Editing Cosmo Gordon Lang (section)

===Towards ordination===

[[File:All Saints' Church, Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire.jpg|thumb|alt= Stone building with gravestones in foreground and to the left; the church tower is surmounted by an ornamental weathercock, and has a clock showing 10.35. The roofs and surrounding areas are covered in snow.|The [[Church of All Saints, Cuddesdon]], scene of Lang's call to ordination in 1889]]
Lang's career ambition from early in life was to practise law, enter politics and then take office in some future Conservative administration.<ref name= L39/> In 1887 he began his studies for the English Bar, working in the London chambers of [[William Robson, Baron Robson|W.S. Robson]], a future [[Attorney-General for England and Wales|Attorney-General]], whose "vehement radicalism was an admirable stimulus and corrective to [Lang's] liberal Conservatism".<ref name= Lnote>Lang, quoted in Lockhart, pp. 52–53</ref> During these years Lang was largely aloof from religion, but continued churchgoing out of what he termed "hereditary respect". He attended services at the [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] [[City Temple (London)|City Temple]] church and sometimes went to St Paul's Cathedral. Of his life at that time he said: "I must confess that I played sometimes with those external temptations that our Christian London flaunts in the face of its young men."<ref name= Lnote/>

In October 1888 Lang was elected to an All Souls Fellowship, and began to divide his time between London and Oxford.<ref>Lockhart, pp. 55–61</ref> Some of his Oxford friends were training for ordination and Lang was often drawn into their discussions. Eventually the question entered Lang's mind: "Why shouldn't ''you'' be ordained?"<ref name= L62>Lockhart, pp. 62–66</ref> The thought persisted, and one Sunday evening in early 1889, after a visit to the [[Cuddesdon College|theological college at Cuddesdon]] in Oxfordshire, Lang attended evening service at [[Cuddesdon]] parish church. By his own account, during the sermon he was gripped by "a masterful inward voice" which told him  "You are wanted. You are called. You must obey."<ref name= L62/> He immediately severed his connection with the Bar, renounced his political ambitions and applied for a place at Cuddesdon College. With the help of an All Souls contact, the essential step of his [[confirmation]] into the Church of England was supervised by the [[Edward King (English bishop)|Bishop of Lincoln]].<ref name= L62/> Lang's decision to become an Anglican and seek ordination disappointed his Presbyterian father, who nevertheless wrote to his son: "What you think, prayerfully and solemnly, you ought to do – you must do – we will accept."<ref>Lockhart, pp. 70–71</ref>