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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6144.txt b/6144.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a94831e --- /dev/null +++ b/6144.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6152 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Report Of Commemorative Services With The +Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885., by Diocese Of Connecticut + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Report Of Commemorative Services With The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885. + +Author: Diocese Of Connecticut + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6144] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 19, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES *** + + + + +Produced by Ralph Zimmerman, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT. + +SEABURY CENTENARY + +DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT. + +REPORT + +OF + +COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES + +WITH THE + +SERMONS AND ADDRESSES + +AT THE + +SEABURY CENTENARY, + +1883-1885. + +WITH AN APPENDIX. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFATORY NOTE + +CENTENARY OF BISHOP SEABURY'S ELECTION: + +Thanksgiving, Easter-Day, March 25, 1883, + Service at Woodbury, March 27, 1883 + Bishop Williams's Address, + Dr. Beardsley's Address, + Diocesan Convention, 1883, + Bishop Williams's Sermon, + + +CENTENARY OF BISHOP SEABURY'S CONSECRATION: + +Diocesan Convention, 1884, + Bishop Williams's Sermon, + Service at Hartford, November 14, 1884, + Dr. Tatlock's Address, + The Bishop's Reply, + Dr. Beardsley's Address, + Mr. Nichols's Address, + Mr. Hart's Address, + Bishop Williams's Address, + Exhibition of Seabury Relics, + + +CENTENARY OF BISHOP SEABURY'S RETURN: + +Diocesan Convention, 1885, + Bishop Williams's Sermon, + Service at Middletown, August 3, 1885, + Bishop Williams's Address, + Dr. Beardsley's Historical Sketch, + + +APPENDIX--COMMEMORATION AT ABERDEEN, 1884: + + Bishop Williams's Sermon, + Presentation of Paten and Chalice, + Presentation of Address and Reply, + Presentation of Pastoral Staff, + Dr. Beardsley's Address, + Address from St. Andrew's Church, + + +_DEUS, AURIBUS NOSTRIS AUDIVIMUS, PATRES NOSTRI ANNUNTIAVERUNT +NOBIS, OPUS QUOD OPERATUS ES IN DIEBUS EORUM, ET IN DIEBUS +ANTIQUIS._ + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1881, Bishop Williams +suggested the appointment of a committee to provide for the +appropriate commemoration of the centenary of the election of the +first Bishop of Connecticut in the last week of March, 1783. On +motion of the Rev. Dr. Beardsley, this suggestion was referred to +a committee of three clergymen and two laymen, with the Bishop as +chairman. The Bishop appointed on the committee the Rev. Dr. +Beardsley, the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, the Rev. Samuel Hart, the +Hon. F. J. Kingsbury, and the Hon, H. B. Harrison. + +At the Convention of 1882, on recommendation of this committee, +the following resolutions were adopted: + +_Resolved_, That the Bishop be requested to set forth a +special thanksgiving to be used throughout the Diocese on the one- +hundredth anniversary of the election of Bishop Seabury, March +25th, 1883, being Easter-Day and also the Festival of the +Annunciation. _Resolved_, That a memorial service, with +addresses, be held in St. Paul's Church, Woodbury, on Tuesday in +Easter-week, March 27th, 1883, for which the Bishop be desired to +make the necessary arrangements. + +_Resolved_, That the Bishop be further requested to provide +for a commemorative service with an historical discourse at the +opening of the Annual Convention of 1883. + +It was also, on motion of the Rev. S. F. Jarvis, + +_Resolved_, That a committee consisting of the Bishop, three +priests, and two laymen be appointed,.....to present to the +Diocesan Conventions of 1883 and 1884, if they shall deem it +expedient, a detailed plan or plans for the further special +observances as a Diocese of the centenary commemoration of Dr. +Seabury's Consecration, of the first Convocation summoned by him, +of the first Ordination on this continent, and of any ecclesiastical +events which are specially and historically connected with +this Diocese and which it may be deemed desirable to celebrate. + +The committee appointed under this resolution was the same as that +appointed in 1882. In accordance with resolutions recommended by +this committee in 1883 and 1884, the Convention requested the +Bishop to make arrangements for commemorative services on the +fourteenth day of November, 1884, the hundredth anniversary of the +Consecration of Bishop Seabury, and on the third day of August, +1885, the hundredth anniversary of the first ordination held by +him. + +The Bishop having delivered an historical discourse at the opening +of the Convention of 1883, commemorative of the election of Bishop +Seabury, on motion of the Rev. Dr. Giesy, the thanks of the +Convention were tendered to him, and he was "respectfully and +earnestly requested" to preach a sermon at the next Convention in +commemoration of Bishop Seabury's Consecration. A like vote was +passed in 1884, desiring the Bishop "to supplement the sermons +delivered at this and the preceding Conventions with a third at +the Convention of 1885, necessary to the historical completion by +the same hand of the centenary commemoration of the Consecration +of the Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., as the first Bishop of +Connecticut." + +This volume contains a report of the Centenary Commemorative +Services held in accordance with the resolutions, and also the +historical sermons preached by the Bishop at the request of the +Convention. In the Appendix will be found Bishop Williams's sermon +preached at the commemoration in Aberdeen in October, 1884, with +an account of the part which the delegation from Connecticut took +in that commemoration, including the Rev. Dr. Beardsley's paper on +"Seabury as a Bishop." + +"NOVI ORBIS APOSTOLI SIT NOMEN PERENNE." + + + + +CENTENARY COMMEMORATION + +OF THE ELECTION OF BISHOP SEABURY. + +1883. + +THE REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. WAS ELECTED FIRST BISHOP OF +CONNECTICUT AT WOODBURY, MARCH 25, 1783. + + +The one-hundredth anniversary of the election of Bishop Seabury +fell on Easter-Day (being also the Festival of the Annunciation), +1883. In accordance with the request of the Diocesan Convention, +the Bishop set forth the following special Thanksgiving to be used +throughout the Diocese, immediately after the General Thanksgiving +at Morning and Evening Prayer on that day: + +ALMIGHTY GOD, Who by Thy Holy Spirit hast appointed divers orders +of ministers in Thy Church, we give unto Thee high praise and +hearty thanks, that Thou didst put it into the hearts of our +fathers and brethren to elect, on this day, to the work and +ministry of a Bishop in Thy Church, Thy servant, to whom the +charge of this Diocese was first committed; and that Thou didst so +replenish him with the truth of Thy doctrine and endue him with +innocency of life, that he was enabled, both by word and deed, +faithfully to serve Thee in this office, to the glory of Thy name, +and the edifying and well-governing of Thy Church. For this so +great mercy, and for ail the blessings which, in Thy good +Providence, it brought to this portion of the flock of Christ, we +offer unto Thee our unfeigned thanks, through Jesus Christ our +Lord, to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and +glory, world without end. _Amen_. + +On Tuesday in Easter-Week, March 27th (the day of the week on +which the Festival of the Annunciation fell in 1783), a +commemorative service was held in St. Paul's Church, Woodbury, at +11 o'clock A.M. The Bishop began the Communion-service, the Rev. +S. O. Seymour of Litchfield reading the Epistle, and the Rev. E. +E. Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., of New Haven reading the Gospel. After +the Nicene Creed, a part of the 99th hymn in the old Prayer-Book +collection was sung; and the Bishop then made an address based on +the closing words of the Epistle: "I work a work in your days, a +work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it +unto you." + +The Bishop spoke of the faith and the courage which inspired the +clergymen who met a hundred years ago in that quiet village to +elect the first bishop of Connecticut. They felt that they owed a +sacred duty to God; and, not stopping to speculate upon the needs +of some imaginary Church of the future, they did what was +specially needed for the welfare of the Church in their own day. +At the beginning of the war of independence there had been twenty +missionaries of the mother Church of England laboring in the +colony. They were in great part supported by the Venerable Society +in England, and they were under oaths of loyalty to the Crown; it +was not strange, therefore, that their sympathies were not on the +popular side. They were obliged to suffer great hardships; and the +end of the war found the Church in Connecticut in a very depressed +condition, with the clergy and people scattered and some of the +parishes quite broken up. Fourteen clergymen were left, and of +these ten met in the study of the Rev. John Rutgers Marshall on +the Festival of the Annunciation in 1783, to take counsel as to +what was to be done. Peace had not been proclaimed, but it was +known that the war was at an end; and the circumstances of the +times were such that they thought it necessary to take action at +as early a day as possible. And they instructed their candidate +that if he should fail to obtain consecration in England, he +should seek it at the hands of the bishops of the disestablished +church of Scotland. + +Men had very real thoughts about Holy Orders then, when they were +obliged to cross the ocean for what they believed to be valid +ordination, and when one man out of every five who sought +ordination in England lost his life from shipwreck or disease. The +results of their faithfulness have been far greater and more wide- +reaching than they could have imagined. They would not have +believed it possible that at the end of a century there would be +in Connecticut nearly two hundred clergymen and twenty-two +thousand communicants, the Book of Common Prayer being used by +devout congregations throughout the limits of the State; and that +not only would this Diocese bear witness to God's blessing on +their faithfulness, but that there would be a united and +prosperous Church throughout the land, owing to them much of its +unity and prosperity. The lesson which we learn from them is that +Christ's work is to be done in Christ's own way, and that, thus +done, it will certainly abide. + +The Rev. Dr. Beardsley, after a brief introduction, added +substantially as follows: + +It is very evident that the clergy who met here on the Festival of +the Annunciation, 1783, were full of earnestness and the spirit of +self-sacrifice in their efforts to organize the Episcopal Church +in Connecticut and provide for her completeness and continuance +under a changed form of civil government. The seven years' +struggle of the Thirteen Colonies for independence of the power of +Great Britain was ended, and the poor people exhausted on every +side, were at a loss to know what methods should be adopted to +rise from their depression and recover in any degree their former +prosperity. The Missionaries of the Church of England--of whom +fourteen were left in Connecticut at the close of the Revolutionary +War--- had been aided by stipends from the Venerable Society +for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, but +these stipends, by the Constitution of the Society, ceased when +the separation finally took place. Of the fourteen Missionaries, +all save two [Footnote: The Rev. John Rutgers Marshall was born in +the city of New York, 1743, was an alumnus of Columbia College, +ordained 1771, and died 1789. The Rev. Daniel Fogg was a native of +New Hampshire, a graduate of Harvard College, ordained 1770, and +died 1815.] + +The full list includes the Rev. Messrs. Samuel Andrews of +Wallingford, Gideon Bostwick of Great Barrington (reckoned +ecclesiastically as in Connecticut), Richard Samuel Clarke of New +Milford, Ebenezer Dibblee of Stamford, Daniel Fogg of Brooklyn, +Bela Hubbard of New Haven, Abraham Jarvis of Middletown, Richard +Mansfield of Derby, John Rutgers Marshall of Woodbury, Christopher +Newton of Ripton, James Nichols of Plymouth. James Scovill of +Waterbury, John Tyler of Norwich, and Roger Viets of Simsbury. ] +were born in the Colony of Connecticut, and all had been compelled +to cross the ocean to obtain Holy Orders--there being no bishop in +this country--though the boon had often been solicited from the +English Church and as often denied. The trammels of State alliance +and the policy of preferring political expediency to religious +right prevented the authorities from venturing upon a spiritual +act and granting the prayer of the petitioners. The clergy had +ministered to their flocks all along in the face of intolerance +and bitter opposition from the Puritan body, and the war for +independence had subjected them to peculiar trials and reduced +them to the verge of ruin. But, without thinking of themselves, or +how they should be supported in the broken and disastrous +condition of their cures, their first effort or chief anxiety was +to provide for the now entirely headless Church; and so in Mid- +Lent, on the Festival of the Annunciation, March 25th, one hundred +years ago, ten of the fourteen clergy remaining in Connecticut +quietly assembled in this place, and, after careful, and, we must +believe, the most prayerful deliberation, they selected two +persons--the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming being the first choice, and +then the Rev. Samuel Seabury--as suitable, either of them, to go +to England and obtain, if possible, Episcopal consecration. It was +a secret meeting so far as giving any public notice of it was +concerned, and it was confined to the clergy, perhaps, among other +reasons, for fear of reviving the former opposition on this side +to an American Episcopate, and thus of defeating their plan to +complete the organization of the Church and secure its inherent +perpetuity in this country. The times were troubled, and the +establishment of peace with a foreign power did not necessarily +produce tranquillity and happiness at home. Mischiefs and +jealousies still lingered with those who had contended for +liberty, and the chief Protestant sects, which have all erected +their banners and had their camping-ground in the Church of +England, were ready to welcome her weakness and overthrow because +her priests and her people, for the most part, had been on the +side of the Crown during the long struggle for independence. But +it is not possible to destroy what God holds in His hand. The +passions of men work vast evil till, in calmer moments, they +subside and a better light shines through their principles and +their actions. + +The outcome of the meeting at Woodbury, after many hindrances and +perplexities, was the consecration by the non-juring Bishops of +the Church of Scotland of the Rev. SAMUEL SEABURY as the first +Bishop of Connecticut and of the Episcopal Church in the United +States. We owe to this consecration some of the best features of +our Book of Common Prayer. We owe to it the compactness and unity +of our great American Communion, and surely it was well to have +what we used on Sunday last--a form of thanksgiving for this our +hundredth anniversary of the election of Bishop Seabury that God +did "so replenish him with the truth of His doctrine and endue him +with innocency of life that he was enabled, both by word and deed, +faithfully to serve Him in the office of a bishop to the glory of +His name and the edifying and well-governing of His Church." + +The Bishop then proceeded with the office of the Holy Communion, +being assisted in the service by the Rev. Professor Hart of +Trinity College, and in the administration to the clergy and a +large number of the laity by the Rev. Dr. Beardsley, the Rev. T. +B. Fogg of Brooklyn, and the Rev. J. F. George, rector of the +parish. Before the benediction, the Bishop read the special +thanksgiving set forth for Easter-Day. + +After the service the clergy and other visitors were hospitably +entertained by the ladies of St. Paul's parish in the house in +which the Rev. J. R. Marshall lived in 1783, and in the very room +in which the ten clergymen met to elect the first Bishop of +Connecticut. + +The following is a list of the clergymen who were present: + +The Rt. Rev. the Bishop; the Rev. Dr. E. E. Beardsley, New Haven; +the Rev. Messrs. H. A. Adams, Wethersfield; R. R. M. Converse, +Waterbury; W. C. Cooley, Roxbury; T. B. Fogg, Brooklyn; J. F. +George, Woodbury; Prof. Samuel Hart, Hartford; J. G. Jacocks, New +Haven; E. S. Lines, New Haven; R. W. Micou, Waterbury; S. O. +Seymour, Litchfield; James Stoddard, Watertown; Hiram Stone, +Bantam Falls; Elisha Whittlesey, Hartford; Alex. Mackay-Smith, New +York City. + +On the twelfth day of June, 1883, the annual Convention of the +Diocese met in Trinity Church, New Haven. The opening service was +made a formal commemoration of the election of Bishop Seabury. + +Morning Prayer was begun by the Rev. Samuel Fermor Jarvis, Rector +of Trinity Church, Brooklyn, grandson of the Rev. Abraham Jarvis +who was Secretary of the Convention in 1783 and afterwards the +second Bishop of the Diocese; the First Lesson (Isaiah lxi.) was +read by the Rev. George Dowdall Johnson, of the Diocese of New +York, great-grandson of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, "the Father +of Episcopacy in Connecticut"; the Second Lesson (Ephesians iv. to +verse 17), by the Rev. Thomas Brinley Fogg of Brooklyn, grandson +of the Rev. Daniel Fogg who was one of the electors of Bishop +Seabury; and the Nicene Creed and the Prayers, including a special +Thanksgiving, by the Rev. Samuel Hart, Seabury Professor in +Trinity College, great-great-great-grandson of one of the five who +with Johnson and Cutler signed the paper touching their +ordination, which was presented to the "Fathers and Brethren" in +the Library of Yale College on the thirteenth day of September, +1722. The Bishop began the office of the Holy Communion, using the +Collect for St. Simon and St. Jude's Day; the Epistle (that for +St. Matthew's Day) was read by the Rev. Edwin Harwood, D.D., +Rector of Trinity Church, and the Gospel (that for St. Barnabas's +Day), by the Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., Rector of St. +Thomas's Church, New Haven, Historian of the Diocese and +Biographer of its first Bishop. The Sermon was preached by Bishop +Williams, as follows: + +MEN FOR THE TIMES. I. CHRON. xii. 32. + +Men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought +to do. + +I know no better words than these to give direction to our +thoughts in the service of this day. It is a service of deepest +thankfulness and of most sacred memories. It takes us back over +the years of a century. It brings to our remembrance the story of +the more than threescore previous years which led up to the event +that we commemorate. It awakens hope and trust for a coming and +unknown future. It binds those memories of the past and those +hopes for the future into one living body of thanksgiving, which, +for all who have gone before us, for ourselves, and for those who +are to follow us, must find utterance in the words of the +Psalmist: "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name +give the praise, for Thy loving mercy and for Thy truth's sake." + +Go back with me, brethren, in your thoughts, to the beginning of +the century the close of which we commemorate. It is the Festival +of the Annunciation in 1783; and we find ourselves in an inland +village of what was, ere long, to become the Diocese of +Connecticut, the village of Woodbury. It was not then the village +of our time, the long street of which, with its venerable elms and +well-kept homesteads, nestles beneath the craggy heights that +overlook it, or spreads out in peaceful loveliness towards stream +and valley. Things were on a smaller scale then, rougher and ruder +than they now are. One house, at least, still stands that was +standing then; and if we enter it we shall find ourselves in the +"glebe-house" which is the abode of the missionary of the Society +for the Propagation of the Gospel, and in the presence of ten of +the fourteen clergy of Connecticut who were ministering in their +cures at the close of the War of the Revolution. Neither history +nor tradition has preserved to us all the names of these true- +hearted men. We know, however, from written records, that +Marshall, in whose house they met, Jarvis of Middletown, who was +their secretary, and Fogg of Brooklyn, whose correspondence tells +us what we should not otherwise have known, were among them. +[Footnote: It is more than probable, I think, that Mansfield of +Derby, Hubbard of New Haven, Newton of Ripton, Scovill of +Waterbury, Clark of New Milford, Andrews of Wallingford, and Tyler +of Norwich were also present.] Beyond these we are left to +conjecture. + +We may imagine, though we can never fully enter into, the deep +anxiety of the hour, with all its doubts and fears so far +surpassing its hopes and encouragements. We remember how they felt +themselves compelled to meet in the utmost secrecy, not, as has +been sometimes unworthily intimated, because they feared their own +people, but because they knew not what interference might befall +them from the powers that were should their purpose be made known. +We think of them as, on that Festival of the Incarnation, they +knelt down in an isolation and desolation of which we can have no +knowledge, to implore the guidance of the Heavenly Wisdom in their +counsels and efforts for that Divine Institution which, because of +the Incarnation, is the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We +recognize what a venture of faith they were about to make in +sending one forth to seek consecration to the Episcopate, that so +he might discharge the office of the Bishop in the Church of God +to a flock weak and despised, "scattered and peeled"; and what a +greater venture of faith he would make who should go forth on that +errand, so doubtful and uncertain. We picture to ourselves all the +conditions of difficulty and discouragement by which they were +surrounded. We remember that the story of succeeding years, +familiar as household words to us, was hidden from them in the +darkness that veiled an unknown future. We know that they could +not even have dreamed of all that was to come out of that day's +doings. We think of all these things and many others, which I will +not attempt even to suggest, leaving it to your own thoughts to +fill out details that are omitted, and the one conclusion to which +all our thoughts and all our ponderings must bring us is, that +those ten men of whom the great world knew nothing then, of whom +it takes no thought now, were, nevertheless, "men that had +understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." + +The two events round which all the memories, the associations, the +details, of this and next year's commemorations group themselves, +are the election of our first Bishop in 1783, and his consecration +at Aberdeen in 1784. It seems to be my duty, to-day, to limit +myself strictly to the first of these; to what led up to it and to +the event itself; leaving it to whoever shall preach the sermon of +next year to speak of what followed the election, of the +consecration itself, and of its outcomes for this Church. + +It seems a narrow field--that to which I find myself limited--but, +unless I am greatly deceived, it presents to us topics which will +deserve careful consideration. + +First, then, let me say something of what led up to the election +of 1783. In doing so I must go back to the _primordia_ of the +Church in this Diocese. + +It ought never to be forgotten that the first missionary--if I +may so speak--of our Church in Connecticut was the Book of Common +Prayer. Keith and Talbot had, indeed, preached at New London in +1702. Muirson had organized the few churchmen at Stratford into a +parish in 1707. Different clergymen had, from time to time, +through the watchful care of Caleb Heathcote--a name that we ought +never to forget--ministered to that little band in their sore +trials and vexations. One, Francis Phillips, had come to them and, +after six months of neglect and carelessness, departed, leaving +only confusion behind him. But long before anything like permanent +ministration was begun at Stratford by George Pigot on Trinity +Sunday in 1722, Samuel Johnson at Guilford had been diligently +studying the Book of Common Prayer put into his hands by Smithson-- +another name never to be forgotten--and in those studies we +find, it seems to me, the true beginnings of what was to become +the Diocese of Connecticut. The old Faith enshrined in the +historic creeds of the Prayer-Book; the law and life of worship +embodied in its formularies, all leading up to and centering in +the highest act of Christian worship, the Holy Eucharist; its +ideal of the Christian life taught in its Catechism and carried +out in all its offices from baptism to burial; on these +foundations, no broader and no narrower, was our Church here built +up. God grant that on these foundations it may stand till time +shall end! + +I protest against the narrow and unhistoric idea that Johnson and +those who labored with and after him conformed to the Church of +England only because of their convictions touching Holy Orders. No +doubt those convictions were a factor, a most important factor, in +the change they made. But there was a great deal more involved +than that one question. Men who had gone from the dry bones of +Ames's Medulla and Wollebius to the "fresh springs" of Hooker and +Bull and Pearson, must have found how utterly unlike to the +Catholic Faith which they there were taught, were the "distributions +and definitions" of that "theoretical divinity" in which they had +been trained. It was indeed, as one of them said, "emerging +from the glimmer of twilight into the full sunshine of open day." +Men who had unlearned their prejudices against "pre-composed +forms of prayer" by the study of such books as King's _Inventions +of Men in the Worship of God_ and the fifth Book of Hooker's +immortal work, and above all of the Book of Common Prayer +itself, must have reached another and a loftier ideal of +worship than any they had known before. Men who had passed from +the narrow, cramped, and often conventional theories of Christian +living to which they were accustomed, to the reading of Scott's +_Christian Life_ [Footnote: I have often been told, by the +late Dr. Jarvis, that Scott's _Christian Life_ was a favorite +book with our early clergy, especially with Johnson and Beach.] +and the works of Hammond and Ken, had, surely, found something +totally different from anything to which they were wonted. The +question, as it presented itself to them, took on no narrow shape, +ran in no single groove. It covered the Orders, the Faith, the +Worship of the Church of God, and it took in with them the ideal +of the Christian Life. It was no narrower than that; and they who +assume that it was, contradict the conclusions of reason and the +testimony of history. The pioneers of our Church were sometimes, +in their own days, called by their opponents "covenant-breakers." +If, however, they withdrew from covenants entered into by men with +each other, it was only that they might attain the fulness of the +New Covenant in the Blood of the Incarnate Son of God. + +I cannot refrain from quoting here the words of the able author of +the _History of the Colonial Church_. Looking back to the +period of which I have been speaking, he says: "The feeling which +prevails over every other, at this present moment, and which alone +I wish to leave on record, is the feeling of deepest gratitude to +those men of Connecticut, who, not from a mere hereditary +attachment to the Church of England, or indolent acquiescence in +her teachings, but from a deep abiding conviction of the truth +that she is a faithful 'Keeper and Witness of Holy Writ,' have +shown to her ministers in every age and country, "the way in which +they can best promote the glory of their Heavenly Master's name, +and enlarge the borders of His Kingdom." [Footnote: Anderson's +_History of the Colonial Church_, iii. 444.] + +While, however, the question of ordination was only one out of +many things that drew our fathers and pioneers back to the Church +from which their fathers had gone out, it must, from the very +exigencies of the case, have come into great and constant +prominence. It could not be otherwise. The relations of our +missionaries to the Bishop of London--who had, by what may almost +be called an accident, acquired jurisdiction over English +congregations outside of England [Footnote: It was obtained by +Laud in 1634; see Anderson, i. 410.]--was little more than +nominal. There could be no "well-governing of the Church." If +Orders were sought, "the dangers of the sea, sickness, and the +violence of enemies" must be incurred, and one in every five that +went out sacrificed his life in the attempt to obtain his +ministerial commission. Confirmation was an impossibility; and our +clergy and people were taunted with the solemn mockery--for it was +hardly less--of reading the direction to bring baptized children +to the bishop when there was no bishop to whom they could be +brought. + +That there was no bishop in America was not due to our clergy or +people here. [Footnote: Possibly Virginia and Maryland are to be +excepted.] The reason must be sought elsewhere. In the second year +of its existence, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel +had entertained the idea of sending a Suffragan to America; and, +even then, the bishops of Scotland "were regarded as the channel +through which that assistance could most readily be obtained." +[Footnote: Anderson, iii. 36.] The project came to no result. If +there is any truth in the tradition that, had it been carried out, +Dean Swift would have been sent as Bishop of Virginia, we may be +thankful that it failed. + +It was renewed from time to time, from the reign of Queen Anne to +that of George III., but always without result. Petition after +petition, appeal after appeal was sent from America; the +Episcopate of England was implored to secure the appointment of +"one or more resident bishops in the colonies, for the exercise of +offices purely episcopal--offices to which the members of the +Church of England have an undoubted claim, and from which they +cannot be precluded without manifest injustice and oppression." +[Footnote: Bishop Lowth, _Sermon before the Venerable Society_.] +The colonial churchmen found, indeed, some zealous friends +in the English Episcopate; and one's heart warms as one reads +the names of Sharpe and Berkeley and Butler, of Gibson and +Sherlock and Seeker. But I fear it might be truly said of the +majority of the bishops of England in those days, "that they +thought more of the Acts of Parliament than they did of the Acts +of the Apostles." + +From Parliament or the English Ministry nothing could be hoped, so +long as Sir Robert Walpole or the Duke of Newcastle controlled the +action of the State; the name of the first of whom is the synonyme +of private profligacy and public faithlessness, while of the +latter an English historian [Footnote: Lord Macaulay. Nor was +much, if any, more to be hoped for from Pitt, afterwards first +Earl of Chatham.] has said that his selfish ambition "was so +intense a passion, that it supplied the place of talents and +inspired even fatuity with cunning." Not under such auspices was +the Episcopate to be given to America. + +To these causes of failure must, doubtless, be added the +opposition of the dominant religious bodies in the colonies. But +here it must, I think, in all fairness be said, that this +opposition was largely due to the fear that, were bishops sent to +America, they would, somehow and at some time, be "invested with a +power of erecting courts to take cognizance of all affairs +testamentary and matrimonial, and to enquire into and punish all +offences of scandal"; [Footnote: See _Minutes of Convention of +Delegates from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia and from the +Associations of Connecticut, held annually from 1766 to 1775 +inclusive_ (Hartford, 1843). It is now a rare pamphlet, but +very valuable for its revelations touching men and measures.] in +other words, that they would be, or would become, officers of the +State as well as bishops in the Church. No such purpose, it is +almost needless to say, was in the minds of those who sought the +establishment of a colonial Episcopate. All they desired was a +bishop or bishops invested with those powers--and no others-- +which were recognized in "Holy Scripture and the ancient Canons." +But this was just what some would not, and many others could not, +be brought to understand. The idea of the officer of State, +invested with civil powers and functions, was the vision that +disturbed more minds than we can readily imagine now. Says the +elder Adams, writing in 1815: "Where is the man to be found who +will believe... that the apprehension of Episcopacy contributed, +fifty years ago, as much as any other cause, to arouse the +attention, not only of the inquiring mind, but of the common +people, and urge them to close thinking on the constitutional +authority of Parliament over the colonies?" [Footnote: All parties +agreed that bishops could be sent out only under an act of +Parliament; and there seems to have been no doubt that by such an +act they would be divested of all civil powers and functions. But +it was said, that such an act could be at any time repealed; and +if it were repealed, then, under the common law of England, +bishops in the colonies might hold their courts, and exercise such +functions as were ordinarily exercised by them in the mother +country. The danger may have been largely imaginary; but it was +certainly within the limits of possibility, and must, in all +candor, be fairly considered.] + +Under all the circumstances, then, it is no wonder that when the +War of the Revolution ended, and the question came to the minds of +thoughtful churchmen how the Church should strengthen "the things +that remained that were ready to die," their first thought should +have been for the Episcopate. The Faith of the Universal Church +they had in the historic Creeds. Its Worship was preserved for +them in the Book of Common Prayer, But how to provide for the +perpetuation of the "Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of +Christ as the Lord had commanded and as this Church had received +the same," that was the great practical pressing question with +which they were brought face to face. Ordination, Confirmation, +and the government of the Church must of need be secured. Nor can +we greatly wonder if what no entreaties had been able to obtain +while the colonies were a part of the British Empire, seemed now +to many an almost hopeless undertaking. The surrender at Yorktown +in 1781 was to many American churchmen the death-blow to their +hopes for an American Episcopate. There were men enough to see the +difficulties and discouragements, to talk and write and speculate +about them; but where should those men be found who would grapple +with them, and by grappling with them overcome them? I answer, +they were found in those ten clergymen who met at Woodbury in +1783, "Men that had understanding of the times." And is it not +always somewhat after this sort, when any great step is to be +taken, and there are manifold difficulties in the way? Do not men +dwell on the difficulties, and exaggerate the dangers, and suggest +expedients and makeshifts, till some one, without fuss or noise, +takes the step, and lo! the mountain has been levelled and the way +lies open? Depend upon it, there is a wealth of wisdom in these +simple lines: + +"From an old English parsonage down by the sea, There came in the +twilight a message to me; Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven, +Hath, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven; And all through the +hours the quiet words ring, Like a low inspiration: 'Doe the nexte +thynge.'" + +And what the next thing was for this Church when these western +colonies became a nation, we have already seen. + +The need of some decided and vigorous action was made more obvious +by the fact that one of those makeshifts, just alluded to, by +which difficulties are evaded and not met, had been proposed in +the emergency, and was not unlikely to be adopted. In the summer +of 1782 a pamphlet had been published in Philadelphia, the author +of which, impressed with "the impossibility and present +undesirableness of attempting to obtain the Episcopate from +England," proposed "the combining of the clergy and of representatives +of the congregations in convenient districts with a representative +body of the whole." This representative body was to issue +"a declaration approving of Episcopacy, and professing a +determination to possess the succession when it could be +obtained"; but, meantime, permanent presidents were to be elected +from among the clergy with powers of supervision and ordination. +"An exigence of necessity" was pleaded in justification of this +extraordinary proposition. + +On what possible ground an "exigence of necessity" could be +asserted or assumed when no attempt to obtain the Episcopate had +been made, it is very difficult to see. How completely is the +fallacy and unwisdom of the assumption exposed by the clear, +straightforward words of the reply sent from Woodbury on that +memorable twenty-fifth of March: "Could necessity warrant a +deviation from the law of Christ and the immemorial usage of the +Church, yet what necessity can we plead? Can we plead necessity +with any propriety till we have been rejected? We conceive the +present to be a more favorable opportunity for the introduction of +bishops than this country has before seen. However dangerous +bishops might have been thought to the civil rights of these +States, this danger has now vanished, for such superiors will have +no civil authority. They will be purely ecclesiastics... equally +under the control of civil law with other clergymen; no danger, +then, can now be feared from bishops but such as may be feared +from presbyters." And then they further say, how wisely! "Should +we consent to a temporary departure from Episcopacy, there would +be very little propriety in asking for it afterwards, and as +little reason ever to expect it in America." + +The men who wrote those words grasped the real exigency as they +who spoke loudest about exigencies and impossibilities did not. +They foresaw, moreover, with the intuition of true wisdom, the +danger of resorting to the temporary expedient that had been +proposed. For, in truth, all history proves that such expedients +and makeshifts always exhibit a tendency to become permanent, and +very soon challenge for themselves a character, as legitimate and +ultimate, which is not claimed for them when they are adopted. +Then that thing, whatever it may be, to which they profess to lead +men up, drops out of sight, and they themselves fill the field of +vision. Had the plan of the Philadelphia pamphlet been adopted, +such I fully believe, such the clergy of Woodbury believed, must +inevitably have been the result. That it was not adopted, that the +dangers inherent in it were avoided, was largely owing to the +action of the day which we commemorate. + +In what simplicity and godly sincerity of heart they took the step +that lay right before them, met the difficulty from which others +shrank, did "the next thing," and, therefore, wrought for a +marvellous future! Says a thoughtful writer: [Footnote: Aubrey de +Vere, _Sketches in Greece and Turkey_.] "Men of ambitious +imaginations retire into their study and devise some _magnum +opus_ which, like the world itself, is to be created out of +nothing, and to hang self-balanced on its own centre; after much +puffing, however, the world which they produce is apt to turn out +but a well-sized bubble. Men of another order labor but to provide +for some practical need; and their work, humble, perhaps +occasional, in its design, is found to contain the elements that +make human toils indestructible." + +It was fortunate for all who were to come after them that those +men of whom I speak were no dreamers or _doctrinaires_, and +rode no "half-saddled hobbies" of their own construction. They did +not undertake to formulate a creed adapted to the wants of the +American mind and the demands of the eighteenth century; they had +that which was for every mind and all time, in the One "Faith once +delivered to the Saints." They did not attempt to compose a +Liturgy or Forms for Sacred Rites and Services; these they also +had, capable (doubtless) of adaptation and change "according to +the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners," but still +complete for all purposes of worship or ministration, being, +indeed, the growth of all the Christian ages. They did not set +themselves to create a new Church, or even to reason out just what +might possibly be dispensed with here or omitted there because of +"the present distress"; all they had to do, in that little +secluded room where they were assembled, was to provide what was +lacking in that organization which they had received; even as in +that secluded "upper room" in Jerusalem where the eleven were +assembled with the disciples, the vacant place in the Apostolate +was filled up in anticipation of the mighty Pentecostal gift. And +because they were humble enough, and therefore wise enough, to do +just what they did, they "builded better than they knew"; builded +on that only foundation that can be laid, even Jesus Christ; +builded, also, as "wise master-builders," not with the "wood, hay, +stubble" of man's gathering, but with the "gold, silver, precious +stones" of the "New Jerusalem that cometh down from heaven." + +There is another thought that ought not be passed by. Says an old +Father, speaking of the Episcopate: "_Nomen oneris non honoris"; +"It is the name of a burden rather than of an honor." So here, the +question was not, To whom shall we give the honor? but, Who can +best take up and bear the burden? And what a burden it was! The +wearisome quest for consecration, sure to be protracted and +doubtful as to its result; the insufficient provision--if indeed +any provision at all was made--for the maintenance of the bishop- +elect during the period of his anxious waiting; [Footnote: Bishop +Seabury wrote under date of Jan. 5, 1785: "Two years' absence from +my family, and expenses of residence here, have more than expended +all I had."] the return, if unsuccessful, with the certainty of +being told that another might have succeeded where he had failed; +if successful, with the alternative certainty of coming to a weak +and despised Church, poor in this world's goods and "everywhere +spoken against"; the life-long struggle with its tremendous +uncertainties; surely, he who should undertake the burden of these +things and many more besides, would need not only the "_robur et +aes triplex circa pectus_" of the heathen poet, but the faith +that "could remove mountains" also. Who was to be the man? + +"All eyes were turned to the venerable Jeremiah Leaming, who had +defended the Church with his pen, and suffered for her in mind, +body, and estate," and he was the first choice of the clergy at +Woodbury. It was felt, however, that his acceptance was doubtful, +and the difficulties which might prevent it were fully recognized. +The original draught of the letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury +places the election and the recognition of the difficulties +attending it beyond all doubt, by a passage, which, when Leaming +declined the undertaking, was, of course, omitted. These are the +words: "His age and infirmities, we confess, were objections on +his part we felt the force of. His yielding to our desires, to +encounter the fatigues and dangers of such a voyage, which (free +from all motives for personal ambition, for which in our situation +there is very little temptation) nothing but a zeal almost +primitive would lead him to do, much the more endears him to us. +He is indeed a tried servant of the Church, and bears about him in +a degree the marks of a Confessor." [Footnote: That Leaming was +the first choice of the clergy at Woodbury has been questioned. +But three things put it beyond doubt: (1) The original letter +quoted in the text; (2) Bishop Jarvis's sermon, preached before a +Special Convention, May 5, 1796, called to elect a successor to +Bishop Seabury, in which the fact is distinctly asserted; (3) +Bishop Seabury's letter to Dr. Morice, Secretary of the Venerable +Society, under date Feb. 27, 1785, which, when read in the light +thrown on it by the original letter and the sermon, can admit of +only one interpretation.] + +Leaming was not there to speak for himself; and the contingency of +his declining to accept the burden was too pressing not to be +provided against. Wherefore another was designated, one whose name +is forever shrined in the deep love and reverence of this Diocese, +and held in grateful remembrance in this Church, the Rev. Dr. +Samuel Seabury. Who doubts that in this two-fold designation +earnest prayer was made to Him "Who knoweth the hearts of all +men"? Who doubts that though no lots were cast, it was left to the +ordering of Providence to "show whether of those two the Lord had +chosen"? That ordering, as we all know, laid the burden upon +Seabury. The brave step was taken, the venture of faith was made. +God provided the man to assume the weighty charge; and for that +and all that came of it, we offer him to-day "high laud and hearty +thanks." + +The same wise and prudent forecast which provided against one +possible contingency provided also against another, and in its +provision exhibited a truer comprehension of what the Church of +Christ, as a spiritual Kingdom, really was than any statesman and +many prelates in England seem to have then attained. Says one who +was present at Woodbury, writing to a friend who became the second +Bishop of Massachusetts: "We clergy have even gone so far as to +instruct Dr. Seabury, if none of the regular bishops of the Church +of England will ordain him, to go down to Scotland and receive +ordination from a non-juring bishop." [Footnote: Letter of the +Rev. Daniel Fogg to the Rev. Samuel Parker; _Connecticut Church +Documents,_ ii. 213.] I am in no wise concerned to deny that +the thought of applying to the Scottish bishops may have been an +entirely original thought in the mind of more than one person in +England in the years 1783 and 1784. But there can be no doubt--for +the fact is proved, not by unwritten reminiscences after a lapse +of years, but by contemporary documents--that this purpose was in +the minds of our clergy long before it could have been conceived +in England; before, indeed, it was known there that Seabury would +seek consecration at the hands of the English prelacy. + +The line and limits which I have prescribed to myself in this +discourse forbid me to speak as I fain would speak of my great +predecessor. That privilege will belong to the preacher of next +year. But I may say, and say it with all reverence, that if ever +in our eventful history the guiding hand of God appears, it seems +to me to manifest itself in the election of our first bishop. +Doubtless brave men lived before Agamemnon, but Agamemnon was not +the less brave for that. Doubtless there were strong men and true +men here before Seabury--had there not been, there would have +been no place for him--but there was none stronger and none truer +than himself. He was misrepresented by some and misunderstood by +others in his lifetime. He has been misunderstood and misrepresented +since. But all that is over. Thanks to his careful biographer +and to his own unstudied revelations of himself, men know +him better now. The voice of detraction is silent, and there +are none to contradict us when we say of him: "His body is buried +in peace, but his name liveth forevermore." + +My brethren, we shall have lingered to little purpose among these +memories of the past, unless we take away with us something for +the present hour with its duties and responsibilities. Two +thoughts seem to me to rise prominently to view from the survey we +have been making; two voices speak to us from those past years. + +First we learn the lesson--it has already been spoken of--that +only by the true-hearted and faithful discharge of the lowly duty, +can we rise up to, or make real, the lofty aim. Said pious George +Herbert: + +"Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high, So shalt thou humble +and magnanimous be." + +The roots and foundations of all great things, in nature or in the +buildings that man rears, lie underground and out of sight. +Thoughtless gazers may think little of them; but no towering oak, +no stately temple, can stand without them. Above all, in the +Church of God, he who works on any other rule than this will lose +his labor, it may be will lose himself, and find written at last +over his most cherished plans the woeful words: "All is vanity." + +Another thought presents itself, another voice is heard full of +the inspiration of faith and hope, telling us of the abiding +presence of the Lord with His Church, carrying us back to those +two unfailing promises: "I will pray the Father and He shall give +you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever"; "Lo, I +am with you alway, even unto the end of the world!" In very truth, +in that day of doubt and dismay this Church was "as a cottage in a +vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged +city." To-day we look upon her as "she hath sent out her boughs +unto the sea and her branches unto the river," and we bless God +for the greatness of "His goodness" and the greatness of "His +beauty." + +Do we rejoice, dear brethren, in all this with trembling? Do we +seem to hear, from the not distant horizon, the muttering of +storms which are gathering around us and may burst upon us? Do we +see tokens not only of assault from without, but of betrayal from +within? Then let us take courage from our past; let us do what +those who went before us did; let us, like them, "keep that which +is committed to our trust"; and if "evil men and seducers wax +worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived," let us, as they +did, "continue in the things which we have learned, knowing of +whom we have learned them." + +And finally, let us give these thoughts--the lesson of the one and +the inspiration, not without warning, of the other--shape and +utterance in the prayer, more full of meaning to us than it could +have been to the people of the elder covenant: + +"The Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; let Him +not leave us nor forsake us; that He may incline our hearts unto +Him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep His commandments, and +His statutes, and His judgments which He commanded our fathers." + +The Bishop then proceeded with the Communion-office, being +assisted in the service by the Rev. William Jones Seabury, D.D., +Professor in the General Theological Seminary and Rector of the +Church of the Annunciation, New York, great-grandson of Bishop +Seabury, and in the administration by the Rev. Drs. Beardsley, +Harwood, and Seabury, and the Rev. Dr. W. E. Vibbert, Rector of +St. James's Church, Fair Haven. Among the sacred vessels used in +the service were the Paten and Chalice used by Bishop Seabury in +St. James's Church, New London. + + + + +CENTENARY COMMEMORATION OF THE CONSECRATION OF BISHOP SEABURY. +1884. + +THE RT. REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. + +WAS CONSECRATED FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT AT ABERDEEN, + +NOVEMBER 14, 1784. + + +The Diocesan Convention of 1884 met on the tenth day of June in +St. James's Church, New London. + +Morning Prayer was read at 9 o'clock by the Rev. William B. +Buckingham, Rector of the Parish, the Rev. Samuel H. Giesy, D.D., +Rector of Christ Church, Norwich, and the Rev. Storrs O. Seymour, +Rector of Trinity Church, Hartford. At 10-1/2 o'clock, after the +singing of the 138th Hymn, the service of the Holy Communion was +begun. The Bishop was assisted in the service by the Rector of the +Parish, the Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D., LLD., Rector of St. +Thomas's Church, New Haven, the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, Rector of +Trinity Church, Brooklyn, and the Rev. James Stoddard, Rector of +Christ Church, Watertown. After the Nicene Creed the Bishop +preached the Sermon as follows: + +THE STONES REVIVED. NEHEMIAH IV. 2. + +What do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they +sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the +stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? + +It is difficult to imagine a more hopeless undertaking--as men's +eyes looked on it--than the attempt to rebuild Jerusalem and the +Temple at the close of the captivity. For seventy years their +ruins had lain in the condition which Isaiah describes in such +impressive words: "Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; +our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, +is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid +waste." Jerusalem was indeed "a heap of stones." + +And who were they that should undertake to bring beauty, strength, +and order out of all this ruin and desolation? A small and +despised remnant of a once powerful people straggling back, as it +might seem, in handfuls, from their seventy years' captivity. + +Follow Nehemiah in his lonely night-ride as he makes his solitary +circuit around the broken walls. Look at the scattered companies +of the re-builders as they set about their work; so separated from +each other, on that long line of ruined towers and bulwarks, that +a trumpet must be sounded to gather them together, should they be +attacked by enemies. Think of the sinking of heart with which the +first stone to be relaid must have been lifted; think of the scorn +with which they who hoped to see the failure of the forlorn +attempt must have looked on him who lifted it; and you can then +make real to yourselves the greatness of the undertaking and the +apparently hopeless inadequacy of the means at hand for its +accomplishment. No wonder that the enemies of Judah and Jerusalem +cried, "What do these feeble Jews?" No wonder that "Judah said, +The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is +much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall." No +wonder that the provincial Jews--as they have been termed--sent +"ten times" to recall their brethren aiding those who were +laboring at Jerusalem, No wonder that Nehemiah "made his prayer +unto God," and said, "Hear, O our God, for we are despised!" + +Taking up, as I am to do to-day, the narrative of the events which +followed on, and were the outcome of, the election of our first +Bishop of which I spoke to you last year, and which gather round, +and centre in, his consecration at Aberdeen a hundred years ago, I +seem, as I try to reproduce those days and make them real to our +minds, to hear Words uttered so like to those which have just been +brought together that they appear to be the very echoes of that +far distant past. Enemies are crying, "What do these feeble Jews?" +Timid friends are saying, "The strength of the bearers of burdens +is decayed"--we cannot do the work. But brave hearts and loving +hearts murmured to themselves, "Our God shall fight for us"; and +among them all there was no truer, braver heart than that of +Seabury, as, taking up the burden laid on him, he set forth on his +quest--nobler than the knightliest of olden times--for that sacred +Deposit which he was to bear to our western world. + +How fared he in his quest? In the answer to this question we shall +find the topic that invites attention now. And first of all, +something must be said of the documents and testimonials which he +carried with him. These were, so far as the clergy of Connecticut +were concerned, prepared by the secretary of the meeting held at +Woodbury (afterwards our second bishop), the Rev. Abraham Jarvis. +They are quite too long for reading here; but it must be said of +them that they are admirably conceived and expressed, and set +forth a much truer and sounder ideal of the Church of God in its +obligation to the State on the one side, and its spiritual duties, +under the one Headship of Him Whose "kingdom is not of this +world," on the other, than seems to have then prevailed in the +mother country. Two passages from the letter of our clergy to the +Archbishop of Canterbury, I venture to quote in proof of what has +just been said. + +"America is now severed from the British empire; by that +separation we cease to be a part of the national Church. But, +although political changes affect and dissolve our external +connection, and cut us off from the powers of the State, yet, we +hope, a door still remains open for access to the governors of the +Church; and what they might not do for us, without the permission +of government, while we were bound as subjects to ask favors and +receive them under its auspices and sanctions, they may, in right +of their inherent spiritual powers, grant and exercise in favor of +a Church planted and nurtured by their hand, and now subjected to +other powers.".... "Permit us to suggest, with all deference, our +firm persuasion that a sense of the sacred Deposit committed by +the great Head of the Church to her bishops, is so awfully +impressed on your Grace's mind, as not to leave a moment's doubt +in us of your being heartily disposed to rescue the American +Church from the distress and danger which now, more than ever, +threaten her for want of an Episcopate." + +To the same purpose they spoke in their letter to the Archbishop +of York. "This part of America is at length dismembered from the +British empire; but, notwithstanding the dissolution of our civil +connection with the parent State, we still hope to retain our +religious polity, the primitive and evangelical doctrine and +discipline, which at the Reformation were restored and established +in the Church of England." And then they go on to say that, to +complete and perpetuate this polity, "an American Episcopate" must +be secured. + +How clearly the men who used this language shewed that they fully +comprehended the position and rights of a National Church; the +obedience which "in all things temporal" the Church owes to the +powers that are ordained of God; her complete independence and +autonomy "in things purely spiritual"; and the great fact that by +no political changes was this Church severed from the Church of +England or from the historic Church of all the ages, so long as +she continued "stedfast in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, +and in the breaking of the bread and the prayers!" + +The testimonials and letters thus furnished by the clergy of +Connecticut were strengthened by similar documents signed by the +venerable Leaming and by the rector and the assistant minister of +Trinity Church, New York, and others. [Footnote: These testimonials, +bearing date April 21, 1783, have misled some persons into +the idea that Seabury was elected on that day in New York. +This is a mistake easily made if one carelessly glances at +the documents, but impossible if the documents are read.] Armed +with these testimonials, and bearing a letter from the clergy of +Connecticut to the Venerable Society imploring the continuance, at +least for a time, of their stipends, the Bishop-elect reached +London on the seventh day of July, 1783. + +And now began the wearisome and wearing delay of all those slowly- +passing months, during which the postulant for the Episcopate was +hoping against hope for an enabling act of Parliament, under which +the bishops of England might proceed to consecrate him to the +office of a Bishop in the Church of God. + +It forms no part of my purpose to enter into all the details of +that most unattractive period; but I may not pass by the different +obstacles to action which presented themselves, or were presented +with whatsoever purpose, as those months dragged their slow length +along. I know how difficult it is to carry one's self back into a +distant period of time and to surround one's self with its real +circumstances and conditions, especially when these are connected +with what were then new and perplexing civil and ecclesiastical +relations. But I cannot wonder that, looking back on so many +failures in regard to an American Episcopate, and the apparent +inability of those whose aid was invoked to grasp the issue +presented with all its grand possibilities--I cannot wonder that +the clergy of Connecticut should have said: "We hope that the +successors of the Apostles in the Church of England have +sufficient reasons to justify themselves to the world and to God. +We, however, know of none such, nor can our imagination frame +any." [Footnote: _Address of the Connecticut Clergy to Bishop +Seabury_, 1785.] + +I name first, among the difficulties urged, the fear "that there +would be no adequate support for a bishop"; and I name it first +simply because it was, probably, the least. The answer to it that +came from our clergy was dignified and conclusive. "We can +contemplate," they said, "no other support for a bishop than what +is to be derived from voluntary contracts, and subscriptions and +contributions, directed by the good will and zeal of the members +of a Church who are taught, and do believe, that a bishop is the +chief minister in the kingdom of Christ on earth.... A bishop in +Connecticut must, in some degree, be of the primitive style. With +patience, and a share of primitive zeal, he must rest for support +on the Church which he serves, unornamented with temporal dignity, +and without the props of secular power." Whether the English +prelacy did or did not grasp, and acquiesce in, this ideal of a +bishop and his office, I cannot find that they pressed this +objection further. + +A second obstacle was thus expressed: "It would be sending a +bishop to Connecticut, which they [the bishops of England] have no +right to do without the consent of the State, and such a bishop +would not be received in Connecticut." The phrase "consent of the +State" is ambiguous. It may refer to the Continental Congress or +to the authorities of the particular State concerned. If, however, +there were any who gave to the phrase the first of these +interpretations, they appear to have speedily abandoned it and to +have adopted the second. Apparently they supposed that the civil +authority in Connecticut might claim the right, and exercise the +power, to forbid a bishop to come within the limits of the State, +and to set him adrift with "the wide world before him where to +choose," a veritable bishop _in partibus_, without home, +habitation, or name. There can be little doubt that these fancies +were pressed by, if they did not originate with, persons belonging +to the so-called "Standing Order" in New England, under the lead +of a prominent minister in Connecticut. + +To meet the difficulty, it was stated that a committee of the +Convention of the clergy of Connecticut had consulted with leading +members of both Houses of Assembly touching the "need, the +propriety, or the prudence of an application to government for the +admission of a bishop into the State," and that the result of the +conference showed that no such Act was needed, inasmuch as the +Assembly had already given all needful "legal rights and powers" +to all bodies of Christians of whatever name, and, therefore, to +the Church among them; that, if not needed, there could be no +propriety in applying for it; and, finally, that any such +application would be imprudent and unwise, in that "there were +some who would oppose it, and would labor to excite opposition +among the people, who, if unalarmed by any jealousies, would +probably remain quiet." How far these wise and reasonable +conclusions commended themselves to the bishops of England I am +unable to state. + +A third difficulty remained; and this, it must be owned, had more +substance to it than those just considered. It related to the +oaths in the Ordination Office. These could not, of course, be +taken by the person seeking consecration; nor could the +consecrating bishops dispense with them on their own authority; +nor would the dispensation of the sovereign suffice, even should +it be given, unless with, at least, the concurrence of the Privy +Council, or--and this seems to have been the final conclusion--an +Act of Parliament. + +When we remember how potent an element in bringing on the +Revolution of 1688--a revolution which had placed the House of +Hanover on the throne of Great Britain--the question as to the +sovereign's dispensing power had been; what an engine of tyranny +in the State and of destruction to the Church James II. had +intended to make it; and how offensive, if not dangerous, any +revival of it might well appear, we need not wonder that the +bishops of England should have declined to act under it, or that +the sovereign should have declined to give it, unless it could be +guarded and supported by forms and sanctions of unquestionable +legality. + +All this is clear enough. But what does not appear is, why a more +hearty and earnest effort was not made to secure the needed +legislation. No such effort could have been expected from the +authorities of the State. They who cared nothing for an Episcopate +in America before the War of the Revolution, were not likely to +care more for it after the war was ended. If, as they had all +along been led to believe, the idea of an Episcopate was offensive +to the Colonies, it could hardly, they would say, be less +offensive to the States in the first flush of their acknowledged +independence. Nor were influences lacking, either in England or in +America, which were brought to bear in blocking that legislation +without which the English Prelacy declined to act. It is, +therefore, easy to understand the apathy of government. But it is +not so easy to understand, and it is far less easy to justify, the +apparent apathy of those who, it might justly have been thought, +"in view of the sacred deposit committed by the great Head of the +Church to her bishops," would have been heartily disposed to avert +the dangers which darkened the future of the Church in America. +What makes the inaction more inexplicable is, that while these +negotiations were pending, an Act of Parliament was actually +passed which enabled "the Bishop of London to admit foreign +candidates to the order of deacon or priest, but gave no +permission to consecrate a bishop for Connecticut or for any of +the American States." Who can wonder that Seabury was, at last, +driven to say, "This is certainly the worst country in the world +to do business in; I wonder how they get along at any rate"! +[Footnote: Letter to Mr. Jarvis, May 24, 1784.] + +As I have read, time and again, the record of that weary waiting, +the story of that hope perpetually deferred, I have always risen +from the reading with the profound impression that I have been +brought into contact with a bravely patient and an utterly +unselfish man. + +Alone in what was now to him a foreign land, separated from his +family which had been left here in New London, seeing his worldly +means which were "all embarked in this enterprise" rapidly wasting +away, without any influence to back him but the righteousness of +his cause, with his very loyalty to the crown made an objection to +him where one might have expected the precise opposite, he never +bated one jot of effort--however it may have been as to heart and +hope--but met difficulties, answered objections, dealt with +obstacles with a brave patience that marks him as a veritable +hero. [Footnote: A story was set about by Granville Sharpe, whose +prejudices led him to be unjustly credulous, that at his first +interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Seabury, in answer to +the objections raised by his Grace, turned abruptly on his heel, +saying, "If your Grace will not grant me consecration, I know +where I can get it"; and so set off for Scotland. There is no +truth whatever in the story. Seabury's letters, as well as all the +circumstances, completely disprove it. Nor does the fact that +Sharpe believed it, excuse his biographer, who might have known +better, for giving it currency.] + +Nor was this the persistence of a self-seeking and ambitious man, +bent on attaining something for himself. It occurred to him, not +unnaturally, that possibly if the State of Connecticut were to be +asked to give permission for a bishop to reside within its +borders, it might be easier to secure such permission for another +than for one who had been imprisoned in New Haven for his loyalty. +Accordingly he wrote to his friends here: "I beg that no clergyman +in Connecticut will hesitate a moment on my account; the point is +to get the Episcopal authority into that country"; and then he +went on to say that, if another is designated, "he shall have +every assistance in my power." These are not the words of a self- +seeking man--a man of low ambitions. But they are the words of a +man filled with a great purpose, inspired with a great thought, +ready to do and to bear and to wait, so the purpose can be +accomplished and the thought take shape. All is summed up by him +in a single sentence: "Believe me, there is nothing that is not +base that I would not do, nor any risk that I would not run, nor +any inconvenience to myself that I would not encounter, to carry +this business into effect." [Footnote: While these negotiations in +England were in progress, an application was made, without +Seabury's knowledge, to Cartwright of Shrewsbury, an irregular +non-juring bishop. As, however, this was subsequent to the opening +of negotiations with Scotland, nothing, fortunately, came of it. +It has been said that an application was made to, or an offer +received from, the Danish government, looking to a consecration by +Danish bishops. This, however, is a mistake. No application was +ever made for consecration in Denmark; while the offer of the +Danish government, made through Mr. Adams, our then Minister to +England, related only to the ordination of candidates for the +diaconate and priesthood. The passage of the Act of Parliament, +mentioned above, prevented the necessity of acting on the offer; +and fortunately so, for the Danish Episcopate is only titular.] + +Nearly fourteen months had now elapsed since Seabury arrived in +London. It was clear that consecration must, if obtained at all, +be obtained elsewhere than in England, and naturally his thoughts +reverted to Scotland. So careful, however, was he to consult in +all things those who had elected him, that he would take no +decisive step--notwithstanding the instructions given from +Woodbury in March, 1783--till they had been communicated with, and +their views obtained; so that it was not till August 31, 1784, +that he wrote to Dr. Myles Cooper. The letter is creditable alike +to his head and his heart. No word of personal disappointment and +vexation, no line of reproach finds place in it is the letter of a +manly man, too strong in faith and purpose to waste time in +complaints and repinings. He applies through his friend to the +bishops of Scotland, and adds: "I hope I shall not apply in vain. +If they consent to impart the Episcopal succession to the Church +of Connecticut, they will, I think, do a good work, and the +blessing of thousands will attend them. And perhaps for this +cause, among others, God's providence has supported them and +continued their succession under various and great difficulties; +that a free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical Episcopacy may from +them pass into the Western world." + +Let me pause, just here, to remind you that this was the third +time that men's minds were turned to the Scottish bishops in +connection with an American Episcopate. + +When, in 1703, the Venerable Society had it in mind to send out to +America a Suffragan to the Bishop of London, it was thought that +consecration could be most readily obtained from the bishops of +Scotland. + +In the autumn of 1782, one year after the surrender of Lord +Cornwallis at Yorktown--an event which practically settled the +question of the independence of the thirteen colonies--the Rev. +Dr. George Berkeley, a son of that great prelate who sang of the +"westward course of empire," addressed a letter to Bishop Skinner, +coadjutor to the Primus of the Scottish Church, suggesting that +the bishops of Scotland should consecrate a bishop for America, +and saying, "had my honored father's scheme for planting an +Episcopal College, whereof he was to have been president, in the +Summer Islands, not been sacrificed by the worst minister that +Britain ever saw, probably under a mild monarch (who loves the +Church of England as much as I believe his grandfather hated it) +Episcopacy would have been established in America by a succession +from the English Church, unattended by any invidious temporal rank +or power." + +No doubt the question thus proposed to the Scottish bishops was +carefully considered, but the result was unfavorable to Dr. +Berkeley's wishes. Bishop Skinner wrote: "Nothing can be done in +the affair with safety on our side, till the independence of +America be fully and irrevocably recognized by the government of +Britain; and even then the enemies of our Church might make a +handle of our correspondence with the colonies as a proof that we +always wished to fish in troubled waters, and we have little need +to give any ground for an imputation of this kind," + +No one who recalls the frightful provisions of the penal acts of +Parliament passed in 1746 and 1748, which were plainly intended to +annihilate the Scottish Church, and were unrepeated when Bishop +Skinner wrote the words just quoted, can wonder at the hesitation +of the Scottish bishops. For in executing these laws in days not +long passed, "so vigilantly were the Scottish Episcopal clergy +watched...that it was with the utmost difficulty they could +celebrate any of the services of religion. There are instances of +individual clergymen performing public worship no less than +sixteen times in one day.....The service was often performed in +farm-houses, or in the out-houses of the farmhouse, if these were +conveniently constructed. In either case the clergyman, the +family, and four persons were in the apartment, and dozens or +hundreds of others stationed themselves in as favorable positions +as they could, to listen to the prayers of the Church. Sometimes +divine service was celebrated under a shed, in which was the +number allowed by law, while the people stood at a small distance +in the open air. At times, again, when there was no apparent +danger; pastor and people met in the recesses of woods, in +secluded glens, and on the sides of sequestered mountains, where +the vault of heaven was their covering, the moss turfs their +humble altar, and perhaps a solitary seat their pulpit." +[Footnote: John Parker Lawson's _History of the Scottish +Episcopal Church_, pp. 300-302. See also the Rev. W. Walker's +most interesting _Life of John Skinner of Linshirt_, chap. +iii. To make the general statements in the text plainer, I add, in +a foot-note, some details which time forbade me to introduce into +the sermon. By the Act of 1746, "every person exercising the +function of a pastor or minister in any Episcopal meeting in +Scotland, without registering his letters of orders, and taking +all the oaths prescribed by law, and praying for his Majesty King +George and the royal family by name" was "for the first offence to +suffer six months' imprisonment; and for the second, or any +subsequent offence, was to be transported to some of his Majesty's +plantations in America for life; and in case of his return to +Great Britain, to suffer imprisonment for life." All chapels were +to be closed; and even in a private house only four persons +besides the family were allowed to be present at any service. In +1748, no letters of orders, not given by some bishop of England or +Ireland, were allowed in Scotland; and no persons were allowed to +officiate as chaplains in private families, or to preach or +perform any divine services in houses of which they were not the +masters, unless they belonged to the Presbyterian establishment. +These atrocious acts were, undoubtedly, intended to destroy "root +and branch" the Scottish Church. Happily some laws are so +stringent that their very stringency prevents their thorough +execution. It should never be forgotten that the English +Episcopate unanimously opposed the Act of 1748 in the House of +Lords.] In very truth, so far as the worship of God was concerned, +"they wandered"--these churchmen of Scotland--"in deserts and in +mountains and in dens and caves of the earth." + +We may not sympathize with the political scruples of the non- +jurors of Scotland. But any men who so possess the courage of +their convictions as not to shrink from loss of goods and danger +of life, and who accept the trials of martyrdom without posing as +martyrs in personal comfort and security, deserve and will receive +the veneration of all true-hearted and right-minded men. And in +this matter, "let all history declare whether in any age or in any +cause, as followers of Knox or of Montrose, as Cameronians or as +Jacobites, the men--aye and the women--of Scotland have quailed +from any degree of sacrifice or suffering." [Footnote: Lord +Stanhope, History of England, in. 210.] + +To return:--The correspondence between Bishop Skinner and Dr. +Berkeley was continued through the winter of 1782-1783, but +without any actual result. [Footnote: Scottish Church Review, i. +36-43.] In the autumn of 1783--some four months after Seabury's +arrival in England--a letter was sent to the Scottish Primus by +Mr. Elphinstone, a man of literary reputation, the son of a +Scottish clergyman, in which the following question was put: "Can +consecration be obtained in Scotland for an already dignified and +well vouched American clergyman, now in London, for the purpose of +perpetuating the Episcopal reformed Church in America, particularly +in Connecticut?" [Footnote: Wilberforce, American Church, +p. 205.] At the same time Dr. Berkeley renewed his correspondence +with Bishop Skinner in these words: "I have this day [Nov. +24] heard (I need not add with the sincerest pleasure) that +a respectable Presbyter, well recommended from America, hath +arrived in London, seeking what it seems in the present state of +affairs he cannot expect to receive in our Church. Surely, dear +sir, the Scotch prelates, who are not shackled by any Erastian +connexion, will not send this suppliant empty away. .... I scruple +not to give it as my decided opinion that the king, some of his +cabinet counsellors, all our bishops (except, peradventure, the +Bishop of St. Asaph [Footnote: Dr. Jonathan Shipley.]), all the +learned and respectable clergy of our Church, will at least +secretly rejoice if a Protestant bishop be sent from Scotland to +America--more especially if Connecticut is to be the scene of his +ministry." [Footnote: _Scottish Church Review,_ i. 106; where +the rest of the correspondence is also given.] + +The question now brought before the Scottish bishops, was, as will +be readily seen, a different one from that proposed nearly two +years before. Then they were asked to originate action and to send +out a bishop, selected by themselves, to take his chances of being +received by the clergy and church-people in America. Now the +proposition was to complete action already begun, and to invest +with the Episcopal character a person selected in America and sent +out to obtain consecration. Wisely did the Scottish prelates +decline to take the former course, which could only have increased +the difficulties of the situation. As wisely, and with a noble +recognition of the importance of what they clearly regarded as the +great responsibility and solemn duty laid upon them, did they +decide to adopt the latter. Said one of them: "Considering the +great Depositum committed to us, I do not see how we can account +to our great Lord and Master, if we neglect such an opportunity of +promoting His truth and enlarging the borders of His Church. +"These words have in them the ring of a firm conviction of duty, +and a thorough understanding of the true character and position of +Christ's kingdom upon earth. + +Still, ready as they were to take the responsibility, and even the +possible dangers, of consecrating the applicant for the +Episcopate, there were some further questions to be asked, and at +least one doubt to be removed. They owed it to themselves, and to +the Church of God, to be well assured of "the candidate's +learning, piety, and principles," and also "to know whether the +proposal was only from himself, or if it was a plan laid with his +American brethren, and if he was recommended and his consecration +solicited by them." It is needless to say that ample and entire +satisfaction was given on both these points. + +One thing--and it brings out the doubt just alluded to-the +Scottish bishops could not quite comprehend. Says Bishop Skinner, +speaking for his brethren as well as for himself: "I should be +glad to know why he [Dr. Seabury] has been refused consecration in +England; as I cannot conceive any good reason for denying this, +after what Government has already yielded to the United States. +The Bishop of London, I presume, does not now think of exercising +any spiritual jurisdiction where the secular power of Britain is +no longer acknowledged. And if all the respectable characters you +mention would secretly rejoice at the establishment of Protestant +Episcopacy in America, even through Scotland, there must be some +ostensible reason for their withholding that confidence and +support they would otherwise give to this proposal." [Footnote: +Letter to Dr. Berkeley, under date of Nov. 29, 1783.] + +Long years of suffering had taught the Scottish bishops caution, +nor can it be wondered at that while they were "keenly alive to +the necessity of preserving the Scottish Church from the odium +that would have been incurred by any hasty or mistaken step," they +were also "utterly at a loss to understand why considerations of a +purely political kind should have had such enervating influence on +the English bishops as to render them passive spectators of the +destitution of their American children." Brave men, men ready to +run needful risks and meet unavoidable dangers, are not the men +who are willing to be made cat's-paws. How the doubt was resolved +I am unable to say. That it was resolved is certain; since on the +8th of December, 1783, it was known that consecration could be +obtained in Scotland. + +Just here the questions arise: Why, if the Scottish bishops were +ready to proceed to consecration in December of 1783, was that +solemn act deferred for near a twelve-month--till November of the +following year? And why did Seabury himself delay his application +to Scotland till August of the same year? The answer is found in +Seabury's own letter of August, 1784, already quoted, in which he +formally applies to the bishops of Scotland. He says: "With regard +to myself, it is not my fault that I have not done it before, but +I thought it my duty to pursue the plan marked out for me by the +clergy of Connecticut, as long as there was a probable chance of +succeeding." [Footnote: Seabury's letter to Dr. Cooper of August +31, 1784. On the back of this letter there is a note, written +either by Bishop Skinner or, more probably, by his father, the +Rev. John Skinner of Linshart, in these words: "Dr. Berkeley, in +consequence of some fear suggested by Bishop Skinner, wrote the +present Archbishop of Canterbury [Dr. John Moore] that application +had been made by Dr. Seabury to the Scottish bishops for +consecration, and begged that if his Grace thought the bishops +here ran any hazard in complying with Seabury's request, he would +be so good as to give Dr. Berkeley notice immediately; but if his +Grace was satisfied that there was no danger, there was no +occasion to give any answer. _No answer came._" _Scottish +Church Review_, i. 113. In view of all these facts and circumstances, +how utterly preposterous is the gossiping story retailed by Granville +Sharpe!] + +The explanation was satisfactory, and on the 2nd of October, +Bishop Kilgour, the Scottish Primus, wrote: "Dr. Seabury's long +silence, after it had been signified to him that the bishops of +this Church would comply with his proposals, made them all think +that the affair was dropped, and that he did not choose to be +connected with them; but his letter, and the manner in which he +accounts for his conduct, give such satisfaction, that I have the +pleasure to inform you that we are still willing to comply with +his proposal to clothe him with the Episcopal character, and +thereby convey to the Western world the blessing of a free, valid, +and purely ecclesiastical Episcopacy; not doubting that he will so +agree with us in doctrine and discipline, as that he and the +Church under his charge in Connecticut will hold communion with us +and the Church here on catholic and primitive principles; and so +that the members of both may with freedom communicate together in +all the offices of religion." Reasons are also given why the +consecration should take place in Aberdeen. + +To this letter of the Primus, Seabury replied at once, expressing +to the Scottish bishops his thankfulness "for the ready and +willing mind which they manifested in this important affair," and +giving utterance to the prayer--how wonderfully answered!--"May +God accept and reward their piety, and grant that this whole +business may terminate to the glory of His name and the prosperity +of His Church!" + +The way seemed now to be cleared; and the 5th of November found +Seabury in Aberdeen. One might reasonably have supposed that all +difficulties were now surmounted. But it was not so. It is not +necessary to go into details; they would simply set forth a +painful story of human infirmity and self-seeking. It is enough to +say that while Seabury was travelling northward a letter--inspired +at least by a clergyman in America--was sent from London to the +Scottish Primus, containing a personal attack on the bishop-elect, +and warning the Scottish bishops of the unknown evils that would +follow on his consecration. The manly uprightness and good sense +of Bishop Skinner dispersed these unsubstantial mists of +detraction if not of malice, and he thus disposed of the unworthy +attempt to injure Seabury and intimidate his consecrators: "I +cannot help considering the whole of this intelligence as a mean +and silly artifice of some enemy to Dr. Seabury, who secretly +envies us the introducing such a worthy man into America in the +character of a bishop, a character I am fully satisfied he is in +every way qualified to support with honor to himself and all +concerned with him. For if there be truth and candor in man, I +honestly declare I think it is in Dr. Seabury." [Footnote: The +letter to the Primus with the other correspondence is given in the +_Scottish Church Review_, i. 111-118.] + +We have reached, at length, the consummation of this more than +knightly quest, this veritable pilgrimage, the story of which I +have tried to tell. When I began it last year, I asked you to go +with me, in thought, to a secluded inland village in our own +Diocese. Now I must ask you to go with me to a grey old city, the +capital of northern Scotland, which looks out upon the German +ocean. It is a place of old renown, for it had a name before one +civilized man had set foot on this northern continent. Did time +permit, much might be said about it; for it was once the home of +Hector Boethius, praised by the great Erasmus, and in far later +times the home, also, of Forbes of Corse and Henry Scougal; and +its clergy and people in 1639 refused the "solemn League and +Covenant" until it was forced upon them at the point of the sword, +and renounced it when the pressure was withdrawn. It is sometimes +called "the city of Bon-Accord," from the legend of its arms. And +that legend must always for us have a higher than any earthly +application, for it must always speak to us of "the unity of the +Spirit in the bond of peace." Nor ought another thing to be +forgotten to-day. The first place in which a clergyman in English +orders ever officiated in Connecticut--as a clergyman of the +Church of England--was here in New London, destined to be the home +of our first bishop; and that clergyman was the Rev. George Keith, +a native of Aberdeen. [Footnote: He was the guest of the Rev. +Gurdon Saltonstall, minister of the town, who afterwards presided +at the discussion in the Library of Yale College in 1722. The +service in New London was Sept. 13, 1702.] + +Passing into the part of New Aberdeen known as the Long Acre, and +ascending to "a large upper room" in the house occupied by the +Coadjutor-Bishop of the Diocese, we find ourselves in the midst of +a large congregation of the clergy and the faithful and in the +presence of the three officiating prelates. Two [Footnote: Robert +Kilgour, Bishop of Aberdeen, and Arthur Petrie, Bishop of Moray. ] +are men far on in years; one [Footnote: John Skinner, Coadjutor of +Aberdeen.] is in the full maturity of his manhood, and to him is +committed the office of the preacher. As the sermon ends, we hear +the words of the concluding verses of the ninetieth Psalm, in the +version of Tate and Brady--the last two of which, as we read them +with the story of the succeeding century in mind, may also seem a +prophecy: + +"To all Thy servants, Lord, let this Thy wondrous work be known; +And to our offspring yet unborn, Thy glorious power be shewn + +"Let thy bright rays upon us shine, Give Thou our work success; +The glorious work we have in hand, Do Thou vouchsafe to bless," + +The supreme point of the solemn office is reached. A young priest, +who has not yet seen thirty summers, holds the book from which the +aged Primus reads the awful sentence of ordination and the charge +which follows it; that youthful priest is Alexander Jolly, +afterwards the saintly Bishop of Moray. The imposition of +Apostolic hands is given; the work begun here in 1783 is +consummated, and our Diocese rejoices in its first bishop. + +Nor is this all. The golden chain of the succession that starts +from the Master's hand is stretched westward across an ocean. The + +"Church of Jesus Christ, The blessed Banyan of our God," + +sends out a branch to root itself in our western world; a branch +which our eyes have seen "rise, and spread, and droop, and root +again," until in its self-repeating life it has crossed this +continent, and is firmly rooted on our, then unknown, Pacific +coast. + +"Long as the world itself shall last, The sacred Banyan still +shall spread; From clime to clime, from age to age, Its sheltering +shadow shall be shed; Nations shall seek its pillared shade, Its +leaves shall for their healing be; The circling flood that feeds +its life, The blood that crimsoned Calvary."' [Footnote: Bishop +Doane of New Jersey; _Ficus Religiosa_.] + +And here I pause to-day. Another year, please God, we must bring +to remembrance what followed the consecration in Scotland, the +newly-consecrated bishop's return to America, and the share that +he and his Diocese had in organizing this Church in the United +States. + +Here and now it is enough to have told the story--not as it should +be told, but as I have had power to tell it--of his consecration. +Standing above the honored sepulchre [Footnote: Bishop Seabury's +remains rest under the chancel of St. James's Church, New London. +] that holds the mouldered remains of him who a hundred years ago +knelt down in that distant land to receive the warrant of his high +commission in the Church of God; in this fair temple, which +replaces the far humbler one in which he ministered as a parish +priest; beside that monument, which attests the loving gratitude +of a Diocese that will never let his memory be forgotten; two +thoughts--bringing with them a thankfulness too deep for +utterance--fill mind and heart alike: the first, the thought of +that brave, patient, self-sacrificing soldier of the Cross, who +dared all and gave all, that he might win for us the precious gift +that binds us to the historic Church and through it to the great +day of Pentecost and the mount of the Ascension; the second, of +those venerable fathers who, to communicate this gift, rose above +all personal considerations, and put aside possibilities that +might have daunted many a brave soul, because on their hearts was +written--as with a pen of iron on living rock--that charge to all +Christ's ministers which comprehends and covers all duties and +responsibilities: "It is required in stewards that a man be found +faithful." + +THE Centenary of the Consecration of Bishop Seabury was +commemorated in Aberdeen by services on the seventh and eighth +days of October, 1884, at which the Bishop of Connecticut and a +delegation of the clergy attended. In the appendix will be found +an account of these services, including Bishop Williams's sermon, +Dr. Beardsley's historical paper, and other addresses. + +The anniversary was observed by the Diocese of Connecticut on the +fourteenth day of November, 1884, at Christ Church, Hartford. The +Church was decorated with flowers and ferns; Bishop Seabury's +mitre was placed on the right of the Chancel, and a _facsimile_ +of the Concordate which he made with his consecrators was +hung opposite. At 11 o'clock a long procession of the clergy +entered the Church, followed by Bishop Paddock of Massachusetts +and Bishop Williams, before whom the Rev. W. F. Nichols +carried the pastoral staff presented to him at Aberdeen; +the processional hymn was "The Church's One Foundation." Bishop +Williams began the Communion-office, using as a Collect that for +St. Simon and St. Jude's Day. The Epistle (that for St. Mark's +Day) was read by the Rev. W. B. Buckingham, successor of Bishop +Seabury as Rector of St. James's Church, New London (wearing a +surplice which once belonged to Bishop Seabury); and the Gospel +(that for St. James's Day) was read by the Rev. J. J. McCook, +Rector of St. John's Church, East Hartford. After the Nicene +Creed, the latter part of the old metrical version of the +ninetieth psalm was sung, as it had been sung at Aberdeen a +hundred years before:-- + +To satisfy and cheer our souls, Thy early mercy send; That we may +in all our days to come In joy and comfort spend. + +To all Thy servants, Lord, let this Thy wondrous work be known; +And to our offspring yet unborn, Thy glorious power be shown. + +Let Thy bright rays upon us shine, Give Thou our work success; The +glorious work we have in hand Do Thou vouchsafe to bless. + + + + +DR. TATLOCK'S ADDRESS. + + +After the hymn, the Rev. William Tatlock, D.D., Rector of St. +John's Church, Stamford, a member of the Standing Committee of the +Diocese, and during Dr. Beardsley's absence its President, +addressed the Bishop as follows: + +_Dear Bishop_: + +The clergy of your diocese, assembled to welcome you on your +return from Scotland, can find no better words in which to do it +than some which were used on the similar occasion one hundred +years ago. "We embrace with pleasure this early opportunity of +congratulating you on your safe return to your native country, and +on the accomplishment of that enterprise in which, at our desire, +you engaged. Devoutly do we adore and reverently thank the great +Head of the Church that He has been pleased to preserve you." The +voyage to-day is neither "long" nor "dangerous," but we have +followed you with our prayers, and have rendered our thanksgivings +that He has conducted you in safety to the haven where you would +be. We are glad to know that the voyage was more prosperous than a +century ago it was wont to be, and that you and the four honored +brethren who accompanied you have not experienced the old +proportion of fatalities. We greet them and welcome them with you. +We appreciate most warmly the courtesy with which you were +received--how could it have been otherwise, indeed?--and the +greeting you have had from those who in this generation bear the +historic names of Nelson and Douglas and Gordon; and that +Wordsworth and Harold Browne have met with the master in theology +at whose feet so many of the American clergy have sat. The desire +has at last been gratified, which of late years has been so +generally-felt, that the mother churches of Scotland and England +might have opportunity to receive and welcome _you_ as the +representative, duly accredited by her bishops, of the Church in +America; that one who does not seek occasions, but whom occasions +seek, should speak for her on this worthy occasion in commemoration +of the great founder of her Episcopate. We believe that this +interchange of courtesies and sympathies, especially between +the Churches in Scotland and Connecticut, will gladden and +strengthen both in their common work for the Master through the +century to come. + +If a regret may properly be expressed on this occasion of +rejoicing, it is that the Primus of Scotland and the Primate of +all England were hindered from personal participation in an +occasion which had their warmest sympathies, Seabury's consecration +will always be the poetic incident in American Church history, +and it would have been a sweet revenge of time to have had +them united in the ratification of an act of piety and charity +which the predecessor of the one did not dare, and of the other +dared to do. Of that act and its momentous issues so much has been +and will be said, and more fittingly, both here and elsewhere to- +day, that it is enough if the churchmen of Connecticut be +permitted now to say through me, that it is a privilege for which +they are deeply grateful to have been instrumental in bringing +about the very first movement of the Church in Britain from an +insular to a Catholic position; in demonstrating--to quote the +words of Lord Nelson uttered in your hearing at Aberdeen--"that +establishment and endowment are not necessary to Church life." For +it is to be remembered that not only was there not an Anglican +bishop exercising acknowledged jurisdiction in America before +Seabury, but there was not an Anglican bishop anywhere outside of +the British Isles. Our fathers, sending Seabury for consecration, +awakened the English Church to the consciousness that it had a +duty to the world in extending its episcopacy beyond the shadow of +its cathedrals and palaces. For this great result, "so far beyond +what they had hoped for," of their wise and holy enterprise, we +humbly adore the great Head of the Church on this hundreth +anniversary of its inception in the consecration of the first +bishop of Connecticut. + +For thirty-three years, dear Bishop, chief pastor of the first +American diocese, you have carried on wisely and well the work +which Seabury began, going in and out among us with the pastoral +spirit in your heart, of which the graceful gift of the Scottish +Church to you is the expressive symbol: "To the flock of Christ a +shepherd." We welcome you once more to your home and to ours; to +the diocese you love and serve; to the parishes which love and +reverence you; and to the institutions you have founded and +fostered. You have been absent from us long enough for our comfort +and, as we gladly believe, for yours. Fourscore and four years of +the eighteenth century Connecticut endured to have its bishop on +the other side of the Atlantic. Three months is enough in the +nineteenth. May the twentieth find you here, with pastoral staff +in hand, and loyal hearts and sustaining hands of clergy and laity +all around you, and half a century of episcopal work behind you--a +golden track of useful and honored years; and before you the large +reward--"not of debt but of grace"--for the due use of the many +talents and the fulfilment of the large responsibilities entrusted +to the fourth bishop of Connecticut. + +And with this welcome to you and your companions--our +representatives--we would renew the expression of the pious hope +with which a hundred years ago the clergy of Connecticut concluded +their address of welcome to their first bishop: "Wherever the +American Episcopal Church shall be mentioned in the world, may +this good deed, which the Scottish Church has done for us, be +spoken of for a memorial of her!" + + + + +THE BISHOP'S REPLY. + + +Bishop Williams replied: + +I cannot express to you, my dear brother and my dear brethren, the +thankfulness--and I think I may speak for my brethren of the +delegation to Scotland--with which your kind words fill my heart. +I can truly say that I saw no brighter day than that on which I +returned to my own diocese, my clergy, and my people. And I say +this with a full recognition of the great joy and gladness of +those days in Aberdeen, the memory of which must abide while life +shall last. + +The memories of the past, the blessings of the present, the hopes +of the future, all centred there, roused all souls, sank into all +hearts. It was a great sight to behold the Churches in Scotland, +England, Ireland, and America, together with those of the +dependencies of Great Britain, and from the islands of the sea, +lands that no one knew of a hundred years ago. It told its own +story, made its own impression of unity and brotherly love, "the +unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." + +No description can tell you sufficiently of the warmth of our +welcome and the abounding hospitality which met us. You must have +heard the kindly word, and looked into the beaming eye, and felt +the hearty hand-grasp, to make those things real. And far down +underneath all, giving life to all, was the deep sense of that +communion in which by the fourfold Apostolic bond we were bound +together in Christ Jesus. + +I have asked the brethren whom you so kindly sent with me to say +something to you, one of the past as contrasted with the present, +another of the first day, and another still of the second day of +the commemoration at Aberdeen. + + + + +DR. BEARDSLEY'S ADDRESS. + + +The Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., rector of St. Thomas's +Church, New Haven, historian of the diocese and biographer of +Bishop Seabury, then made the following address: + +So much has been written and spoken about the consecration of +Bishop Seabury, that it must be well understood by all intelligent +Connecticut churchmen, if not by all American churchmen. It is +quite unnecessary to take you over the familiar ground; but I have +been sometimes asked; "What was the Scottish Episcopal Church, +that her bishops a century ago should venture an act which the +bishops of the Church of England declined to undertake?" The +question involves an answer which goes back a century farther, +even to the time when Episcopacy was established in Scotland as a +state religion under the reign of the Stuart kings. The revolution +of 1688 caused the fall of James II., king of Great Britain and +second son of Charles I., and with him fell the Episcopal Church +in Scotland, as an establishment William, the Prince of Orange, +had married his daughter Mary, and fitting out an expedition when +the people were ripe for a change, he invaded England, and seizing +the throne, was crowned with his wife to the sovereignty of the +realm. The Church of England took a prominent part in forwarding +this revolution, which was a religious one in its origin, and in +transferring the crown, on the abdication of James II., to the +heads of William and Mary. The Anglo-Saxon mind combines with love +of liberty a veneration for national institutions and traditions. +It resisted in this instance the determination of the king to +render himself absolute and restore the Roman Catholic religion in +England. Hence the English Church as a whole felt herself bound to +cast off allegiance to him, for, in addition to the various +oppressions which he had heaped upon her, he had sought in the +character of supreme governor to force upon her the adoption of +doctrines and ceremonies contrary to those which she was under the +most sacred obligations to hold and defend. + +But it was not so with the Scottish Church. James had never +tyrannized over her or harassed her with oppressions, and +therefore she continued to assert her allegiance to him, and, of +course, to recognize the claims of his descendants. The Scottish +bishops were in the English line of succession from leel-with +orders as valid as those of the Archbishop of Canterbury--but, +because they cast in their lot with the house of Stuart and +refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new sovereign or to +pray for him in their liturgy, they and their flocks were put +under disabilities and subjected to the severest penalties, +without producing the effect, however, of changing in the +slightest degree their religious or political sentiments. Three +times within the next half century a part of the Scottish people +rose in arms against the king of England in favor of the exiled +Stuart family, the last formidable rising being in 1745, under +Charles Edward, the Pretender, who was disastrously defeated at +the battle of Culloden; and then the worst horrors of civil war +followed; parsonages and places of worship were destroyed, more +stringent laws were enacted against the sympathizers with the +Stuart dynasty, and the Episcopal clergy were forbidden to +officiate except in private houses, and then only for four persons +besides those of the household, or if in an uninhabited building +for a number not exceeding four. For a first offense they were +subject to imprisonment for six months, and for a second to +transportation for life to the American plantations. Laymen +attending a prohibited meeting were liable to a fine of five +pounds for the first offense and an imprisonment of two years for +the second. + +This was the state of things when Seabury (afterwards bishop) +embarked in mid-summer, 1752, for Scotland to attend a course of +medical lectures at the University of Edinburgh, and upon its +completion to proceed to London and receive Holy Orders in the +Church of England. On the morning of the Sunday after his arrival +in Edinburgh, he inquired of his host where he might find an +Episcopal service, and was answered: "I will show you; take your +hat and follow me; but keep barely in my sight, for we are closely +watched and with jealousy by the Presbyterians." He followed him +through narrow, dirty lanes and unfrequented streets, and finally +disappeared in an old building several stories high, and ascended +to an upper room where a little band of faithful churchmen had +gathered to worship God in the forms of the liturgy and according +to the dictates of their conscience. That building stood until a +few years ago. A friend in Edinburgh gave me a photograph of it, +which is valuable as showing the uninviting quarters to which the +poor Episcopalians were driven in those days to find freedom in +their religious services. The upper room where they met was +acquired by purchase in 1741, and the tradition is that the person +who sold it, being an invalid churchman, reserved to himself the +right to occupy an apartment on the same floor with a window +opening into it that he might hear and share in the service. A new +church, retaining the old name, St. Paul's, Carubber's Close, has +been built on the ancient site with space for future enlargement, +and it was my privilege to preach in this church last September, +and a very attentive congregation helped to brighten for both +myself and Professor Hart, who accompanied me, the interesting +historic associations. + +Well, two and thirty years pass away and the same Seabury who +joined in the worship offered there under such discouraging +circumstances has crossed the Tweed and appears in an upper-room +in Long-Acre, Aberdeen, to receive a spiritual gift which for +reasons of state had been refused him by the bishops of the Church +of England. + +The old Scottish Church, sometimes called the catholic remainder +of the ancient Church of Scotland, differed in no essential +particular from the Church of England except that she did not lean +upon apolitical Episcopacy--an Episcopacy directed and controlled +by parliamentary legislation. She was now in the lowest depths of +depression and adversity. Her bishops had become reduced to four +and her clergy to forty, and these ministered, it is true without +molestation for the most part, to the little remnants of faithful +churchmen scattered through the cities and villages of the land. +Probably the feeling among outsiders was that the Scottish +Episcopal Church would never again have much influence or attract +many adherents. Three of the four bishops, however, when duly +applied to, took the matter of raising Dr. Seabury to the +apostolic office into immediate and solemn consideration and +consecrated him without delay. One of them said: "I do not see how +we can account to our great Lord and Master, if we neglect such an +opportunity of promoting His truth and enlarging the borders of +His Church." + +And for whom did they consecrate this bishop, but for Connecticut, +whose clergy with far-seeing wisdom had taken the earliest steps +after the independence of the colonies to secure the Episcopacy-- +a boon which, though greatly desired and needed in this country, +had long been sought for to no purpose? The Church in Connecticut, +and indeed in all the American colonies, was at this time in a +critical, headless condition--living, yet on the verge of death, +and something must be done to save and restore what was so broken +and disordered. I suppose there could not have been more than two +hundred Episcopal clergymen, if there were as many, in all the +colonies at that date, and fourteen of them were in Connecticut +ministering to weak and diminished flocks that had more to hope +and pray for than in human probability they were likely to +realize. + +How much did that simple consecration service in the upper-room in +Long-Acre, Aberdeen, open up for Churches of the one faith! If the +act was not sublime in itself, it was the beginning of a sublime +history, and the English Church thereupon awoke to a sense of her +duty to the child she had long nursed in the colonies and now left +friendless and forlorn, as well as to a more decent recognition of +the poor, down-trodden Scottish communion. The offensive laws +which had been for some time comparatively inoperative were soon +repealed or modified by act of Parliament; and the laity, more +than the clergy, felt the advantage of the relief gained, which +was fully secured to them by legislative enactments half a century +later. The House of Hanover was entirely accepted and prayed for +in the Scottish as in the English liturgy. Then the Episcopal +Church in Scotland began to rise from the dust, and to-day she has +seven bishops and two hundred and seventy clergymen, with a +zealous and hearty laity who are not content to possess spiritual +privileges without making them practically useful. We were all +struck with the reverence among the Scottish people for the fourth +commandment, and with the spectacle of goodly numbers of every +religious denomination going to the house of God in company. I am +sure they quite surpass the Americans in the regularity of their +attendance upon public worship, and a Scotch mist, which +oftentimes is about equal to a New England rain, seems not to be +considered a sufficient excuse for staying at home when the Lord +invites us into His sanctuaries. The external improvement, or +rather advancement, of the Scottish Church is seen in various +things. Her decayed and barn-like churches have been succeeded by +substantial and appropriate, and in many cases beautiful edifices, +and altogether she is now in a better condition, with brighter +prospects, than at any period in her previous history. + +But leaving Scotland, how does the contrast stand with the +American Church as placed along with her condition one hundred +years ago? Connecticut has her one bishop, but her fourteen clergy +have increased to nearly two hundred, and her parishes have +fourfolded in numbers, and more than fourfolded in strength, +activity, and generosity. When Leaming preached the sermon before +the convention of the clergy in Middletown at the welcome given to +Seabury on his return from Scotland, the Church was so insignificant +in the State that no notice was taken of the occasion in +the contemporary prints, and she was so poor that it was +a problem how the parishes could decently support their +rectors, now that the stipends of the Society for the Propagation +of the Gospel had been withdrawn. Seabury himself, writing to a +Scottish bishop three years later, said: "We have now sixteen +presbyters in this diocese and four deacons who will soon be in +priests' orders. Four more--i. e., twenty-four in the whole--will +be as many as the present ability of the Church can support. It +does, however, grow, and converts from Presbyterianism are not +unfrequent." The growth has been so great that at our last annual +convention in this diocese the reported contributions, including +parochial expenses and salaries, amounted to upwards of $620,000, +and if there had been no omissions to make returns the aggregate +would have--been considerably larger. If we give a moment's +attention to the whole Church in the country, we find that we have +sixty-six living bishops, the list from Seabury down numbering one +hundred and thirty-four; and the clergy in all the dioceses and +missionary jurisdictions must be well nigh on to four thousand. + +It is in no spirit of boasting that we make this comparison. "Not +unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the praise, +for Thy loving mercy and for Thy truth's sake." Yet it is becoming +on this one-hundredth anniversary of the consecration of the first +bishop of Connecticut to remember that results under God have +flowed from it so vast in extent that no human eye could have +forseen them at the time; no human heart could have believed that +the Episcopal Church in America, cemented in one body and carrying +with united zeal her doctrines and ritual into every part of our +great republic, would so soon verify in a broader sense than he +used them the words of the ancient seer: "How goodly are thy +tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are +they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of +lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted." It is becoming also on +this anniversary to remember with profound gratitude that we live +in an age when happily persecution for the sake of religion has +passed away, and when the ever old but ever new commandment of +peace and love rises above sectarian strife and projects its +influence into whole communities of earnest and believing souls. +The responsibilities entailed upon us by our position and our +prosperity are to be read in the light of history, and fulfilled +in the fear of God and in the faith of "the Church which is the +pillar and ground of the truth." + + + + +REV. MR. NICHOLS'S ADDRESS. + + +The Rev. W. F. Nichols, Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, and +chaplain to Bishop Williams in his recent visit abroad, spoke of +the first day of the commemoration at Aberdeen: + +He said it would be useless to deny that there was an individual +pleasure in having this welcome to round out the happiness of +getting back to one's home and one's work, as there was an +individual pleasure at the honor the diocese had put upon those +whom it had sent with the bishop to Aberdeen, and an individual +appreciation of the prayers that had been offered on both sides of +the Atlantic, in private as well as in public, for preservation on +the journeyings by water and by land--an individual appreciation, +too, of what it was to have around the family altars and the +church altars in Scotland as well as in our own country, voices +joining with those on shipboard in the lines: + +"O hear us when we cry to Thee For those in peril on the sea"; + +and so he ventured personally to thank him who had so kindly +spoken the words of welcome and through him the diocese. + +But he did not forget that this was not a welcome to which he +should reply as an individual, but one extended to an embassy +returning from a sacred mission. An embassy responding to its +welcome would naturally refer to two things: the one, the +immediate facts and occurrences of its visit; and the other, the +bearings of the visit upon the relations between the two countries +concerned, Others would do this fully on more general lines; it +had been assigned him to speak more especially of one of the days +of the celebration at Aberdeen, and that was Tuesday, October 7th. +Taking up the first of the two things which an embassy would +naturally report upon, he spoke of the events of the day--the Holy +Communion in the six churches of Aberdeen and in private chapels +at 8 o'clock; the principal service at St. Andrew's Church at 10 +1/2 o'clock, with the sermon by our own Bishop from Isaiah lx. 5; +the two hundred clergy (including eighteen bishops from Scotland, +America, England, Ireland, and the colonies), the large +congregation, the use of the Scotch Office for the Holy Communion, +both at the early and the later services; and also, briefly, of +St. Andrew's Church and its decorations. In speaking of the +photograph of the clergy who were present, which was taken at the +close of the service, he pointed out two curious facts about the +groups: without any prearrangement, part of an American flag had +been taken on the plate; and then the only clerical descendant of +Bishop Skinner present--the Rev. J. Skinner Wilson--stood by the +side of the only clerical descendant present of Bishop Seabury-- +the Rev. Dr. W. J. Seabury of New York city. + +He gave some description of the banquet held at Music Hall in the +afternoon, and of the speeches of those who proposed and those who +responded to the toasts, especially the toast to "The Church in +America," proposed by Dr. Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, and +responded to by our own Bishop. He referred to some letters which +those who had read the Aberdeen papers sent home had seen, in +which there was discussion of the phrasing of the toast "The +Church _in_ Scotland." He said it did not become him to +comment on the discussion at such a time, only if they should +think of making any change in the phrasing at the next centenary +it occurred to him that "Scotland in the Church" might be tried. + +After speaking of another morning commemorative service, at which +Canon Body of Durham preached an able and appropriate sermon, and +giving passing reference to an enthusiastic meeting of the Scotch +"Free and Open Church Association" held in the evening as an +accompaniment to, rather than as a part of, the day's commemoration, +he passed on to speak of the second thing upon which an embassy +would naturally report, and that was the bearings of the day's +events upon the relations between the two Churches. In this +connection he spoke of the sermon and the use of the Scotch +Communion-office of the morning and the hospitality of the +afternoon, which, like the hospitality of the whole stay in +Aberdeen, showed that while the latitude of the place was that of +the far north--it was opposite the northern part of Labrador--the +latitude of the atmosphere and hearts within was most truly that +of the warm and sunny south. In conclusion, he spoke of the +unifying impetus given, both social and spiritual, and expressed +his belief that while the embassy thanked the diocese for the +welcome, all could before God's altar and in that highest +sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving with which they were keeping +the anniversary of the consecration of the first bishop of our +diocese and the American Church, thank Him Who has purchased to +Himself an universal Church by the precious Blood of His dear Son, +that as He was with the ministers of apostolical succession in +their highest office to make the great venture of faith one +hundred years ago, so He has ever been with their successors. Let +all realize how much of that purchase of the Son of God has +already been rendered up to Him since 1784, and how in 1884 we are +empowered by the Holy Spirit to extend the Church of Christ more +and more, not in Scotland only, not in America only, but in the +whole world! + + + + +REV. MR. HART'S ADDRESS. + + +The Rev. Professor Hart of Trinity College then gave an account of +the second day of the commemoration at Aberdeen: + +I am to try to give in a few words an account of the many events +of the second day of the commemoration at Aberdeen; they shall be +as far as possible the very words which were used in the addresses +which were read and delivered there. The Holy Communion was +celebrated at an early hour in all the churches of the city; and +the special service of the day was held in St. Andrew's Church. +Before the service began, the Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, +on behalf of a considerable number of the clergy and laity of +Connecticut, presented to the Bishop of Aberdeen, as representing +the Scotch Church, a handsome silver paten and chalice, to be used +by himself and his successors. The written address which he read, +prefacing it with a few words, recognized the two-fold gift of a +century ago--an Episcopate which, in words so often used at the +time, was "free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical," and a +Eucharistic Office embodying catholic and primitive principles. +The Bishop of Aberdeen accepted the gift as a witness of faith in +God's promises, of the love of the brethren, and of unity of +worship, as well in the past and the future as in the present. He +then proceeded to celebrate the Holy Communion according to the +English rite, which the Scotch canons now require to be used at +all synods and ordinations, two other Scotch bishops assisting +him, and the vessels just presented being employed both in the +consecration and in the administration. + +At the close of the service the six Scotch bishops present--the +venerable Primus being still confined to his house by illness--met +in Synod, when, after prayer and proclamation, the record of the +acts of the Synod of a hundred years ago and the copy of the +Concordate which was left in Scotland were laid upon the table. +Our bishop then, in accordance with an appointment given him by +the House of Bishops of our Church, presented and read an address +prepared, on behalf of that house, by the Presiding Bishop and the +Bishops of New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and +Minnesota. In it, after expressing their affectionate regards +towards the Scotch bishops for the heroic act of their predecessors, +they called attention to the fact that the name of Bishop +Seabury now stands at the head of a list of over a hundred +and thirty bishops; and that, though our Church is grateful for +the direct connection of her Episcopate with that of the Church of +England, she is glad to remember that, through Bishop Seabury, the +Scotch succession has been transmitted to every bishop consecrated +in this land and will be so transmitted to the end of time. They +also expressed our Church's gratitude for the shaping of her +office of the Holy Communion in such a way as to make it in +harmony with the primitive liturgies. And so, offering warm thanks +for offices rendered, for sympathy expressed, and for examples +set, they gratefully acknowledged the close spiritual and +ecclesiastical relationship which binds the two Churches together. +The Bishop of St. Andrews--Dr. Charles Wordsworth--read the +reply, which was understood to have been framed by the venerable +Primus. It alluded to the former sufferings of the Scotch Church, +and to the fact that those who consecrated Bishop Seabury rendered +themselves liable by that act to felon banishment, but that they +did not count their liberty dear to themselves so that they might +do something for the sake of Christ. It bore witness to the +catholic spirit shown by Dr. Seabury and those whom he represented, +when they confessed that by no temporal misfortunes could +the grace of Orders be affected, thus showing that the low +estate of the Scotch bishops was to them no offense, their poverty +no stumbling-block. Then, recalling God's favor as shown to both +Churches, the reply used those words which God's people have never +forgotten to use in their joy and their prosperity--and in reading +them the voice of the venerable Bishop quivered with emotion-- +"_Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tuo da gloriam_." + +The Rector of St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, attended by the +other clergy of the delegation, then read an address prepared on +behalf of the Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the Diocese of +Connecticut in Convention assembled, by a committee of which the +Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven, was chairman. It bore witness +to the fidelity and bravery of the Scotch bishops of a century ago +in equipping the Church in our diocese for the work it has since +done and the witness it has borne; and, repeating the words of the +reply which the Connecticut clergy returned to the letter which +Bishop Seabury brought from his consecrators, acknowledged our +indebtedness to them and our gratitude to God, and promised that +we would act with our bishop in maintaining unity of faith, +doctrine, discipline, and worship with the Church from which we +received our Episcopate. Referring to the depressed state of both +Churches a hundred years ago and to their better condition now, we +assured them that we still cling to the ancient faith and order, +and that we shall never forget our debt of gratitude or fail to +recognize and cherish the bond of Christian fellowship sealed in +the Concordate even as our fathers have done. The Bishop of St. +Andrews read a reply from the Scotch bishops to this address. It +spoke of their special pleasure in having Bishop Seabury's +successor present at that time, attended by some of the faithful +of his diocese. It adopted the words of the saintly Bishop Jolly +in saying that Connecticut is to them all a word of peculiar +endearment, as the name of its first bishop ever excites their +warmest veneration. And, in the language of one of the psalms for +this fourteenth day of the month, it thanked God for bringing the +Scotch Church to comparative honor and comforting it on every +side. + +The Bishop of Aberdeen then, in behalf of a large number of +contributors, presented to our Bishop the pastoral staff which was +borne before him in the procession this morning, calling his +attention to the figures upon it, of St. Andrew, the patron-saint +of Scotland, St. Ninian, one of the early Celtic evangelists, St. +Augustine of Canterbury, as representing the English succession, +St. John, to whom the Scotch Communion office (and with it our +own) is traced, Bishop Kilgour, the senior consecrator of Bishop +Seabury, and Bishop Seabury himself. Our own Bishop replied in +words which I will not undertake to report in his presence. + +In the afternoon two papers were read: one by the Rev. Dr. +Beardsley on "Seabury as a Bishop," giving a sketch of his life +and work, testifying to his fidelity to convictions and his +successful efforts to promote peace, by which he brought about the +unity of the Church in this land; and one by Professor Grub of the +University of Aberdeen, tracing the historic connection between +the Scotch and the American Churches. The discussion which +followed was remarkable for the representative character of those +who took part in it--our own Bishop, the Bishop of Gibraltar, +Canon Trevor of York, Canon White of New South Wales, and Dr. +Aberigh-Mackay of Paris (once of Connecticut). + +I can do no more than allude to the crowded meeting at the Music +Hall in the evening, which was addressed in noble speeches by the +Bishop of Minnesota, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rev. Mr. Danson +of Aberdeen, Mr. Speir--a prominent Scotch layman,--and the Bishop +of Albany. There was a wonderful unity of sentiment in what was +said, and nothing was more noticeable than the way in which the +speakers all referred to the impulse given to Church work by the +event which we were commemorating. There was a marvellous +inspiration in the volume of voice in which the great assembly +recited the Nicene Creed; and the dignified and scholarly language +of one of the foremost of English prelates, the earnest and +practical words of the Scotch clergyman and layman, the touching +eloquence of our great missionary bishop, and the impassioned and +bold utterances of the other bishop, who is honored abroad for his +father's sake as well as for his own, all sustained and heightened +the enthusiasm which had been kindled by the services of these +days and the memories and hopes which they had awakened. + + + + +BISHOP WILLIAMS'S ADDRESS. + + +At the close of these addresses Bishop Williams said: + +You have now heard, my dear brethren, the report of the pilgrims +whom you sent on a pilgrimage of love to that old city where our +succession begins. Visible memorials of all that came together in +Aberdeen in the first week of last month are before you or in your +thoughts. There is the Mitre which tells you of the transmitted +Episcopate; there hangs the Concordate which speaks to you of our +Communion-office. Across the water they have received the holy +Sacrament of the Body and the Blood from the Chalice and Paten +which you sent, and standing here you see this Pastoral Staff-- +gifts the interchange of which attests that the pledges and the +gifts of that elder day are not forgotten, but live and will live +while time shall last. The dear old Church of Scotland! How it has +lived through trials deep and wearing and in the face of "dungeon, +fire, and sword!" + +They have kept this day which we are keeping now and here, in +Aberdeen; they have kept it in London, in St. Paul's Cathedral, +where the Primate of all England was the preacher. So has the +triple, bond been--I will not say knit again, but--recognized +anew. So be it forever! I will only add what I said in Aberdeen to +the blessed Church of Scotland, having now in mind all the +national Churches of the English succession, as they are all one +in Christ: "Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within +thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will wish +thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I +will seek to do thee good." + +The Bishop then proceeded with the Communion-service, announcing +that the offerings would be for the benefit of St. Thomas's +Church, Hartford, a memorial to Bishop Brownell, of whom he said +that the longer he lived the more he was impressed with the value +to the diocese of the long and faithful episcopate of his revered +predecessor. Bishop Williams was assisted in the service by the +Bishop of Massachusetts. In consecrating the elements a paten and +chalice were used which once belonged to Bishop Seabury and are +now the property of the Berkeley Divinity School; and for the +administration of the elements two patens were used which were +left by Bishop Seabury to St. James's Church, New London. The Rev. +Dr. Giesy of Norwich, and the Rev. Messrs. McCook, Buckingham, and +Nichols assisted in the administration, a large number of clergy +and laity receiving the Holy Sacrament. Bishop Williams gave the +benediction, holding his pastoral staff. At the close of the +service the clergy left the church, singing the old version of the +first part of the ninetieth psalm, beginning "O God, our help in +ages past." + +After the service the clergy were entertained by the Churchwomen +of Hartford in the parish-rooms of Christ Church. + +The following is a nearly complete list of the clergymen who were +present: + +From Connecticut: The Rt. Rev. the Bishop; The Rev. Messrs. C. G. +Adams, Southport; H. A. Adams, Wethersfield; W. G. Andrews, +Guilford; E. W. Babcock, New Haven; J. H. Barbour, Hartford; E. E. +Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., New Haven; A. E. Beeman, Unionville; J. H. +Betts, South Glastonbury; Prof. John Binney, Middletown; L. P. +Bissell, Litchfield; C. W. Boylston, Greeneville; J. W. Bradin, +Hartford; F. W. Brathwaite, Stamford; George Buck, North Haven; W. +B. Buckingham, New London; W. H. Bulkley, Tashua; C. C. Camp, New +Haven; H. S. Clapp, Norwalk; C. W. Colton, Pine Meadow; Prof. H. +Ferguson, Hartford; J. H. Fitzgerald, Milford; T. B. Fogg, +Brooklyn; Louis French, Darien; E. C. Gardiner, Naugatuck; Prof. +F. Gardiner, D.D., Middletown; J. F. George, Thompsonville; J. H. +George, Salisbury; Samuel Giesy, D.D., Norwich; Alfred Goldsborough, +Yantic; J. B. Goodrich, Windsor; Francis Goodwin, Hartford; +Prof. Samuel Hart, Hartford; J. E. Heald, Tariffville; S. J. +Horton, D.D., Cheshire; J. T. Huntington, Hartford; J. W. +Hyde, West Hartford; Prof. W. A. Johnson, Middletown; W. E. +Johnson, Bristol; J. R. Lambert, Glastonbury; W. H. Larom, +Stafford Springs; E. S. Lines, New Haven; T. D. Martin, Meriden; +J. J. McCook, Hartford; W. H. Moreland, Hartford; W. F. Nichols, +Hartford; J. L. Parks, Middletown; W. L. Peck, Windsor Locks; C. +I. Potter, Stratford; A. T. Randall, Meriden; J. B. Robinson, +Hazardville; J. H. Rogers, New Britain; J. L. Scott, Wallingford; +S. O. Seymour, Hartford; Prest. G. W. Smith, D.D., Hartford; James +Stoddard, Watertown; Jacob Streibert, West Haven; Henry Tarrant, +Huntington; William Tatlock, D.D., Stamford; J. A. Ticknor, +Collinsville; T. O. Tongue, Bloomfield; John Townsend, Middletown; +R. H. Tuttle, Windsor; W. E. Vibbert, D.D., Fair Haven; Millidge +Walker, East Bridgeport; J. H. Watson, Hartford; P. H. Whaley, +Hartford; Elisha Whittlesey, Hartford; J. E. Wildman, Wallingford; +C. E. Woodcock, New Haven. + +From other dioceses: The Rt. Rev. Bishop Niles, New Hampshire; the +Rt. Rev. Bishop Paddock, Massachusetts; the Rev. Messrs. G. F. +Flichtner, Thomas Gallaudet, D.D., Joshua Kimber, G. S. Mallory, +D.D., New York City; W. M. Chapin, Barrington, R. I.; F. B. +Chetwood, Elizabeth, N. J.; G. B. Cooke, Petersburg, Va.; E. M. +Gushee, Cambridge, Mass.; W. A, Holbrooke, L. I.; R. M. Kirby, +Potsdam, N. Y. + + + + +EXHIBITION OF SEABURY RELICS, ETC. + + +In one of the parish rooms of Christ Church was a large exhibit of +articles of interest in connection with the centenary commemoration +of the consecration of Bishop Seabury. They were contributed +partly from the archives of the diocese and the library of +Trinity College, and partly from the private collections +of Bishop Williams, the Rev. Dr. Beardsley, the Rev. Professor +Hart, C. J. Hoadly, Esq., Jared Starr, Esq., Mrs. Dr. Starr, +and others. Among those of especial interest were Bishop +Seabury's mitre, of black satin with purple strings, having the +Cross in a glory on the front, and the crown of thorns on the +back, embroidered in gold; the original of the letter on vellum +from the Scotch bishops who consecrated Bishop Seabury to the +clergy of Connecticut, testifying to the fact of the consecration +and commending him to them; fac-similes of his Letters of Orders +and of Consecration and of the Concordate between him and his +consecrators; portraits of Bishop John Skinner, of Bishop Jolly +who held the book, of Bishop Seabury himself, and of one of his +electors, Dr. Mansfield; the manuscript records of ordinations by +Bishops Seabury and Jarvis; the manuscript records of the +convocation of the clergy of Connecticut, open at the vote +accepting the Prayer-Book of 1789; a manuscript fac-simile of a +volume of Bishop Seabury's journal; the sermon preached by Bishop +Skinner at the consecration; a large collection of Bishop +Seabury's works, including one of his loyalist pamphlets which he +wrote at the breaking out of the Revolution under the name of "A. +W. Farmer," his charges, occasional sermons, volumes of +discourses, etc.; one of his manuscript sermons and two or three +letters, copies of his Communion-office, and a copy (in his own +writing) of his Service for the Burial of Infants; a copy of his +edition of the Psalter, etc.; his surplice and two patens left by +him to St. James's Church, New London; his official seal, still +used by his successor; volumes of _The Courant_ and of _The +Gentleman's Magazine_ with notices of Bishop Seabury; sermons +relating to later bishops of Connecticut; the Scotch Prayer-Book +of 1637 (known as Laud's) and its reprint of 1712; Scotch +Communion-offices of 1717, 1774, and later dates; the proposed +American Prayer-Book of 1785 (both American and English editions), +and the first edition of the adopted Prayer-Book of 1789; a Hebrew +Psalter used by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson in conferring degrees +at King's College, New York; a bit of the robe in which Bishop +White was consecrated; a manuscript letter of Bishop Jolly's; two +programmes of Yale College Commencements, in one of which (before +1784) the ministers of the Congregational churches are called +_pastores_, while in the other (of 1785) they are called +_episcopi_; photographs of the clergy present at the late +commemoration in Aberdeen, and programmes, etc., relating to it; +pictures of old churches in Edinburgh and Aberdeen; and other +matters of interest. Bishop Williams's pastoral staff was also +exhibited. The exhibit was under the care of the Registrar of the +Diocese, who was kindly assisted by the Rev. J. H. Barbour, +Librarian of Trinity College. + + + + +CENTENARY COMMEMORATION + +OF THE RETURN OF + +BISHOP SEABURY. 1885 + +THE RT. REV. SAMUEL SEABURY, D.D. + +_FIRST BISHOP OF CONNECTICUT,_ + +HELD HIS FIRST ORDINATION AT MIDDLETOWN, + +AUGUST 3, 1785. + + +On the ninth day of June, 1885, the Diocesan Convention met in +Hartford. Morning Prayer was read in Christ Church at 9 o'clock by +the Rev. W. E. Vibbert, D.D., Rector of St. James's Church, Fair +Haven, and the Rev. J. E. Heald, Rector of Trinity Church, +Tariffville. The Holy Communion was celebrated in St. John's +Church, the service beginning at 10-1/2 o'clock after the singing +of the 138th Hymn. The Bishop was assisted in the service by the +Rev. Dr. Beardsley of New Haven, the Rev. Dr. Seabury of New York, +the Rev. Dr. Vibbert of Fair Haven, and the Rev. J. W. Bradin, +Rector of the Parish. The sermon was preached by Bishop Williams, +as follows: + +THE WISE RULER. + +PSALM lxxviii. 72. + +"So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and +guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." + +The seventy-eighth psalm contains a rapid review of the history of +the chosen people from the day when God led them out of Egypt +"with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm," down to the time of +David. The record of provocation and transgression on the side of +Israel, and of mingled mercy and judgment on the side of Jehovah, +ends with the reign of the shepherd-king. He who watched his flock +as, centuries after, other shepherds watched theirs, on the hill- +sides of Bethlehem; he who had risked his own life that he might +deliver his charge "out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw +of the bear," was now called "from among the sheep-folds" to the +throne of Israel and Judah. He who had been "faithful over a few +things" was made "ruler over many things" in a kingdom which was +itself but a type of a mightier Kingdom wherein One who was not +only the Son of David but the Son of God should reign forever and +ever. + +In describing the character of David as a ruler, which is done in +the text of this discourse, it will be observed that the same +qualities are emphasized that marked his shepherd-life. What he +was in the narrower field, that he was also in the wider. What he +had been in Bethlehem, that he continued to be in Jerusalem. What +he had done for his flock, that he did for his people. "He fed +them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by +the skilfulness of his hands." Integrity in purpose and discretion +in action are the two qualities here emphasized. The former +without the latter makes the impracticable blunderer; the latter +without the former makes the time-serving schemer; the two +together make the wise ruler of men. Unless I greatly err, we +shall see these two qualities strikingly illustrated in the story +of that Episcopate of which I am now to speak to you. + +We must still linger for a while with the newly consecrated bishop +in that city on the German ocean where we last beheld him. For his +consecration is not the only thing which occurred there that was +to have an abiding influence on the future of our national Church. +On the day following the consecration (Nov. 15th, 1784), the +Scottish bishops present and their American brother united in +signing the important document known as the "Concordate." While +this is not the place to speak of it at length, some of its +positions and agreements ought not, in view of opinions then +prevalent in Great Britain and of events soon to occur in this +country, to pass unnoticed. + +First of all, the document opens with a full and clear statement +of the necessity, "before all things," of holding the "One Faith." +As the Lord declared that on Himself, as confessed by His apostle, +He would build His Church; as St. Paul, when he has spoken of "one +Lord," speaks next of "one faith," so the framers of the +"Concordate"--invoking "the blessing of the great and glorious +Head of the Church"--declare their "earnest and united desire to +maintain the analogy of the faith once delivered to the saints, +and happily preserved in the Church of Christ." + +This all-important and fundamental truth having been asserted, the +document proceeds to declare that the Church of Christ is "a +spiritual society," the powers and authority of which come from +God and not from man; and which, as they are not given and cannot +be given by any civil government, so neither can any civil +government take away. + +Does this statement seem a truism to us? Then let us remember that +it was no truism in the days when it was made. "The Church as by +law established" was then a phrase on everybody's lips in Great +Britain; and, strangely enough, it meant, and still means, one +thing in England and a very different thing in Scotland. Nor was +that all;--we may well fear that to many minds the weightiest and +most important part of the phrase, lay in the words "by law +established" rather than in the preceding words "the Church"; so +that, in many instances, a mere accident in the Church's history +displaced the remembrance of its divine constitution, and led on +to the folly of supposing that the act of the State, human law, +could create and constitute a Church! To assert the truth against +so patent a delusion was timely, and indeed needful, a century +ago. Would that it were needful nowhere now! + +Following this declaration was the agreement that no "communion in +sacred offices" should be held with clergy, of whatever +ordination, who were officiating in Scotland without recognizing, +or being recognized by, the national Episcopate. + +Finally, passing from doctrine and organization to worship, the +Scottish bishops, after speaking of the desirableness of "as near +a conformity in worship and discipline between the two Churches as +is consistent with the different circumstances and customs of +nations," go on to say that, inasmuch as "the celebration of the +Holy Eucharist, or the administration of the sacrament of the Body +and Blood of Christ, is the principal bond of union among +Christians, as well as the most solemn act of worship in the +Christian Church,... though they are far from prescribing to their +brethren in this matter, they cannot help ardently wishing that +Bishop Seabury would endeavor all he can, consistently with peace +and prudence, to make the celebration of this venerable Mystery +conformable to the most primitive doctrine and practice." So far +the Scottish bishops. On his part, the newly consecrated bishop +agreed "to take a serious view of the Communion-office recommended +by his brethren, and, if found agreeable to the genuine standards +of antiquity, to give his sanction to it, and by gentle methods of +argument and persuasion to endeavor, as they have done, to +introduce it by degrees into practice, without the compulsion of +authority on the one side or the prejudice of former custom on the +other." + +These are all weighty, wise, and noble words. I have quoted them +at some length for two reasons. In the first place, they embody +just those things which come to the front in St. Luke's +description of the Apostolic Church in the full glow of its +Pentecostal life: "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' +doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of the bread and in +the prayers." The more carefully the document and the inspired +statement are compared, the more clearly is this remarkable +agreement seen. If this is the result of a conscious reference to +the words of St. Luke, it shows how faithfully the venerable +framers of the Concordate went back to the very sources of the +Church's organic life. If the reference is unconscious, it shows, +even more strikingly, how thoroughly they were imbued with the +spirit of the apostolic age. + +In the second place, unless I have greatly misread history, our +first bishop, both in his work in this diocese and also in the +part he took in bringing about for our whole Church the happy +settlement of 1789, followed on the line of action indicated in +the Concordate, patiently and unswervingly; and in following it, +he was guided by that integrity in purpose and discretion in +action which characterize the wise and efficient ruler. + +Had Bishop Seabury carried out his original purpose, he would have +sailed for his native land "in the ship _Triumph_, commanded +by Captain Stout." He was, however, detained in London, and from +that city he addressed what has been called "his first pastoral +letter" to the representatives of the clergy of Connecticut. His +detention was largely, probably not wholly, due to the necessity +which came upon him of making, if possible, some provision for the +future maintenance of the clergy. What little property he had +acquired had all been expended in his two years' absence from his +family and his residence in England; and the question whether or +not the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel would +or could continue the stipends hitherto appropriated to the clergy +in Connecticut was a very pressing one. His admirable letter to +the secretary of the society--a letter which thoroughly reveals +the man--is too long to be given here, while it cannot be +adequately represented by any quotations. He does not attempt to +conceal the fact that the continuance of his own stipend would be +a great relief to his anxieties, but he frankly adds that if it is +"not continued" he "can have no right to complain." And then +putting himself, as he always did, entirely to one side, and +saying, what seems to have been ever in his mind, that "the fate +of individuals is of inferior moment when compared with that of +the whole Church," he draws attention to the calamity it will be +"if proper steps be not taken to secure to the Church various +property of lands, etc., in the different States (now indeed of +small value, but gradually increasing), to which the society alone +has a legal claim." + +Under the terms of their charter, the society could employ +missionaries only in "the plantations, colonies, and factories +belonging to the kingdom of Great Britain"; while they seem not to +have been ready to consider the question touching the lands. The +timidity or the lack of appreciation of the purely spiritual and +ecclesiastical character of the Episcopate as such, which then +prevailed, is painfully noticeable in the fact that, in the letter +which communicated the decision of the society, the secretary +addressed the bishop as he would have done before his consecration-- +"the Rev. Dr. Seabury." + +On other trials and difficulties which he met in London I do not +care to dwell. They all grew out of political jealousies, confused +notions concerning connections of Church and State, or fears, +which proved to be groundless, that the consecration sermon, to +say nothing of the consecration itself, might somehow be +disadvantageous to the Scottish Episcopate. One charge alleged is +to us in this day simply amusing; namely, that the bishop had been +"precipitate" in his application to Scotland. A precipitancy which +patiently waits and labors for more than thirteen months to obtain +the Episcopate in England, and only when all hope of so obtaining +it is at an end applies for it in Scotland, is, to say the least, +a very deliberate sort of precipitancy. And now we may pass from +the old world to the new. + +"Bishop Seabury landed at Newport, R. I."--where Berkeley had +landed more than half a century before--"after a voyage of three +months,[Footnote: This period, however, includes some stay in Nova +Scotia.] on Monday, June 20th, 1785, and the next Sunday he +preached in Trinity Church the first sermon of an American bishop +in this country." [Footnote: The text was Heb. xii. 1, 2. The +sermon was afterwards published in the Bishop's _Discourses on +Several Subjects_, vol. ii., serm. xvi., "The Christian Race." +] On the 29th he reached New London, which from that time was to +be his home. While he was still at sea a Boston newspaper, which +had received the intelligence of his consecration, exclaimed: "Two +wonders of the world, a Stamp Act in Boston and a Bishop in +Connecticut!" [Footnote: _Boston Gazette_, May 30, 1785. ] + +Two things instantly demanded the most careful attention and most +earnest efforts of the one American bishop: the condition and +needs of his own diocese, and the all-important question as to the +future of the scattered congregations of what had been the Church +of England in the thirteen colonies. The stoutest heart might well +quail before the difficulties that rose up before him on every +side. But Seabury's principle of action was ever found in the +twofold rule always to "do the next thing," and when all cannot be +done that one fain would do, then to do the best one can. And that +twofold rule will enable any man who acts under it, in the fear +and strength of God, to overcome difficulties by patient +perseverance or to accept disappointments in unrepining +submission. Faith and patience may not make their voice heard much +in the streets, but they accomplish results at last. + +Did he look at his own diocese? There he saw many obstacles and +few, very few, encouragements. Five, at least, of the small number +of the clergy and considerable numbers of the laity had +"emigrated, or were soon to emigrate, to Nova Scotia and the +adjoining territory." Aside, then, from those whom he might +ordain, not more than eleven clergymen, and with them not more +than two hundred and eighty families, composed the diocese. It is +due to this ancient State, and it should ever be remembered to her +praise, that the loyalists within her borders suffered no +political oppression after the war of the Revolution had ended. +Nor can we forget that she sent as a delegate to the Continental +Congress in 1784, and afterwards, in 1787, to the convention which +framed our federal constitution, one who in 1779 had been, however +unreasonably, arrested for treason to the United Colonies, William +Samuel Johnson. Still it is none the less true, and it can +occasion little wonder, that loyalists, and therefore Churchmen, +"were not in good repute with the public authorities, and scorn +was likely to attend many of them for years to come." + +To these diminished numbers of clergy and people must be added the +loss of the stipends hitherto allowed by the Society in England, +and the poverty which made it next to impossible to replace them. +Add, moreover, to these things the doubts and uncertainties, the +break-up of old associations and habitudes, the manifold +perplexities of which we now know nothing, and which we could not +enumerate if we did know them, and what a troubled scene was that +on which our first bishop, who stood alone in his order in these +United States, cast an anxious eye! "The children were come to the +birth," but would there be "strength to bring them forth"? + +One discouragement--and that would have been greater than all the +others--Seabury was not called to meet. He did not come to a +disunited and divided body. His diocese stood together as a unit. +They stood where they did because of convictions, than which none +could be stronger or more abiding. When they said: "I believe in +the Holy Catholic Church," they uttered no unreal words, no words +that habits of careless utterance had made unmeaning. They meant +just what they said. And that strong and united conviction gave +hope and comfort for the future. Clouds and darkness were about +them. But on those clouds there was seen the bow of promise, while +beyond them stood--what they might obscure but could not remove-- +the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." + +On Wednesday, the third day of August, the bishop met his clergy +at Middletown, received their address of congratulation and +recognition, and made his reply to it. On this day was also held +the first ordination administered by a bishop within the limits of +the United States. On the day following, the Rev. Samuel Parker, +who came as the appointed representative of the clergy in +Massachusetts, [Footnote: The Rev. Dr. Moore of New York was also +present, but not, apparently, in any representative capacity.] +made a communication which, we are told, "was received with the +warmest expressions of welcome," setting forth his instructions +"to collect the sentiments of the Connecticut clergy in respect of +Dr. Seabury's episcopal consecration and the regulation of his +episcopal jurisdiction," and intimating the intention of those who +sent him to connect themselves with their brethren here by coming +under the charge of their bishop. + +On this day, also, Bishop Seabury delivered his first charge. In +it, after rehearsing with earnest expressions of gratitude to the +bishops of Scotland the steps which he had taken to secure the +Episcopate, and modestly referring to his own new position, +declaring that next to the grace of God he relies, in carrying on +the work committed to him, on the "advice and assistance" of his +brethren, he dwells on three important topics. First, he urges on +himself and them the duty of taking "heed unto the doctrine" as +well as to themselves, saying, in words which are not unneeded +how: "The first instance of fidelity is, that the pure doctrines +of the Gospel be fairly, earnestly, and affectionately proposed, +explained, and inculcated, and that we suffer nothing else to +usurp their place and become the subject of our preaching." Next, +he presses carefulness in recommending persons for ordination, +enlarging not so much on "literary accomplishments, though these +are not to be neglected, as aptitude for the work of the +ministry." And, lastly, for obvious reasons, he treats, at length, +"of the old and sacred rite, handed down to us from the apostolic +age by the primitive Church--the laying-on of hands." The document +shows, so far as a document can, that its writer possessed in +himself the qualifications which he regarded as necessary "to make +a useful clergyman--good temper, prudence, diligence, capacity, +and aptitude to teach." + +On the third day of its session, the convocation appointed a +"committee to consider of and make with the bishop some +alterations in the Liturgy needful for the present use of the +Church." [Footnote: Mr. Parker of Massachusetts was appointed on +this committee.] The matter was entered on with caution, and the +only changes then and there ordered were those which changed +political relations made necessary in the State prayers and +services. These were immediately set forth by the bishop in an +"injunction," by which he "authorized and required" the clergy to +follow them. Some other changes were proposed and reserved for +future consideration; but as nothing seems to have been done about +them in this diocese, they need no special mention. + +The bishop, however, was not unmindful of his promise given in the +Concordate, and in the year following (1786) published his +adaptation of the Scottish Communion-office. This he did not, as +in the case of the alterations agreed to in convocation, "enjoin" +or "require." He simply "_recommended_ it to the Episcopal +congregations in Connecticut." + +I am quite conscious that this is a very brief summary, a very +meagre outline, of acts and events each one of which is most +important and suggestive. It is all, however, that time and space +allow, and it brings into strong relief some things which ought +not to be forgotten. + +The reverent care and caution with which the offices of sacred +worship are approached are apparent. These are no signs of a +hesitancy which is doubtful of its position. They indicate rather +the strength of assurance which hesitates to touch the gift +entrusted to it lest touching may end in tampering. In the same +year in which these careful steps were taken, another convention, +in six days, revised the entire Book of Common Prayer, with all +its Offices and with the "Articles of Religion"; the result being +a book which underwent amendments in four States, had its +ratification postponed in another, was rejected in still another, +and was not considered at all in five. The contrast in results is +quite as striking as that in spirit and methods of action. + +We also see, unless I greatly err, in his action in regard to the +changes in the State prayers and his own office for the Holy +Communion, Bishop Seabury's ideal of the position of a bishop in +the Church of God. And this view is confirmed by the entire course +of his Episcopate. What was established by competent authority, he +"required." What was not so established, however much his own +heart might be set upon it, he "recommended." When the first great +Bishop of New Zealand met his first synod, he uttered these noble +words: "I believe the monarchical idea of the Episcopate to be as +foreign to the true mind of the Church as it is adverse to the +Gospel doctrine of humility. I would rather resign my office than +be reduced to act as a single isolated being. It remains, then, to +define by some general principle the terms of our co-operation. +They are simply these: that neither will I act without you, nor +can you act without me." Of course, a bishop who takes this line +must lay his account with the charge that he seeks to avoid +responsibility. But he may comfort himself with the recollection +that had he taken the other line, the same persons who lament his +timidity would be sure to charge him with arrogant assumption. If +Seabury did not utter Selwyn's very words, he acted them. Nor is +it more or less than the very truth to say that in all his +Episcopate he exemplified the counsel of the Son of Sirach: "If +thou be made the master, lift not thyself up, but be among them as +one of the rest" [Footnote: Ecclus. xxii. I.] + +The story of that Episcopate cannot be told here. It has been +written in a faithful record accessible to all, and with which +most of us must be familiar. For almost twelve years the parish +priest in New London did his pastor's work, the humble-minded +bishop went, in homely ways, [Footnote: In a book published some +years ago, it was said that all clergymen in Connecticut +travelled, at the period spoken of, on horseback, "except, +perhaps, Bishop Seabury, who rode in a coach," He may have +"ridden" in a stage-coach, or in a coach belonging to some wealthy +layman; but the only vehicle which he ever possessed was a "one- +horse chaise."] in and out among his people, feeding the flock +"according to the integrity of his heart, and guiding them by the +skilfulness of his hands." And when God took him to his rest, the +mourning of his diocese was like the "mourning in the floor of +Atad," and the poor and the suffering, the widow and the +fatherless followed him to his grave, and wrote his epitaph in +their tears. + +The power and value of an Episcopate like his cannot be measured +by immediate results--though such results were not lacking--which +are visible along its progress and at its close. Not only was it +not his peacefully to build on undisturbed foundations; it was not +even his to lay in peace original foundations. His was the harder, +the more hopeless task, to re-lay foundations which had been torn +up and scattered, and then begin to build upon them. And under +what discouragements was the task to be undertaken and prosecuted: +with diminished and diminishing numbers of fellow-workers; with +narrow resources and restricted means; amid manifold and +unexpected difficulties; amid jealousies that not infrequently +deepened into scornful enmity! How often must he have cried from +the depths of his heart: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is +offended, and I burn not?" Only a brave and genuine man, a man of +prayer and faith and love, could have borne up under such wearying +burdens. But he was all that, and even more than that. And, +therefore, to us who look back upon our history as a diocese from +the close of one century, to those who shall look back upon it +from the close of another, nay, in all time, its central figure +must be that massive one with which the limner's skill has made us +all familiar, as it stands facing wind and storm, supported by the +Word of God, which, in its turn, rests on the everlasting rock; +the figure of him by whom the God of our fathers said to our +"Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation +shall be laid." [Footnote: Isaiah xliv] + +But it is time to turn to the second of the two things of which +mention was just now made; the future, namely, of the scattered +fragments of what had been the Church of England in the thirteen +colonies. To unite and consolidate these into one national Church +was the difficult problem to be solved; a problem, we may say with +reverent thankfulness, that never could have been solved had there +not come to the solution a stronger than any human strength, and a +wiser than any human wisdom. To bring about this blessed +consummation, the first two bishops consecrated for America +labored, if not always with accordant views, yet ever with united +hearts. The time has long gone by. and it ought never to have +been, when to give his due meed of praise to Bishop Seabury, and +to recognize his share in the great work accomplished, could be +thought in any way to carry with it disparagement to the eminent +services of Bishop White. Nothing can ever change or obscure his +prominence in the history of this Church. Surviving as he did the +darkest days of her trial and depression, living to see her enter +on wider lines and vaster fields of action, and enter on them with +a deepened spiritual life, he went to his rest in an old age that +was brightened with the reverent love of "all the churches," and +from which there was shed upon those churches the gracious light +of a gentleness, a meekness, and a charity, the memories of which +will never pass away. He is, he always must be, our St. John. + +The two great obstacles in the minds of Bishop Seabury and his +clergy--and I think I may add the clergy of New England generally-- +to the union and consolidation so earnestly desired, were found +in certain omissions in what was known as "The Proposed Book," +adopted at a convention composed of deputies from seven States in +1785, [Footnote: The seven States represented were: New York, New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South +Carolina. No deputies were present from New England.] and +published in 1786; and in certain provisions of an "Ecclesiastical +Constitution" first agreed to in the same convention of 1785, and +afterwards altered in some particulars in 1786. + +The insurmountable difficulties which arose out of the Proposed +Book were the entire omission of the Creed commonly known as the +Nicene Creed, and the equally entire omission of the article, "He +descended into hell," in the Apostles' Creed. I do not at all mean +to say that these omissions constituted the only objections in the +minds of Bishop Seabury and those who acted with him. But these +were fatal. As long as these omissions remained, it was useless to +consider any other matters. Our fathers could never have united +with any body which deliberately rejected the Catholic Faith. For, +as has been well said, "a Church is not Catholic merely from +having an Apostolic ministry; the Catholic Faith is as essential +as Catholic Institutions." Nay, I think we may say even more than +that; namely, that to put the ministry first and the faith next is +to reverse the order established by the Lord. For surely, of those +to whom was given the commission to "make disciples of all +nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Ghost," it can never be said that the Name, +which is the original and the summary of every Catholic Creed, was +given for and because of them, but rather it must be said that +they were instituted for and because of it. To reverse this order +is to make the messenger of more importance than the message; is +to make the vase that holds the perfume of more importance than +the perfume held. + +Happily the difficulty was not long in its continuance. In the +course of the negotiations for the Episcopate, which began in +October, 1785, it became very evident that the bishops of England +were not inclined to accede to the application for it so long as +the omission and mutilation just mentioned were adhered to. +Accordingly, on the 11th of October, 1786, in a convention held at +Wilmington, Delaware, the omitted clause was restored in the +Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene Creed was reinstated in its proper +place. + +The other obstacle, however, remained untouched; and, in fact, it +was twofold. In the Constitution agreed upon by the representatives +from seven States in 1785, there was not only no provision +for a House of Bishops, but it was not even provided that +the one House should be presided over by a bishop, if one of +that order were present. The Episcopate was utterly ignored. +Besides this extraordinary omission, every clergyman, of whatever +order, was made amenable to the convention of the diocese to which +he belonged in regard to "suspension or removal from office," +while, for all that appeared, the sentence of suspension or +deposition must have been pronounced by the convention itself. In +a Church regulated by rules and ordinances like these, there might +be a nominal Episcopate, but it would be only nominal. The Ordinal +might be retained, but it would cease to have any meaning. The +Primitive Church might be spoken of, but every trace of primitive +order and administration would have disappeared. + +It has often been said that Bishop Seabury objected to any +admission of the laity to the councils of the Church. But this is +one of the cases in which, unless we distinguish things that +differ, we shall certainly go far astray. Legislation is one +thing; the judicial exercise of discipline in the Church is quite +another thing. Now, I do not find that Bishop Seabury was set +against recognizing the right of the laity to a share in the +legislation of the Church, on the principle laid down by Hooker, +that laws which are to bind all orders should have the consent of +all orders. On the contrary, he admitted the principle when he set +his name to the Constitution of 1789 which provided for this very +thing; a provision the value of which has been fully demonstrated +by the first century of our history as a national Church. + +Touching his views concerning the judicial exercise of discipline, +I need only cite his own words: "I cannot conceive that the laity +can with any propriety be admitted to sit in judgment on bishops +and presbyters, especially when deposition may be the event; +because they cannot take away a character which they cannot +confer. It is incongruous with every idea of episcopal government. +That authority which confers power can, for proper reasons, take +it away. But where there is no authority to confer power, there +can be none to disannul it. Wherever, therefore, the power of +ordination is lodged, the power of deprivation is lodged also." +Concerning the absolute irrecognition of the Episcopate, as +entitled to any share in either legislation or discipline, by the +Constitution of 1785, I need only cite, again, the bishop's words: +"In so essential a matter as Church government is, no alterations +should be made that affect its foundation. If a man be called a +bishop who has not the episcopal powers of government, he is +called by a wrong name, even though he should have the power of +ordination and confirmation." + +The position assumed by our first bishop in regard to both these +matters was justified and sustained by the action of this Church +in 1789, when the Constitution, as amended, was made to provide +for a House of Bishops, "with power to originate and propose +acts," and also for the administration of discipline by the +Episcopate alone. This was the Constitution to which--"on a dingy +half sheet of paper"--Bishop Seabury and Drs. Jarvis and Hubbard, +as representatives from Connecticut, and Dr. Parker, as deputy +from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, set their hands in October, +1789, and by their act effected the consolidation of our Church. + +I will not say that a victory was thus gained, for it was not +victory that was sought. But we may say that something far better +than a victory was attained, in that a great principle was +accepted. Nor has the lapse of time raised any doubt as to the +rightfulness and wisdom of the acceptance. [Footnote: It is worth +while to state the steps by which final action was reached: + +1. The Constitution adopted in 1785 took no account of the +Episcopate as a possible component part of the General Convention. +In 1786 provision was made that "a bishop should always preside in +General Convention, if any of the episcopal order were present." +In August, 1789, it was agreed, with certain limitations and +restrictions, that "the bishops of this Church, when there shall +be three or more, shall, whenever a General Convention shall be +held, form a _House of Revision;_ and when any proposed act +shall have passed in the _General Convention_, the same shall +be transmitted to the _House of Revision_ for their concurrence." +Obviously the House of Revision is not here regarded as +a component part of the General Convention. Finally, in +October, 1789, it was ordered that "the bishops of this Church, +when there shall be three or more, shall, whenever General +Conventions are held, form a separate house, _with a right to +originate and propose acts_ for the concurrence of _the House +of Deputies_, composed of clergy and laity." Certain restrictions, +which have since been modified, were added. But clearly +the great principle contended for by Bishop Seabury and +those who acted with him is here admitted. + +2. As to the other point insisted on: In 1785, article viii. of +the Constitution read: "Every clergyman, whether bishop or +presbyter or deacon, shall be amenable to the authority of the +convention in the State to which he belongs, so far as relates to +suspension or removal from office; and the convention in each +State shall institute rules for their conduct, and an equitable +mode of trial." Here there is not even an allusion to the +Episcopate, and each convention is recognized as absolutely +supreme. In June, 1786, the following sentence was added to +article viii. of 1785: "And at every trial of a bishop there shall +be one or more of the episcopal order present, and none but a +bishop shall pronounce sentence of deposition or degradation from +the ministry on any clergyman, whether bishop, presbyter, or +deacon." Here is an advance in the right direction. In August, +1789, the first sentence of the foregoing article disappears, and +in its place we read: "In every State the mode of trying clergymen +shall be instituted by the convention of the Church therein." The +last sentence of the article remains unchanged, and the second +principle contended for is accepted.] + +While the years between 1785 and 1789, with their discussions, +doubts, and difficulties, were wearing away, the general +acceptance of the great principles on which I have been dwelling +seemed always uncertain, and sometimes hopeless. Steps were +accordingly taken to provide for a possible emergency of +rejection--an emergency which cannot be contemplated without a +shudder. It was decided in the convocation which met at +Wallingford in February, 1787, to send, should it become +necessary, a "presbyter to Scotland for consecration, as coadjutor +to Dr. Seabury." The purpose no doubt was, should such necessity +arise, to secure the number of bishops canonically requisite to +continue the succession. It was wise to provide for all +contingencies; but it was equally wise, and as much a matter of +duty, to take no actual steps till contingencies arose, and, +meantime, to make all possible endeavors to avert them. The +prudent counsels of the Scottish bishops, and the conciliatory and +patient action of Bishop White on the one side and Bishop Seabury +on the other, did avert the contingency; and by the year 1789 all +danger of the separation, so much feared and deprecated, had +passed away. It was of God's good providence that, in the General +Convention of that most memorable year, 1789, there was found in +the House of Bishops no root of bitterness, no disturbing element +growing out of political prejudice or personal animosity. When, on +the fifth day of October, the House was, for the first time, +constituted, Bishops Seabury and White composed its membership. + +The great subject which occupied the attention of the bishops, as +well as that of the House of Deputies, was the Book of Common +Prayer. This is neither the time nor the place to speak at length +of what was then accomplished. But I must not omit to state, even +at the risk of saying what is familiar to us all, that in that +book, as we then received and still have it, the Order of the Holy +Communion stands--and, please God, will ever stand--the great +memorial of Seabury's share in framing our sacred offices, the +memorial, also, of the faithfulness with which, if not in the very +letter, yet substantially and in spirit, he redeemed the pledge +which he had given in the Concordate. Let me also add Bishop +White's own words touching the intercourse--for in a house +consisting of two members, one can hardly speak of debates--of +himself and his brother of Connecticut. He says: "To this day are +there recollected with satisfaction the hours which were spent +with Bishop Seabury on the important subjects which came before +them, and especially the Christian temper which he manifested all +along." For the results of that memorable Convention, in which so +much was gained--may we not say so little lost?--we are mainly +indebted, under the overruling wisdom of the Holy Spirit, to the +stedfast gentleness of Bishop White and the gentle stedfastness of +Bishop Seabury. + +And here, since mention has been already made of Seabury's work in +his own diocese, and of his departure, when "he was not found" +because God had taken him, this historical review may end. Does it +not tell what he was? Does it not clearly reveal his character? If +it does not, then no words of mine can do it. Strong in faith, +patient in hope, humble and self-sacrificing in charity, he stands +out as a man "that had understanding of the times to know what +Israel ought to do"; as a builder able to "revive the stones out +of the heaps of the rubbish which were burned"; as a wise ruler +who "fed" those over whom the Holy Ghost had made him an overseer, +"according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the +skilfulness of his hands." Therefore for him and for his work, we +praise and magnify God's holy Name! + +I cannot close without some mention of two scenes, in both of +which it was my privilege to share, More than fifty years had +passed since our first bishop was borne to his grave. In the town +in which, during his entire Episcopate, he had fulfilled the +lowlier duties of a parish priest, a stately church had replaced +the humble temple in which he ministered, and it was felt in all +our borders that under its altar his honored remains should find +their final resting-place. Reverently gathered, they were carried +by the clergy through crowded streets, and laid down where we +trust they may abide till the judgment of the great day.[Footnote: +"Ut in loco quietis ultimo usque ad magni diei judicium," are the +words of the epitaph on the altar-tomb in St. James's Church, New +London.] As we stood around his sepulchre there rose from every +lip the words of the symbol of Nicaea, for which he had striven so +faithfully, and which he had urged his clergy as faithfully to +teach, saying, in words which now seem prophetic, that he foresaw +the day when in New England there would come a widespread lapse +from the ancient faith. That was a scene which none who shared in +it can forget. + +A hundred years had gone. In that city where he sought his +consecration to the Episcopate the little upper room had +disappeared, and six churches had arisen. In one of these, the +successor of the humble "oratory in the house of Bishop Skinner," +there are gathered seventeen bishops and near two hundred clergy, +together with a vast congregation of the faithful. What do they +represent? Not what those who came together a century before had +represented; not one Church brought almost to the verge of +extinction, and another threatened with even deeper ruin. No! but +they represent a Church that has emerged from the darkness that +shrouded it in Scotland; a Church that has risen from what seemed +but shattered fragments in the United States; the great Mother +Church of England; the national Church of Ireland; and the +Churches in communion with them on the Continent of Europe, in the +dependencies and colonies of the empire of Great Britain, on this +Western Continent, in India, Australia, Southern Africa, and the +islands of the sea. "A little one has become a thousand, and a +small one a strong nation." + +What has brought them together? Not merely to do honor to the +memory of one man or of several men, though their memories are +inseparably blended with the thoughts and associations of the +occasion. "In many centenaries the dominant interest is the +personal. The birthday of the 'monk that shook the world' is a +handy peg on which to hang the whole of his marvellous career, and +the massive personality of the man is never absent from view. But +in the consecration of Bishop Seabury the Churchman beholds, not +the preponderance of an individual, but the birthday of a Church. +The difference is suggestive, and illustrates the radical +divergence between the Catholic and the sectarian frame of mind. +When the ideal of the one Body of Christ is strongly realized, the +Church will overshadow the individual; when it is little +cherished, the individual will eclipse the Church. We may be +content to be of those who think that, as the State is greater +than its worthiest citizen, so the Church should take precedence +of its greatest member."[Footnote: These admirable words are +quoted from the Scottish Church Review for November, 1884, p. +749.] Who would have more gladly owned all this, who would have +been more thankful for it, than he who gave its name to that +centenary? For, indeed, it was this which swelled the tide of +emotion to its height. It was because of this that men felt in +their hearts, and said with their lips, "Glorious things are +spoken of thee, thou City of God." + +One closing word, dear brethren, and the duty that from time to +time you have laid upon me will be accomplished; not as it should +have been, but as I have been able to accomplish it. The great +principles on which they of whom I have been speaking placed +themselves, are as lasting and as unchangeable as the everlasting +hills. The lines on which they wrought have borne the trial and +stood the test of all the Christian ages. Are we tempted, in a +spirit of self-sufficiency or of doubt or of impatience, to +forsake them? Then let us put the temptation firmly to one side. +Only by so doing shall we maintain for ourselves, and hand on to +others, who shall then in coming years rise up and call us +blessed, the precious deposit that has come down to us, and for +which we bless those who have gone before us. Christianity is not +_one of the religions of_ the world, but it is _the one_ +_religion for_ the world. Jesus Christ, our Prophet, Priest, +and King, our sufficing Sacrifice and our living Lord, is not the +ideal man, the product of the growth, circumstances, and +conditions of one nation or of the whole human race, but He is the +"Son of God with power," miraculously conceived by the Holy Ghost, +miraculously born of the Virgin Mary, dying for our sins and +rising again for our justification. "A Christianity," I use the +words of Coleridge, "without a Church exercising spiritual +authority, is vanity and dissolution."[Footnote: _Aids to +Reflection_, p. 224, note (fourth edition).] The Church is not +an aggregation of persons agreeing in certain doctrines or +practices, but it is the "Body of Christ," perpetuated in +accordance with the laws of its organism. "The fellowship of +kindred minds" is not the Communion of saints. A certain +"continuity of Christian thought" is not the same thing as the +Faith once and forever given to the saints. + +If we fling away these truths to which our predecessors clung so +firmly, if they who shall come after us fling them away, then on +us and on them will come the shame and the woe of making the well- +ordered "city of the living God," the walls of which are salvation +and its gates praise, to be "like a city that is broken down and +without walls." On the other hand, if we, and they who shall come +after us, hold them, teach them, act on them, then, and only then, +shall we and they, in very deed, "grow up into Him in all things, +Which is the Head, even Christ, from Whom the whole Body fitly +joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, +according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, +maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of itself in love." + +A SPECIAL service was held in the Church of the Holy Trinity, +Middletown, on the one-hundredth anniversary of the first +Ordination held by Bishop Seabury, August 3, 1885, at 11 o'clock +A. M. The processional hymn being ended, Bishop Williams began the +Communion-service, the Collect being that for St. Simon and St. +Jude's Day. The Epistle (that for St. Mark's Day) was read by the +Rev. Prof. Samuel Hart of Trinity College, and the Gospel (that +for St. Matthias's Day), by the Rev. Sylvester Clarke, Rector of +Trinity Church, Bridgeport. After the Creed, the Bishop delivered +this address: + +The third of August, 1785, was a memorable day for this diocese +and for our whole Church. For the first time an American Bishop +was to hold an ordination in the United States. The event carries +us back, in thought, to Apostolic days. The first act of +ordination by the Apostles at Jerusalem, after the miracle of +Pentecost, was the laying on of hands upon the seven deacons. The +first ordination ministered by him who first bore the Apostolic +commission to this nation, was an ordination--not of seven indeed, +but of four--to the diaconate. The authority, the ministration, +and the order imparted were in both cases the same, separated +though the acts were by the great chasm of seventeen centuries. It +is good to commemorate such an event. It is right to commemorate +it in the place in which it occurred. Such a commemoration fitly +ends the series of centenary observances which we began in +Woodbury in the spring-tide of 1883. For the act of this day +certified our fathers that what they had sought and cried out for +through long and weary years was gained at last; that no longer +did three thousand miles of ocean separate them from the +possibility of admission to the "ministry of Christ, and the +stewardship of the mysteries of God." + +Let me, first, say something of the place in which the service of +ordination, and all the services and acts connected with it, were +held. There stood, at that time, on what used to be called the +South Green in this city, a small wooden church known as Christ +Church. There are not many persons, probably, now living who +remember it, but a rough sketch of it, which has been preserved, +has given many who never saw it an idea at least of what it was. +It was not an altogether ungraceful building with its arched +windows--regarded by many in those days as indicating Romeward +tendencies--and its pointed spire. And it had nothing in common +with those hideous combinations of packing-box and Grecian +portico, which prevailed many years later on; but which decay and +fire and other merciful interferences and visitations have made +things of the past. + +It had a story of its own, too--that old church--to tell; a story +of trial, perseverance, and success; a story exactly parallel to +that of the clergy, and especially the bishop, who came together +within its walls. About the middle of the last century, a number +of persons who, in the exercise of that "freedom to worship God," +which has been claimed as the peculiar glory of New England, had +declared themselves to be attached to the Church of England, +petitioned the town authorities to grant them a piece of ground on +which they might erect a church. Their application was refused. +After a time it was renewed, and refused again. At last, a +building-place was granted them, the situation of which has just +been mentioned. It was a marshy spot, on which few persons +believed that any building could ever be erected. It is strangely +noticeable, however, that a great many things which never can be +done, are nevertheless somehow brought about, especially in the +progress of the Church. So it was here. Careful drainage overcame +the natural lack of adaptation, and, though the work met with +delays and drawbacks, the church was completed in 1755. It is a +tradition of the time that when the frame of the building was +raised, the shout that burst from the lips of those engaged in or +watching the work was so loud and joyous that it might have been +heard for the distance of a mile. Verily, good people of this +parish, if your predecessors could not say that they had been +brought "through fire," they could at least say that they had been +"brought through water to a wealthy place"; wealthy, not in this +world's goods, but in those spiritual gifts which are the eternal +dowry of the Bride of Christ. + +So much for the place. Next let us look at those who came +together. If the place of meeting had been hardly won, those men +had "endured hardness as good soldiers of Christ." Foremost, in +the full maturity of his manhood, stands the newly consecrated +bishop. He is in his fifty-sixth year. And inasmuch as the picture +with which we are all familiar was painted while he was in London, +we no doubt see him there as he was here in Middletown, a century +ago. And a goodly sight it is; the sight of one who looked, and +was, every inch a bishop. + +Jeremiah Learning comes next to view. But for his advanced age, +and the fact that imprisonment in a damp and noisome cell had made +him a cripple for life, he would have stood in Seabury's place as +our first bishop. He is now in his sixty-eighth year, having been +born in Durham in 1717. He lived to the age of nearly eighty- +eight, and one who remembered him In his latest years says: "He +rises to my mind the very ideal of age and decrepitude--a small, +emaciated old man, very lame, his ashen and withered features +surmounted sometimes by a cap, and sometimes by a small wig-- +always quiet and gentle in his manner." Such a condition as is +here described is still, however, in the future for him. He is +still vigorous enough to preside in the convention of the clergy, +until the new bishop takes that place, and to preach what was +called, in the quaint phraseology of the day, "a well adapted" +ordination sermon. + +We turn to the secretary of the convention, Abraham Jarvis, who +will in time become the second bishop of this diocese. He has just +entered on the twenty-first year of his rectorship of this parish, +a position which he will hold for fourteen more years. He is +described, by one who knew him, as having "an uncommon tact at +public business, and in a talent at drafting petitions, memorials, +etc., having few, if any, superiors." + +Most, if not all, of the excellent papers connected with the +negotiations for the Episcopate were drawn up by him, and on him +devolved nearly all the correspondence to which the negotiations +gave rise. Nine others of the clergy of the diocese were present, +and with them two from other places--the Rev. Benjamin Moore of +New York, who came in no official capacity, and the Rev. Samuel +Parker of Boston, who appeared as representing the clergy of +Massachusetts. Dr. Moore was afterwards the second Bishop of New +York, and Dr. Parker the second Bishop of Massachusetts. The +clergy had assembled on the day previous, August 2nd, and Bishop +Seabury had presented his letters of consecration. On the day we +are commemorating, the services began with the reception and +recognition of the bishop. Four of the clergy repaired to the +parsonage, which stood nearly where the house of the Hon. Benjamin +Douglas now stands, bearing with them the declaration of the +clergy then convened, that "they confirmed their former election, +and acknowledged and received Dr. Seabury as their Episcopal head. +Two of the four immediately carried back to the convention the +answer of acceptance by the bishop, while the other two followed +in attendance upon him, and conducted him to the church." Here, +sitting near the Holy Table, with the clergy gathered before him, +he listened to their address, which was read by the Rev. Dr. +Hubbard of New Haven. I quote from it three striking passages. +Their recognition of their new bishop was made in these words: +"We, in the presence of Almighty God, declare to the world, that +we do unanimously and voluntarily accept and receive you to be +_our Bishop_, supreme in the government of the Church, and in +the administration of all ecclesiastical offices. And we do +solemnly engage to render you all that respect, duty, and +submission, which we believe do belong and are due to your high +office, and which, we understand, were given by the presbyters to +their bishop in the Primitive Church while, in her native purity, +she was unconnected with, and uncontrolled by, any secular power." + +After describing the earnest attempts to obtain the Episcopate +from England, and the final failure of the attempts, they add: "We +hope that the successors of the Apostles in the Church of England +have sufficient reasons to justify themselves to the world and to +God. We, however, know of none such, nor can our imagination frame +any." + +At the close of the address, after blessing God for the way opened +in Scotland, whose bishops had freely given what they had freely +received, they add, out of their full hearts, burning words of +gratitude, and say: "Wherever the American Episcopal Church shall +be mentioned in the world, may this good deed which they have done +for us, be spoken of for a memorial of them." + +To this address the bishop made a brief, but sufficient and +dignified reply, expressing, among other things, his reliance on +the "ready advice and assistance" of the clergy in the discharge +of his office; so foreshadowing the character of his Episcopate. + +The ordination was then proceeded with, and the four deacons were +ordained. Dr. Leaming preached the sermon, as I have already said, +and Mr. Jarvis "officiated as archdeacon" and presented the +candidates. The order of service differed somewhat in arrangement, +but in nothing else, from our order as it stands today. But the +changes are not material enough to require any mention. + +The ordination ended, the bishop dissolved the convention and +directed the clergy to meet him in convocation at a later hour. +This was the first convocation of the clergy of this diocese. They +had before _come_ together by their own agreement; now they +were _called_ together by their chief pastor. These meetings +of the clergy continued till within my own memory, though they had +ceased before I was consecrated, nor do I remember ever to have +attended one as either deacon or presbyter. They were usually +held. I believe, in connection with the sessions of the Diocesan +Convention. + +Of those who were admitted on that third of August to the +diaconate, another will speak to you as I could not, so that +little remains for me to add. + +We can scarcely now imagine to ourselves the mingled joy and +doubt, hopes and fears, thankfulness and uncertainty, that filled +the minds and agitated the hearts of those who came together here +a hundred years ago. The great point, no doubt, was gained; but +what was to follow? Would the consecration of Seabury be +everywhere accepted? or would there be those who would reject it +because an Act of Parliament had established Presbyterianism in +Scotland, and other Acts of Parliament had proscribed the Scotch +Episcopate? Would all churchmen in all the thirteen States of the +Confederation be united in one body? Or were there such discordant +elements, that they who held to the Apostolic Faith and Order +would be thrust out? Was there vitality enough in the Church in +Connecticut to live and grow? Or, when they who composed it then +were gone, would it dwindle and die out? No man could have +answered those questions then; God has answered them since. And as +we run back along the story of the years that have written out the +answer which we read _this_ day, we come at last to _that_ day, +so truly memorable, and to the bishop, the clergy, the candidates, +who then assembled to take their several parts in the first +Episcopal Ordination in America. + +In the library of Trinity College is preserved--many of us must +have seen it--Bishop Seabury's Mitre. I am sure I cannot better +express what may be called our culminating thought today, than by +quoting some lines written by the Bishop of Western New York on +that venerable relic: + + "The rod that from Jerusalem + Went forth so strong of yore, + That rod of David's royal stem, + Whose hand the farthest bore? + St. Paul to seek the setting sun, + They say, to Britain prest; + St. Andrew to old Calidon, + But who still farther West? + + + "Go ask! a thousand tongues shall tell + His name and dear renown, + Where altar, font, and holy bell + Are gifts he handed down; + A thousand hearts keep warm the name, + Which share those gifts so blest; + Yet even this may tell the same, + First mitre of the West! + + + "Aye! keep it for this mighty West + Till truth shall glorious be, + And good old Samuel's is confest + Columbia's primal see. + 'Tis better than a diadem, + The crown that Bishop wore, + Whose hand the rod of Jesse's stem + The farthest westward bore!" + + +The Rev. Dr. Beardsley then read the following biographical +account of the four candidates admitted to the diaconate by Bishop +Seabury at his first ordination: + +Of the candidates ordained in Middletown on the third of August, +1785, COLIN FERGUSON was the only one not of Connecticut. He came +from Maryland, and the testimonials recommending him were signed +by the Rev. Dr. William Smith, afterwards president of the House +of Deputies, and others of that State. He was born in Kent County, +and was the son of a Scotsman who emigrated to this country and +maintained a respectable character but never rose to affluent +circumstances. An opportunity occurred for the youth to accompany +a Scottish schoolmaster about to return to Edinburgh, and he +gladly availed himself of it and thus obtained a classical +education without expense to his father. After several years spent +at the University of Edinburgh, he came back to America with a +good reputation for scholarship, but it does not appear that he +had the ministry in mind so early as this. He found employment as +an instructor, and upon the establishment of Washington College, +Chestertown, Md., in 1782, he was chosen a professor in it, and +held the place until Dr. Smith, the president or principal, +returned to Philadelphia, when he was promoted to the headship of +the institution. It was under the direction of Dr. Smith that he +studied theology, and his ministerial labors were chiefly limited +to St. Paul's Parish, Kent County, of which for sometime he had +the charge in addition to his college duties. The degree of Doctor +of Divinity was conferred upon him shortly after his ordination by +the institution with which he was connected, and was a deserved +honor on the score of learning. He was a member of the August +General Convention of 1789, and signed as one of the delegation +from Maryland the "Resolves" of that body which led to the final +union and settlement of the Church in all the States. + +About the year 1804, the Legislature of Maryland passed enactments +which deprived the college of the means of a liberal support, and +Dr. Ferguson thereupon resigned his office and "retired to his +farm in the vicinity of Georgetown Cross Roads, where he spent the +remainder of his life." He died of paralysis on the 10th of March, +1806, in the 55th year of his age. + +"As a preacher," says one [Footnote: P. Worth, in Sprague's +_Annals of the American Episcopal Pulpit_, p. 344.] who was +his pupil for seven years and had constant opportunities to make +observations upon his character, "I cannot say he possessed any +remarkable power. His sermons, as specimens of composition, were +of a high order, creditable to him as a scholar and a writer, but +they were not strongly marked by an evangelical tone. Perhaps +I should not do him injustice, if I was to say that his sermons, +in this respect, were not very unlike those of the celebrated Dr. +Hugh Blair." + +I take the names of the candidates in the order in which they lie +in the Registry Book of Bishop Seabury--not that this order +determines the actual order of ordination, for I am confident it +does not. + +HENRY VAN DYCK was born in the city of New York in 1744, and was +the only son of his parents. He graduated from King's (now +Columbia) College in 1761, when the institution was in charge of +its first president, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson. After +graduating, he studied law and located himself in Stratford, +Conn., whither the family had removed and become settled. He +married Huldah Lewis of that place, August 9, 1767, and on the +sixth day of the ensuing month, he and his wife were admitted as +communicants in Christ Church, which was then under the rectorship +of Dr. Johnson for the second time, he having resigned the college +and returned to Stratford. + +It does not appear that he had much success in the legal +profession, and he wrote his discouragements to William Samuel +Johnson, special colonial agent from Connecticut, then in London, +who confided in his integrity and had entrusted him with the +collection of some debts that were his due. In his reply, Johnson +said: "It gives me concern to find that you have not met with that +obliging behaviour from the profession which you expected; those +men at the bar have, I believe, most of them experienced the +friendly assistance of those who have gone before them, and should +not therefore in point of gratitude refuse it to help those who +are coming forward and to succeed them, not to mention that it is +exceedingly ungenerous and illiberal to endeavour to cramp rising +genius, or use any attempts to monopolize a profession which +should be ever open to men of merit, and especially those who +enter into it in the regular methods of education. You will find, +however, that nothing will so effectually overcome any difficulties, +prejudices, or inconveniences of this nature as the course +you say you are in, and in which therefore you will by all +means persevere, of an assiduous, careful attention to your +business and an upright, diligent conduct in every branch of your +profession. This will secure you in the possession of the business +you have, and increase it, enable you to transact it with ease and +honor, and by degrees enforce the complaisance at least, if not +the esteem, of those who by some slights and little negligences +wished to have depressed you, and by that means perhaps secured to +themselves a greater proportion of business. + +"I sincerely give you and Mrs. Van Dyck joy upon your marriage, +and hope you will long, very long, enjoy all the blessings of the +connubial state, which I have ever esteemed essential to human +happiness. It would have given me an additional pleasure to have +known that your father had consented to it, and though it seems he +would not, I still hope he may yet see such happy effects of the +measure as to approve it and be convinced by its consequences that +he ought not to have been so inflexibly averse to it." [Footnote: +Ms. Letter, November 23, 1767.] + +Mr. Van Dyck continued the practice of law until about the time of +the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He was brought forward as a +lay-reader under the auspices of the Rev. Ebenezer Kneeland, +successor in the Church at Stratford to the Rev. Dr. Johnson whose +granddaughter, Charity, he had married. From the records of the +Episcopal Church in the adjoining town of Milford, it appears that +at a vestry meeting, held April 17, 1776, after electing wardens +and vestrymen, Mr. Kneeland being present, it was "voted that Mr. +Henry Van Dyke be desired to read prayers on such Sundays as Dr. +Kneeland shall be absent, and that we will see him rewarded for +his trouble." This was done with entire unanimity by the advice +and consent of Mr. Kneeland. An item in a publication of the time, +under date of August, 1779, though incorrect in reporting him as a +clergyman, gives evidence that he had ceased to pursue the legal +profession: "The _Rev._ Henry Van Dyke is at Norwalk, and +wants to go to Long Island with his family." + +After the independence of the colonies had been declared, the full +use of the liturgy of the Church of England was no longer +tolerated, and for ten years there was seldom any assembling for +prayers or preaching or any new choice of officers in the Church +at Milford. But in January, 1786, Mr. Van Dyck, being then in Holy +Orders, proposed to take the care of the churches in Milford and +West Haven, and his proposition was acceded to at a salary of 90 +pounds per annum; Milford agreeing to pay two-thirds of it and +West Haven the remainder. He removed with his family to Milford in +the May following, and the church thought itself happily provided +with a "pasture" for life. + +In this, however, there was disappointment, for in February, 1787, +"the appearance of a committee from Poughkeepsie" to secure him as +rector in that place and Fishkill, made the people of Milford and +West Haven somewhat indignant. They claimed that his engagement +with them was for a longer period, while he affirmed that it +terminated at the end of the year. He had been in treaty with the +Church at Poughkeepsie for some time, and visited and officiated +in it before he was in Holy Orders. The records show that he +conducted divine service in Christ Church as early as June, 1784, +and that the congregation desired the vestry to adopt such +measures in conjunction with their brethren of Trinity Church, +Fishkill, as might be proper for the settlement of Mr. Van Dyck. +The arrangement was completed by offering him as compensation the +use of the glebe, containing more than two hundred and fifty +acres, and, 80 pounds New York currency from the parish in +Poughkeepsie and 40 pounds from Fishkill. They wished him to come +whether in orders or not, but nothing more was heard of him till +he addressed a letter dated Stratford, May 22, 1785, to the vestry +of Christ Church, requesting certificates and testimonials which +would entitle him to ordination by Bishop Seabury who was already +in Nova Scotia and "momentarily expected" in Connecticut. + +"Our ordination," he said, "will take place immediately on his +arrival, for which we are making all possible preparation, after +which we shall repair to our several congregations as soon as we +can." The preparation was probably under the direction and +oversight of the Rev. Mr. Learning, the first choice of the clergy +of Connecticut for bishop. + +On the second Sunday after his ordination, in fulfilment of a +promise which he had made, the Rev. Mr. Van Dyck visited the +church in Fishkill, but he was only a bird of passage in doing +this. His private affairs were in the way. He had become indebted +to a gentleman in New York to the amount of L125, and under the +trespass law of the State, if he entered it and remained, he was +liable to arrest and imprisonment. The Legislature, by vote, +permitted him to return, and finally an amicable adjustment was +effected with the creditor through the agency of the vestry in +Poughkeepsie, and he was established as rector of Christ Church, +Whitsunday, May 27, 1787, and continued in charge till 1791. He +then removed to New Jersey and became rector of St. Peter's +Church, Amboy, and Christ Church, New Brunswick; but in July, +1793, he accepted the rectorship of St. Mary's, Burlington, which +he held for three years. His residence in this place was saddened +by painful domestic afflictions. The death of his widowed mother, +who had been an inmate of his family for many years, followed by +that of two of his daughters under peculiarly sorrowful +circumstances, must have made him quite willing to leave +Burlington, and assume, in 1797, the charge of St. James's Church, +Newtown, L. I. Here he continued to officiate for five years, and +he is said to have been the first clergyman who devoted his entire +services to that parish. This was his last and longest rectorship, +for he left Newtown in 1802, and on the 12th of September in that +year he conducted the services in Grace Church, Jamaica, then +vacant, "and offered to officiate further." + +Davis [Footnote: John Davis, _Travels of four Years and a half +in the United States_ (1798-1802), p. 155.], in his travels in +the United States, speaks thus vividly of a visit he made to +Newtown, and of his entertainment in the place: "I was fortunate +enough to procure lodgings at Newtown under the roof of the +Episcopal minister, Mr. Vandyke. The parsonage-house was not +unpleasantly situated. The porch was shaded by a couple of huge +locust trees, and accommodated with a long bench. Here I often sat +with my host, who like Parson Adams always wore the cassock; but +he did not read AEschylus. Mr. Vandyke was at least sixty; yet if +a colt, a pig, or any other quadruped entered his paddock, he +sprang from his seat with more than youthful agility, and +vociferously chased the intruder from his domain. I could not but +smile to behold the parson running after a pig and mingling his +cries with those of the animal." + +The New York Evening _Post_ of September 17, 1804, contained +this obituary: "Died early this morning, the Rev. Henry Van Dyck, +aged sixty, one of the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church, +and formerly rector of St. James's Church, Newtown. He was +possessed of an affectionate heart and excellent understanding. He +discharged with zeal, fidelity, and ability, the duties of his +calling. In private life he was esteemed by all to whom he was +known. Funeral this afternoon at five o'clock from his house, No. +4 Cedar street, New York, where his friends and acquaintances are +invited to attend." + +It is stated in the Rev. Dr. Hills's _History of the Church in +Burlington_, p. 339, that two children survived him--"a son and +a daughter; Richard Vandyke married, had a large family, and lived +to a good old age. He died in 1856." The death of the daughter, +who never married, occurred thirty years earlier. + +ASHBEL BALDWIN was born in a farm-house on the hills of +Litchfield, Connecticut, March 7, 1757. His father, Isaac Baldwin, +was a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1735, and an older +brother, who bore the paternal name, was graduated in 1774. Ashbel +was later, graduating in 1776, the year of the Declaration of +American Independence. Isaac Baldwin the senior, on leaving +college, began the study of theology and was licensed as a +Congregational minister, and preached for a time in what is now +the town of Washington, Conn. [Footnote: Dexter's _Yale +Biographies and Annals_, 1701-1745; p. 523.] But he soon +relinquished the study, and turned his attention to agricultural +pursuits, settling upon a farm in Litchfield, and becoming an +eminently useful official in the public affairs of the town and +county. + +His son Ashbel contracted a lameness in boyhood by going into the +water and imprudently exposing himself to a cold, which stiffened +and shortened one of his limbs and made his gait ever afterward +unequal and limping. He had not relinquished his attachment to the +Congregational order when he graduated and subsequently took a +temporary tutorship in a Church family in New York. Stanch +churchmen in those days, if for any cause the parish church was +closed on Sunday, turned their parlors into chapels, and had in +private the full morning service. Mr. Baldwin, being the educated +member of the household, was required to act as lay-reader, and +not knowing how to use the Prayer-Book, and yet ashamed to confess +his ignorance to the head of the family, he sought the assistance +and friendship of the gardener, who gave him the necessary +instructions, and very soon love and admiration of the Liturgy and +conversion to the Church followed. How long he continued in his +private tutorship is unknown. + +For two or three years during the Revolutionary War he held the +appointment of a quartermaster in the Continental army, and was +stationed for a time at Litchfield, where there was a large +depository of military stores, "principally taken at the surrender +of General Burgoyne," and guarded by a considerable detachment of +soldiers. For his services in this capacity he received a pension +from government, which became his principal means of support in +the last year of his life. + +Upon the cessation of hostilities and the acknowledgment of +Independence, he applied himself to theological studies, and +though but a candidate for Holy Orders, he was an interested +spectator at the meeting of the clergy in Woodbury on the Feast of +the Annunciation, 1783, when choice was made of the first bishop +of Connecticut. + +On Monday, June 20, 1785, Bishop Seabury arrived at Newport, R.I., +after a voyage from London of three months, including his stay in +Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and reaching his future home in +Connecticut a week later, preparations were immediately begun to +meet his clergy and hold his first ordination. Of the four +candidates admitted by him to the diaconate in this city a century +ago to-day, Van Dyck, Baldwin, and Shelton belonged to Connecticut, +and were recommended by its clergy, of whom in convention +assembled the Rev. Jeremiah Leaming was president. Mr. Baldwin +was sent at once to his native place, and continued in charge +of St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, till 1793, when he resigned +and accepted the rectorship of the venerable parish at Stratford. +He was instrumental in awakening the zeal of the Episcopalians +of Litchfield county, and leading them to re-open their +churches after the desolations of the war as well as to +project new ones. His recognized position in the diocese was early +one of influence and responsibility, and his energy and facility +in the dispatch of business made him especially useful in the +deliberative and legislative assemblies of the Church. He was +chosen Secretary of the Convention of the Diocese of Connecticut +in 1796, and continued to discharge the duties of that office for +a period of nearly thirty years. He was a deputy to the General +Convention for an equally long period, and held the office of +Secretary in the House of Deputies, from which he retired in 1823 +with the thanks of that body "for his long and faithful services." + +As the General Convention of 1799 was the first which Mr. Baldwin +attended in the capacity of a deputy, so that of 1823 was the +last. He was conspicuous in that council for remarkable self- +possession, and promptness and facility in giving expression to +his opinions. The type of his theology led him to take the "old +paths," and reverence for the memory of the bishop who ordained +him held him up to a high standard of legislation for the Church. +He would have her doctrines and discipline well defined and +guarded, and his first action in the House of Deputies was to move +a resolution to take into consideration the propriety of framing +Articles of Religion. He lived at a period when Puritanism was +rife in New England, especially in Connecticut, and while it was +his policy to avoid being drawn into controversy, his devotion to +the interests of the Episcopal Church never faltered or became +doubtful under any pressure of circumstances. He was a parson +without the smallest trace of bigotry, and attracted and retained +the affections of all who was privileged to know him well in his +private and official capacity. He was a good reader of the +Liturgy, an instructive, if not a learned preacher, and had a +clear, sonorous voice, and a persuasive manner which rendered his +discourses acceptable to all classes of people. His best and +happiest days were passed in Stratford, where for over thirty +years he held the rectorship of the parish which had been served +by those two eminent divines, Johnson and Leaming. + +For a portion of the time he had this parish in connection with +the neighboring one at Tashua, ministering to the latter every +third Sunday, and holding frequent services in school-houses and +private dwellings. His mode of travelling was in a chaise, and on +one occasion he drove up rather hurriedly to meet an appointment +at a house where the people had already assembled, and stepping +nimbly down from his seat he was accosted by the host who was not +a churchman: "I suppose, Mr. Baldwin, as it is the season of Lent, +you will not take any refreshments before beginning the service." +"No, nothing for me," was the reply; "but my horse is a +Presbyterian; he must be fed." + +Mr. Baldwin was a man of keen discernment, quick apprehensions, +and ready retort. In social intercourse he had wonderful powers of +adapting himself to circumstances, and was alike an acceptable +visitor in the families of the wealthy and refined, the humble and +the uneducated, and a welcome guest at their tables. It was his +practice, as it was the practice of many of the clergy in that +day, to administer baptism in private houses, using the occasion +of a lecture to make the office a public one. Very often whole +households were baptized in this way, and sometimes their +connection with the Church was afterwards unfortunately lost +through neglect to exercise a proper degree of vigilance and care. + +Mr. Baldwin married Miss Clarissa Johnson of Guilford, a grand- +niece of his predecessor in Stratford, the Rev. Dr. Samuel +Johnson. She died childless many years before him, and he never +married again. He was in the full possession of his mental +faculties and blessed with a fair degree of health when he +resigned, in 1824, the Rectorship of Christ Church. For a time he +lingered in the neighborhood of Stratford, but could not be idle, +and was soon in charge of the parish in Meriden, and afterwards +officiated in several places, as Tashua, Wallingford, North Haven, +Oxford, and Quakers' Farms. Ten years were thus passed, doing what +he could for the Church which he had served so faithfully and +loved so much; but in 1834 failure of eyesight and other +infirmities obliged him to cease from all public service and go +into retirement. It was natural for him to dwell for the rest of +his days among or near his old parishioners, and for many years, +as it suited his convenience, he resided at New Haven, Bridgeport, +and Stratford. He was at the latter place in 1837, when he +addressed a letter to Bishop Brownell, taking an affectionate +leave of the Diocesan Convention then sitting in New Haven, and +resigning the only office of trust in its gift which he had +continued to hold. + +The letter was characteristic of the man, chaste and beautiful in +its style, and pathetic in its allusions. The concluding paragraph +read: + +"My dear Sir, when I first entered the Church her condition was +not very flattering. Surrounded by enemies on every side, and +opposed with much virulence, her safety and even her very +existence were at times somewhat questionable; but by the united +and zealous exertions of the clergy, attended by the blessings of +her great Founder, she has been preserved in safety through every +storm, and now presents herself with astonishment to every +beholder, not as a grain of mustard seed, but as a beautiful tree, +spreading its salubrious branches over our whole country. The +Church, by a strict adherence to its ancient landmarks, its +priesthood, its liturgy, and its government, has been preserved +from those schisms which seem to threaten the peace of a very +respectable body of Christians in our country. May the same +unanimity and zeal which animated our fathers, still be preserved +in the Church. My days of pilgrimage, I know, are almost closed, +and I can do no more than to be in readiness, by the grace of God, +to leave the Church militant in peace. May I be permitted, Sir, to +ask the prayers of my bishop and his clergy, that my last days may +be happy." + +Mr. Baldwin went to Rochester, N.Y., a few years later, and became +an inmate in the family of one who had removed thither from +Connecticut, and who was under special obligations to him for +kindness and care bestowed in previous years. He died in that city +on Sunday, February 8, 1846, lacking twenty-seven days to complete +his eighty-ninth year. There is a memorial window erected to him +in the chancel of Grace Church, Long Hill, Conn., which occupies +ground included in the scene of his early ministration. + +PHILO SHELTON was a grandson of Daniel Shelton, the founder of the +New England branch of the Shelton family in America. He was one of +a family of fourteen children, and was born in Ripton (now +Huntington) on the 7th of May, 1754. He received a classical +education, and was the first alumnus of Yale College who bore the +name of Shelton. He graduated in 1775, just after the outbreak of +the Revolutionary war, and soon, as a candidate for Holy Orders, +he acted in the capacity of a lay-reader in several places until +his ordination. When a British expedition under the command of +Gen. Tryon was fitted out at New York in 1779, to subdue the +shore-towns of Connecticut, Fairfield was one of the places +invaded, the torch was applied to the dwellings of the rich and +the poor, and the Episcopal church there, the parsonage, and other +property belonging to the parish were consumed in the general +conflagration. This destruction impoverished and depressed the +people as a whole, and many of them fled; but the few churchmen +who remained rallied from all discouragement, rebuilt their +houses, and met in them on Sundays to worship God according to the +forms of the old liturgy, Philo Shelton having been secured for a +lay-reader. He read at the same time for the Episcopalians at +Stratfield, where a wooden church was built as early as 1748, and +also for those in Weston, where the flock had not been broken up +by the disasters of the Revolution. + +While waiting for ordination, he settled in life and married, +April 20, 1781, Lucy, daughter of Philip Nichols, Esq., of +Stratfield (now Bridgeport), [Footnote: The marriage was +undoubtedly solemnized by the Rev. Christopher Newton of Ripton, +the only Church clergyman in the vicinity, and still Mr. Shelton's +rector. He baptized the first child, _Lucy_, born June 27, +1782.] strong churchman and first lay-delegate chosen to represent +the Diocese of Connecticut in the General Convention. In February, +1785, a formal arrangement was made that his services in each of +the three places should be proportioned to the number of churchmen +residing in them respectively, and until he should be in Orders it +was stipulated to pay him twenty shillings lawful money for each +day that he officiated. Ashbel Baldwin, his nearest neighbor in +parochial work, and most intimate friend and associate in efforts +to build up the Church in Connecticut, used to say that the hands +of Bishop Seabury were first laid upon the head of Mr. Shelton on +the 3d of August, 1785, so that his name really begins the long +list of clergy who have had ordination in this country by bishops +of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In the Diocesan Convention, +under an established rule of that body, he invariably outranked +Mr. Baldwin, and so was frequently the presiding officer in the +absence of the Bishop, which is another proof that he was his +senior by ordination as well as in years. At the first convocation +of the clergy after the death of Bishop Jarvis, held in Stratford, +June 1, 1813, Mr. Baldwin, as Secretary, entered the names of +twenty-nine who were present, and then recorded: "The Rev. Doctor +Mansfield desired to be excused from serving as President on +account of his age and infirmities; which excuse was accepted by +the brethren. The Rev. Philo Shelton, being the next oldest +presbyter, took the chair." Should it be said that this does not +refer to the diaconate, it may be answered that the obituary +notice of his widow, who died in 1838, speaks of him as "the +_first_ clergyman ordained by the first American Bishop." + +After his admission to Holy Orders, according to his own +statement, Mr. Shelton took full "pastoral charge of the cure of +Fairfield, including Stratfield and Weston, dividing his time +equally between the three churches, with a salary of one hundred +pounds per annum from the congregations and the use of what lands +belonged to the cure." It was a small living for a clergyman who +already had a wife and two children, but the Revolutionary War had +so reduced the people and their resources, that it could not well +be made larger. Five years passed away before the enterprise of +building a new church in Fairfield was really begun, and then it +was erected about a mile west of the site where the old one stood, +and was only inclosed and made fit for occupancy at the time, and +not finished and consecrated till 1798. + +The population was drifting from Stratfield toward the borough of +Bridgeport, and in 1801 it was deemed advisable to demolish the +old church and build a new one in a more central situation. Mr. +Shelton saw the wisdom of this movement and encouraged it, though +it was attended very naturally with some painful considerations, +and took away a pleasing picture from the landscape which filled +the vision of Dr. Dwight when he wrote his poem entitled +"Greenfield Hill": + +"Here, sky-encircled, Stratford's churches beam, And Stratfield's +turrets greet the roving eye." + +The new church in the borough was so far completed as to be used +for public worship in the beginning of Advent, 1801, and two years +later "the ground floor was sold at public vendue for the purpose +of building the pews and seats thereon, and finishing the church; +and the money raised in the sale amounted to between six and seven +hundred dollars." The cost of the building--about thirty-five +hundred dollars--was over and above this, and was met by the +voluntary contributions of the people. Mr. Shelton, in speaking of +the completion of the whole work, said: "It has been conducted in +harmony, with good prudence, strict economy, and a degree of +elegance and taste which does honor to the committee, and adds +respectability to the place." + +For nearly forty years the scene of his ministerial labors was +undisturbed, and he dwelt among his people in quietness and +confidence, and had the satisfaction of seeing them attain to a +high degree of worldly prosperity, and St. John's Church in +Bridgeport, especially, to be one of the strongest and most +flourishing in the diocese. The silent influence of a good life +carried him along smoothly, and left its gentle impress wherever +he was known. "A faithful pastor, a guileless and godly man," is a +part of the inscription upon the marble monument erected over his +ashes in the Mountain Grove Cemetery at Bridgeport, a few years +since, by his son William, and these words sum up very appropriately +his ministerial and Christian character. + +While he confined himself closely to the duties of his cure, he +shrank not from work put upon him by the diocese, and was for +twenty-four years a member of the standing committee, and a firm +supporter of ecclesiastical authority in seasons of trial and +trouble. He was also several times chosen a deputy to the General +Convention, and never failed to attend its sessions. + +There were things that gave him great pain towards the end of his +days, and "put his confidence in the providence of God to a severe +test." He and Mr. Baldwin, so long earnest and friendly workers in +adjoining fields of labor, appear to have reached the same +determination at the same time, and probably they conferred +together before resigning their respective rectorships, which they +both did in 1824. Bishop Brownell, referring to this action in his +address to the annual convention of that year said: "These +clergymen were admitted to their ministry at the first Episcopal +ordination ever held in America, and have served their respective +parishes for more than thirty years. They have labored faithfully +in the Church in this diocese during its darkest periods of +depression, and through the progressive stages of its advancement +they have taken an important part in its councils. They have +'borne the burden and heat of the day,' and are entitled to the +gratitude of all those who enjoy the fruits of their counsels and +labors." + +Mr. Shelton confined his services after this wholly to the Church +in Fairfield, but he did not long survive the change. He died on +the 27th of February, 1825, and was buried under the chancel of +the old church in Mill Plain, Fairfield, where he had ministered +so many years, including his time as lay-reader, and a marble +tablet was provided by the congregation to mark his resting-place, +on which among other things were inscribed the date of his birth, +graduation, admission to Holy Orders, and the words: "being the +first clergyman episcopally ordained in the United States." + +In 1842 the parishioners of Trinity Church, Fairfield, voted to +remove all the public services to the chapel, which had been built +seven years before in the borough of Southport, about a mile and a +half distant from Mill Plain, and to transfer the site, title, and +rights of the parish to that edifice. The old church was +afterwards taken down and parts of it used to build the rectory in +Southport. The memorial tablet was also transferred, but on the +afternoon of March 11, 1854, the Southport Church was accidentally +burnt, and the tablet destroyed. The remains of Mr. Shelton now +have a final resting-place with his sainted wife and two of his +daughters in the cemetery before mentioned. A monumental tablet in +the wall of St. John's Church, Bridgeport, "bears an affectionate +testimony to his Christian worth and ministerial fidelity." Bishop +Brownell, in his address to the Annual Convention of the Diocese, +said of him very truly: "He has faithfully and successfully +labored for almost forty years in the parish from which his Divine +Master has now called him to his rest. He has taken an important +part in the ecclesiastical concerns of the diocese, from the +period of its first organization, and the moderation and prudence +of his counsels have contributed, in no small degree, to the +welfare of the Church. For simplicity of character, amiable +manners, unaffected piety, and a faithful devotion to the duties +of the ministerial office, he has left an example by which all his +surviving brethren may profit, and which few of them can hope to +surpass." + +His widow survived him thirteen years--an intelligent and devout +churchwoman who, as it has been said, "left a name only to be +loved and honored by her friends." Two of his sons entered the +ministry. The younger of them, George Augustus Shelton, a graduate +of Yale College, died in 1863, Rector of St. James's Church, +Newtown, L. I. The other, the late William Shelton, D. D., +succeeded his father for a time in Fairfield, and then went to +Buffalo, where for more than half a century he was the distinguished +Rector of St. Paul's Church, the oldest parish in that city. +Both died childless, and the name of Shelton has disappeared +from the list of our clergy. + +The Bishop then proceeded with the service, being assisted in the +administration by the Rev. Dr. Beardsley and the Rev. Messrs. +Francis Goodwin and S. O. Seymour of Hartford. After the service, +the churchwomen of Middletown entertained the clergy and visitors +at the Berkeley Divinity School. + +The following is a list of the clergymen who were present: + +The Right Rev. the Bishop; the Rev. Dr. Beardsley of New Haven; +the Rev. Messrs. E. W. Babcock, New Haven; Prof. John Binney, +Middletown; J. W. Bradin, Hartford; Sylvester Clarke, Bridgeport; +Francis Goodwin, Hartford; F. D. Harriman, Middle Haddam; Prof. +Samuel Hart, Hartford; J. W. Hyde, West Hartford; Prof. W. A. +Johnson, Middletown; W. F. Nichols, Hartford; J. L. Parks, +Middletown; Prof. F. T. Russell, Waterbury; B. S. Sanderson, +Wethersfield; S. O. Seymour, Hartford; John Townsend, Middletown; +S. H. Watkins. Bristol; W. W. Webb, Middletown; Charles +Westermann, Middle Haddam; Henry Edwards, Hagerstown, Md.: W. B. +Walker, Augusta, Ga. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +COMMEMORATION AT ABERDEEN, + +OCTOBER 7-8, 1884. + + +In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1884, Bishop Williams +said: + +"I have received an invitation to be present at Aberdeen, +Scotland, during the first week in October next, and to take part +in the celebration of the centenary of the consecration of our +first Bishop. This invitation I have, after much hesitation, +decided, with your consent, my brethren, to accept. And inasmuch +as the month of August and early September are not very available +for visitations of the parishes, as it is more than forty years +since I was in Great Britain, and as it is very unlikely that I +shall ever visit it again, I have also determined, again with your +consent, to sail for England, if so God wills, on the nineteenth +of July, hoping to be permitted to return hither as soon as the +services of the Commemoration are ended. + +"I am to be the bearer of an address to the Episcopate of Scotland +from the House of Bishops in this country; and it would be +peculiarly gratifying to my feelings, as well as most seemly in +itself considered, could I also carry out an Address from our own +Convention. If our whole Church owes a debt of gratitude to the +venerable prelates who laid hands on Seabury, surely this Diocese +has especial cause to acknowledge to their successors the +obligations under which the loving kindness of those prelates has +placed those who have gone before us, ourselves, and those who +shall come after us to the latest generations." + +This part of the Bishop's address was referred to a special +committee, on whose recommendation--their report being presented +by their chairman, the Rev. Dr. Harwood--the following resolutions +were unanimously adopted: + +_Resolved_, That this Convention has heard with great +satisfaction that the Bishop has received and accepted an +invitation to be present at Aberdeen in October next, to take part +in the centenary commemoration of the Consecration of Bishop +Seabury; and that, in giving its assent to the Bishop's request +for leave of absence, the Convention assures him that the best +wishes and prayers of the Diocese will go with him. + +_Resolved_, That the Rev. Dr. E. E. Beardsley, the Rev. +Samuel F. Jarvis, the Rev. Samuel Hart, and the Rev. William F. +Nichols, be and they are hereby commissioned to present to the +Scottish Bishops an Address in the name of this Convention; and +that the Secretary be instructed to furnish them with a +certificate of their appointment. + +_Resolved_, That this Committee have permission to sit after +the adjournment of this Convention, to prepare the Address. + +At a meeting held after the adjournment of the Convention, the +Rev. Dr. Beardsley being called to the chair, it was resolved, on +motion of the Rev. J. J. McCook, to take measures for procuring a +suitable memorial of the gratitude of the Diocese of Connecticut +to be presented to the Church in Scotland at the approaching +centenary commemoration; and to that end the chairman appointed as +a Committee, with power, the Rev. Messrs. John Townsend, John J. +McCook, and William F. Nichols. The Committee determined that the +memorial should take the form of a Paten and Chalice, and +subscriptions for the same in small amounts were solicited and +received from clergymen and lay persons throughout the Diocese. + +THE Bishop of Connecticut and the four Presbyters appointed by the +Convention attended the commemorative service at St. Andrew's +Church, Aberdeen, on the seventh day of October. [Footnote: The +Rev. Howard S. Clapp and the Rev. Gouverneur M. Wilkins were also +present from Connecticut. + +Duplicate copies of the special minutes of the Episcopal Synod +recording the proceedings at the Centenary in Aberdeen and of the +official record of the meeting of the Synod on the eighth of +October, have been forwarded to the Bishop of Connecticut for +preservation in the Archives of the Diocese. They are authenticated +by the signatures of five of the Scottish Bishops and attested +by Hugh James Rollo, Esq., W. S., Registrar to the Primus + and Assistant Lay-Clerk to the College of Bishops.] The +Holy Communion was celebrated according to the Scottish rite; and, +in the presence of a large congregation, including Bishops of the +Scottish, English, Irish, American, and Colonial Churches, about +two hundred clergymen, and a large body of the faithful laity, +Bishop Williams preached the following sermon: + +ISAIAH 1x. 5.--"Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine +heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the +sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall +come unto thee." + +The stirring prophecy which contains these words presents to us, +as does many another prophecy, the Divine ideal of the Church of +God. It shows us what that Church would be, even here in "the +progress of time, while, living by faith, she sojourns" in a world +lying in wickedness, had not man's folly and sin marred that +Divine ideal. It points us forward to the day when "in the +stability of that eternal seat which--now she patiently awaits, +she shall attain the final victory and the perfect peace." +[Footnote: St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei._, Lib. i., Preface.] + +The entire prophecy, as it runs through the several chapters from +the first of which the text is taken, finds its two horizons, so +to speak, in the First and Second Advents of our Lord. Its theme +is the period that lies between them. That period it describes as +one long year of Jubilee, the period of the new creation +redressing the confusions and desolations of the older one, in the +power and abiding presence of the same Holy Spirit That once moved +"upon the face of the waters," and is now, "by the washing of +regeneration" and in His own renewing life, "shed on us abundantly +through Jesus Christ our Saviour." As the story of that older +creation began with the fiat "Let there be light," so the prophecy +of this new one begins with the words, "Arise, shine, for thy +light is come." As that creation found its consummation in the +Paradise wherein grew "every tree pleasant to the sight and good +for food," and in which unfallen man was placed, so this finds its +consummation in the new Paradise "in the midst" of which stands +the tree of life whose "leaves are for the healing of the +nations"; the dwellers in which are "trees of righteousness, the +planting of the Lord"; while itself is called "sought out, a city +not forsaken." + +So much for the whole prophecy; and time forbids me to say more, +if indeed more were needed. Let us turn to that integral portion +which the text contains; and I venture, for the moment, to reverse +the order of its wording and to speak of its last clause first. + +"The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces +of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." Growth is the normal law of +the Church's life. It may not always and at any given time be +growth in numbers, though, if other growth be not lacking, that is +sure to come. But growth there must be; growth "in grace and in +the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"; growth "into +Him in all things Which is the Head, even Christ"; growth upon and +in "the chief Corner-stone, in Whom all the building fitly framed +together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." And such growth +does--it must--lead on directly to the gathering in of souls into +the Lord's kingdom; it must arouse that which we call the +missionary spirit in the Church, which was illustrated, as never +before nor since, in the life and example of Him Who came "to seek +and to save that which was lost"; which was inculcated by Him when +He bade the Twelve to "disciple all nations"; which was the burden +of the last words, "unto the uttermost part of the earth," that +fell on the ears of the adoring Apostles as He entered into the +bright cloud of the Ascension; and to which the miracle of +Pentecost had such direct and solemn reference. [Footnote: Baton's +Bampton Lectures, 1872, p. 363.] + +When this normal law becomes a living conviction in the minds and +hearts of the Church's members, and, therefore, in the mind and +heart of the Church herself, then those two things follow which +the first part of my text (though, indeed, it is the illation from +the latter portion) brings before us, when it says that because of +the conversion of "the abundance of the sea," and because of the +incoming of "the Gentiles," "thou shalt see, and flow together, +and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged." + +First, "thou shalt see, and flow together"; or, as it might better +read, "thou shalt see and be enlightened." As the mind takes in +those latest words of the Lord, "unto the uttermost part of the +earth," as the eye beholds the Church spreading outward from its +one centre in Jerusalem, "the vision and the faculty divine," if +not created, are at least sharpened and strengthened. We learn how +God "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in +heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might +show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us +through Christ Jesus." We understand, as never before, "what is +the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of + +[Footnote: Eaton's _Bampton Lectures_ 1872, p. 363] the world +hath been hid in God, Who created all things by Jesus Christ." + +So it fared with St. Peter, after that vision of the great sheet +coming down from heaven had fully opened to him the universality +of the Church of God. Then his "delusive dream of temporal +deliverance became a real assurance of eternal redemption." Then +his "narrow estimate of the Divine Covenant with his own nation +expanded, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, into the sublime +conception of the 'Israel of God.'" [Footnote: Lee _On Inspiration_, +p. 249 (American edition).] + +"Thine heart shall fear and be enlarged." The fear surely is not +that of shivering dread or slavish terror. But it is that subduing +awe which always accompanies great joyfulness, and enters into it +in such a mysterious and perplexing way; even as God says, by +Jeremiah, that when all the nations of the earth shall hear of the +good which He will do unto Israel, "they shall fear and tremble +for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I procure unto +it." So when Jacob, awaking from the sleep in which he learned of +the new Covenant with God through the Incarnation of Christ, +exclaimed: "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the +House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven!" And then, as the +unbounded love and mercy of the Father of all spirits comes to be +understood, the heart is in very deed "enlarged," as St. Paul's +heart was toward his Corinthian children; and it goes along, in +loving, active sympathy with the great purpose of God, "that in +the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together +in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which +are on earth, even in Him." + +Thus as the "Vision of peace, the blessed city Jerusalem" has +dawned upon our sight; as we have watched, its ever-spreading +walls and rising towers; as we have seen it builded up with living +stones, which are human souls redeemed and sanctified; we have +entered with a keener insight into, we have come to comprehend +more truly and more fully, "the length and breadth and depth and +height" of that "manifold wisdom of God" which is made "known by +the Church" even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly +places"; and our hearts have kindled into that constraining love +of Christ, in which we rejoice, with joy unspeakable, to work +together with Him in bringing men to the knowledge of the one way +of salvation, while, in the same deep love, we also endeavor to +"keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." + +Fathers and brethren, honored and beloved in the Lord! as I stand +here, this day, with a full heart but with trembling lips, the +unworthy successor of him who, in this city of old renown, +received a century ago the sacred deposit which he bore to the +Western world; as I look on this truly august gathering which +tells, as no words can tell, how God has blessed the vine planted +in early, possibly in Apostolic, days in "Britain divided from the +world," enabling her "to stretch out her branches unto the sea, +and her boughs unto the river"; as I think of all that has come +and gone in those hundred years in the marvellous growth and the +awakened inner life, acting and reacting on each other, of the +mother and the daughter Churches--for we all spring from one and +the same noble stock--I can find no better words in which to sum +up memories, thoughts, forecastings, than those which I have +endeavored somewhat to unfold: "Then thou shalt see, and be +enlightened, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because +the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces +of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." + +And yet, one cannot but remember how far beyond all possible +anticipations of those brave hearts that once made such a venture +for Christ and His Church, are the things which our eyes look +upon, and which are a part of our everyday life and experience. + +When those ten presbyters, whose priesthood had not been gained +without trials and perils which only the deepest convictions could +have nerved them to bear, met in that secluded unknown New England +town, on the Festival of the Annunciation, in 1783, and laid the +burden of seeking for the Episcopate on Seabury, what could they +have seen about them but the disorganized elements of an +apparently decaying life? When, on the 14th of November, 1784, in +that upper room in this good city, those venerable prelates (whose +names are to-day household words through all the length and +breadth of what has been called "The Greater Britain of the +Western World") handed on the high commission they had received in +trust, what could their eyes have looked upon but scattered flocks +under their few shepherds, which must meet, if they met at all, in +uncertainty and peril, to worship God as their fathers had +worshipped before them? Still, if they saw little around them to +encourage and support, theirs (we may well believe) was the eye of +faith that is strengthened to pierce the future. If they heard few +words of cheer from men, there came upon their ears, from a +Greater than man, words of strong hope and glorious promise. In +that Transatlantic gathering, small and unnoticed as it was, the +ten who came together heard, in the Gospel of the Annunciation, +that "with God nothing is impossible," and in the song of the +Blessed Virgin they were bidden to bethink themselves how "God +remembered His mercy and truth toward the House of Israel," +exalting "the humble and meek," filling "the hungry with good +things," and helping "His servant Israel." Here in Aberdeen, on +that memorable day of November, they said in the morning Psalter: +"O what great troubles and adversities hast Thou showed me! and +yet didst Thou turn and refresh me; yea, and broughtest me from +the deep of the earth again"; and then, as the strain of praise +swelled higher, higher still, while the vision of the City of God +in all its grandeur broke on the eye of faith, there came the +inspiring words--how their hearts must have thrilled as they +uttered them!--"He shall deliver the poor when he crieth, the +needy also, and him that hath no helper... He shall be favourable +to the simple and needy, and shall preserve the souls of the +poor.... There shall be an heap of corn in the earth, high upon +the hills; his fruit shall shake like Libanus, and shall be green +in the city like grass upon the earth." + +Words like these carry with them unwonted power on occasions like +those of which I have been speaking. To us they come like special +prophecies of what we look on as a century now closing. To those +others they came freighted with hope for an indefinite and unknown +future. And what an inspiration they must have given to the +venture they were making; a venture so entirely one of faith, that +it is not too much to say of those who made it that they take +their places in that long line of faithful ones, mentioned with +such distinguished honor in the Epistle to the Hebrews, who, +though they only saw "the promises afar off," still "were +persuaded of them and embraced them," and therefore "obtained a +good report." Can we imagine, dear brethren, a more striking +illustration of the different aspect which things wear to the eye +of sense on the one hand, and the eye of faith on the other, than +that which the election and consecration of the first bishop for +America present to us? All honor, then, to those brave hearts that +accomplished them! Men may have counted "their lives madness and +their end to be without honor." We know, blessed be the God of all +grace and power! that they are "numbered among the children of +God, and their lot is among the saints." + +The temptation is strong to linger on the simple but impressive +scene of the consecration: to try to picture that secluded oratory +in the house of the Coadjutor-Bishop of this faithful diocese; to +endeavor to bring back the congregation gathered in it, and the +ministering prelates; to recall the form of the youthful priest +who held the book from which the awful words of ordination were +recited, Alexander Jolly, afterwards the sainted Bishop of Moray; +to speak of this ancient city of Aberdeen, associated for all time +in the memories of Churchmen with the names of John Forbes of +Corse and Henry Scougal and the remembrance of its orthodox and +learned doctors; but time forbids more than this briefest mention. + +We behold--and it is a sight to stir the heart with "thoughts too +deep for words"--we behold a suffering and a witnessing Church, in +the depth of a long and wasting depression, reaching out the hand +of love to a Church suffering and witnessing also, and trembling, +to human seeming, on the verge of utter extinction. Perhaps--is it +too much to say it?--it was because of this patient suffering and +faithful witness that God gave to this Church the distinguished +privilege of sending its first Apostle to the new world beyond the +ocean. I cannot refrain from quoting here the admirable words of +one of your own Scottish bishops. Speaking of the act which we +commemorate, he says: "Mark, my brethren, how for the accomplishment +of this work--according to the full measure of the gifts +of the Spirit and of Apostolic order--it pleased God, as at +the first, to choose the weak things of the world, and things that +were despised, yea, and things which in the eye of man had ceased +to be. To our Scottish Church with its hierarchy, which had +formerly consisted of two Archbishops and twelve Bishops, then +reduced to four; with its pastoral charge, which had once +comprehended the care of every parish in the land, then shrunk to +little mere than a score or two of scattered congregations--yea, +and at the very time when an act of the civil legislature had +declared all ecclesiastical orders conferred by her to be null and +void; at such a time, to the poor persecuted remnant of the Church +in Scotland was this grace given, that she should impart to the +United States, now no longer dependent upon England, the first +seed of the Episcopate which England had withheld. Yes, the first +bishop who set foot on the continent of North America, the first +bishop who went forth to a foreign land bearing the full blessings +of our reformed Church, was consecrated to his Apostolic office, +not amid the solemn pomp and august ceremonial of an English +minister, no, nor in the privacy of an episcopal palace, but in +the obscurity of an upper chamber in a common dwelling-house in +Aberdeen." [Footnote: Bishop of St. Andrews; _Mending of the +Nets,_ p.17 (ed. 1884).] If, as has sometimes been generously +said, this noble act of faith and charity has afforded a new and +signal illustration of our Lord's own words, "It is more blessed +to give than to receive," that does not make the act a whit less +noble, nor diminish by one jot the obligation of undying gratitude +on the part of those who received the gift it gave. + +If we look at its immediate results, besides what has just been +named, it assuredly gave an impulse to that action of the State in +England, in consequence of which, within five years, three bishops +of the English line were given to as many dioceses in the United +States. It was the means, also, of joining in the American +Episcopate the Scottish and the English lines of succession in a +union that will endure while the world shall last. For though the +prelate consecrated here ministered in only one consecration of a +bishop after his return--that of the first Bishop of Maryland-- +yet, since that day, there has not been (and there can never be in +time to come) a bishop in our American Episcopate, who, as he +traces back his lineage through the network--for I surely need not +say, here and now, that the succession is a network and not a +chain of single links--will not find in it the name of that Bishop +of Maryland, by whom he is connected with Seabury, and then, by +him, with "the Catholic remainder of the Church of Scotland." Nor +need one ask, nor could he have, if he did ask it, a nobler +spiritual lineage than he has received in that double succession, +which indeed becomes single again if we go back for a little more +than another century. + +Then, again, this deed of Christian charity did, no doubt, bring +out from its obscurity into the light of day, the witnessing +remnant of the ancient Church of Scotland, and was, perhaps, the +first step towards the removal of those civil disabilities which +had pressed her into the dust. How must the iron of suffering have +entered into the soul of many a faithful priest in those dark days +of trial, when, we are told, the clergy had given up the hope that +any successors would come after them, and on the monument of one +of them were written the despairing words, "Ultime Scotorum!" +[Footnote: Epitaph by the Rev. J. Skinner on the tombstone +of the Rev. Mr. Keith, Presbyter at Cruden: "Ultime Scotorum +in Crudenanis, Keithe, Sacerdos."] + +How strangely similar were the conditions of those who sought the +Episcopate and those who courageously gave it in those days of +doubt and darkness! How fitting it seems that, in the ordering of +God's providence, one suffering Church, stripped of its worldly +honors and its earthly wealth, should give to another, "scattered +and peeled" and apparently on the verge of extinction, that +deposit which it had maintained in the face of dangers that might +well seem worse than death itself! They who have lived together +under the shadows and in the sharing of life's tragedies and woes, +know full well that there is no bond of union half so strong as +the bond of common suffering; know full well that they whose +hearts have touched each other only in hours of joy and gladness, +can never be so bound together as those who have wept beside beds +of death, or clasped each other's hands over open graves. Why +should it not so be with bodies of men as with individuals? Above +all, why should it not so be with sister Churches, bound together +in the highest of all bonds? Was it not so here a century ago? +When the kindly hand was outstretched here to help, when the +loving word, carrying the very life of love, went across the ocean +to those who were indeed "minished and brought low," was not the +channel of Christian sympathy deepened, was not its flow made +fuller and more strong by the conditions of which I have just +spoken? And if it has pleased God, in His great mercy, to send +brighter days, greater peace, better hopes to each of us, shall +not the bond, once welded by suffering, still keep its strength? +God grant it may! God grant that, till the Lord shall come to give +His universal Church its final triumph, these Churches, so +marvellously united, "may stand fast in one spirit, with one mind +striving together for the Faith of the Gospel, and in nothing +terrified by adversaries." + +It would be more than ungrateful, it would be inexcusable, to omit +here the recognition of the agency by which, under God, it came to +pass that there were in what had been the colonies of Great +Britain, and were now independent States, those who sought the +Episcopate as essential to the full organization of an autonomous +Church. That agency is found in the Venerable Society for the +Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts--a society to which +American Churchmen must always look with undying gratitude, for to +its noble labors they largely owe all that they were when Seabury +was sent upon his mission of faith, and much of what they enjoy +to-day. + +It was no fault of that Society that there was not, in America, an +Episcopate before the war of the Revolution. Had the godly +counsels and the strong appeals of the bishops, clergy, and +faithful laity who shared in its plans and operations, been +listened to, American Churchmen would have had no need to seek the +Apostolic office outside the limits of their own country. This is +not the time nor is this the place to consider, in detail, the +reasons--if reasons in any proper sense of the word there were-- +why the Episcopate, so strongly desired, had not been given. But +it is worthy of notice that where the labors of the Society had +been the most abundant and its missionaries most numerous, there +the need of the Episcopate was most deeply felt and the call for +it was loudest. Indeed, the only two colonies from which any +opposition to sending bishops to America before the Revolution +came, were Maryland and Virginia; and to those colonies, because +in them the maintenance of the clergy was otherwise provided for, +the Society sent few, if any, missionaries. + +No part of all the Western world received more of the Society's +fostering aid than the New England colonies; and to none of them +was more help extended than to the colony of Connecticut. From the +day when the foundations of the Church were laid in that colony on +to the outbreak of the Revolution, the benefactions that came from +England were abundant and unceasing. With possibly a single +exception, all the clergy in the colony were missionaries of the +Society. They were also sons of the soil, who, because of +convictions too strong to be resisted, went back to the Church +from which their fathers had gone out, and in doing so incurred +odium and reproach, scorn and contempt, the loss of much that +gives earthly comfort and rejoicing, and sometimes the sundering +of ties that seemed to be a part of life itself. They were taught, +too, by the bitter experience of half a century, the difficulties +and dangers attendant on a voyage to England to obtain Holy +Orders; difficulties and dangers then so great that one in every +five of all sent out for ordination perished by sickness or by +shipwreck, and saw his native land no more. Theirs may be +inglorious confessorships, unknown to or forgotten by men, but +confessorships they are, and we cannot doubt that they find their +place in the Book of God's remembrance. + +It can cause no wonder that men thus trained and tried should, +when the severance of the mother country and its colonies was +complete, have turned their first thoughts to the means of +perpetuating that stewardship "of the mysteries of God," which +they had so hardly won; that they should have held that to be the +first step, and refused to take another till they had taken that. +For, indeed, if the Church is to be rightly perpetuated under the +conditions of a normal growth, it can only be perpetuated +according to the original and organic law of its existence. When +He to Whom in His resurrection "all power was given in heaven and +in earth," committed to the Apostolic Ministry the tradition of +the Apostolic Doctrine, in that great baptismal formula which is +alike the source and summary of the Catholic Faith, He joined two +things together that man may never put asunder. He may try the +separation if he will--he has tried it, alas! more than once--but +the end, the inevitable end, has always been the loss of the +Apostolic Doctrine. + +Then, on the other hand, the gift of the Apostolic Ministry +without the most wisely guarded guarantees that there shall be a +steadfast continuance in the "doctrine of the Apostles, and in the +breaking of bread, and the prayers," is a gift of more than +doubtful value. Men seem to think to-day, that they can leave out +what parts they please from the original and divine organism of +the Church, and still work the rest at will. The attempt, believe +me, is just as futile as it would be to undertake to deal in like +fashion with one of those huge machines that work, all about us, +with such life-like power, and attempt to make it do its work, +when some portion of its complex mechanism had been removed. We +cannot be too thankful for the merciful guiding that kept our +fathers, a hundred years ago, from so fatal a mistake as that. For +here, as well as in England, guarantees were demanded and given, +so far as it was possible to give them, before the succession was +communicated. + +I turn to that venerable document known to us as the Concordate, +one copy of which is preserved in the Episcopal archives here in +Scotland, and its duplicate in America, and I read words which it +is well to remember to-day: words which speak of the due +maintenance "of the analogy of the common Faith once given to the +Saints, and happily preserved in the Church of Christ"; which +declare, in terms of unmistakable clearness, "that the spiritual +authority and jurisdiction" of Christ's ministers "cannot be +affected by any lay deprivation"; which provide, so far as +provision could be made, for the full communion with the Church in +Scotland of the newly consecrated bishop, his successors, and his +diocese, a communion which, as this day's service so solemnly +attests, has come to embrace not that single diocese alone, but +the entire Church in the United States; words, finally, which +pledge the bishop then sent forth, to endeavor, "by gentle methods +of argument and persuasion," to bring about a substantial +agreement between the two Churches, in "the Celebration of the +Holy Eucharist--the principal bond of union among Christians, as +well as the most solemn act of worship in the Christian Church." +How that pledge was, under the manifest and wonderful leadings of +God's providence, fulfilled, not for one diocese, but for a +national Church, our American Book of Common Prayer declares and +will declare in all coming time. + +I have spoken, fathers and brethren, of the past, for to it our +thoughts naturally and chiefly direct themselves to-day. Its grand +venture of faith, the brave hearts that made it, the generous +givers of the precious gift, the undaunted receiver of the gift +who bore it across the ocean--for all he knew, to stormier seas +than the Atlantic's billows--these fill up the foreground of the +picture on which our eyes are resting. As I turn from it, and from +the figures of those venerable prelates who stand foremost in it, +I remember (and I repeat, speaking for generations that have +passed away and for generations that are to come) the words that +were sent to them from hearts that burned with grateful love: +"Wherever the American Episcopal Church shall be mentioned in the +world, may this good deed which they have done for us be spoken of +for a memorial of them!" + +If, however, there is a past for which the deepest thankfulness is +due, there is also a present which we may not forget, for in it +our thankfulness, if it is real, must culminate. What a change has +a century wrought for us! How unlike is 1884 to 1784! I do not +much believe, my brethren, in numbering the people. I am sure that +any boastful or vain-glorious numbering is but an evil thing. But +surely when "a little one" has "become a thousand, and a small one +a strong nation," we may gratefully recognize the merciful +guidance and blessing of the Lord, Who has "hastened it in his +time." In 1784, we see one single bishop of our communion, and one +only, outside the realm of Great Britain and Ireland; and him with +an unformed diocese and a future on which rested more clouds than +sunshine. In 1884 time would fail him who should undertake to read +the roll of regions occupied and churches organized. An American +statesman once said, in words that have been often quoted, that +England's drum-beat never ceased as it passed around the world. We +can say that our English Te Deum, with its "Day by day we magnify +Thee," rolls round the world as well, in unceasing and ever- +increasing volume. + +Of the vast regions to which that solitary bishop went in 1785, +there is no part or portion which is not now an organized diocese +or a missionary jurisdiction, and the increase has been thirty, +sixty, yea, an hundred-fold. Here the things that seemed ready to +die have been so strengthened by Him "without Whom nothing is +strong," that a bright and blessed present points to an even +brighter and more blessed future; while, if we look to that great +Church from which our successions ultimately come, we find her +outgoings and advances limited only by the limits of the world +itself. In the name of her Lord and King she has indeed taken "the +heathen for His inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for +His possession." + +Shall we dare from such a past and such a present to look forward +through the years of a coming century? Those years are in the hand +of God, and what they may bring to us it is not for us to know, +nor need we ask. But we do know this, and it is enough for us to +know, that if these Churches, holding fast "the form of sound +words," and "holding forth the word of life," shall rise to the +full measure of their opportunities and duty, in sole reliance on +the power of Him Who died and yet liveth for evermore; in services +of holy worship; in the proclamation of the remission of sins in +Jesus Christ; in the tradition of His holy sacraments; in +faithful, loving ministries to the bodies and the souls of men; if +they shall so strive, then they shall have a work given them to do +in the latter days, before the view of which the heart dies down +in awe, and the voice is hushed in unutterable thankfulness. + + "Visions of glory, spare my aching sight; + Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!" + + +One word remains to be uttered here--the word of love and +gratitude to this venerated Scottish Church, from the far-off +Western world: + +"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love +thee. Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy +palaces! For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will wish thee +prosperity! Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will +seek to do thee good!" + + * * * * * + + +A reception banquet was held on the afternoon of the same day, at +which Bishop Williams replied to the toast of "The Church in +America." + +On the eighth day of October, a large congregation being assembled +in St. Andrew's Church for the opening service of the Synod of the +Bishops of the Scottish Church, at the close of the processional +hymn, the Rev. William F. Nichols presented to the Bishop of +Aberdeen the memorial Paten and Chalice, the latter bearing this +inscription: [Footnote: The Chalice stands eleven inches high, and +is of massive silver. The base is broad and heavily moulded. From +above the base mouldings spring eight arched panels. The front one +contains a crucifix, the cross and the figure of our Lord being in +full relief. In the panel to the left are the arms of the See of +Connecticut, resting on branches of oak. In the one to the right +are the arms of the Bishop of Aberdeen, encircled by branches of +the thistle. In the panel opposite that containing the crucifix +are the emblems of St. Peter and St. Paul. The remaining four +panels are filled with the emblems of the four Evangelists. From +this part of the base rises a richly moulded plinth, supporting +the lower shaft, which is worked in diaper tracery. The knop of +the shaft is encircled with eight elaborately wrought bosses, +ornamented with garnets and sapphires in gold settings. Above the +knop the shaft has simpler treatment, being worked with +quatrefoils in square panels, all in relief. From this rises the +bowl of the chalice, which shows solid gilt, enriched with an +outer cup of delicately chased silver work, divided into eight +sections, to correspond with those of the stem and of the foot. +The section above the crucifix shows the Alpha and Omega, entwined +by passion-flowers. The next one to the left contains the IHS, +entwined with the grape-vine. The next one to the right contains +the X P, with sheaves of wheat. Beginning with the panel next to +the right of this, the several ones are filled as follows:--the +Greek cross with the thistle; next, the pelican with the rose of +Sharon; next, the emblem of the Holy Trinity with the clover-leaf; +next, the emblem of the Holy Ghost with olive branches; next, the +crown of glory with palm branches. The Paten is enriched with a +golden medallion on the rim, in the form of a vesica, which shows +the _Agnus Dei_, executed in colored enamel.] + + CONNECTICUT TO SCOTLAND. + A.D. 1784--A.D.1884 + A GRATEFUL MEMORIAL BEFORE GOD + _OF THE EPISCOPATE AND THE EUCHARISTIC OFFICE_ + TRANSMITTED BY BISHOPS KILGOUR, PETRIE, AND SKINNER + TO SEABURY AND THE CHURCH IN AMERICA. + _Think upon them, our God, for good, + according to all that they have done for this people._ + + +In making the presentation, Mr. Nichols spoke as follows: + +My Lord Bishop: It has been delegated to me by some of the clergy +and laity of the Diocese of Connecticut--not only those with whom +it has been my privilege to share in the events of these ever-to- +be-remembered days, but by many whose hearts are following us in +all these services--to place in your hands this Chalice and Paten, +and to read the explanatory address. By the happy foresight which +has characterized the preparations for the centenary celebration, +there is placed on the wall of this holy place a copy of that +Concordate in which the three Bishops of your Scottish Church and +the first Bishop of our American Church plighted their troth. It +was indeed a "great mystery"; it spoke concerning Christ and His +Church. As I sat in this chancel on Sunday last, by one of those +coincidences which I believe may occur for the eye of thankful +faith as well as for the eye of sentiment, the sunlight which +bathed your beautiful city with its warmth, so shone its colors +through that south chancel window that at the beginning of the +service they fell athwart the Concordate hanging on the opposite +wall. Then, beginning at that, as the service went on, and as the +sun circled its daily course, when the time came for the +Consecration-prayer, the light fell upon the sacred vessels of the +altar. So the sunlight took its way from the Concordate which the +exigencies and circumstances of that far-off time demanded, to the +symbols of that perpetual concordate which exists in the one body +of Christ--between the Head and the members, between the living +members of that Body, between the living members and the members +of that Body in Paradise. I could not but think that the brief +course of the sunlight here might stand for the dial of the +century gone. Exigencies and circumstances that are special, +require special concordates. Both Churches then had them, and they +framed that agreement. The century has led us around from those +exigencies and circumstances to a condition of prosperity, in +which the only thought need be of the supreme concordate in the +Communion of the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord and +Saviour Jesus Christ. May this Chalice and Paten, the symbols of +the renewed troth of the Churches, be the symbols of all +prosperity for both, as in the Master's work they enjoy "the unity +of the Spirit in the bond of peace." + +Mr. Nichols then read the formal letter of presentation, as +follows: + +DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT. July, 1884. + +_To the Bishop of Aberdeen, representing the Church of +Scotland:_ + +The Diocese of Connecticut has formally expressed, through its +official representatives, its appreciation of the courageous and +intelligent action of your predecessors one hundred years ago. But +it has seemed to a few of the clergy and laity, who are confident +that they represent herein the general feeling of our people, that +a further memorial may be fittingly presented; and we beg you to +accept, to keep, and to transmit to your successors, this Chalice +and Paten, as a token of our gratitude to you and to God for the +two great benefits which through you, in His providence, have come +to us. Those benefits are the Episcopate and the Eucharistic +Office--the former, to use the very words of your own Bishop +Kilgour, "free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical;" the latter +embodying features which are at once an expression and an earnest +of those "catholic and primitive principles," both doctrinal and +liturgical, for which the Church of Scotland has long been +distinguished, and to which she has pledged the Church in +Connecticut. + +The gift which we offer, right reverend Sir, is great only in what +it thus symbolizes and the uses to which it is consecrated. In +these vessels the memorial before God will be presented, and from +them the sacrament of life and unity will be dispensed. May that +memorial be graciously received whensoever, by whomsoever, and for +whatsoever offered. May that sacrament of unity bind together in +one, us the children, with them the fathers who kept that which +was entrusted to them, committing it only to faithful men, and +who, having departed this life with the seal of faith, do now rest +in peace. + +And may the Lord accept the sacrifices and intercessions of His +people everywhere, and speedily accomplish the number of His +elect, that we, the living, together with them, the departed, may +be made perfect in His glorious and everlasting kingdom. + +Faithfully and affectionately yours, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and +in the unity of His Church, + + JOHN TOWNSEND, + JOHN J. McCOOK, + WM. F. NICHOLS, _Committee._ + + + E. E. BEARDSLEY, _Chairman of the Meeting._ + + +The Bishop of Aberdeen, in reply, said: + +Right reverend father in God, my reverend brethren, and the whole +Church in the Diocese of Connecticut, elect of God and precious, +we receive these sacred vessels at your hands with such feelings +of gratitude and thankfulness, both toward God who hath put this +into your hearts, and toward yourselves, beloved in the Lord, as +no utterance of our lips can ever express. In this beautiful +Chalice and Paten, so graciously bestowed on us, we recognize, +venerable father and dear brethren of the Church in Connecticut, +the expression both of your faith toward God and of your love +toward us. In this gift we behold the visible evidence of your +faith in the promise of God that endureth from generation to +generation: "When I see the blood I will pass over you," and your +trust in the assurance of His Holy Word: "The cup of blessing +which we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ?" +And here, too, is the evidence of your love toward us, in that ye +long that we should be "partakers with you in the One Bread and +One Body; for we are all partakers of that One Bread." As we use +these sacred gifts in our highest act of worship and nearest +approach to God, we shall ever rejoice in the consciousness of +your love toward us in the communion of saints, and that you share +with us in the precious heritage of the great liturgy bequeathed +to us by our fathers in the faith. Venerable father and dear +brethren, these days of praise and thanksgiving to God and +communion one with another, will assuredly leave their impression +on the Church in America and Scotland for all eternity. Our +Eucharistic worship to-day is surely blended with the same worship +offered a hundred years ago by our fathers in God and your saintly +predecessor in that humble upper chamber. May we who have knelt +to-day in the unseen presence of our Divine Lord and Master, unite +with them and with one another in the adoration of the unclouded +glory of His visible presence for all eternity. + +The Bishop of Aberdeen then proceeded with the Communion-service +according to the English rite, being assisted by the Bishop of +Edinburgh and the Bishop of Glasgow. The Paten and Chalice just +presented were used in the consecration and administration of the +sacred elements. + +Divine Service being ended and the Synod having been duly +constituted, after the Bishop of Connecticut had presented to the +Synod an address from the Bishops of the American Church and a +reply had been made by the Bishop of St. Andrews, presiding in the +Synod, the Connecticut delegation presented the address from the +Convention of their diocese, engrossed upon parchment, which was +read by the Rev. Dr. Beardsley, as follows: + +TO THE BISHOPS OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH: HEALTH AND +GREETING IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. AMEN. + +_Right Reverend Fathers:_ + +The Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the Diocese of Connecticut, in +Convention assembled, send to you, by the hands of faithful +brethren, these presents, in glad remembrance that your +predecessors in office were moved, a hundred years ago, to raise +and consecrate to the Order of Bishops the Reverend Samuel +Seabury, Doctor in Divinity. We do honor to their fidelity to the +Church of Christ and to the purity of their motives when they +declared that they had "no other object in view but the interest +of the Mediator's Kingdom, no higher ambition than to do their +duty as messengers of the Prince of Peace." By their act we +received "the blessings of a free, valid, and purely ecclesiastical +Episcopacy," and our hitherto "inorganized Church" became +duly equipped for the work it has since done and the witness +it has borne. + +The language of the clergy of Connecticut, when they acknowledged +on the sixteenth day of September, Anno Domini 1785, with "the +warmest sentiments of gratitude and esteem," the pastoral letter +addressed to them as a sequel to the consecration of their Bishop +and the Concordate, may well be called to mind once more: "Greatly +are we indebted to the venerable fathers for their kind and +Christian interposition, and we heartily thank God that He did, of +His mercy, put it into their hearts to consider and relieve our +necessity. Our utmost exertions shall be joined with those of our +Bishop to preserve the unity of faith, doctrine, discipline, and +uniformity of worship with the Church from which we derived our +Episcopacy, and with which it will be our praise and happiness to +keep up the most intimate intercourse and communion." + +At that time the Catholic remainder of the ancient Church of +Scotland and the Church in this new world were in the dust. The +one was suffering from public disabilities, and the other lay +prostrate from the effects of war; its churches were dismantled, +its congregations scattered, and but a remnant of its clergy and +people could be found to build up again the broken walls. To-day +all things wear a new look. You are working with better and +brighter hopes than your predecessors could possibly have; and we +can assure you that the expectations of our honored forefathers in +the faith have been wonderfully fulfilled, so that the Church in +Connecticut has become "a fair and fruitful branch of the Church +universal." Our clergy have increased tenfold, and our parishes +have acquired both strength and public influence, and we stand to- +day upon the old foundations and perpetuate the love of our early +clergy and people for primitive truth and Apostolic order. The +generations after us will never forget the debt of gratitude due +to the Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church for their helping +hands in the day of our weakness and need; the bond of Christian +fellowship sealed in the Concordate by your predecessors and our +first Bishop will continue to be recognized and cherished, as it +has been by our fathers. + +Invoking the Divine blessing upon the Scottish Episcopal Church, +and asking your prayers and benediction, we are, right reverend +fathers, your dutiful servants in Christ Jesus. + +In behalf of the Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the Diocese of +Connecticut: + +EDWIN HARWOOD, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven; + +SAMUEL FERMOR JARVIS, M. A., Rector of Trinity Church, Brooklyn; + +SAMUEL HART, M. A., Presbyter and Professor in Trinity College, +Hartford; + +WILLIAM T. MINOR, LL.D., Lay Delegate, St. John's Parish, +Stamford; + +JOHN C. HOLLISTER, M. A., Lay Delegate, St. Paul's Parish, New +Haven. + +Dated at New London, June 10th, A. D. 1884. + +The Bishop of St. Andrews read the following reply of the Synod to +the address from the Diocese of Connecticut: + +_To the Right Reverend John Williams, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of +Connecticut, the Reverend the Clergy, and the faithful Laity of +the Diocese, from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland +in Synod assembled: Love and greeting in the Lord Jesus +Christ._ + +To receive any representatives of the American Church to-day and +to accord them a hearty welcome must be a cause of sincere +satisfaction to us; but in greeting you, dear brother, whom God +has set over Seabury's own diocese of Connecticut, and those who +accompany you as representing your flock, we experience a peculiar +pleasure. For giving us the happiness of seeing you here to-day we +thank you sincerely, and we thank the faithful of your diocese for +providing that their Bishop, in now visiting the scene of his +heroic predecessor's consecration, should not be unattended by +some of their own number, whose presence should be expressive of +the interest which they themselves feel in the event which we are +commemorating, and also (as we are glad to believe) of their love +towards the Church which gave them their first bishop. + +"Connecticut," said the saintly Bishop Alexander Jolly in his +letter to the Bishop of Maryland in 1816, "has been a word of +peculiar endearment to me since the happy day when I had the +honour and joy of being introduced to the first ever-memorable +bishop of that highly favored see, whose name ever excites in my +heart the warmest veneration." + +The Scottish Church, dear brother, finds in these words a true +expression of her own feelings--feelings which the visit which we +have "the honour and joy" of receiving to-day from so worthy a +successor of Connecticut's first bishop, will serve to intensify +for the future. You will the more readily therefore believe, +brother, that the words of gratitude towards our Church, which, in +your own name and in the name of your diocese, have just been +spoken, must be in the highest degree gratifying to us. + +We cordially unite with you in your expressions of thankfulness to +Almighty God for the work which he has vouchsafed to carry out +through the agency of those branches of His Church which you and +we respectively represent. + +We rejoice to hear of the vigorous life which the Church in your +diocese has manifested in the remarkable growth which the past +century has seen it make. We pray that it may continue to receive +God's blessing in rich abundance, and bring forth much fruit to +His glory. + +We have a lively sense at the same time of our Lord's great mercy +to ourselves in lifting us up from our poor and despised estate, +in bringing us to comparative honour, and comforting us on every +side. + +We trust that through His grace the work, still future, for which +He has been training and strengthening us through so many +generations, may be thoroughly and faithfully done by us and by +those who will come after us. + +You allude approvingly to the Concordate drawn up and signed by +Bishop Seabury on the one part and his consecrators on the other, +which was, in the language of its framers, to serve as a "bond of +union between the Catholic remainder of the ancient Church of +Scotland and the now rising Church in the State of Connecticut," +and you assure us that it "shall continue to be maintained and +cherished by you, as it has been by your fathers." + +We have heard with gratification that the desire to be closely +allied in the matter of similarity of offices with our own Church, +which has prevailed in your diocese ever since the American +liturgy was, under your first Bishop's influence, enriched by some +of the most valuable of its present features, is still strongly +felt by you. + +That for all time to come we may be all of one heart and of one +soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and +charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify the one and +only God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is our hearty prayer +and our confident hope. + +To His love and blessing we commend you. + +CHARLES WORDSWORTH, Bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane; + +HENRY COTTERILL, Bishop of Edinburgh; + +WM. S. WILSON, Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway; + +HUGH W. JERMYN, Bishop of Brechin; + +ARTHUR G. DOUGLAS, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney; + +J. R. A. CHINNERY-HALDANE, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles; + +For the Bishop of Moray, Ross, and Caithness, _Primus_, +ROBERT A. EDEN, M. A., _Commissary_." + +[Seal of the Primus attached.] + +Before the synod proceeded to business, the Bishop of Aberdeen +presented to the Bishop of Connecticut a Pastoral Staff, the gift +of Scotch Churchmen to him and his successors in office, with +these words: [Footnote: The Staff is of ebony, the upper part +being of silver parcel gilt. The crook proper has for its central +subject our Lord's charge to St Peter, who kneels at the Saviour's +feet. The pierced side of our Lord is significantly seen, as the +drapery falls open. A vine is growing up behind Him bearing grapes +(expressed by precious stones), and gathered at His feet are sheep +and lambs. The ornamental work of the crook takes the form of +thistle-leaves--in allusion to the Scotch origin of the gift--and +the bossy flowers are expressed by cut amethysts. The crook is +hexagonal in plan; the tower which surmounts the canopied niches +immediately below the crook also takes the same shape, and +accommodates the six figures introduced. This hexagonal tower has +Gothic tracery, with pinnacles, pillars, and canopies, enriched +with cairngorms. The figures (St. John, St. Andrew, St. Ninian, +St. Augustine of Canterbury, Primus Kilgour, and Bishop Seabury) +represented in the niches, are intended to illustrate the main +points in the Episcopal succession and the characteristics of the +Scottish Church. The tower is supported upon a carved capital with +six amethysts between _repousse_ oak-leaves, and is jointed +to a circular boss surrounded with four vertical bands enriched +with cairngorms, while between the bands are carbuncles set off by +filigree work. There are also silver bosses at the joints of the +ebony portions of the staff.] + +No words of mine can convey to you the feelings of gratitude which +animated the hearts of all Scottish Churchmen when they heard of +your remarkable kindness in coming to our shores at this time to +celebrate with us our service of praise and thanksgiving to +Almighty God for the blessing He has bestowed upon the work of our +fathers. As a small testimony to their venerable father and to the +Church of his diocese, they ask Bishop Williams to accept this +pastoral staff. May I point out that there are portrayed on this +staff figures which represent the history of the Church in this +land, and therefore a great chapter in the history of the American +Church. You will find on the staff the figure of St. Andrew, the +patron saint of Scotland; you will find also the figure of St. +John, reminding you that Christianity reached Scotland from +Eastern sources; you will find the figure of St. Ninian, uniting +the Scottish succession and ministry with the Celtic Church; and +you will find the figure of St. Augustine, signifying that act of +brotherly love and communion which we received from the English +Church, restoring to us the Episcopacy which in troublous times +had been lost; you will also find the figure of that Primus of the +Church who was the chief consecrating bishop of your venerable +Seabury, and you will find also the figure of Seabury himself. In +the head of this staff you will recognize the figure of the great +Head of the Church giving His divine commission to St. Peter and +to all others ordained and consecrated to the same sacred office: +'Feed my sheep; feed my lambs.' I will rejoice to think that this +staff, which you and your successors will carry on your +confirmations and visitations and other episcopal acts, by +reminding you of the sanctuary where we have just now held our +great service to God, and of the figure of the Good Shepherd which +stands over its altar, will not only recall to you the pastoral +work in which it is your high office and privilege ever to +minister, but will encourage you to seek also the blessing and the +favour of the chief Bishop and Pastor of souls. In now presenting +you with this emblem of your sacred office, as I have the +privilege of doing on behalf of the Scottish Church, I may mention +that many of the offerings that have been given towards it have +been the pence of the very poorest in the land. + +Bishop Williams, in acknowledging the presentation, said: + +There are times and things concerning which words utterly fail and +must fail to give utterance to the feelings of the heart, and +this, let me say, is one of those times--a day that I can never +forget, a day for which--though most unworthy of what has been +given me--I must always feel the devoutest thankfulness to +Almighty God. A hundred years ago you gave my great predecessor +here in Scotland the office of Bishop in the Church of God, and +now this day, a hundred years after, in the fulness of your loving +hearts and kindly remembrances of that great act, you give Bishop +Seabury's successor the sacred symbol of the same high office in +the Church. I only wish it were given to worthier hands; but I can +pledge myself to this, that to my successors as they follow me +year after year, and, if God so wills, century after century, the +staff will be handed down as a most sacred deposit and memorial. +It will drop from many a hand before another hundred years go by +and another gathering takes place here in this place of sacred +memories, but the office of which the staff is the symbol--that +office, I thank God, never dies. Men pass away, the office lives +on; and though many hands that shall have held this staff may by +that time be folded in the sleep of death, I trust that when the +hundred years come round again, my successor may come here, as I, +Bishop Seabury's successor, have come, to offer to the Bishops of +the Scottish Church, to its clergy, and its faithful laity, the +assurance of his deep love and undying gratitude that they were +bound together in one common bond of one holy faith, and in a +common love of one living Lord and of each other. I trust that +that day will show the whole world, as this day has done, "how +good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in +unity." + +On the afternoon of the same day a conference was held in the +Albert Hall, at which the Rev. Dr. Beardsley read the following +paper: + +SEABURY AS A BISHOP. + +A great deal has been said within the last week--never too much, +I trust--of that grand man who left the shores of America a +century ago, and came to the mother country in quest of a +spiritual gift which, for reasons of state, was refused him by the +Bishops of the Church of England. + +In the providence of God, and under instructions from the clergy +of Connecticut, who selected and sent him over, he found his way +to Aberdeen, and was here duly raised to the Apostolic office, and +so became the head of an anxious and long-waiting body, as well as +the first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United +States of America. + +The many blessings which have flowed from this act of consecration +by the Scottish Bishops have been recognized and recounted again +and again, and it is not my purpose to dwell on them now; but +rather to speak of that part of the life of Seabury which covers +the exercise of his Episcopal office. + +But before I proceed to do this, let me step back for a few +moments under the arches of history, and make two or three +references to show that our Church in America is indebted to +Scotland, and especially to Aberdeen, for other favors besides the +gift of Episcopacy. You gave us men who were great historic +pioneers in our ecclesiastical existence. The Venerable Society +for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was chartered +in 1701, and for three-quarters of a century its chief field of +labor was in New England. This fact may be ignored, but it forms +an important and salient feature in its early history; and what is +remarkable, the very first missionary sent out by the Society to +the American colonies was a native of Aberdeen, George Keith, a +school companion of the celebrated Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of +Salisbury, whom he mentions in his "History of his own Time." And +then that wonderfully numerous tribe or family, which always has +its representatives in every Christian country of the wide world, +furnished us William Smith, born on the banks of the river Dee, +not far from this city, a man with glaring imperfections of +character, but a scholar and a divine, who knelt side by side with +Seabury in the chapel of Fulham Palace when they were admitted to +Holy Orders, and who subsequently became a conspicuous actor in +the organization and establishment of our American Church, having +been the first President of the House of Deputies, and having +guided that body to concurrence with the House of Bishops in +revising the Book of Common Prayer and accepting the Scotch +Communion-office. We might not have had this office in its present +shape had he not risen to favor its adoption when signs of +dissatisfaction and a disposition to reject it appeared. + +Still again we are indebted to another native of Aberdeenshire, +known in our history as William Smith the younger, who went to +America soon after the acknowledgment of American Independence, +being in Holy Orders which he received in Scotland, and, having +served the Church for a time in other States of our Republic, +appeared in Connecticut, and held important educational and +parochial positions in that diocese. The office for the +Institution or Induction of Ministers into parishes or churches, +set forth in our Book of Common Prayer, was compiled by him. He +was a man of much learning, ardent temperament, and quick +impulses. He possessed singular versatility of talents, was a +composer of church music, and a constructor of church organs. He +was a pioneer in our country in chanting, and did us good service +in overcoming or diminishing the popular love for a Puritan style +of metrical psalm-singing. + +Men of this stamp went to America when our Church was in, or +passing through, a broken and disordered condition, and we have +reason to be thankful to them for the aid they rendered us when we +were sorely in need. I believe we _are_ thankful. I believe +there is a growing interest among our people in the Scottish +Church, an increasing desire that Churches of the one faith-- +English, Scotch, Irish, and American--should have a closer bond of +fellowship, and rejoice more heartily in each other's prosperity. +It is a good thing that we have come together on this centennial +occasion and mingled our congratulations. As we have met here face +to face, we have learned to respect ourselves more, and, I hope, +to love and respect each other more. + +But let me leave these references, and draw your thoughts around +Seabury in his Episcopal character. On the morning of a bleak +November Sunday in 1784 we enter an "upper room" in Longacre, +built and fitted for Divine worship, and find there three of the +four bishops then administering the dioceses of the Scottish +Church; and after prayers and a suitable sermon, they proceed to +consecrate this self-sacrificing servant of God to the Apostolic +office. Though the penal laws enacted against the clergy of the +Scottish Church had not yet been repealed, their edge had worn +away, or they had ceased altogether to be enforced, so that the +service was in no manner secret. It was witnessed by a number of +respectable clergymen, and a large body of laity, "on which +occasion all testified great satisfaction." As the letter of +Consecration reads: _Presentibus tam e Clero quam e Populo +Testibus idoneis_. The occasion was a memorable and particularly +solemn one. Seabury himself said of it: "It was the most solemn +day of all my life--God grant I may never forget it." + +He preached in the afternoon of the day of his consecration, and +his earnestness and manner of address, accompanied with +gesticulations, which appear not to have been common in Scotland +at that period, made a favorable impression. On his return to +London, he stopped at Edinburgh, where his friend and fellow- +sufferer in the trials of the American Revolution, Dr. Myles +Cooper, with others, welcomed him, and gave him hearty congratulations +on the accomplishment of his mission. From this city, he +wrote to the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, vicar of Epsom in Surrey, +who had interested himself in his application, to acquaint +him, as he had promised to do, with the success of his visit to +Scotland. "The Church in Connecticut," said he, "has only done her +duty in endeavoring to obtain the Episcopacy for herself, and I +have only done my duty in carrying her endeavors into execution. +Political reasons prevented her application from being complied +with in England. It was natural in the next instance to apply to +Scotland, whose Episcopacy, though now under a cloud, is the very +same in every ecclesiastical sense with the English." + +He had grown up and lived hitherto under the influence of the +highest veneration for the Church of England, and his attachment +to her was still strong, notwithstanding he considered it bad +policy that his application for consecration had been rejected by +the English Bishops. He began to fear, however, that the Society +for the Propagation of the Gospel might cease to aid him, which +would be a result to be deplored for other than pecuniary reasons. +"Should the Society itself," said he, "be obliged to take such a +step, though I shall be sorry for it and hurt by it, I shall not +be dejected. If my father and mother forsake me, if the governors +of the Church and the Society discard me, I shall still be that +humble pensioner of Divine Providence which I have been through my +whole life. God, I trust, will take me up, continue His goodness +to me, and bless my endeavors to serve the cause of His infant +Church in Connecticut. I trust that it is not the loss of 50 pounds per +annum that I dread--though that is an object of some importance to +a man who has nothing--but the consequences that must ensue, the +total alienation of regard and affection." + +His path was not yet cleared of trials and perplexities, for on +reaching London he found those high in authority so dissatisfied +with the step he had taken that they pronounced it _precipitate_. +"Since my return from Scotland," said he in his first pastoral +letter to the clergy of Connecticut, "I have seen none of +the bishops, but I have been informed that the step I have +taken has displeased the two Archbishops, and it is now a +matter of doubt whether I shall be continued on the Society's +list. The day before I set out on my northern journey I had an +interview with each of the Archbishops, when my design was avowed, +so that the measure was known, though it has made no noise. My own +poverty is one of the greatest discouragements I have. Two years' +absence from my family, and expensive residence here, have more +than expended all I had. But in so good a cause, and of such +magnitude, something must be risked by somebody. To my lot it has +fallen; I have done it cheerfully, and despair not of a happy +issue." + +All his apprehensions in regard to aid were realized, though he +wrote a most admirable letter to the Venerable Society giving a +concise history of his mission to England, and making a pathetic +appeal for future remembrance and consideration. After a delay of +two months, it was acknowledged by the Secretary without +recognizing his official character, being addressed "To the Rev. +Dr. Seabury, New London, Connecticut." He was told that his case +was comprehended under the general rule, that the charter would +not allow the Society to "employ any missionaries except in the +plantations, colonies, and factories belonging to the Kingdom of +Great Britain." + +Bishop Seabury received from the British Government 50 pounds per +annum half-pay as a chaplain in the King's American regiment during +the War of the Revolution; and a few of his fast friends in England-- +among them Dr. Horne, then Dean of Canterbury, Rev. Jonathan +Boucher, and William Stevens, Esq.--associated themselves together +and engaged to send him annually 50 pounds from the date of his arrival +in Connecticut. This engagement was faithfully kept to the day of +his death, and was an equivalent for the stipend which had been +withdrawn by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. + +His preparations for returning to America were now completed, and +early in March, 1785, he embarked in a ship commanded by Captain +Dawson, which sailed from London for Halifax. His main object in +going by the way of Nova Scotia was to see the situation of that +part of his family then resident in that neighborhood. He is +recorded as officiating at Annapolis Royal, April, 1785, and was, +therefore, the first bishop of our Church who preached in the +Dominion of Canada. Mention is also made of his preaching several +Sundays in St. John, New Brunswick, where a daughter with her +husband was living at the time. + +He landed at Newport, Rhode Island, after a voyage of three +months, including his stay in Canada, Monday, June 2Oth; and the +next Sunday he preached in Trinity Church in that place, the first +sermon of an American bishop in the United States, from the text +(Hebrews xii. I, 2): "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about +with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight +and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with +patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the +Author and Finisher of our faith." + +More than half a century prior to this, a great dignitary of the +Church of England, Dean Berkeley, after a voyage of nearly five +months from Gravesend, arrived at the same port, and preached many +times in the same church, which is still standing. The missions of +these men had many points of resemblance; but while one, after a +trial of more than two years and a half, failed to accomplish his +heroic object, and returned to the land of his birth to be honored +with a mitre in the see of Cloyne, the other was blessed in his +work, and lived to behold the Church in America united in the +adoption of a revised liturgy, and settled upon the old +"foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself +being the chief corner-stone." + +The next step of Bishop Seabury was to arrange for a meeting with +his clergy, and he wrote immediately to the Rev. Mr. Jarvis, who +had acted as their secretary, and invited him to New London to +consult with him on the time and place. It was held in Middletown +on the 2d of August, 1785--a meeting full of joy to both parties-- +and the clergy, in their address of congratulation and formal +recognition, said among other things: "We, in the presence of +Almighty God, declare to the world, that we do unanimously accept, +receive, and recognize you to be _our Bishop_, supreme in the +government of the Church, and in the administration of all +ecclesiastical offices. And we do solemnly engage to render you +all that respect, duty, and submission, which we believe do belong +and are due to your high office, and which, we understand, were +given by the presbyters to their bishop in the primitive Church, +while in her native purity she was unconnected with and +uncontrolled by any secular power." + +The Bishop opened his reply to this address with hearty thanks to +the clergy for their kind congratulations on his safe return, and +cordially united with them in their joy for the accomplishment of +the important business which he had been excited to undertake. His +first ordination was held on this occasion, and steps were taken +to make such changes in the liturgy as might be necessary to adapt +it to the use of the Church in the new civil relations. But what +added to the interest and significance of the occasion was the +charge which he delivered to the clergy, so valuable both in its +teachings and its connection with American Episcopacy. The three +points which he enlarged upon in it were the obligations they were +under to be very careful of "the doctrines which they preached +from the pulpit or inculcated in conversation"; to be cautious +about giving recommendations to candidates for Holy Orders, whose +moral character, learning, and abilities were not only to be +exactly inquired into, but their good temper, prudence, diligence, +and everything by which their usefulness in the ministry might be +affected. "A clergyman," said he, "who does no _good_ always +does _hurt_; there is no medium." The third point of the +charge was upon the necessity of immediate attention to that old +and sacred rite handed down by the primitive Church, the laying-on +of hands in Confirmation--a rite which, for want of the proper +officer to administer it, had hitherto been unused in the American +Church. + +Seabury had the double work of a bishop and a parish minister, +being rector of the church in New London, and meeting its demands +with the aid of one of his newly-ordained deacons. His entrance +upon the public duties of his Episcopal office in Connecticut had +been looked forward to with much curiosity and some prejudice by +those outside of the Church. The old Puritan dread of a hierarchy, +instilled into the popular mind before the independence of the +Colonies, still lingered, and helped to foster the expectation +that he would assume great dignity, and appear in a degree of +external splendor. There was disappointment in this respect when +he began the visitation of his diocese in the simplest and most +primitive manner, riding on horseback or in a sulky over rough and +circuitous roads, and through regions sparsely inhabited. A plain +yeoman, who had never seen a bishop in his robes, and knew not how +he would appear in officiating, took an early opportunity to +gratify his curiosity and attend a service where he was to preach. +The next morning a neighbor, who had not the boldness to follow +his example, met him, and asked him what he thought of Bishop +Seabury. "Was he proud?" he inquired. "Proud! Bless you, no!" was +the reply. "Why, he preached in his shirt-sleeves!" + +Beyond the labor of regulating and settling the Church in +Connecticut upon right principles, Bishop Seabury was especially +anxious that the whole Church in the United States should be so +guided as to prevent any division in government, doctrine, and +discipline. A Convention was about to be held in Philadelphia to +adopt an ecclesiastical constitution and make application for +bishops in the English line of succession; and he asked, through +Dr. Smith, and renewed the expression of his sentiments in a +letter to Dr. (afterwards Bishop) White a few days later, that +that body would reconsider certain measures which it had hastily +adopted, and which seemed to indicate a forgetfulness that "the +government, sacraments, faith, and doctrines of the Church are +fixed and settled." Among his words of wisdom and kindness to Dr. +Smith were these: "My ground is taken, and I wish not to extend my +authority beyond its present limits. But I do most earnestly wish +to have our Church in all the States so settled that it may be one +Church, united in government, doctrine, and discipline--that there +may be no divisions among us--no opposition of interests--no +clashing of opinions. And permit me to hope that you will at your +approaching Convention so far recede in the points I have +mentioned as to make this practicable. Your Convention will be +large and very much to be respected. Its determinations will +influence many of the American States, and posterity will be +materially affected by them. These considerations are so many +arguments for calm and cool deliberation. Human passions and +prejudices, and, if possible, infirmities, should be laid aside. A +wrong step will be attended with dreadful consequences. Patience +and prudence must be exercised; and should there be some +circumstances that press hard for a remedy, hasty decisions will +not mend them. In doubtful cases they will probably have a bad +effect." + +The action of the Convention in setting forth what is known in +American ecclesiastical history as "The Proposed Book" only made +him adhere more resolutely to the convictions of his intelligent +mind; and his clergy stood by him, and supported him in the sound +principles which he maintained. "Depend not on rumors," said one +of them, writing to a friend; "the clergy in Connecticut are well +pleased with their bishop, and will run the risk of a disunion +with the Southern gentry rather than forsake him, if he will stay +with us. We hope, however, better things than that." And better +things did come to pass. Attempts to cast discredit upon the +validity of his consecration, initiated and persisted in mainly by +those opposed to him on political grounds, were met in a manly and +Christian spirit, and he took the necessary steps to frustrate +them without using harsh words or doing more than state simple +facts. His second and last formal Charge to his clergy, delivered +September, 1786, whether considered in reference to the unbelief +of the times, or to the movement of the clergy and laity in the +Southern States to revise and alter the liturgy and government of +the Church, is a production of remarkable forecast and wisdom. At +this time he set forth a Communion-office, agreeably to the terms +of the Concordate made with the Scottish bishops, which gradually +went into use in the diocese, and traces of this particular office +lingered in Connecticut for half a century. When the union of the +Church in all the States was consummated in 1789, and the first +real General Convention held in that year, consisting of a House +of Bishops and a House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, entered upon +a review of the Book of Common Prayer, the proposition to insert +the Scottish form of consecration was accepted and approved, the +words only "That they may become the Body and Blood of Thy most +dearly beloved Son," being omitted, and those in the English +office substituted. + +There were now three bishops in the American Church, and efforts +were made to bring them together in the consecration of a fourth, +but without avail. Bishops White and Provoost considered +themselves under an implied obligation not to join in any +consecration until there should be the actual number of three in +the English line of succession. Provoost was absent from the +Convention of 1789, when the Prayer-Book was revised, and Seabury, +being the senior, was made the President of the Upper House. He +and Bishop White spent no time in speeches, but looked carefully +at each point as it came into view. With minds and characters +differently constituted and moulded, they were just the men to be +brought together in such an emergency. One was frank and fearless +in adhering to his settled convictions, and resolute in upholding +the faith and preserving the ancient landmarks of the Church, but +not so self-willed and tenacious of his opinions that he could not +gracefully relinquish them where no essential principle was +involved. The other had a less rigid temperament, and from natural +kindness of heart, and perhaps personal inclination, he might have +been led without this check to yield to the pressure of +circumstances at the expense of a true conservatism. Bishop White, +however, was not more gentle and generous than capable of +appreciating the character of his Episcopal brother; and the +testimony which he bore long years after was that he "had ever +retained a pleasing recollection of the interviews of that period, +and of the good sense and Christian temper of the person with whom +he was associated." + +In 1792 another General Convention was held, and Bishop Seabury +preached the sermon, which was printed by the request of both +Houses, and glowed with the true spirit of Christian love, with +that perfect and comprehensive charity which tends to preserve the +peace and unity of the Church under all possible circumstances. + +By this time James Madison had been sent over and consecrated, in +the Chapel of Lambeth Palace, Bishop of Virginia; and thus the +question of having three bishops in America of the English +succession before proceeding to consecrate, was put to rest. + +The Church in Maryland elected the Rev. Dr. Thomas John Claggett +its bishop, and deputies from that State appeared with him at this +General Convention, and, with the necessary documents in hand, +presented him to the House of Bishops, "requesting that his +consecration might be expedited." It was a movement intended to +unite Episcopalians more closely together by blending the two +lines of succession and for ever preventing the possibility of a +question arising in the American Church as to the relative +validity of the English and Scotch Episcopacy. For the application +to consecrate Dr. Claggett was not made to those only who received +their authority in the Chapel at Lambeth, but the whole four were +requested to join in the act, which was solemnized in Trinity +Church, New York, Monday, September 17, 1792; and from that day +not a bishop has been consecrated in this Church who cannot claim +the succession, in part at least, through the Scottish Episcopate. + +An incident connected with the consecration ought not to be +withheld here, for it shows the man and his Christian spirit. It +had been agreed at the last General Convention that the eldest +bishop present--to be reckoned from his consecration--should be +President of the House, and this rule, if unchanged, would have +left Seabury to preside at the consecration. But the agreement +seemed to be displeasing to Bishops Provoost and Madison, and it +was proposed by them that the presidency should go by rotation, +beginning from the north, which would take it away from him and +give it to Provoost. "I had no inclination," says Seabury, "to +contend who should be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, and +therefore readily consented to relinquish the presidency into the +hands of Bishop Provoost. I thank God for His grace on this +occasion, and beseech Him that no self-exaltation or envy of +others may ever lead me into debate and contention, but that I may +ever be willing to be the least when the peace of His Church +requires it." + +Great duties were now resting upon him, for besides Connecticut he +virtually had the oversight of all the Episcopal parishes in New +England; and in 1790 those in Rhode Island met in Convention and +formally declared him to be the bishop of the Church in that +State. This necessitated long journeys and long absences from his +home, and the only compensation for lack of speed and comfort in +the modes of conveyance at that period was the cheerful +hospitality which everywhere awaited him. In moving about from +place to place he was the Christian bishop and the agreeable +companion as well. His familiarity with subjects outside of +theology, and his ready retort upon those who attempted now and +then to draw the Church or his office into ridicule, were pleasant +features of his life, treasured and handed down to us by the +generation to which he belonged. + +On the occasion of his first visit to Boston he called on Dr. +Mather Byles, then living in retirement, who, though a Congregational +divine, was yet a sturdy loyalist during the Revolution, +and had a son who entered the ministry of the Church of +England and was proscribed and banished for entertaining the +political views of his father. Dr. Byles was a noted wit, and so +ready with his puns and sarcasms that seldom did anyone try to +match him in this line without coming off the worse for the +conflict. When Seabury paid him the compliment of a visit, he +received him very cordially, and said, with a mixture of irony: "I +am happy to see in my old age a bishop on this side the Atlantic, +and I hope you will not refuse to give me the right hand of +fellowship." To which the Bishop replied: "As you are a +_left_-handed brother, I think fit to give you my _left_ +hand," which he accordingly did. The conversation soon turned upon +the general subject of the Church, and it being St. Mark's day, +and public service as usual, the doctor inquired: "Why is it that +you churchmen still keep up the old Romish practice of worshipping +saints?" "We do not worship saints," was the quick reply; "we only +thank God that the Church has had such worthy advocates, and pray +Him to give us hearts and strength to follow their example." +"Aye," exclaimed the other, "I know you are fond of traditions; +but I trust we have now many good saints here in our Church, and, +for my part, I would rather have one living saint than half-a- +dozen dead ones." "Maybe so," rejoined the Bishop, "for I suppose +you are of the same mind with Solomon, who said that 'a living dog +is better than a dead lion.'" + +Enough has been said in this paper to show the admirable spirit of +Seabury all through his Episcopate. "Forgetting those things which +were behind, he reached forth to those before"; and if assailed +for the part he took in the war of the Revolution, he let his +conscientious pursuit of what he believed to be right at the time +pass into history without apology or vindication. He aimed to +promote peace among his brethren, and was lenient in dealing with +their prejudices. One venerable presbyter of his diocese, +supported by his people, was reluctant to adopt the revised +Prayer-Book, and he wrote him a kind letter, and said in it: "The +question is not which book is the best in itself, but which will +best promote the peace and unity of the Church. Such was the +temper of the people to the southward, that unity could not be had +with the old book. Is not, then, the unity of the whole Church +through the States a price sufficient to justify the alterations +which have been made, supposing (and in this I believe you will +join with me) that there is no alteration made but what is +consistent with the analogy of the Christian faith? Let me, +therefore, _entreat you as a father_ to review this matter, +and I have no doubt but that you will join with your brethren, and +_walk by the same rule_ in your public ministrations. This +will rejoice their hearts, and mine also. May God be your director +in all things, and grant that we may meet together in His own +heavenly kingdom." + +Signs of failing health began to appear, and symptoms of a +paralytic nature came upon him, without seriously interrupting his +duties. His sound and vigorous constitution, and his unimpaired +mental faculties, afforded encouragement to believe that his life +might be prolonged for years. This was in 1795. Late in the month +of February of the next year, "Mr. Jarvis of Middletown was +sitting before the fire," so says an eye-witness, "his wife near +him, engaged in some domestic employment, and his little son +playing about the room. A messenger entered with a letter, sealed +with black wax, and handed it to Mr. Jarvis in silence. He opened +it, and his hand shook like an aspen-leaf. His wife, in great +alarm, hastened to him, and his son crept between his knees and +looked up inquiringly into his face. He could not speak for some +moments. At last he said, slowly and convulsively: 'Bishop Seabury +is dead.'" + +In the evening of Thursday, the 25th of February, he walked with +his daughter to the house of one of his wardens. He complained, +when there, of an extreme pain in his breast, and at the moment of +rising and retiring from the tea-table, fell in an apoplectic fit, +and expired in forty minutes after entering the house. + +He was buried from the church on Sunday; and this circumstance, +and the impediments of travelling at that season of the year, +joined with the few facilities for conveying intelligence, +prevented the clergy of the diocese from gathering in mourning and +sorrow around his grave. A single clergyman attended his funeral +and preached a sermon. + +Thus one who was a little more than eleven years a bishop, and who +has filled the American Church and your Scottish Church with the +memory of his worth, rises and stands before us in history to-day. +What would he have thought and said, if he could have cast his +vision forward a century, and comprehended the contrast between +the gathering in the upper room in Longacre and the vastly greater +gathering here now, to express devout thankfulness for an act +which has been blessed of God to the good of so many souls! From +the then poor see of Connecticut, to which he was going in faith +and hope, have come his third successor in that see and a company +of clerical brethren, to represent its present strength and zeal, +and at the same time to show that we keep ever fresh in our +remembrance the gift that we received, and are glad to join with +others in congratulating you most heartily on the prospect of yet +brighter days for your own Scottish Church. + +Professor George Grub, LL.D., then read a paper on The Relations +of the American and Scottish Churches; after which Bishop Williams +and others spoke. + +The exercises of the commemoration were concluded with a large and +enthusiastic meeting in the evening at the Music Hall. + +After his return to Connecticut, the Bishop received from the +Clergy and Trustees of St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen, a letter, +beautifully engrossed upon parchment and illuminated, in the +following words: + +_The Clergy and Trustees of St. Andrew's Church, Aberdeen, to +the Right Reverend John Williams, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut. +Right Reverend Father in God:_ + +It would have given us unfeigned pleasure, as the representatives +of the congregation in which your great predecessor was +consecrated and in which the centenary commemoration of that happy +event was celebrated, to have expressed to you and your +accompanying delegates, on the occasion of your memorable visit in +October, the pride with which we cherish the links that bind us to +the Church of America. Sensible, however, of the incessant demands +made upon your time on every day of the festival, we postponed the +expression of our feelings until the approach of Christmas, when +we might add to the salutations of the season our congratulations +upon your safe arrival in your own diocese, a prosperous +termination of your visit to Scotland for which we both publicly +prayed and gave thanks to Almighty God. + +Right Reverend Father, we beg you now to accept the assurance of +veneration and respect with which your presence inspired us, and +of gratitude for your fatherly counsel and encouragement to us and +our fellow-churchmen; and we further pray you to receive the +accompanying photographs of St. Andrew's, to remind you of a +church so closely associated with the history of your own See. + +We beg to subscribe ourselves, Right Reverend Father, + +Your faithful servants in Christ, + +J. M. DANSON, M. A., Incumbent of St. Andrew's; + +ROBERT MACKAY, M. A., Curate; + +JAMES CHIVAS, Church-warden and Canonical Lay Representative; + +JAMES THOMSON, Church-warden and Trustee; + +R. B. HORNE, Trustee and Lay Representative; + +H. T. PATERSON, Trustee; + +ALEX'R WALKER, Trustee; + +JAS. TURREFF, Trustee; + +JAMES TAYLOR, Secretary. + +_Advent_, 1884. + +_SIT DOMINUS DEUS NOSTER NOBISCUM, SICUT FUIT CUM PATRIBUS +NOSTRIS._ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Report Of Commemorative Services With +The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885., by Diocese Of Connecticut + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES *** + +This file should be named 6144.txt or 6144.zip + +Produced by Ralph Zimmerman, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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