From the ?, Monday 2nd November 1896, page ? (press cutting in a notebook of the window’s donor, Cornwall Record Office ref. P68/2/182).
It was in no spirit of exaggeration that the Vicar of St. Germans (Rev. W. Westmacott) recently remarked that the restoration of their grand old church was not entirely a parochial matter, or even a diocesan one, but with its antiquity and all its historical interest was of a national interest. Up to September last over £6,000 had been spent on its renovation, and a bazaar was then held for several purposes, one of which was to raise a sum of money to pay for necessary repairs to the stonework and tracery of the east window. The cost of these repairs, about £200, was chiefly defrayed by the Earl of St. Germans. The work, which is of finely moulded beerstone, has been carried out most excellently under the direction of Messrs. E. Sedding and Lang, of Liskeard, and was needed to set off the handsome stained glass window, given by Mr. Alfred Burton. The glass has within the past week being placed in the frame, and yesterday morning the congregation, were able to look upon and admire the great addition to the decorative beauty of the church. The occasion was marked by the presence of the Bishop of Truro, who performed the unveiling ceremony. It is doubtful whether a finer embellishment of its kind is is to be found in any church in the West of England. It is by Sir E. Burne-Jones, and the execution was entrusted to the firm of which the late William Morris was the head, and is said to be the latest specimen of the latter’s craft. Its size alone commands attention, the height being nearly 30 feet, and the greatest width 16 feet. The window consists of ten lights in two rows, the width of each light being 2ft. 3in. The central figure in the upper row represents Jesus Christ clutching the cross, his hands and feet shewing the marks of his wounds. At his left foot is a chalice. The lights on either side contain representations of Mary, sister of Lazarus, and the Virgin Mary. The outside lights are those of the Centurion and St. Paul. The lower set, beginning from the left of the spectator, are Saints Matthew, Mark, Stephen, Luke, and John. Most of the figures are holding open scrolls, and the attitude of all are highly artistic. A striking feature of the work is the beauty of the drapery of the figures and the delicacy of the colouring. Red, green, and blue predominate. The background is of a greenish tint in perfect harmony. The glass amidst the tracery in the upper portion of the window is filled in with figures of angels, which also surmount some of the lower lights. Altogether there are 55 panes in the window, and at the base are the words “To the glory of God this window is dedicated by the donor, Alfred Burton, in the year 1896.” Although the series of improvements being made in St. Germans Church is not yet complete, it is safe to say that the new window is the crowning point, and is a work of art of which the county may well be proud.
The service was fully choral, Mr. R.R. Glendinning, A.R.C.O., being at the organ. The vicar read the lessons. Amongst the congregation were Earl and Countess St. Germans, Lord and Lady Robartes, Mrs. Gott, Hon. Col. C.G.C. Eliot (who attended for the first time since his illness), Mrs. and Miss Eliot, Mr. Stewart, Mr. M.C. Eliot, and Mr. and Mrs. R. Boucher. The Bishop preached from Malachi ⅲ., 10, “The windows of heaven.” Just at the close of the darkness of the Old Testament and the dawn of the New, as streaks of the light of the Son of Righteousness were beginning to flood over the old world, God put His text into the mouth of one of his servants and then foresaw hopefully and complacently all the uses that could be made of it. The use they were making of it that morning was in the mind and purposes of God. Christ was the only window of Heaven; Christ with whom there was no darkness. Malachi’s words were scarcely spoken ere they came to the four gospels—the four windows which revealed Christ to men. Through those windows there streamed in the light, and through Christ, and only Him, there poured into that dark world of theirs the light of heaven. And so with the grand old sculptures in their church, which their fathers carved with love and tender hands so many centuries ago, there was no beauty that morning until the window admitted the light of heaven. As the light of day shewed them the dangerous places in their path, so Christ’s light in the Bible revealed the dangerons places and exposed the ambushes which the enemy had laid for their soul, and the evil which the enemy worked and was concealed before became clear and plain, and was avoided. The light shewed them the narrow way and the provisions the refuges, the comforts, the strengths, and the means of grace which God had prepared for those seeking him. And the light of Christ, what was it? It was the light of the fairest life that ever lived—a life of loving unloveable people, such as lepers other people shunned, maniacs other people dreaded, infectious diseases other people avoided, and death, which other people were afraid of. That life which seemed to shed new love into human nature and make it more loveable was not only a bright light, but resembled the illuminated light in pictures, which admitted the light of heaven and revealed the thoughts of the painter’s mind, through the Bible. It was the light of heaven which came down to this dark earth, revealing the unselfishness which the world had not dreamed of before, and which had been possessed and appropriated by Christians ever since. Christ came to make them like Himself, children of light. The window of Heaven through which its light came down to them was Christ. Through His window they could see sufficient of Heaven to make them long to be there. Just as they had not seen the beauty of their window until the veil had been drawn, so they saw the meaning of God. If Christ was the window, they as Christians were the panes of that window, each having a particular purpose to serve. The light which they received and spread and diffused to God, as the window received the light from Heaven and transmitted it to the Church as coloured light, was the light of Christ passing through them, marked and shaped and dented with the colours of their own life and character, shining upon home life and making it brighter for themselves, and purer than it would have been, and kinder even as Christ was kind. If they took away one pane the picture would be spoilt, and they would doubt the meaning of it; and just so they gave a meaning to those around them. Each had a part to play with each other, and if the single pane of glass was not very much in a window, yet it contributed to the shape and purpose and beauty of the window; so each of them contributing made the world around them to be a fairer, a more beautiful, and a brighter world, that men might see the dangers of Satan, and the help which God had given them. “Let their light so shine before man that they might see their good works, and glorify their Father who was in Heaven.”
The offertories were devoted to the East Window Fund. The Bishop of Southwark was to have preached in the evening, but was unable to attend.