could easily forget it; the solemnity of his voice, the clear enunciation of the majestic phrases brought home deepest meaning of the words alike to the heart and mind of the reader.’

Copies of this Bible translation still reside in our Chapel, but of course, today the King James Bible is heard far less frequently, something that he would have lamented. However, he may have approved that for many years, it has been the standard text for our beloved Carol Services – providing a link with the past and enabling its listeners to be touched by its exceptional beauty.

Prayer

McClure was a man of prayer and it is said of him that, ‘one always felt that he “dwelt deep”.’ He always knelt when he prayed, and he was known for his beautiful phrasing when leading extemporary and spontaneous prayer during the Chapel services, which normally took place between two hymns. His favourite invocation at evening service was, ‘O God who dwellest in light immeasurable in whom there is no darkness.’

He also used stillness to great effect when taking prayers and spoke quietly in such a way as to uplift the spirits of those he was leading.

He did not so much address the congregation, but rather, ‘He seemed to speak straight upward and the words lifted the mind as on wings.’

Despite believing in the power of prayer, McClure was not particularly keen on pupil prayer meetings, largely because he was wary of emotional and sentimental religion that could be a feature of such gatherings. ‘His dislike of emotional religion seemed remarkable in a man who could move boys so deeply, but it is noticeable that he always approached religion by the intellect than by the feelings.’ There had been a pupil prayer meeting at the School for 40 years before his arrival, and although he would not forbid it to take place, he did not approve of it and so it died a natural death without him having to intervene.

Silence

McClure also knew the importance of silence in worship and thought there should be more of it because, just as much deep communication can take place between individuals without words, so it is true of mankind’s relationship with the Divine, for, ‘in the highest communion between man and his Maker words have no place.’

Hence, he did not believe in silence in Chapel for its own sake, but for a deeper purpose: ‘I do not refer merely to the suppression of those unseemly whisperings and even audible conversations which are, alas! all too frequent in many of our churches, but to the definite provision in our services of intervals of silence for such private prayers and aspirations.’

Intelligent, engaging and humorous sermons

As a Congregational Church Lay Preacher and one-time President of the Lay Preachers’ Union, he was in much demand as a preacher beyond Mill Hill in Nonconformist church strongholds, such as the City Temple in Holborn and the Union Chapel in Islington, both of which are still thriving inclusive Christian churches today. He also accepted invitations to preach in other churches around the country, including those of Old Millhillians who had gone on to become ministers, although he always prioritised his time at Mill Hill.

McClure had a reverence for truth and logical reasoning, and his sermons sought to win the mind as a means of engaging the spirit. This is to be expected of a New Testament Greek scholar, a mathematician and a scientist who for the first three years of being Headmaster until 1894 also held the post of Professor of Astronomy at Queen’s College, London University. Indeed, ‘His abiding love of the heavens, in a scientific as well as a religious sense, was the source of countless lectures to the school and facilitated rather than weakened his faith.’ He was well-placed to help the boys rise to the intellectual challenges to religious faith at the turn of the 19th century as Christianity adjusted to the post-Darwinian world. To put this in context, after Mill Hill was founded in 1807 it would be another 52 years before Darwin published his theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species in 1859 just 32 years before he became Head Master.

McClure had a clear understanding of what could be proven and what could not. As a young man, he was wary of false certainties. In offering humorous advice to his friend Charles in 1879, he said, ‘Until you are five and twenty don’t develop a very decided bias of any kind… because one doesn’t understand what a belief or a conviction is until one’s wisdom teeth are of some years standing.’ Later in life, a friend who went on to be Head of Shrewsbury School once remarked, ‘He did not think that he or anyone else had discovered all there was to know of truth.’ McClure’s search for truth, combined with intellectual humility, particularly with respect to religious faith, seems even more relevant in the 21st century, an era that is apt to encourage the premature polarisation of simplistic fixed beliefs.

Although an intellectual, he was renowned for not talking down to the boys and they found his sermons enthralling.

One pupil said that they felt no shame in discussing his sermons afterwards, ‘and that is the highest tribute I can pay them.’ He was known for his extensive repertoire of illustrative stories to engage the listener. He also focused on the New Testament and the life of Jesus as a way of understanding our own lives. Because of his knowledge of Greek, the original language of the text, he was able to convey the deeper meaning of the text.

Further demonstrating his commitment to interdenominational understanding, his sermons about leaders of the Christian faith were not drawn solely from a Nonconformist perspective. He was as likely to draw on the insights of the Catholic St Ignatius Loyola as well as the Protestant Martin Luther.

As a skilful orator, he also knew when to deploy dry humour. More than one pupil remembers his aphorism, ‘Better a swelled head than a shrivelled heart!’ and on one memorable occasion when speaking to the Middle School he leaned over the pulpit and teased, ‘God must have been very fond of stupid people, seeing He made so many.’

One might have expected to find more of his sermons in print, but there are two possible reasons for their scarcity. First, although his sermons were very carefully prepared they were not always fully written out, as he was able to preach from a few detailed notes. Either way, frequently he destroyed his sermon notes as soon as he got back to his seat in chapel. Why was this? Perhaps it was because, as many preachers understand, that sermons are written to be heard by a particular congregation at a particular time, and once they are delivered, then, God willing, they have done their job.

Second, a clue is found in his answer to a separate question as to why he had not written any books for posterity about his time at Mill Hill. He replied that, ‘My writings are happily more lasting and they are round about me.’ In other words, the pupils. This suggests that he was invested more in the positive impact that his words had on his hearers, rather than in the written words themselves. His sermons were a means to that greater end and not an end in themselves, and in this there is a glimpse of his modesty and a sense of a greater purpose.

Friendships and faith

McClure never forgot that friendship was one of the greatest blessings that Mill Hill can bestow upon its pupils.

Our David window in McClure’s chapel is a constant reminder of the gift of friendship that generations of Millhillians have experienced. Drawing on the Old Testament example of the abiding friendship between King David and Jonathan, McClure exhorts us to give thanks for the ways in which Mill Hill gives birth to deep friendships. It was his ‘fervent prayer’ that Mill Hill might ‘ever be the tender Mother of noble friendships!’ and that many young lives would be, ‘knit together in the indissoluble bond, as the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David.’ Generations of Millhillians can testify that McClure’s prayers have been answered.

McClure takes the theme of friendship still further and desires that Millhillians would find an even more joyous companionship in the founder of the Christian faith whose friendship can last a lifetime. ‘Above all, as friends walk together in loving intercourse, may they seek the companionship of that invisible, yet ever present ‘great Friend of all the sons of men’, and find, as they follow Him in all obedience and loyalty, a more abiding joy and deeper inspiration than even the best human friendship can yield.’

Mill Hill’s blessing and a vision to pursue; Et virtutem et musas

Those of us who have been fortunate to be part of Mill Hill, either as pupils or staff, will acknowledge that despite its imperfections, it leaves its imprint on us, usually for the good. McClure acknowledged this is in declaring that Mill Hill has, ‘laid its hand upon us all – a hand of blessing, a hand of inspiration; and yet I feel that we must all realise that the end is not yet, and that the best is yet to be.’

This sense of spiritual realism is heartening. He puts into words what we all know; no school can be perfect, yet while seeking to improve, Mill Hill can bestow its ‘blessing’ on us as we engage with its life. He reminds us that we all have our part to play in bringing about this better ‘end’. Using biblical imagery, he thought of himself as laying a firm foundation upon which others could build, those who would take the School further than he had been able to himself. ‘On my fidelity will depend the work of someone else who will carry the School to heights that I have only dreamed of, or seen “but dimly from afar”.’ In this task he led the way both in word and by example.

McClure’s inspiring vison and prayer for Mill Hill – as being a school not only to educate, but also to build moral and spiritual Christian character – was encapsulated in his majestic 1907 centenary Foundation Day address delivered in the presence of the guest of honour, the Liberal Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. He concluded his address with our precious and beloved Latin School motto, which he would be pleased to know still guides Mill Hill 115 years later, and fittingly is found in numerous places around the Chapel that he built and where he is laid to rest. ‘It is in this hope, this faith that we begin the second century of the school’s existence, and with the prayer that she may in the future realise more and more the ideal set forth in the School Motto: Et virtutem et musas.’