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80 work in that district. The magnificent chancel of Rochdale Parish Church marked his incumbency, and the new Church of St Luke, Deeplish. Bearing in mind that for many years now he has been a familiar figure at Church Congress gatherings, it is interesting to recall that it was on his initiative that the Congress visited Manchester in 1888, Lord Nelson lending his support to the idea. Churchmen generally appreciated Canon Maclure's services as Honorary Local Secretary of the Congress. Six years earlier he had been elected a representative on the Central Council of Diocesan Conferences. It was while at Rochdale, too, that Canon Maclure closed a valued friendship with John Bright at the brink of the latter's grave in the Friends' Burial-ground. His high testimony to Bright was that that statesman longed to see the day when there might be a higher feeling of love and true fellowship among Christian folk, since he lamented the divisions of Christendom. Thus were thirteen years happily spent in parochial and other work at Rochdale. Meanwhile, the Canon's brother had become M.P. in the Conservative interest for the Stretford division of Manchester.

The future had a great deal in store. There came a time when the Canon, like Wolsey in Shakespeare's Henry VIII., “bore his blushing honours thick upon him.” Within a fortnight he had, as Vicar of Rochdale, within his grasp the