Editing Hugh M'Neile (section)

=== M‘Neile's flawed hermeneutics ===
M‘Neile was well known for his flawed [[hermeneutics]]; viz., his inaccurate interpretation of Biblical texts. He was renowned for both his inaccurate [[exegesis]],<ref>''Exegesis'' ('drawing out'); an ''exegetical'' interpretation brings out the "real" meaning of a word or passage through an examination of the spiritual/literary heritage, and the textual, allegorical, historical, and cultural context of the word or passage by going beyond its literal meaning.</ref> and for his [[Eisegesis|eisegetical]] projections of Biblical texts onto current events.<ref>''Eisegesis'' ("reading into"); an ''eisegetical'' interpretation involves the deliberate imposition of one’s idiosyncratic impression of the moment upon the word/passage entirely on its own and in complete isolation from the actual context of the chosen word or passage.</ref>

For example, in July 1846, Queen Victoria's husband, [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]], visited Liverpool and, among other duties on 31 July 1846, he officially opened the [[Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool|Albert Dock]] and laid the foundation stone for one of M‘Neile's pet projects, the [[Liverpool Sailors' Home]].

Two days later, on 2 August 1846, M‘Neile preached a sermon, "Every eye shall see Him";<ref>Revelation 1:7: "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him …".</ref> the text of which was immediately published.<ref>M'Neile, H., "Every Eye Shall See Him"; or Prince Albert's Visit to Liverpool used in Illustration of the Second Coming of Christ. A Sermon, preached in Saint Jude's Church, on the second day of August 1846, the Sunday next after the Prince's visit (the Sunday After Prince Albert Laying the Foundation Stone of the Liverpool Sailor's Home). By the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, M.A., Hon. Canon of Chester, and Incumbent of St. Jude's, Liverpool, J. Hatchard & Son, (London), 1846.</ref>

Within his sermon – regarded, overall, as a "most melancholy, wretched, and most degrading composition"<ref>"The Prince "In His Beauty", and the Parson (From ''Douglas Jerrola’s Weekly Newspaper'')", ''The Moreton Bay Courier'', Vol.1, No.41, (Saturday, 27 March 1847), p.4, col.C.; ''Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle'', Saturday, 12 August 1846; and ''The Bengal Catholic Herald'', 17 October 1846.</ref> – M‘Neile moved to speak of "The Prince in all his beauty", mapping Prince Albert's laying of a foundation stone onto a text from Isaiah (33:17) "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty"<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=f9x5xPst2XUC&pg=PA292 "Church Parties", (1853), pp.292–293.]</ref>

There were many protests at his equation of "the Saviour of the world" with a "colonel of hussars" and his implicit assertion that Albert held "title-deeds to… divinity" (Anon, 1847h). It was clear his "fearful irreverence" – implying that "an earthly prince" visiting Liverpool had some link to "the awful coming of the Prince of Heaven and Earth to Judgment" – was something that "must be [immediately] apparent to every reverent mind"; and, further, that a "piece of gross and rank blasphemy [was perpetrated] by making the third Person of the Holy Trinity a type of Prince Albert".<ref>"The Prince, etc."</ref><ref>"We were [shocked] on reading the title of Mr. M‘Neile's recently published sermon. We could scarcely believe our eyes when we saw such language as the following:— "Every eye shall see Him, or Prince Albert's visit to Liverpool, used in illustration of the second coming of Christ". Many excellent persons have pronounced this as something worse that astounding irreverence, and are of the opinion that it would be just as proper to make use of the [[George IV of the United Kingdom|Prince of Wales's]] visit to Liverpool, in 1806, as an illustration of the first coming of our Savior. We never met before, the equal of this perversion of all propriety. "To illustrate", be it remembered, is "to throw light upon"." ("Astounding Irreverence", ''Liverpool Mercury and Lancashire General Advertiser'', 14 August 1846, p. 394.)<br />
"[Its title] has been universally condemned; because no critic has yet been able to discover that the Prince's visit to Liverpool can in any way be regarded as a type of the Second Coming, or even, in the remotest degree, as an 'illustration' of that great mystery" ("Religious Gleanings (From ''The Bath Herald'')", ''The South Australian Register'', Vol.11, No.706, 17 February 1847), p.3, col.A.<br />
"The words "every eye shall see him" were applied to Prince Albert, and to those Liverpudlians who should stare at him. "From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step", and from the sublime to the blasphemous we fancy there is about the same distance. The Press, with one voice, protested against the selection of such a text on such an occasion, and the Prince himself was not flattered by it. Doubtless the doctor's loyal enthusiasm led him astray in this instance, as his Orange predilections have hurried him into opinions and observations, which, a few hours after he uttered them in the pulpit, he publicly retracted, and properly stigmatised as "atrocious"…" (Dix, 1852, p.95).</ref>