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ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES 
 
 HISTORICAL AND 
 
 RELIGIOUS 
 
 WITH A PAPER ON 
 BISHOP BERKELEY 
 
 BY 
 
 E. EDWARDS BEARDSLEY, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 1X> 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 JBrinteD at rtje foibmiot press 
 
 1892 
 
Ths Library 
 
 of Congress 
 
 washihotoh 
 
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 By ELISABETH M. BEARDSLEY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.'S. A. 
 Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The death of its honored and lamented author oc- 
 curred while this volume was passing through the 
 press. It is thus left to others to say some things 
 which he would have wished to say had he lived to 
 write his own preface to his work. At the request 
 of one whose wish carried with it the obligation of a 
 command — most willingly received — I attempt to 
 say what seems to be needful so far as I can hope to 
 do it. 
 
 These discourses were collected at the urgent and 
 repeated instance of friends who were anxious for 
 their preservation in a permanent and accessible 
 shape. They comprise a period covering many 
 years, and deal with many topics, the details of 
 which, however much of local interest they may pos- 
 sess, could hardly find a place in general history. 
 Few, however, will question the desirableness of pre- 
 serving such details for coming generations ; and 
 these sermons and addresses may well be regarded 
 as supplements to their author's History of the 
 Diocese of Connecticut and his Lives of Johnson and 
 Seabury. The collecting and editing them was his 
 last labor of love for the diocese in which he was 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 born, where his entire life was passed, and to which 
 he gave, not merely an hereditary attachment, but a 
 love that was rooted in the depths of his very being 
 and a loyalty that was absolutely unswerving. 
 
 In discourses like those which follow there must 
 needs be repetitions of events and thoughts which 
 would not occur in a connected history, and which 
 in such a history might well be counted blemishes. 
 Here, however, they appear under new conditions 
 and with varied connections and surroundings ; and, 
 at all events, could by no possibility have been 
 avoided. 
 
 One paper presents an exception to the rule which 
 has shaped this collection, that, namely, on Bishop 
 Berkeley. The life, however, of the " mitred saint of 
 Cloyne " was so intimately connected with the story 
 of the diocese of Connecticut, in his loving sympathy, 
 wise counsels, and benefactions to the cause of good 
 learning, that a sketch of him can hardly be re- 
 garded as out of place among these memorials. 
 
 As I write these few lines I cannot but feel that I 
 may well say, "Fungar inani munere ;" and yet there 
 is a melancholy pleasure in laying even this slight 
 offering on the grave of one to whom I was knit in 
 the unbroken friendship of more than twice a score 
 of years, — a friendship on which no cloud had ever 
 cast a shadow. 
 
 J. WILLIAMS. 
 Berkeley Divinity School, January, 1892. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 ADDRESS 1 
 
 Fiftieth Anniversary of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, Octo- 
 ber 1, 1844. 
 
 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 49 
 
 Twenty fifth Annual Commencement of Trinity College, July 30, 
 1851. 
 
 THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT 77 
 
 Sermon at the Consecration of Christ Church, Stratford, July 29, 
 1858. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS 98 
 
 Sermon before the Annual Convention of the Diocese of Connecti- 
 cut, June 12, 1860. 
 
 THE PROFIT OF WISDOM 114 
 
 Discourse to the Pupils of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, 
 November 20, 1863. 
 
 THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED 128 
 
 Discourse Commemorative of the Life of the Reverend Stephen Jew- 
 ett, M. A., in St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, September 1, 1861. 
 
 MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON BISHOP BROWNELL .... 143 
 Delivered in St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, January 22, 1865. 
 
 GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD 157 
 
 Discourse at the Reopening of St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, Novem- 
 ber 9, 1864. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS 173 
 
 Sermon at the Opening of Trinity Church, Newtown, February 3, 1870. 
 
 THE LESSONS OF THE PAST 195 
 
 Sermon at the Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Rever- 
 end John Rutgers Marshall, M. A., in St. Paul's Church, Woodbury, 
 September 6, 1871. 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON 211 
 
 St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary 
 of the Parish, Easter, 1873. 
 
 PRIVILEGE AND DUTY 229 
 
 Sermon at the Reconsecration of St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, Febru- 
 . ary 24, 1876. 
 
 BISHOP BERKELEY 242 
 
 From the "Church Review," October, 1881. 
 
 FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB 275 
 
 Sermon at the Consecration of the Church of the Ascension, New 
 Haven, July 12, 1883. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED .287 
 
 Sermon at the Reconsecration of Christ Church, Redding, July 6, 
 
 1888. 
 
 LOVING THE HABITATION OF GOD'S HOUSE 299 
 
 Sermon at the Reopening of St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, after Ad- 
 ditions to the Original Edifice, January 16, 1890. 
 
 GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD 309 
 
 Sermon at the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of St. James's 
 Parish, Birmingham (Derby), June 30, 1891. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EPISCOPAL 
 ACADEMY OF CONNECTICUT : DELIVERED IN ST. PETER'S 
 CHURCH, CHESHIRE, OCTOBER 1, 1844. 
 
 When I was officially requested some months since 
 to prepare an address to be delivered on this occasion 
 of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the " Episcopal Acad- 
 emy of Connecticut," I little thought that the task 
 would be one requiring such diligent and patient 
 investigation. But so fugitive is all unwritten his- 
 tory, and so vague is the voice of tradition, that even 
 the lapse of half a century is quite sufficient to efface 
 the recollection of many important events. As the 
 value of historical truth depends upon its minuteness 
 and accuracy, it is greatly to be regretted that the 
 early Churchmen of this country, and especially of 
 Connecticut, did not make a more free use of their 
 pens, and record for the benefit of posterity the com- 
 mencement and progress of their enterprises and 
 ministrations. Looking back from this distance of 
 time, we fall upon some periods in the Church's ear- 
 lier and more eventful history that are in a measure 
 obscured by the absence of full and faithful records. 
 To supply this deficiency, or to rescue from oblivion 
 events and transactions that are rapidly passing from 
 the memory of man, is an employment alike agree- 
 able to the Christian and to the scholar. 
 
2 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 In the preparation of this Address, I have taken 
 great pains to insure correctness, having derived my 
 materials from authentic sources, — from original 
 documents, published as well as unpublished, and from 
 the oral information of trusty witnesses. Though the 
 task has been attended with considerable perplexity, 
 I have not prosecuted it without reaping, as I pro- 
 ceeded, some reward for my diligence. I have found 
 the early history of the Academy so identified with 
 the correspondent history of the Church in Connecti- 
 cut, that I am thankful for the opportunity of making 
 myself acquainted with what otherwise might have 
 escaped my notice. I only lament that the pressure 
 of other engagements has compelled me to write my 
 address as Sallust wrote his history of the Koman 
 people, " by piecemeals." Any lack of finish, therefore, 
 in the performance, or any seeming neglect of the art 
 of condensation, will be readily overlooked by those 
 who know how to excuse a man who ventures to 
 undertake more than he ought to accomplish. 
 
 The project of establishing an Episcopal Academy 
 in the Diocese of Connecticut was formed soon after 
 the consecration of Dr. Seabury to the Episcopate. 
 He, in common with his brethren of the clergy, felt 
 most keenly the want of some literary institution, 
 where the sons of the Church might receive a thorough 
 classical education, without endangering the religious 
 predilections of their childhood. It was a period of 
 strong prejudice, and of no little intolerance. The 
 war of the Revolution had just closed, and the favor 
 which the Episcopal clergy and their people generally 
 had shown towards the mother country in that strug- 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 3 
 
 gle was calculated to strengthen the prejudices of 
 other religious bodies. The ministers of the Church 
 were missionaries of the Venerable Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and the 
 oath of allegiance which they were required to take, 
 previous to their ordination, and the peculiar relations 
 in which they stood to the Bishop of London, made it 
 in their view as unnatural for them to resist the pre- 
 tensions of the crown of England as for the child to 
 oppose the wishes of the parent. If this was not a 
 sufficient excuse for their loyalty, it should have pal- 
 liated in some degree the heinousness of their offense, 
 and spared the Church from subsequent hostility on 
 their account. 
 
 The Bishop and clergy of Connecticut might have 
 been urged to the establishment of an institution of 
 their own by the illiberal policy of the Corporation of 
 Yale College. Ever since 1722, when Dr. Cutler and 
 his associates declared for Episcopacy, extreme cau- 
 tion had been used by the Trustees to prevent the 
 admission of any one as an instructor in the College 
 who should be suspected of " inclining to Armenian 
 or prelatic principles." Most of the clergy were grad- 
 uates of this institution ; but the affection which they 
 cherished for their Alma Mater was not so great as 
 the love they bore to the Church. They saw that its 
 prosperity, under God, was to be advanced by their 
 own zeal and faithfulness. They were anxious to 
 increase the number of candidates for Holy Orders, and 
 without lowering the standard of theological attain- 
 ments, they sought to effect their object by establish- 
 ing an institution which should serve the double pur- 
 
4 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 pose of a preparatory school and a university. Bishop 
 Seabury was a scholar himself and would have his 
 clergy scholars. He wished them educated upon 
 Church principles, that they might be able success- 
 fully to contend for Church principles. He was not 
 unacquainted with the business of an instructor of 
 youth, and perhaps this experience led him to value 
 more highly the plan of an Academy ; for while Hec- 
 tor of the parish of Westchester, N. Y., he opened a 
 Grammar school, and taught it with as much profit 
 to himself as advantage to his pupils, until forcibly 
 arrested and carried out of the province by a body 
 of armed men. 1 
 
 The first record relating to the establishment of the 
 Episcopal Academy was made in 1792. At a Convo- 
 cation of the clergy, holden at East Haddam, on the 
 15th of February of that year, it was " Voted that the 
 several clergy make enquiry of their neighboring 
 towns, and see what can be done towards erecting an 
 Episcopal Academy, and report to the next Convoca- 
 tion." This resolution probably received only a verbal 
 response, for nothing is to be found on record again 
 until the year 1794, when the Convention, taking hold 
 of the matter in earnest, appointed a committee to 
 prepare an address to the members of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in this State, pointing out the im- 
 portance of establishing an Episcopal Academy — at 
 
 1 He presented a petition to the General Assembly of Connecticut in 
 1775, for relief and protection, showing that he had received anything 
 but gentle treatment at the hands of his enemies. He defended himself 
 against their charges, and pronounced his " arrest a high infringement 
 of that liberty for which the sons of America were then so nobly strug- 
 gling." See Life and Correspondence of Bishop Seabury, pp. 36-42. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 5 
 
 the same time instructing them to provide subscrip- 
 tion papers for the purpose of obtaining moneys 
 to effect such an establishment. 1 This committee 
 reported next morning, that as more time was neces- 
 sary to accomplish the business than had been as- 
 signed them, a Standing Committee, in their opinion, 
 should be appointed to address the members of the 
 Episcopal Church on the importance of the object, 
 and to present a plan of the Academy, with subscrip- 
 tion papers for the purpose of raising a sufficient 
 fund. The Rev. Dr. Mansfield, of Derby, was chair- 
 man of this committee ; and at the next annual 
 Convention held in Stratford, June 3, 1795, the sub- 
 scription papers were returned, and proposals for es- 
 tablishing and supporting an Academy received from 
 the towns of Wallingford and Cheshire. So favor- 
 able were the proposals that the Convention imme- 
 diately resolved to establish an Episcopal Academy 
 in this State, to be under such limitations and regu- 
 lations as should be afterwards agreed to by the 
 Convention. A subsequent resolution empowered a 
 committee of nine to receive proposals from the towns 
 of Cheshire, Wallingford, and Stratford only, until 
 the first day of July following, at which time they 
 were to meet at Major Bellamy's Tavern in Hamden, 
 and establish the Academy in that town which they 
 should consider the most eligible. At the same Con- 
 vention, the Rev. John Bowden, Rev. Ashbel Bald- 
 win, and S. W. Johnson, Esq., were appointed to 
 " frame a code of laws for the temporary government 
 of the Episcopal Academy established in this State, till 
 
 1 Journal of Connecticut Convention, 1794. 
 
6 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 the next annual Convention, and also to form a con- 
 stitution upon the most liberal and beneficial plan, 
 together with a code of laws for the future govern- 
 ment of the Academy ; " all to be laid before such 
 Convention, for their consideration and approbation. 
 
 These extracts from the early Journals show that 
 the institution has had, strictly speaking, an ecclesi- 
 astical existence a little more than forty-nine years, — 
 though it is above fifty since effective measures were 
 adopted, and subscription papers issued to raise a fund 
 for the endowment. 
 
 The Convention that met at Stratford was the last 
 in which Bishop Seabury was permitted to preside. 
 Death removed him soon after from the scene of his 
 earthly ministrations, so that he never had the satis- 
 faction of witnessing the completion and full adoption 
 of the plan which he had recommended and urged. 
 The loss of his valuable counsel was in a measure 
 supplied by the sound learning and superior wisdom 
 of the Eev. Dr. Bowden. This gentleman, after his 
 return from the island of Ste. Croix, in the year 1791, 
 took up his residence in Stratford, and employed 
 himself in the arduous business of managing an 
 Academy. The weakness of his voice unfitted him 
 for exercising the public duties of the ministry ; and 
 neither his inclination nor circumstances permitting 
 him to be idle, he sought some other way in which he 
 might render his talents of service to the Church and 
 comfort to his family. The interest that he evinced 
 in the establishment of the Academy, and the impor- 
 tant aid he rendered in forming its Constitution, not 
 only show him to have been one of its original pro- 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 7 
 
 jectors, but indicate that his thoughts were early 
 turned to the responsible office which he afterwards 
 held. The annual Convention that assembled in 
 Cheshire, June 1, 1796, proceeded to a discussion and 
 final determination of the Constitution for the Acad- 
 emy, as reported by the Committee appointed the pre- 
 vious year ; and agreeably to the second article of the 
 same, a board of twenty-one Trustees was elected. 
 The name of Dr. Bowden was not included in this 
 list, and hence it is inferred that the Convention was 
 already determined to appoint him the principal ; for 
 when it was resolved to proceed to an election, and 
 the votes were called for, he was found to be unani- 
 mously chosen. He accepted the appointment, and 
 entered upon the duties of his office as soon as the 
 building which had been pledged by the proprietors 
 was ready for the reception of students. It should 
 be mentioned, however, that after the Committee had 
 consented to the propositions from Cheshire, and 
 decided to establish the Academy in this place, the 
 Rev. Tillotson Bronson, then a young clergyman, 
 opened a school, pursuant to the wishes of the Con- 
 vention, in a small building that stood opposite the 
 residence of Dr. Elnathan Beach. 
 
 The corner-stone of the present edifice was laid 
 with Masonic honors, the 28th of April, 1796. On 
 that occasion the Rev. Reuben Ives, whose agency in 
 securing the establishment of the Academy in Che- 
 shire was probably beyond that of any other man, 
 delivered an address in the Church, from the manu- 
 script copy of which I extract his concluding remarks. 
 " Such are the animating considerations to unite the 
 
8 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 hearts and strengthen the hands of those who have 
 engaged in the work on. which we have now assem- 
 bled. Let them not be discouraged by any difficulties 
 that may be thrown in their way, but persevere 
 unto the end, resting assured that they will meet the 
 approbation of every candid and liberal mind. Let 
 them look forward unto the distant good they are about 
 to promote, — the services they are rendering to soci- 
 ety and religion. And may the blessing of God suc- 
 ceed their undertaking; may his grace and Holy 
 Spirit be our guide in the remaining parts of this 
 solemnity, that decency and order may pervade our 
 proceedings, and this day furnish a useful, lesson of 
 instruction to all who are present — grateful to their 
 memories and lasting as their lives." 
 
 The assemblage present at the ceremony of laying 
 the corner-stone was briefly addressed by the Kev. 
 Mr. Bronson, and the day which had opened in vernal 
 beauty closed, as a record tells, to the " satisfaction of 
 all who participated in its exercises:' The building 
 was completed in the autumn, 1796, at a cost of 
 .£702, lawful money. It was conveyed by the pro- 
 prietors 1 — thirty in number, together with the 
 grounds about it — to the Board of Trustees, to be for- 
 ever applied to the use of an Institution conducted 
 upon the principles of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church. The lot on which it stands was subsequently 
 enlarged, and the expense of the purchase paid by 
 the Trustees. 
 
 When Dr. Bowden removed to Cheshire, he brought 
 with him most of the pupils that had been under his 
 
 1 Appendix, p. 42. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 9 
 
 charge in Stratford. The first session of the Institu- 
 tion, therefore, opened with encouraging prospects 
 of success, and the liberal course of study for which 
 the Constitution provided led many young men after- 
 wards to seek within its walls the whole of their col- 
 legiate education. By referring to the seventh and 
 eighth articles of the original Constitution, we find 
 what the Principal and his assistant were required to 
 teach : " The English Language, Philosophy, Mathe- 
 matics, and every other science usually taught at Col- 
 leges; likewise the dead languages, such as Greek 
 and Latin. And whenever the finances of the Acad- 
 emy will admit, the Trustees shall procure an Instruc- 
 tor in the French language, purchase a Library and 
 Philosophical Apparatus, at their own discretion." 
 And again, " The Principal, or, in his absence, the 
 assistant or assistants, shall examine and admit all per- 
 sons into the Academy according to his or their dis- 
 cretion ; provided no person be admitted but such as 
 can read the English language intelligibly ; and the 
 Principal may, after admission, class them as he pleases. 
 Any person wishing to pursue a particular study, such 
 as the Mathematics in its various branches, Logic, 
 Rhetoric, Geography, Philosophy, etc., shall have an 
 instruction of that kind, without pursuing any classic 
 studies of a different nature. And the Principal may 
 at any time, with the advice of the Trustees, procure 
 any gentleman eminent in Divinity, Law, or Physic, 
 to read Lectures in those branches, respectively, pro- 
 vided a fund be procured for that purpose." 
 
 These articles of the Constitution, notwithstanding 
 the quaintness of the language, sufficiently prove that 
 
10 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 it was the intention of the original founders of the 
 Academy to erect it into a College. Many of the 
 donations were made upon this supposition ; and there 
 are books now in the Library — the gift of private 
 benevolence — which are labeled for the Seabury 
 College in Connecticut. 
 
 The first systematic attempts towards raising a 
 fund for the endowment of the institution were made 
 in 1797. In the next year, a committee was ap- 
 pointed by the Convention, to ascertain the grand 
 levy of the Church in this State, and a Treasurer, to 
 receive all the donations that might be procured. 
 By a formal vote, also, the Convention appropriated 
 to the benefit of the Episcopal Academy the money 
 that had been previously collected for the purpose of 
 sending missionaries to the frontiers of the States. 
 The next year, Bishop Jarvis alluded to the subject 
 in his annual Address, and measures were adopted to 
 solicit aid, generally from the Churchmen of the Dio- 
 cese, and the appointment of an agent to visit Europe 
 with a similar object in view was recommended to the 
 Trustees, as soon as they should be possessed of unap- 
 propriated funds sufficient to defray the expense of 
 such a mission. The agency to Europe was never 
 accomplished, though strenuous efforts were made 
 for two successive years to raise the sum of seven 
 hundred dollars as an outfit. 
 
 On the 14th of April, 1801, the Trustees met at 
 Cheshire, and resolved to prefer a petition to the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, soon to convene in Hartford, "pray- 
 ing that they might be constituted and made a body 
 politic and corporate, by the name of the Trustees of 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 11 
 
 the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut." The memo- 
 rial shows the prosperity of the Institution under the 
 Rev. Dr. Bowden, stating, " that since the month of 
 June, 1796, it had been open for the reception of 
 students, and generally had in a course of education 
 about sixty persons." The funds at this time con- 
 sisted of bequests and donations to the amount of 
 some three thousand dollar 's, and the act of incorpo- 
 ration (which seems to have been readily granted) 
 enabled the Trustees to hold them with safety and to 
 manage them with advantage. Everything now ap- 
 peared favorable to the success of the Academy. Its 
 merits had begun to attract the attention of Church- 
 men in all parts of the country, — and the number 
 of students, as a necessary consequence, steadily in- 
 creased. But an unexpected shock was given to the 
 friends of the Institution when Dr. Bowden intimated 
 that he should resign his office of Principal and accept 
 the more comfortable position of Professor of Moral 
 Philosophy and Belles-Lettres in Columbia College, 
 New York. This was in the beginning of 1802, and 
 at a special Convention held in Cheshire, April 12th 
 of the same year, his resignation was accepted, and the 
 Rev. Dr. William Smith unanimously elected to sup- 
 ply his place. He entered at once upon his duties ; 
 but before proceeding to consider his management 
 and success as an Instructor, I must again allude to his 
 predecessor, — for it comes within my plan of historic 
 illustration to give a sketch of the life and character of 
 those who have held the office of Principal, and have 
 now passed to the reward of their labors. 
 
 Dr. Bowden was the eldest son of Thomas Bowden, 
 
12 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 a Major in His Britannic Majesty's 46th Eegiment of 
 Foot. His early life was as full of incident as his 
 middle was of trial. At the time of his birth, Janu- 
 ary 7, 1751, his father's regiment was stationed in 
 Ireland, but upon the breaking out of the old French 
 war, the Major came with it to this country, and made 
 his headquarters at Schenectady, N. Y. His son soon 
 after followed him, under the charge of a clergyman 
 of the Church of England. Commencing now his 
 classical studies, he was, in due time, prepared for 
 admission into Princeton College, New Jersey, where 
 he entered and remained two years, — the fortunes of 
 his father then calling him to return home to Eng- 
 land with the regiment. In 1770, at the age of nine- 
 teen, he again crossed the Atlantic, and, immediately 
 on his arrival in New York, presented himself as a 
 candidate for entrance into King's (now Columbia) 
 College, where he graduated, with the usual honors, 
 in 1772 ; being one of a small class who had enjoyed 
 the able instructions of that Oxford scholar and Fel- 
 low of Queen's College, the Rev. Dr. Myles Cooper. 
 
 Upon the completion of his collegiate course, his 
 own piety, or the piety and desire of his friends, 
 turned his attention to the sacred ministry ; and, after 
 the usual period of theological study, he proceeded to 
 England for Orders, together with his friend, the late 
 Bishop Benjamin Moore, and was ordained Deacon in 
 1774, by the Rev. Dr. Keppel, Bishop of Exeter, and 
 Priest by the Rev. Dr. Terrick, Bishop of London. 
 " Returning in the autumn of the same year, the two 
 young friends were simultaneously elected assistant 
 ministers of Trinity Church, New York. The early 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 13 
 
 friendship thus commenced was subsequently long 
 tried, and terminated but with death. It was between 
 congenial and worthy minds, and withstood not only 
 all ordinary causes of decay or estrangement, but, 
 what with inferior spirits cuts deepest, marked in- 
 equality in professional success and worldly prosper- 
 ity." * Upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
 War. the city churches were closed, the clergy scat- 
 tered, and Dr. Bowden retired to Norwalk in this 
 State. When the British troops took possession of 
 Long Island and New York, he returned and dwelt at 
 Jamaica 2 until their evacuation of the city. The 
 
 1 Professor McVickar's Address at the Alumni Anniversary of Colum- 
 bia College, 1837. 
 
 2 Dr. Bowden's escape from Norwalk was attended with some little 
 romance. His principles, like those of many clergymen of the Church 
 of England, were known to be favorable to the mother country ; and 
 probably, in his case, they were the more obnoxious from the circum- 
 stance of his father's being an officer in the British service, and at 
 that time stationed on Long Island. He was permitted, however, to re- 
 main in his chosen retirement with his family, unmolested, until the out- 
 rage upon Dr. Learning, — from the sad effects of which, that worthy 
 divine never fully recovered. There were many loyalists at Norwalk, 
 and it is said that in the course of the war about thirty families of Dr. 
 Learning's congregation removed to Nova Scotia and other places. Dr. 
 Bowden received intimations, from a friendly source, that if he did not 
 immediately escape from the town he would be visited with treatment 
 similar to that which had been bestowed upon his reverend brother. It 
 was an early hour of twilight, when some of his friends came to him in 
 great trepidation, informed him of the designs of the patriots, and begged 
 him to prepare with all possible dispatch for his escape. He scarcely 
 bade his family adieu and wrapped himself in comfortable clothing, 
 before he hurried to Old Well, where an open boat had been previously 
 procured to take him beyond the reach of his enemies' tender mercies. 
 He entered it with a single oarsman, and crossed the Sound in the dark- 
 ness of night, a distance of nine miles, to the Long Island shore. As he 
 reached the landing, a chaise was driven to the water's edge, and a lad 
 jumped out, asking him if his name was Bowden. On replying affirma- 
 
14 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 increasing weakness of his voice admonished him to 
 seek a country parish, and the rectorship of the 
 church in Norwalk being tendered to him, he ac- 
 cepted it in December, 1784, and held it until Octo- 
 ber, 1789. By the advice of physicians, who con- 
 ceived that his lungs would be benefited by such a 
 step, he consented to take the charge of a small church 
 in the island of Ste. Croix. A residence of two years 
 satisfied him that his general health was debilitated 
 rather than strengthened, and he again returned to 
 Connecticut, and settled at Stratford. From June, 
 1796, to April, 1802, a period of nearly six years, he 
 was the Principal of this Institution. He then entered 
 upon the duties of a Professor in Columbia College, 
 and " at the time our class came under his charge," 
 says Professor McVickar, " he was in the fiftieth year 
 of his age, though a stranger's estimate would prob- 
 
 tively, he was desired to get in, and be should be taken to bis father. 
 Thus separated from his family, and cut off from all communication with 
 them, he felt, though surrounded by other kindred and friends, the 
 solitariness of his condition. Unable to accomplish his object in any 
 other way, he wrote to General Washington for a cartel to permit him 
 to remove his family from Connecticut, which he with courteous kind- 
 ness granted. They remained with him at Jamaica until the British 
 troops, as above stated, evacuated the city and island. 
 
 Many years afterwards, while residing in New York, Dr. Bowden was 
 invited by a gentleman to dine with him ; who, at the table, inquired if he 
 had ever met with the lad who drove him from the landing; to his father's 
 quarters. He replied that he had not, though he had often desired to do 
 so, and for that purpose had made some considerable inquiry. " That 
 lad," said the gentleman, " is now before you, your host. The fortunes 
 of both of us have since changed, but nothing, I trust, will ever de- 
 prive me of the happiness which I have felt, and still feel, from a rec- 
 ollection of the service that I was then permitted to render you." The 
 discovery made under such circumstances was not more surprising than 
 agreeable. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 15 
 
 ably have added some eight or ten to that number, 
 from the deep furrows which sickness or sorrow, or 
 perhaps both, had left upon his strongly marked 
 countenance. His figure, though somewhat stooping, 
 was still commanding, and his general air retained (so 
 at least it seemed to boyish eyes) a good deal of the 
 military manner, to which, we understood that, in 
 earlier years, he had been accustomed, not only as the 
 son of a British officer, but having himself held a 
 chaplaincy in the army." He continued in the office 
 of a professor until his death, which occurred, July 
 31, 1817, at Ballston Springs, whither he had gone 
 on the close of the session in the hope that his declin- 
 ing constitution might be benefited by a free use of 
 the waters. He there lies interred, with a modest 
 tablet gratefully erected to his memory by the Trus- 
 tees of Columbia College. 
 
 Dr. Bowden was justly distinguished as an able 
 divine and a finished scholar. His sermons, full of 
 matter, were marked by great simplicity and con- 
 ciseness of style, and, before his voice failed him, his 
 delivery is said to have been forcible and interesting. 
 His extensive acquirements in theology, and his 
 powers of clear and cogent reasoning, rendered him 
 an able advocate and defender of the Church. His 
 " Letters on the Apostolic Origin of Episcopacy " are 
 unsurpassed for strength and clearness of argument, 
 and his other published writings, more valuable in 
 their day than now, fully reveal the extent of his 
 theological researches. His influence in the Church 
 and especially in the Church of Connecticut, was so 
 great that his opinion oftentimes carried with it the 
 
16 ADDRESSES AXD DISCOURSES. 
 
 weight of authority. At an adjourned Convention 
 of this Diocese, held October 19, 1796, for the 
 purpose of electing a Bishop, he was unanimously 
 chosen, but^ as a particular favor, excused from giving 
 a decisive answer till the next June. The weakness 
 of his voice, joined with some other considerations, 
 compelled him to decline accepting the Episcopate. 
 Had he been able, conscientiously to have returned 
 a different answer, the mitre had rarely crowned a 
 worthier head. 
 
 His success aa an instructor of youth, so far as this 
 institution was concerned, is sufficiently attested by 
 the patronage it received while under his charge. 
 In his professorship, which was more congenial to his 
 taste, we have the authoritv of his immediate buoc 
 sor, for believing that he was as acceptable as he was 
 faithful. His rich classical attainments served him in 
 the department of polite literature. In his delivered 
 lectures, he was led. from frequent quotations of the 
 poets, to examine the subject of rhythmical read- 
 ing : and " in this."' says Professor McVickar, " such 
 was the influence of eood taste, his manner was so 
 simple, his sense of the beauties of the passage so 
 sincere, and his broken tones so orenuine and heart- 
 felt, that even his defective utterance came in for its 
 share of power; it created within us the illusion 
 which Horace recommends, the tlendum i i ; we 
 
 believed that the readers own feelings were over- 
 come, and ours il speak at least of one of his hearers) 
 followed of course On such occasions it was a 
 pleasing sight to see him surrounded, at the close of 
 the lecture, with a crowd of eager applicants, each 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 17 
 
 seeking, with glowing cheek and glittering eye, the 
 privilege of a first copy of what they had listened to 
 with so great admiration. It is true, that as a dis- 
 ciplinarian, he held lightly the staff of authority: 
 he leaned rather on what he no doubt often found to 
 be a broken reed. — his own well-founded claims to 
 respect and affection. Yet in this matter, let us do 
 justice to both teacher and pupil. It is in discipline. 
 as in most other things, the true value is not alw 
 to be judged by its first results, and more especially 
 in the prosecution of studies that bear upon char- 
 acter." 
 
 With this brief sketch, due alike to the man and to 
 the occasion. I dismiss the life and character of Rev. 
 Dr. John Bowden. 
 
 When Dr. Smith entered upon the duties of his 
 appointment in the spring of 1802, the Academy wa- 
 in a nourishing condition. Efforts had been pre- 
 viously made to increase the funds, and regarding 
 then such a mode of procedure as perfectly consis- 
 tent with the dictates of Christian morality, a resolu- 
 tion was taken in April, 1S01. to prefer a petition to 
 the next General x\ssembly for a lottery to raise the 
 sum of four thousand pounds, to enable the Trustees 
 to purchase a Library and Philosophical Apparatus. 
 and support assistant instruction. This application 
 was unsuccessful, as was also another, the next year, 
 to obtain the grant of a lotterv to raise a larger 
 amount, the sum of twenty-eight thousand dollars. 
 But during the October session of the Legislature of 
 1802. the matter was more judiciously prepared, and 
 an act was finally passed granting a lottery to raise 
 
18 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 the sum of fifteen thousand dollars. After consider- 
 able delay and perplexity, and no little loss in the 
 sale of tickets, the managers closed their drawings 
 and the net proceeds amounted to twelve thousand 
 dollars. In the mean time, Dr. Smith had been re- 
 quested to solicit donations from New York and else- 
 where ; but I have no means of determining what 
 success attended his efforts. 
 
 The financial affairs of the Institution being thus 
 improved, its friends began to turn their attention to 
 the original design of erecting it into a college. In 
 1804, obediently to a vote of the Convention, the 
 Board of Trustees resolved to petition the General 
 Assembly for a charter empowering them to confer 
 degrees in the arts, divinity, and law, and to enjoy 
 all other privileges usually granted to colleges. This 
 application failed, and was not again renewed during 
 the administration of Dr. Smith.* Though a man 
 of learning, he seems not to have possessed the ele- 
 ments of a successful instructor. The Institution 
 gradually languished under his care, and losing the 
 confidence of the public, the annual Convention in 
 1805 appointed a committee to inquire into its pres- 
 ent condition, and make an immediate report. This 
 report is spread at large upon the Journal of that 
 year, and states " that the condition of the Academy 
 is not flourishing, the number of students gradually 
 diminishing, the building going to decay, and the 
 Institution itself sinking in reputation. But whether 
 these unfavorable appearances arise from any defi- 
 ciency in the organization of the Academy, neglect or 
 mismanagement of those intrusted therewith, or the 
 place of its establishment, the committee presume not 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 19 
 
 to decide. They cannot, however, forbear to express 
 their belief, that the present condition of the Acad- 
 emy results in some measure from its location in the 
 vicinity of a flourishing University, and in a town 
 where it receives very little patronage and encour- 
 agement." The report concludes with recommend- 
 ing the appointment of a committee "to repair to the 
 Academy, ascertain its present condition, the causes 
 thereof, the state of the funds, and such other facts 
 relating to the Institution as may appear to them 
 interesting, and report the same, with their opinion 
 thereon, to the next meeting of the Convention." 
 Though no report from that committee appears in 
 the Journal of 1806, I find there another piece of 
 history, which was probably, at the time, of more 
 absorbing interest. It is the resignation of the Rev. 
 Dr. Smith, and as it is couched in peculiar phraseol- 
 ogy, and bears upon what will hereafter be noticed, 
 I shall be excused, I trust, for quoting it entire. 
 
 To the Convention of the Protectant Episcopal Church of 
 Connecticut, in session [at Cheshire] this fifth day of 
 June, A. B. 1806 : 
 
 Whereas, missives have passed between the Board of 
 Trustees and me, whereby certain articles have been inter- 
 changeably acceded to by both parties — I hereby request 
 this Convention to accept of my resignation of the office of 
 Principal of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, and 
 upon their acceptance of the same, I shall consider myself 
 as detached from all connection with the said Academy, 
 either as to its internal or external regimen, or the emolu- 
 ments thereof from and after the first day of October next. 
 
 Wm. Smith, 
 Principal of Episcopal Academy of Conn. 1 
 
 1 Journal of Convention, 1806. 
 
20 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 This resignation was accepted, and the Convention, 
 without appointing a successor, adjourned to meet 
 in Newtown, the eighth day of October. The " mis- 
 sives " that passed between Dr. Smith and the Trus- 
 tees were not, as may be inferred from the tenor of 
 his letter, altogether of a pleasant nature. Charges 
 amounting to an impeachment of his character were 
 brought against him, and the records of the Board 
 show that the final adjustment of the matter was 
 far from being mutually satisfactory. Perhaps the 
 measures resorted to by one party to effect their 
 object were not taken with sufficient reference to the 
 peculiar temperament of the other. The dignity of 
 self-respect, like any other moral quality, is more 
 easily lost than regained ; and corporate bodies, divid- 
 ing up the responsibility of their actions, seldom allow 
 enough for private and individual character. 
 
 Dr. Smith was a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 
 and received his education at one of the Universities 
 of his native country. His early life is lost to us, and 
 we only know by tradition that he was studious in 
 his youth, and left college with the reputation of an 
 excellent classical scholar. He came to this country 
 an ordained minister, in the year 1785, 1 and soon 
 after his arrival assumed the charge of Stepney 
 Parish in the State of Maryland. On the 7th of July, 
 1787, he entered upon the duties of Rector of St. 
 Paul's Church and congregation, Narragansett, R. L, 
 which he continued to exercise for nearly three years. 
 He addressed that parish by letter, dated January 
 27, 1790, and left it the next day, having previ- 
 
 1 Churchman's Magazine, New Series, i. 159. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 21 
 
 ously accepted the rectorship of Trinity Church, 
 Newport. 1 He was the means of organizing the 
 Church in Khode Island, and delivered the sermon at 
 the first Episcopal Convention held in that State, 
 November 18, 1790, which was printed. In the 
 spring of 1797, he removed to Norwalk in this State, 
 and took the charge of St. Paul's Church. He 
 preached the sermon at the consecration of Bishop 
 Jarvis in October of that year, for which a vote of 
 thanks was given him by the Convention, and a copy 
 asked for publication. It stirred up a sharp opposi- 
 tion, and the Rev. Samuel Blatchford, of Bridgeport, 
 a Congregational divine, addressed a letter to the 
 author, called in question his authorities, and stoutly 
 maintained the validity of Presbyterian Ordination. 
 Dr. Smith was soon ready with an elaborate reply, 
 and showed himself so learned and skillful in the con- 
 troversy that the Convention of the Diocese encour- 
 aged the circulation of his work, and accepted it as an 
 ingenious contribution to ecclesiastical history. An 
 unhappy disagreement arising betwixt him and the 
 people, in regard to the permanency of a settlement, 
 he relinquished the parish at Norwalk in 1800, and 
 went to New York. He opened a grammar school 
 in that city, and, acquiring the reputation of an able 
 teacher, he was selected, as before shown, with entire 
 
 1 In 1838, Mr. Ross, a Baptist clergyman, delivered (in Newport) a 
 century discourse, and appended a notice of the Episcopal Church 
 (Trinity) in that place. It was drawn up by the late Rev. Salmon 
 Wheaton, D. D., and mentioned that "had Mr. Smith's prudence been 
 equal to his talents and learning, he might, with the Divine blessing, 
 have been instrumental in healing the unhappy divisions among his 
 people, and restoring the Church to her former prosperity." 
 
22 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 unanimity, to succeed the Kev. Dr. Bowden in the 
 charge of this Institution. After leaving Cheshire, he 
 returned to New York, and the remainder of his days 
 was passed between that city and Connecticut. He 
 had no permanent cure, though he officiated for sev- 
 eral years in the parishes at Milford and West Haven. 
 He occupied his time chiefly in writing on theological 
 subjects, and compiled and published a book of 
 Chants, and a larger work in the form of dissertations 
 on Primitive Psalmody, designed to show the impro- 
 priety of singing metre psalms in public worship, and 
 the wisdom of returning to the ancient practice of 
 chanting. After a life marked by much trouble and 
 suffering, he died in New York, April 6, 1821, in the 
 sixty-ninth year of his age. 
 
 At one period of his ministry, Dr. Smith enjoyed in 
 an eminent degree the confidence of his brethren. 
 Great respect was paid to his opinion and learning. 
 His intimate acquaintance with ecclesiastical history 
 and his accurate retention of knowledge enabled him, 
 on all occasions, to give with readiness a full and in- 
 structive answer to any question in the line of his pro- 
 fession. One memento of his genius is to be found in 
 the Book of Common Prayer. The " Office of the 
 Institution of Ministers into Parishes or Churches" 
 was the production of his pen. He prepared it at the 
 request of the Annual Convention for 1799, and pre- 
 sented it in form to the Convocation of the clergy, 
 assembled in Derby, November 25th, of the same 
 year, by whom it was adopted, under the title of the 
 "Office of Induction," and ordered to be printed. 1 It 
 
 1 Records of Convocation. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 23 
 
 was first prescribed by the General Convention of 
 1804, and finally established by the Convention of 
 1808, the name being changed from "Induction" to 
 " Institution," and its use made to depend upon rec- 
 ommendation and not upon requisition. Dr. Smith 
 had a great fondness for preaching extemporaneously, 
 and, saving his Scotch accent, " he was," says a con- 
 temporary, " always interesting, instructive, and fre- 
 quently eloquent." His remarkable colloquial powers 
 made him an agreeable companion ; the rapidity 
 of his- thoughts oftentimes being as surprising as it 
 was felicitous. He possessed singular versatility of 
 talents, and was both a theologian and a scholar, 
 a composer of church music, and a constructor of 
 church organs. But for the peculiarity of his tem- 
 perament and the infirmity of his constitution, he 
 might have been more useful in his " day and genera- 
 tion." * 
 
 The Convention, which adjourned to meet in New- 
 town, accomplished little beyond the election of Rev. 
 Tillotson Bronson as Principal of the Academy. He 
 entered at once upon the duties of his appointment, 
 and for the first fifteen years of his administration 
 the Institution enjoyed a large share of the public 
 confidence and patronage. The course of study for 
 the more advanced pupils was somewhat changed, 
 
 1 "I used to see Dr. Smith at my grandfather's (Dr. William Samuel 
 Johnson), where, like Dominie Sampson, it was his delight, with the 
 choice of several chambers in a large, old-fashioned country house, to 
 have a bed made for him in the library, that he might revel from early 
 dawn among the treasures of a library collected in England in the days 
 of folio and quarto learning." G. C. Verplanck, in Sprague's Annals 
 of the American Episcopal Pulpit, p. 347. 
 
24 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and the academic year divided into three terms, after 
 the manner of a college. A theological department 
 was created, and several young men who afterwards 
 entered the ministry received their entire education 
 at this Institution. In the autumn of 1819 Dr. Bron- 
 son made a report to the Convention, from which it 
 appears that the average number of students, from 
 the date of his appointment up to that time, had been 
 about sixty in each year, varying from thirty-six to 
 ninety-six. Of those educated at the Academy since 
 its institution, twenty-eight had received Holy Orders; 
 three were then candidates; about ninety had been 
 qualified to enter the various colleges. The number 
 of those who had been qualified for the professions of 
 Law and Medicine was considerable, but could not be 
 correctly ascertained. The same year another report 
 was presented to the Convention, pompously entitled, 
 "On the State of Literature in the Episcopal Institu- 
 tion at Cheshire," which, after due allowance for the 
 private feelings of the author, indicates the confidence 
 reposed in Dr. Bronson. It must be remembered 
 that these reports were made during the palmy days 
 of his administration ; and while to him is freely 
 accorded the merit that he deserves, I might, if it 
 came within my plan, speak to the praise of some 
 who were his assistant instructors, — of McDonald and 
 Cornwall, names not unhonored nor unknown in the 
 Church's history. The finances were now in a good 
 condition, the permanent funds of the Academy 
 amounting to $13,598.13. The friends of the Insti- 
 tution, finding its prosperity settled, redoubled their 
 efforts to erect it into a College. The following pre- 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 25 
 
 amble and resolution, entered upon the Journal of 
 Convention for 1810, show most clearly the original 
 intention of the founders : — 
 
 " Whereas, doubts have arisen whether the Trus- 
 tees of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, which 
 was established at Cheshire, by this Convention, in 
 the year 1796, (5) are invested with the power of 
 conferring upon the students the degrees and testi- 
 monials of literary proficiency, usually granted at 
 Colleges ; and whereas the great objects contemplated 
 by the Convention cannot be accomplished unless 
 the Trustees are authorized to confer such degrees ; 
 therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That the Trustees of said Academy be 
 requested to prefer a petition to the next General 
 Assembly of the State of Connecticut, praying that 
 the said Academy may be constituted a College by 
 the name and style of the Episcopal College of Con- 
 necticut, with all the powers, privileges, and immu- 
 nities of a College." 
 
 The application was made obediently to this reso- 
 lution, but failed, as did every similar application, 
 urged from time to time, agreeably to the wish of 
 the Convention. In 1811, the General Convention 
 of the Episcopal Church, learning that exertions were 
 making in Connecticut for the establishment of a 
 second college, expressed, by a unanimous vote, their 
 entire approbation of the measure and their hearty 
 wishes for its success. At that time there was not a 
 single college in the country under the immediate 
 care and superintendence of the Church, and if the 
 truth of history can be depended on, effectual meas- 
 
26 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ures had been taken to keep in other hands the 
 control of existing seminaries. Once, and once only 
 the application from this Institution was so far suc- 
 cessful that an act granting a college charter passed 
 the House of Representatives, but was lost in the 
 Senate. The Trustees then ceased their importunity, 
 and the Episcopalians of the State, guided by the 
 meek wisdom and the prudent foresight of Bishop 
 Brown ell, petitioned the General Assembly, in 1823, 
 for the charter of a college, and obtained it on con- 
 dition that thirty thousand dollars were raised by 
 private contribution. The Academy now became 
 the nursery of the College at Hartford, and though 
 bodily indisposition and the infirmities of age ren- 
 dered Dr. Bronson less competent to its manage- 
 ment, the number of pupils continued respectable to 
 the day of his death. His attainments were better 
 than his discipline, and while an honest young man 
 could make rapid progress under his instruction, he 
 does not appear to have been well calculated for 
 those who need other than moral motives to quicken 
 their exertions. He died at his post, like the 
 wounded soldier with his armor on, September 6, 1826, 
 in the sixty -fifth year of his age. 
 
 The sketch of Dr. Bronson's life and character, 
 although deserving a larger space, must necessarily 
 be brief. He was born at Plymouth, Conn., in the 
 year 1762. His father was a farmer in respectable 
 circumstances, and of superior mental capacity. 
 Fond of his own employment, and perhaps not real- 
 izing sufficiently the importance of a collegiate 
 education, or not willing to endure the expense of it, 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 27 
 
 he devoted the earlier years of his son to the pur- 
 suits of agriculture. But though he could enforce 
 obedience, he could inspire no relish for the business. 
 Amid rural scenes, a taste for science developed 
 itself, and often diverted the attention of the youth 
 from his daily avocation. A respite from the toil of 
 the body usually found him cultivating the powers 
 of the mind. He had no moments to spend in idle 
 amusement, for he employed his leisure in the eager 
 perusal of the few books that chance threw in his 
 way. At the age of eighteen he commenced the 
 study of Greek and Latin, under the direction of the 
 Rev. Dr. Trumbull, of Watertown, during which 
 period, as well as during a part of his collegiate 
 course, he taught a school, and thus defrayed, in a 
 measure, the expense of his education. He gradu- 
 ated at Yale College in 1786, and was immediately 
 admitted a candidate for Holy Orders. How high a 
 rank he won as a scholar in college has not been 
 ascertained ; but in laborious and faithful study sub- 
 sequently no one surpassed Tilley Bronson, that 
 being the familiar appellation which he received, and 
 retained long after he became a clergyman. He 
 was recommended by the Convocation of the clergy, 
 and ordained deacon by Bishop Seabury, September 
 21, 1786, and priest, February 24, 1788. He spent 
 the first year of his ministry officiating in the churches 
 at Strafford, Vt., and Hanover, N. H. He afterwards 
 went to Boston, and supplied the place of the Kev. 
 Mr. Montague, Rector of Christ Church in that city, 
 during his absence in Europe. Soon after his return 
 to Connecticut, he was settled over the churches at 
 
28 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Hebron, Chatham, and Middle Haddam, where he 
 was eminently useful and greatly beloved. In the 
 autumn of 1795 he came to Cheshire and opened 
 a school, as before stated, preparatory to the more 
 complete organization of the Academy. Upon the 
 completion of a new church in Waterbury, the lat- 
 ter part of the year 1797, he was invited to take the 
 permanent charge of that parish, giving three fourths 
 of his time to Waterbury, and the remaining fourth 
 to Salem, now Naugatuck. This was a connection to 
 which he recurred in after years with pleasing remi- 
 niscences. It was the most interesting field of his 
 parochial duties, and the church was united and pros- 
 perous during the whole of his rectorship. Towards 
 the end of the year 1805, " the high price demanded 
 on all the necessaries of life, and the increasing ex- 
 penses of his family, obliged him to ask for a propor- 
 tionable increase of his salary." l This, though advo- 
 cated by many of the more substantial friends of the 
 church, was refused, and consequently he took his final 
 leave in a farewell discourse, and removed to New 
 Haven to conduct the " Churchman's Magazine." He 
 was the editor of that useful periodical when appointed 
 to the charge of the Institution, and except during 
 the interval that it was published out of the Diocese, 
 he continued to add to his other labors the responsi- 
 bility of arranging the matter for the press and super- 
 intending the work. The volumes edited by him are 
 the most interesting and valuable of the whole series, 
 and form a lasting proof of his ability and learning, 
 both as a scholar and a divine. 
 
 1 Churchman's Magazine, Old Series, iv. 1 74. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 29 
 
 Dr. Bronson never was considered an eloquent 
 preacher ; but his sermons were always well written 
 and carefully matured. He was more learned than 
 elegant — more argumentative than pathetic. His 
 elocution was indifferent, so much so that from 
 another's lips his productions would have appeared 
 of another character. The sensibilities of his heart 
 were of the tenderest kind, and he would often weep 
 like a child while reading publicly those appointed 
 lessons of the Church that detail the history of Jo- 
 seph and his brethren. As a scholar, his reputation 
 was deservedly high. He was profound and correct, 
 without being brilliant or polished. His love of the 
 classics increased with his years, and the glow of 
 enthusiasm into which he would kindle while com- 
 menting upon beautiful passages in Homer or Virgil 
 often transported him, like Priam's zeal for fallen 
 Troy, beyond the necessities of the occasion. But 
 his favorite studies were Mathematics and Natural 
 Philosophy; and to these he would devote himself 
 for hours, unconscious of external things, and un- 
 mindful of his bodily comfort. He delivered to his 
 pupils a series of lectures on the rise and progress 
 of the Manual Arts, which, begun at an early period 
 of his labors as an instructor, were perfected as the 
 advancement of science and his own researches fur- 
 nished materials. Detached parts of these lectures 
 appeared in the " Churchman's Magazine ; " and so 
 highly were they esteemed by his pupils that the 
 project was once suggested of securing the publica- 
 tion of the whole series. 
 
 Dr. Bronson was chosen a member of the Connect- 
 
30 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 icut Academy of Arts and Sciences, about the time 
 of his election to the office of Principal, and a few 
 years after, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was 
 conferred upon him by Brown University. His in- 
 fluence in the councils of the Diocese was .uniformly 
 prominent, and " for twenty years, just one half of 
 his clerical life, he was honored with the confidence 
 of the Convention in their choice of Standing Com- 
 mittee." He held other offices of honor and respon- 
 sibility, to all of which, the infirmities of age and the 
 ravages of disease forced him to decline a reelection 
 in June, 1826. He then addressed an affecting 
 letter to the Convention, from which I make the fol- 
 lowing extract : " Next October will complete forty 
 years that I have been in the ministry. During the 
 whole of which time I have been blessed with such 
 a measure of health as never to have been absent 
 from Convention through bodily indisposition; rarely 
 from any other cause ; and never more than on three 
 or four occasions, from the public service of the 
 Church, until within a few weeks past. At this time, 
 there is but one clergyman 1 in these States, whose 
 letters of orders from the American Episcopate are 
 dated earlier than mine. During twenty years past, 
 just one half of my clerical life, I have been honored 
 with the confidence of the Convention in their choice 
 of Standing Committee. It is thus full time I should 
 wish to retire from the trust. To this I am loudly 
 
 1 Rev. Ashbel Baldwin, who still lives [1844], a connecting link 
 between the past and the present. The first ordination held by Bishop 
 Seabury, in this country was in Middletown, Conn., August 3, 1785. 
 Four persons were ordained, and Mr. Baldwin was one of the number. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 31 
 
 admonished by increasing years, and more by a 
 bodily infirmity which threatens to render me inca- 
 pable of discharging the incumbent duty." 
 
 This communication, from which an extract only is 
 here given, was suitably replied too by the Conven- 
 tion, and in a few months the venerable man, after 
 repeated attacks of paralysis, passed to the reward of 
 his labors. The light of his virtuous and holy life 
 was some consolation to his friends for the dark cloud 
 which was thrown over his last moments. A few 
 years since, his pupils and personal friends, bearing 
 in affectionate remembrance his character and long- 
 continued services, erected over his grave a tasteful 
 and appropriate monument. 
 
 The Trustees, upon the death of Dr. Bronson, pro- 
 vided a temporary Principal, and sought in vain for 
 a suitable successor. One or two gentlemen, whose 
 learning and talents were more than equal to the sta- 
 tion, occupied the post for a brief period, but relin- 
 quished it either for the want of success, or of sufficient 
 love for the employment. The establishment of the 
 College at Hartford, and the changes in the methods 
 of academical instruction, rendered it expedient in 
 the judgment of the Convention to give to the Acad- 
 emy a new and improved organization. A project 
 was once started, and to some extent encouraged, of 
 removing the Institution from Cheshire, and diverting 
 the funds in a measure from their original purpose. 
 The history of these proceedings will be best illus- 
 trated by an extract from Bishop Brownell's Address 
 to the Convention of 1829. "The Board of Trus- 
 tees, in obedience to the instructions of the Con- 
 
32 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 vention, have sought in vain to obtain a suitable 
 person for Principal of the Institution. Whether 
 under present circumstances the Academy can be put 
 in successful operation seems extremely doubtful. 
 The expedients which have been adopted by the Trus- 
 tees have hitherto failed of success. The funds of 
 the Academy were raised for the education of youth 
 under the auspices of the Church, and it is obvious 
 that they ought to be sacredly applied to this object. 
 They cannot be diverted to the support of a parish 
 minister, nor to constitute a sinecure for a nominal 
 Principal. It therefore becomes a question of no lit- 
 tle embarrassment, how this Convention and the 
 Board of Trustees shall best fulfill their duty to the 
 founders of the Institution, and especially to those 
 inhabitants of Cheshire who contributed towards its 
 endowment. If no better resources can be devised, 
 I recommend the continuing the funds at interest, till 
 the sum lost by the failure of the Eagle Bank shall be 
 restored." The Bishop's remarks were referred to a 
 committee, who made a report of considerable length, 
 meeting the various points of the case, and conclud- 
 ing in these words : " Under the conviction before 
 expressed of the ill consequences resulting from the 
 union of the Academy and Church, your commit- 
 tee respectfully and unanimously recommend the 
 adoption of the following resolution : Resolved, That 
 in the opinion of this Convention, it is inexpedient 
 that the same gentleman should fill the offices of 
 Principal of the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire and 
 Pastor of the Episcopal congregation in that place/' 
 This resolution, which the Convention adopted, was 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 33 
 
 good on paper, but the year had not ended before 
 both its spirit and letter were violated, in the appoint- 
 ment of the Kev. Christian F. Cruse to the charge of 
 the Academy and the Church. I find no record of 
 his provisional election by the Trustees, nor was he 
 formally chosen Principal by the Convention till 
 1831. He left in the winter of the same year, and 
 the Academy was again, to all practical purposes, 
 closed till the Convention, in 1832, appointed the Rev. 
 Bethel Judd, D. D., Principal. As a matter of course, 
 he was subsequently elected the Rector of the Parish. 
 From 1828 to 1835, but two meetings of the Board of 
 Trustees were held, and one only, during the admin- 
 istration of Dr. Judd, to fix his salary and determine 
 the conditions of his appointment. With this want 
 of interest and efficiency in the Institution, might be 
 mentioned the visionary project of providing for the 
 support of necessitous young men, by encouraging 
 the adoption of the manual labor system. Not meet- 
 ing with the success that he anticipated, Dr. Judd 
 resigned his office, October, 1835, though for some 
 months previous he had not resided in Cheshire, or 
 interested himself in the management of the Institu- 
 tion. The building, which had gone into decay, was 
 extensively repaired and remodeled ; and a whole 
 year was suffered to elapse before the right man was 
 procured to fill the vacant post. 
 
 The period which I have now described — a period 
 of ten years — may be called the dark age of the 
 Academy ; and hoping that it may never return, I 
 pass on to mention the revival of the Institution, 
 under the zealous and indefatigable labors of the Rev. 
 Allen C. Morgan. 
 
34 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 This gentleman was appointed provisional Principal 
 by the Trustees, in May, 1836, but did not accept the 
 appointment until it had been confirmed with great 
 unanimity by the Convention that met in the autumn. 
 The same Convention revised the Constitution of the 
 Academy, and gave into the hands of the Trustees 
 the power which it had hitherto exercised, of appoint- 
 ing the Principal. Other features better suited to the 
 object of a preparatory school were incorporated into 
 the several articles, and as much of the old letter 
 retained as comported with the design of the present 
 organization. Mr. Morgan was eminently successful 
 in his efforts to revive the Institution, and the report 
 which he made at the end of the first year was so 
 favorable that the Trustees, in accepting it, passed a 
 complimentary resolution expressive of their satisfac- 
 tion and gratification. The number of pupils ranged 
 from fifty to sixty ; several of whom were gratuitously 
 instructed, upon recommendation of the Standing 
 Committee. It was slightly diminished the next 
 year, but before another annual meeting of the 
 Trustees, the mysterious Providence of God removed 
 Mr. Morgan from the sphere of his usefulness. He 
 died suddenly in New York, October 12, 1838, aged 
 thirty-six years and nine months. 
 
 About six weeks previous to his death he procured 
 an additional Assistant in the Academy, and started, 
 at the suggestion of some of his friends, on a short 
 journey to Saratoga Springs. He had complained of 
 being unwell for nearly a month, and it was thought 
 that a brief relaxation from his accustomed duties 
 might be the means of restoring him to his former 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 35 
 
 cheerfulness and health. He had visited the Springs, 
 and was returning, evidently improved, when sickness 
 again prostrated him, and confined him to the house 
 of a friend in New York. From this disease he was 
 considered to be slowly, yet surely, recovering ; but in 
 a moment, little suspected, the silver cord was loosed, 
 and the "spirit returned unto God who gave it." 
 
 Mr. Morgan was born in New London, Conn., Jan- 
 uary 7, 1802. His father subsequently moved to 
 Greenfield, Mass., where, under the ministry and in- 
 struction of the Rev. Titus Strong, his son became 
 attached to the doctrines and worship of the Episcopal 
 Church, and a communicant at the early age of six- 
 teen. Bent upon the attainment of a classical educa- 
 tion, and determined to prosecute his design, he en- 
 gaged in the business of teaching a common school. 
 It was in this employment that the Rev. Dr. Wheaton, 
 then Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, found him 
 and kindly offered to assist him in procuring his edu- 
 cation. He interested in his behalf some of the lead- 
 ing men of his parish, and brought him to Hartford, 
 where under his own personal instruction, he was 
 fitted to join, at their third term, the Freshman class 
 in Yale College. He graduated in 1826, with distinc- 
 tion as a scholar, and immediately proceeded to Nor- 
 walk, and took charge of an academy in that place, 
 which was under the supervision of the Rev. Reuben 
 Sherwood. My own knowledge of his character and 
 excellence began under his faithful academic instruc- 
 tion, and to him I feel that I owe the full debt of a 
 student's gratitude, for laying the firm foundation of 
 my classic attainments. Time, which changes all 
 
36 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 things, our purposes as well as our lot, brought 
 the teacher and his pupil together in subsequent 
 vears, and he who had been the instructor now sat a 
 meek and attentive listener at the feet of him whom 
 he had instructed. 
 
 When the Rev. Mr. Sherwood accepted the rector- 
 ship of the High School at Hartford, Mr. Morgan went 
 with him as his principal teacher, and when he after- 
 wards moved to Ulster, N. Y., he again followed him 
 in the same capacity. There he continued till the 
 autumn of 1831, when he returned to Hartford, and 
 was ordained a Deacon in Christ Church, the 27th of 
 November. He began the duties of his ministry in 
 St. Matthew's Church, Plymouth, and the newly 
 formed parish at Bristol, but in the latter part of the 
 succeeding summer he was invited to supply the 
 vacancy in the rectorship of St. John's Church, Water- 
 bury, where he was ordained a Priest, January 17, 
 1833. For more than four years he labored in this 
 parish, with great zeal and acceptance. He showed 
 himself, in all his duties, the faithful pastor and untir- 
 ing friend of his people. He realized the great re- 
 sponsibility which he had assumed in becoming an 
 overseer in the vineyard of the Lord ; and never was 
 there a man who seemed to take a livelier interest 
 in everything that concerned the prosperity of the 
 Church and its Institutions. He had a heart that 
 could "feel for other's woes." He was an ardent friend 
 to the Missionary enterprise, and cast into the treas- 
 ury of the Lord even more than justice to himself 
 would appear to require. His cultivated taste and ripe 
 scholarship led him to cherish, with peculiar zeal, the 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 37 
 
 cause of education, and when in 1836 he was selected 
 by the Convention as a fit person to fill the office of 
 Principal of this Institution, there was a long struggle 
 between his feelings and duty before he could bring 
 himself to accept the appointment. He saw clearly 
 that the interests of the Church and of the College at 
 Hartford required a strong man at this post ; and yet 
 he could not bear the idea of relinquishing a parish 
 that had gained such a prominent place in his affec- 
 tions. He took the office, however, and filled it with 
 energy and success. My limits will not permit me to 
 enlarge upon his character in the different relations 
 of life; nor does it seem to be so essential, from the 
 fact that it is yet fresh in the remembrance of his 
 pupils and friends. The best part of his years was 
 spent in the laborious employment of teaching ; and 
 he has left a name behind him in that capacity which 
 will not soon be forgotten. As a disciplinarian he 
 was severe and inflexible. He held the staff of 
 authority with a firm grasp, and treated with cool 
 contempt the modern notions of governing by an 
 appeal to moral motives. He regarded them as 
 originating in the weakness of parents and ending in 
 the ruin of children. With human instruction he 
 blended the lessons of divine truth, and seemed to 
 feel that no degree of human learning and science is 
 truly valuable, except so far as it is made subservient 
 to the power of the Christian religion. In all his 
 exertions, his single aim was the glory of God and the 
 good of the Church. If he was ambitious, his ambi- 
 tion was tempered by Christian principles. Though 
 his literary attainments were of no ordinary kind, 
 
38 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 he was far above the vanity of wishing to appear 
 learned, and therefore never stooped to court ap- 
 plause by the exhibition of his talents. He knew 
 that it was necessary for success in life to maintain 
 the character of a good man ; but with respect to 
 the public opinion of his abilities he was not solici- 
 tous. He had his faults, but they were such as often 
 attach to our depraved nature in its best estate. 
 
 Verum ubi plura nitent . . . non ego paucis 
 Offendar maculis. — Horat. 
 
 Mr. Morgan lies interred in Waterbury, and his 
 former parish, with as much gratitude as affection, 
 have erected to his memory a neat and durable 
 monument. 
 
 The present speaker was appointed to the charge 
 of the Academy November 7, 1838, and the next 
 day entered upon the duties of his appointment. 
 How far I have been successful in perpetuating the 
 prosperity begun by my predecessor, I leave for the 
 future historian to tell. It does not become me to 
 eulogize myself. While similar academic institu- 
 tions have been established in different parts of the 
 Diocese, some on private and others on public re- 
 sponsibility, this has received a share of patronage 
 that has gratified the Principal and satisfied the 
 Trustees. We have had in the course of instruction, 
 each term for six years, an average number of forty- 
 two scholars, most of whom were from other towns 
 than Cheshire, and many from extreme parts of the 
 Union. Efforts remotely connected with the pros- 
 perity of the Academy have been blessed of God ; 
 and the edifice in which we are now assembled is 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 39 
 
 due to the joint benevolence and self-denial of the 
 rector and his people. My academic charge will 
 soon be assumed by other and trusty hands, Rev. Seth 
 B. Paddock, for whom I would bespeak the same 
 patronage and favor that have been extended to me. 
 I have thus written from its foundation the history 
 of this Institution, — an Institution, the first that was 
 established in this country under the entire control 
 of Episcopalians, and among the first that received 
 its charter from the legislature of Connecticut. For 
 nearly half a century, albeit some adversities have 
 intervened, it has held a prominent place in the pub- 
 lic estimation. What its history will be when the 
 future sons of the Church shall come up here, after 
 the lapse of another fifty years, to celebrate its anni- 
 versary, will depend not less on the character and 
 fidelity of its Principals than on the spirit and liter- 
 ary tendencies of the country. Though seminaries 
 of learning of every description, from the humble 
 District school up to the ample University, are daily 
 multiplying, real ignorance is not, in our view, greatly 
 diminished, nor are the ends of intellectual and moral 
 culture fully subserved. The truth is, men in this 
 country hurry to reap before the harvest is ripe. 
 They cannot wait for the introduction of knowledge 
 into the mind by the slow and sure process of patient 
 study. It must be forced in at once, and the parent 
 who submits to the expense of educating his son for 
 a brief period, at an institution of the higher order, 
 expects him, when he is removed, to possess a vast 
 amount of book-learning for future use and future 
 application. Living in a land of abounding plenty, 
 
40 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 we make haste to be rich, and whatever cannot, with 
 an alchemist's power, be turned into gold is consid- 
 ered as standing in the way of attaining the great 
 end of our ambition. Wealth, rather than knowledge, 
 is regarded as the grand promoter of human happi- 
 ness and human greatness. It helps to prejudice the 
 interests of solid learning that there is such a ten- 
 dency in this precocious age to depart from the sim- 
 plicity of ancient systems. Improvements in the 
 plan of education we are willing to receive and en- 
 courage, but untried theories and visionary specula- 
 tions we have no wish to see fostered, even though 
 beardless boys should prefer them to the time-hon- 
 ored systems devised by the wisdom, and cherished 
 by the zeal, of our ancestors. The great principles of 
 education as established in England and this country 
 are true, because they are founded in the nature of 
 man, and as the elements of individual character do 
 not essentially change, the same broad and general 
 system that once worked well may ever be followed 
 with profit and security. The time given to aca- 
 demic studies in our country is too short, and the 
 studies themselves are too numerous. A good scholar 
 cannot be made in a day. The study of the Classics 
 requires a long period of preparation, and though 
 the stock of ideas that made up the culture of the 
 ancients is gradually passing over into the general 
 modes of modern thinking, no perfection in Greek 
 and Roman Literature can be attained without lin- 
 gering at the fountain where the waters are gushing 
 pure. Many who pass for learned men live on the 
 capital that others have amassed. Their knowledge 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 41 
 
 is chiefly acquired from the reading of Eeviews and 
 Encyclopedias and Classical Dictionaries. They hold 
 no direct communion with the master minds of an- 
 tiquity, and therefore are as men who seek to breathe 
 the air of Ionia, while they live at a distance from 
 her borders. 
 
 It is an impediment to the cause of sound learning 
 in these days, and one over which the instructor of 
 youth will never cease to lament, that cheap period- 
 icals and ephemeral publications are becoming so 
 numerous and accessible. Modern literature throb- 
 bing with present life, impassioned poetry, over- 
 wrought sketches and sentimental romances, unreal 
 history, and ill-prepared biography, — all these take 
 hold of the youthful mind, and either unfit it for 
 severer studies, or leave little room for their pursuit. 
 The disposition to fritter away the time in light 
 reading is beyond the control of the most indefati- 
 gable teacher ; for parents themselves oftentimes pre- 
 sent in their drawing-rooms, or furnish to their chil- 
 dren, the very productions that prudence and Chris- 
 tian morality would discard. Just enough of the 
 Ancient Languages is acquired at most of our literary 
 institutions to make students dislike them in after 
 life. No abiding relish for classic studies is inspired, 
 and, therefore, instead of imitating the example of 
 Curran, and taking for his traveling companions 
 Horace and Virgil, the scholar in these days provides 
 himself with the last new publication to beguile the 
 tedious hours of his journey. It may seem foreign 
 from the purpose of this Address, to offer such reflec- 
 tions, but the things to which I allude are " spots in 
 
42 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 our character," which bear upon the progress and en- 
 couragement of sound learning. They will be min- 
 gled with the future history of our schools and col- 
 leges, and impair their prosperity, unless publicly 
 reprobated and discountenanced. 
 
 I cannot conclude my address without urging upon 
 those who are permitted to enjoy the privileges of 
 early academic instruction, the importance of wast- 
 ing no moments in the fatal indulgence of literary 
 dissipation. All the great and good men, whose 
 characters have passed in review before us to-day, — 
 indeed, all the great and good men of all times and 
 countries were as industrious and studious in youth 
 as they were honored and useful in age. During a 
 period of six years, I have had under my charge, 
 including those now present, about three hundred 
 and fifty different pupils. I remember them all, and 
 while some have taken an early descent to Avernus, 
 and others are, I fear, fast treading in their footsteps, 
 it is a gratification that there are those who promise, 
 in due season, to reward a parent's solicitude and a 
 teacher's care. These will soon begin to realize the 
 truth of the old Greek proverb, that the root of 
 education is bitter, while the fruit is sweet. My 
 sympathies and regard will follow them into whatever 
 distant sphere of usefulness the Providence of God 
 may call them, and nothing will afford me so much 
 delight in reflecting upon their success in after years, 
 as to find that the instruction which they have here 
 received has taken deep root, and given " shade and 
 coolness " to them " in the dust and heat of public 
 life." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Several of these proprietors were Congregationalists, — among whom 
 Samuel A. Law deserves to be particularly mentioned. After graduating 
 at Yale College, he returned to Cheshire, his native place, and opened 
 a school of the higher order, and when the project was suggested of 
 establishing an Episcopal Academy in this State, he proposed to make 
 his School the nucleus of such an Institution, and went about from house 
 to house, to interest the inhabitants of the town in favor of the measure. 
 They did more for the Academy at the time of its establishment than 
 they have done since, contributing $300 a year for the first five years, to 
 support assistant instruction, besides sustaining other expenses, which 
 reflected honor both on their benevolence and foresight. 
 
 The first document on file in the office of the Secretary of State at 
 Hartford is a record of the doings of a meeting; of the Board of Trus- 
 tees, held at Cheshire, preparatory to their memorializing the General 
 Assembly ; and the second, aside from its legislative character, throws 
 much light upon the early history of the Institution. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Episcopal Academy of the State of 
 Connecticut, holden at Cheshire, on the \Ath day of April, 1801 : 
 
 Resolved, — That a petition be preferred to the Honorable the General 
 Assembly, to be holden at Hartford, on the second Thursday of May, 
 1801, praying that the Trustees of said Academy may be constituted 
 and made a Body Politic and Corporate, by the Name of "the Trus- 
 tees of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut," and, by that Name, that 
 they and their Successors may have Perpetual Succession ; be capa- 
 ble of suing and being sued, pleading and being impleaded in all Suits 
 of any nature whatever ; may have a Common Seal ; purchase, receive, 
 hold, and convey any Estate, Real or Personal ; may make By Laws for 
 the regulation and Government of said Academy, not repugnant to the 
 Laws of this State, of the United States, or of the Constitution of the 
 Academy ; and that the Instructors and Students of the Academy may 
 be exempted from Taxes on the Poll, from Military duties and working 
 on Highways. 
 
 And Resolved, also, — That the Right Rev. Abraham Jarvis, the Rev. 
 Dr. John Bowden, and Burrage Beach, be authorized and fully em- 
 
44 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 powered to prefer said Petition in the name of the Trustees of said 
 Academy, and to transact all matters relative to the same. 
 
 Abraham Jarvis, President. 
 
 John Bowden, Principal. 
 
 Burrage Beach, Secretary. 
 
 To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, now sitting at 
 Hartford in said State : 
 
 The Memorial of Abraham Jarvis, John Bowden, Richard Mansfield, 
 Bela Hubbard, Ashbel Baldwin, Reuben Ives, Chauncey Prindle, Tillot- 
 son Bronson, Calvin White, Samuel William Johnson, William Heron, 
 John Morgan, Abijah Hull, Eli Curtis, Andrew Hull, Andrew Hull, Jr., 
 William Law, Samuel A. Law, Thomas Atwater, Burrage Beach, and 
 Moses Moss, inhabitants of said State, and Trustees of the Episcopal 
 Academy of Connecticut, humbly showeth, — That, at a Convention of 
 the Presbyters, Deacons, and Lay Delegates of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church of Connecticut, holden at Cheshire, on the first day of June, 
 a. d. 1796, it was resolved to institute an Academy, at said Cheshire, 
 for the purpose of education ; and to that end a Constitution by the 
 Convention aforesaid was instituted in manner and form following, viz. : 
 
 Article I. The Academy established at Cheshire, by the Conven- 
 tion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, shall be known by the name of 
 the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut. 
 
 Art. II. The government of the Academy shall be vested in the 
 hands of twenty-one Trustees. Of which number shall be the Bishop 
 of Connecticut, and the President of the Academy, ex officio, the other 
 Trustees shall be chosen by the Convention, some of whom shall be 
 Presbyters of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the remainder shall 
 be Laymen, and may be elected from any denomination of professing 
 Christians. 
 
 Art. III. The Trustees shall continue in office during good behav- 
 ior, and upon complaint may be displaced by a vote of the Convention. 
 
 Art. IV. Nine of the Trustees shall form a Board, who shall meet 
 at the Academy four times in each year, which shall be at the quarterly 
 examinations. The President, or Vice-President, may call a meeting of 
 the Trustees at any other time when they shall judge proper, or when a 
 majority of the Trustees shall require it ; public notice thereof being 
 given in one or more newspapers in this State, at least two weeks previ- 
 ous to said meeting, by an advertisement signed by the Bishop, who 
 shall be President, or the Principal of the Academy, who shall be Vice- 
 President, of the Board of Trustees. 
 
 Art. V. Every vacancy among the Trustees shall be filled by the 
 Convention. 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 45 
 
 Art. VI. The Principal of the Academy (who shall always be a 
 Presbyter in the Protestant Episcopal Church) shall be elected by the 
 Convention, and the Assistant, or Assistants, by the Trustees, and both 
 shall be liable to be displaced by their respective electors, if convicted 
 of immoral conduct or great neglect of duty. 
 
 Art. VII. The English Language, Philosophy, Mathematics, His- 
 tory, and every other science usually taught at Colleges [pursued] ; like- 
 wise the Dead Languages, such as Greek and Latin. And whenever the 
 finances of the Academy will admit, the Trustees shall procure an in- 
 structor in the French Language, purchase a Library, Philosophical Ap- 
 paratus, at their own discretion. Female education may be attended to 
 under this Institution, by such instructors, and under such regulations, as 
 the Trustees shall direct. 
 
 Art. VIII. The Principal, or in his absence the Assistant, or As- 
 sistants, shall examine and admit all persons into the Academy, accord- 
 ing to his or their discretion ; provided no person be admitted but such 
 as can read the English language intelligibly. And the Principal may, 
 after admission, class as he pleases. Any person wishing to pursue a 
 particular study, such as the Mathematics in its various branches, Logic, 
 Rhetoric, Geography, Philosophy, etc., shall have an instruction of that 
 kind, without pursuing any classic studies of a different nature. And 
 the Principal may, at any time, with the advice of the Trustees, procure 
 any gentleman, eminent in Divinity, Law, or Physic, to read lectures in 
 those branches respectively, provided a fund be procured for that pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Art. IX. No By-Laws of the Academy shall compel the students to 
 attend public worship, but at such places as their respective parents or 
 guardians shall direct. 
 
 Art. X. Whenever the foregoing articles shall be adopted by a vote 
 of the Convention, they shall become the Constitution of the Episcopal 
 Academy of Connecticut, and be subject to no revision or alteration, but 
 by a vote of two thirds of the members of the Convention. 
 
 That the said Convention, pursuant to the Constitution aforesaid, 
 appointed the persons herein first named, as Trustees of said Academy, 
 and the said John Bowden Principal thereof ; that a brick building for 
 the accommodation of said Academy was erected by certain inhab- 
 itants of Cheshire aforesaid, and a deed thereof was given by them to 
 the Trustees aforesaid, and their successors in said office, for the use 
 aforesaid ; that since said month of June, 1796, the Academy has been 
 open for the reception of students, and has generally had in a course of 
 education about sixty persons, from that period to the present. Your 
 memorialists would state, that the funds of said Academy consist of 
 
46 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 bequests and donations to the amount of about three thousand dollars, — 
 but that from the Trustees aforesaid not being incorporated, they ex- 
 perience difficulties very injurious to the prosperity of said Academy ; 
 that an act of incorporation, constituting the Trustees aforesaid (and 
 their successors appointed to said offices pursuant to the Constitution 
 aforesaid) a body, corporate and politic, [that] thereby they may [be] 
 capable of suing and defending, of possessing, acquiring, receiving, 
 granting, demising, and managing lands, hereditaments, goods, and 
 chattels, for the benefit of said Academy, of ordaining by-laws for the 
 instruction and education of the students, and ordering, governing, and 
 managing said Academy and the affairs and things thereunto belonging, 
 and thereby the lands and ratable estate of said Academy may be 
 freed and exempted from all rates and taxes, and the officers and stu- 
 dents in the same way be likewise freed and exempted from all rates, 
 taxes, military service, and working at highways, is very desirable and 
 necessary for the promotion of the interest of said Academy, of educa- 
 tion, and of the State. 
 
 Wherefore the Trustees aforesaid pray the Honorable Legislature to 
 constitute them and their successors in office a body corporate and poli- 
 tic, to be called and known by the name of The Trustees of the Episcopal 
 Academy of Connecticut, with the powers above mentioned ; or in some 
 other way grant them relief. And as in duty bound they will pray, etc. 
 
 Dated Hartford, May 20, 1801. 
 
 Abraham Jarvis, \ 
 
 John Bowden, > for said Trustees. 
 
 Burrage Beach, ) 
 
 An Act incorporating the Trustees of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, 
 passed May, 1801. 
 
 Whereas, a Memorial of Abraham Jarvis and others, Trustees of the 
 Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, has been preferred to this Assem- 
 bly, showing that an Academy has been constituted at Cheshire, for the 
 purpose of education, by a Convention of Presbyters, Deacons, and Lay 
 Delegates of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and a 
 Constitution framed, praying for an Act of incorporation as per Me- 
 morial will at large appear, which memorial has been granted. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Governor and Council, and House of Representa- 
 tives, in General Court assembled, That Abraham Jarvis, John Bowden, 
 Richard Mansfield, Bela Hubbard, Ashbel Baldwin, Reuben Ives, 
 Chauncey Prindle, Tillotson Bronson, Calvin White, Samuel William 
 Johnson, William Heron, John Morgan, Abijah Hull, Eli Curtis, Andrew 
 Hull, Andrew Hull, Jr., William Law, Samuel A. Law, Thomas At- 
 water, Burrage Beach, and Moses Moss, inhabitants of said State, shall 
 
EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 47 
 
 be an incorporate society, or body corporate and politic, and shall be 
 hereafter called and known by the name of " The Trustees of the 
 Episcopal A cademy of Connecticut ; ' ' and that by the same name they 
 and their successors, elected pursuant to the Constitution aforesaid, 
 shall and may have perpetual succession, and shall and may be persons 
 capable in the law, to plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, 
 and also to have, take, possess, acquire, parchase, or otherwise receive, 
 lands, tenements, and hereditaments, goods, chattels, or other estate, to 
 an amount not exceeding thirty thousand dollars, and the same to grant, 
 demise, lease, use, manage, or improve, for the good and benefit of 
 said Academy, according to the tenor of the donation and their discre- 
 tion. 
 
 That the Trustees of said Episcopal Academy shall and may hereafter 
 have a common seal to serve and use for all causes, matters, and affairs 
 of them and their successors, and the same to seal, to alter, break, and 
 make new, as they shall think fit. 
 
 That the Trustees of said Episcopal Academy for the time being shall 
 have power from time to time, as occasion shall require, to make, ordain, 
 and establish all such wholesome and reasonable By-Laws, rules, and 
 ordinances not repugnant to the laws of this State, as they shall think 
 fit and proper, for ruling and managing the said Academy, and all mat- 
 ters and things thereunto belonging, and the same to repeal and alter as 
 they shall think fit. 
 
 That all the land and ratable [property] belonging, or that shall be- 
 long, to said Academy, lying within this State, and the persons and 
 families of the Principal and Professors, and their estates lying in said 
 Cheshire, and the persons of the Tutors and Students, and such, and 
 so many of the servants of said Academy, as give their constant attend- 
 ance on the business of it, shall be freed and exempted from all rates, 
 taxes, military service, and working on highways, provided, always, that 
 any part of this Act, or any of the By-Laws which may be made by 
 virtue thereof, may be revised, altered, or repealed at any time by the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 The prayer of the above Memorial was granted May 22, 1801, and the 
 bill in form for incorporating the Academy, having previously passed the 
 "Upper House," passed the "Lower House" May 30, 1801. From 
 that moment the corporate existence of the Academy began. 
 
 The original Constitution was amended in 1836 as follows : — 
 
 Article I. The Academy established at Cheshire by the Conven- 
 tion of the Protestant Episcopal Church shall be known by the name of 
 the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut. 
 
48 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Art. II. The Government of the Academy shall be vested in twenty- 
 one Trustees, of which number shall be the Bishop of Connecticut, and 
 the Principal of the Academy, ex officio. The other Trustees shall 
 be chosen by the Convention, seven of whom shall be Presbyters of 
 the Church, and the remainder Laymen, residing in the State of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Art. III. Whenever a Trustee shall remove out of the State, he 
 shall cease to be a member of the Board ; and the seat of any Trustee 
 may be declared vacant by the Convention, on his absenting himself 
 from three successive meetings, or for any other cause satisfactory to 
 the Convention. 
 
 Art. IV. Five of the Trustees shall form a Board, who shall meet 
 annually at the Academy. The President, or Vice-President, may call 
 a meeting of the Trustees, at any other time when they shall deem it 
 necessary, or when a majority of the Trustees shall require it ; public 
 notice thereof being given in one or more newspapers in this State, at 
 least two weeks previous to said meeting, by an advertisement signed by 
 the Bishop, who shall be President, or by the Principal of the Academy, 
 who shall be Vice-President, of the Board. 
 
 Art. V. Every vacancy among the Trustees shall be filled by the 
 Convention. 
 
 Art. VI. The Principal of the Academy, who shall be a communi- 
 cant in the Protestant Episcopal Church, shall be elected by the Board 
 of Trustees, a majority of the Trustees for the time being concurring, 
 and shall continue in office during their pleasure. But in all cases 
 where a dissolution of the connection is contemplated, three months 
 notice of such design shall be given by the party desiring it. 
 
 Art. VII. The branches taught in the Academy shall be the 
 Classics and the hio-her branches of English education, and the Acad- 
 emy shall be designed exclusively for boys. 
 
 Art. VIII. The Government of the Academy, and the appoint- 
 ment of Assistants, shall be solely in the hands of the Principal ; pro- 
 vided no Assistant shall be continued in office after the expression of a 
 request on the part of the Trustees for his removal. 
 
 Art. IX. No By-Law of the Academy shall compel the Students to 
 attend public worship, but at such place or places as their respective 
 parents or guardians shall direct. 
 
 Art. X. Whenever the foregoing articles shall be adopted by a 
 vote of the Convention, they shall become the Constitution of the Epis- 
 copal Academy of Connecticut, and be subject to no revision or altera- 
 tion but by a vote of the Convention. 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE TWENTY -FIFTH ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF 
 TRINITY COLLEGE, DELIVERED IN CHRIST CHURCH, 
 HARTFORD, JULY 30, 1851. 
 
 We have come up hither to celebrate the twenty- 
 fifth annual Commencement of Trinity College. That 
 some additional importance might be given to this 
 festival by the gathering together of facts connected 
 with its origin, and that new zeal might thereby be 
 awakened for the advancement of the best interests 
 of the Institution, the duty was imposed upon me, at 
 the last annual meeting of the House of Convocation, 
 to prepare a brief historical Address. In the accom- 
 plishment of the honorable duty thus assigned me 
 (which I consented to attempt at the latest moment), 
 I have found myself laboring under a double disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Trinity College has no antiquity. It wants the 
 charm of venerable associations. The ivy has not 
 been creeping so long upon its walls as to give them 
 the complexion of age, nor have the steps which con- 
 duct to its entrances been worn by the feet of succes- 
 sive generations of scholars. There are no extraordi- 
 nary statutes preserved in its archives to mark the 
 usages of a less enlightened period ; no obsolete sys- 
 tems of College discipline and College manners, con- 
 trasting ludicrously with the gentler regulations and 
 
50 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 freer etiquette of the times in which we live. There 
 are no treasures " laid up in old historic rolls," to be 
 opened as the necessity requires ; no traditions and 
 anecdotes, from the fund of which one may draw ma- 
 terial to relieve the dullness of his discourse, and 
 give emphasis and variety to the facts which he pre- 
 sents. 
 
 Intimately connected with this disadvantage is 
 another. The immediate agents in procuring the 
 charter of Trinity College, and they who have con- 
 tributed most largely to make up its history, are still 
 living, and it is not a little perilous to speak of their 
 exertions and character with that freedom and full- 
 ness which the occasion seems to demand. We under- 
 take a nice and delicate business, if we attempt the 
 narration of events associated with men who are yet 
 upon the stage of being. For the most part, it is 
 believed to be soon enough to scrutinize narrowly the 
 policy of the presiding officers of academic institutions, 
 when time has mellowed our prejudices and experi- 
 ence corrected our mistakes; soon enough to write 
 critically the history of scholars, when they have closed 
 their labors and gone to their rest and reward. But 
 embarrassing as these disadvantages have been, we 
 are not without hope, that the Address which we have 
 prepared will possess in your eyes an interest and a 
 value. Though we have had both authentic records 
 and the testimonies of the living to draw from, it has 
 cost us more care to insure accuracy than was at first 
 anticipated. 
 
 I have said that Trinity College lacks the charm 
 of venerable associations, but there is a link in its 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 51 
 
 history reaching back more than half a century. For 
 efforts which looked towards the establishment of a 
 second College in Connecticut were put forth full 
 thirty years before they were crowned with success. 
 This second College was the conception of men who 
 were not unmindful of the prejudices of early edu- 
 cation. They imagined that they saw the danger of 
 training their sons in academic halls where religious 
 tests were exacted of the officers of instruction, or 
 where these officers owed allegiance to a faith in many 
 important respects different from their own. When 
 Dean Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, returned 
 to his native land, having failed in the object for 
 which he came to this western world, his example, 
 and the gift of his books and of his lands in Ehode 
 Island to Yale College, were not lost to the cause of 
 sound learning; and Christian education. His corre- 
 spondence with Dr. Johnson, of Stratford, shows him 
 to have been a man of large and liberal views. In a 
 letter addressed to that learned divine and noble 
 champion of the Church, dated July 25, 1751, — just 
 a century ago, — he says, " I am glad to find by Mr. 
 Clap's letter and the specimens of literature inclosed 
 in his packet, that learning continues to make a pro- 
 gress in Yale College, and hope that virtue and Chris- 
 tian charity may keep pace with it." Whether Chris- 
 tian charity did keep pace with it, we will leave you to 
 determine by the citation of a few facts bearing upon 
 the history of that period. Nearly all the clergy of 
 the Episcopal Church who manifested a very decided 
 friendliness to the welfare of the Institution at New 
 
52 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 time of the erection of King's (now Columbia) Col- 
 lege, in the city of New York, with Dr. Johnson at its 
 head, there seems to have been a change working 
 in the minds of Churchmen. Was this change the 
 result of legislation, or was it accidental ?- President 
 Woolsey, in the Historical Discourse which he deliv- 
 ered before the Alumni of Yale College at the annual 
 Commencement, 1850, speaking of President Clap's 
 administration, says : " The most characteristic meas- 
 ure of this period was the appointment of a Professor 
 of Theology, and the establishment of a separate re- 
 ligious society and church in the College." And 
 again, alluding to the act of the Trustees imposing a 
 test upon the officers of instruction, " the aim of which 
 was to maintain in their soundness the faith and 
 church theory of the Puritans," he adds, " I can find 
 no evidence from the College records that this test 
 was applied for a number of years ; but am not dis- 
 posed to think that it became obsolete. However this 
 was, in 1753, when the project for establishing a Pro- 
 fessor of Divinity was on foot, a new resolution of the 
 Fellows required that members of their own body, 
 with the President, the Professor of Divinity and 
 Tutors, should give their assent to the Westminster 
 Catechism and Confession of Faith, and should re- 
 nounce all doctrines and principles contrary thereto, 
 and pass through such an examination as the Corpo- 
 ration should order. This new provision for securing 
 orthodoxy was quite unacceptable to a number of 
 educated persons in the Colony, and was one of the 
 causes why President Clap was held in disesteem." 
 It appears by reference to the Triennial Catalogue, 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 53 
 
 that during the administration of President Clap, 
 which covered a period of nearly thirty years, the 
 number of graduates who became Episcopal clergy- 
 men was scarcely greater than the number during 
 the administration of his predecessor, which covered 
 less than half the same period. The parishes in the 
 mean time were multiplied in Connecticut, from vari- 
 ous causes, and especially from the influence of White- 
 field's preaching, and were scattered along the shore 
 of the Sound, from Greenwich to Norwich, and far up 
 among the hills and valleys of the interior. 
 
 It may be said that King's College in New York 
 drew off some students, but the steady and even rapid 
 increase of Episcopalians — ceteris paribus — should 
 have kept the number good. We believe that we 
 may trace the diminution in a great measure to the 
 want of that Christian charity which Dean Berkeley 
 expressed the hope might keep pace with the progress 
 of learning. We can forgive the rigorous enactments 
 of a period when there was but one way of thinking in 
 the Colony, and when it was the fault of the times to 
 take a narrow view of the rights of conscience and 
 of Christian liberty. We can almost forgive, — for 
 we are persuaded that no one will defend them, look- 
 ing back from the point of time on which we stand, — 
 we can almost forgive those penal laws, dictated in a 
 spirit of undiscovered intolerance, and designed for the 
 manifest perpetuity of the Puritan faith. But after 
 the number of Episcopal families had very largely in- 
 creased in the Colony, and after a parish had been 
 organized in New Haven, and a missionary of the 
 Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
 
54 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 in Foreign Parts had been stationed there, it would 
 seem that out of respect for their wishes, and out of 
 gratitude to clergymen of the Church of England for 
 important services and benefactions, some relaxation 
 of the rigor of these laws should have appeared, at 
 least so far as not to fine Episcopal students for pre- 
 ferring their own mode of worship on every Lord's 
 day, 1 and not to require the classes, through the whole 
 term of their college life, to recite the Westminster 
 Confession of Faith, received and approved by the 
 Churches in the Colony, together with Wollebius' 
 Theologv or Dr. Ames' Medulla and Cases of Con- 
 science. It was, then, the continuance in force of rig- 
 orous enactments, and the adoption of new measures 
 to guard the orthodoxy of the land, which opened the 
 eyes of Churchmen to the necessity for an Institution 
 more favorable to their views, or rather less dangerous 
 to the religious predilections of their sons. The war 
 of the Revolution operated disastrously upon the 
 prosperity of the Church, and broke up our parishes in 
 many places. But after civil liberty had been secured, 
 and the Colonies separated from the mother country, 
 
 1 The fine for absence from the College Chapel on Sundays was four 
 'pence, but Episcopal students were allowed to attend their own Church 
 on Communion Sundays. Professor Kingsley, in a note to me bearing 
 upon this law, says : " When Archbishop Seeker published, in a pamphlet, 
 that there was a College in New England (undoubtedly meaning Yale 
 College) where an Episcopal student was fined for going on a Sunday to 
 hear his own father preach, the fact probably was, and I heard it so 
 explained many years ago, that the student was absent from the Chapel, 
 was reported by the monitor, and fined for absence, — the reason of his 
 absence being unknown to the College Faculty. You will not understand 
 me as defending the law which required at that time, under the above 
 penalty, all students to attend worship in the College Chapel, — except 
 Episcopal students on Communion Sundays." 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 55 
 
 the time was come for the Church, deprived of "nurs- 
 ing care and protection" from abroad, to rely upon her 
 own resources. And what could be done effectually 
 towards increasing the scattered ranks of her ministry, 
 except she threw off the shackles of Puritanism, and 
 became independent in the matter of Collegiate edu- 
 cation ? Hence it was one of the earliest movements 
 of Bishop Seabury and his Clergy, after the Kevolu- 
 tion, to plant a Seminary of classic learning in this 
 Diocese. The Institution at Cheshire owes its origin 
 to a resolution adopted by them in 1792, and for a 
 series of years it served, in some measure, the double 
 purpose of a preparatory school and a university. In 
 1801, having obtained bequests and donations to the 
 amount of about $3,000, its managers preferred a pe- 
 tition to the General Assembly, u praying that they 
 might be constituted and made a body politic and 
 corporate, by the name of the Trustees of the Episco- 
 pal Academy of Connecticut." The act of incorpora- 
 tion was passed, but it does not seem to have come 
 up to the full intention of the founders, for, three 
 years afterwards, in accordance with a vote of the 
 Diocesan Convention, the Board of Trustees peti- 
 tioned the General Assembly for a charter, empower- 
 ing them to confer degrees in the arts, divinity and 
 law, and to enjoy all other privileges usually granted 
 to colleges. This petition was refused, and we find 
 them instructed to continue their importunity, by the 
 following preamble and resolution, entered upon the 
 Diocesan Journal for 1810 : — ■ 
 
 " Whereas doubts have arisen whether the Trus- 
 tees of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, which 
 
56 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 was established at Cheshire by this Convention in the 
 year 1796, are invested with the power of conferring 
 upon the students the degree and testimonials of lit- 
 erary proficiency usually granted at Colleges ; and 
 whereas the great objects contemplated by the Con- 
 vention cannot be accomplished unless the Trustees 
 are authorized to confer such degrees; therefore 
 
 " Resolved, That the Trustees of said Academy be 
 requested to prefer a petition to the next General 
 Assembly of the State of Connecticut, with all the 
 powers, privileges, and immunities of a College." 
 
 The application, urged with such sanction, was sup- 
 ported by a large majority in one branch of the Leg- 
 islature, but the Council, or Senate, opposed to the 
 action of the lower House a full negative, and thus 
 defeated the charter. In 1811, the General Conven- 
 tion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, understand- 
 ing that the establishment of a second College in 
 Connecticut, under the auspices of Episcopalians, was 
 contemplated, expressed their entire approbation of 
 the measure, and their earnest wishes for its success. 
 At that time, there was not a College in the Union 
 under the direct care and superintendence of the 
 Church, — not even Columbia in New York, — and if 
 reliance can be placed upon the truth of history, some 
 cautious measures had been taken to keep in other 
 hands the control of existing Institutions. Another 
 application to the General Assembly for a charter fol- 
 lowed, and was rejected by both branches of the same, 
 thereby showing no gain to the Church in legislative 
 influence. During the vacancy in the Episcopate from 
 the death of Bishop Jarvis, all effort to secure the long- 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 57 
 
 cherished object was suspended, but the clergy kept 
 it in view, and would have resumed it immediately 
 after the consecration of the present venerated and 
 beloved Diocesan, 1 had not the location of the General 
 Theological Seminary at New Haven drawn off their 
 thoughts and support. The return of that Institution 
 to New York was the signal for fresh exertions, and 
 fortunately the intervening period of their quiet had 
 witnessed important political changes, — such as the 
 adoption of the State Constitution, and the consequent 
 breaking down of the reigning dynasty, — changes 
 which undoubtedly prepared the way for more liberal 
 legislation. In 1823, the petition of Episcopalians, 
 setting forth " the expediency of attempting to estab- 
 lish another Collegiate Institution in this State," and 
 urging their claims to have the direction of its ad- 
 ministration, was presented to the Legislature, and a 
 charmed political name, rather than the name of the 
 first Bishop of the Diocese, inserted, we suppose, in 
 the bill for a charter, that nothing might be done to 
 peril its passage. The charter was granted, taking 
 effect from the time when $30,000 should be sub- 
 scribed as an endowment, and the event was wel- 
 comed in this city, where the Legislature was holding 
 its session, with demonstrations of great rejoicing. 
 Though given upon the prayer of Episcopalians, and 
 contemplating their management, the charter, as the 
 petitioners wished, required that the College should 
 be conducted on the broad principles of religious lib- 
 erty. 2 It contained a provision, prohibiting the Trus- 
 tees from passing any ordinance or by-law that should 
 
 1 Bishop T. C. Brownell. 2 See Appendix. 
 
58 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 make the religious tenets of any officer or student in 
 the College a test or qualification of employment or 
 admission. And here it may be observed that up to 
 the very day before the petition for this charter was 
 presented to the Legislature, the statute of Yale Col- 
 lege in reference to tests — modified upon the acces- 
 sion of Dr. Stiles to the Presidency, from consent to 
 the Westminster Catechism and Confession of Faith 
 into an assent to the Saybrook Platform — was still 
 in force. That day, at a special meeting of the cor- 
 poration, held in the city of Hartford, the obnoxious 
 test law was repealed. There are those who think 
 the time was thus critically chosen for its repeal, that 
 an influence might be brought to bear upon the minds 
 of the liberal legislature, touching the petition for a 
 second College. But let this pass without further 
 remark. No sooner was this charter granted than its 
 friends, who had been so long contending with the 
 evils of popular prejudice, were now compelled to 
 contend with the evils of poverty and other discour- 
 aging causes. The amount necessary to secure the 
 provisions of the charter was, indeed, over-subscribed, 
 for within one year from its date about fifty thousand 
 dollars were raised by private subscription for an 
 endowment. This noble subscription was obtained 
 by offering to the larger towns the privilege of fair 
 and laudable competition for its location, and Hart- 
 ford, never wanting in public spirit and generous out- 
 lays, gained the victory over her sister cities. The 
 erection of the College buildings was commenced in 
 June, 1824, and the business of instruction in Septem- 
 ber of the same year. But the funds subscribed were 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 59 
 
 barely adequate to this beginning. The Trustees 
 had already deputed one of their number to visit 
 England, and solicit donations towards the supply of 
 a Library and Philosophical apparatus. He carried 
 with him an Address or general letter of introduc- 
 tion, officially signed, and directed to the Bishops, 
 Clergy, and Laity of the Church of England. It does 
 not appear to have been the original intention to 
 give much publicity to the object of this mission, but 
 on the arrival of the agent, he found himself in the 
 way of other applications from this country for simi- 
 lar aid, and he was induced to print the letter, to- 
 gether with a statement of his own, setting forth the 
 necessities of the Church here and the more important 
 facts in regard to the condition of the two oldest 
 Xew England Colleges. The a^ent returned to this 
 
 coo 
 
 country, with the donations which he had received, 
 soon enough to be a conspicuous and fearless actor in 
 that war of pamphlets which arose from i; Considera- 
 tions suggested by the establishment of a second Col- 
 lege in Connecticut." ! It was claimed to be uncalled 
 for by the interests of literature. After the zealous 
 endeavors which had been used in various sections 
 of the State to prevent the subscription papers from 
 being filled up in order that the charter might be 
 secured, it was perhaps to be expected that other 
 attempts would be made to interfere with its success, 
 but these attempts were carried quite too far, when 
 it was represented that two large and respectable 
 Institutions could not exist together in so small a terri- 
 
 o 
 
 1 This was the title of the first anonymous pamphlet, which was 
 replied to anonymously, and then a rejoinder followed. 
 
60 
 
 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 tory ; that this College could only rise into distinction 
 and usefulness by depressing Yale in the same ratio ; 
 that the tendency of its establishment would be to 
 dissipate our strength and divide one prosperous uni- 
 versity into two weak and languishing seminaries, 
 and thus to " loiver the standard of literary attainments, 
 while the total expense of education to the State was 
 augmented." Events have proved that fears of this 
 sort were wholly groundless. No College in the Union 
 has had a higher reputation for the thoroughness of 
 its course and the scholarship of its Faculty than 
 Trinity. So far from having the effect to reduce the 
 numbers at Yale College, these numbers have actu- 
 ally increased, and, as to diverting the patronage of 
 the Church, while I write there are some seventy-five 
 students seeking an education at that ancient seat of 
 learning who have come from Episcopal families, or 
 from families having preferences for the Episcopal 
 mode of worship. Nor is this all. Midway between 
 the two capitals of the State a third Collegiate Insti- 
 tution 1 has been erected and endowed by private and 
 State beneficence, for the benefit of a denomination 
 of Christians, not disposed until recently to pay very 
 profound respect to an educated ministry. Opposi- 
 tion, based on reasoning which has proved thus falla- 
 cious, could not prevail. The College survived it, and 
 it did not sicken and die when the State afterwards 
 refused to feed it with a tithe of the bounty which 
 had been bestowed upon the venerable sister. Its 
 first President was he who scarcely needed a formal 
 
 1 The Wesleyan University at Middletown, under the control of the 
 Methodists. 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 61 
 
 vote to be placed in that office. He was the Bishop 
 of the Diocese, and had been charged with the pres- 
 entation of the petition to the Honorable Legislature. 
 He had watched its progress with solicitude, and wit- 
 nessed its success with delight. Long experience in 
 Academic discipline had made him acquainted with 
 the responsibilities of the office, and for seven years he 
 filled it with a wisdom which the seventy-nine gradu- 
 ates of that period will never cease to remember. He 
 was withdrawn from the administration at the instance 
 of the Diocese, when the cares of the Episcopate were 
 increasing. with the increase of the Church, and claim- 
 ing his undivided time and attention. His " Farewell 
 Address," delivered to the students upon the occasion 
 of retiring from the Presidency, opens with a passage 
 rich in tender associations : — 
 
 u The time is at hand when I am to retire from the 
 immediate charge of this Institution. It is an event 
 which I cannot contemplate without some emotion. 
 Having made the first movements for the establish- 
 ment of the College ; having been engaged with great 
 solicitude in all the measures for procuring its char- 
 ter ; for raising the funds for its endowment ; for 
 framing the laws for its organization and government ; 
 having presided over the instruction and discipline 
 which has been dispensed in it, from its origin to the 
 present time, it is naturally to be expected that my 
 feelings should be strongly identified with its interests 
 and its prospects." 
 
 Upon the retirement of Bishop Brownell from the 
 Presidency, the choice for a successor fell upon the 
 Rev. Dr. Wheaton, another fast friend to the Institu- 
 
62 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 tion, and one who could say in reference to its earlier 
 trials, — 
 
 Quorum pars magna fui. 
 
 But hardly had one lustrum passed away before he 
 vacated the Presidential chair, and removed to New 
 Orleans that he might accept the Rectorship of Christ 
 Church in that city. During his administration, 
 which ended in 1837, the financial condition of the 
 College was greatly improved. Through the indefat- 
 igable exertions of the President, the Hobart Pro- 
 fessorship of Belles-Lettres and Oratory was insti- 
 tuted, and endowed with funds to the amount of 
 $20,000, contributed by friends in New York. The 
 Seabury Professorship was also commenced, and large 
 additions were made to the general funds of the 
 Institution, so that, when he withdrew from its 
 charge, he had laid the foundation for a system of 
 judicious endowments, which his own private bene- 
 factions, subsequently yet unostentatiously bestowed, 
 have helped to foster. 1 
 
 Frequent changes in the Presidency of a College 
 are always to be avoided, because always injurious 
 to its prosperity. Care should be taken to select for 
 that office men who are fitted to its responsibilities 
 
 1 -The grounds about the College are beautiful by nature, but from the 
 first, great attention was paid to their improvement by the planting of 
 hedges, shrubbery, and trees. An eye seems to have been turned to the 
 moral influence of such things, in the elevation and refinement of taste 
 and manners. Dr. Wheaton deserves many thanks for what he did in 
 this way. 
 
 The site was sold by the Corporation March 21, 1872, to the city of 
 Hartford for a State House, and a large tract of land purchased, about 
 one mile and a half distant, on which very expensive College build- 
 ings have since been erected. 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 63 
 
 and duties by experience and attainment, and then 
 none but the best reasons should be allowed to pro- 
 duce a dissolution of the connection. The Trustees 
 resolved at length to fill the vacancy occasioned by 
 the resignation of Dr. Wheaton with one who, though 
 he had gained no celebrity in the Church, had yet 
 proved himself eminently successful in one depart- 
 ment of the College. Thus they chose their own Pro- 
 fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, the 
 Rev. Silas Totten, D. D. His faithful Presidency 
 extended beyond a decade of years, the most remark- 
 able features of which relate to the internal organiza- 
 tion and condition of the College, and to the erection 
 of Brownell Hall in 1845. 1 That same year, also, an 
 act of the Legislature was passed, permitting an impor- 
 tant change in the name and style of the Institution, 
 — a change which we hope in God will "attest forever 
 the faith of its founders, and their zeal for the perpet- 
 ual glory and honor of the one holy and undivided 
 Trinity." If it be true that he who first turned the 
 minds of his Clergy to the establishment of a Sem- 
 inary for education on the principles of the Church 
 did foresee, with dim and fearful vision, that the time 
 would come when this very doctrine would be exten- 
 sively corrupted and denied in New England, then it 
 had been no greater mark of veneration for his mem- 
 ory to give the College his own name than to give it a 
 title which represented the glorious doctrine in whose 
 defense he wished it to be understood that to the last 
 
 1 The Seabury Professorship was filled up during the administration 
 of Dr. Totten, and besides the funds contributed to the erection of 
 Brownell Hall, sums requisite to the endowment of several Scholarships 
 were subscribed in the Diocese of Connecticut. 
 
64 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 he lifted up his voice. Long may this Institution 
 send forth sons trained to resist the advancement of a 
 heresy so opposed to the simple truth of God, as the 
 denial in their proper and Scriptural acceptation of 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Long may she be 
 a stranger to the spirit of reckless religious specula- 
 tion ; a stranger to all that teaching and ensnaring 
 philosophy which does but wrap the soul in skepti- 
 cism, and prepare the way for a complete surrender 
 of the " faith once delivered to the Saints." 
 
 While Dr. Totten occupied the Presidential chair, 
 the Trustees enacted certain statutes, " committing 
 the superintendence of the course of study and disci- 
 pline to a Board of Fellows," and empowering speci- 
 fied members of the Senatus Academicus, as the House 
 of Convocation, to assemble under their own rules, 
 and to consult and advise for the interests and benefit 
 of the College. Time enough has not been given 
 to these changes to reap from them much advantage. 
 They were modeled after the English Universities. 
 
 " There has been, as we trust, revived among us," 
 said he who had the honor of pronouncing the first 
 Address before the House of Convocation, 1 "some- 
 thing of the old and true principle of the University. 
 Not, indeed, in its ancient form, nor in precisely the 
 ancient mode of its expression. For it may and often 
 does chance that a principle shall express itself in 
 diverse outward forms in different ages, while yet in 
 itself it remains unchanged. Indeed, no external 
 organizations or forms within which principles are 
 enshrined — save only those which, being of divine 
 
 1 Rev. John Williams, D. D., President of the College. 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 65 
 
 appointment, are adapted to every age, and not to be 
 changed by man — can be expected to remain pre- 
 cisely the same, generation after generation, and age 
 after age. For they exist in a world whose social and 
 intellectual relations are continually changing ; and, 
 by those very changes, demanding corresponding 
 changes in those external modes by which unchanging 
 principles are brought to bear and do their work, 
 whether on individuals or on masses of our race." 
 
 The changes referred to in this passage were de- 
 signed, among other things, to retain the graduates 
 in closer connection with their Alma Mater, by giving 
 them a definite and fractional participation in its man- 
 agement. We have great faith in any policy which 
 tends to secure to the College the abiding interest 
 and affections of the Alumni. Hence one fact, dis- 
 covered in searching the records for the material of 
 this Address, has greatly surprised us. Twenty-eight 
 years have rolled away since the charter was granted, 
 and of the Trustees who originally composed the 
 Board, but three, setting aside the Chancellor, have 
 survived all change, and retained their places as 
 members of the Corporation. The surprising fact is 
 that, until this day, 1 not a solitary Alumnus has been 
 selected to fill any one of the several vacancies which 
 have thus from time to time occurred. 
 
 But upon the resignation of Dr. Totten, it was a 
 subject of thankfulness and joy among the Alumni of 
 the Institution that one of their own number was 
 
 1 At a meeting of the Board of Trustees, held in the morning of the 
 day when this Address was delivered, the author was elected a member 
 of the Corporation. 
 5 
 
66 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 invited to take his responsibilities and carry on the 
 work of Christian education. I shall not be trench- 
 ing upon the sacred prerogatives of private and per- 
 sonal history, if I mention an interesting circumstance 
 associated with the office thus bestowed. The fourth 
 President of Yale College, counting the Eectorate 
 of Samuel Andrew, was the Eev. Elisha Williams, of 
 Newington, "a man of splendor," says Dr. Stiles in 
 his Diary, " who filled his chair with great usefulness 
 and power for thirteen years," and then resigned it, 
 devoting himself with singular versatility of talent to 
 legislation, jurisprudence, the army, and lastly to mer- 
 cantile pursuits. Tradition represents him to have 
 been a sturdy defender of the Puritan faith, as well 
 as a good hater of Episcopacy, and it is not improb- 
 able that he was elected to the office of President, with 
 an eye to the astounding and painful defection of Dr. 
 Cutler and his associates. 
 
 The fourth President of Trinity College has the 
 blood of Rector Williams flowing in his veins, though 
 he wants the Baptismal name of his kinsman. He 
 has broken away in peacefulness and love from the 
 ranks of the Pilgrims, and been placed in an impor- 
 tant position of the Church, to guard and foster those 
 distinctive religious principles which his renowned 
 and " splendid " ancestor was so zealous to oppose 
 and repress. Aye, more ! while years were gathering 
 upon him whom we all delight to honor, and " around 
 whose venerable presence cluster, for so many of us, 
 the deepest, holiest memories of all our lives, the 
 memories of vows uttered on earth and registered in 
 heaven;" while years were gathering upon him a 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 67 
 
 weight of infirmities insupportable with the full cares 
 of the Episcopate, he called in kindness for some one 
 upon whose shoulders he might lay a portion of his 
 responsibilities and his duties; and thereupon the 
 Diocese, with almost entire unanimity, elected to the 
 office of a Bishop in the Church of the living God, the 
 Reverend, the President of Trinity College. 1 
 
 Here I might close my Address, and leave to the 
 future historian the recital of much that is unbecom- 
 ing now to utter. But before I conclude, let me 
 direct your attention to one important object which 
 the establishment of the College was designed to pro- 
 mote, and which, thanks be to God, it has promoted 
 in an eminent degree. I refer to the education and 
 training of young men for the ministry of the Protest- 
 ant Episcopal Church, to say nothing about the zeal- 
 ous and intelligent laymen who have here passed 
 through their course of Collegiate instruction. When 
 Dr. Wheaton visited England to solicit friendly assist- 
 ance from the Church in that realm, he set forth in 
 his published statement the following among other 
 facts : — 
 
 " The number of organized Episcopal congregations 
 in the States falls but little short of six hundred while 
 the Clergymen engaged in actual parochial duty do 
 not at present exceed half that number. It is pleas- 
 ing to record the gradual extinction of those invet- 
 erate prejudices against Episcopacy, which distin- 
 guished the first settlers of the country, especially in 
 those parts where the Church has been advanta- 
 
 1 The Rev. Dr. Williams was elected Assistant Bishop of the Diocese 
 of Connecticut, June 11, 1851. 
 
68 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 geously made known by her more intelligent minis- 
 ters. The candid and moderate, belonging to the vari- 
 ous sects, appalled at the enormous strides of heresy, 
 are visibly becoming more reconciled to the Church, 
 whose temperate doctrines, consistent government, 
 and edifying mode of worship, present a, common 
 ground of union not to be found within the pale of 
 .any of the classes of Dissenters (that is, Sectarians). 
 Nothing, indeed, seems to be wanting to a general ex- 
 itension of the Episcopal Church but a body of zealous, 
 well-educated Clergy far more numerous than, with her 
 present advantages, it is possible for her to possess." 
 
 This was said, you will remember, twenty-seven 
 years ago, and within that period Trinity College has 
 educated more than one third as many Clergymen as 
 were then engaged in actual parochial duty. They 
 have radiated in all directions of our country, and car- 
 ried with them an influence which is not only impress- 
 ing itself upon the minds of men for the good of the 
 Church, but which will, we trust, in due season reflect 
 back upon the Institution where they were trained 
 to become Christian scholars. The originator of our 
 Mission to China was a graduate of Trinity College; 1 
 though God in His inscrutable Providence was 
 pleased to lay upon him so early the hand of disease 
 and death, that he was debarred the privilege of 
 beginning the work which his zealous heart had pro- 
 jected. The first pioneer of the Church in the broad 
 territory which lies on the Gulf of Mexico beyond the 
 Mississippi River, and which has since become an in- 
 
 1 The Rev. Augustus Foster Lyde, who died in Philadelphia, soon 
 after his ordination. 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 69 
 
 tegral part of the Union, was a graduate of Trinity 
 College/ who, two years ago, with failing health, left 
 his lone post of duty, just soon enough to reach the 
 green hills of his native land, and die. But I must not 
 make a Missionary argument in a literary address. I 
 was desirous of showing that in one important respect 
 the College has done for the Church what its founders 
 and friends predicted and prayed that it would do. It 
 has increased the ranks of her ministry. It has edu- 
 cated for the clerical profession a number nearly equai 
 to the aggregate of students who received their diplo- 
 mas from Yale College in the first twenty-five years of 
 her existence. Having done, therefore, so much for 
 education in the Church, need we be impatient for 
 the rest? Need we really be disheartened if, year by 
 year, the College Calendar shows a list not numer- 
 ous ; if, for the next generation, no throng of pupils 
 shall gather within these walls such as may crowd the 
 benches of older seats of learning ? Numbers are not 
 the certain test of academic efficiency, nor will they 
 always come at the bidding of scholarship and the 
 best privileges of literature. Oh be content, each 
 friend of Trinity College, to say in reference to its 
 prosperity : " Because of the house of the Lord our 
 God," because of the service rendered and yet to be 
 rendered to the Church, "I will seek to do thee good." 
 The more venerable Institutions of the land have 
 their thousands of living Alumni, on whom they may 
 call for succor in times of emergency, of poverty and 
 peril. I look for more than proportionate aid from 
 
 1 Rev. Caleb S. Ives, Missionary at Matagorda, Texas, who died in 
 Vermont. 
 
70 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 kindred sources. I look along the lines of futurity, 
 and I seem to see the wealth of the Church in New 
 England coming up with a holocaust to be laid on the 
 altar of this Institution, — an Institution, as its motto 
 imports, created alike for the good of the Church, 
 and of the land : " Pro ecclesia et patria." I seem to 
 hear, taken upon the lips of grateful scholars, and sent 
 forward through all time, the names of noble bene- 
 factors, who, in winding up the stewardship of life, 
 have not failed to remember the just claims of Chris- 
 tian education, and so, with cheerful munificence? 
 have directed the endowment of new and needed Pro- 
 fessorships. I seem to see the sons of Trinity — each 
 one in his sphere of life, be it humble or be it exalted 
 — vieing with the zealous Alumni of an honored sis- 
 ter in ministries of good to mankind ; resisting with 
 a firm front the advance of error and the showings of 
 a spirit more liberal than the spirit of Christianity; 
 seeking as one of the truest ends of learning the 
 inculcation of holiness and benevolence ; and guard- 
 ing in all honorable and legitimate ways that body of 
 Christ, which is the Church ; which holds the faith 
 once delivered to the Saints, and which promises 
 blessings to the children of the righteous in far distant 
 generations. God grant that these visions may be 
 realized, and when the century has closed, and you 
 and I have closed the activities of human life, may 
 that other generation of men who shall come up here 
 to celebrate the return of this anniversary be all that 
 we could desire : the honest, earnest, uncompromis- 
 ing advocates of true religion, sound literature, and 
 wise government. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 PETITION FOR THE INCOPORATION OF WASHINGTON 
 
 COLLEGE. 
 
 To the Honorable, the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, to be holden 
 at Hartford on the first Wednesday in May, 1823. 
 
 We the undersigned, convinced of the expediency of attempting to 
 establish another Collegiate Institution in this State, and entertaining the 
 belief that such an Institution would meet with a liberal patronage, beg 
 leave respectfully to submit our wishes and views to the consideration 
 of your honorable body. 
 
 We are aware of the great benefits which have resulted to this State 
 and to the general interests of Literature, from the important Literary 
 Institution at New Haven, and we have no wish to lessen its future use- 
 fulness by our present application. 
 
 We are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church; a denomina- 
 tion of Christians considerable for their numbers and resources in our 
 country ; and we beg leave to represent, that while all other religious 
 denominations in the Union have their Universities and Colleges under 
 their influence and direction, there is not a single Institution of this kind 
 under the special patronage and guardianship of Episcopalians. It cannot 
 be doubted but that such an Institution will be established, in some part 
 of our country, at no distant period ; and we are desirous that the State 
 of Connecticut shall have the benefit of its location. 
 
 As Episcopalians, we do not ask for any exclusive privileges, but we 
 desire to be placed on the same footing with other denominations of 
 Christians. 
 
 Though a parent may not be over-solicitous to have his children 
 educated in a servile acquiescence with his peculiar religious views, yet 
 he will be reluctant to place them in situations where they will be likely 
 to acquire a strong bias against his own principles. If it should be 
 thought expedient to establish a new College, your memorialists are 
 desirous that it should be conducted on broad principles of religious 
 
72 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 toleration, and that Christianity should be exhibited in it, as it is in the 
 Gospel, — unincumbered with metaphysical subtilties, and unimpaired by 
 any false liberality, or refined explanations, which would divest it of 
 some of its fairest characteristics. 
 
 When we consider the rapid increase of the population of this coun- 
 try, and the growing demand for the facilities of public education, it is 
 manifest that the present provisions for this object are becoming inade- 
 quate. Accordingly, we see our sister States, with a wise policy, encour- 
 aging the erection of new Seminaries within their limits, for the purpose 
 of securing to themselves the benefits which naturally flow from them. 
 Should the inhabitants of the South and the West continue to rely 
 chiefly on the Colleges of New England for the education of their sons, 
 as it seems likely they will do, it surely ought to be the policy, as it is 
 unquestionably the interest, of Connecticut to multiply attractions of a 
 literary nature. Perhaps the present College in this State already num- 
 bers as many pupils as can either be instructed, or governed to advantage, 
 in one Institution. But however this may be, we are persuaded that if 
 your Honors should think fit to grant our present request, funds, to a con- 
 siderable amount, would be raised, which otherwise would not be appro- 
 priated to the support of literature at all, or would be devoted to the 
 endowment of a College in some other part of the Union. 
 
 When compared with some of her sister States, Connecticut possesses 
 but a moderate extent of territory, limited resources, and a circumscribed 
 population ; but she may easily become preeminent by the number and 
 importance of her literary institutions. Recommended by the general 
 intelligence of her citizens, moderate habits, cheapness of living, and ease 
 of access, it only requires that she should extend and foster her Literary 
 Institutions, to attract the youth from every part of our country ; to acquire 
 an influence and importance in the Union, which her physical resources 
 deny to her ; to become the seat of science and literature, — the Athens 
 of our Republic. 
 
 Your memorialists conclude with humbly praying this Honorable 
 General Assembly to grant them an Act of Incorporation for a College, 
 with power to confer the usual literary honors ; to be placed in either 
 of the Cities of Hartford, Middletown, or New Haven, according to 
 the discretion of the Trustees, who may be appointed by your honor- 
 able body : which act of Incorporation shall take effect whenever Funds 
 shall be raised for the endowment of the Institution, to the amount of 
 Thirty Thousand Dollars, and not before. And your memorialists further 
 pray, that the said Trustees may have leave to appropriate to the 
 endowment of the Institution such portion of the Funds of the Episcopal 
 Academy at Cheshire, or the income thereof, as in their discretion they 
 may think expedient, provided the consent of the Trustees of said 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 73 
 
 Academy be first obtained, and that no portion of the Funds contributed 
 by the inhabitants of Cheshire be removed. 
 
 And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray. 
 
 CIRCULAR LETTER ACCOMPANYING THE PETITION. 
 
 New Haven, March 20, 1823. 
 Sir, — The Committee appointed to prepare a Memorial to the Legis- 
 lature of this State, for the incorporation of a new College, have attended 
 to that duty, and herewith forward you a copy of the same, which you 
 are requested to circulate for subscription, through your Parish. Simi- 
 lar copies have been forwarded to every Parish in the Diocese, and it is 
 expected that they will be signed by all the Episcopal Clergy, and by 
 every male Episcopalian of lawful age. If anything should prevent you 
 from attending to this business personally in your parish, the Committee 
 will rely upon your procuring some other proper person to perform the 
 duty. After the signatures are obtained, it is requested that the Memo- 
 rials be returned to Charles Sigourney, Esq., Hartford. It is desirable 
 that they should be in his hands by the Jlrst day of the session of the 
 Legislature, and if no earlier private opportunity should offer, the Rep- 
 resentatives from the several towns will afford very suitable means of 
 conveyance. 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 T. C. Brownell, Chairman of the Committee. 
 
 CHARTER OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 
 
 Whereas sundry inhabitants of this State, of the denomination of 
 Christians called The Protestant Episcopal Church, have represented, by 
 their petition addressed to the General Assembly, that great advantages 
 would accrue to the State, as well as to the general interests of literature 
 and science, by establishing within the State another Collegiate Institu- 
 tion, therefore, 
 
 Resolved by this Assembly, That Thomas C. Brownell, Harry Croswell, 
 Elijah Boardman, Samuel W. Johnson, Birdsey G. Noble, Samuel Mer- 
 win, Nathaniel S. Wheaton, Elisha Cushman, Charles Sigourney, 
 Thomas Macdonough, Richard Adams, David Watkinson, Ebenezer 
 Young, Jonathan Starr, Jr., Nathan Smith, John Thompson Peters, Asa 
 Chapman, Elias Perkins, John S. Peters, and Luther Loomis, and their 
 successors be, and the same hereby are constituted, a body politic and 
 corporate forever, by the name of the " Trustees of Washington Col- 
 lege," and by that name shall and may have continual succession here- 
 
74 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 after, and shall be able in law to sue and be sued, implead and be 
 impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and be defended, in 
 all courts and places whatsoever, and may have a common seal, and may 
 change and alter the same at their pleasure ; and also shall be able in 
 law to take by purchase, gift, grant, devise, or in any other manner, and 
 to hold any real and personal estate whatsoever ; Provided always, That 
 the clear yearly value of the real estate to be so acquired shall not exceed 
 the sum of fifteen thousand dollars; and also that they and their succes- 
 sors shall have power to give, grant, bargain, sell, convey, or other- 
 wise dispose of, all or any part of the said real and personal estate, as to 
 them shall seem best for the interest of said College. 
 
 II. Resolved, That the said Trustees and their successors shall forever 
 hereafter have full power and authority to direct and manage the Funds 
 for the benefit of the Institution, and also to prescribe and direct the 
 course of study, and the discipline to be observed in the said College, 
 and also to elect from their own number, or otherwise, a Board or Com- 
 mittee, to be called the Fellows of the College, to whom they may commit 
 the superintendence of the course of study and discipline ; and also to 
 select and appoint a President of the said College, and such Professor 
 or Professors, Tutor or Tutors, to assist the President in the govern- 
 ment and education of the Students belonging to the said College, and 
 such other officer or officers as to the said Trustees shall seem meet, all 
 of whom shall hold their office during the pleasure of the Trustees ; 
 Provided always, That no President shall be dismissed by the Trustees 
 without cause, previously stated to him in writing, and a full opportunity 
 allowed him for his defense, and by the concurrence of at least two thirds 
 of the Trustees ; and Provided further, That no Professor, Tutor, or other 
 assistant officer shall be eligible to the office of a Trustee. 
 
 III. Resolved, That any five of the said Trustees, lawfully convened as 
 hereinafter directed, shall be a quorum for the dispatch of all business, 
 except for the disposal of real estate, or for the choice of a President, or 
 for the election of Trustees, for either of which purposes there shall be 
 at least a majority of the whole number of Trustees. 
 
 IV. Resolved, That the President of the College shall always be, 
 ex-officio, a member of the Board of Trustees, and Chairman or Presi- 
 dent of the same, and that a Secretary of the Board shall be elected by 
 the Trustees, to hold his office during their pleasure. 
 
 V. Resolved, That the said Trustees shall have power to increase their 
 number from time to time, at their discretion, to the number of twenty- 
 four; and they shall also have power, by a majority of votes of the mem- 
 bers present, to elect and appoint, upon the death, removal out of the 
 State, or other vacancy of the place or places of any Trustee or Trustees 
 other or others in his or their places or stead, as often as such vacancy 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE. 75 
 
 shall happen ; and also to make and declare vacant the seat of any 
 Trustee who shall absent himself for any term of two years, or from any 
 four successive meetings duly notified ; and they shall also have power 
 to meet from time to time upon their own adjournment, and so often as 
 they shall be summoned by their Chairman or President or, in his 
 absence, by the Senior Trustee, whose Seniority shall be accounted 
 according to the order in which the said Trustees are named in this act, 
 and shall be elected hereafter ; Provided always, That the said Chair- 
 man, or President, or the Senior Trustee, shall not summon a meeting of 
 the Corporation, unless required thereto in writing, by three of the mem- 
 bers ; and Provided also, That he cause notice of the time and place of 
 the said meeting to be given in such manner as the Trustees shall in their 
 By-Laws prescribe. 
 
 VI. Resolved, That the said Trustees and their successors shall have 
 power and authority to grant all such literary Honors and Degrees as 
 are usually granted by any University, College, or Seminary of learning 
 in this State, or in the United States ; and, in testimony of such grant, 
 to give suitable Diplomas, under their seal and the signatures of the 
 President and Secretary of the Board, which Diplomas shall entitle the 
 possessors respectively to all the immunities and privileges which, either 
 by usage or by statute, are allowed to possessors of similar Diplomas from 
 any other University, College, or Seminary of learning. 
 
 VII. Resolved, That the said Trustees and their successors shall have 
 full power and authority to make all ordinances and By-Laws which to 
 them shall seem expedient, for carrying into effect the designs of their 
 Institution ; Provided always, that such ordinances or By-Laws shall not 
 make the religious tenets of any person a condition of admission to any 
 privilege in the said College, and that no President or Professor, or other 
 officer, shall be made ineligible for or by reason of any religious tenet 
 that he may profess, or be compelled, by any By-Law or otherwise, to 
 subscribe to any religious test whatsoever ; and Provided also, That none 
 of the By-Laws as aforesaid shall be inconsistent with the Constitution 
 and Laws of this State, or with the Constitution and Laws of the United 
 States. 
 
 VIII. Resolved, That the Funds which may at any time belong to the 
 Institution now incorporated shall enjoy the like exemptions from taxa- 
 tion, and the Institution itself, and its officers, shall enjoy the same priv- 
 ileges and exemptions, as have already been granted, or may hereafter 
 be granted, to Yale College, its officers, and its Funds. 
 
 IX. Resolved, That whenever Funds shall be contributed or secured to 
 the said College, to the amount of Thirty Thousand Dollars, and not 
 before, the Trustees may proceed to organize and establish the said Col- 
 lege in such town in this State as they shall judge most expedient. 
 
76 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 CHANGE OF NAME. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Trustees of Washington College, held at 
 Hartford, on the 8th day of May, a. d. 1845, the following Resolution 
 was passed : — 
 
 Resolved, That it is expedient that the name of " Washington Col- 
 lege" should be changed to that of " Trinity College." 
 
 Hon. Isaac Toucey, Hon. William W. Boardman, and Thomas Bel- 
 knap, Esq., were appointed a Committee to present a memorial to the 
 Legislature of Connecticut, praying that the corporate name of the Col- 
 lege may be changed accordingly. The memorial was presented, and 
 the General Assembly, then in session at Hartford, passed the following 
 Resolution (which was approved by the Governor, May 24, 1845) : — 
 
 Upon the memorial of the Trustees of Washington College, showing 
 that there are sundry other Colleges in the United States bearing the 
 name of Washington College, praying for a change in their corporate 
 name, etc. : — 
 
 Resolved by this Assembly, That the name of said Corporation be 
 changed to that of The Trustees of Trinity College; and that all grants, 
 devises, and bequests heretofore made or that shall hereafter be made to 
 said Corporation by its former name, shall be deemed good and valid as 
 if made to said College by its present corporate name. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 
 
 A SERMON AT THE CONSECRATION OF CHRIST CHURCH, 
 STRATFORD, CONN., JULY 29, 1858. 
 
 There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the 
 mountains : the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : and they of the 
 city shall flourish like grass of the earth. — Psalm lxxii. 16. 
 
 It was probably in his last days, and after his son 
 had reached the throne, that David penned this 
 sublime Psalm. It is noted in the conclusion, "The 
 prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." Trans- 
 ported with joy and gratitude, in view of an event so 
 auspicious as the coronation of Solomon, he invoked 
 the benediction of heaven upon the young king and 
 his people, and then, impelled by a divine enthusi- 
 asm, ascended to a higher subject, and portrayed, 
 under the figure of his peaceful and glorious admin- 
 istration, the person of the Messiah and the power 
 and magnificence of his reign. Much of the language 
 employed in this composition is inapplicable to Solo- 
 mon, except as he is the type of Christ. The words, 
 " They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon 
 endure, throughout all generations," never could be 
 spoken literally of an earthly potentate, but they are 
 true of Him whose sway in the world by his provi- 
 dence, and in the Church by the influences of his 
 grace, is to be lasting as the luminaries of heaven. 
 
78 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 There is a double sense in the passage placed at 
 the head of this discourse. The writer is undoubt- 
 edly foretelling the wonderful fertility of Judea in the 
 days of Solomon, — fertility so great, that from "a 
 handful of corn," sown on the barren mountain top, 
 should issue a produce, the ears of which would shake 
 and wave in the wind, like the cedars of Lebanon ; 
 w r hile in the city a fresh generation of Israelites should 
 spring up and advance to maturity, as the unnum- 
 bered blades of grass in the thrifty field. Passing 
 from a simple view of this temporal prosperity to a 
 prophetic survey of the remoter reign of the Messiah, 
 the Psalmist beheld the amazing increase of the word, 
 when sown in the barren hearts of men ; the aston- 
 ishing multiplication of Christian disciples, from a 
 beginning as insignificant in itself as the lodgment 
 of seed in the earth. No comparison could be fitter 
 to represent the development and progress of the 
 Gospel. It is the image which meets us often in the 
 predictions of the prophets, and it forms the ground- 
 work of several chapters in the New Testament. It 
 unites in one record the rapid growth of the Church 
 and a description of her continual watchfulness and 
 prayer. It shows how, under the breath of the living 
 Spirit, her life was first nurtured and quickened, and 
 then how, as in a gracious springtime, she did shoot 
 forth and unfold herself with spreading branches, 
 according to the inward law of her own being. " So 
 mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." So 
 was it in the early history of the Christian Church, 
 that the " handful of corn," sown " in the earth upon 
 the top of the mountains," did yield such a plentiful 
 return that Lebanon, nodding with its cedars, was not 
 
HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 79 
 
 a figure too bold to express her growth, nor the ver- 
 dure of the favored field too rich to denote the pros- 
 perity of the crowded mart. 
 
 But the text thus fitted to describe the early growth 
 of Christianity is not inappropriate to the occasion 
 that has called us together. We have met to dedi- 
 cate to the honor and worship of God, and thus to 
 separate forever from all unhallowed, worldly, and 
 common uses, this beautiful structure that binds its 
 builders to an interesting past. The simple scene 
 presented to-day in the streets of your village is very 
 different from one that was witnessed here some cen- 
 tury and a half ago. Then two distinguished persons 
 rode into the place, — one * a priest in the Church of 
 the ever-living God, and the other, 2 a Christian gentle- 
 
 1 Rev. George Muirson, a Scotsman by birth, who was first sent by 
 the Propagation Society as schoolmaster to Albany. He bore a letter to 
 the Bishop of London (by whom he was afterwards ordained), dated 
 October 17, 1704, written by Rev. E. Evans, and speaking of him as 
 " well beloved and esteemed by all sorts of people; a man of a very sober 
 and blameless conversation." " I give him," he adds, " this recommenda- 
 tion, not to gratify himself, nor anybody else, but because I sincerely be- 
 lieve he may be very instrumental of doing much good in the Church." 
 He returned to this country in July, 1705, and took charge of the Mission 
 at Rye, where he died October, 1708, in the prime of his life and useful- 
 ness, being about thirty-three years of age. — Hawkins's Historical 
 Notices, p. 277. 
 
 2 Colonel Caleb Heathcote, who came to this country in 1690, and 
 bought large tracts of land in Westchester County, N. Y. He was a 
 leading man in the Province, a member of the first Vestry of Trinity 
 Church, N. Y., and at different times Mayor of New York, Commander 
 of the forces of the Province, Surveyor-General of the customs for the 
 eastern district of North America. He died in 1721, and was buried in 
 Trinity Church Yard. 
 
 He accompanied Mr. Muirson in his several visits to Stratford, and 
 heartily supported him in every effort for the good of the Church. They 
 both went up and down in the Colony, and acted in some degree as itin- 
 erant Missionaries. 
 
80 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 man, — loving most warmly the same Church, and 
 sustaining high and important responsibilities in a 
 neighboring colony. They came upon the invitation 
 of a few families here, attached to the faith of their 
 forefathers and desirous of worshiping God in the 
 forms of the Liturgy, and, because they thus came, 
 their entrance was disputed and their object opposed. 
 Each subsequent visit seemed to increase the hostility, 
 for the settlers, though many of them were born and 
 nurtured in the Church of England, had long been 
 taught to look upon her as the Nazareth out of which 
 no good thing could come. Hence all favor shown 
 to her worship and Missionaries, and all participation 
 in her ordinances were denounced, and the handful of 
 Churchmen were greatly misused and persecuted, and 
 "distresses" were levied upon their estates to support 
 the religion and ministry legalized and encouraged 
 by the Provincial government. I do not speak of 
 these things, my brethren, to awaken any unpleasant 
 emotions. It was the fault of the times, that those 
 who claimed to have been driven hither by persecu- 
 tion turned persecutors ; but these things revive the 
 picture that was seen, and show the state of feeling 
 that existed here one hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 Bat how changed now? Instead of the lone Pres- 
 byter coming with his lone attendant, and seeking in 
 some private dwelling to cross a child in Baptism, or 
 to minister to a little despised flock, — instead of this, 
 now we come in various groups and from different 
 quarters, and, uniting in a surpliced band with a 
 Bishop at our head, 1 we enter these walls, and are 
 
 1 Forty-nine clergymen, with Bishop Williams, were present at the 
 Consecration. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 81 
 
 welcomed by a waiting multitude, who join us in the 
 glad response, " This is the generation of them that 
 seek Him ; even of them that seek thy face, Jacob." 
 Nor is this all that graces the occasion and adds to its 
 solemnity and interest. Laymen from abroad are 
 with us ; " they of the city," where the Church has 
 " flourished like grass of the earth." Many, too, from 
 their quiet homes on the distant hillsides, where the 
 " handful of corn " was early scattered, have come 
 down to share in your joy, as their fathers of old came 
 down to the Christmas and Faster festivals, and swelled 
 the number that thronged the house of Johnson. 1 
 
 It is not my intention to go over the history of 
 your Parish; but I have taken a significant passage 
 near its beginning to illustrate the text, and now I 
 must turn to one farther on. It would be easy for 
 me in referring to this passage to present another 
 contrast, and thus to show the wide difference be- 
 tween Commencement Day at Yale College, in 1722, 
 and the same occasion in 1858. 2 But I will recite 
 the story, and others may make the contrast. 
 
 Fifteen years of alternate hope and despondency 
 passed away before the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel in Foreign Parts could answer the 
 importunities of the earliest Churchmen here, and 
 station among them a suitable Missionary. By this 
 time some earnest inquiries had been started else- 
 where, and soon those astounding events in the reli- 
 gious history of the Colony occurred that widened the 
 prospect of establishing the Church and increasing the 
 
 1 Chandler's Life of Dr. Johnson, p. 133. 
 
 2 The Consecration and the Commencement occurred on the same day. 
 
 6 
 
82 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 number of parishes. Johnson, an acceptable min- 
 ister among the Congregationalists at West Haven, 
 and Cutler, for ten years a popular preacher of the 
 same order in your own town, 1 but now the Classic 
 Rector of Yale College, with several associates, had 
 frequently met in the Library of that Institution, and 
 discovering there " a handful of corn," that had been 
 sent over from the mother country in the shape of 
 Theological treatises, they began to examine it and 
 to test its quality. They examined the doctrines and 
 practices of the Primitive Church, and compared them 
 with the model of their own discipline and worship, 
 and the further they pushed their inquiries the more 
 uneasy they became. As light would break in upon 
 the darkened chamber of their toil, they finally wel- 
 comed it, and two 2 of their number, occupying high 
 positions in the College, sent in to the Trustees at the 
 annual Commencement in 1722, a formal statement 
 of their views, and declared for Episcopacy. The 
 rest made no secret of their opinions. Unspeakable 
 was the amazement of the grave assembly which 
 heard the statement of Cutler and his Tutor; over- 
 whelming was the sorrow and wide the consternation, 
 
 1 Rev. Timothy Cutler, " who lived then at Boston or Cambridge, was 
 sought out," in 1709, and sent " to Stratford," as " one of the best preach- 
 ers both colonies afforded." The Congregationalists seem to have hoped 
 by his influence to weaken or destroy the interest in favor of the Church 
 of England, which at this time was increasing. Mr. Cutler's popularity 
 probably gained him the appointment at Yale College, and "to make 
 compensation to the people of Stratford for the removal of their minister, 
 the trustees agreed to give them Mr. Cutler's house and home lot, which 
 they purchased for eighty-four pounds sterling." — Trumbull's History of 
 Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 33. 
 
 2 Rector Cutler and Daniel Brown, the Tutor. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 83 
 
 as the tidings of it passed from town to town and vil- 
 lage to village. " I suppose," says President Woolsey, 
 speaking of this event in the Historical Discourse 1 
 delivered on occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth 
 anniversary of the Institution, " that greater alarm 
 would scarcely be awakened now, if the Theological 
 Faculty of the College were to declare for the Church 
 of Rome, avow their belief in Transubstantiation, and 
 pray to the Virgin Mary." Nothing, my hearers, 
 could shake the strongest of these men from their 
 convictions. They had been looked upon as brethren 
 of highest promise and influence, and, therefore, every 
 effort was made to remove their doubts and misgiv- 
 ings, to settle them back into the prevailing faith, and 
 so to quiet the apprehensions and alarm of the people. 
 That was an earnest and sincere debate, which Salton- 
 stall, 2 the Governor of the Colony, invited and presided 
 over with a view to these ends, and, though it termi- 
 nated abruptly, it never was reopened in the same 
 
 1 Page 26. 
 
 2 Gurdon Saltonstall, at this time Governor, was the Congregational 
 minister at New London, when Keith and Talbot visited that place in 
 1702. The latter preached there on a Sunday, and Saltonstall " civilly- 
 entertained them at his house, and expressed his good affection to the 
 Church of England." Trumbull speaks of him as " a great man, well 
 versed in the Episcopal controversy," and the friendly conference was 
 invited with no expectation that it would end virtually in the discomfiture 
 of the Trustees of the College. Cutler, Johnson, and Brown wavered 
 not, having studied the matter too thoroughly to be shaken by anything 
 but argument. But three others who only doubted the validity of Pres- 
 byterian ordination continued in their respective places, and for the rest 
 of their days " were never known to act or say, or insinuate anything 
 to the disadvantage of the Church." Wetmore, who stood up side by 
 side with his friends in the College Library, defending Episcopacy, fol- 
 lowed them seven months later to England, received Holy Orders, and 
 returned with them to this country. 
 
84 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 way. For three of those who laid down their honors 
 and preferments, and periled all for the sake of prin 
 ciple, embarked early in November of the same year 
 for England, to seek ordination from the Bishops 
 of her Church. There sickness and sorrow befell 1 
 them, and two only lived to return and exercise the 
 office of their Priesthood. One 2 was stationed at a 
 post in Boston and the other received the place of 
 your first Missionary ; and thank him to-day, my 
 brethren, one and all, for his work, since he scattered 
 the good seed of the kingdom from the shores to the 
 mountains. Not above thirty families, "all poor," 
 composed the parish when he came to it, and about 
 fifty more might have been found scattered in Fair- 
 field, Norwalk, Newtown, Ripton, West Haven, and 
 other parts of the province. The first parish Church 3 
 
 1 " Scarcely had these devoted men attained the object towards which 
 they had been gradually led, through many stages of anxious and pain- 
 ful thought, before that malady, which had been so long the dread of 
 America and of Europe, and which had already smitten, though not 
 unto death, one of their small party (Cutler), reappeared with greater 
 malignity, and struck down another to the dust. Within a week after their 
 ordination Brown was seized with small-pox, and died on Easter Eve, 
 amid the tears of those who confessed that they had lost in him a friend 
 and fellow laborer second to none." Anderson's History of the Colonial 
 Church, vol. iii. chap. xxix. 
 
 2 Dr. Cutler became Rector of Christ Church, Boston, where he died 
 in 1765, after an effective and eventful ministry in the same place, 
 extending to more than forty years. Mr. Johnson succeeded in Strat- 
 ford Mr. Pigot, who had been transferred to Providence, R. I. In 
 Chandler's Life of him it is stated that he " agreed to officiate once every 
 three months, but chiefly on week days," in the neighboring towns, and 
 the record of his official acts shows that he extended his ministrations to 
 many places in the colony, where the Church rapidly grew, and where 
 houses of public worship were soon erected. Mr. Wetmore was settled 
 at Rye, N. Y. 
 
 8 See Appendix. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 85 
 
 erected in Stratford was opened for divine service on 
 Christmas day, 1724, nearly ten months after John- 
 son's arrival. It had been begun under the ministry 
 of his predecessor, and as it was then the only Epis- 
 copal house of worship in the Colony, and he the only 
 Episcopal clergyman, Churchmen from other towns 
 regularly attended and helped to increase the congre- 
 gation. As the dwellers at Jerusalem on the day of 
 Pentecost reported everywhere the wonderful works 
 of God, so these men carried along the shore towns 
 and back into the valleys, and far upon the distant 
 hill-tops of the interior, tidings of the worship they 
 offered and of the instruction they gained here. A 
 revival of reverence and affection in many towards 
 the Church which their fathers had forsaken soon fol- 
 lowed. Parishes were formed and Missionaries sta- 
 tioned in several towns, and so great was the whole 
 growth that, thirteen years after Johnson's settle- 
 ment in this place, when an accurate enumeration 
 was made of the Episcopal families of Connecticut, 
 the number was found to have increased from eighty 
 to seven hundred. 1 Twenty years after his settle- 
 ment, a fresh impulse was given to the Church of 
 England by the indirect influence of Whitefield's 
 preaching, and steps were taken to provide for the 
 larger congregation by erecting another edifice here 
 to take the place of the former, and to exceed it in 
 size and glory. That edifice, so rich in historical asso- 
 ciations, and the scene of a " bright succession " of 
 pastors, still stands by our side, and you whose affec- 
 tions linger fondly around it as the spot where you 
 
 1 Chandler's Life of Johnson, p. 64. 
 
86 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 can say "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy 
 house and the place where thine honor dwelleth" 1 
 may be soothed by the thought that in transferring 
 your religious services to this sanctuary, you transfer 
 them to one as tasteful, as beautiful, and of such 
 complete architecture, that if " the stone shall cry 
 out of the wall " " the beam out of the timber will 
 answer it." 
 
 We have now gone far enough to look, in this con- 
 nection, at some of the main causes, under God, of 
 the progress and prosperity of the Church in Con- 
 necticut. The more I have examined into the state 
 of the Colony and into the character of our early 
 Clergy and our early Churchmen, the more thoroughly 
 have I become satisfied that three things had a direct 
 and abiding influence on the growth of Episcopacy. 
 And these three things may be noted without depart- 
 ing from the simple figure of the text. 
 
 First, The seed was good, the doctrine was sound. 
 It was all the better for being old. It has been said 
 that the vine which springs from seed long kept, 
 being less likely to run to waste, produces the most 
 delicious and abundant fruit. The Church, as "a 
 Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ," has a history. 
 It is in conformity with the Apostolic model, and fur- 
 nishes in its Articles and Liturgy exactly those views 
 of the plan of salvation by Christ, which not only 
 commend themselves to the judgment of sober-minded, 
 intelligent men, but appeal also to the conscience of 
 
 1 The Rev. Dr. Johnson preached from this text at the opening of the 
 church, July 8, 1744, and his sermon, entitled " The Great Duty of Lov- 
 ing and Delighting in the Public Worship of God," was published, with 
 prayers for the family and closet appended. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 87 
 
 perishing sinners. Christ meets us in all the aspects 
 of duty and devotion throughout every part of our 
 Ritual. In His name our prayers are offered, our 
 services rendered. " No man cometh unto the Father 
 but by Him," and doubtless the blessing of heaven 
 has watered the vineyard and given the increase, 
 because the faith thus condensed in our Creeds, 
 expanded in our Articles, infused into our Prayers, 
 taught in our Catechism, and preached in our Ser- 
 mons, is beyond all fit and honorable controversy 
 " the faith once delivered to the Saints." 
 
 Again, not only was the seed good, but it was sown 
 by strong and prudent hands, and watched with constant 
 care. If the earliest Clergy in Connecticut magnified 
 their office, they knew their duty and stood up to it 
 through every sort of trial and discouragement. No 
 body of men ever grappled more resolutely with the 
 difficulties by which they were surrounded, or com- 
 prehended more thoroughly the arguments in support 
 of a threefold ministry and of all the doctrines con- 
 tained in the Book of Common Prayer. They were 
 obliged to be Christian scholars, and to be armed on 
 all sides with reasons for their faith. They could not 
 dwell in the midst of learned men of another denomi- 
 nation, and receive their frequent and severe assaults, 
 except they provided themselves with the weapons of 
 self-defense. There was nothing superficial in their 
 attainments. They explored the very depths of 
 sacred erudition, so that when they came to discourse 
 from the pulpit or to write for the press, they had at 
 command language and arguments, both clear and 
 forcible. They preached, moreover, from house to 
 
88 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 house. They were pastors to their flocks, and accom- 
 plished in private what they could not gain in public. 
 They were models of missionary zeal and devotion, 
 and living the sermons they preached, — practicing 
 in all the relations of social intercourse the duties 
 which they inculcated, — they won the esteem and 
 admiration of many who were not ready at once to 
 subscribe to their doctrines. Thus, men of learning, 
 men of God, men of prayer, men of faith, men of sac- 
 rifice and self-denial, they sowed the seed. The great 
 champion of all was here, and stamped the impress 
 of his remarkable mind upon the laborers in other 
 fields, upon Beach, Caner, Punderson, Learning, Mans- 
 field, and the elder Seabury. 
 
 Beach ! I have never thought that ample justice 
 was done to his name on the pages of our history. 
 He was scarcely inferior in strength of intellect, in 
 knowledge of the Church, in the toils and trials of 
 his vocation, to him who has been justly styled the 
 "father of Episcopacy in Connecticut." Indeed, after 
 Johnson removed to New York, and served the 
 Church in the Presidency of King's (now Columbia) 
 College, Beach was our chief defender, and wielded 
 the pen of controversy and exposed the schemes of 
 his adversaries, both with skill and power. He kept 
 his eye upon every rood of ground where the seed 
 had been sown, and as fearless as faultless, traveled 
 by night and by day, amid storms and snowdrifts and 
 across deep and rushing streams to preach the word, 
 to visit and comfort the sick, and to bury the dead. 1 
 
 1 Rev. John Beach, born at Stratford, and the early friend of John- 
 son, graduated at Yale College in 1721, and was for some time a 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 89 
 
 He remained at his post when the terrors of the Rev- 
 olution came, and alone of all the clergy in the Colony 
 refused to close his church and pray the prayers of 
 the Liturgy. Johnson, upon whom in addition to the 
 weight of declining years, the heavier burden of 
 
 Congregational minister at Newtown. He afterwards "joined our 
 communion upon principle," and among other testimonials which he 
 presented to the Bishop of London, when he went for Holy Orders, was 
 one from Rev. Mr. Honyman of Rhode Island, speaking of him as 
 " esteemed by all that knew him in this country, for the sake of his good 
 morals and his learning," and " earnestly desiring that he might return 
 again to the place where he had lived long, and was extremely beloved." 
 He arrived at Newtown, a missionary of the Church of England, in Sep- 
 tember, 1732. His own simple and touching words, as given in a letter 
 dated May 5, 1772, well express his faithful and consistent course. 
 
 " As it is now forty years since I have had the advantage of being the 
 Venerable Society's Missionary in this place, I suppose it will not be 
 improper to give a brief account how I have spent my time and improved 
 their charity. Every Sunday I have performed divine service and 
 preached twice, at Newtown and Reading alternately. And in these 
 forty years I have lost only two Sundays through sickness, although in 
 all that time I have been afflicted with a constant colic, which has not 
 allowed me one day's ease or freedom from pain. The distance between 
 the churches at Newtown and Reading is between eight and nine miles, 
 and no very good road, yet have I never failed one time to attend each 
 place according to custom through the badness of the weather, but have 
 rode in the severest rains and snowstorms, even when there has been 
 no track, and my horse near miring down in the snowbanks, — which has 
 had this good effect on my parishioners that they are ashamed to stay 
 from Church on account of bad weather, so that they are remarkably 
 forward to attend the public worship." 
 
 Ten years later he penned his last letter to the Society, in which he 
 says : " I am now in the eighty-second year of my age, yet do constantly 
 alternately perform service and preach at Newtown and Reading. I have 
 been sixty years a public preacher, and, after conviction, in the Church 
 of England fifty years, but had I been sensible of my insufficiency I 
 should not have undertaken it. But now I rejoice in that I think I have 
 done more good towards men's eternal happiness than I should have done 
 in any other calling." He lingered six months longer and died "fairly 
 worn out," March 19, 1782. Hawkins's Historical Notices, chap. ix. 
 
90 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 domestic sorrow was laid, had resigned, some time 
 prior to this event, the Presidency of King's College, 
 and was living in retirement at the scene of his former 
 ministrations, and amid the bosom of his affectionate 
 parishioners. With broken strength, but with a spirit 
 still fresh and buoyant, he served them for many 
 years, " exercising again all the offices of Christian 
 love and watchfulness on their behalf," and entering 
 into a correspondence with friends at home and 
 abroad to secure what his clear eye saw to be so 
 needful to complete the Scriptural order and effective 
 discipline of the Church — an American Episcopate. 
 He passed to his reward just as the clouds of the 
 Revolution were gathering and rolling up in thicker 
 folds. When the shock of that event came the Church 
 in Connecticut reeled under it. An oath of allegiance 
 bound the Missionaries in loyalty to the king, and 
 hence they and their congregations were generally 
 regarded with suspicion and distrust by the patriots 
 of the land. Three * of our houses of worship, how- 
 ever, were burned by the very invaders whose cause 
 they were supposed secretly to sustain, and others 
 only echoed at distant intervals the sounds of prayer 
 and praise, so that, when the separation of the colonies 
 from the mother country was effected, many of our 
 clergy, with respectable portions of their flocks, had 
 withdrawn, or then withdrew, to the British Provinces. 
 Scarcely ten remained in Connecticut, and these were 
 dependent upon weakened parishes and subject to an 
 accumulated weight of popular prejudice. But ten 
 were enough to save the Church and nurture " the 
 
 1 The churches in Norwalk, Fairfield, and New London. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 91 
 
 handful of corn." They rallied at once from all dis- 
 couragement and, as the first step to perfect an inde- 
 pendent organization, selected an earnest, honest, and 
 exemplary Clergyman, 1 and sent him forth to solicit 
 Consecration to the Episcopate. Thus Connecticut 
 became the primal Diocese in our land, and hence- 
 forward her history is too familiar to need repetition 
 here. 
 
 These, my brethren, were the men who sowed the 
 seed, and now for the third element in the growth of 
 Episcopacy, we must look at 
 
 The soil upon which it fell. 
 
 That little band who welcomed Heathcote and his 
 Missionary were as " the handful of corn " sown on 
 the mountain. Though poor in this world's goods, 
 they were rich in faith. They were men who bore 
 their trials and grievances nobly, and took especial 
 pains to recommend their creed by pious and blame- 
 less lives, for Governor Hunter of New York, in a 
 letter written in 1711, after a visit to Connecticut, de- 
 scribed the Churchmen of Stratford as " appearing to 
 be very much in earnest, and the best set of men he 
 met with in that country.' , It was so, my brethren, 
 for the most part, in other places, and particularly 
 after the influence of the example and teaching of 
 the Missionaries began to be felt. The people, like 
 their priests, courted knowledge and invited investi- 
 gation. Books were not as abundant then as now ; 
 but they read all they could reach in favor of the 
 Church, and entered into the controversies of the 
 
 1 The Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., consecrated at Aberdeen, Scot- 
 land, November 14, 1784. 
 
92 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 times with a spirit which showed that they knew how 
 to defend and preserve the truth. Some of them were 
 as useful, if not as great theologians, as their Pastors, 
 and not only became familiar with Doctrinal treatises, 
 but with works on Practical Religion. I have in my 
 possession, descended to me from an honored ancestor, 
 three printed Discourses by the Rev. John Beach, 
 which bear the marks of frequent perusal, and pre- 
 sent an appearance not unlike that which, we may 
 suppose, the Private Devotions of the pious Bishop 
 Andrewes — the companion of all his religious hours 
 — presented when "worn in pieces with his ringers 
 and wetted with his tears." A great debt of gratitude 
 is due these early laymen for the part they bore. 
 Anderson, in his recent " History of the Colonial 
 Church," 1 tracing the rise and progress of Episcopacy 
 among us, concludes a chapter with these reflections, 
 and they will apply as well to the Laity as to the 
 Clergy : — 
 
 " I will not venture to give expression to the feel- 
 ings which I have experienced in relating the various 
 incidents contained in this chapter, and which the 
 attentive reader can hardly fail to share. That which 
 prevails over every other at the 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 
 teaching, but from a deep, abiding conviction of the 
 truth, that she is a faithful witness and keeper of 
 Holy Writ,' have shown to her ministers, in every 
 
 1 Vol. iii. p. 444. 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 93 
 
 age and country, the way in which they can best pro- 
 mote the glory of their heavenly Master's name, and 
 enlarge the borders of His Kingdom." The impress 
 of those sterling qualities which marked the character 
 of our early laymen is still visible and still respected. 
 It is widely known and widely honored. For travel 
 East or West, North or South, go where you will 
 over this broad land, speak aloud the name of Con- 
 necticut Churchman, and if you do not find some to 
 claim it, you will find many to rise up and do it honor. 
 For this and for all the reasons shown in the progress 
 of our Discourse, I feel that we — Bishop, Priests, and 
 People — have a right on this occasion and in this 
 place to give utterance to our joy and to mingle our 
 congratulations. 
 
 I congratulate you, Right Reverend Sir, that you 
 are privileged to be the consecrator of a Church 
 erected on the soil where your own office was so grace- 
 fully defended and so earnestly sought for this West- 
 ern worlcl, — where the friend of virtuous Berkeley 
 lived and labored so well, — where letters penned by 
 learned Sherlock and saintly Seeker and brilliant 
 Lowth, came to a genial, kindred spirit, made anxious 
 most by the sickening sense of hope long deferred. 
 I think it no mean honor, as honors are understood 
 by the world, that, in the Providence of God, you are 
 over a Diocese where the Church is so rich in historic 
 interest, so filled with burning zeal, so impregnated 
 with the seed of sound, sober Scriptural views of doc- 
 trine and of duty, and where the mitre first graced the 
 head of Seabury, as it still graces the head of our own 
 Brownell, presiding Bishop of the Church in these 
 United States. 
 
94 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 As for you, my brethren of the Clergy, I cannot 
 point you to lessons outside of the word of God, more 
 instructive and truthful than many which may be 
 read in the toils and trials, in the patience and perse- 
 verance and integrity and discretion of some of our 
 earliest predecessors in the work of the Church. Oh ! 
 if we have entered into their labors, if we occupy the 
 precious inheritance which they entailed, let us prove 
 our regard for it by watching wisely the flocks com- 
 mitted to our charge, and by driving deeper and 
 deeper into the living heart of their faith the Gospel 
 of Christ. It was a noble feature in the character of 
 our early Clergy, that instead of contending for rites 
 and ceremonies, or for personal powers and privileges, 
 they aimed to propagate Christianity. Herein, as we 
 have indicated, was one mighty secret of the success 
 of their ministrations. They preached the Gospel, the 
 Gospel as the Bible and the Church understand it, 
 never forgetting that around the whole was thrown 
 not only the happy guard of our Rubrics and Liturgy, 
 but the authority also of our Articles and Standards. 
 This, too, is our business, and if we perform it as they 
 did, God will not withhold His blessing. 
 
 And now, my brethren of this venerable Parish, let 
 me, in conclusion, speak a word of friendly warning 
 and counsel to you. You have my hearty congratu- 
 lations that the outward building is completed, and 
 henceforth your work must be to " build up your- 
 selves on your most holy faith." " Praying, then, in 
 the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, 
 looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto 
 eternal life." You cannot think it enough to be 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 95 
 
 interested in providing merely for the growth of god- 
 liness and the increase of the Parish. As there were 
 builders of the ark in the old world who were not 
 saved with Noah and his family from perishing, so 
 there may be builders of temples in the new, who 
 shall never find them the gate of heaven. If you 
 would prosper as a parish, live in peace, and the very 
 God of peace will dwell with you. The broken band 
 is ever weak. Among all the troubles which befell 
 the earliest Churchmen here, they were never torn by 
 internal dissension. The golden girdle of charity 
 was around them, and thus encircled they walked and 
 watched and prayed. Come in their spirit to this 
 beauteous sanctuary, and may it be to you all none 
 other than the House of God and the gate of heaven. 
 May it prove to you the harbinger of the love, and 
 the peace and the holiness, and the joy of that eternal 
 state, to which believers in the shadows of mortality 
 do lift the eye of faith. And long after you, as the 
 seniors of the present age, have given your bodies to 
 mingle with those of your fathers in the dust of the 
 sepulchre, may the prophetic blessing be fulfilled on 
 your children's children : that because of this and that 
 man being born here, righteousness has been made 
 to run down your streets, and to descend with all the 
 force and fullness of an increasing river from genera- 
 tion to generation. God grant it for the Redeemer's 
 sake, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, 
 be rendered and ascribed all honor, might, majesty, 
 glory, and dominion henceforth and forevermore. 
 Amen. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 As early as 1 708 an attempt was made to build a church in Stratford, 
 but it appears to have failed, for, six years afterwards, it is stated that 
 the people had " the timber felled for a church, and hoped to get it 
 raised in three months' time." I have found no evidence that even this 
 effort was successful, though some have supposed that it was. The state- 
 ment in the body of the discourse is confirmed by Humphrey in his 
 History of the Propagation Society, who says, chapter twelve, " They 
 received Mr. Pigot with all kindness and immediately sat about building 
 a place for public worship. Accordingly Christ's Church, Stratford, 
 was founded in 1723, and the building carried on and completed, partly 
 at the charge of the Church of England members there, partly by the 
 liberal contributions of pious gentlemen of the neighboring provinces, 
 together with the bounty of some travelers who, occasionally passing by, 
 contributed. It is a timber building, small but neat, forty-five feet and 
 a half long and thirty broad, and twenty up to the roof." The difficulty 
 of getting land on which to build, and other troubles and trials to which 
 the early Churchmen of Stratford were subjected, probably delayed the 
 accomplishment of their wishes. The following extract from the town 
 records, furnished by a friend, proves the ingenuity of Mr. Pigot, and at 
 the same time adds to the evidence that the new church just consecrated 
 is the third erected for the Parish, — for had the Episcopalians then 
 held by grant or purchase land on which they had already built a house 
 of worship, undoubtedly some reference would have been made to it in 
 this record : — 
 
 "At a lawful town meeting in Stratford, June 21, 1723, voted — 
 Whereas, Mr. George Pigott and his associates petitioned the town of 
 Stratford for to give them land to erect a church on and land for a church 
 yard ; and in their petition fixed upon two certain places, the one by 
 Mr. Gold's house and the other on the north side of the town's meeting 
 house, near Wid. Titharton's land, — The town considering of these pro- 
 posals, and the two places they had pitched upon — and found them 
 clogged with great difficulty — and that it would be, as they apprehended 
 greaily to the damage of the town in general to build on either of these 
 places — Howsoever nominated some other places which as they thought 
 might be convenient for them. Yet, notwithstanding, they went and 
 
THE HANDFUL OF CORN AND THE FRUIT. 97 
 
 purchased of John Oatman Thirty-six Rods of Land of his lot next to 
 our Meeting House, within some four Rods of the same — and gave as 
 appears of Record Thirty pounds for the same — where they are designed 
 to erect said church — as they say — which in the judgment of all think- 
 ing persons may be very inconvenient and a great disturbance to each 
 society, the houses being so near together if erected there — the Town 
 therefore propose and offer to Mr. George Pigott and his associate peti- 
 tioners aforesaid, to change with them and for the thirty-six Rods of 
 land purchased of said Oatman and to allow them for it — forty Rods of 
 Land at the place they desired in their petition (namely by the wid. Tith- 
 arton's), on the north side of the Meeting House or in lieu of said 36 
 Rods of Land, to let them have the 40 Rods aforesaid at a reasonable rate 
 and price, to erect their church on and churchyard and the town made 
 choice of Mr. Joseph Curtis, Capt. John Hawley, Ensign Edmund Lewis, 
 Ensign John Porter or any of them a committee in behalf of the Town 
 to present the above proposals and offers of the town to the said Mr. 
 Pigott and his associate petitioners, etc. 
 
 Test Joseph Curtis, Town Clerk. 
 
 June 26, 1723. 
 
 L* Joseph Beach entered his dissent against the Town disposing of 
 any land of the Common on the north of the meeting house hill by wid. 
 Titharton's for the erecting of a church or church yard upon. 
 
 Test Joseph Curtis, Town Clerk" 
 
 The church opened July 8, 1744, is spoken of by Dr. Johnson, in one 
 of his letters, as " finished in a very neat and elegant manner, the archi- 
 tecture being allowed in some things to exceed anything before done in 
 New England." It is 60 feet long, 45 feet wide, 24 high, with a spire 120 
 feet. 
 
 The new church, built of wood, is a Gothic structure of the second 
 period, from designs prepared by Henry Dudley of New York. Its ex- 
 ternal dimensions are 52 feet by 103 feet. It is adapted to seat about 
 750 persons, but on the occasion of the Consecration more than 1,000 
 were accommodated by the introduction of movable seats. 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 
 
 SERMON BEFORE THE ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE DIO- 
 CESE OF CONNECTICUT, IN ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, NEW 
 LONDON, JUNE 12, 1860. 
 
 We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth; and build the 
 house that was builded these many years ago. — Ezra v. 11. 
 
 Not much need be said to explain the occasion of 
 these words. The Jews had returned from their 
 captivity in Babylon, and had begun to reconstruct 
 upon the old foundations the temple which had been 
 destroyed. For a time the work was strangely inter- 
 rupted through the power, the jealousy, and the inso- 
 lence of its enemies ; but it w r as revived again by the 
 Spirit of the Lord of Hosts, and king, prophet, priest, 
 and people joined in its prosecution. Seeing their 
 zeal and apprehensive of its issue, Tatnai, governor 
 on this side the river, with his companions, came 
 to the elders of the Jews, and inquired by what 
 authority they proceeded to " build the house and to 
 make up the wall." And with a simplicity as earnest 
 as it was sincere, and as frank as it was fearless, they 
 answered: "We are the servants of the God of heaven 
 and earth; and build the house that was builded these 
 many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded 
 and set up." 
 
 The answer indicated their reliance upon the faith 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 99 
 
 of their fathers, and recognized the spirit of the ancient 
 Jewish religion. " Servants of the God of heaven and 
 earth," they would not resist His mandates, nor cease 
 to provide for Him a temple wherein they might 
 praise and glorify His holy name. It must have been 
 a sublime scene w T hen those poor returned captives 
 ascended Mount Moriah, and in the strength of a 
 stern faith went on to build what w r as again to cen- 
 tralize the scattered nation, and to serve the purpose 
 of Jehovah in His Church, till the Messiah should 
 come, and till the " ordinances of divine service, and 
 a worldly sanctuary" should be succeeded by the 
 hopes and demands of the new and spiritual dispen- 
 sation. 
 
 Though we are not, my brethren, exactly in their 
 condition, humbled and impoverished by long captiv- 
 ity in a foreign land, and awakened at last to con- 
 sciousness by the cheering promises of God, yet the 
 text may well guide our thoughts now, and furnish 
 us with some good lessons befitting the hour in which 
 I speak and the sacred occasion that has called us 
 together. For we, too, are all " servants of the God 
 of heaven and earth," servants of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and build His house, the Church, which of old 
 was " built upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner 
 stone." 
 
 For nearly two thousand years the elect body of 
 Israel, small at the first and beginning at Jersualem, 
 the scene and centre of the rites that symbolized the 
 Heavenly High Priest, has been growing and spread- 
 ing itself until it has reached with its benign influ- 
 
100 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ence,s all quarters of the globe. The little Galilean 
 band, — the chosen disciples of our Lord, — have 
 multiplied and become a mighty people. They have 
 the heathen for their inheritance and the uttermost 
 parts of the earth for their possession. At a winter 
 feast in Jerusalem, the feast of dedication, Jesus 
 " walked in the temple in Solomon's porch." In that 
 gorgeous edifice it was that He spake those memorable 
 and truly prophetic words : " Destroy this temple, and 
 in three days I will raise it up." He fulfilled this 
 promise as to His own human body ; and He is ever 
 fulfilling it as to His mystical body, the Church. 
 
 I will not detain you upon a sketch of the condition 
 of the Christian Church in the first three centuries, 
 nor will I glance at the many successive persecutions 
 that were fierce and strong enough to break anything 
 but the omnipotence of God. That period of sorest 
 trial was followed by an age of splendid triumph ; for 
 the persecutors were suddenly checked in their im- 
 pious course and changed into champions of the 
 Gospel. Twelve centuries later, when the streams of 
 divine truth and light, flowing in Holy Scripture, 
 seemed almost entirely shut up, and the soul of the 
 Church in our mother country was fainting and ready 
 to die, another triumph was won for the cause of 
 " pure and undefiled religion," and how richly since 
 has that triumph been owned and blessed of God ? 
 The Keformation in England was a work that restored 
 what had been withheld, and cleared the streams 
 which had been closed or clogged by superstition. 
 "It removed obstructions and opened new windows, 
 and let in a flood of religious light into the Church, 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 101 
 
 in Prayers, Scriptures, and Sacraments, speaking 
 plainly to all in their native tongue. It deepened 
 the foundations of the Church in the reason and 
 hearts of the people. But it did not build a new 
 Church. It made no new Gospel, proclaimed no new 
 creed, erected no new altar, created no new order 
 of Christian ministers." 1 It wisely, but faithfully, 
 cleansed and restored the old. It rejected all false 
 doctrines, and protested against every "fond thing" 
 of Rome, " vainly invented and grounded upon no 
 warranty of Scripture." Its agents were men, com- 
 passed with human authority, but the work was a 
 work of God. 
 
 We are nearly allied to the body thus reformed. 
 The Church of our affections and veneration is the 
 daughter of that noble mother, a branch of the true 
 vine, we do believe, of which our Father is the hus- 
 bandman. You are familiar with the history of its 
 early planting in the wildernesses and solitary places 
 of this Western world. You know that " these many 
 years ago " it met with discouragements and opposi- 
 tions as strange and severe as those which hindered 
 the building and restoration of the temple. I need 
 not detail these discouragements and oppositions now. 
 We have outgrown them in our land. We have out- 
 grown them in Connecticut. When Keith and Talbot 
 visited this place in 1702, and Gurdon Saltonstall, 
 then the Con ore optional minister here, and afterwards 
 the Governor of the Colony, "civilly entertained them 
 at his house, and expressed his good affection to the 
 
 1 Rev. Chr. Wordsworth, D. D., Canon of Westminster, and late 
 Bishop of Lincoln. 
 
102 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Church of England," he little understood the magni- 
 tude of the work which his guests had begun, and as 
 little foresaw that, onward a century and a half, one 
 hundred and twenty-five Episcopal clergymen and as 
 many whole hearted laymen, representing the differ- 
 ent Parishes of our Diocese, would meet in the city 
 of his residence to interchange kind and friendly feel- 
 ings, to counsel and legislate for the best interests of 
 the Church, and to congratulate each other that their 
 " feet stand within thy gates, Jerusalem ; " that 
 " peace is within thy walls and prosperity within thy 
 palaces." Nay, more : that this very Convention 
 should assemble in a sanctuary more artistic, magnifi- 
 cent, and imposing than any which then rose on our 
 shores, that a living Bishop should preside over its 
 deliberations, and our own fit memorial 1 to a departed 
 one, warn us, as Heber felt himself to be warned when 
 he stood upon the ashes of Swartz, that we are to take 
 the work of the Church and carry it on, blessing the 
 Lord for His goodness to our fathers, and building, as 
 they, the house whose " walls are salvation and whose 
 gates are praise." How are we to build it ? What 
 elements shall enter into the character of the true 
 servants of Christ? I may not mention them all: 
 but I will speak of some that are most prominent 
 and most needful. 
 
 And, first, the builders of the Church should be 
 
 1 The Convention was permitted by St. James's Parish, while the new 
 church was building, to erect a monument to Bishop Seabury in one of 
 the divisions of the chancel, and his remains were accordingly taken 
 from their original resting spot, September 11, 1849, and deposited in the 
 crypt beneath the vault of mason work. Bishop Seabury, at the time of 
 his death, was Rector of St. James's Church. 
 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 103 
 
 earnest men, not afraid to put their soul into the work 
 of their Divine Master. 
 
 I might take you, brethren, into the different pur- 
 suits and callings of our race, and ask you to note with 
 what earnestness, with what singleness of aim, they 
 are prosecuted by those in whose judgment they are 
 precious and important. The inventor, the artisan, 
 the trader, the banker, the merchant, the soldier, the 
 seaman, the statesman, the scholar, the jurist, the men 
 in all professions and occupations who command suc- 
 cess, are earnest men. They know very well the 
 direct necessity of being thoroughly interested in 
 what they are pledged to accomplish and attain. The 
 shopman might as well put up his shutters and retire 
 from business altogether, as sleep over it at noon-day, 
 or wake to it when the sun has climbed high in the 
 firmament. And so, too, the ambassador for Christ 
 who goes sluggishly to his duties, or who would make 
 them all easier by shunning the toils, the hardships, 
 and the self-denials of the ministry, will find but slen- 
 der reward, and perhaps utterly fail in his expecta- 
 tions. He may sit in his study and dream about cleri- 
 cal prerogatives, about choral services, about adapting 
 the Church to the times, about relaxing the rigor of 
 Rubrics, and changing the use or the character of the 
 Liturgy ; but, after all, if he only dreams and lets his 
 energies sleep, he will not add a stone to the wall. 
 The temple rose on the ancient mount of God, because 
 the people had a mind to work. It is a working 
 Clergy that the Church ever needs, not a machinery 
 to lessen the motive power. Under whatever figure 
 our office is represented in Holy Scripture, whether 
 
104 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 we are termed stewards of the mysteries of the Gospel, 
 watchmen on the walls of Zion, ambassadors of the 
 Prince of Peace, or servants of Him who taught with 
 authority, and not as the Scribes, it is the same ele- 
 ment that enters into our character, the same Divine 
 voice that commands us to "watch as they that must 
 give an account." Every change is not necessarily a 
 change of system; but we may well distrust new, 
 untried, and popular schemes, charged but moderately 
 with the spirit of the Gospel. We are to deal with 
 society as it is, and as God foresaw it would be, and I 
 do not believe, so long as men are born, live, and 
 die after the present fashion, that you will find any 
 improvement in manners, morals, or religion, by ex- 
 hausting your enthusiasm upon directions which seem 
 to point elsewhere than to the " old paths and the 
 good way." 
 
 The Lord, in the periods past, has crowned with His 
 manifold blessing the labors of His earnest, patient 
 servants. I have already glanced at this fact, but I 
 may turn to it again. Since the effusion of the Holy 
 Spirit on the day of Pentecost, an event not inferior 
 in importance to the Incarnation of the Son of God, 
 the peaceful inroads of knowledge and truth into the 
 territories of ignorance and idolatry have been stead- 
 ily opening. That miraculous occurrence and the 
 injection thereby of extraordinary power into the 
 minds of the assembled disciples, completely removed 
 the wall which had so long inclosed the privileges of 
 a peculiar people, and then, for the first time, it was 
 proclaimed distinctly, that nations far and near were 
 to be offered the blessings of Kedemption, and in 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 105 
 
 accepting them to have, what we know there are, 
 "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and 
 Father of us all, who is above all and through all and 
 in ail." Barren spots, hills unlikely to be blessed with 
 verdure or fruitfulness, such as Tabor and Hermon, 
 rejoiced and blossomed as the rose, under the culture 
 and care of Apostolic husbandmen. Endued with the 
 gift of tongues and the power of working miracles, 
 they went forth from Jerusalem, as they were com- 
 manded, and placed the tribes of the earth in a new 
 moral position. They showed them how they were 
 brought nigh to God by the blood of Jesus, how they 
 need no longer spend life in doubt and conjecture, or 
 worship the Deity under the degraded and degrading 
 rites of ancestral superstition. 
 
 But still, aside from the extraordinary agency of 
 the Holy Ghost, what gave to the ministry of the 
 Apostles such rapid and abundant success, was the 
 bending their minds and their efforts to the accom- 
 plishment of the same sacred purpose. The big and 
 burning heart of St. Paul looked out on the creatures 
 of infinite power and beneficence as the only objects 
 whom his grateful regard could profit and elevate. 
 He would show his sincere thankfulness to God by 
 an earnest devotion of his life to their spiritual good, 
 and that example of high-souled excellence is ours 
 for imitation, so long as there be a hill of the earth 
 mantled with moral darkness, or a shore which the 
 foot of the Christian Missionary has not trodden. 
 
 Do thou, God, go forth with our hosts, and there 
 shall be a triumphant and more glorious demonstra- 
 tion that " the weapons of our warfare," though u not 
 
106 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 carnal/' " are mighty through Thee to the pulling 
 down of strongholds " of unbelief and irreligion ! 
 
 I will speak of another element in the character of 
 the builders of the Church. They should be faithful 
 men , faithful to themselves and faithful to their Divine 
 Master. They should be faithful to themselves. The 
 great lines of practical duty are sufficiently manifest. 
 However we may differ in matters connected with the 
 immediate or general policy of the Church, we all 
 agree that in these times and in our land the life of a 
 Christian minister must be a busy one. It must have 
 its parts for diligent and Scriptural research, and its 
 parts for private and pastoral intercourse with the 
 people. The most that we can expect from the stu- 
 dent in theology, when he comes fresh from the lec- 
 ture-room of his professor, is fitness under God to begin 
 his work, a knowledge of the use of the materials 
 placed in his hands. With the aid of these materials, 
 he is to be a student ever after, " giving attendance to 
 reading," " doing the work of an evangelist, and mak- 
 ing full proof of his ministry." For no preacher can 
 hope to accomplish much good or to produce a very 
 decided impression unless he places religious truth in a 
 clearer or in a stronger light than that in which it com- 
 monly presents itself to his congregation. And how 
 will he do this, if he be not faithful to himself, and im- 
 prove his talents as best he may ? It is certain that, 
 under the same administration, there are diversities 
 of gifts, and the most brilliant intellectual powers, we 
 know, are not always the most useful. Preaching is an 
 ordinance of God, and its influence in diffusing and en- 
 forcing Christian truth is not dependent simply upon 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 107 
 
 the talent of the man, but also on the converting and 
 sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Hence, to obtain 
 this indispensable help, the truest and humblest min- 
 isters of Christ will pray for it, and rely upon it, and 
 act upon it, as their ceaseless encouragement to faith, 
 to industry, to self-denial, to watchfulness and perse- 
 verance. 
 
 And those who are thus faithful to themselves, 
 should be faithful to their Divine Master. They should 
 not exalt the body above the head, — the Church 
 above Christ, — but holding in their right relations 
 for reverence and affection Him and His institutions 
 — the Gospel of His love and the sacraments of His 
 appointment — they should " serve God for the pro- 
 moting of His glory and the edifying of His people," 
 and so make known the fidelity of their stewardship. 
 Hugh Latimer well said : " The blind curate and his. 
 blind parishioners fall together." We shall mislead if 
 we withhold the truth, or determine to make anything 
 more prominent in our ministrations than " Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified." We are, indeed, admon- 
 ished to guard against the subtilty of error. It is 
 among the searching and solemn questions, addressed 
 in the course of his public examination to the candi- 
 date about to be ordained : " Will you be ready, with 
 all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from 
 the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines con- 
 trary to God's word; and to use both public and pri- 
 vate monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as 
 to the whole within your cure, as need shall require 
 and occasion shall be given ? " and to this question he 
 is expected to return the honest answer, " I will so do, 
 the Lord being my helper." 
 
108 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Fidelity to Christ, involved in the remembrance 
 of this and other vows, does not require that having 
 the spirit of party I should be censorious and unhesi- 
 tatingly proscribe a brother whose theological opin- 
 ions differ from mine in some of their lighter shades ; 
 who does not think it all important to bow with me 
 in the Creed, or who hesitates, perhaps, to accept as 
 the best interpretation of our standards every page 
 of the " learned and judicious " Hooker. The Apos- 
 tolic Church was broad enough to embrace in her 
 love and care Barnabas and Paul, Silas and Mark. 
 As little does fidelity to Christ and his fold ask me to 
 be uncharitable towards those who belong to other 
 communions. Men in their new connections are 
 sometimes indiscreet and over-zealous. I bless God 
 that I am " a Hebrew of the Hebrews," that I have 
 come in a right line of descent from Churchmen who 
 rallied around Johnson at his earliest ministrations in 
 Stratford ; but I if I had not so descended, if I had been 
 born and nurtured elsewhere, I would not turn and 
 assail with needless violence the shelter from which I 
 had escaped. We gain for our cause, by this means, 
 little advantage. We rather excite prejudice and 
 fresh opposition. Suppose St. Paul, receiving " the 
 cloak that he left at Troas, the books, but especially 
 the parchments," had gone to Thessalonica, and, 
 standing up there in a synagogue of the Jews, had 
 begun to say, " You are all wrong ; down with your 
 customs, down with your worship ! " would he have 
 touched and converted as many hearts as by " reason- 
 ing with them out of the Scriptures, opening and 
 alleging - that Christ must needs have suffered and 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 109 
 
 risen again from the dead ; and that this Jesus, whom 
 he preached unto them, was Christ ? " We may fully 
 and firmly defend our own way, and show our people, 
 as we walk about Zion, the bulwarks and towers 
 thereof. No man can be faithful to his ordination 
 vows, to Christ and His Church, who fails here. But 
 with a system of order and discipline, formed after 
 the Apostolic and Primitive model ; with a ministry 
 " marking a long extended line;" with prayers in "a 
 tongue understanded of the people," and with hymns 
 and chorals around which cluster the precious memo- 
 ries of the Holy Reformed " Church throughout all the 
 w r orld ; " with these in our possession, we can afford to 
 let boasting alone, and to build our walls "in quietness 
 and confidence." 
 
 I may mention a third element in the character of 
 the true builders of the Church. They should be 
 men of piety, eminent piety. 
 
 We may possess much human learning, but if we 
 have not the love of Christ in our souls we lack the 
 most important knowledge. The mere guidance of 
 books can never lead us securely in the whole path 
 of sacred duty. Without wisdom from above, without 
 faith and prayer and a Christian example, the most 
 eloquent preacher is but "as sounding brass and a 
 tinkling cymbal." The twofold injunction of St. Paul 
 to his beloved Timothy stands for the ministers of all 
 time : " Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doc- 
 trine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt 
 both save thyself and them that hear thee." "Save 
 thyself and them that hear thee ! " How great, how 
 responsible the work ! It is no other than to carry 
 
110 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 on to its happy perfection that stupendous dispensa- 
 tion of grace, which has been from the earliest time 
 the object of God's providential care, and for the 
 accomplishment of which His only begotten Son con- 
 descended to divest himself of glory, to suffer and to 
 die. Can we attain this high end of our ministry 
 except we are diligent to u frame and fashion our own 
 lives and the lives of our families according to the doc- 
 trine of Christ? " Our station is on an eminence, and 
 our actions will be watched. We ought, therefore, to 
 be ourselves, both in the public and private duties of 
 our calling, what we seek to make our people, and 
 much more if possible. The purer the robe we wear, 
 the more unseemly is any stain upon it, and the more 
 sacred the character we profess the more heinous is 
 the sin of its profanation. I am sure you can bear me 
 witness that nothing will strike the tongue of priestly 
 authority with so dead a palsy as the simple convic- 
 tion of unworthiness in them to whom the authority 
 is committed. Nothing will so completely neutralize 
 the blessed effects of an ambassador of Christ, and 
 turn his ministrations into blight and barrenness, as 
 the slightest suspicion among the people of his charge, 
 that faintness hath come upon his spirit, or a cold, cal- 
 culating world liness chilled and contracted his heart. 
 " Holiness unto the Lord " is the motto which should 
 ever be emblazoned upon the banner we bear. Do 
 we visit the chamber of the sick, do we cross the 
 threshold of an afflicted and sorrowing family, or do 
 we go in the exercise of our pastoral office upon a 
 friendly errand to the sinner, not coming with the 
 multitude to the sanctuary, — " Holiness unto the 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. HI 
 
 Lord " is the impression which we should leave of 
 the character we possess. Never were consistency 
 and godliness to any body of men more indispensable 
 than to the Clergy. The many imperfections we 
 exhibit, our careless departures from Christian pro- 
 priety, the eye of suspicion and distrust with which 
 we sometimes view the labors and piety of those who 
 minister with us at the same holy altar, the frequent 
 and unguarded mention of those personal faults which 
 we ought rather to conceal or, at least, to cover with 
 the mantle of charity, the long and profitless theolog- 
 ical controversies that we provoke, and often conduct 
 by no means in the spirit and temper that become 
 servants of a Divine Master, — all these things, and 
 many more, which might be named, operate as hin- 
 drances to the building up of the walls of the Church ; 
 in other words, as impediments to the great work of 
 saving souls, and of "presenting every man perfect 
 in Christ Jesus." 
 
 I need not enlarge upon this topic. " The print of 
 a seal," as an old writer has justly remarked, "is all 
 one, whether it be graven in iron or in gold;" and so 
 the Gospel is one and the same, whether it be borne 
 by a good messenger or a bad ; yet none will deny 
 that men of God, standing in the holy place of His 
 temple, and charged with all His messages of love and 
 truth to our race, should aim at exalted attainments 
 in piety, and teach by their lives as well as by their 
 sermons. The Reformers taught in this way. They 
 had the advantage over their antagonists in every 
 respect. Jewel was an accomplished scholar and a 
 noble Christian. " The whole life of Ridley," says his 
 
112 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 biographer, " was a letter written full of learning and 
 religion, whereof his death was the seal." The soul of 
 Lancelot Andrewes breathed upward to God in un- 
 ceasing prayer. All the strongest and most successful 
 propagators of our faith, in times gone by, were accus- 
 tomed to feed upon the bread w T hich they dispensed to 
 others. The early Clergy cf Connecticut were men of 
 piety. Virginia might be glad to blot from her Colo- 
 nial history the names and acts of numerous represen- 
 tatives of the Church there ; but we can never be too 
 thankful to God that in our Diocese we have a good 
 past to read over, — cheering records from the begin- 
 ning, to refresh our recollections and quicken our 
 diligence. 
 
 Oh ! let us prove ourselves worthy of such an inher- 
 itance, by glowing faith, by earnest labors, by fervent 
 prayers. Let us all, Clergy and Laity, for we are 
 joint builders of one edifice, u build," with benevolent 
 and godly zeal, " the house that was builded these 
 many years ago." We might do vastly more for our 
 own Diocese, for our country, and for the world. We 
 occupy a peculiar and commanding position. We 
 belong to a Church against whose solid foundations 
 we feel more than a mortal persuasion that the gates 
 of hell shall never prevail. We confidently believe 
 the basis of this Church to be the Rock of ages and 
 its superstructure the temple of truth. While, there- 
 fore, some of the Christian bodies about us are feeling 
 the want of our peculiar advantages and sighing in 
 private for Liturgical forms, to give more attraction 
 to public prayer and praise, while all around there 
 are voices that laud the majestic inheritance of our 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE BUILDERS. 113 
 
 Ritual and the copious treasury of doctrine and sacred 
 songs contained therein, let us know our privileges 
 and our power, and use them as they were designed 
 to be used, that we may u add to the Church daily 
 such as shall be saved." Let us remember to tread 
 the courts of this Church in peaceful unanimity. Let 
 us worship at her shrine with sincere and enlightened 
 devotion, and draw from every chamber of her hal- 
 lowed recesses treasures of wisdom and knowledge, of 
 doctrine, precept, and example. And then we shall 
 find, amidst the vicissitudes of this lower scene, that 
 " God will be known in her palaces for a sure refuge ; " 
 and no less beautiful for situation than constituted to 
 become the iov of the whole earth, she shall be 
 acknowledged by all as a worthy portal to that 
 heavenly temple above, where her true members shall 
 forever shine as durable pillars, and i; shall go no 
 more out/' 
 
THE PEOFIT OF WISDOM. 
 
 DISCOURSE TO THE PUPILS OF THE EPISCOPAL ACADEMY 
 OF CONNECTICUT, NOVEMBER 20, 1863. 
 
 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant 
 unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep 
 thee. — Proverbs ii. 10, 11. 
 
 It is recorded in the First Book of Kings, that Sol- 
 omon, the son of David, "spake three thousand pro- 
 verbs," and that "his songs were a thousand and 
 five." The eminence of his station was not superior 
 to the eminence of his wisdom, and his varied experi- 
 ence made him a skillful discerner and judge of the 
 perils and perversities of human life. Though he 
 succeeded to the throne of his father when it was sur- 
 rounded with the splendors of extended conquest, yet 
 it was among his earliest efforts to prove to the world 
 that peace has greater triumphs and richer glories 
 than war. The useful and the elegant arts found in 
 him at once a pattern and a patron. He summoned 
 into being the mighty power of commerce, and vast 
 wealth flowed into his dominions as they " extended 
 from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of 
 the earth." He built palaces of new and noble archi- 
 tecture, but his greatest work was the erection of the 
 temple, " a house of rest for the ark of the covenant 
 of the Lord and for the footstool of our God/' the 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 115 
 
 pattern of which, in all its parts, he received from 
 David. That monarch, in his prosperity. " had made 
 ready for the building," but was denied the privilege 
 of completing it because he " had been a man of war 
 and had shed blood." Mindful of the many pious 
 instructions and commands which he had received 
 from his aged parent, Solomon began his reign with 
 such a serious attention to religion and to the sacred 
 ordinances as to warrant the inference that he was 
 truly devoted to the service of God. He collected 
 the floating wisdom of his country, and after he had 
 intermingled it with his own, he gave to it shape and 
 compactness. 
 
 But the morning of his life, which was indeed a 
 morning without clouds, and the meridian of his reign, 
 which was no less memorable for all that tended to 
 promote admiration of the monarch and to secure 
 happiness among the people, were both obscured 
 towards the end of his days. A shade fell upon him, 
 and proved how dangerous is even prosperity of the 
 most exalted kind when men are left to themselves. 
 At the season when there ought to have been the full 
 maturity of an honorable old age consecrated to God, 
 we find his heart lifted up, and through the corrupt 
 and fascinating influence of sensuality and idolatry, 
 he brought disgrace on his name and distress on his 
 country, and the thing which he did displeased the 
 Lord. The mournful record is faithfully given to us 
 in Scripture, but what he wrote under the dictation 
 of the Divine mind stands untarnished, and if any of 
 his lessons were penned, after he had recovered from 
 his fall ■ — as some commentators will believe — they 
 
116 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 are all the more valuable and forcible for this very 
 circumstance. No one ever had a better right to point 
 his words with emphasis than Solomon, in saying, as 
 he does in the text, "When wisdom entereth into 
 thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, 
 discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall 
 keep thee." 
 
 The praise and personification of Wisdom run 
 through all the Book of Proverbs, a book especially 
 addressed to the young, and containing maxims for 
 their instruction, their guidance, their comfort, and 
 their security. To no class can the preacher, in these 
 days, speak with more affectionate concern than to 
 those whom the wise man had immediately before 
 his mind, when he collected his warnings and deliv- 
 ered his exhortations. It is in the season of youth, 
 above all other seasons, that "wisdom" must "enter 
 into the heart" and "knowledge be pleasant unto 
 the soul." What we see about us is convincing proof 
 that the waste of early opportunities is a waste not 
 to be restored in after life. Time misspent is seldom 
 recovered, and few regrets are more frequent and 
 sincere than those which manhood utters over the 
 waywardness, the follies, and the neglects of youth. 
 The wise son of David speaks in the parental charac- 
 ter of a father addressing his children, and displays 
 great earnestness and solicitude in pressing his advice. 
 There is a feeling, an urgency in his language at 
 times which, if employed on a less momentous subject, 
 would be deemed pertinacious. He recurs again and 
 again, in simple and forcible terms, to his favorite 
 topic, and hurls arrow after arrow at the same mark, 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 117 
 
 that the shafts may not be sped in vain or launched 
 into the air at a venture. " For I give you good doc- 
 trine," says he, " forsake not my law. For I was 
 my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight 
 of rny mother. He taught me also, and said unto 
 me, Let thine heart retain my words : keep my com- 
 mandments and live. Get wisdom, get understand- 
 ing : forget it not ; neither decline from the words of 
 my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve 
 thee : love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is 
 the principal thing ; therefore get wisdom : and with 
 all thy getting, get understanding." 
 
 a Wisdom," now and always, my young friends, 
 "is the principal thing," and with the getting of it 
 there follow knowledge and discretion and under- 
 standing. Yes, "wisdom is the principal thing" — 
 that wisdom which instructs us how to conduct prop- 
 erly the affairs of this life, as well as that higher wis- 
 dom which involves the knowledge of our religious 
 duties and the salvation of our immortal souls. The 
 seminary of Christian learning is a place for the ac- 
 quisition of wisdom, a place for laying the foundation 
 of those sterling virtues and attainments which are 
 to be of conspicuous service to the man in the future 
 scenes and turmoils of life. I know there is a kind 
 of public opinion in most schools not favorable to 
 continuous and diligent study and to moral and re- 
 ligious thought. Many boys appear to take it for 
 granted that they are sent from home for any other 
 purpose than that of education, and so they contrive 
 in various ways to keep their teachers watchful and 
 busy without adding much to their stock of know- 
 
118 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ledge, though they add largely to their stock of mis- 
 chief. The escape from censure or punishment em- 
 boldens them to proceed to more flagrant acts of 
 insubordination, and they become in time leaders and 
 heroes with that class amon^ whom a low tone of 
 moral principle prevails. No head-master of an aca- 
 demic institution can be expected, conscientiously, to 
 allow long the retention of those who are clearly 
 incapable of deriving advantage from his system, or 
 whose influence on others is decidedly and extensively 
 pernicious. He receives the young under his care, 
 not to attempt the cure of incorrigibly bad habits, 
 not to cage and tame them as wild animals are 
 tamed, but to guide them with a gentle and friendly 
 hand to the right and true sources of moral life, to 
 give attention to their intellectual and physical edu- 
 cation, to nurture their noble hopes and generous 
 aspirations ; in a word, as far as it depends upon his 
 own efforts, to see in the case of each pupil that it 
 may be truly said of him, a wisdom entereth into his 
 heart and knowledge is pleasant unto his soul." 
 
 Many years have elapsed since there passed under 
 my care here, during the brief period I was charged 
 with the oversight of this Institution, some three 
 hundred and fifty different youths. Their names are 
 all entered in a private register which I keep, and 
 now and then I recur to it and note, as they are 
 brought to my knowledge, certain events of their 
 lives and certain developments in their characters. 
 It is wonderful to observe, in these instances, how 
 generally the old adage has been verified, " the boy 
 is father to the man ; " in other words, it is wonderful 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 119 
 
 to observe how rarely the studious, industrious, and 
 virtuous youth has failed to impress these characteris- 
 tics upon his manhood, and to carry into his profession 
 or his employment those elements and that energy 
 which, with the blessing of Divine Providence, inva- 
 riably command success. If there be one thing on 
 earth which is truly admirable, it is to behold the 
 fruits of early and virtuous education thus springing 
 freshly along the paths of life and adorning the man, 
 the patriot, the Christian. The best use should be 
 made of all your power and privileges, and no lazy 
 predictions, that those who fail in the preliminary 
 course of instruction may redouble their diligence in 
 after years and turn out well, should ever be allowed 
 to set aside the sure standard of intellectual and moral 
 progress. 
 
 You are looking forward with pleasurable emo- 
 tions, I doubt not, to the close of the term, when 
 most of you will return to your respective homes and 
 spend the Christmas vacation among your immediate 
 friends. It will be a fit inquiry for them to entertain, 
 whether you will come back to the parental roof with 
 signs of improvement, with some degree of self respect 
 and some desire for the respect and love of others ; 
 and it is a proper subject for you to consider how far 
 in this matter they shall be gratified — how far you 
 will profit by the advantages which you possess, and 
 move steadily on in the orbit of duty and diligence. 
 I will suppose that the day of your departure has 
 actually arrived. Your books are collected and laid 
 aside for a season. Your trunks are packed, locked, 
 strapped, and labeled, and as you all stand watching 
 
120 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 for the tardy coach or the lingering train, "feeling 
 like a horse pawing the ground, impatient to be off," 
 let the question be asked — let each one ask the 
 question of himself — Has " wisdom entered into my 
 heart and knowledge been pleasant unto my 80111"? 
 Have I improved my time and my advantages, and 
 depended as thoroughly upon myself as upon my 
 teachers for progress and proficiency ? Am I going 
 back to my home as virtuous and noble-minded as I 
 came to this place ? Have I braced my character to 
 greater beauty and firmness amid the scenes through 
 which I have passed, and have I remembered always 
 to heed that caution, as true morally as scripturally, 
 " Evil communications corrupt good manners " ? 
 
 " Of all the painful things connected with my em- 
 ployment," said Dr. Arnold, head-master at Eugby, 
 " nothing is equal to the grief of seeing a boy come 
 to school innocent and promising, and of tracing the 
 corruption of his character from the influence of the 
 temptations around him, in the very place which ought 
 to have strengthened and improved it. But in most 
 cases those who come with a character of positive 
 good are benefited ; it is the neutral and indecisive 
 characters w r hich are apt to be decided for evil by 
 schools, as they would be in fact by any other temp- 
 tations." Experience and observation both tell us, 
 my young friends, that the elements of the same cor- 
 rupt nature are in us all, and he that has gone far- 
 thest from his God went one step at a time. The very 
 lowest degradation of the worst man living is but the 
 result of the same wayward tendencies, and the way 
 to check them in the outset is to penetrate the heart 
 
 J 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 121 
 
 with the lessons of wisdom, to cultivate a right con- 
 science, and resolve to be always guided by its 
 monitions. 
 
 No large institution, like this, can be successfully 
 conducted without employing several subordinate 
 teachers, and it is not supposable that such teachers 
 will attempt to educate and direct the minds and 
 consciences of others, unless thev have consciences 
 of their own. It would indicate a great degree of 
 turpitude, to say nothing about the utter lack of 
 religious feeling, if one should accept the post of an 
 usher in an academic institution, be assigned to his 
 department of duty, and receive wages for his work, 
 and yet not be found at the same time thoroughly 
 upholding the order and discipline of the establish- 
 ment, and doing what he could to secure the moral 
 and mental training of those who are brought under 
 his instruction or his supervision. It would be like 
 a subordinate officer on board of the ship failing to do 
 his duty with the marines ; and, therefore, you are to 
 consider these teachers, if ever they appear too exact- 
 ing" and ris:id in the enforcement of the rules of the 
 school, as acting from a conscientious regard to the 
 directions of their Principal, and from a sincere desire 
 to fulfill the whole responsibilities of their position. 
 
 "When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and 
 knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall 
 preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee." 
 
 The profit of wisdom is especially manifested in 
 the second verse of the text. When it has dominion 
 over us, when it not only possesses the mind with its 
 heavenly sanctions, but enters into the heart and has 
 
122 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 a commanding power and influence there, when it 
 gives law to the affections and passions, and stands 
 like a sentinel in all our paths, a crying without and 
 uttering her voice in the streets," then surely we 
 shall find its profit, for we shall be kept from wicked 
 courses and "from the man that speaketh froward 
 things." We shall have no wish for association side 
 by side with those who, whatever their intellectual 
 tastes and attainments, never can or never do say of 
 wisdom, " Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
 her paths are peace." It is to be feared that religion, 
 in our day, has a frail hold upon the home life, and 
 that many sons, when sent out into the world, bring 
 distress upon their parents and disgrace upon them- 
 selves, because they have not first learned to put 
 on the armor in which they might resist tempta- 
 tion and battle triumphantly with their spiritual foes. 
 There is a beautiful expression of antiquity, "that 
 the young among the people are like spring amid the 
 seasons," but then the expression is all the more 
 beautiful if the young be those whom " discretion 
 shall preserve and understanding shall keep " — "shall 
 preserve " from moral evil, and " keep " from beset- 
 ting sins. There is nothing manly, there is nothing 
 noble, never believe there is, in scorning the lessons 
 of heavenly wisdom and making light of those who 
 sincerely and steadily tread the walks of piety. We 
 all love to see the upward growth in goodness, and no 
 Christian parent is without much solicitude for the 
 welfare of his child when he commits him tenderly to 
 the guidance of new teachers, and prays, like Jabez, 
 u more honorable than his brethren," that God * would 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 123 
 
 bless him . . . and keep him from evil." " That is 
 properly a nursery of vice where a boy unlearns the 
 pure and honest principles which he may have re- 
 ceived at home, and gets in their stead others which 
 are utterly low and base and mischievous, where he 
 loses his modesty, his respect for truth, and his affec- 
 tionateness, and becomes coarse and false and unfeel- 
 ing. That, too, is a nursery of vice, and most fear- 
 fully so, where vice is bold and forward and perse- 
 vering, and goodness is timid and shy, and existing 
 as by sufferance — where the good, instead of setting 
 the tone of society, and branding with disgrace those 
 who disregard it, are themselves exposed to reproach 
 for their goodness, and shrink before the open avowal 
 of evil principles which the bad are striving to make 
 the law of the community. That is a nursery of vice, 
 where the restraints laid upon evil are considered as 
 so much taken from liberty, and where, generally 
 speaking, evil is more willingly screened and con- 
 cealed than detected and punished. What society 
 would be, if men regarded the laws of God and man 
 as a grievance, and thought liberty consisted in fol- 
 lowing to the full their proud and selfish and low in- 
 clinations," 1 we cannot imagine, but certainly it would 
 bear no meet resemblance to that happy state which 
 the Gospel portrays as the portion and possession 
 of the righteous. It is a wrong committed against 
 God, against humanity, against the soul, to shut 
 wisdom from the mind and take downward courses 
 to moral evil. Even if we escape from its worst con- 
 sequences by repentance before death comes to close 
 
 1 Sermons in Rugby Chapel. 
 
124 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 our probation, it is a wrong in itself, which discretion 
 and a better understanding must teach us to avoid. 
 Illustrious men — not in the Church alone, but in the 
 national councils — have dignified and adorned their 
 names by accepting and cherishing the truths and 
 consolations of the Christian religion. The great 
 Daniel Webster, born in a humble cottage of New 
 Hampshire, on what was then the outskirts of civiliza- 
 tion, with no inheritance but poverty and an honored 
 name, and subjected in early life to many disadvan- 
 tages of education, worked his way up through the 
 difficult and toilsome paths of youth and manhood 
 to an eminence where it was acknowledged by his 
 competitors that he stood alone — primus inter clarissi- 
 mos — first among the noblest. A deeply religious 
 parent had probably imbued the son with his own 
 spirit, and whatever his errors and failings in after 
 life — and, to his praise be it spoken, he never sought 
 their apology — and however practically he fell below 
 his conception of a disciple of Jesus, it must be ad- 
 mitted that he was a Christian. When swaying courts 
 and senates and enchaining multitudes by the power 
 of his arguments and the splendor of his eloquence, 
 he was a Christian, and no public man of our country 
 has more frequently and more reverently recognized 
 in his pleadings and addresses and speeches the great 
 truths of a wise and superintending Providence, and 
 the great hopes and principles of redemption. The 
 distinguished Lord Lyndhurst, born in our own New 
 England, 1 and the tidings of whose death have just 
 
 1 He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, May 21, 1772, and three 
 years afterwards was taken by his mother to England to join her hus- 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 125 
 
 been wafted to us across the broad Atlantic, was for 
 nearly half a century the most eloquent man in the 
 British Parliament, if not in the world, and "held 
 listening senates captive at his will." Crowned heads 
 and noble lords and illustrious jurists, cultivated civil- 
 ians and princely merchants and wealthy manufactur- 
 ers bent in admiration before the fullness of his mind 
 and the depth and wisdom of his counsels. Public 
 life, we know, has its grievous and manifold tempta- 
 tions, and the time of statesmen is so much absorbed in 
 national subjects and the weightiest of human affairs, 
 that, for the most part, they take too little thought of 
 religious truth and duty. But great as this nobleman 
 was, he bowed before the greatness of the Supreme 
 Euler of the universe. He applied all the power of 
 his marvelous and accomplished intellect and all his 
 quickness of apprehension to the study and attain- 
 ment of piety, and it gilded the evening of his days 
 that nothing so called forth his perpetual gratitude to 
 God as that he had enabled him, by extending his 
 life far beyond the allotted period, to " redeem the 
 time " and expand his Christian character. 
 
 My young friends, let me entreat you to remember 
 that the highest issue of all your attainments is the 
 issue of everlasting blessedness. Wisdom and the 
 
 band. The father, born also in Boston, was a self-taught and eminent 
 portrait painter, who devoted himself to his profession in London. The 
 son had the best advantages for education, and distinguished himself in 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, by winning many prizes. His name — be- 
 fore he was created Lord Lyndhurst — was John Singleton Copley, and 
 he died October 12, 1863, in his ninety-second year. Some of his finest 
 speeches in the House of Lords are said to have been made when he was 
 beyond the age of eighty. 
 
126 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 pursuits of knowledge properly lead both to honor 
 and happiness. " Length of days is in her right hand, 
 and in her left hand riches and honor." No youth 
 can bring the vigor of his resolution and the warmth 
 and earnestness of his affections to the service of 
 God without finding himself advantaged. He can- 
 not forsake his sins, surrender the idle and criminal 
 amusements of the world, and follow with a steady 
 judgment and large faith the path of Christian holi- 
 ness except wisdom be given to his purposes and 
 glory crown his actions. Not that he is to become an 
 ascetic and utterly relinquish the world. Humanity 
 requires society, society requires that many of its 
 pleasures and gratifications should be enjoyed, and 
 religion, ever merciful, does not prohibit their enjoy- 
 ment. They are the fragrant flowers, the very roses 
 which God has strewn on this path of perplexity and 
 care, and it would be ingratitude to trample them 
 under our feet. Love and friendship, health and for- 
 tune, the vicissitudes of the seasons, the fruits of the 
 earth, the very air and light of Heaven, these are 
 blessings for our enjoyment, and blessings to which 
 religion lends her beauty and communicates a soul. 
 Oh ! know God and render Him the service which 
 He claims. It is His love that gives us all which we 
 enjoy and shields us from numberless perils. It 
 clothes the earth with verdure and crowns the hills 
 with plenty. It feeds the gale of morning with in- 
 cense and with health. It invests the beams of noon 
 with splendor. It robes the parting day in mellowed 
 glories, and gives to night her shades and her quiet — 
 her safety and her repose. 
 
THE PROFIT OF WISDOM. 127 
 
 May the benedictions of Him who called the young 
 unto Him and blessed them descend upon all your 
 heads. And may you now so weigh the importance 
 of the great journey which stretches before you — the 
 journey of human life — that you may find peace in 
 its pursuit, and in the end honor and glory and bless- 
 edness and immortality ! 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 
 
 DISCOURSE COMMEMORATIVE OF THE LIFE OF THE REV- 
 EREND STEPHEN JEWETT, M. A., IN ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, 
 NEW HAVEN, SEPTEMBER 1, 1861. 
 
 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- 
 solved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal 
 in the heavens. II. Corinthians, v. 1. 
 
 There is an instinctive feeling in human nature to 
 shun the approach of dissolution. We pause on the 
 brink of the stream that divides us from the unseen 
 world, and hesitate to cross to the other side. We 
 would linger here, even when our stay is saddened by 
 grief and threatened with new perils, and great and 
 manifold perplexities. We naturally quail and shrink 
 in view of the despotism of death. Unless some 
 mighty impulse lifts us above its terrors and directs 
 our minds to the contemplation of future and eternal 
 realities, we must dread the hour that shall close our 
 eyes forever to earthly scenes, and bring us to the 
 gates of the grave. 
 
 And such a mighty impulse the Christian has in the 
 simple faith that moulds and fashions his religious 
 character. For this faith teaches him that, beyond 
 the regions of death, there is a better inheritance in 
 heaven for the righteous. He who brought life and 
 immortality to light in the Gospel proclaims to each 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 129 
 
 and all of his followers, " I am the Resurrection and 
 the Life. He that believeth in me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and be- 
 lieveth in me shall never die." We are not left, then, 
 my brethren, to the cold doubts of skepticism, when 
 we lay our righteous friends in the graves of the 
 earth. Christianity supplies what was wholly want- 
 ing in the calculations of Natural Theology, and to 
 her teachings we are indebted for " the comfort of a 
 reasonable, religious, and holy hope," and for our 
 certain knowledge of the future and eternal reunion 
 of soul and body. 
 
 As Christian believers we are permitted to share 
 the confidence of St. Paul, so emphatically expressed 
 in the text, and to say with him, in the immediate 
 prospect of dissolution, "For we know that if our 
 earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
 have a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens." 
 
 There is evidently an allusion in this passage to the 
 ancient Jewish tabernacle, which, on all removals of 
 the congregation, was taken down, and the ark of the 
 covenant, covered with its own curtains, borne by it- 
 self. When the Hebrews came to a place of rest and 
 encampment, the parts were reunited, and the taber- 
 nacle restored as before. St. Paul, who treats so 
 largely of the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection 
 in this and his other Epistles, puts the shifting tent in 
 opposition to the enduring mansion, — the vile body 
 of flesh and blood to the spiritual body of the glorified 
 saint. His simile will bear the construction, that as 
 the tabernacle was taken down only to be put together 
 
130 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 again, so the body dissolved in death is to be raised 
 incorruptible and "clothed upon with our house which 
 is from heaven." The Apostles and early disciples 
 were wonderfully sustained under their complicated 
 trials and sufferings by this promise of the Resurrec- 
 tion, and by the sure hope of eternal glory. They 
 knew in whom and in what they believed. They 
 saw with the eye of faith, beyond the regions of mor- 
 tality, "a building of God, — a house not made with 
 hands," — and it reconciled them to every sorrow and 
 every privation, that this house was theirs to enjoy 
 when the perils of life were passed and its labors all 
 closed. If it were the end of us to be laid in the 
 grave, — if what constitutes the man were just left to 
 waste in its gloomy portals, if there were no Resur- 
 rection and no Judgment, small would be our comfort 
 or our support in the last hour. But it is not the 
 end. The body may indeed moulder to dust in the 
 grave, but this thinking, hoping, believing spirit 
 within us is not there to participate in its corruption 
 and decay. The two component parts of our nature 
 have been separated; one is commingling with its 
 native dust, and the other, the conscious, immaterial 
 soul, has returned to God who gave it. It dwells not 
 upon earth ; but lives in immortality, in the immedi- 
 ate presence of God and in the enjoyment of the 
 Redeemer and his departed saints. There, sheltered 
 from all the misfortunes and troubles of earth, it 
 awaits the perfect consummation in bliss. In the 
 morning of the great Resurrection, not only shall the 
 body, the grosser component of our nature, be rescued 
 from the abasements of the grave, but it shall be beau- 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 131 
 
 tified, invigorated, and adorned. "Sown in corrup- 
 tion, it shall be raised in incorruption. Sown in dis- 
 honor, it shall be raised in glory. Sown in weakness, 
 it shall be raised in power. Sown a natural body, it 
 shall be raised a spiritual body." There is a natural 
 body and there is a spiritual body. Hence it is a 
 Christian thing to die remembering that, when the 
 moment of reunion arrives, one's own dust, wherever 
 it may be, and however it may be scattered, shall seek 
 its kindred dust, and the soul come down to possess 
 its reconstructed " tabernacle." The whole man thus 
 living again will pass to the tribunal of the general 
 judgment, to " receive the things done in his body 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be good or 
 bad." 
 
 It seems hardly necessary to enlarge here upon the 
 fact " that our earthly house of this tabernacle ,! ' is 
 frail, so frail that we cannot know the period of its 
 dissolution. We behold on every side the marks of 
 decay. To introduce another figure, we see a thou- 
 sand avenues leading to the a valley of the shadow of 
 death," and by some one of them we are all approach- 
 ing its borders. We cannot be certain that we are not 
 already on the slope and descending, for " who shall 
 tell what a day may bring forth ? " Death is that which 
 baffles all human calculations. Men may permit the 
 cares of life, their relationships, their enjoyments, and 
 their engagements to deaden their apprehensions of 
 this solemn event ; but it will come, and come as likely 
 in one stage of their pilgrimage as another. It comes 
 to the infant enfolded in a mother's arms. It strikes 
 down the ruddy youth in the glow of health. It 
 
132 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 meets the traveler as he pursues his lonely journey. 
 It approaches the man of business while he stands at 
 the desk of his counting-room. It enters the happy 
 household and suddenly removes a cherished inmate, 
 a loved one who seemed its joy and its hope, or its 
 stay and its staff. It spares no age, nor sex, nor con- 
 dition. Oh ! this is the record of human life, always 
 passing away, — always reading to us sorrowful les- 
 sons of its frailness and instability. Sometimes dis- 
 ease, by long and painful premonitions, gives notice 
 of the advent of death. Many an aged believer, 
 when his work of life is over and sickness or debility 
 has laid him by, waits, like the patriarch Job, " all 
 the days of his appointed time," patiently expecting 
 his " change to come." As some old family mansion, 
 crumbling into decay yet spared and respected for 
 the good it has done and the kind shelter it has 
 afforded, so he stands, the venerable object of filial 
 affection and the grateful care of a new generation. 
 He stands on that eminence of prospect to which 
 the Gospel of God has raised him, looking back with- 
 out repining, and forward with cheerful, Christian 
 hope. 
 
 Your thoughts, my brethren, in this connection, will 
 turn to an aged servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who 
 has just passed from among us, and of whose life and 
 work in the ministry it is fitting that a brief sketch 
 should be given. 
 
 The Rev. Stephen Jewett was born in Lanesboro', 
 Massachusetts, August 18, 1783. His parents were 
 originally Congregationalists, but about the time of 
 his birth his father withdrew from that communion 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 133 
 
 and connected himself nominally with the Episcopal 
 Church. He withdrew because, in renewing the cov- 
 enant, he could not accede to all the doctrines as held 
 by the Congregational Church in Lanesboro', — espe- 
 cially those in regard to Calvinism, — the Church 
 having at first received him on terms that did not 
 require a subscription to these peculiar tenets. Ste- 
 phen was baptized with his sister, when of mature 
 age, by the Rev. Amos Pardee, at that time rector of 
 the Episcopal Church in Lanesboro'. Naturally fond 
 of reading, and to a considerable extent self-taught 
 in the rudiments of an English education, he assisted 
 his father in his humble occupation, until failing 
 health compelled him, at the age of twenty-three, to 
 look for other and lighter labors in life. Mr. Pardee 
 was his first instructor in the preliminary course of 
 classical studies. Teaching a common school in the 
 winter, that he might have the means of returning 
 to his books in the summer, he at length found his 
 way to the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, that insti- 
 tution being then in the zenith of its prosperity, and 
 serving to the Church the double purpose of a college 
 and a theological seminary. Here he regained, in a 
 measure, his health, and passed four years a diligent 
 and successful student. At the end of his first sum- 
 mer in Cheshire he resumed teaching the common 
 school in Dalton, Massachusetts, the same place where 
 he had previously taught, but now at greatly advanced 
 wages. He had scarcely entered upon his engage- 
 ment before he received a letter from Dr. Bowden, 
 Professor in Columbia College, New York, offering 
 assistance to the amount of $100 per annum if he 
 
134 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 would immediately return to the Academy, and prose- 
 cute without interruption his studies. As soon as 
 he could get released, the offer was gratefully ac- 
 cepted, and by this means, and by the liberality of 
 other friends, he was enabled to complete his educa- 
 tion without incurring a debt beyond $150, which, he 
 was afterwards pleased to say, he discharged in the 
 first year of his ministry. 
 
 He was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Jarvis, in 
 Trinity Church, New Haven, September 15, 1811, and 
 his death leaves but two survivors in Connecticut 
 ordained by that prelate, both of whom — one in a 
 green old age, 1 and the other just ready to depart 2 
 — still linger at the scenes of their youthful min- 
 istry. He was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop 
 Hobart, October 5, 1813, together with Dr. Wyatt, 
 of Baltimore. His life as a clergyman was com- 
 menced in Pawlet, Vermont, September 29, 1811, 
 and in Hampton, New York, the 13th of the ensuing 
 month. To this latter place he removed after the 
 first winter, and with true filial affection received into 
 his house and under his care and protection his pa- 
 rents, both now aged and infirm. Though his cure 
 was large enough to demand his entire attention, yet 
 in the then scarcity of Episcopal clergymen he was a 
 missionary for all the region from Fort Edward on 
 the south to Plattsburgh on the north. I have heard 
 him say that a child had been brought to him the 
 distance of one hundred miles to be baptized, and 
 that he had himself gone forty to attend a funeral. 
 
 1 Rev. Frederick Holcomb, D. D., Watertown. 
 
 2 Rev. David Baldwin, Guilford. 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 135 
 
 This was not in the day of railroads, but of slow 
 stages and private conveyances. A faithful ministry 
 running through a period of ten years in the same 
 place left its abiding marks, and the house of worship 
 in Hampton, commenced by all denominations, with 
 the understanding that it should belong to the body 
 that would finish it, was through his influence com- 
 pleted and quietly surrendered to the Episcopalians. 
 He gathered a congregation and finished a brick 
 church, of which he laid the corner-stone, in Granville, 
 New York, — the Episcopalians of Pawlet having no 
 edifice and coming to that place to worship ; and 
 when he left in the autumn of 1821, and removed to 
 Connecticut, hoping thereby to strengthen his health, 
 the new parish numbered eighty communicants. His 
 ministrations in this diocese were begun at Derby, 
 December 9, 1821, and for thirteen years he divided 
 his time between St. James's Church, in that town, 
 and Union (now Trinity) Church, Humphreysville. 
 He succeeded the patriarchal Mansfield in the rector- 
 ship, the Rev. Calvin White, who became a pervert to 
 Rome, having been only an assistant minister. Divi- 
 sions had sprung up in the parish at Derby, and the 
 Bishop, in noticing his appointment to the charge, 
 spoke of these divisions as likely to " be healed by 
 his conciliating and pious labors." Few know the 
 secret anxiety of a conscientious rector who gives his 
 best days and strength to the welfare of his flock. 
 There are those who measure life by great achieve- 
 ments, and who seem to think it little for a man, in a 
 quiet way and in humble fear of God, to " do the 
 work of an evangelist and make full proof of his min- 
 
136 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 istry." Public admiration is by no means a sure test 
 of usefulness. Sympathy with the personal appeals 
 and ministrations of the clergyman is better, for this 
 carries along with it a very close and binding affinity. 
 Christian people forget flights of the imagination and 
 bursts of artificial oratory, but they never forget the 
 earnest pastor, with the tones of whose voice are as- 
 sociated many of their most pleasing and hallowed 
 recollections ; the pastor who guided their devotions, 
 cleared away their difficulties, pointed their path to 
 heaven, and first opened to them the plan of salva- 
 tion, and by his arguments and his expostulations im- 
 pressed them with the duty of denying themselves, 
 taking up the cross, and following Christ. 
 
 Mr. Jewett in Derby — like his contemporaries in 
 the other parts of Connecticut — had a flock to feed 
 and a fold to defend. The old Puritan prejudices 
 against the Church, her doctrines and her liturgy, 
 seemed to freshen up in the diocese after the acces- 
 sion of Dr. Brownell to the Episcopate, and the defec- 
 tion of Mr. White — sowing, as it did, among his 
 people, the seeds of mischief — made it all the more 
 necessary for his successor to be vigilant, cautious, 
 godly, and firm. I believe there are many now liv- 
 ing who would cheerfully testify to his fidelity, and 
 to his abundant and unselfish labors in building up 
 and strengthening an ancient and broken parish. For 
 two years before he resigned his cure and removed 
 to this city, he showed his generous heart by relin- 
 quishing his salary, Providence having thrown into his 
 hands the means of support without calling upon his 
 people. But this was a step which he ever afterwards 
 
.THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 137 
 
 regretted as wholly unwise. The laborer in the 
 Lord's vineyard is worthy of his hire, and it is no ex- 
 cuse for the people to withhold it from him, that he 
 is not actually in a state of starvation. There never 
 was a clergyman who had so large an income that he 
 could not find ways to dispense it all in charity. In 
 addition to his parochial cares, Mr. Jewett, for much 
 of his time, in Derby as in Hampton, had a family 
 school, and several of our clergy are indebted to him 
 for instruction in the preliminary course of classical 
 studies. 
 
 In 1823 he w r as appointed an agent to visit those 
 parishes in the diocese that had not paid their assess- 
 ments to create the Bishop's Fund, and to confer and 
 settle with them in such way as seemed equitable or 
 expedient under the circumstances, — a troublesome 
 matter, my brethren, which the Connecticut Church- 
 men of this generation may be thankful was not en- 
 tailed upon them for adjustment. 
 
 Upon his removal to this city in 1834, though in 
 feeble health, he did not altogether retire from the 
 public duties of the ministry. He continued to offi- 
 ciate, with intervals of prostration by sickness, for five 
 years, acting some months as an assistant in Trinity 
 Church, but rendering for the most of this period gra- 
 tuitous services to the parishes at West Haven, West- 
 ville, and Fair Haven. He revived the first of these, 
 and projected the other two. For the last twenty 
 years of his life an excessive nervous debility and 
 many infirmities compelled him to cease his public 
 ministrations, so that he did little more in the mean 
 time than fulfill his office as a trustee of those diocesan 
 
138 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and general institutions of the Church in which he 
 had long been interested. 
 
 But to his praise it must be spoken that he never, 
 in his retirement, became secularized, and fixed his 
 thoughts on stocks and bonds and profitable invest- 
 ments. He had no passion for accumulation, no desire 
 to make ventures for greater gains ; but his taste for 
 reading, formed in his youth and fed in his manhood, 
 was the delight and satisfaction of his declining years. 
 Until his eyesight failed him, he perused, with the 
 eagerness and interest of an active pastor, the books 
 and publications that kept him informed of the Church, 
 her work and her progress throughout our country, 
 and throughout the world. Frank and outspoken in 
 his opinions, he had no patience with those who in- 
 clined to be Jesuitical, and to find reasons for depart- 
 ing from the good old Scriptural lines and landmarks 
 of our faith. He had an especial dislike of the theo- 
 logical fancies that sprung from the Oxford move- 
 ment, and his visit to Europe in 1840 did not weaken 
 his belief that this whole movement was of a Roman- 
 izing tendency. 
 
 He was given to hospitality, and many of our 
 deceased and living clergy have found in his house 
 acceptable rest and refreshment. He was liberal in 
 his charities, and wisely gave in his lifetime what he 
 would to promote objects of humanity, learning, and 
 religion. His founding of a scholarship in Trinity 
 College, a quarter of a century ago, was up to that 
 point the largest individual gift which the Institution 
 had received. It is too true, my brethren, that many 
 whom God blesses with an abundance of earthly 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 139 
 
 riches and prosperity withhold more than is meet, 
 and so repay with a slender gratitude the bounty of 
 a beneficent Providence. But it is a false notion 
 which some Christian people appear to entertain, that 
 a clergyman inheriting wealth must and can, for this 
 very reason, open his heart and his hand to every 
 charitable appeal. Men in business, merchants who 
 are princes, may return to the Lord the whole gains 
 of trade ; but any one, be he clergyman or layman, 
 coming into the possession and enjoyment of prop- 
 erty intended for others, can hardly justify himself 
 in scattering it all, and then quoting the Scripture, 
 " Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt 
 find it after many days." The liberality of Mr. 
 Jewett to this parish is part of its history. It was 
 extended at an opportune moment, and it is due to 
 him and his family to say that the "free gift " of two 
 thousand dollars " for the glory of God and the ben- 
 efit of His Church," was an incitement which we all 
 felt and moved under when, soon after, we struck 
 down, by one large subscription, nearly the half of 
 our indebtedness. An extract from his letter ad- 
 dressed to the rector, wardens, and vestrymen of the 
 Church, notifying them of the donation, and dated 
 Epiphany, 1857, will indicate his feeling on the 
 subject : — 
 
 " I have watched your work from the beginning 
 with the deepest interest, and have lived to see it 
 completed and crowned, I trust, with God's blessing. 
 At my age, and with imperfect health, I cannot expect 
 a long continuance here, or to share very often, as I 
 would desire, the privileges of public worship ; but be 
 
140 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 assured the parish of which you are the guardians will 
 never cease to have my warmest wishes and prayers 
 for both its temporal and spiritual prosperity." 
 
 He was not indeed privileged to come " very often " 
 to this sanctuary to worship. He was with us for 
 the last time on the morning of our tenth anniver- 
 sary (Easter, 1858), and heard me review the history 
 of our pastoral connection, with all its work and care 
 and responsibility. But from that period he began 
 to feel the weight of his infirmities, and " fears were 
 in the way," and the grasshopper became a burden. 
 No stranger would have believed, seeing him a year 
 since, that he could pass a week beyond his seventy- 
 eighth birthday before sinking to his final rest in 
 the grave. 
 
 I ought not to close this discourse without refer- 
 ring briefly to another trait in his character, which 
 evinced his humility, and also his gratitude to God. 
 He seemed never to forget anybody or anything. He 
 loved to recall the friends of his youth, and the toils 
 and self-denials and associations of his early life. Nine 
 years ago I spent a summer's week with him among 
 his native hills in Berkshire County. It was his last 
 visit to the familiar scenes of his boyhood, and he 
 used it well in searching for his old acquaintances, 
 and in refreshing his varied recollections of persons 
 and places. It was wonderful to note the eagerness 
 with which he would enter the buggy and ask me 
 each morning to drive in some direction not more 
 interesting to him than new and delightful to me. 
 As we passed over the road from Pittsfield to Lanes- 
 boro' he frequently begged me to stop, that he might 
 
THE TABERNACLE DISSOLVED. 141 
 
 call my attention to objects of special interest, or 
 inquire for friends and acquaintances whom he had 
 known in his youth. " Yonder," said he, pointing to 
 a large farmhouse that appeared in the distance, " was 
 the paternal home of three brothers in our ministry, 
 the Clarks, William, Orrin, and John, and there the 
 latter was born. And here," when we had reached 
 the valley below, " is the site of the mill where I 
 aided my father in his hardy toil ; " and then, turning 
 to a row of aged willows that dipped their pendent 
 branches in the stream, he added, " I helped to plant 
 those trees. How they have grown, and how all the 
 face of this region has changed ! The hills, the ever- 
 lasting hills, are here, but the rest is not as it was in 
 my boyhood." 
 
 Other thoughts of a like nature might be intro- 
 duced to illustrate the same trait in his character. 
 But it is time for me to pause. We go now to the 
 table of our Lord ; and may He who has " knit to- 
 gether his elect in one communion and fellowship in 
 the mystical body of His Son " give us grace to " fol- 
 low His blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living." 
 While we bury these old men out of our sight, let us 
 not forget to profit by every part of their example, 
 and especially to be encouraged in adversity by their 
 Christian patience and perseverance. If they had 
 their trials, their solicitudes, their cares, and their 
 responsibilities, in a day when the Church was every- 
 where spoken against, we have ours. We live in 
 times that call for watchfulness, for prayerfulness, for 
 prudence, for self-denial, for activity and piety. Let 
 us decline no service really demanded of us for 
 
142 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Christ's sake. In whatever scenes we are invited to 
 act, and however we are made to suffer, let us remem- 
 ber " His cross and passion, His precious death and 
 burial.' ' We shall one day stand before Him in His 
 glory, and have every measure of our faith and every 
 secret or self-denying work exposed by the bright- 
 ness of His presence. Let us all, then, so live and do 
 our whole duty that we may come at last to the full 
 and exalted fruition of the Divine promises, even of 
 the truth expressed in the text : " If our earthly house 
 of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building 
 of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." 
 
MEMOEIAL DISCOURSE 
 
 ON BISHOP BROWNELL, IN ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, NEW 
 HAVEN, JANUARY 22, 1865 
 
 But the righteous hath hope in his death. — Proverbs xiv. 32. 
 
 Hope not only of deliverance from the terrors of 
 judgment, but hope of better things in the future 
 life, hope of lasting happiness on the other side of the 
 grave. The images employed in Scripture to repre- 
 sent the work of the Christian are, indeed, expressive 
 of most intense and sustained effort towards an attain- 
 ment which, after all, may not be realized. Some of 
 them speak of a battle that requires armor burnished 
 by constant use ; of a race which many run, but in 
 which few will gain the prize ; and others of a narrow 
 path along which many seek to pass through the gate 
 of life and are not able. 
 
 The Apostle Peter, without employing any figure, 
 gives an impressive warning to all when he asks, " If 
 the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the un- 
 godly and the sinner appear?" Now, however earnest 
 and unwearied be the efforts and the strivings that 
 are demanded of the successful seeker after salvation, 
 it is yet true that the " righteous," and the righteous 
 alone, " hath hope in his death." Hope is a staff on 
 which we lean for support and encouragement in 
 
144 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 many of the difficulties and misfortunes of life. It 
 cheers us in trouble. It nerves us in sickness. It 
 holds up our goings in the paths, and with it we walk 
 onward through the day of our probation. But hope 
 in death, — how enviable is the possession ! I fix my 
 fading vision upon the kingdom of my God and Sa- 
 viour. I turn the eye of faith to those prepared man- 
 sions of which the merest outline is sketched in the 
 records of inspiration, and, well-persuaded that in 
 the comparison with these all enjoyments and honors 
 here are as nothing, my grateful soul is kindled with 
 heavenly hope, and I bless in death the bond that 
 binds me to the promises. With the Psalmist I 
 exclaim, " And now, Lord, what wait I for ? Surely 
 my hope is even in thee. I have trusted in thy 
 mercy : my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation." 
 Many of the holy fathers of the Jewish Church are 
 represented as placing a delightful and unshaken con- 
 fidence in the security of God's promises and in the 
 extent of His mercy. The death-beds of patriarchs 
 and prophets, who lived when there were yet but 
 dim notices of a world beyond the grave, seem to 
 have been lightened with divine glory, if not with 
 the hope of a blessed immortality. When the patri- 
 arch Joseph had wellnigh finished his eventful life in 
 Egypt, and, with a vast inheritance of wealth and of 
 honor to transmit to his posterity, was making men- 
 tion by faith in his dying hour of the departure of the 
 children of Israel, and giving commandment concern- 
 ing his bones, I believe that he had some faint inti- 
 mation of the truth of a resurrection, and that the 
 yearnings of his parting spirit after Canaan were not 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 145 
 
 unconnected with the grave giving up its dead. I 
 cannot but feel, as I follow Moses in thought from the 
 base of Abarim to the summit of Pisgah — the mount 
 where he was to die and be gathered unto his fathers, 
 — that this lawgiver and man of God climbs not that 
 rugged eminence merely that he may gladden his 
 eye with a glorious development of scenery, and sat- 
 isfy himself by actual inspection of the goodliness of 
 the heritage which Israel was about to possess ; but 
 that he ascended thither at God's command to look 
 forward into the future — to catch another glimpse of 
 redemption, and thus to have " hope in his death." 
 
 Eisrhteous men never have been and never will be 
 forsaken of the Lord. They are privileged to expect 
 His remembrance and care. The immediate followers 
 of Christ contemplated the prospects which opened to 
 them in another life in strains of holy triumph. " We 
 know," said they, " that if our earthly house of this 
 tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a 
 house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; 
 therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst 
 we are at home in the body, we are absent from the 
 Lord. We are confident and willing rather to be ab- 
 sent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 
 For we know in whom we have believed, and that he 
 is able to keep that which is committed unto him till 
 that day." And again, " death, where is thy sting ! 
 grave, where is thy victory ! The sting of death is 
 sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be 
 to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 These are the triumphant notes, brethren, which 
 
 10 
 
146 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 are to be sent onward through all time. We repeat 
 them in jour hearing this morning, that you may be 
 stirred to Christian duty and to the imitation of those 
 godly men from whose lips they came. None of you, 
 I know, would be "driven away in his wickedness;" 
 but are you all, by prayer and divine help, seeking 
 and striving to be " righteous," that you may have 
 " hope in death " ? You are interested in the things 
 that pertain to the gratifications and enjoyments of 
 this life, you press for prizes which do your souls no 
 good when they are won, and you toil for the advance- 
 ment of objects that are quite removed from that 
 righteousness which exalteth the individual and the 
 nation. But your zeal for the Lord of Hosts, and for 
 the ark of His testimony — is this always bright and 
 burning ? Alas ! I stand in my place here and look 
 over this sanctuary, and from Sunday to Sunday I 
 note how the cushions of this and that sitting are 
 impressed by those who should be their occupants ; 
 and yet when I go out into the streets and thorough- 
 fares of our city, I find these same men all life, all 
 energy, all enthusiasm in their private business or in 
 the public interests of the day. God forbid that I 
 should speak a word to stay the honest industry of a 
 single worker in the community ; but you who value 
 the welfare of your immortal souls, the welfare of 
 your children — you who shrink from the wrath of the 
 Great King, you who consider the declarations of 
 the sacred volume not as the fictions of the preacher, 
 but as the verities of heaven — you know that this is 
 not the way, and these are not the men, to adorn the 
 walks of personal piety, to win eternal salvation and 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 147 
 
 have "hope in their death." Consecrated to the 
 Lord, it ought to be the steady object and desire of 
 us all to live to His glory and to the benefit of His 
 Church and people. And for our perpetual encour- 
 agement in such a high and righteous enterprise, let 
 us never forget the great reward, the fullness of joy 
 which they are to receive who become in truth sons 
 and daughters of the Lord Almighty. It is but a little 
 time, at the longest, vouchsafed us for Christian work. 
 Every day and every hour add to the list of those 
 who are either driven away in their wickedness or 
 close their probation in hope. 
 
 Since this Discourse was commenced, a venerable 
 father in Israel has been removed from the scenes of 
 mortality, and thus the general assembly and church 
 of the firstborn has received into its capacious bosom 
 another of those whose names are written in heaven. 
 The diocese has been bereaved of its Episcopal head, 
 and the Church throughout our land of its Senior and 
 Presiding Bishop. Though for many years he had 
 been languishing under the infirmities of age, and 
 unable to discharge the full duties of his office, yet he 
 still lived fresh in the affections of his clergy and of 
 all who knew him, and was revered and esteemed for 
 his good example, his simple virtues and unostenta- 
 tious piety, not less than for his official character, his 
 uniform prudence and accurate knowledge of human 
 nature. The lustre which Christian learning throws 
 over talents and over station beautified the evening 
 of his days, and the dignity and grace of his manners, 
 which had always commanded respect and excited 
 affection in the circles of rank and affluence, lingered 
 to the last. 
 
1148 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Having passed through nearly the whole of my 
 classical course of four years under his direction as the 
 President of Trinity College, having been ordained 
 by him first to the Diaconate, and then, when I was 
 thought to have purchased to myself " a good degree " 
 in that office, to the Priesthood, and having occupied 
 all the years of my ministry under his Episcopal over- 
 sight, it will not be improper for me now to speak at 
 some length in sketching his life and character. 
 
 In Westport, Massachusetts, near the line which di- 
 vides that Commonwealth from Rhode Island, Bishop 
 Brownell was born, on the 19th of October, 1779. 
 He was the eldest of a large family whose parents 
 were of the dominant Ecclesiastical order in New 
 England, and his early education was such as a farm- 
 er's son might acquire in those days, until he became 
 a student in the Academy at Taunton, preparatory 
 to a collegiate course. At the age of twenty-one 
 he entered the freshman class in Brown University; 
 but at the end of two years he followed his friend, 
 the President (Dr. Maxcy), who had been induced to 
 accept the same office from the trustees of Union 
 College, Schenectady. Here he graduated with the 
 highest honors of his class in 1804, and the next year 
 was made a tutor in Latin and Greek, and subse- 
 quently Professor of Moral Philosophy and Belles- 
 Lettres. In 1809, when the chair of Chemistry and 
 Mineralogy was founded in that Institution, he was 
 chosen to fill it, and was permitted to spend some time 
 traveling in Great Britain to collect materials and 
 apparatus for his new department. He was fulfilling 
 his duties as a professor when he was baptized and 
 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 149 
 
 confirmed in the Church, and turned his attention to 
 its sacred ministry, devoting his leisure hours to the 
 study of theology. He was ordained Deacon and 
 Priest by Bishop Hobart in 1816, and for two years 
 officiated occasionally in the college and rendered 
 missionary services on Sundays to destitute congrega- 
 tions in the vicinity. On the 11th of June, 1818, he 
 was chosen one of the assistant ministers of Trinity 
 Church, New York; but he had scarcely held the 
 office a year before he was elected, with entire 
 unanimity, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 in Connecticut. The diocese had been vacant since 
 the death of Bishop Jarvis in 1813, the Convention, 
 either being unable to agree upon a suitable candi- 
 date, or indisposed to elect until the Fund should 
 be sufficiently increased to yield a respectable salary 
 to support the Episcopate. Once, in 1815, 1 a choice 
 was made of a New Jersey Presbyter, 2 though not 
 consummated. But in the following year the diocese, 
 through its Convention, w r as canonically placed under 
 the provisional charge of Bishop Hobart of New York, 
 and his oversight and visitations were as acceptable in 
 Connecticut as in his own State. One w T eek after his 
 fortieth birthday Dr.Brownell was consecrated in Trin- 
 ity Church in this city, beneath the chancel of which 
 repose the mortal remains of his predecessor, 3 and he 
 
 1 Bishop Griswold was present at this Convention, having been previ- 
 ously invited by the Standing Committee to perform Episcopal duties in 
 the Diocese, but the Committee, being annually chosen, had no power to 
 make arrangements beyond the meeting of the Convention, and the Con- 
 vention elected a Bishop. 
 
 2 Rev. John Croes, D. D., elected the same year Bishop of New 
 Jersey. 
 
 3 Bishop Jarvis. 
 
150 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 was soon, if not already, settled here with his family to 
 discharge the duties of his Episcopal office. The zeal 
 of the diocese freshened up under his active services, 
 and the General Theological Seminary, not flourishing 
 as originally established in New York, was transferred 
 to New Haven in 1820, reorganized, and the students 
 placed under his instructions in the delivery of ser- 
 mons and the department of Pastoral Theology. But 
 by a vote of a Special General Convention, the Sem- 
 inary was returned to New York the next year, and 
 merged with a local one already established in that 
 diocese, the motive for this step being to secure a 
 legacy of some $60,000, left by a benevolent layman 
 for such a purpose. The Churchmen of Connecticut 
 who, at the close of the last century, planted an 
 institution of classical learning in Cheshire, and after- 
 wards obtained an act of incorporation for it, had been 
 petitioning the General Assembly from time to time 
 for an enlargement of the charter, empowering the 
 trustees to confer degrees in the arts, divinity, and 
 law, and to enjoy all other privileges usually granted 
 to colleges. The petition had been as often denied ; 
 but upon the return of the Theological Seminary to 
 New York, fresh and more strenuous exertions were 
 made to attain the same object, and fortunately the 
 period intervening between the last petition and these 
 exertions had witnessed important political changes, 
 such as the adoption of a new State Constitution, — 
 and the consequent breaking down of the reigning 
 dynasty, — changes which undoubtedly prepared the 
 way for more liberal legislation. The charter was 
 granted in 1823, and Trinity College — at first bear- 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 151 
 
 ing another name (Washington) — was located in the 
 city of Hartford. The erection of the College build- 
 ings was commenced in June, 1824, the business of 
 instruction in September of the same year, and Bishop 
 Brownell, who had been chosen President, removed 
 to that city to enter upon his enlarged duties. Long 
 experience in Academic discipline had made him ac- 
 quainted with the responsibilities of the office, and for 
 seven years he filled it with a dignity and wisdom 
 which the seventy-nine graduates of that period can 
 never forget. The college was his favorite institu- 
 tion, not less as a nursery of learning than of the 
 ministry of the Church, and around it hung his affec- 
 tions and his prayers. He was withdrawn from the 
 administration of it by the desire of the diocese, when 
 the number of parishes in Connecticut was increasing 
 and more Episcopal supervision was needed. 
 
 During his residence in New Haven, Bishop Brown- 
 ell prepared and published his Commentary on the 
 Book of Common Prayer, — a valuable standard work, 
 the best of its kind for general use among the mem- 
 bers of our communion, and a second edition of which 
 was issued in 1841. His " Exposition of the New 
 Testament," and his " Religion of the Heart and Life," 
 in five small volumes, are excellent compilations, 
 which had their influence in a day when the publica- 
 tion of books was more limited than now. But his 
 occasional sermons, and his addresses and charges to 
 the clergy of the diocese, are the productions by 
 which he will be the longest and best remembered. 
 Full of Christian wisdom, of paternal counsel — writ- 
 ten with care, and in a style of simple elegance and 
 
152 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 classic purity — they bear the stamp of those memo- 
 rials more enduring than brass. 
 
 Before his health failed him he made two mission- 
 ary tours in the Southwest, spending a portion of his 
 winters in New Orleans, and was the instrument of 
 gathering and organizing parishes in places where 
 the Church was unknown, but where it had risen to 
 influence and importance before civil war had spread 
 throughout that region its terrors and its desolations. 
 On the decease of Bishop Philander Chase, in the 
 autumn of 1852, he became the presiding Bishop of 
 the Church in the United States, and, if the infirmities 
 of age prevented him from being very active in that 
 position, he had no unfortunate mistakes to mourn 
 over, when he surrendered it at death into other 
 hands. In 1851 he called for the election of an 
 Assistant Bishop. "It will be remembered," said he 
 in his Annual Address to the Convention of that year, 
 " that owing to bodily infirmities which disabled me 
 from preaching, and which were a hindrance in the 
 performance of other Episcopal duties, I brought this 
 subject to the consideration of the Convention six 
 years ago. Difficulties were felt at that time, in re- 
 gard to the selection of a suitable candidate for the 
 office, as well as in regard to his support ; and after 
 due deliberation it was decided to defer the further 
 consideration of the matter. Believing that the diffi- 
 culties which then existed may now, in some good 
 degree, be obviated ; feeling that the weight of six 
 additional years has accumulated upon the infirmities 
 which then beset me, and being now in the seventy- 
 second year of my age, I feel myself justified in bring- 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 153 
 
 ing this subject once more to the consideration of the 
 Convention of the Diocese." 
 
 The request was granted, and a Presbyter was 
 chosen to that high office, who has executed it with 
 singular fidelity, and who henceforth takes all its cares 
 and responsibilities. But Bishop Brownell did not by 
 any means cease his interest in the prosperity of the 
 Church, nor quite suspend his official labors. He 
 continued to visit the more convenient parishes and 
 to preside at the annual conventions of the diocese. 
 His last Episcopal act in New Haven was the conse- 
 cration of St. Thomas's Church, in Easter week, 1855, 
 
 — an event, my brethren, which we recur to with 
 renewed joy, as time goes on. The infirmities which 
 oppressed him so much when his assistant was chosen 
 bore more heavily upon him in his decline, and he has 
 been these many years like a servant with his loins 
 girt waiting for the coming of his Master. He was the 
 fifteenth bishop consecrated in these United States; 
 and of all our prelates, with the exception of the pa- 
 triarchal and saintly White, whose Episcopate reached 
 into the fiftieth year, he held the staff of his office the 
 longest, and there is not a bishop now in our mother, 
 the Church of England, who has carried it so long. 
 Of the clergy present at the special Convention held 
 here, on the day preceding his consecration, only four 
 remain, — three of them still residing in the diocese 1 
 
 — and the other a visiting clergyman from Pennsyl- 
 vania ; 2 but of the forty lay delegates who composed 
 that body, not one is known to be living. So great 
 
 1 Rev. Dr. Frederick and Origen P. Holcomb, and Rev. Alpheus Geer. 
 
 2 Rev. William A. Muhlenberg, D. D. 
 
154 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 are the changes which death produces in the silent 
 lapse of forty-five years. Of the more than fifteen 
 thousand persons upon whom he had laid his hands in 
 the Apostolic rite of Confirmation, and prayed the 
 Lord to "defend them with his heavenly grace," a vast 
 number have preceded him to the world of spirits, as 
 have also full one third of those to whom he had given 
 authority to execute the office of Deacons and Priests 
 in the Church of God. 
 
 If it is the sad feeling of lengthened age that it 
 finds itself standing, like a solitary column, amid 
 desolate ruins, it is yet its privilege to rejoice that it 
 has witnessed the progress of human events and 
 human society, and that it still survives, a connecting 
 link between the days of adversity and the years of 
 prosperity. At the time when Bishop Brownell was 
 invested with the oversight of this diocese, there were 
 but seven parishes in it capable of supporting full 
 services, the rest being united in cures and imper- 
 fectly sustained. Trinity Church, in this city, the cor- 
 ner-stone of which was laid in 1814, was the first and 
 only one of all our edifices built in stone, — thanks to 
 the projectors for such a noble specimen of architec- 
 ture ; and so little, in those days, was thought of 
 warming the house of God by artificial means, that it 
 was constructed, I am told, without reference to this 
 end. 1 Thirty-five clergymen, scattered along the 
 shore towns and back in the interior of the State, led 
 
 1 " In the summer season I frequently visited some neighboring vacant 
 parish and officiated ; but generally I attended Trinity Church, of which 
 Dr. Harry Croswell was rector. In the winter the building was exces- 
 sively cold, as the practice of warming places of worship had not then 
 been introduced in Connecticut." Dr. Turner's Autobiography, p. 105. 
 
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE. 155 
 
 their thin flocks, and ministered to them in the rude 
 wooden edifices, erected for the most part before the 
 storms of the Revolution. 
 
 But what a change in these respects had he lived 
 to witness, — the whole of which was accomplished 
 under the blessing of his own episcopate ! Like a 
 vine running over and mantling the wall, the Church 
 has covered the land where she was once so weak and 
 dependent, once most bitterly and persistently op- 
 posed. " Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto 
 thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's 
 sake." We have half as many communicants in New 
 Haven alone as were then reported in the whole dio- 
 cese. We have upwards of thirty Episcopal churches 
 and chapels built in stone, besides several tbat stand 
 in the lower dignity of brick. The list of the Con- 
 necticut clergy has been lengthened to one hundred 
 and fifty, and the zeal and benevolence of the laity 
 are proofs that this inheritance received from our 
 fathers, and which has grown so vastly upon our 
 hands, will be adorned with the riches of Christian 
 charity, and a fairer beauty, as we send it onward 
 unimpaired to future generations. It is something 
 worth living for, to be an instrument in the hands of 
 God, to aid in building up all this prosperity. It is 
 something worth noting, that a prelate whose years 
 of office had spanned the space between weakness 
 and strength, retained the affections of the diocese 
 he had administered and was loved and revered to 
 the last, no less than he had been honored at the first. 
 The visits of the clergy to him in his retirement 
 resembled the course of children and grandchildren 
 
156 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 returning to an old homestead, where the beloved 
 ancestor still lingers to shed the benignity of his pres- 
 ence. As the setting sun leaves a trail of light behind, 
 upon the sky and earth, so the life and departure of 
 such men gild the history of the Church, and leave 
 along the track of ages a shining radiance of holiness 
 and truth. 
 
 Let us, my Christian hearers, ever love and fol- 
 low the examples of all goodness, of "righteous men, 
 who have hope in death." Let us keep in view the 
 heavenly mansions, and through the operation and in- 
 fluence of the Holy Spirit, our Enlightener and Com- 
 forter, let us contemplate them as our own inherit- 
 ance ; and being the people of God, may He guide 
 and protect us in our path below, till He finally brings 
 us to His kingdom above, where " the former things 
 will be passed away." 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 
 
 DISCOUESE AT THE REOPENING OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH, 
 CHESHIRE, NOVEMBER 9, 1864. 
 
 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good 
 deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices 
 thereof. — Nehemiah xiii. 14. 
 
 The settlement of the Jews in Palestine, after the 
 royal edict had been issued permitting them to return 
 from Chaldea, was not at once completed. There 
 was something of pause and hesitation in abandoning 
 the country which had become almost theirs by adop- 
 tion ; and when the captives as a body did rise up 
 under the influence of piety and patriotism and seek 
 again the desolate land of their fathers, here and there 
 a man of distinction and devotion lingered behind, 
 though his heart went with his returning country- 
 men. Of this character was that Nehemiah, who held 
 a high and honorable office in the Persian court, even 
 the office of a cup-bearer to the king. His position, 
 joined to his integrity, prudence, and piety, fitted 
 him for soliciting favors from Artaxerxes, and thus 
 for accomplishing, in the Providence of God, what no 
 private individual could have accomplished. Upon 
 receiving by Hanani and certain messengers a pitiful 
 and most melancholy account of the state of Jeru- 
 salem, with "its walls broken down and the gates 
 
158 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 thereof burned with fire," he fortified himself through 
 humiliation and prayer, and then entreated of the 
 king permission to be the instrument of restoring the 
 waste places, permission to go unto Judah and build 
 up the city of his fathers' sepulchres. 
 
 When, therefore, he left the palace of Shushan, it 
 was with authority to rule over Judea and with a 
 special proclamation from the king to remove the rub- 
 bish and build again the walls and gates of Jerusalem. 
 He bore with him also royal letters to all the govern- 
 ors beyond the river Euphrates, directing them to 
 aid him in the noble and patriotic work on which he 
 was sent. It need not be minutely stated how well 
 he executed the king's commission, — notwithstand- 
 ing vast discouragements, and strong opposition from 
 within and from without, — and how vigilant he was 
 to promote the welfare of his countrymen in every 
 possible way. Because the rich had taken advantage 
 of the necessities of the poorer sort, and exacted of 
 them heavy usury, he convened a general assembly 
 and set forth the nature of their offense, how great a 
 breach it was of the Divine law, and how severe and 
 oppressive a burden upon their brethren. Hence all 
 the lands, vineyards, olive-yards, and houses, which 
 had been mortgaged, were released, and the people 
 were cheered on to further labors and sacrifices. 
 
 No sooner had he completed the walls, enclosed the 
 city, and set up the gates thereof, than he adopted 
 suitable measures for the internal regulation and hap- 
 piness of Jerusalem. He had a higher concern than 
 merely for the civil state. It was his grand object to 
 restore and establish, in their perfection and power, 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 159 
 
 the service and worship of Almighty God. For he 
 was convinced that the state without the supports of 
 religion was like a body without the functions of life 
 in healthful order. He resumed the celebration of 
 the sacred festivals appointed by law, settled the gene- 
 alogies of the nobles and the rulers and the people, 
 and among other things bound them to take the word 
 of God for their guide and direction, to renounce all 
 intimate connections with idolatrous neighbors, to 
 guard against every profanation of the Sabbath, and 
 to adhere with the greatest care and exactness to all 
 the appointments and services of the temple. 
 
 Having thus brought order out of confusion and 
 established these wholesome regulations, he dedicated 
 to God, with all the solemnities of devotion, the walls 
 of the city, and for this issue of his work "the joy of 
 Jerusalem was heard even afar off." Then he went 
 back to his office and duties at the Persian court, and 
 it is on the occasion of his second visit to the land of 
 his fathers that we meet with him in the chapter from 
 which the text has been drawn. 
 
 It grieved him sorely to find on his return that 
 during his absence of many years the very evils and 
 abuses which he so carefully guarded against had 
 reappeared, and that Eliashib, the chief priest, having 
 the oversight of the chamber of the house of God, 
 had treacherously provided for a bold and presumptu- 
 ous enemy large apartments in the buildings of the 
 temple, not only to the utter profanation of the con- 
 secrated place, but to the exclusion of the holy ves- 
 sels and offerings and to the interruption of the sacred 
 solemnities. What could Nehemiah, with a new com- 
 
160 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 mission as governor of Judea, do but set himself im- 
 mediately to oppose and reform these abuses and 
 corruptions ? He at once cast out Tobiah from his 
 lodgment in the temple, notwithstanding his high 
 family alliance, reprehended the rulers for their de- 
 sertion of the house of God and restored the Levites 
 to their employments and their tithes. While joy and 
 satisfaction filled every pious bosom at such a reforma- 
 tion, and while his own breast was aglow with delight 
 as he surveyed the fruit of his labors, with a com- 
 placency which deeds of no other nature could inspire, 
 and with eyes uplifted to the Being in whose presence 
 we must all appear to give account, he exclaimed, 
 "Remember me, my God, concerning this, and 
 wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the 
 house of my God, and for the offices thereof. " 
 
 This appeal to the Most High God seems, upon a 
 slight glance, to be a strange one, and hardly consis- 
 tent with a spirit of becoming humility. So frail is 
 human nature, and so imperfect are all human per- 
 formances, that when a man approaches his Maker, 
 instead of asking to be remembered for deeds of 
 righteousness, his prayer should rather be that of the 
 publican in the parable, " God be merciful to me a 
 sinner ! " But if you look a little deeper into the 
 character of Nehemiah, you will perceive that he was 
 actuated by no unbecoming pride in this matter. He 
 spoke not with the arrogant expectations of a Phari- 
 see, as if he had any claim upon God for his services, 
 or trusted to them for his acceptance and salvation. 
 They were done for the religious instruction of the 
 people and the advancement of the worship of God in 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 161 
 
 the unhappy land of his fathers, and knowing that 
 he would receive no proper recompense, no grateful 
 acknowledgment from the men for whose good he 
 had toiled and spent largely of his private fortune, 
 and knowing, too, that many of them misrepresented 
 his motives and his work, he turned with cheerful 
 hope to the Supreme Ruler and Judge, and, satisfied 
 if he could obtain the divine approbation, he devoutly 
 prayed, " Eemember me, my God, concerning this, 
 and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done 
 for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof." 
 
 He did not forget in all his zealous concern and 
 labors that he was a sinner, needing the commisera- 
 tion which other men needed, for we find him in this 
 same chapter, after having contended with the nobles 
 of Judah and testified against them and the merchants 
 and tradesmen for profaning the Sabbath, crying out, 
 66 Remember me, my God, concerning this also, and 
 spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy." 
 
 All benevolent deeds, my brethren, are well pleas- 
 ing to God, but those done to promote the interests 
 of His Church on earth are peculiarly acceptable in 
 His sight, because they carry on His mighty purpose 
 of establishing the knowledge of Himself and of His 
 salvation. This is the first great lesson to be ex- 
 tracted from the text. And the second is, that " good 
 deeds done for the house of our God and for the offi- 
 ces thereof," must be peculiarly acceptable to Him, 
 because they not only contribute to the security of 
 society and the happiness of our race, but affect the 
 welfare of unborn generations. 
 
 I ask you to follow me in my thoughts, while I pro- 
 li 
 
162 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ceed to unfold these lessons and apply them to the 
 circumstances of the present occasion. 
 
 First, good deeds done to promote the interests of 
 His Church on earth, are peculiarly acceptable to God, 
 because they help to carry on His mighty purpose 
 of establishing the knowledge of Himself and of His 
 salvation. 
 
 In the sixty-third psalm, composed while David 
 was in the wilderness, and therefore far away from 
 the public ordinances of religion, it is said, " My soul 
 thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry 
 and thirsty land, where no water is ; to see thy power 
 and thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary." 
 A momentous principle is involved in this assertion. 
 Under the Mosaic economy every divine dealing was 
 closely connected with the temple; there were the 
 manifestations of Jehovah, the signs and notices of 
 mercies with which future days were charged. There 
 and there only could God be solemnly worshiped ; 
 there and there only might expiatory sacrifices be 
 offered and intimations of the Divine will sought and 
 obtained. Hence, under that dispensation, God owned 
 and loved good deeds done for His house as if done 
 for Himself. He honored the appropriation by men 
 of a portion of their wealth to preserve a reverent 
 remembrance of His name, and "make His praise 
 glorious," for He knew that without His temple He 
 must be forgotten — that without an altar on which 
 the victim could be laid there would be no sacrifice. 
 He blessed and rewarded Solomon for the house which 
 he had built, and when it was dedicated to His service, 
 He filled it with His sublime presence in the glorious 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 163 
 
 cloud and in His fixed and terrible majesty vouchsafed 
 to dwell there in the Sanctuary upon the mercy-seat 
 between the Cherubim. 
 
 There is no Shechinah now, no visible manifesta- 
 tion of the Divine presence as in the temple at Jeru- 
 salem, but every Christian edifice raised to the glory 
 of God, every effort to establish and extend the 
 Church and " the offices thereof," is a cooperation 
 with the Almighty in His plan of recovering the 
 human race from death and restoring to them right- 
 eousness and eternal life. It is the happiest applica- 
 tion of art to furnish suitable temples for the worship 
 of God. They beautify and adorn the regions where 
 they stand, and present the open gates through which 
 men may enter and find fresh pastures for the soul. 
 Here, in the sanctuary, they may learn the tidings of 
 forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ, who 
 offered Himself upon the cross for our redemption. 
 Here they may come and be washed in the laver of 
 regeneration — be baptized in the name of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. Here they are invited to 
 " draw near with faith, and take the holy Sacrament 
 to their comfort," " not trusting in their own right- 
 eousness, but in the manifold and great mercies of 
 God." The birth, the bridal, and the burial have each 
 a place in the parish register, and all orders and 
 degrees of men share alike in the pleasures and 
 advantages of access to the house of God. 
 
 It must never be forgotten that He in His sove- 
 reignty, His condescension, and His benevolence, has 
 determined that His own kingdom, the kingdom of 
 Christ, shall be accomplished by the aid of those who 
 
164 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 gratefully accept the overtures of redemption. He 
 could very easily do without us. He could convert 
 the world without churches, without preachers, with- 
 out Bibles, without the recurrence of ordinances and 
 sacred days; but God has chosen, — and there is the 
 evidence of sovereignty and omnipotence, as well as 
 of condescension, and privilege, and kindness towards 
 us in the very choice, — God has chosen to effect and 
 fulfill His purposes by the instrumentality of His 
 Church and its members. As the alms-deeds of Cor- 
 nelius went up for a memorial before Him, so will 
 yours be remembered. u Herein is my Father glori- 
 fied," said the Saviour to His disciples, " that ye bear 
 much fruit;" and whatever the shape in which this 
 fruit appears, whether in removing parish debts, in 
 building or enlarging the house of God and providing 
 44 for the offices thereof; " whether in sustaining the 
 ministry, in helping the w T eak, in comforting the sick 
 and relieving the needy, in warning the wicked, in 
 bringing back the wandering to the right path, in 
 guiding and encouraging the young to virtue, in the 
 culture of personal piety and of a spirit of depend- 
 ence upon Him from whom all things come, and of 
 whose own we give back if we give at all, — what- 
 ever the shape in which you bring forth fruit to the 
 glory of God, — it will be " laying up in store for 
 yourselves a good foundation against the time to come, 
 that ye may lay hold on eternal life." 
 
 But I need not dwell upon this head. I have a 
 right to take for granted, what all your humane and 
 Christian instincts incessantly urge upon you, that 
 we are under obligations, in one way and another, 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOB, THE HOUSE OF GOD. 165 
 
 to do good and to labor diligently in behalf of souls 
 for which Christ died. 
 
 About a century ago a little band of resolute 
 Churchmen, who had attended at Wallingford and 
 shared those bitter persecutions which were the un- 
 happy fault of the times, erected on this spot, "for their 
 greater convenience in the winter season," an edifice 
 in which to worship God after the manner of their 
 fathers and in accordance with the Liturgy of the 
 Church of England. The edifice, like the flock, was 
 small, and late in the year 1760 it was opened w T ith 
 religious services and a dedicatory sermon by the 
 Rev. James Scovill, at that time the Missionary of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts, stationed at Waterbury. A Clerk, Church- 
 wardens, and Vestrymen were chosen, and the people 
 thereafter met together on Sundays to hear prayers 
 and sermons, expecting ere long to be under the 
 ministrations of Mr. Samuel Andrews, a graduate of 
 Yale College and already on the eve of proceeding to 
 England for Holy Orders. Time went on, and the 
 priest whom their hearts desired came among them, 
 and the flock grew. Soon the little edifice was dis- 
 placed by another of larger dimensions, and then, 
 again, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, when 
 the troubles of the revolution had been passed and 
 the first Bishop of Connecticut had succeeded in 
 planting here his Diocesan School, a porch and a 
 steeple were added. These "good deeds done for 
 the house of God and for the offices thereof, " in a 
 day of small things, will not be wiped out from the 
 Divine remembrance, nor should they be wiped out 
 from yours. 
 
166 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 We come now to the second great lesson to be 
 extracted from the text, that such good deeds must 
 be acceptable to God, since they contribute to the 
 security of society and the happiness of our race, and 
 affect the welfare of unborn generations. 
 
 Whatever makes a man better in this life makes him 
 happier. With passions unrestrained, with a sinful 
 nature left to itself, there would be no elevation given 
 to his character, and consequently he would have lit- 
 tle respect for the rights and feelings of others. As 
 an individual in a fallen state, what does he not want? 
 He wants instruction for his mind, guidance for his 
 affections, restraint for his vices, animation for his 
 virtues, consolation for his sorrows, a sacrifice for 
 his sins, a foundation for his hopes, and a staff upon 
 which his spirit can lean when he enters the dark 
 "valley of the shadow of death." And what shall 
 supply all these wants but the religion of Christ, and 
 how shall this religion be presented so well and so 
 universally to the acceptance of men, as in the sanc- 
 tuary, where God is pleased still as of old to make 
 His way known ? In every view which we take of 
 the individual and of society, the comforts and instruc- 
 tions of the Gospel are the best benefits to be pro- 
 vided for them, and the best means of preserving and 
 perpetuating the foundations of righteousness. You 
 contribute, therefore, to the happiness and purity and 
 perfection of the social relations when you perform 
 " good deeds for the house of God and for the offices 
 thereof." I will not picture what the land would be- 
 come if all the Christian temples where the voice of 
 public prayer is now heard were leveled with the 
 
 i 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 167 
 
 dust. The process by which communities are made 
 happy is precisely that by which the souls of indi- 
 viduals are saved. We all know how greatly we are 
 indebted to the benign influences of the Gospel for 
 the wholesome laws under which we live. The build- 
 ings which the children of God rear to His name, 
 that in them they may worship Him and learn to do 
 their duty and to "love one another/' fitly symbolize 
 a spirit of reverence for good order and sound moral- 
 ity. They represent a people who do not forget that 
 " in the way of righteousness is life ; and in the path- 
 way thereof there is no death." The towers and 
 spires of such temples shoot upward to the skies and 
 touch the clouds, as if to break and render powerless 
 the thunderbolts of divine vengeance, just ready to 
 fall on deserving heads. 
 
 Glory be to God, therefore, when He puts it into 
 the hearts of His accountable creatures to build, 
 enlarge, or beautify the house of prayer. It is an 
 expression of sublime gratitude for blessings and mer- 
 cies received. It is a recognition of the important 
 fact that righteous men in the midst of a city are its 
 safety. We should never, my brethren, in our "good 
 deeds," be reluctant to give to the Lord of the best 
 we possess. We should never richly garnish our own 
 mansions, and leave His in mean attire. It was a 
 grief to David that, while he himself " dwelt in an 
 house of cedar, the ark of God was dwelling within 
 curtains." The decayed church which served well 
 enough the purpose of generations in an earlier stage 
 of society needs to have its place occupied by another 
 in " meet accord " with the wealth and culture and 
 improved artistic taste of these times. 
 
168 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 More than twenty-five years have passed away 
 since a young deacon of our communion, at the desire 
 of the members of this parish, entered the village, 
 and, after the example of Paul, preached, " ready to 
 depart on the morrow." What did he find here in the 
 line of his office to attract him to a locality beautiful 
 by nature, with a picturesque landscape stretching 
 between the Blue Hills on one side and " the moun- 
 tain wooded to the peak " on the other ? He found 
 indeed eager and earnest souls that welcomed him 
 for the truth's sake ; but the church, associated with 
 the struggles of the past and the memories of good 
 men, was tottering into decay. It towered up and 
 looked in the distance, as you approached it from the 
 north, like a great cathedral; but the enchantment di- 
 minished as you drew near, and beheld the rusty clap- 
 boards, the broken panes, and, projected from the side 
 windows, the ugly stove-pipes with branching elbows. 
 Within, the appearance and the effect were more 
 grateful, and the pious odor of the old sanctuary was 
 refreshing in spite of its discomforts ; but when the 
 roughest blasts of winter beat against it a creaking 
 went through all the timbers, disconcerting the minis- 
 ter, and now and then sending forth a worshiper irrev- 
 erently, as if he would escape with his life before the 
 whole had fallen and become one mass of ruins. The 
 doors of the venerable institution which the Diocese 
 had planted here, and which had been so prosperous in 
 other days, were shut, as they had been for some time, 
 and the Academy green was still as midnight. I see 
 this picture before me now, as I saw the reality then, 
 and I discern the change also, which, with the revival 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 169 
 
 and prosperity of the school, spread out through the 
 parish and resulted in the speedy erection of a new, 
 more commodious and more substantial house of 
 worship. It arose on the same hallowed site selected 
 by your fathers for the earliest sanctuary, and it is 
 one of the few rural churches in Connecticut which 
 after the lapse of a century still preserves in its sur- 
 roundings the features of an English model, with the 
 burial ground attached. It would seem as if each 
 one of those sagacious and godly men, who thus 
 planned for the future, had it in his mind to say : — 
 
 u I would sleep where the church bells aye ring out; 
 I would rise by the house of prayer, 
 And feel me a moment at home on earth, 
 For the Christian's home is there." 
 
 After many years of service in another field of 
 labor we come back to the scene of our youthful min- 
 istry to-day, to witness extensive changes and im- 
 provements, and to join in congratulations at your 
 " good deeds done for the house of our God and for 
 the offices thereof." The added chancel with its com- 
 plete furniture and its chaste window, 1 making " the 
 light and glory more reverend grow," the enlarged 
 space, the enriched ceiling, and all these inner adorn- 
 ments and conveniences — what are they but proofs of 
 a willingness to honor God and render more becoming 
 and attractive the place were His people assemble to 
 worship and praise His glorious name ? The spirit of 
 improvement is beginning to be visible also outside in 
 the churchyard,— for some one has walked among the 
 
 1 The window was a memorial gift of a native of Cheshire, — George 
 A. Jarvis, Esq., of Brooklyn, N. Y., — and the Communion Table was 
 presented by a few friends of the parish in New Haven. 
 
170 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 leaning headstones and the graves of the departed 
 with more than pensive contemplation, giving form 
 and order, as far as they well can be given, to a spot 
 which has too long resembled in many of its aspects 
 " the field of the slothful and the vineyard of the man 
 void of understanding." 1 Then, moreover, that time- 
 honored seat of learning — the Diocesan School — 
 under the management of its energetic principal has 
 attained to a measure of prosperity so deservedly 
 great, that the pupils with their teachers are in them- 
 selves at this very moment a large congregation. 
 
 These various changes, these tokens of life and im- 
 provement, are truly gratifying to the Christian heart, 
 and we rejoice especially that you of the parish in 
 caring for your own comfort, the good of the com- 
 munity and the salvation of souls, are teaching by 
 your example another generation to be mindful of 
 their duties and responsibilities. You thus hand 
 on the inheritance which you received from your 
 fathers, not only unimpaired, but improved. May it 
 be preserved and improved by your children. You 
 will leave them a better legacy than treasures of gold, 
 if you can leave in their hearts a burning love of 
 " good deeds for the house of our God and for the 
 offices thereof." 
 
 In the life of George Herbert it is mentioned that 
 when he rebuilt, at his own charge, the greatest part 
 of the parsonage at Bemerton, he caused to be en- 
 graved upon the mantel of the chimney in the hall, 
 
 1 This improvement was largely due to the exertions of one who had 
 a family interest in the ground, William R. Hitchcock, Esq., of Water- 
 bury. 
 
GOOD DEEDS FOR THE HOUSE OF GOD. 171 
 lines : — 
 
 for the benefit of his successor, these significant 
 
 " If thou chance for to find 
 A new house to thy mind, 
 
 And built without thy cost, 
 Be good to the poor, 
 As God gives thee store, 
 
 And then my labor 's not lost." 
 
 I have often thought that some such inscription 
 might well be put up in the vestibule of the neat 
 rural church, not so much as an exhortation to char- 
 ity, as a warning to the future pastor and his people 
 to maintain with proper watchfulness and care all 
 the order and neatness and beauty marked out and 
 provided for them by a former generation. While 
 you teach your children, therefore, to reverence the 
 sanctuary, and to "remember and keep holy the 
 Sabbath day " within its consecrated walls, let them 
 understand, at the same time, that they are coming 
 into an inheritance which must be cared for, and not 
 left like the sluggard's field, or as Jerusalem was left 
 for many years after the temple had been rebuilt, 
 with much rubbish scattered about, with " the place 
 of the fathers' sepulchres lying waste, and the gates 
 of the city consumed with fire." It is but a little 
 time that you can linger here and hold on to parish 
 responsibilities. 
 
 " The woods decay and fall; 
 The vapors weep their burthen to the ground ; " 
 
 and so one after another droops and disappears from 
 the pastor's flock, and leaves the child to occupy his 
 place and represent him in the house of God. I look 
 in vain for the faces of many who were wont to be 
 
172 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 with you in your worshiping assemblies before our 
 connection was severed, and my ministrations among 
 you were closed. ye perishing creatures, ye chil- 
 dren of the dust, dream of anything rather than of 
 prolonged continuance upon earth ! Be thankful that 
 God in His Providence has brought you to this hour, 
 and given you the mind and the means to adore Him 
 for his love, and honor Him with " good deeds done 
 for His house and for the offices thereof." 
 
 It may not be my privilege to speak again to you 
 all in this place, and, therefore, before I close let me 
 reproduce the truth, incidentally mentioned in a 
 former part of the discourse, that while, like Nehe- 
 miah, you pray to be remembered concerning your 
 beneficent works, never refer to them in a self-right- 
 eous spirit, or trust to them for final acceptance and 
 salvation. These cannot atone for sin. You must 
 turn to Calvary, if you would find what obedience 
 unto the death of the cross has wrought for your 
 souls. You must look as sinners to the great Medi- 
 ator between God and man, — the man Christ Jesus, 
 — and then when you lie down in peace to die, life 
 will mirror back the joy and satisfaction of its Chris- 
 tian deeds. The ear of faith will catch the angelic 
 song repeated through the rounding ages of eternity, 
 « "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," and that tri- 
 umphant scene will dawn on your vision, when 
 " every creature which is in heaven and on the earth 
 and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and 
 all that are in them," shall unite in the glad ascrip- 
 tion, " saying, Blessing and honor and glory and 
 power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
 unto the Lamb forever and ever." 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUN- 
 TAINS. 
 
 SERMON AT THE OPENING OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEWTOWN, 
 CONNECTICUT, FEBRUARY 3, 1870. 
 
 His foundation is in the holy mountains : the Lord loveth the gates of 
 Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. — Psalm lxxxvii. 1, 2. 
 
 The abrupt beginning of this Psalm may have led 
 to a supposition among commentators that the first 
 verse is properly a part of the title, and that the read- 
 ing should be : " For the sons of Korah, a Psalm, a 
 song when he laid the foundation on the holy moun- 
 tains." But it is quite as rational to account for the 
 abruptness on the supposition that it is the fragment 
 only of a larger Psalm, and if nothing in it indicates 
 the author, or the precise occasion of its composition, 
 we can have no doubt about the general design and 
 application. It celebrates the beauty and stability of 
 Jerusalem, on whose holy mountains the buildings of 
 God were raised, and by giving it the spiritual inter- 
 pretation of which it is capable it becomes a delight- 
 ful prophecy of the glory of the church in the acces- 
 sion of the Gentiles. 
 
 The translation of the Prayer Book changes the 
 pronoun in the first verse of the text, and makes it 
 read : " Her foundation is upon the holy hills ; " but 
 the application is still the same — even to Jerusalem 
 
174 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and the Church, whose sacred solemnities centred 
 within u the crates of Zion." We know that " the dwel- 
 lings of Jacob " were the object of God's affection and 
 favor, and that He viewed them with an eve of inter- 
 est and concern, which was never turned upon the 
 cities of the Amorites and the Canaanites. The noted 
 enchanter, Balaam, mysteriously moved by the Divine 
 Spirit, confessed that it was a lovely sight to behold 
 Israel, before the wilderness had been passed and pos- 
 session of the promised inheritance gained, abiding in 
 his goodly tents. Though the king of Moab blindly 
 urged him by the fairest human encouragements 
 to curse the Hebrews, yet amidst his unrestrained 
 delight in surveying their wide-spread encampment, 
 and in the very highest style and strain of lofty 
 inspiration, he exclaimed, "How goodly are thy tents, 
 Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel ! ' : 
 
 But far lovelier than these, in the eyes both of the 
 Israelite and his God, were " the gates of Zion." 
 They inclosed the seat of solemnities and privileges 
 not to be enjoyed in private dwellings and shifting 
 tabernacles. Jehovah had said concerning Jerusalem, 
 and in allusion to the Ions; toils and wanderings of His 
 people, "This shall be my rest forever; here will I 
 dw T ell, for I have a delight therein." The extraordi- 
 nary manifestations of Himself in the sanctuary are 
 peculiar to the sacredness of "the holy hills." The 
 symbols of His power and glory, once dwelling " within 
 curtains," found here a final abiding place, and the 
 temple became the very presence chamber of the 
 Almighty, the court of holiness, where He specially 
 vouchsafed to receive the homage and answer the 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 175 
 
 entreaties of His people. There was no drawing-room 
 in all the dwellings of Jacob that had such honor, 
 or such privileges. There was no spot in Canaan, 
 though the tabernacle rested for a season in other 
 parts of the land, that had such associations and digni- 
 ties and prerogatives as the temple upon Mount Sion, 
 the place of God's fixed residence which He had 
 desired for a habitation. There He " promised His 
 blessings and life forevermore." The complicated sys- 
 tem which He arranged with impressive rites and 
 majestic ceremonies, served not only to restrain His 
 chosen people from heathen idolatry, but to foreshow 
 in minute particulars the simple facts of a religion 
 whose temple was to embrace the whole world, and 
 whose shrine was to be every human heart. 
 
 I do not suppose that a congregation like this will 
 need to be told that the Christian Church is identical 
 in its objects with the Jewish, that the one is the con- 
 tinuation of the other, and that so the predictions 
 of the ancient prophets have been fulfilled. The 
 sacrifices ordained under the law, the observances 
 commanded, and the hope and promise of a Messiah 
 carried on through age after age of almost universal 
 apostasy were only parts of an introductory dispensa- 
 tion. That dispensation, with all its types and shad- 
 ows, closed when the substance came, and the narrow 
 household of faith, of which Jerusalem was but the 
 centre, then expanded into a spiritual kingdom with 
 privileges not confined to a single mountain, nor shut 
 up within the gates of a single city. It may well be 
 believed that the pious Jew regarded the temple with 
 his best affections, because it was towards the temple, 
 
176 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 if he chanced to be a wanderer in a foreign land, that 
 he was bidden to turn, whensoever he sought in 
 prayer the God of his fathers, as though to gain the 
 ear of Jehovah he must imagine himself to be kneel- 
 ing within its consecrated walls. 
 
 But, brethren, we Christians stand in the portals of 
 an edifice of grander proportions, of deeper mystery, 
 and more solemn importance. The one Catholic and 
 Apostolic Church, which holds us in its embrace, has 
 no central seat on earth. The blessings that issued 
 of old from Zion flow forevermore in the channels of 
 redemption, and a worship of spirit and of truth, a 
 service of perfect freedom, has succeeded to one of 
 ceremonial observance, — the liberty of the Gospel 
 to the voke of the Law. 
 
 The text, with these brief references to the devel- 
 opment of sacred history, is apposite to the occasion. 
 On this spot, the home of so many remembrances, 
 we gather to-day a goodly company composed of 
 bishop, priests, and people, to open w T ith becoming 
 services this beautiful and durable structure, whose 
 " foundation is upon the holy hills," and where 
 henceforth are to be heard only songs of Christian 
 praise, and the voice of Christian instruction, piety, 
 and prayer. It is a blessed and comfortable thought 
 that Christ is " Head over all things to His church, 
 which is His body," ruling by His almighty power 
 in heaven above and on the earth beneath, and order- 
 ing all things, if its members have but faith in Him, 
 for its advancement and the increase of its glory. 
 The building of a new house of worship by an old 
 parish is often encompassed by peculiar difficulties, 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 177 
 
 and tasks to the uttermost the faith and patience of 
 the pastor and his flock. The strange objections some- 
 times raised to the enterprise ; the variety of opin- 
 ions about the site; the form or the material of the 
 proposed edifice ; the too common habit of those who 
 have the silver and the gold to forget that these things 
 come of the Lord, and that of His own they give back 
 to Him, if they do give ; the jealousies of individuals ; 
 the influence of families; the venerable associations of 
 the past ; and the attachment which yet lingers with 
 many to the work of their forefathers, — all these con- 
 spire to embarrass and impede the project of erect- 
 ing a new house of public worship. But when the 
 whole has been completed, and all have come together, 
 rector, vestry, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons 
 and daughters, to offer with one heart to the Lord the 
 fruit of their prayers and watchings and self-denials, 
 who can withhold his congratulations, or who can 
 doubt that the Lord 
 
 " Looking propitious from His throne 
 Will take the temple for His own " ? 
 
 And, if it be His own He will love it above the com- 
 mon halls and dwellings of men. Constant usage, 
 since the Church emerged from the shades of perse- 
 cution, has continued that which originated under the 
 legal dispensation, and our reason and natural sense of 
 propriety suggest that the places where the name of 
 God is publicly invoked, His grace implored, and His 
 ordinances celebrated, should have a sacredness, a sepa- 
 ration from all unhallowed, worldly, and common uses. 
 The temple which Solomon built passed from his 
 possession and ownership when the king upon his 
 
 12 
 
178 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 knees offered a prayer of dedication, and showed that 
 the Spirit which filled the house filled also the heart 
 of him who thus devoted it to the Most High. Truth 
 and duty will be forgotten where there are no fit 
 memorials of the Divine Excellence, and no sensible 
 tokens of a living Christian faith. The appropriation, 
 therefore, by men of a portion of their treasures to 
 erect a house to the service of the Lord speaks a reve- 
 rent remembrance of His name, and a laudable desire 
 to " make His praise glorious/' The house as to style 
 and beauty and finish and completeness should be in 
 conformity w T ith the wealth and culture and refine- 
 ment of the people. Among the log huts of the wil- 
 derness a rude and unpretentious edifice will meet the 
 wants and desires of scattered Christian families, and 
 God will love it for the spirit of piety and self-sacrifice 
 that secures its erection. I go back almost a century 
 and a half, and imagine myself to be standing near this 
 spot, and beside a little group of earnest, intelligent 
 and devoted churchmen. The central figure in the 
 group is John Beach, the first and only missionary 
 located here of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel in Foreign Parts — a clergyman with a 
 pure conscience, a large heart and a resolute spirit. 
 He is watching intently the men, while they raise 
 to their places the rough-hewn timbers of a build- 
 ing some twenty-four feet square, and then hastily 
 throw the roof boards over the frame, in this manner 
 preparing it for the band of zealous worshipers who 
 purpose to assemble the next day under its imperfect 
 protection. The church thus built, and bare of all 
 architectural ornament and convenience, was, to the 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 179 
 
 people of that time, like consecrated Bethel to the 
 wandering Jacob, " none other but the house of God 
 and the gate of heaven." It was the best which their 
 poverty and limited numbers would permit them to 
 provide, and they came to it habitually for prayer and 
 praise, for communion with the Triune God, for in- 
 struction in the word of truth, and for the spiritual 
 blessings which attend the Holy Sacraments. 
 
 Less than fifteen years go by, and I stand again 
 amidst a larger group, bent on the work of construct- 
 ing another and a larger church, to take the place of 
 the first. This house was more glorious than the 
 former, chiefly in having broader courts for the people, 
 and it survived the shock of the Revolution, and car- 
 ried over its history to the spacious and somewhat 
 imposing edifice, to which, with all its associations, 
 you have just bidden a final adieu. 
 
 God testified his love for these rude sanctuaries — 
 rude, I mean, compared with the present advanced 
 style of ecclesiastical architecture — by blessing the 
 congregations gathered within them, and by multi- 
 plying the posterity of His servants. It is a good 
 work that you have now completed, to build the 
 fourth church of your parish in a fashion of richness 
 and ornamentation corresponding to the improved 
 taste of the dav, and better still that it has been built 
 for perpetuity, and with the durable granite quarried 
 and brought from your own hills. 1 The church is one 
 which adorns the beautiful region in which it stands, 
 
 1 The church is in the Gothic style of architecture with clere-story 
 and slated roofs. It is 108 feet long by 52 wide, and has a recessed 
 chancel and an imposing tower. It cost $50,000. 
 
180 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and henceforth you may come to it and feel, in all 
 your religious reverence and homage, as the Psalm- 
 ist felt when he exclaimed, " Thy way, God, is in 
 the sanctuary ; who is so great a God as our God ? " 
 
 I will not dwell on the value to a community of 
 the public ordinances of religion. We all know that 
 it is by and through these that God generally turns 
 men to Himself, and afterwards strengthens them to 
 persevere in the Christian course. It is the office of 
 the ministry to " teach and premonish " the people, 
 and to lead their devotions, and if these, with other 
 duties, are to be always "printed in our remem- 
 brance," if. as much as lieth in us, we are to apply 
 ourselves wholly to this office, "and draw all our 
 cares and studies this way," surely it is meet that we 
 have hearers who will appreciate our services, and 
 love and honor us for the Master's sake. St. Paul, in 
 his Epistle to the Galatians, has supposed the case of 
 an angel from heaven coming to discharge the office 
 of a preacher to men, but it is in connection with 
 the vain attempt to proclaim another Gospel than 
 that which he had preached unto them, that the sup- 
 position is made. Angels watch for the repentance 
 of sinners, and there is joy among them when one 
 " repenteth ; " but the Lord did not choose angels, with 
 their mysterious and unearthly forms, to be His in- 
 struments in bringing many sons to glory. He chose 
 men, mortals who have capacity for deep sympathy 
 with those to whom they speak the word of life, and 
 while we claim no authority whatsoever for the man, 
 we do magnify our office, and claim the very highest 
 authority for the message and the messenger. 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 181 
 
 Hence it is, my brethren, that the church throws 
 open her doors and invites you to come where prayer 
 is wont to be made, where the Gospel is preached, 
 and where the Sacraments are duly administered. Is 
 it too much to believe that the Lord, for these high 
 honors to His name, will love His house more than 
 all private dwellings ? And is it too much to expect 
 that the people will seek here the enlargements 
 and outflowings of the Spirit? The males of Israel 
 w T ere required three times a year to go up to Jeru- 
 salem to worship and offer their oblations in the 
 temple. The law exacted this duty from all, even 
 from those who dwelt in the remotest parts of Pales- 
 tine. " Whether or no they had coaches," says Rob- 
 ert South, " to the temple they must go ; nor could 
 it excuse them to plead God's omniscience, that He 
 could equally see and hear them in any place, nor 
 yet their own good will and intentions, as if the 
 readiness of their mind to go might, forsooth, warrant 
 their bodies to stay at home." * 
 
 We do not mean to intimate, in these thoughts, 
 that no acceptable worship may be offered elsewhere. 
 St. Paul, at a period of persecution, when the disci- 
 ples, were not allowed to erect edifices for their com- 
 mon devotion, saluted the church in Philemon's house. 
 The Church began with the family, and all Chris- 
 tian families that set up an altar around which the 
 members statedly gather, may claim the promise, 
 since it is without reservation : " Ask, and it shall be 
 given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock and it shall 
 be opened unto you : for every one that asketh 
 
 1 Sermons, vol. i. p. 144. 
 
182 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that 
 knocketh it shall be opened." The child taught by 
 maternal piety to kneel at the bedside and lisp, " Our 
 Father who art in Heaven" the youth of either sex 
 asking in private for guidance and spiritual strength to 
 go through the trials and temptations which beset the 
 Christian path; the man of business imploring, in the 
 secrecy of his chamber, support for the stern realities 
 of life ; the Christian in sickness, sorrow, and bereave- 
 ment pleading for divine consolations; the veteran 
 believer, with gray hair and feeble limbs, approaching 
 daily nearer to the grave, yet praying for continual 
 comforts, and that he may fear no evil when he comes 
 to enter the shadowy valley — all these are admitted 
 with the fullest and freest welcome into the presence 
 of God, who has promised to hear our petitions and 
 answer them for the sake of his own dear Son. 
 
 But public worship has elements of public praise. 
 It is combined with public instruction, and those who 
 pray in private and in their families are generally the 
 best support of the clergy and the most regular in at- 
 tendance upon their ministrations. David, separated 
 from the sanctuary by civil occurrences, could find in 
 nothing, certainly not in the quiet breathings of pri- 
 vate devotion, that pleasure w T hich he had tasted in 
 the house of God. In view of his banishment, and 
 remembering what he had left behind, he could not 
 repress the exclamation, " how amiable are thy 
 dwellings, thou Lord of Hosts ! My soul hath a desire 
 and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord; my 
 heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God." 
 
 Many a one in later days, and in this land, has had 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 183 
 
 the like longings and desires, but they were for the 
 full offices of the church of their ancestors, for a valid 
 ministry, for the sacraments ordained of Christ, and 
 for communion with the Father of spirits, in that 
 beauty of holiness furnished by a Liturgy, " whose 
 clothing is of wrought gold." The depth of the trials 
 of the early churchmen of Connecticut cannot be 
 measured. We can hardly persuade ourselves that 
 the goodly inheritance into which we have come is 
 the fruit of seed sown by the righteous in a day when 
 there were visible foemen in the field. Compared 
 with the past, ours is a time of peaceful enjoyment ; 
 and the impulse of affection, and admiration for our 
 high and precious privileges may lead us to say indi- 
 vidually as one of our own poets has said : — 
 
 " I love the Church — the holy Church, 
 That o'er our life presides — 
 The birth, the bridal, and the grave, 
 And many an hour besides ! " 1 
 
 This region has been the scene of sharp religious 
 controversy. It was the battle-ground for great prin- 
 ciples from the beginning of 1732 to the close of the 
 Revolutionary War. When John Beach, who for 
 eight years had been the "popular pastor" of the 
 Congregational Society in Newtown, relinquished his 
 situation, declared for Episcopacy and crossed the 
 Atlantic to receive Holy Orders in the Church of 
 England, he could not have anticipated the bitterness 
 and violence which were to spring up among his 
 former friends and neighbors in consequence of his 
 defection from their ranks. No sooner had he re- 
 
 1 Coxe's Christian Ballads. 
 
184 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 turned to minister here, under the auspices of the 
 venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
 than all sorts of opposition were raised to his work. 
 He had been charged to extend his Christian offi- 
 ces to a tribe of Indians a few miles distant, but they 
 were " antidoted," to quote his own words, "against 
 the Church," and treated him with indignity, under 
 the extraordinary pretense that he was about to 
 deprive them of their lands and draw from them con- 
 tributions for his support. The sachem of the tribe 
 threatened to " shoot a bullet through his heart if he 
 came among them," ! but the path of duty was clearly 
 before him, and he pursued it with a cheerful and 
 resolute spirit, " conciliating many of the Indians, and 
 gathering around him large congregations of his coun- 
 trymen." Pamphlets assailing the Church, misrepre- 
 senting her principles and ridiculing her practices 
 and her members, were printed and freely circu- 
 lated among all classes of people in quarters where 
 Episcopacy was taking root, so that Johnson and 
 Beach were compelled to step forth into the field of 
 controversy and meet, with pertinent arguments, such 
 adversaries as Dickinson of New Jersey, Foxcroft of 
 Boston, and John Graham of Woodbury, in this 
 State. 
 
 It would be impossible for me on the present occa- 
 sion to describe the spirit and chief results of the 
 discussions of that time, — this I have done in another 
 way, 2 — but so many historic associations crowd 
 around me, as I hold my pen to write this sermon, 
 
 1 Hawkins's Missions of the Church of England, p. 203. 
 
 2 History of Episcopal Church in Connecticut, 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 185 
 
 that I cannot resist the temptation to make a few 
 additional allusions to the work and character of the 
 first minister of your parish. 
 
 When Jonathan Dickinson published, in 1736, a dis- 
 course entitled, " The Vanity of Human Institutions 
 in the Worship of God," and not only misunderstood 
 or purposely misrepresented the Liturgy, but fixed 
 the sin of schism, the guilt of rending the body of 
 Christ, upon all who, from any motive, were led to 
 conform to the Church of England, he found in John 
 Beach an advocate who comprehended the case, — one 
 who, in vindicating the doctrine and worship which 
 he preferred, stood by the truth and the treasures 
 of the past, and refused to be " branded for an anti- 
 christ, or a heretic and apostate," because he had fol- 
 lowed the convictions of his conscience, and come out 
 of Independency. Like Johnson, his cherished friend 
 and trusty counselor, the circuit of his ministrations 
 was at first large, for though Newtown and Kedding 
 were the two centres of his work, where he officiated 
 statedly on Sundays, yet he visited the surrounding 
 towns, and traveled great distances to reach church- 
 men and religious inquirers, bury the dead, administer 
 the Sacraments, and be a guide in organizing new 
 missions, and providing for them schoolmasters and 
 catechists. All through the wild excitement and dis- 
 orders consequent upon the itinerancy and preaching 
 of Whitefield, he stood like a faithful sentinel at his 
 post, and sounded the note of danger. 
 
 I am sure that you, in common with the whole 
 Church in Connecticut, owe him a vast debt of grati- 
 tude for his service, and especially for presenting, at 
 
186 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 that troubled period, the discriminating marks be- 
 tween true and false religion, and thereby winning 
 over to our communion many who had else been lost 
 in the mazes of infidelity or in the depths of despair. 
 
 He allowed no public assault upon our doctrine, 
 discipline, and worship, to go unnoticed, and scarcely 
 had the "First Address to the Members of the Episco- 
 palian Separation in New England, " by Mr. Noah 
 Hobart, come from the press before he was ready with 
 a clear and dispassionate reply. Another long con- 
 troversy then followed, into which Caner and Johnson 
 and Wetmore were drawn, but, like the previous ones, 
 it proved an indirect means of furthering the progress 
 of Episcopacy in Connecticut. It is quite evident 
 that these men acted in this matter in self-defense. 
 "Though my health," said Beach, in a communication 
 to the Society, just after the passage of the Stamp Act, 
 " is small and my abilities less, and though I make it 
 a rule never to enter into any dispute with the Inde- 
 pendent ministers, unless they begin ; yet now they 
 have made the assault, and advanced such monstrous 
 errors as do subvert the Gospel, I think myself obliged, 
 by my ordination vow, to guard my people, as well as 
 I can, ... in which work, hitherto, I hope I have 
 had some success.' ' 
 
 That "success," my brethren, is written all over 
 your ante-Revolutionary history. The failure of the 
 frequent and urgent appeals to the authorities at 
 home to provide the American colonies with a resi- 
 dent bishop, did not prevent the growth of the 
 Church, and in Newtown, if a line had been drawn in 
 1774, and all the Episcopalians placed on one side of 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 187 
 
 it, and all the non-Episcopalians on the other, the two 
 divisions would have been evenly numbered, precisely 
 1,084 in either case. How was so much prosperity 
 under God secured, an increase of twenty fold ? I 
 answer, by the unremitting labors, the sound and 
 patient teaching, the inflexible integrity, and the 
 "sober, righteous, and godly life" of the first minister 
 of this parish. His bodily infirmities hardly allowed 
 him a day of ease or respite from pain, though in 
 forty years he lost only two Sundays by actual sick- 
 ness, and in all these years he obeyed every sum- 
 mons of duty, and rode through storms and snow- 
 drifts, and over swollen and rushing streams to meet 
 his people at the appointed time and place of worship. 
 The good effect of this example upon them was such 
 that they could not for very shame, as he himself 
 says, in one of his letters to the Society, make " the 
 badness of the weather" an excuse for their own 
 absence. 
 
 But his labors in the ministry, already extended to 
 more than half a century, were now drawing to a 
 close. The old polemic and doctrinal controversies 
 were lost sight of in the great political struggle which 
 had commenced, and which was to involve the church 
 in immediate peril. Johnson, whose intimate ac- 
 quaintance he enjoyed for more than fifty-five years, 
 and of whom, " without an hyperbole," he could say, 
 " I know not that ever I conversed with him without 
 finding myself afterward the better for it," had gone 
 to his rest ; and here, remote from the din and battles 
 of the Revolution, he pursued his holy vocation, and 
 alone of all our clergy in Connecticut, opened his 
 
188 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 church on Sundays and the greater holy days, and, in 
 spite of the threats of enemies, used without abridg- 
 ment the Liturgy of the Church of England. He was 
 too good and venerable a man to be silenced because 
 he prayed for the king and royal family, 1 and he had 
 a body of conscientious people at his back, who sym- 
 pathized with his religious views, and felt that it was 
 of quite as much importance to remember the Church, 
 and what had been done for their souls, as to " com- 
 ply with the doings of Congress." And so he went 
 on to the end, departing just as the struggle was over, 
 and never hearing the notes of joy that rang through- 
 out the land upon the acknowledgment of American 
 Independence. 
 
 Many years ago, in a spirit of youthful veneration 
 for the sainted dead, I visited yonder cemetery, and 
 as I stood by his grave and read underneath the brief 
 
 1 Bishop Williams, at the request of the author, has written out the 
 following anecdote, which he related to the clergy assembled in Dr. 
 Marble's study, after the service : — 
 
 "In the early summer of 1848, I was traveling with the Rev. Dr. 
 Rankine, who was at that time studying with me, in what we then called 
 Northern New York. Returning from Lake George, we passed down 
 the banks of the Hudson River, to visit the scenes of Burgoyne's sur- 
 render in 1777. Stopping for the night at an inn in the neighborhood of 
 Schuylerville, perhaps in the place itself, I met an aged man, the father, 
 I think, of the innkeeper, who told me that he was born and passed his 
 early life in Newtown, Connecticut. 
 
 " He also told me that he perfectly remembered being in the church 
 at Newtown, when some soldiers entered, service being then in progress, 
 and threatened to shoot the officiating minister, the Rev. John Beach, if 
 he read the prayer for the king and the royal family. Mr. Beach, he 
 said, went on as usual, with no change, or even tremor, in his voice, and 
 read the obnoxious prayers. My informant added that he believed (his 
 recollection on this point was not quite so positive) that the soldiers, 
 struck with the quiet courage of Mr. Beach, stacked their muskets and 
 remained through the service. ' ' 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 189 
 
 inscription on his monument, this simple line, "Reader, 
 let this tablet abide," the thought involuntarily came 
 to my lips, "Let his work abide, though the tablet 
 decay." Let these hills and valleys be fragrant with 
 the memory of his piety and zeal, and let his succes- 
 sors, priests and people in this parish, never fail to 
 support and carryforward the Church, "asking for 
 the old paths, where is the good way, and walking 
 therein." He said, in his funeral sermon upon Dr. 
 Johnson, "we must not imagine, when we have buried 
 the bodies of our friends out of our sight, that then 
 we have done with them, and have no more concern 
 with them. Nor do we satisfy our duty by merely 
 mourning some months for them. But we must by 
 faith follow them into the invisible world, and rejoice 
 with them in their happy advancement. We must 
 call to mind those graces and virtues which shined in 
 their lives, and strive, by imitating them, to come to 
 the same blessedness." 1 
 
 My brethren, the men of the past had their respon- 
 sibilities and trials, their conflicts and triumphs, and 
 we have ours. All down the tide of ages, there comes 
 a voice telling us " the Lord loveth the spates of Zion 
 more than all the dwellings of Jacob." He loves the 
 sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, which to His 
 name belong. Prayer is the ordained medium of 
 communication between the spirit and the Father of 
 spirits, the channel through which the seen and the 
 unseen meet and hold converse together ; the flight of 
 heavenly steps, which, like the ladder of Jacob, con- 
 nects together two worlds ; and the Lord loves the 
 
 1 Sermon, p. 14. 
 
 
190 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 sanctuary where multitudes come up to pray. He 
 loves and blesses the work of a faithful Christian min- 
 istry. It is true, we ambassadors for Christ live in a 
 day when the habits of social life are more luxurious 
 and artificial, and the manners of men not so simple 
 and confiding, and hence we meet with some impedi- 
 ments which have become stronger since the times of 
 your first three rectors, Beach, Perry, and Burhans. 
 Under their ministrations, it was recognized to be the 
 duty of every one to attend public worship. It was 
 recognized by statute law, which exacted its support, 
 and Christian families were contented to learn in this 
 way, and from their Bibles and Prayer Books all that 
 was necessary to make them wise unto salvation. 
 Great attention was paid to the lessons of the pulpit, 
 and eager hearts had a craving for the truth and the 
 doctrine of the Church. When Bishop Seabury made 
 his first visitation in Litchfield County, " an amazing 
 throng of people " gathered to hear him in and around 
 the old church on Litchfield Hill. " Fifteen hun- 
 dred," says an eye-witness, " were supposed to be 
 present. His subject was the doctrine of atonement, 
 on which his observations were so striking that it was 
 almost impossible to restrain the audience from loud 
 shouts of approbation." * 
 
 1 Rev. Ashbel Baldwin, at that time rector in Litchfield, writing to his 
 friend Tillotson Bronson, a deacon at Strafford, Vt., November 15, 1787, 
 said : — 
 
 " Bishop Seabury has at last made a tour into our quarter. . . . His 
 visit among us was attended with great applause to himself and much 
 pleasure to the Church people. At Simsbury, confirmation was adminis- 
 tered to about 200 persons, Harwinton, 40, Cambridge, 56, Northbury 
 103, Litchfield, 165. An amazing throng of people attended with us. 
 There was supposed to be fifteen hundred people present. His subject 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 191 
 
 I shall be misunderstood, if I leave upon your 
 minds the impression that we have not attentive 
 hearers now. Thanks be to the Lord for the tokens 
 of our growth, and for the testimonies that the clergy 
 of the Church are a mighty power in the land, and 
 speak to those who are ready to accept and obey 
 " the truth as it is in Jesus." 
 
 But to say nothing of the ministers of the Congre- 
 gational system in New England, and nothing of the 
 ministers of other denominations everywhere, we are 
 not the only teachers of what is called religion. The 
 periodical press, throbbing with the excitements and 
 interests of every-day life, has a ceaseless influence, 
 and it too often assumes the position of an instructor 
 in things appertaining to the house of God. It is im- 
 possible to keep the secular guides of public opinion 
 off our ground. There is a large domain of subject 
 which, of necessity, is common to us both. And when 
 we come together here, our relative ascendency over 
 the popular mind is apt to be determined, not by the 
 stronger official right to teach, but by the greater 
 skill and raciness of the teacher. Eomanism, too, has 
 arisen to confront us with its enmity against the prin- 
 ciples of the English Reformation, as well as to claim 
 a right to interfere with matters which lie at the very 
 basis of the prosperity of our public schools. We 
 have new schemes of fanaticism to expose. We have 
 
 was the doctrine of atonement, on which his observations were so strik- 
 ing that it was almost impossible to restrain the audience from loud 
 shouts of approbation. Whilst with me, he was visited by the most 
 respectable people in town. I waited on him to Goshen, Salisbury, and 
 Sharon, where we parted, after having spent a fortnight in the most 
 agreeable manner that I ever was acquainted with. — MS. letter. 
 
192 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 all manner of skeptical insinuations to deal with, and 
 the net which, in the eighteenth century, was spread 
 mainly to catch the thoughtful intellects of .the age, 
 is thrown wider and farther now, so that the popular 
 imagination is caught by the " shreds and patches of 
 old misbeliefs, which have been scattered up and 
 down the pages of a miscellaneous literature." We 
 are brought in contact with minds, some of them pro- 
 fessedly attached to the Church, that ask for a wide 
 margin of belief — a margin broader than revelation 
 will allow. They appear to be in a condition, intel- 
 lectually, which is half faith and half infidelity, and 
 the duty is imposed upon us by the vows of ordina- 
 tion to guard must sacredly "sound doctrine," and to 
 stand " by the word of God which liveth and abideth 
 forever." 
 
 Are not the responsibilities of the clergy, my breth- 
 ren, weighty in these days ? If we have not the pre- 
 cise cares and anxieties of our forefathers, can we 
 ever forget that we are to feed and infold our flocks, 
 guarding them from the approach of spiritual foes ? 
 Can we ever forget that we are to teach, as a funda- 
 mental truth, that Christ is the Son of the living God, 
 and the Saviour of all them that believe ? The man- 
 tle of the grand past of the Church has descended 
 upon us, and we must preserve the inheritance. It 
 would be as vain, consistently with an honest and 
 true interpretation, to strip our articles and formu- 
 laries of their distinctive doctrines and teachings, 
 as it would be to attempt to take the color out of 
 the skies, or to extract the hues of beauty from the 
 plumage of the bird. 
 
THE FOUNDATION IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 193 
 
 I think, therefore, you will agree with me that the 
 breadth and fullness of our work, in this day and gen- 
 eration, reach beyond the common view ; that besides 
 being pastors, and priests to stand in the house of 
 God and wait upon His people, we are to be students, 
 " clad in complete steel," equipped w T ith the best 
 armor to defend the faith delivered once to the saints ; 
 students of Scripture and of history, who, while dis- 
 tinguishing between truth and error, and rejecting 
 the audacious novelties of human speculation, are still 
 resolved to keep abreast with the noblest thought of 
 the age. 
 
 The building of a church like this, and by an ancient 
 parish like this, is some proof that the old truths have 
 a living freshness, and that the good blood of the 
 ancestors circles in the veins of their posterity. Re- 
 member, my Christian friends, the great object of 
 the undertaking which you have now accomplished. 
 These walls have not been raised to gratify the fancy 
 of the builders, or to fill out the beauty of a village 
 landscape. When the dawn of eternity comes to tame 
 down and sober in us the fevered dreams of human 
 life, it will be pleasant to reflect that according to the 
 blessing and measure of our store we " have done 
 good deeds for the house of our God and for the offi- 
 ces thereof," but it will be better to know and to feel 
 that we have habitually sought His way in the sanc- 
 tuary, and pressed through the gates for the Bread 
 of Life. 
 
 May you all find here refreshing succors for the 
 soul, the delights of prayer and praise, the blessing 
 of the preached word, the illuminating and sanctify- 
 
 13 
 
194 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ing comforts of the Holy Ghost, and the "inward and 
 spiritual grace" of the sacraments. Here, through 
 long ages, may the testimony to the truth be wel- 
 comed, — to the whole truth as embodied in the Creed 
 of the Church, and held by sainted men of old in its 
 completeness, in its mysterious sublimity, in its depth 
 and divine fullness. And may there never fail from 
 out these courts a priesthood in the line which takes 
 commission from the day of Christ's ascension on 
 Olivet; nor a people who rise to the jubilant Psalm: 
 
 " go your way into His gates with thanksgiving, 
 and into His courts with praise ; be thankful unto 
 Him, and speak good of His name : — 
 
 For the Lord is gracious, His mercy is everlasting, 
 and His truth endureth from generation to genera- 
 tion. " 
 
 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the 
 Holy Ghost ; 
 
 As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall 
 be, world without end. Amen. 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 
 
 SERMON AT THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE SET- 
 TLEMENT OF REVEREND JOHN RUTGERS MARSHALL, M. A., 
 LN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, WOODBURY, CONNECTICUT, SEP- 
 TEMBER 6, 1871. 
 
 The Rev. John Rutgers Marshall, M. A., began his ministrations as a 
 missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts, at Woodbury, in the autumn of 1771. The one hundredth anni- 
 versary of his settlement was celebrated Wednesday, September 6, 1871 ; 
 and the beautiful day and the occasion drew together the village people 
 and many of the clergy and laity of the adjoining towns, and many from 
 places more remote, who had once belonged to the parish, or had 
 descended from Woodbury families. 
 
 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their 
 heart? Job viii. 10. 
 
 My position to-night bears some resemblance to 
 that of Ruth, the Moabitess, when in the beginning 
 of barley harvest she was permitted to go out into 
 the field of Boaz and glean after the reapers. A few 
 handfuls have been purposely left for me to gather, 
 but the rich and full sheaves have been already 
 taken and I am only as a gleaner at the end of the 
 harvest. 1 
 
 1 Three services were held, the first in the morning at half-past ten 
 o'clock, when Bishop Williams preached a sermon, reciting the origin, 
 work, and some of the fruits of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, and especially its work in Connecticut. 
 
 At two o'clock p. m. the second service was held, when the rector, 
 
196 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Without expecting therefore to keep up the inter- 
 est which has been awakened, I would ask you, my 
 friends, to linger with me still over the days that are 
 passed, and to ponder the salutary instruction which 
 they serve so well to convey. Commemorative occa- 
 sions like this are intended to do justice to the virtue 
 and piety of our forefathers. " Shall not they teach 
 thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their 
 heart ? " 
 
 The new interlocutor, who comes forward in the 
 eighth chapter of the book of Job, vindicates God and 
 His ways, and endeavors to enforce the foregoing argu- 
 ments of Eliphaz, the Temanite. Very little balm and 
 kindliness, we think, are infused into his language, 
 and when he calls the attention of the patriarch to 
 the loss of his children, he employs terms which seem 
 harsh and cruel, and fitted, for the moment, rather to 
 increase than to allay his exasperation. But he 
 appeals to antiquity for the lessons of a larger expe- 
 rience than we can obtain in this brief life of ours. 
 The voice of antiquity is always an instructive voice, 
 and we study with profit the leading incidents and 
 characters of former times. 
 
 The friend of Job knew this, and gave his counsels 
 accordingly. " For inquire, I pray thee, of the former 
 age ; and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers. 
 . . . Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter 
 words out of their heart ? " 
 
 Rev. John Purves, delivered an address to the congregation, briefly 
 sketching the history of the parish, and presenting the Church as the 
 river of God, widening and gathering power as it flows on to the sea. 
 
 The third service was in the evening at seven o'clock, when this ser- 
 mon was preached. 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 197 
 
 Your thoughts to-day have been carried back a cen- 
 tury, and fixed upon the trials and troubles which 
 surrounded the Church while Connecticut was a col- 
 ony. A century is a long period in ecclesiastical 
 history. Less than nineteen such periods have elapsed 
 since the birth of Christ, less than four since the dis- 
 covery and settlement of America by the Europeans, 
 and there is no one living and before me now whose 
 recollections begin with the establishment in this 
 town of a missionary of the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The events and 
 changes in the space of a hundred years are of sublime 
 and manifold influence. We can none of us foresee 
 or measure the remote results of individual transac- 
 tions. What appears small at the time may reach 
 out into great and beneficent proportions. The 
 stream, whose head is scarcely perceptible on the 
 mountain top, rolls silently onward, and widens and 
 deepens with the tributaries which it receives, until 
 it becomes a mighty river, pouring its floods into the 
 mightier ocean. 
 
 The passage of the Stamp Act by the Parliament 
 of Great Britain was in itself a thing of little import- 
 ance, but it led to a revolution that finally severed 
 the Colonies from the mother country. Though it 
 was repealed, to the honor of the Rockingham minis- 
 try and the great joy of the Colonists, just one year 
 after its enactment, yet the healing measure was ac- 
 companied by a declaration that "Parliament had a 
 right to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever," 
 and this claim it was which rankled in the breasts of 
 the American people, and caused them to prepare for 
 
198 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 resisting the British crown, and organizing an inde- 
 pendent and separate form of government. It was 
 felt to be, and it was, an unhappy day for the Church 
 of England here, that the struggle for obtaining the 
 Episcopacy was going on at the time when there 
 prevailed a spirit of universal clamor and discontent 
 about the Stamp Act. Opposition to the appeals of 
 the clergy took the strangest shapes, and busy per- 
 sons on this side of the Atlantic had their agents in 
 London to watch the progress of events and promote 
 the designs of those who thought they were working 
 to prevent the ultimate establishment of a " monarch- 
 ical government with a legally associated hierarchy," 
 when they resisted the introduction of bishops into 
 this country. In consequence of the disorders and 
 seditions that spread among the disaffected Colonists, 
 the venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel was reluctant to create any more missions in 
 New England, — a step which filled the clergy of the 
 Church with real grief and concern. Provision, how- 
 ever, continued to be made for those already erected, 
 and men were ordained to supply the vacancies that 
 death or removal might occasion. 
 
 John Kutgers Marshall was the last but one of those 
 candidates who went from Connecticut on the peril- 
 ous and expensive voyage across the ocean for holy 
 orders. He had been reared in the city of New York, 
 where he was born of parents who belonged to the 
 Dutch Keformed Church, but the hills of Litchfield 
 County must have been familiar to him in his boy- 
 hood, if it be true, as it has been said, that his pre- 
 liminary course of studies was pursued under the 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 199 
 
 direction of the celebrated Dr. Bellamy of Bethlehem. 
 For a time he was a merchant at Stratford, but in the 
 summer of 1770, when he was more than twenty- 
 seven years of age, we find him with Dr. Johnson in 
 his retirement at that place, studying divinity and 
 preparing to come to Woodbury "without any ex- 
 pectation from the society." That veteran champion 
 of Episcopacy had conceived the plan of holding, in 
 his advanced years, what he was pleased to call " a 
 little academy, or resource for young students of 
 divinity, to prepare them for holy orders," designed 
 chiefly to improve them in classical learning, to teach 
 them Hebrew, and direct and aid them in theological 
 attainments ; and before they proceeded to England, 
 if not graduated otherwise, he procured them the 
 degree of Master of Arts from King's (now Columbia) 
 College in New York. Marshall's graduation from 
 that institution appears to have been of this kind, and 
 his name is entered in the general catalogue as receiv- 
 ing it in 1770. 1 He returned from England the next 
 year, "licensed and authorized" by the Bishop of 
 London "to perform the office of a minister or priest 
 at Woodbury, or elsewhere within the province of 
 Connecticut in North America." 
 
 Locating himself here, where no house of public 
 worship had been erected for churchmen, he extended 
 his ministrations to various localities, and fed some of 
 the scattered flocks which were yet fresh in their sor- 
 row over the death of that young and accomplished 
 soldier of the Cross, Thomas Davies. Ancient Wood- 
 
 1 Catalogue, 1888, and Life and Correspondence of Rev. Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson. 
 
200 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 bury was territorially large, and embraced divisions 
 which long since were incorporated into separate 
 towns. Nor were the inhabitants very sparsely scat- 
 tered through these hills and valleys. The population 
 was almost as numerous a century ago as it is now. A 
 venerable divine, 1 acting under appointment of a Con- 
 vention of delegates from the Presbyterian Synod of 
 New York and Philadelphia, and from the Congrega- 
 tional associations of Connecticut, undertook to collect 
 statistics relative to the number of Episcopalians in 
 the colony and their proportion to non-Episcopalians. 
 The enumeration was designed to operate with the 
 home government, and to check what was to the del- 
 egates most offensive, the plan of sending bishops into 
 this country. By the returns, which were made Sep- 
 tember 5, 1774, Woodbury then contained a popula- 
 tion of 5,224, but the proportion of Episcopalians was 
 not given. Whether they were few or many, they 
 all came under the spiritual oversight and charge of 
 the missionary appointed to this town. 
 
 The lot of my own youthful ministry was cast in a 
 parish of Connecticut, where lived in a green old age 
 one of the daughters of Mr. Marshall. Upon the 
 death of her husband, who was a clergyman of our 
 Church, 2 she placed in my hands a number of the 
 manuscript sermons of her father, of precise and beau- 
 tiful penmanship ; and they are noted as having been 
 preached by him at Woodbury, Roxbury, Judea, 
 Great Barrington, and other places. It was thus a 
 wide circuit that he reached in his ministrations, and 
 
 1 Elizur Goodrich of Durham, see Minutes of Convention, pp. 62, 63. 
 
 2 Rev. Reuben Ives, who died at Cheshire, October 14, 1836. 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 201 
 
 his missionary life of necessity was filled up with per- 
 petual solicitudes and self-sacrifices. We do not at 
 this day, I think, comprehend all the toils and trials 
 of such a life, the constant watchings, the weariness 
 and painfulness, the inner griefs at the contradiction 
 of sinners and the outward exposure to a rigorous and 
 variable climate, the lack of facilities for rapid travel- 
 ing, the lonely rides, and the journeys over rough 
 and winding roads, long and tedious, and never short- 
 ened except by bridle paths through the primeval 
 forests. 
 
 But harder than these were the trials which befell 
 the missionaries of the Church of England upon the 
 outbreak of the Eevolutionary war. Marshall was 
 one of the twenty in Connecticut who was at his post 
 when the clouds burst that had so long hung threat- 
 eningly in the American sky. Like his brethren, he 
 shared in the indignities and hatreds with which they 
 were visited who had consciences in regard to the 
 oaths of allegiance taken at their ordination, and who 
 were not ready therefore to renounce them hastily 
 and join in the clamors for independence. I would 
 not awaken unpleasant feelings by recurring to the 
 faults and mistakes of the Revolution, but it is due to 
 the truth of history to mention on this occasion, that 
 the missionary in Woodbury, besides being restricted 
 in the performance of his public services and some- 
 times forcibly carried from the house where he was 
 officiating, was the victim of personal violence. Mis- 
 siles were hurled at him as he walked forth into the 
 highway, and a confinement to his house for weeks 
 was the result of injuries which he received from 
 
202 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 being once waylaid and severely beaten while return- 
 ing from a duty in Roxbury. There must have been 
 strangely prejudiced minds here to allow this, perhaps 
 men who in childhood had learned bad lessons from 
 John Graham, — a Congregational divine in the south 
 part of the town, and a Scotchman by birth, who had 
 no sympathy with the theology of your rector, for he 
 wrote scurrilous verses about the Church of England 
 and misrepresented and ridiculed her practices and 
 her members. Of course the heated temper of the 
 Revolutionary times had much to do with the viola- 
 tions of law, and patriots and tories were alike guilty 
 of deeds which will not bear to be examined in the 
 light of the better judgments and kindlier neighbor- 
 hoods of our own day. 
 
 But the offense of Marshall was only political and 
 ecclesiastical ; and he was a Christian man, who did 
 not invoke vengeance upon his enemies. He closed 
 a sermon, written and preached when the war and 
 the passions of the people were at their height, with 
 words which must have had a solemn meaning for 
 himself as well as for his hearers. " Let us," said he, 
 " from the bottom of our hearts forgive all men, as we 
 desire our Judge to forgive us. Let us be careful 
 to hurt no man, and if we have injured any, let us 
 repair the injury. Let us abhor all impurity and 
 fleshly lusts, which war against the soul ; and whilst 
 we daily strive to do God's will, let us humbly, yet 
 confidently, trust in God's promises that our sins shall 
 be pardoned, and we received into heaven through 
 the riches of grace in store for us in Christ." 1 
 
 1 MS. Sermon. 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 203 
 
 At length the persecutions ceased, — the long strug- 
 gle was over, — the independence of the Colonies was 
 acknowledged, but the Church — oh ! the Church 
 everywhere throughout the land was in desolation ! 
 The tie which bound us to England had been severed, 
 and without the Episcopacy, without the succor of 
 the venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, gloom, thick gloom overhung the immediate 
 prospects of the missionaries, and especially of those 
 in Connecticut. Of the twenty who at the beginning 
 of the war were faithfully serving their flocks, four 
 had fled for protection within the lines of the British 
 army, two had descended to the grave, and the re- 
 mainder were still in connection with their poor, 
 thinned, and broken parishes. No time was to be 
 lost, and therefore ten of the missionaries, in whose 
 breasts lingered a glowing love of the Church, rallied 
 to gather up the fragments and organize for the future. 
 It was on the 25th of March, 1783, just after the pub- 
 lication of the Treaty of Peace, that they met here in 
 Woodbury, at the house of Mr. Marshall, far away 
 from the centres of influence and observation, and the 
 meeting was "kept a profound secret, even from 
 their most intimate friends of the laity." Their first 
 thought, very properly, was to secure the highest 
 order in the ministry ; and enough of their proceed- 
 ings has come to light to indicate the fear which was 
 felt of reviving the former opposition to an American 
 Episcopate, and thus of defeating their plan to com- 
 plete the organization of the Church, and provide for 
 its inherent perpetuity in this country. Another fear 
 was felt that a plan lately formed and published in 
 
204 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Philadelphia to constitute a nominal Episcopate by 
 the united suffrages of presbyters and laymen might 
 be carried into execution. 
 
 I am not going over the whole story of Seabury's 
 election at Woodbury by the clergy of Connecticut. 
 It will be sufficient to quote a paragraph from the 
 letter of their secretary, written in their behalf and 
 addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury. " To lay 
 the foundation/' said they, " for a valid and regular 
 Episcopate in America, we earnestly entreat your 
 Grace, that in your archiepiscopal character, you will 
 espouse the cause of our sinking Church, and at this 
 important crisis afford her that relief on which her 
 very existence depends by consecrating a bishop for 
 Connecticut. The person whom we have prevailed 
 upon to offer himself to your Grace for that purpose 
 is the reverend Dr. Samuel Seabury, who has been 
 the Society's worthy missionary for many years. He 
 was born and educated in Connecticut ; he is person- 
 ally known to us, and we believe him to be every 
 way well qualified for the Episcopal office, and for 
 those duties peculiar to it in the present trying and 
 dangerous times." 
 
 Dr. Seabury arrived in London on the 7th of July, 
 about three months after the meeting of the clergy 
 in Woodbury, and found the way to his consecration 
 blocked up by unexpected impediments. The Arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury and York, though sensible of 
 the merits of his application, foresaw great difficul- 
 ties and were embarrassed by various considerations. 
 The American Episcopate had been a subtle ministe- 
 rial affair of the Government for more than half a 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 205 
 
 century, and nobody in England now seemed willing 
 to risk anything for the sake of the Church, or for the 
 sake of continuing Episcopal ordinations in this coun- 
 try. Parliament had passed an act "to empower the 
 Bishop of London for the time being," or any other 
 bishop appointed by him, to admit to the diaconate or 
 priesthood "persons being subjects or citizens of coun- 
 tries out of his Majesty's dominions," without requir- 
 ing the oaths of allegiance ; but consecration to Jbhe 
 apostolic office was viewed from another standpoint, 
 and held in abeyance partly because the formal con- 
 sent of no State legislature had been obtained, and 
 partly from an apprehension of giving umbrage to a 
 power with whom a treaty of peace had but lately been 
 signed. A long correspondence between Seabury and 
 the Connecticut clergy ensued, and while he was wait- 
 ing in London for the result of pending negotiations 
 and for Parliamentary measures of relief, something 
 was to be done to keep things right at home. Who 
 stood up more resolutely then, or who was more hope- 
 ful for the Church than John Kutgers Marshall ? His 
 neighbors at Waterbury and New Milford, — Scovill 
 and Clarke, — deprived of their stipends from the 
 Society, if they continued in the States, accepted 
 new missions in the British Provinces with increased 
 salaries, and removed thither with portions of their 
 flock ; and Andrews of Wallingford and Veits of 
 Simsbury, lured by tempting proposals, followed their 
 example. 
 
 Then there was a movement started elsewhere to 
 adopt some general plan of ecclesiastical union, and a 
 voluntary meeting of clergy and laymen from differ- 
 
206 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ent States for this purpose was held in New York, 
 October, 1784. Marshall was appointed to represent 
 his brethren in that meeting, and he read to the 
 assembly, as you heard in the address of your rector, 
 a paper to the effect " that the clergy of Connecticut 
 had taken measures for obtaining an Episcopate; that 
 until their design in that particular should be accom- 
 plished they could do nothing; but that as soon as 
 they should have succeeded, they would come forward 
 with their bishop for the doing of what the general 
 interests of the Church might require." It was upon 
 the prudent principles of the paper thus read that 
 they continued to act, but the delays to the accom- 
 plishment of their wishes almost wore out their 
 patience. Seabury had been more than a year in 
 London trying to remove the political obstacles to his 
 consecration, and waiting the tardy action of those 
 who had taken his case in hand, when his attention 
 was directed to a Church north of the Tweed, where 
 there were no State oaths to hamper the little College 
 of Bishops, and no silken cord binding together the 
 crown and the crosier. With his funds nearly ex- 
 hausted, and by the advice of English friends and 
 with the approbation of his clergy, he gave up all 
 hopes of being consecrated at Lambeth, and turned 
 his face towards Aberdeen, the granite city in the north 
 of Scotland, where he found the way prepared for his 
 cordial reception. The bishops of the Church in Scot- 
 land were non-jurors, successors of those English pre- 
 lates who, at the Kevolution of 1688, were deprived 
 of their revenues and dignity by the civil power 
 because they refused to disown submission to James 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 207 
 
 the Second and swear allegiance to William the Third, 
 Prince of Orange. 1 The validity of their orders was 
 undoubted, and the only objection to them was on 
 the score of their political principles, and these put 
 them under the ban and made them and their clergy 
 at one time the subject of severe laws and bitter 
 penalties. They were forbidden to officiate except in 
 private houses, and then only for four persons besides 
 those of the household, or, if in an uninhabited build- 
 ing, for a number not exceeding four. In many rural 
 places their houses of worship were burnt by military 
 detachments, and in towns where burning was unsafe 
 they were shut up or demolished. The severe laws 
 against them had not been repealed a century ago, 
 but their edge had worn away and they had become 
 almost wholly inoperative, so that new churches were 
 erected and larger assemblies gathered. 
 
 Seabury was publicly consecrated at Aberdeen on 
 Sunday, the 14th day of November, 1784. The 
 
 1 The death of Charles Edward, at Rome, January 31, 1788, the last 
 of the Stuarts who claimed the throne, left the Scottish bishops and 
 clergy free to offer their allegiance to George III. and to pray for him 
 by name. Under the authority of the Episcopal College an explanatory 
 mandate was issued, directing the clergy to make public notification to 
 their respective congregations on the 18th of May, 1788, that upon the 
 following Sunday nominal prayers for the king would be introduced and 
 afterwards continued in the language of the English liturgy. 
 
 An old Jacobite, Mr. Campbell, says : "Well do I remember the day 
 on which the name of George was mentioned in the morning service for 
 the first time. — such blowing of noses, such significant hums, such half- 
 suppressed sighs, such smothered groans and universal confusion can 
 hardly be conceived. But the deed was done, and those who had parti- 
 cipated could not retract." See Stephens's History Church of Scotland, 
 vol. iv. p. 414. 
 
 The penal statutes were repealed in 1792. 
 
208 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 service was held in a building erected by Bishop John 
 Skinner, and so constructed that it was used partly 
 as a chapel and partly as a residence for himself and 
 family. It stood in Long-Acre — an obscure part of 
 the city — and was reached by a narrow lane where no 
 large carriages pass, — just the spot which one might 
 suppose the non-jurors, in a time of distressful perse- 
 cution, would select to offer their devotions and escape 
 the observation of their enemies. It was removed in 
 1795, and on the site was built a plain stone structure 
 almost square, with high galleries and straight-backed, 
 comfortless pews. The Episcopalians, on the erection 
 of a new St. Andrew's in a better locality, abandoned 
 this edifice after using it nearly a quarter of a century, 
 and sold it to the Wesleyan Methodists, who have 
 since occupied it as a house of public worship. Twelve 
 months ago I was in Aberdeen, and among the first 
 things which I inquired after was the place of Sea- 
 bury 's consecration, which I finally found. Before 
 leaving the city I made a second pilgrimage to a 
 place so interesting to me as a Connecticut church- 
 man, and you may imagine that many associations 
 crowded into my mind as I stood reverently on that 
 spot and connected it with Woodbury and with the 
 whole Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
 States of America. 1 
 
 Marshall was among the happy clergy who wel- 
 comed Seabury on his return, after the long toils and 
 wanderings he had undergone to secure the apostolic 
 
 1 When 1 again visited Aberdeen in October, 1884, the Methodists 
 had disposed of the property, the building was given up to purely secular 
 uses, and there was nothing in the surroundings to awaken any religious 
 sentiment. 
 
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST. 209 
 
 office. He must have heard him lift up his voice 
 under these rafters, and presented to him at an early 
 visitation in Litchfield County the precious tokens of 
 a pastor's zeal and fidelity. He supported him in 
 every effort to establish our ecclesiastical system in 
 this country on a right and permanent basis ; but 
 alas ! his death in the vigor of his manhood was too 
 soon for him to witness the complete union of the 
 Episcopal Church in all the States, the adoption of a 
 general Constitution and the revision and ratification 
 of the Book of Common Prayer. He laid down his 
 armor and went to his rest just as the richer fruits of 
 his ministry began to cheer his benevolent heart, and 
 just as Jerusalem was to have peace within its walls, 
 and joy, if not plenteousness, within its palaces. He 
 died at Woodbury, January 21, 1789. 
 
 It is full time that this discourse was ended, — but 
 one or two more thoughts press upon my mind, and 
 I must give them utterance. 
 
 Though the British Parliament subsequently re- 
 moved all impediments by a special act, and Kev. 
 William White of Pennsylvania and Rev. Samuel 
 Provoost of New York, and at a later date Rev. 
 James Madison of Virginia, set sail for England, and 
 were consecrated at Lambeth, yet at the first conse- 
 cration of a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 in the United States, that of Dr. Claggett at New 
 York, the four assembled bishops, namely, Provoost, 
 Seabury, White, and Madison, joined in the act ; and 
 thus the English and Scottish lines of succession were 
 blended together. Not a single bishop of our Church 
 in this country — and the list is becoming a long and 
 
 14 
 
210 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 noble one — has since been ordained who cannot run 
 back on the line of consecrations to Samuel Seabury, 
 first Bishop of Connecticut and of the American 
 Church. We owe to him, in conjunction with the 
 amiable and godly White, provisions in our liturgy 
 which the lapse of a century has endeared to us, and 
 which, we trust, no hand will rashly tear away, as if 
 Scriptural truth can change, and apostolic order and 
 discipline be brought under the dominion and direc- 
 tion of modern doubts and misbeliefs. Let it be our 
 solemn determination to defend the inheritance be- 
 queathed to us, and to preserve in their integrity 
 those bulwarks to which under God the conservation 
 of our privileges and prosperity must be attributed. 
 While we are all examples of peace and patience and 
 Christian moderation, let us not forget or be afraid to 
 do as our fathers did before us, stand up for the right 
 and the truth, never for one moment allowing that a 
 negative creed and latitudinarian formularies will suit 
 well enough the age in which we live and the gene- 
 rations that are to come. Let us be content to linger 
 in the old Church, and around the paths so long 
 trodden, the old Church of the Reformers, — of Cran- 
 mer, Latimer, and Ridley, of Hooker, Herbert, and 
 Taylor, of Seabury, White, and Griswold. So shall we 
 be in the ways of holiness and righteousness, " and 
 God, even our own God, shall give us His blessing." 
 Amen. 
 
 / 
 
ANNIVERSAEY SEEMON 
 
 IN ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH, NEW HAVEN, ON THE TWENTY- 
 FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PARISH, EASTER, 1873. 
 
 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it 
 to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever ; 
 He will be our guide even unto death. Psalm xlviii. 13, 14. 
 
 This psalm is a song of triumph, in which the 
 strength and glory of Jerusalem are celebrated, and 
 God is acknowledged as a sure refuge. It is a 
 beautiful picture of the security of the Church, cen- 
 tred in Zion, and there is reason to believe that it 
 was composed after the sudden and miraculous over- 
 throw of the army of Sennacherib under the very 
 walls of the Holy City. That proud conqueror had 
 swept the land with his victories, and it seemed to 
 all eyes, except the eye of faith, impossible that the 
 enfeebled garrison in Jerusalem could successfully 
 resist his approach and rise up in triumph. But the 
 Lord of Hosts, who keeps watch and ward over His 
 people, sent the oppressive stillness of death into the 
 vast camp of the Assyrians, and thereby a deliverance 
 was wrought which filled the whole nation with won- 
 der and joy. The temple, the towers, the palaces 
 within the besieged gates, were left in all their beauty, 
 saved from the hand of the spoiler by a mighty mira- 
 cle; and the sacred poet, kindling with emotion as 
 he surveys them and thinks of Jehovah, " great and 
 
212 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 greatly to be praised," pens what is here entitled a 
 " Song and Psalm for the Sons of Korah." 
 
 Some dreadful danger, at least, had been passed, 
 and under images borrowed from the earthly city, 
 newly rescued from her enemies, is described the 
 fabric of the spiritual Jerusalem, wonderfully raised, 
 and as wonderfully preserved. It is one of the 
 special psalms appointed by the Church to be used 
 on Whitsunday, not only because it bears internal 
 evidence that it was designed to be sung in the ser- 
 vice of the Temple, but because it speaks of the 
 accomplishment of predictions which relate to the 
 effusion of the Spirit, and the enlargement, establish- 
 ment and preservation of the kingdom of the Messiah 
 in the Gentile world. 
 
 The text is that portion of it which directs atten- 
 tion specially to the beauty and firmness of the old 
 and earthly Jerusalem, and we see in these words 
 that its material glory was to be admired, not so 
 much for the sake of raising the proud shout of deliv- 
 erance as of transmitting the memory of Jehovah's 
 mercy and protection to future generations. 
 
 u Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces \ 
 that ye may tell it to the generation following. For 
 this God is our God forever and ever ; He will be our 
 guide even unto death." 
 
 Thus it seems evident that the people were to rely 
 upon the objects of faith rather than upon the objects 
 of sense; that the "bulwarks" they were to mark 
 were figuratively the beauty of holiness, the presence 
 of God in His Church, and His precious promises in 
 regard to its perpetuity. Indeed, the destruction of 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 213 
 
 the Temple in the minds of the Jews was viewed as 
 coeval with the end of the world, or with that new 
 constitution of things which they supposed would 
 take place at the Advent of the Messiah. On one occa- 
 sion, when the disciples pointed our Saviour with 
 wonder and pride to the great buildings, adorned with 
 goodly stones and gifts, He uttered a prediction that 
 all should be thrown down and not one stone left 
 upon another. God would not be our God forever 
 and ever, and our guide even unto death, if His mercy 
 and protection had been limited to the Temple, and 
 to the metropolis of the whole Jewish nation. The 
 Psalmist, therefore, under the inspiration of the Divine 
 Spirit, must have looked forward to the Christian 
 Church, and seen it founded on the Rock and guarded 
 in its ministry and ordinances by Him who neither 
 slumbers nor sleeps. The inheritance of which faith 
 and hope make this Church the blessed possessor lies 
 in the past and in the future, and one unaltered 
 Author and channel of mercies is visible alike in both 
 the origin and fulfillment of Christian triumph and 
 
 The old foundations of the Jewish economy are a 
 part of the " bulwarks " and " palaces " of the new 
 dispensation. We build upon them " in Jesus Christ, 
 the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," and we 
 build upon them with the certain hope that our labor 
 will not be in vain. Though the cycles of God's 
 providence transcend our grasp, " one day being 
 with Him as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
 as one day," yet we may not pause in our work when 
 discouragement overtakes it, nor leave to " the gene- 
 
214 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 rations following " an example of the least distrust 
 in the promises of the Gospel. The duty is ours, the 
 fulfillment is His. We are not to be judges of results, 
 for much of the glory of the Church is invisible to 
 mortal eyes, and we cannot, if we would, undraw the 
 veil that hangs before the Eternal Throne. The 
 Church lives without actually beholding the vivifier, 
 and because Christ has promised to be with it "always, 
 even unto the end of the world," its individual 
 members must rejoice to know that the precious in- 
 heritance of faith is independent of the success of 
 human speculation. Those who are Christians more 
 in name than in principle — who, though within the 
 walls of the holy temple, worship only in its outer 
 courts — cannot help owning a sympathy with enter- 
 prises begun and carried on for the good of souls and 
 the welfare of society. 
 
 As each believer is to be a witness of the truth and 
 to vindicate in his person the true worship of God, so 
 the aggregation of believers in parishes should testify 
 by works their love of the Divine law, and preserve, 
 as far as they may, the sacred framework of the 
 Church in its perfectness, and the good deposit of 
 Christian doctrine in its integrity. We commemo- 
 rate to-day an event which proves that He who under- 
 took the office of Mediator was equal to the mighty 
 work, and did indeed restore that access to God the 
 Father which human transgression had fatally inter- 
 rupted. We welcome the notes which remind us at 
 this season that the resurrection of Christ is a mani- 
 festation of His complete authority over the power of 
 physical decay and death. This doctrine is one of 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 215 
 
 the " bulwarks " of our faith, — for if it be not true, 
 if Christ be not risen, we should preach in vain, 
 and there would be no "first fruits of them that 
 slept." 
 
 The great Easter festival revives for us memories 
 that run back over a period of twenty-five years; 
 and it is well at this point of time to take some notice 
 of our progress as a parish, and of events associated 
 with its prosperity. Not many among you have 
 any personal knowledge of the little company of 
 worshipers that gathered Easter Sunday, April 23, 
 1848, in the lecture-room near the foot of Orange 
 Street, to participate in the first public services of St. 
 Thomas's Parish, conducted by your present rector. 
 A legal parochial organization had been effected on 
 the 24 th of February, two months previous to this 
 date, and the intermediate time had been spent by 
 the projectors in securing a rector and arranging and 
 providing for his support. It was a parish without a 
 house for public worship or a lot on which to build 
 one. The faith of those who originated it was larger 
 than their personal influence or their pecuniary abil- 
 ity, and because the enterprise was thus commenced 
 some honestly feared that it would prove a failure. 
 Before much had been done, and while the new organ- 
 ization was attracting the attention of Episcopalians 
 in the city, a zealous Christian woman, now gone to 
 her rest, was one day asked by a friend " why it was 
 named St. Thomas's Church?" And the rather sar- 
 castic reply was given, that " she did not know, unless 
 it was to indicate the doubtfulness of the project." 
 
 At that Easter festival, celebrated when the open- 
 
216 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ing services were held, twenty-five communicants 
 were present, and about thirty families originally 
 composed the congregation. I pass over in this 
 review the usual trials and obstacles which beset 
 all such enterprises in their commencement, — the 
 hired room too narrow for the growing congregation, 
 and every way unchurchlike and uninviting ; the cau- 
 tious steps, taken before the year in which the parish 
 was formed had closed, to purchase this lot on Elm 
 Street, and then the preliminary measures to erect 
 upon it without delay a temporary chapel ; the influx 
 of another class of worshipers, and soon the demand 
 for a better, more beautiful and more spacious edi- 
 fice ; the long and earnest consultations touching its 
 erection, the final decision to go forward; and the 
 shelter which we found for ourselves in a "large 
 upper room," while the work of building the Church 
 was in progress, — all these points I pass over now, 
 because they were principally gathered up on the 
 occasion of our tenth anniversary, and the sermon 
 which contains them, delivered at that time, was 
 printed and made accessible to you. 
 
 The last official act of Bishop Brownell in New 
 Haven was to consecrate this Church, on the 19th of 
 April, in Easter week, 1855, — and though he lived 
 for a period of nearly ten years, yet he performed 
 only once again the same service elsewhere. None 
 but those who have gone through the many solici- 
 tudes and vexations incident to the erection of a 
 house of public worship, and who have witnessed day 
 by day the slowly-rising walls, can really understand, 
 in all their length and breadth, the meaning of the 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 217 
 
 prophet's words applied to the completion of the 
 second Temple : " He shall bring forth the headstone 
 thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." 
 After having been wanderers for more than a year, 
 we were glad to come back to the spot around which 
 our thoughts had centred, and to take possession of 
 a sanctuary of appropriate architecture, and as taste- 
 ful as it is beautiful. 
 
 Since the consecration of the Church much has 
 been done for the outward prosperity of the parish, 
 because much remained to be done. A burdensome 
 debt has been removed, — the first great step towards 
 it having been taken in the summer of 1858, when, 
 with the aid of a few friends not belonging to the 
 congregation, — friends who cannot and who will not 
 be forgotten, so long as the records are preserved, — 
 a subscription was commenced, filled up and paid, 
 amounting to $15,075. 
 
 Then the Easter offertory, seven years ago, of about 
 eight thousand dollars, was another evidence of your 
 generosity and self-sacrificing zeal for the improve- 
 ment of your financial condition. Besides extinguish- 
 ing a mortgage which had been left upon the land 
 from the date of its purchase, a small fund was thus 
 created for future use, and this fund led you into ex- 
 penses for the interior decorations and a new organ, 
 which fell but little short of nine thousand dollars. 
 The amount contributed since we have worshiped 
 in this consecrated edifice, for objects within the parish, 
 exclusive of the current expenses and Communion 
 alms, omitting fractions, is $48,288, and for mission- 
 ary and charitable purposes without the parish, in the 
 
218 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 * 
 
 same time, $11,191, making a total of $59,479. It 
 is a satisfaction to feel that we have paid back in the 
 shape of missionary and charitable contributions al- 
 most three times the amount received from our few 
 outside friends, when we were weak and needed a 
 little assistance. I trust that, with God's blessing, 
 we shall show in the future how our liberality as a 
 parish in such contributions can " abound more and 
 more." It is a satisfaction to know also, as will be 
 shown by the report of the treasurer to-morrow, that 
 your condition financially was never so good as at this 
 very moment. If those who come after us and take 
 our responsibilities will manage with equal wisdom, 
 and keep the world as much as possible out of the 
 Church ; if they will be careful not to be pushed into 
 extravagances of any kind, or made to think that 
 God owns and blesses works and ways which are not 
 described in the letter of His appointment, — then 
 this parish may have a glorious future, and you who 
 have done so much for it hitherto will be remem- 
 bered, and have a claim of gratitude upon " the gene- 
 rations following." 
 
 Probably no one, as he moves on towards the end 
 of his days, has any but pleasurable feelings in recall- 
 ing his charities, and the good deeds which God has 
 enabled him to do for His house and people. Men, 
 eager for this world's riches, toil night and day to 
 gather them, and make investments in institutions 
 which are occasionally wrecked by mismanagement 
 or dishonesty, — but nothing given for the Lord is 
 ever really lost, or fails to be an element in storing 
 up for the true-hearted believer a good foundation 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 219 
 
 against the time to come. As it is the duty of the 
 pastor to sympathize with his people in their sorrows 
 and afflictions, so it is his right and privilege to 
 rejoice when he beholds the blessings of a benignant 
 Providence descending upon them, and rich-reward- 
 ing gains attending their honest and diversified occu- 
 pations. But he would be untrue to the Master 
 whom he serves, and unfaithful to the Church of 
 which he is a minister, if he did not often appeal to 
 them in their prosperity, to remember from whom 
 they have received, and to exercise a just steward- 
 ship of the things which have only been lent them 
 of the Lord. Because the day of human life is short, 
 he would teach them, what they ought to accept 
 without much persuasion, that the opportunities of 
 usefulness are soon closed, and that the peace and 
 welfare of society demand that they should not for- 
 get the scriptural rule, " to whom much is given, of 
 them shall much be required." 
 
 It is not, however, in temporalities that we are to 
 look for the best measure of parochial growth. No 
 compact surely can be made between the Church 
 and men of business, that if the one will keep their 
 consciences and take care of their souls, the other 
 will supply the means of supporting and extending 
 Christian ministrations. While Christ would have 
 us faithful stewards and show by our charities that 
 we are alive to the outward beauty and maintenance 
 of His house, this, let me say, is not the highest 
 demand. It is not what He died and rose again for, 
 — not what He instituted His church and appointed 
 His ministry for. He would have us take up the 
 
220 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 cross and follow Him. He would have us receive 
 into our hearts the Gospel which we preach, and " by 
 which," as St. Paul says, " ye are saved, if ye keep in 
 memory what I preached unto you, unless ye, have 
 believed in vain." 
 
 Hence it is that we place before outward prosper- 
 ity and first in our ministrations the inner life, the 
 growth in spiritual things, the being blessed and 
 built up in that which is far better than all, the walk 
 of holiness and righteousness. It is hardly possible 
 in a discourse of this kind to avoid some egotism, 
 and you will indulge me, therefore, when I say that 
 I did not come here twenty-five years ago to make a 
 nest for myself, in which to find repose when the 
 infirmities of age should appear. Not to speak of 
 its being a forgetfulness of duty and a violation of 
 solemn vows, it would indicate singular folly and 
 weakness in a minister to do this, since there are so 
 many ways by which the nest might be disturbed, 
 and he shut out from its enjoyment. I came here 
 to do the work of my Master, under a new parochial 
 organization, and I have felt all along a woe impend- 
 ing over me if I preached not the Gospel. However 
 unfaithful I may have been in other respects, you 
 have had no reason to complain of long and frequent 
 absences on my part, nor, thank God, have sick- 
 nesses, which are the common lot of us all, prevented 
 the uninterrupted fulfillment of my public duties. 
 Except when I was out of the country for a few 
 months in 1870, only one Communion Sunday in 
 twenty-five years, and then a domestic sorrow de- 
 tained me from the sanctuary, have you failed to see 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 221 
 
 me in my place, consecrating those elements which 
 Christ has made the symbols of his dying love. 
 
 Our statistics do not show large and sudden acces- 
 sions, but they show quiet and steady progress. 
 Four hundred and thirty-two have been baptized, — 
 three hundred and forty-eight infants, and eighty- 
 four adults, — two hundred and eighty-eight con- 
 firmed, six hundred and eleven admitted and re- 
 ceived to the Holy Communion, — the communicants 
 at the present time numbering two hundred and 
 fifty -seven. I have married three hundred and 
 sixty -three couples, and officiated at three hundred 
 and ninety-four funerals. Death and removal make 
 great changes in a congregation during the lapse of 
 a quarter of a century. One vestryman alone re- 
 mains of those who composed the original officers of 
 the parish, and he was reelected at your last annual 
 meeting, after having been separated from us for a 
 season ; and besides him, of the first members of the 
 congregation, but three heads of families are now pew- 
 holders in the church. We have sent out from us, 
 to New York and Brooklyn, and other places, fam- 
 ilies enough to constitute a respectably-sized con- 
 gregation, and if they have carried with them the 
 instructions which they received here, if they " have 
 kept in memory what was preached unto them," it is 
 believed they will make their influence felt in their 
 new connections, and so do good in their day and 
 generation. This thought mitigates the pain of sep- 
 arating from those who have long worshiped with 
 us in the same sanctuary, and when they go from us, 
 we cheerfully give them, what they deserve, our best 
 
222 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 benedictions. The pain is mitigated too by the fact 
 that others are constantly coming in to supply the 
 vacancies occasioned by their removal. 
 
 The last twenty-five years have produced great 
 changes in the relative strength and feeling of the 
 Church in this city, as well as great changes in the 
 city itself. The Episcopal families in New Haven 
 reported in 1848 were 680, and the communicants 
 831. There are now about 1,250 families, and 2,000 
 communicants. The church (St. Paul's) whose rector 
 and some of whose influential members doubted at the 
 time the expediency of forming this third parish, and 
 did not hesitate to express their doubts, planted after- 
 wards, under the support and guidance of other coun- 
 sels, two mission churches in the outskirts of the city, 
 one of which has developed into St. John's parish, 
 and the other into the Church of the Ascension. 
 Christ Church is the fruit of a mission founded under 
 the auspices of Trinity parish in 1854; Grace Church, 
 in the Seventh Ward, is of spontaneous growth; and 
 with this increase in the number of our congrega- 
 tions, and a corresponding increase of ministers, no 
 one rector in this city can ever again be called upon 
 to officiate at so many baptisms, marriages, and fune- 
 rals as did the late Dr. Croswell. 
 
 Changes in the religious bodies outside of us have 
 been very perceptible. The Congregationalists have 
 added to their societies and houses of worship, but 
 not a pastor among them retains the position he held 
 when I came here. All have died, resigned, or been 
 dismissed. The Methodists have increased in num- 
 bers and strength, and found it necessary .to provide 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 223 
 
 more room for their adherents. The Baptists, who 
 were broken into two bands twenty-five years ago, 
 have come together, and the pastor, whose ministry 
 in New Haven antedates my own about two years, is 
 over the united congregation, and the house of wor- 
 ship which his people formerly occupied has become 
 the resting place of a body of Universalists. The 
 Baptists have also formed a new society and erected 
 lately a somewhat expensive edifice in the western 
 part of the city. The Roman Catholics in 1848 had 
 but one church, a small wooden building near the 
 General Hospital, which was burned down the same 
 year. Now they have three large and durable struc- 
 tures, filled mainly with devotees who brought their 
 faith with them from the old country. The Protest- 
 ant foreign element has created a demand for German 
 and Lutheran churches, and the Jews, who are every- 
 where in the world, have become possessed of one 
 large synagogue, and within the past week another 
 and smaller one has been opened. 
 
 The progress of the city in the same period has 
 been great. The population has trebled, and the 
 advance in wealth and public improvements can only 
 be measured by going back and comparing the past 
 with the present. It must be owned that the Epis- 
 copal Church in New Haven has done no more than 
 keep pace with the growth of the town. In common 
 with other Christian bodies, it has had evils to con- 
 tend with which have served to deaden its true life. 
 The late civil war, that rocked the nation to its cen- 
 tre, not only checked for the time the prosperous 
 business of the place, but left here as elsewhere a 
 
224 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 legacy of sufferings, sorrows, and bereavements. 
 Though, in the providence of God, it settled political 
 questions forever which had long been perplexing, 
 yet out of that momentous struggle has issued a 
 brood of uncomputed mischiefs overspreading the 
 land, and working injury in various ways to the 
 cause of pure and undefiled religion. The greed for 
 gain, the spirit of speculation, the extravagances of 
 living, consequent upon suddenly acquired wealth; 
 the intense worldliness which is confined to no class ; 
 the blunted moral sense of public servants, reach- 
 ing down from the higher to the lower stations ; the 
 awful desecration of the Christian Sabbath, the neglect 
 of God's house ; the forgetfulness in families that 
 there is a retribution for the infraction of His laws ; 
 the sensuality which runs into absolute and direct 
 vice ; the latent skepticism of scientists, the misbeliefs 
 of men and women, the sneers at virtue, the denials 
 of truth ; the cold scorn of the doctrine of the Cross 
 of Christ in all its simplicity and soul-dividing power, 
 — what are these but hindrances to the work of the 
 ministry and the progress of the Church ? 
 
 This is certainly a very important and interesting 
 period in which to live. Our lot is cast in an age of 
 movement and quickened impulses, and religious 
 thought has not the sobriety of former years. It has 
 taken on many new and strange aspects, but we are 
 not to be dismayed by them, or by what some appear 
 to regard as dangers of the gravest character. " God 
 is our God for ever and ever." The old truths remain, 
 the old promises stand, and it is our wisdom as well 
 as our safety to cherish them ; to abide steadfastly and 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 225 
 
 unitedly, as in years gone, by the Church, by that 
 which is well known and well approved in faith and 
 practice. " Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her 
 palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation fol- 
 lowing." 
 
 We cannot expect in such an age to pursue in 
 everything the precise steps of our fathers. They 
 loved, for example, — because it was the fashion of 
 the day, or because they could not build any better, 
 — the plain wooden churches of half a century ago, 
 with uncomfortable pews and inconvenient chancel 
 arrangements; and they sung to the music of the 
 flute, the clarionet, and the bass viol, — but he would 
 be a churchman of singular tastes and conformation 
 who should be willing to go back to these, and give 
 up our improved churches and chancels; and the 
 sound of the organ which is designed to accompany 
 the voice and help the people, — "yea, all the people 
 praise Thee, God." What we may, and ought to 
 imitate them in is a simplicity of devotion, and a 
 reverence and affection for the venerable formularies 
 of our faith. We ought to hold fast the treasures we 
 have received, and transmit them to " the generations- 
 following " as they have come to us, — neither misled 
 with the idea that any mortal can think out a new 
 Gospel and change the rule of Christian duty, nor 
 giving subjection for one hour to minds that would 
 bury the truth in doubts or speak disparagingly of 
 the teachings of the Church. If in any respect we 
 have had opportunities of rising to a better tone of 
 religious or church feeling than our fathers, let us be 
 thankful, and pray God to bless and keep us in all 
 
 15 
 
226 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 the ways of truth and righteousness, that our works 
 and charities may be perfect and entire, wanting no- 
 thing. Let us continue in the things which we have 
 learned and been assured of, and let us lift up our 
 souls to God, the Holy Ghost, that He may breathe 
 over them His renewing; influences. We need Divine 
 help as much to enable us to live, as we need it to 
 strengthen us to die. The Gospel is for life, not for 
 death, — and the more we soar upward to the mercy- 
 seat now, the better prepared shall we be to endure 
 days of trial, and the firmer and truer will be the 
 strength and beauty of our Christian life, — just as the 
 forest tree which, while flinging; its trunk and branches 
 high towards the heavens, strikes its roots for safety 
 and nourishment ever deeper and deeper into the soil 
 beneath. 
 
 I have already referred to the changes which death 
 and removal make in a congregation during the lapse 
 of a quarter of a century. There are others which 
 have not been noted, — for among the men and 
 women before me to-day are some of the children 
 whom I have taken in my arms and crossed in bap- 
 tism. They have entered upon those " waves of this 
 troublesome world," which we prayed here at the 
 font that they might so pass, " being steadfast in 
 faith, joyful in hope, and rooted in charity," as finally 
 to " come to the land of everlasting life." Not a few 
 reached that land before they had learned to know a 
 parent's love, and in each of those who have grown 
 or are growing up, we begin to read an answer to 
 the question which, in spite of us, will sometimes rush 
 through the mind when the Christian name is given, 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 227 
 
 — the question which was once asked in fear con- 
 cerning the forerunner of Christ, — " What manner 
 of child shall this be ? " The pastor who has stood for 
 almost a generation in the same place cannot but 
 have peculiar solicitude for the young of his flock. 
 He would see them in the path of life. He would 
 see them all ratifying and renewing their baptismal 
 vows in the apostolic rite of confirmation, all coming 
 in due time to strengthen and refresh their souls in 
 the blessed sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because 
 he remembers that the hope of the Church for the 
 future is in them ; and if they are negligent of reli- 
 gious duties and find no pjeasure in piety, how can he 
 be without gloomy and sorrowful apprehensions ? 
 
 It is full time to close this discourse, and I will not 
 detain you longer than to say, that this hour, with 
 all the joy of the Easter festival, is crowded for me 
 with strange yet holy memories. Some of them, like 
 domestic privacies, are too sacred to be mentioned, 
 and others are too personal. What the next twenty- 
 five years will be or will produce for the parish, not 
 many of us who have passed the meridian of life will 
 survive to know. It is morally certain before that 
 period closes another rector will stand in my place, 
 and while he may be more faithful in some things 
 and more diligent in others, he cannot be more self- 
 sacrificing than I have been, or more devoted to your 
 parochial and spiritual prosperity. I bless God that, 
 with rare exceptions, you have not been a people 
 with itching ears, and I desire here and now to thank 
 you for standing by me and this Church in the days 
 of trial, and allowing no slight and unworthy reasons 
 
228 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 to separate you from our services and take you to 
 other Christian homes in the city. I bear in grateful 
 remembrance all your kindnesses, your faithfulness in 
 critical moments, and your zeal for the good. of your 
 fellow-men, and for the honor and glory of God. 
 May He have us in His keeping, and may it be our 
 blessing to be built up in Him that is true, even in 
 His Son Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
PRIVILEGE AND DUTY. 
 
 SERMON AT THE RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH, 
 CHESHIRE, FEBRUARY 24, 1876. 
 
 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy 
 mercy : and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. — 
 Psalm v. 7. 
 
 It was from this text that Bishop Brownell preached 
 one of his most finished and instructive sermons, when 
 he consecrated St. Peter's Church, Cheshire, on Satur- 
 day the first day of August, 1840. There are some 
 here this morning who, like myself, will remember that 
 occasion without remembering much that was said, 
 — some who can recall the fears, the anxieties, the 
 prayers, the self-denials, and the pain of rending old 
 historic associations which attended the demolition 
 of a venerable wooden edifice, and the erection in its 
 place of a neat, more commodious, and substantial 
 brick church. I never read and pause in meditation 
 over the text, except I find my thoughts running back 
 to Cheshire, — first to that service of consecration, 
 and then to an incident of personal history which was 
 a simple and beautiful commentary on the words of 
 the Psalmist. For in the days of my youthful ministry 
 here, there lived just over the river, as you call it, an 
 aged mother in Israel, 1 whose infirmities detained her 
 
 1 Mrs. Phineas Ives. 
 
230 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 from the house of God, and whose faith was sorely 
 tried in her latest years by the defection of her sons 
 from the communion in which they had been born 
 and nurtured. It was her invariable custom on Sun- 
 days and Christmas to watch the passing hours, and 
 when the time for the minister to begin the public 
 service had arrived, she opened her cherished prayer- 
 book, and, turning her face toward the village church, 
 joined with heart and soul in the devotions as though 
 bodily present among the worshipers. "But why," 
 was the remark once made to her, " do you turn your 
 face toward the sanctuary ? " Quick as thought she 
 replied, " Oh, you know what David says, ' and in thy 
 fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.' " 
 
 Worshiping toward thy holy temple, or, as a mar- 
 ginal reading has it in this connection, toward the tem- 
 ple of thy holiness, was a custom to which there is 
 frequent reference in the Old Testament. Solomon 
 makes it prominent in his prayer at the dedication of 
 the temple on Mount Zion; and Daniel, in whose affec- 
 tions Jerusalem was linked with the worship which 
 had descended from earlier ages, when he knew that 
 the fatal writing was signed which doomed him to 
 destruction in a den of lions, " went into his house ; 
 and, his windows being open in his chamber toward 
 Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a 
 day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as 
 he did afore time.' ' 
 
 For the purpose of our discourse, no critical obser- 
 vations on the contents or authorship of this Psalm 
 need be offered. It is a morning hymn, throughout 
 which there breathes a strong feeling that God is 
 
RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 231 
 
 pledged by His righteous character to bless and defend 
 the upright. Very naturally, we may understand 
 David, in the text, to be speaking of the literal struc- 
 ture, whether tabernacle or temple, and he had access 
 to it because the King of kings, of His grace and good- 
 ness, permitted him to draw near, and, having placed 
 himself in sharp contrast with the workers of iniquity, 
 he drew near with that reverential awe which becomes 
 every true worshiper. Bishop Lowth translates, 
 "But I, in the abundance of thy mercy, come into 
 thy house ; in fear of Thee, I worship at thy holy 
 temple," — thus expressing the Hebrew future by the 
 present, and indicating not so much the man's design 
 as his privilege and his constant practice. 
 
 Without further introduction let me direct your 
 special attention : — 
 
 First, to the multitude of your mercies as Christian 
 worshipers in these days ; 
 
 And secondly, to the duty of reverence and godly 
 fear in the house of the Lord. 
 
 I do not propose by way of comparison to dwell, 
 under the first head, on the peculiar restrictions of the 
 ancient Jewish religion. There is no one spot now 
 which has the promise of extraordinary divine mani- 
 festations; there is no holy temple on the mount 
 which can be regarded as the presence-chamber of 
 the Almighty, where He has fixed His glorious name, 
 and where He declares, as of old, that He will receive 
 and answer petitions from all places under heaven. 
 It is enough to know that the redemptive work of 
 Christ was wrought for the whole human family, for 
 the Jew and the Gentile, for the bond and the free ; 
 
232 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and that the Christian Church, with benedictions wide 
 as the world, invites her children everywhere to 
 pray unto God, who has promised that when two 
 or three are gathered together in His name, He will 
 grant their requests. 
 
 But what are your privileges to-day, my brethren, 
 as Christian worshipers in this land of ours? Not 
 many pages of history need be turned back before we 
 come to the settlement of New England by a people 
 who, with sterling virtues and a mingled spirit of lib- 
 erty and adventure, sought to establish a religious sys- 
 tem that rejected the use of a Liturgy, and broke the 
 chain of holy succession from the martyrs and bish- 
 ops of the early Church of England. The creed and 
 prayers of our mother in the faith were not heard in 
 the rude houses erected by our forefathers for the 
 worship of God, and the utmost pains were taken to 
 prevent a revival of reverence and affection for the 
 old altars among those who could not altogether for- 
 get their ancestry and the homes and associations 
 which they had left behind. And when, in the order- 
 ing of Divine Providence, this revival came, and there 
 was a turning here and there to Episcopacy of minis- 
 ters and people, what a battle was fought to vindicate 
 liberty of conscience, and obtain the sweet boon which 
 Mrs. Hemans calls, — 
 
 u Freedom to worship God." 
 
 In the single colony of Connecticut, one hundred 
 and fifty years ago, the ground was debated step by 
 step, and inch by inch, — the ground which divided 
 the Churchman from the Puritan; and jealousies and 
 
RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 233 
 
 religious animosities sprang up that often alienated 
 families from each other, and disturbed the peace and 
 happiness of neighborhoods. Those asperities of feel- 
 ing were finally in a measure worn off, the rights con- 
 tended for were allowed, and taxes to support the 
 Standing Order remitted, and then the Church of 
 England in Connecticut, which is ours to-day, began 
 to lift her head, and to be recognized as the keeper of 
 Holy Writ, and a teacher of "things that become 
 sound doctrine." 
 
 Bat still how few were the mercies, how slender 
 the privileges, which they possessed who broke away 
 from the rules of the prevailing religious body, and 
 attached themselves to the venerable communion of 
 the home government ! The Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, to which " under 
 God " we, as a Church, " are indebted for our first 
 foundation and a long continuance of nursing care 
 and protection," sent missionaries into Connecticut, 
 who baptized, preached, and administered the Holy 
 Communion in town-houses and private dwellings, 
 until little wooden barn-like structures, which were all 
 the poverty of the people could provide, rose among 
 the hills and valleys, and echoed henceforth with the 
 voices of earnest worshipers. One such little edifice 
 was erected on this spot in 1760, and then as time went 
 on, and the flock of the wandering shepherd grew, it 
 was succeeded by another of increased dimensions, and 
 again it was enlarged, and the place and the parish 
 made more important by the establishment here, 
 under the auspices of the first Bishop of Connecticut, 
 of the first diocesan school of our Church in this 
 country. 
 
234 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 I sometimes in my own mind compare the privi- 
 leges of Christian worshipers a century or even half 
 a century ago with those enjoyed by all classes of 
 people in these luxurious and extravagant times. A 
 mother, walking to the house of God and carrying in 
 her arms an infant to be baptized, or both parents 
 mounted upon a horse, the father holding before him 
 the child, and the mother behind upon a pillion, the 
 comfortless condition of the sanctuary, the naked floor, 
 the bare seats, the unplastered ceilings and sides, the 
 absence of all conveniences for the officiating minister 
 and for the rubrical rendering of divine service, the 
 high pulpit and the high breast-work in front for a 
 prayer-desk, the sonorous pitch-pipe to elevate the 
 key of the tune, or at best the bass-viol and clarionet 
 to accompany the singers, — how all these things 
 appear to us in a day of convenient and handsome 
 land carriages, of costly churches, warmed, cushioned, 
 carpeted, and richly decorated, of spacious chancels, 
 and adjoining vestry-rooms, of pealing organs, and 
 cultivated choirs! 
 
 It is a good place to mention now that it was in 
 this parish that early, if not the earliest, steps in Con- 
 necticut were taken to introduce the practice of 
 chanting and singing of anthems, — steps which were 
 met elsewhere at first with strong and very decided 
 objections. Under the guidance of the rector, 1 whose 
 
 1 Rev. Reuben Ives. He was a native of Cheshire, and married 
 Susannah Anna Maria, a daughter of the Rev. John R. Marshall of 
 Woodbury, on Sunday, January 25, 1789, four days after the death of 
 her father. The old parsonage, once occupied by Mr. Marshall, and 
 where ten of the clergy of Connecticut met on the 25th of March, 1783, 
 
RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 235 
 
 graceful memorial lias been erected here to remind 
 you of his fidelity and long-continued service, the 
 young of the congregation were collected and trained 
 in this species of sacred music ; and soon the parts 
 prescribed in the Prayer Book to be " said or sung," 
 the anthems and doxologies, were loved as much, 
 when musically rendered, as the metrical psalms and 
 hymns. 
 
 But I must carry you on to other thoughts and 
 contemplations. How little did the good prelate, to 
 whose consecration sermon allusion has been made, 
 foresee the great changes and improvements that 
 would come to this church and place in the lapse of 
 a single generation ! Twelve years ago, when I had 
 been away from you about that length of time, in 
 another field of labor, it was my privilege to return 
 and preach the sermon at the re-opening of this build- 
 ing, beautified then by an added chancel, a memorial 
 window, an enriched ceiling, and various inner adorn- 
 
 and selected a fit person for the Episcopal office, is still standing, — an 
 interesting historic relic of the last century. 
 
 It may be added that Dr. George Grub, in his Ecclesiastical History of 
 Scotland, vol. iv. p. 99, thus speaks of the spot where the first Bishop of 
 Connecticut was consecrated : — 
 
 " Dr. Seabury was consecrated in the upper room of a house in Long- 
 acre, Aberdeen, which, according to the exigencies of that time, was used 
 partly as a chapel, partly as the residence of Bishop Skinner, and on the 
 site of which a chapel, now [1870] occupied by the Wesley ans, was 
 built in 1795." 
 
 In a letter to the author, dated August 5, 1875, Dr. Grub says: " The 
 Methodist chapel in Longacre is not now used for any religious purpose 
 whatever, having been sold recently by the Wesleyans on erecting a new 
 chapel. The building on the site of the Methodist chapel, where Sea- 
 bury's consecration took place, was built by Bishop John Skinner as a 
 dwelling house for himself and a place of meeting for his congregation. 
 Neither it, nor its successor on the same site, was ever consecrated." 
 
236 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ments and improvements. And now I am here 
 again to mark the gratifying tokens of life and ad- 
 vancement, and to find the second temple so exceed- 
 ing in glory the first that one can hardly comprehend 
 that he stands on the old spot and is surrounded by 
 the old associations. The whole interior, the enlarged 
 space, the new arrangements of nave, the comfortable 
 sittings, the more elegant means of lighting for even- 
 ing services, the modest, yet becoming tributes of 
 respect and affection as shown in the memorial win- 
 dows, — all are proofs that the rector has been ener- 
 getic and had a mind to work, and that God has put 
 it into the hearts of the people and of kind friends to 
 work also. 
 
 As intimately connected with the relations and 
 prosperity of the parish it should not be forgotten 
 that our diocesan institution — the " Episcopal Acad- 
 emy" — has passed under the diligent hand of im- 
 provement. There was no Bronson or Horton Hall 
 twelve years ago, and much cause have we for grati- 
 tude that both of these have come to us in such 
 admirable forms, and that the fire which burned the 
 pile of wooden buildings did not consume the zeal of 
 the principal, or deter him from moving on in the 
 great work of Christian education. With all its 
 attendant solicitudes, there was a " multitude of mer- 
 cies " to be thankful for in that conflagration. 1 
 
 1 On the morning of September 25, 1873, the large boarding-house 
 constructed of wood, with the buildings attached, was destroyed by fire, 
 the pupils and inmates escaping unhurt and much of the furniture and 
 valuables being saved. It was immediately replaced with a new and 
 handsome edifice of brick, and named, by the trustees of the institution- 
 Horton Hall. It has all the modern improvements, and is not only com- 
 
RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 237 
 
 But it is time to proceed to the second topic pro- 
 posed, namely, the duty of reverence and godly fear 
 in the house of the Lord. 
 
 Hooker says, " The very majesty and holiness of 
 the place where God is worshiped hath in regard of 
 us great virtue, force, and efficacy, for that it serveth 
 as a sensible help to stir up devotion, and, in that 
 respect, no doubt bettereth even our holiest and best 
 actions in this kind." * Consecration signifies the set- 
 ting apart or devoting of anything to God, and a 
 building erected by human instruments with human 
 hands is thus offered to his service, and henceforth it 
 is His and His only. It is dedicated to His worship 
 and to all the uses and offices of religion : it is for 
 Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, for Catechising 
 and Confirmation, for the Solemnization of Matrimony 
 and the Burial of the Dead ; for reading the Word 
 and instruction in the same ; and especially, because 
 most commonly, for the oblation of prayer and praise, 
 of confession, of thanksgiving, and of supplication. 
 For whatever public use a ministry in the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church is designed, to that use 
 this house of God is forever set apart, and it cannot 
 be appropriated to any secular or alien purposes 
 without violating the trust committed in good faith 
 
 plete in its arrangements, but fitted for the accommodation of a large 
 number of pupils. 
 
 Bronson Hall was erected in 1867, a former student of the academy 
 — Mr. H. N. Slater, of Rhode Island — giving $5,000 towards it, and an 
 equal sum being contributed by friends and churchmen in Connecticut. 
 It contains the chapel, which has been duly set apart for religious 
 services. 
 
 1 Complete Works, American ed., vol. i. p. 314. 
 
238 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 to the hands of its present guardians, and through 
 them to the stewardship of succeeding generations. 
 How becoming therefore are reverence and godly 
 fear in this place, and how careful should you be to 
 enter it in a spirit of worship, and to hallow it by 
 close communion with God and deep self-abasement ! 
 Our customs and forms of devotion are not meaning- 
 less. In the ancient worship of the temple, we learn 
 in Scripture that there was order ; there were great 
 splendor and much sacred pomp ; there was abun- 
 dance of music ; there was kneeling in prayer, partic- 
 ularly of the more earnest kind ; there was standing 
 in praise, and every dignified ceremony that could 
 aid the mind by outward association. This was the 
 public worship that came under the eye of God's 
 inspired psalmists and prophets, and it w T as this that 
 our Saviour attended, always giving it his entire coun- 
 tenance, and not requiring his disciples to abandon 
 it, so that for many years after his ascension into 
 heaven the apostles and Jewish Christians continued 
 to frequent the courts of the Lord on Mount Zion. 
 The worship of Christian churches was, to a great 
 extent, modeled by their apostolic founders on those 
 parts of the temple service which were not abolished ; 
 and we have therefore what is tantamount to divine 
 authority for the essential features of a Liturgy, of 
 a prepared worship, of reasonable and edifying cere- 
 monies, and of bodily homage. Soundness in doc- 
 trine requires that we " take with us words w T hen 
 we approach the Lord." The argument of ignorant 
 enthusiasm, that precomposed forms as to the subjects 
 for prayer and the expressions to be used, prevent 
 
RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 239 
 
 the heart from being moved by the Holy Spirit, is 
 unworthy of a moment's consideration. God forbade 
 of old the minutest blemish in an animal sacrifice, and 
 it is equally proper that we guard against any fault 
 or imperfection in the sacrifices of our lips. Both the 
 affection of the soul, and the language in which it is 
 offered up, should be as worthy as man can render 
 them of that great and perfect Being whom they are 
 intended to honor. Use the forms rightly, my breth- 
 ren, and reverence and godly fear in the house of 
 the Lord will surely follow. Formality is produced 
 by the weakness or depravity of our nature, making 
 us laggard, reluctant, inattentive in religious duties, 
 yet satisfied when they have been thus heartlessly 
 performed. To guard against this is one of the prime 
 objects of a true worshiper; and the place rich in 
 associations the best fitted to raise and purify his 
 thoughts and to give life and energy to his prayers, 
 he will be careful never to desecrate by frivolous con- 
 versation and worldly amusement and vanity. u The 
 Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep si- 
 lence before Him," — silence, as to the distracting cares 
 of business and the calls of pleasure ; and let the wor- 
 shiper here be impressed with sacred awe, in view 
 of the majestic truth that " the high and lofty One 
 that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy," deigns 
 to " dwell with him also that is of a contrite and 
 humble spirit." A recognition of the place as some- 
 thing more than an ordinary secular edifice — how 
 impressive it is ! The stranger unaccustomed to our 
 services has been struck with the manner of the 
 devout Christian, entering the sanctuary and kneel- 
 
240 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ing for a few moments in silence as he reaches his 
 seat, to say to himself, " Let the words of my mouth, 
 and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy 
 sight, Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer ! " and 
 when all has closed for that time, when the last notes 
 of the pealing organ, with the voices of the singers, 
 have died away, and the benediction of the pastor is 
 lingering in echoes along the aisles and arches, how 
 beautiful, how becoming is the momentary stillness of 
 the great congregation, bowing as one man to offer 
 their secret prayers for a blessing on the preached 
 word, and for the pardon of any imperfection in the 
 day's services ! 
 
 But I must not detain you longer with these or 
 other thoughts that might be uttered on this occasion. 
 It need not be repeated, my brethren, that you have 
 manifold privileges for which to be grateful. God in 
 His Providence has brought you to this hour, and 
 given you the mind and the means to adore Him for 
 His love, and to honor Him with " good deeds done 
 for His house and for the offices thereof." It is not 
 the unmeaning word of flattery to say : You have a 
 beautiful church ; you have made it attractive to the 
 outward eye ; you have supplied it with everything 
 calculated to render public worship uplifting and 
 holy ; and now let me entreat you to press to its 
 portals : — 
 
 11 Oh! gather whenceso'er ye safely may 
 
 The help which slackening piety requires, 
 Nor deem that he perforce must go astray, 
 Who treads upon the footmarks of his sires." 
 
 Be not disposed to lean too much upon him who 
 
RE-CONSECRATION OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 241 
 
 is over you in the Lord for prosperity as a parish, or 
 for advancement in the spiritual life. In the great 
 work of gathering in the nations and fixing the reli- 
 gion of Jesus Christ in the households and hearts of 
 men, the Almighty makes use, not of lofty angels who 
 have kept their first estate, but of the fallen and the 
 feeble, who are themselves in perils, — themselves 
 but wrestlers for immortality. The treasure of the 
 ministry we know is in earthen vessels. It is subject 
 to decay and liable to removal, but the Church abides, 
 and the great Head of the Church continues to be in 
 all places her sure support and comfort. Since the 
 foundation of this parish, there has been but one rector 
 whose term of office in it extended above thirty 
 years, and that was Eeuben Ives. In looking over 
 lately the list of clergy in Connecticut, I was sur- 
 prised to find how few have been in their parishes 
 years enough to be able to present for confirmation 
 the youth whom, as infants, they took in their arms 
 and crossed in baptism. 
 
 My brethren, God speaks to us both through circum- 
 stances and in the sanctuary of conscience with equal 
 clearness. Hear Him now and always. For the day 
 approaches when you must u cease from good works " 
 and leave to your children the heritage of your 
 responsibilities. May your life temporal be followed 
 by the life eternal. Grant it, God of our salvation, for 
 thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ : and to Thee, Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, let there be ascribed as most 
 justly due all praise, might, majesty, glory, and do- 
 minion, henceforth and forevermore. Amen. 
 
 16 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 
 
 FROM THE "CHURCH REVIEW," OCTOBER, 1881. 
 
 A romantic interest attaches to the name of this 
 great man. The history of his sojourn in America is 
 becoming better known, and the purity and sublimity 
 of his motives in the enterprise which he projected 
 are now more highly appreciated. 
 
 The new life of him 1 by Professor Fraser of the Uni- 
 versity of Edinburgh contains some interesting facts 
 not to be found in his larger work, first issued from 
 the Clarendon Press ten years ago. 2 His father, 
 William Berkeley, an Irishman by birth and an Eng- 
 lishman by descent, is said to have occupied a cottage 
 adjoining the ancient Castle of Dysert, in the County 
 of Kilkenny; but no particulars of his lineage, and 
 very few of the boyhood and early education of his 
 philosophical son, who was the eldest of six brothers, 
 can now be gathered. George was for four years a 
 pupil in the Kilkenny school, noted for its learned 
 masters, and had among his companions Thomas Prior, 
 the philanthropist, who continued without interrup- 
 
 1 Berkeley, by A. Campbell Fraser, LL.D., Professor of Logic and 
 Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh. William Blackwood & 
 Sons. 1881. 
 
 2 Life and Letters of George Berkeley, D.D., formerly Bishop of Cloyne ; 
 and an account of his Philosophy, etc. By Alexander Campbell Fraser, 
 M. A. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 8vo. 1871. 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 243 
 
 tion to be his friend and correspondent for a half 
 century. 
 
 Kilkenny was a picturesque region, watered by the 
 river Nore, and he left it in March, 1700, when he 
 was fifteen years of age, to matriculate at Trinity Col- 
 lege, Dublin. Here he passed the next thirteen years 
 of his life, and was busy in the preparation of works 
 which laid the foundation of his future fame. He was 
 made Bachelor of Arts in 1704, and took his Master's 
 degree in 1707, being admitted in this same year to 
 a junior fellowship. He discharged the duties of a 
 tutor, Greek lecturer, and junior dean, and whether 
 it entered into the design of his friends in educating 
 him at the University that he should pursue theolog- 
 ical studies does not appear. But on the first of Feb- 
 ruary, 1709, with six other candidates, he was or- 
 dained a deacon by Dr. Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, in the 
 old chapel of Trinity College. He took no parochial 
 charge, but remained at the University, and limited his 
 ministerial service to occasional sermons on subjects 
 connected with his moral and philosophical studies. 
 "As a preacher," says his biographer, " his discourses 
 were carefully reasoned, and in beautifully simple lan- 
 guage they occasionally present great thoughts with- 
 out any marked theological bias." 
 
 During his residence at the University, Berkeley 
 was brought in contact with men of distinguished 
 culture and noted philosophical genius. The head of 
 the institution, Dr. Peter Browne, afterwards Bishop 
 of Cork, was a vigorous antagonist of the free-thinking 
 Toland, and examined critically the celebrated "Essay 
 on the Human Understanding," by John Locke, a work 
 
244 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 introduced in the course of study at the university, 
 and well known to philosophical readers in the under- 
 graduate days of Berkeley. William King, translated 
 from the See of Derry to Dublin in 1702, and made 
 Archbishop, was another eminent inquirer into spec- 
 ulative science and the laws of thought, and became 
 famous as the author of the treatise entitled " De Ori- 
 gine Mali," which was sharply controverted by the 
 pens of Bayne and Leibnitz. Surrounded by these 
 and other intellectual lights, it was no wonder that 
 Berkeley lingered in Dublin and nurtured his ideal 
 philosophy. His first publication with his name af- 
 fixed appeared in 1709, and was modestly entitled 
 a An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision." " It 
 was an attempt," says Professor Fraser, " towards the 
 psychology of our sensations, but directed immediately 
 to the most comprehensive sense of all, and intended 
 to eradicate a deep-rooted prejudice. If it halts in 
 its metaphysics, and if its physiology is defective, it 
 proclaims in psychology what has since been accepted 
 as a great discovery, which involves subtle applica- 
 tions of the laws of mental association in the formation 
 of habits." 
 
 A second edition of it was issued before the end of 
 the year, which was shortly followed by a " Treatise 
 Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge;" 
 and Berkeley, anxious to make his discoveries known, 
 and not satisfied with the provincial audience of Ire- 
 land, courted the opinion of the great thinking men in 
 London, and sent copies of his latest work to several 
 of them, in the hope that it might draw forth their 
 criticism, if not their approval. It was not a time when 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 245 
 
 subjects of this nature were discussed in literary peri- 
 odicals as now, and hence in putting forth his bold 
 speculations, and inviting the philosophical world to 
 new conceptions of the substance of matter, he had no 
 other way of getting at the opinion of men than by 
 private correspondence and the intervention of per- 
 sonal friends. He deprecated the idea of being con- 
 founded with the skeptics who doubt the existence of 
 sensible things ; and writing to Sir John Percival in 
 1710, he said, with a keen foresight of objections that 
 might be raised : " If it shall at any time be in your 
 way to discourse your friends on the subject of my 
 book, I entreat you not to take notice to them that I 
 deny the being of Matter in it, but only that it is a 
 treatise on the principles of human knowledge, de- 
 signed to promote true knowledge and religion, par- 
 ticularly in opposition to those philosophers who vent 
 dangerous notions with regard to the existence of 
 God and the natural immortality of the soul, both 
 which I have endeavored to demonstrate in a way not 
 hitherto made use of." 
 
 Berkeley was disappointed at the reception of his 
 work by the highest English authority in metaphysics 
 then living — Dr. Samuel Clarke — and by William 
 Whiston, as noted afterwards for his religious heresies 
 as at that time for his mathematical genius, — each 
 of whom he had complimented with a copy. He 
 would have gladly drawn them into a correspondence 
 or dispute with him, but they declined, especially 
 Clarke, who though not appearing to believe his con- 
 clusions, was yet reluctant to write out his thoughts 
 and " shock any one whose opinion on things of this 
 
 j 
 
246 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 nature differed from his own." Feeling that he had 
 been misunderstood, and annoyed by objections to 
 the theory of immaterialism which had reached him 
 through his friends, he began, not long after the pub- 
 lication of the " Treatise on Human Knowledge," to 
 prepare a volume entitled " Dialogues between Hylas 
 and Philonous, the Design of which is plainly to de- 
 monstrate the Reality and Perfection of Human Know- 
 ledge, the Incorporeal Nature of the Soul, and the 
 Immediate Providence of a Deity, in Opposition to 
 Skeptics and Atheists." 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1713 Berkeley took 
 his departure from Dublin, and appeared in London, 
 where his "Dialogues" were published the ensuing 
 summer. This was a new intellectual world to him, 
 and brought him into association with some of the 
 distinguished wits of the age of Queen Anne. Rich- 
 ard Steele and Dean Swift, both countrymen of his, 
 welcomed him to the metropolis, and sought oppor- 
 tunities to introduce him into the society of their lit- 
 erary friends. Swift presented him at court to Lord 
 Berkeley, for whom he had been private chaplain and 
 secretary, and in doing so he is said to have used 
 these characteristic words : " My Lord, here is a young 
 gentleman of your family. I can assure your lordship 
 it is a much greater honor to you to be related to 
 him than to him to be related to you." 
 
 He w 7 as brought in contact with Anthony Collins, 
 and heard him announce at one of the infidel clubs 
 that he was able to demonstrate the impossibility of 
 the existence of God, — a strange announcement, 
 which Berkeley, who was there as an observer, subse- 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 247 
 
 quently controverted when he was writing satirical 
 essays against the free-thinkers in Steele's new paper, 
 called the " Guardian." Pope and Addison were 
 among his London acquaintances, and the circle of wits 
 and politicians who mingled freely together at that 
 time was widened by other names, which hold a con- 
 spicuous place in the history of English literature. 
 Addison arranged for a meeting between him and 
 Samuel Clarke, the metaphysical divine whom he had 
 in vain tried three years before, through Sir John 
 Percival, to draw forth into a refutation of his argu- 
 ments, or rather into a statement of the objections 
 which might be raised to his "Treatise on Human 
 Knowledge." The issue of the meeting was unsatis- 
 factory, and the Berkeleyan philosophy appeared to 
 be becoming more and more a subject of ridicule with 
 some of the London wits. What he could not gain, 
 however, for his idealism he readily gained for himself, 
 — a favorable reception among those who formed his 
 acquaintance. He had a magnetism about him which 
 few were able to resist. The kindness of his heart 
 and the fascination of his manner were indescribable. 
 When Lord Berkeley introduced him to Francis Atter- 
 bury, and after the interview asked the bishop, " Does 
 my cousin answer your expectations ? ' Atterbury 
 lifted up his hands in astonishment and said, "So much 
 understanding, so much knowledge, so much inno- 
 cence, and such humility I did not think had been the 
 portion of any but angels till I saw this gentleman." 
 
 Through Swift he was probably made known to 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh and her daughter, the famous and 
 unhappy Vanessa, who were settled in their house in 
 
248 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Bury Street, near the lodgings of the eccentric dean, 
 and where the romance commenced which ended in 
 a material improvement of the fortunes of Berkeley. 
 It does not appear that he took him to see the ladies, 
 at whose residence, as he wrote to Stella, he himself 
 " loitered hot and lazy after his morning's work/' and 
 frequently dined " out of mere listlessness." He could 
 only have mentioned his name to them as a man of 
 remarkable wisdom and power. 
 
 The spring and the summer had passed away, and 
 his leave of absence from the university had expired, 
 when the Earl of Peterborough, then one of the most 
 illustrious characters in Europe, was appointed Am- 
 bassador Extraordinary to the King of Sicily, and 
 offered to Berkeley the place of private chaplain and 
 secretary. He gladly accepted it, and a dispensation, 
 which was necessary for a longer absence from Dub- 
 lin, was granted by the crown for leave to travel and 
 live abroad two years without forfeiting any rights 
 and advantages belonging to his fellowship. His first 
 letter from the Continent was dated November 25, 
 1713, and addressed to his Kilkenny friend, Thomas 
 Prior. But the mission was suddenly terminated by 
 the death of Queen Anne, on the 1st of August, 1714, 
 — an event which changed the whole aspect of politi- 
 cal affairs in England, and led to the dissolution of the 
 Tory ministry and the recall of the Earl of Peter- 
 borough. It destroyed, too, all chance of Berkeley's 
 preferment in the Church through his lordship or 
 Swift, and he returned to London and spent the next 
 two years in the metropolis, " with congenial retreats 
 now and then into the soft scenes of the midland and 
 southern counties." 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 249 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1716, he was again on his 
 way to Italy, — this time in the capacity of a travel- 
 ing tutor to the son of Dr. Ashe, the Bishop of Clogher, 
 by whom nine years before he had been admitted to 
 holy orders. He now, to some extent, suspended 
 the pursuit of philosophical studies and turned his 
 thoughts to Italian scenery, — to medals and statues, 
 pictures and architecture, which everywhere met his 
 view. His biographer says : " He was particularly in- 
 terested in Sicily, and collected materials for a natural 
 history of the island, which were lost with other manu- 
 scripts on the passage to Naples." After an absence 
 of almost a lustrum he returned to England, and if he 
 set out on his travels immediately after the issue of 
 his three " Dialogues on the Nature of the Material 
 World," he ended them with the publication of a Latin 
 dissertation, " De Motu," which he finished at Lyons, 
 on his way home from Italy, and which may have 
 been directly prompted by the proposal of the French 
 Eoyal Academy of a prize for the best essay on the 
 " Cause of Motion," — a subject suited to the taste of 
 Berkeley, and exactly in the line of his early specula- 
 tions. Whether it was presented to the Academy is 
 not known, but it is certain the prize was given to 
 another. 
 
 On reaching London he found the nation plunged 
 into the confusion and distress that followed the burst- 
 ing of the South Sea bubble, — a wild commercial 
 scheme which excited the most surprising expecta- 
 tions of a secular millennium, and was indirectly in- 
 dorsed by both Houses of Parliament against the 
 solemn remonstrances of Walpole. " He now threw 
 
250 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 himself," says Professor Fraser, " with his usual im- 
 petuosity, but with a direct practical purpose,, into the 
 social and economical difficulties of the time, and the 
 condition of England became his dominant interest. 
 He was shocked by the prevailing tone of social 
 morals. He seemed to see himself living in a gene- 
 ration averse to all lofty ideals, with whom the extreme 
 of prudential secularism had superseded the fanatical 
 spiritualism of the preceding age. He was in collision 
 with the bad elements of the eighteenth century. A 
 commercial crisis had brought them out, and this was 
 then a novelty." He wrote an " Essay towards Pre- 
 venting the Ruin of Great Britain/' which was pub- 
 lished in 1721, and gave in it the first intimations of 
 his longing for a state of society nearer that pure ideal 
 which afterwards intermingled so largely with what 
 he thought and attempted. Some changes among 
 his London acquaintances had taken place during his 
 absence. Atterbury, as Dean of Westminster, in his 
 prelate's robes, had officiated at the burial of Addison 
 in the Chapel of Henry VII. ; Swift was in Dublin, 
 and Steele, with broken health and impaired fortune, 
 had retired to his country-seat near Caermarthon in 
 Wales. But Pope was in Twickenham, and invited 
 him to his residence. Clarke was still attracting 
 attention by discoursing on philosophical theology in 
 St. James's, Westminster, and Sherlock and Butler 
 were both rising to higher and more honorable posi- 
 tions in the Church. 
 
 In the autumn of 1721 he was back at his old aca- 
 demic home in Trinity College, after having been 
 away from Ireland for a period of more than eight 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 251 
 
 years. " I had no sooner set foot on shore," he wrote 
 to Lord Percival, " than I heard that the Deanery of 
 Dromore was vacant, with <£500 a year and a sine- 
 cure, — a circumstance that recommends it to me 
 beyond any preferment in the kingdom, though there 
 are some deaneries of twice that value." Through the 
 influence of friends his patent for its possession passed 
 the great seal in February, but the bishop of the dio- 
 cese claimed the right of nomination, and a lawsuit 
 ensued, in which Berkeley engaged with small chance 
 of winning his case, — employing "eight lawyers," and 
 going to London to inform himself on some legal points 
 not well understood in Ireland. The suit dragged its 
 slow length along, and was still undecided in May, 
 1724, when by the good offices of Lady Percival he 
 was presented with a more valuable living than Dro- 
 more. " Yesterday," he said, writing under that date 
 to a friend, " I received my patent for the best dean- 
 ery in this kingdom, that of Derry. It is said to be 
 worth £1,500 per annum, but I do not consider it 
 with a view to enriching myself. I shall be perfectly 
 contented if it facilitates and recommends my scheme 
 of Bermuda." 
 
 The " scheme of Bermuda " had taken shape in his 
 mind two years before, and was nothing less than a 
 plan to found a college in some convenient part of 
 the West Indies, where English youth of the planta- 
 tions might be educated to supply their churches with 
 pastors of good morals and good learning, and where 
 a " number of young American savages might also be 
 educated till they had taken the degree of Master of 
 Arts." He put his thoughts upon this scheme with 
 
252 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 wonderful intensity, and turned every personal ad- 
 vantage in the channel of its support. It set him 
 above soliciting with earnestness any preferment in 
 Great Britain. Shortly prior to being made Dean of 
 Derry, a curious piece of good fortune befell him in 
 an unexpected way. 
 
 After the death of her mother in 1717, Hester Van- 
 homrigh, the unhappy Vanessa of Swift, settled upon 
 her estate at Marley Abbey, ten miles from Dublin, 
 and discovering that the dean had disappointed her 
 and privately married Stella, she revoked the will 
 which made him her heir, and dying broken-hearted 
 in May, 1723, left her property to be divided between 
 Berkeley and a gentleman who afterwards became an 
 Irish judge. This was a new stimulant to the Ber- 
 muda enterprise, and providentially relieved him of 
 any pecuniary anxiety. He wrote to Lord Percival a 
 few days after learning of the bequest : " Here is 
 something that will surprise your lordship, as it doth 
 me. Mrs. Hester Vanhomrigh, a lady to whom I .was 
 a perfect stranger, having never in the whole course 
 of my life exchanged a word with her, died on Sun- 
 day night. Yesterday her will was opened, by which 
 it appears that I am constituted executor, the advan- 
 tage whereof is computed by those who understand 
 her affairs to be worth £3,000 ; if a suit she had be 
 carried it will be considerably more." 
 
 With the deanery of Derry which, as before shown, 
 came the next year, he was now prepared to urge his 
 favorite scheme, and went to London to solicit sub- 
 scriptions, and the protection and patronage of the 
 government. Swift recommended him to Lord Car- 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 253 
 
 teret, who was soon to become Lord Lieutenant of 
 Ireland, in a characteristic letter which thus describes 
 the zeal and purpose of Berkeley : " He is an absolute 
 philosopher with regard to money, titles, and power ; 
 and for three years past he has been struck with a no- 
 tion of founding a University at Bermuda by a charter 
 from the Crown. He has seduced several of the hope- 
 fulest young Clergymen and others here, many of them 
 well-provided for, and all in the fairest way of pre- 
 ferment; but in England his conquests are greater, 
 and I doubt will spread very far this winter. He 
 showed me a little tract which he designs to publish, 
 and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme 
 of a life, academico-philosophical (I shall make you 
 remember what you were) of a college founded for 
 Indian scholars and missionaries, where he most exor- 
 bitantly proposes a whole hundred pounds a year for 
 himself, forty pounds for a Fellow, and ten for a 
 Student. His heart will break if his Deanery be not 
 taken from him and left to your Excellency's disposal. 
 I discouraged him by the coldness of courts, and min- 
 isters who will interpret all this as impossible and a 
 vision ; but nothing will do. And, therefore, I hum- 
 bly entreat your Excellency either to use such per- 
 suasions as will keep one of the first men in the king- 
 dom for learning and virtue, quiet at home, or assist 
 him by your credit to compass his romantic design." 
 Berkeley was eminently successful in presenting his 
 scheme in London, and winning for it favor from all 
 classes of persons. The members of the Scriblerus 
 Club, with whom he dined one day at the house of 
 a friend, agreed among themselves to have a little 
 
254 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 sport at his expense about Bermuda ; but finally, after 
 listening to the many witty things which had been 
 said, he asked to be heard in his turn, and " displayed 
 his plan with such an astonishing and amazing force 
 of eloquence and enthusiasm that they were struck 
 dumb, and after some pause, rose up all together with 
 earnestness exclaiming, ' Let us set out with him im- 
 mediately.' : Bolingbroke wrote to Swift that he 
 would " gladly exchange Europe for its charms, only 
 not in a Missionary capacity." 
 
 The subscriptions went up to <£5,000, including one 
 from Sir Robert Walpole himself, then the Prime Min- 
 ister, but, not satisfied with these, he sought a royal 
 charter and a grant of £20,000 to endow the col- 
 lege, which George I. had encouraged him to believe 
 might be allowed out of the moneys to come from 
 ceding St. Kitts to the British government according 
 to the Treaty of Utrecht. Berkeley is said to have 
 canvassed every member of both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment to secure his object, and when the vote was car- 
 ried in the House of Commons, May, 1726, only two 
 voices were heard in the negative. Walpole did not 
 oppose the bill, but secretly hoped that it would be 
 rejected, and on being remonstrated with after its 
 passage for allowing such a proposition from the 
 Crown, he replied with sarcastic severity : " Who 
 would have thought that anything for promoting re- 
 ligion or learning could have passed a British Par- 
 liament ! " 
 
 He had now been in London from September, 
 1724, urging his Bermuda scheme and attending the 
 court of Queen Caroline, " not," he says, " because he 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 255 
 
 loved courts, but because he loved America." It was 
 in this period that he engaged in theological and po- 
 litical discussion, and met for this purpose among 
 others such master minds as Clarke, Sherlock, and 
 Hoadly. We are told that " he was idolized in Eng- 
 land before he set off for America. He used to go to 
 St. James's two days a week to dispute with Dr. Sam- 
 uel Clarke before Queen Caroline, then Princess of 
 Wales, and had a magnificent gold medal presented to 
 him by George II. ; but he complained of the drudgery 
 of taking part in these useless disputes." 
 
 On the 4th of September, 1728, in the forty-fourth 
 year of his age, he sailed down the River Thames in 
 a " hired ship of two hundred and fifty tons," full of 
 glowing hopes and eager to begin, as Sir James Mac- 
 intosh termed it, " a work of heroic, or rather God-like, 
 benevolence." This is his own account of the embark- 
 ation in a letter to Lord Percival, written September 
 3 : " To-morrow we sail down the river. Mr. James 
 and Mr. Dal ton go with me, so doth my wife, a daugh- 
 ter of the late Chief Justice Foster, whom I married 
 since I saw your lordship. I chose her for her quali- 
 ties of mind, and her unaffected inclination to books. 
 She goes with great thankfulness to live a plain farm- 
 er's life, and wear stuff of her own spinning. I have 
 presented her with a spinning-wheel. Her fortune 
 was .£2,000 originally, but traveling and exchange 
 have reduced it to less than £1,500, English money. 
 I have placed that and about £600 of my own in 
 South Sea annuities." 
 
 After being tossed on the ocean for a long time, 
 and touching at Virginia by the way, the vessel arrived 
 
256 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 at Newport, Ehode Island, near the end of January, 
 1729, and Berkeley was as much surprised at the 
 sight of the town and harbor as the people of Newport 
 were surprised at the appearance among them of so 
 great a dignitary of the Church of England. He was 
 received with demonstrations of high respect, and 
 ushered into the place by a number of gentlemen " to 
 whom he behaved himself after a very complaisant 
 manner." He was charmed with w r hat he saw. The 
 grand ocean scenery, the delightful breezes, and the 
 gorgeous sunsets filled him with admiration, and he 
 would have been glad to fix the college here rather 
 than in Bermuda, but the consent of the Crown must 
 be given to any change, and he must receive the royal 
 grant before he could proceed further in the enterprise 
 for which he left his country. In the summer suc- 
 ceeding his arrival he purchased a farm of about one 
 hundred acres in a sequestered spot, under a hill which 
 commands a wide view of sea and land, and built a 
 house, still standing, which in a loyal spirit he named 
 Whitehall to keep up his remembrance of the palace 
 of the British kings. The farm, as he said in a letter 
 to Thomas Prior, " is fit for cows and sheep, and may 
 be of good use for supporting our college at Bermuda." 
 It adjoined one of about the same extent belonging 
 to the Rev. Mr. Honyman, on which he resided. 
 The friends with whom he had crossed the ocean 
 fixed their abode in Boston, but he preferred the quiet 
 of his new home, and while waiting for the govern- 
 ment grant, the rocks that skirt the shore and the 
 neighboring groves afforded the silence and solitude 
 so well suited to his philosophic meditations. " After 
 
 L> 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 257 
 
 my long fatigue this retirement/' he wrote Lord Per- 
 cival, " is very agreeable to me, and my wife loves a 
 country life and books, as well as to pass her time 
 continually and cheerfully without any other conver- 
 sation than her husband and the dead." 
 
 The society of Newport at that time was composed 
 of gentry, lawyers, physicians, and merchants, who re- 
 tained very many of the customs and manners of the 
 old world, and Berkeley mixed with them, preached 
 often in the Episcopal Church for Mr. Honyman the 
 rector, and drew " a strange medley of different per- 
 suasions " to hear his logical and eloquent discourses. 
 He had time to think over his movements and mis- 
 takes, and to use a great deal of philosophy while 
 Walpole was withholding the government aid, and 
 giving no intimation of his ultimate intention to 
 defeat the Bermuda scheme. The prospect, which 
 was not altogether clear when he left England, grew 
 darker after his arrival in Newport. He had run the 
 risk of a tedious winter voyage to convince the w T orld 
 that he was in earnest, but the suspense in which he 
 was now held was something he had not anticipated. 
 " The truth is," he wrote Lord Percival in June, 1729, 
 " I am not in my own power, not being at liberty to 
 act without the concurrence as well of the Ministry 
 as of my associates. I cannot, therefore, place the 
 College where I please, and though on some accounts 
 I did, and do still, think it would more probably be 
 attended with success if placed here rather than in 
 Bermuda, yet if the Government and those engaged 
 with me should persist in the old scheme, I am ready 
 
 17 
 
258 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 to go thither, and will do so as soon as I hear the 
 money is received and my associates arrived." 
 
 The beautiful vision which he had hoped to realize 
 was now fast melting away, and in Whitehall, where 
 he had begun domestic life, a son was born to him, 
 whom the father baptized in Trinity Church, Septem- 
 ber 1, 1729. Letters from England reached him 
 irregularly and after many delays ; one from Thomas 
 Prior was six months on its passage. But the crisis of 
 his scheme at last came when Sir Robert Walpole, in 
 an interview with the Bishop of London, held for the 
 purpose of getting definite information about the 
 grant, said : " If you put this question to me as a Min- 
 ister, I must and can assure you that the money shall 
 most undoubtedly be paid as soon as suits with public 
 convenience ; but if you ask me as a friend whether 
 Dean Berkeley should continue in America, expect- 
 ing the payment of .£20,000, I advise him, by all 
 means, to return home to Europe, and to give up his 
 present expectations." 
 
 This was the treacherous blow which felled to the 
 dust the hopes of Berkeley. It left him no alterna- 
 tive but to make speedy preparations for terminating 
 his stay in this country. He had not been idle dur- 
 ing his recluse life at Newport. Men who had studied 
 his philosophy and imbibed his principles formed his 
 personal acquaintance, and sympathized with him in 
 his benevolent enterprise. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, a missionary of the 
 Church of England in Stratford, Connecticut, distin- 
 guished for his theological attainments and philosoph- 
 ical investigations, weighed his works with singular 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 259 
 
 care before his arrival in America, and became so 
 much interested in them, and so much of a convert 
 to his system, that he opened a correspondence with 
 Berkeley and visited him at Whitehall, where not 
 only great metaphysical questions were discussed, but 
 other subjects considered, bearing on Christian edu- 
 cation and on the way to do something as a partial 
 remedy for the failure of the Bermuda scheme. John- 
 son had been a tutor in Yale College, and an impor- 
 tant one, but he retired from that office in 1719, and, 
 devoting himself to the study of theology, was or- 
 dained the next year a Congregational minister and 
 appointed to officiate for a little flock in the vicinity 
 of New Haven. His inquisitive mind led him to read 
 the books on the shelves of the well-selected library 
 of the college, and to examine most thoroughly the 
 doctrines and usages of the Primitive Church as com- 
 pared with the Presbyterian system ; and the result 
 was that he and the head of the institution and one 
 of its tutors relinquished their positions and crossed 
 the ocean to obtain holy orders in the Church of Eng- 
 land. He had been settled in Stratford more than 
 five years when Berkeley landed at Newport, and 
 though a strong churchman he had not ceased to be 
 interested in Yale College and to cultivate a friendly 
 intercourse with its principal officers, and with the 
 best educated men in the Colonies. 
 
 It has been said that he taught the Berkeleyan 
 philosophy while a tutor, and that Jonathan Edwards, 
 one of the most acute metaphysical reasoners the 
 world has ever seen, became a convert to the system 
 through his instructions ; but neither of these state- 
 
260 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ments can be true. Edwards, who graduated in 
 1720, was not a reverent pupil of Johnson, if he did 
 become a Berkeleyan, for according to his own ac- 
 count he left in 1717, with a number of disaffected 
 students, and went to Wethersfield, where an irregu- 
 lar branch of the college was set up, and where he 
 remained for two years, until the trustees and council 
 met and M removed, " as he wrote in a letter to his 
 sister, " that which was the cause of our coming 
 away, namely, Mr. Johnson from the place of tutor." 
 The departure of Berkeley from Rhode Island was 
 delayed more than a year after he learned that the 
 faith of the government as to the promised aid was 
 really broken. It was in this period that he devoted 
 himself with much thoroughness and singleness of 
 purpose to the chief studies of his life, and prepared 
 " Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher," the most 
 popular at the time of all his works. It contained 
 graphic pictures of the charming scenery around 
 Whitehall, and of the overhanging rocks underneath 
 which, according to tradition, he often sat and wrote 
 and meditated. In the introduction to the work he 
 speaks of the " miscarriage " of the u affair which 
 brought him into this remote corner of the country," 
 and proceeds: "Events are not in our power, but it 
 always is to make a good use even of the very worst. 
 And I must needs own, the course and event of this 
 affair gave opportunity for reflections that make me 
 some amends for a great loss of time, pains, and 
 expense. A life of action which takes its issue from 
 the counsels, passions, and views of other men, if it 
 doth not draw a man to imitate, will at least teach 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 261 
 
 him to observe. And a mind at liberty to reflect on 
 its own observations, if it produce nothing useful to 
 the world, seldom fails of entertainment to itself. 
 For several months past I have enjoyed such liberty 
 and leisure in this distant retreat, far beyond the verge 
 of that whirlpool of business, faction, and pleasure, 
 which is called the world" 
 
 Johnson paid Berkeley a final visit in the summer 
 of 1731, and received from him many valuable books, 
 and interested him deeply in the college with which 
 he had himself been connected. The dean was then 
 preparing to break up and leave Whitehall and the 
 country, and it was natural, under the circumstances, 
 to be concerned how to dispose of those books in his 
 library which he did not wish to take with him, and 
 of the farm so as best " to promote religion and learn- 
 ing in this uncultivated part of the world." On the 7th 
 of September, two days after the death of an infant 
 daughter, buried under the shadows of the venerable 
 church where he had often preached, he wrote to 
 Johnson that he was " upon the point of setting out 
 for Boston in order to embark for England," and said, 
 " the hurry he was in could not excuse his neglecting 
 to acknowledge the favor of his letter." " My en- 
 deavors," he added, " shall not be wanting, some way 
 or other, to be useful ; and I should be very glad to 
 be so in particular to the college at New Haven, and 
 the more so as you were once a member of it, and 
 have still an influence there." 
 
 How long he lingered in Boston before the em- 
 barkation has not been ascertained, but he reappeared 
 in London in February, 1732, and on the eighteenth 
 
262 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 day of that month preached in the church of St. Mary- 
 le-Bow the anniversary sermon before the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He 
 was well fitted to deliver such a discourse by his 
 sojourn in America and his association with leading 
 missionaries of the Church of England in the neigh- 
 borhood of Newport, who, according to the testimony 
 of Mrs. Berkeley, " agreed among themselves to hold 
 a sort of synod in Whitehall twice in a year in order 
 to enjoy the advantages of his advice and exhorta- 
 tion.' ' Four such meetings are said to have been 
 held. 
 
 The absorbing dream of his manhood was over, and 
 when he returned to London for the fifth and last 
 time few of his old and most intimate associates were 
 there to make mention of his disappointment. Clarke 
 and Collins and Steele had descended to their graves; 
 Swift had left the metropolis forever, and Butler, as 
 Professor Fraser states, " was buried in the seclusion 
 of his northern rectory at Stanhope, pondering the 
 thoughts which four years later found expression in 
 the ' Analogy.' " Still Berkeley was welcomed home 
 by the great and good of the realm, and if on account 
 of the failure of his scheme he seemed to be less buoy- 
 ant of spirit, it did not diminish his zeal to preserve 
 and propagate the truth. One of his earliest biog- 
 raphers (Bishop Stock) relates that after his return 
 from Rhode Island "the Queen often commanded 
 his attendance to discourse with him on what he had 
 observed worthy of notice in America." But courts 
 were no more his pleasure now than they had been 
 in former days, and his attention was chiefly occupied 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 263 
 
 with his "Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher/ ' a 
 work in seven dialogues, designed to meet the ques- 
 tionings of the free-thinkers with whom he had heen 
 personally acquainted, and to check the increase of 
 irreligion and skepticism. It was first published in 
 London, in the spring of 1732, and a second edition of 
 it appeared in the same year, — a neat copy of which 
 on thick paper lies before me as T write these pages. 
 The picture on the title-page of the first volume, of a 
 broken cistern, with water running out as fast as the 
 stream pours in, is significant of the arrogant attempts 
 to overthrow theological beliefs and construct a sys- 
 tem contrary to the laws of natural and revealed 
 religion. 
 
 The next business of Berkeley was to set himself 
 right about Bermuda College, and make an adjust- 
 ment or a satisfactory disposition of the private sub- 
 scriptions which had been received in its support. 
 And now he remembered his promise to Johnson and 
 his own prediction in the poem, beginning, — 
 
 " Westward the course of empire takes its way." 
 
 He wrote to him on the 15th of July, 1732, inclos- 
 ing a deed of his farm in Rhode Island to the Presi- 
 dent and Fellows of Yale College, and opened his 
 letter with words which show the singleness of his 
 intentions and the forecast of his mind as to a post- 
 graduate course : " Some part of the benefactions to 
 the College of Bermuda which I could not return, the 
 benefactors being deceased, joined with the assistance 
 of some living friends, has enabled me without any 
 great loss to myself, to dispose of my farm in Rhode 
 
264 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 Island in favor of the College in Connecticut. It is 
 my opinion that as human learning and the improve- 
 ment of reason are of no small use in Religion, so it 
 would very much forward those ends, if some of your 
 students were enabled to subsist longer at their stud- 
 ies, and if by a public tryal and premium an emula- 
 tion were inspired into all. This method hath been 
 found useful in other learned societies, and I think it 
 cannot fail of being so in one where a person so well 
 qualified as yourself has such influence, and will bear 
 a share in the elections." 
 
 Twelve months later he had interested some of the 
 Bermuda subscribers to such a degree in Yale College 
 that he was enabled, with their assistance, to send 
 over a donation to the library of nearly one thousand 
 volumes, valued at about £500: "The finest collec- 
 tion of books," according to President Clap, "which 
 had then ever been brought to America." He sent a 
 valuable collection of Greek and Roman Classics to 
 Harvard College also, but this was destroyed when 
 Harvard Hall, w T here the library was kept, was burned 
 on a tempestuous winter's night in 1764. 
 
 A singular fatality seems to have attended the 
 designs of Berkeley for the good of America. His 
 benefactions to Yale College — especially Whitehall 
 and his farm in Rhode Island — have not produced 
 the sure helps to classic learning w T hich under other 
 circumstances might have been secured. The farm, 
 situated three miles or so from the present centre of 
 Newport life and summer gayety, is now computed 
 to be worth thousands of dollars, but in 1763 it was 
 leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, which 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 265 
 
 was virtually a sale of the land, and the rent for all 
 the remaining time is barely nominal, only $140 per 
 annum. If the appreciation of the property could 
 have been foreseen, and no long lease given, what an 
 income would have been secured for distribution to 
 " the Scholars of the House," according to the design 
 and conditions of the pious founder ! 
 
 Berkeley was not set aside and forgotten after his 
 return to England. His goodness and greatness were 
 recognized, and it was some compensation for the dis- 
 appointment of his cherished hopes in regard to Ber- 
 muda that he was nominated early in January, 1734, 
 to the bishopric of Cloyne, in succession to Dr. Sjmge, 
 a college friend, who was translated to the See of 
 Ferns. The acceptance of this position made it proper 
 that he should vacate the deanery of Derry, which 
 had been retained by him since his appointment to it 
 in 1724. His health at this time was not good, and 
 his system seemed to be much disordered. " Of late," 
 he wrote to his American friend Johnson, " I have 
 been laid up with the gout, which hath hitherto hin- 
 dered me from going to Ireland to be consecrated 
 Bishop of Cloyne, to which his Majesty nominated me 
 near three months ago." He commissioned his corre- 
 spondent, Thomas Prior, to look out a lodging for 
 himself and family in Dublin, "to be taken only by 
 the week," — as it was not his design to tarry there 
 longer than was absolutely necessary, — and when 
 his library and furniture were again packed and 
 shipped to that city, he took his final departure from 
 London and proceeded to Dublin, where he was con- 
 secrated on Sunday the 19th of May, 1734, Bishop of 
 Cloyne. 
 
266 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 He was now once more in his native island, and 
 having become settled in his See House, with his wife 
 and two infant sons, — the youngest, George, who 
 lived to perpetuate his name, was born in London, — 
 he began to resume by degrees his philosophical in- 
 vestigations, and at the same time to apply his vigor- 
 ous and original intellect to the fulfillment of his 
 Episcopal duties. Cloyne was one of the smallest 
 Irish dioceses, with forty-four churches and fourteen 
 thousand Protestant inhabitants, and, while he might 
 have been elevated to a richer and better see, Berke- 
 ley preferred the quiet and retirement of this remote 
 corner, away from courts, from men of thought and 
 letters, and here he dwelt among the simple people 
 and illiterate squires for eighteen years without seem- 
 ing to have impressed them at all with the greatness 
 and benevolence of his character. One of his suc- 
 cessors called the place " a dirty Irish village ; " it 
 lies in the centre of a valley a few miles east of Cork 
 harbor, and presents to-day many of the peculiar fea- 
 tures of scenery and civilization which it possessed one 
 hundred and fifty years ago. A visit to it in 1870, 
 and a walk through its streets and under the ancient 
 elms that overshadow its humble dwellings made me 
 think of Berkeley at every turn,. and inclined me to 
 accept the concise description of an acute observer : 
 " If you survey this place with an English eye, you 
 would find little to commend, but with an Irish one, 
 nothing to blame." Cloyne has ceased to be a sepa- 
 rate diocese, and is now a part of the jurisdiction of 
 the Bishop of Cork and Ross, but the cathedral, 
 mantled with luxuriant ivy, remains, and so do the 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 267 
 
 Cave, the See House, and the Palace Garden, and a few 
 rods distant from these rises one of those mysterious 
 and picturesque Round Towers of Ireland, whose date 
 and design no one has ever unfolded. What seems 
 strange to the visitor is that he can find no memorials 
 of Berkeley, — no tablet in the chancel, or monument 
 of any kind within or without the cathedral to show 
 respect for the memory of the greatest name asso- 
 ciated with its history. 1 
 
 Berkeley was surrounded in his see by a strong 
 Roman Catholic influence, and in his first visitation 
 charge to the clergy there are wise suggestions how to 
 deal with it and yet be true to the Church. A brief 
 extract from this charge will show his Christian spirit : 
 " There is, doubtless, an indiscreet, warm, overbearing 
 manner ; and in the hands of those who have it the 
 best arguments are weak, and the best cause will suf- 
 fer. There is, on the other hand, a gentle, prudent, 
 and obliging way which would be an advantage to the 
 
 1 A beautiful recumbent figure of the Bishop has since been placed in 
 the cathedral at a cost of more than $2,000, said to be worth double that 
 amount. Nearly one half the sum expended was from individual con- 
 tributors in Rhode Island and Connecticut ; the rest was from the bishops 
 of the Irish Church, from clergymen, noblemen, and professors in the 
 universities of Dublin, Cambridge, and Oxford. 
 
 A chancel window in Dublin University is inscribed: ' In Memoriam. — 
 The Rt. Rev. George Berkeley, D. D., Bishop of Cloyne, sometime 
 Fellow of this University." 
 
 When the Battell Chapel of Yale College was completed in 1876, a 
 fitting window, recognizing him as an early benefactor, was placed in it 
 by graduates and undergraduates of the institution. 
 
 His name is written on the Divinity School at Middletown, which is 
 presided over by the Bishop of Connecticut ; and St. Columba, a church 
 about three miles from Newport, R. I., was built as a memorial of 
 Berkeley. 
 
268 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 worst, a way that softens the heart and prepares it 
 for conviction. Would you in earnest make prose- 
 lytes, follow St. Paul's example, and in his sense be- 
 come all things to all men, that you may gain some. 
 Adopt as much as you conscientiously can of their 
 ways of thinking ; suit yourselves to their capacities 
 and characters ; put yourselves in their places, and 
 then consider how you should like to be dealt with, 
 and what would offend you. If your intention is 
 rather to gain a proselyte than to triumph over him, 
 you must manage his passions and skillfully touch his 
 prejudices. To convince men, you must not begin 
 with shocking, angering, or shaming them." 
 
 The life at Cloyne was almost as much that of a 
 recluse as the life at Newport. Traveling had become 
 a weariness to him, and his increasing ill-health kept 
 him chiefly at home, and led him to find renewed 
 enjoyment in his books and philosophic meditations. 
 The family was a centre of happiness, into which he 
 infused his own love of truth and of art, and though 
 without any ear for music himself he made it a study 
 with his children, and retained for years as their 
 teacher the celebrated Signor Pasquilino, the embar- 
 rassed Italian gentleman who, according to Professor 
 Fraser, had been learning English from a dictionary, 
 and in an outburst of gratitude to his patron for an 
 unexpected favor exclaimed : " May God pickle your 
 Lordship ! " 
 
 Among the works which he produced during his 
 episcopate were the " Querist" and " Siris," — the first 
 published anonymously in three parts, and containing 
 original and valuable hints on social and political 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 269 
 
 economy. " Siris " was issued under his own name, 
 and, while breathing the philosophic spirit more per- 
 haps than any of his publications, was the direct fruit 
 of his enthusiasm about tar-water, which he recom- 
 mended as a universal medicine, and which was becom- 
 ing quite the rage both in England and Ireland. 
 Manufactories for it were established in different 
 places, and he himself set up an apparatus for making 
 it in Cloyne, and was such a believer in the virtues of 
 tar that he put large balls of it at the roots of the 
 myrtle which he planted with his "'own hands" to 
 adorn his garden walks. A tar-water controversy 
 ensued, as prolific in pamphlets as the controversy 
 with the free-thinkers ten years before. With Berke- 
 ley it took a metaphysical turn, and gave him an 
 opportunity to weigh and revise in his contemplative 
 old age the adventurous speculations of youth. He 
 frequently spoke of his favorite medicine in letters to 
 his correspondents, and, having a vein of humor in 
 his composition, he prefixed to one addressed to his 
 friend Prior a playful stanza, which ended : — 
 
 " the doctors are men ; 
 Who drinks tar-water will drink it ao-ain." 
 
 Efforts of friends to withdraw him at this time from 
 the seclusion of Cloyne, and get him promoted to 
 a better see, were of no avail. He could not be 
 tempted by a larger income or higher honors. " I am 
 not in love," said he to Prior, " with feasts and crowds, 
 and visits, and late hours, and strange faces, and a 
 hurry of affairs often insignificant. For my own pri- 
 vate satisfaction, I had rather be master of my time 
 than wear a diadem. I repeat these things to you, 
 
270 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 that I may not seem to have declined all steps to the 
 primacy out of singularity, or pride, or stupidity, but 
 from solid motives. As for argument from the oppor- 
 tunity of doing good, I observe that duty obliges men 
 in high stations to decline occasions of doing good, but 
 duty doth not oblige men to solicit such high stations." 
 He had conceived a plan, which he called his u Oxford 
 scheme," of exchanging his bishopric for a canonry, 
 or headship in the university, whither he had decided 
 to send his son George, rather than place him in his 
 own Alma Mater at Dublin. When he found the 
 exchange impracticable, he tendered a formal resig- 
 nation of his see, for he had strong objections to non- 
 resident bishops. The singular proposal excited the 
 curiosity of George II., and on discovering by whom it 
 was made, he declared that Berkeley should die a 
 bishop in spite of himself, and that he might live 
 wherever he pleased. This left him at liberty to exe- 
 cute his purpose of removing to Oxford, but the sick- 
 ness of a favorite son (William) prevented him, until 
 the death of the youth, in 1751, at the age of sixteen. 
 The event threw a shadow of deep gloom over the 
 household in Cloyne, and touched sensibly the pater- 
 nal heart. It was the first great break in the family, 
 which had found so much real enjoyment within its 
 own circle. "I was a man," he wrote to a friend 
 " retired from the amusement of politics, visits, and 
 what the world calls pleasure. I had a little friend, 
 educated always under mine own eye, whose painting 
 delighted me, whose music ravished me, and whose 
 lively, gay spirit was a continual feast. It has pleased 
 God to take him hence." 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 271 
 
 The later years at Cloyne were those in which he 
 affectionately remembered his transatlantic friend, 
 Rev. Dr. Johnson of Stratford ; and he was glad to 
 hear through him of the " prosperous estate ' of 
 learning in the college to which he had sent his bene- 
 factions. For a quarter of a century their correspond- 
 ence had been kept up with tolerable regularity, and 
 several things concerning it were first brought to 
 light in my own volume, 1 which give added interest 
 to the romantic episode of Rhode Island as well as to 
 the retired life in the " serene corner " of Cloyne. So 
 late as July 25, 1751, he wrote to Johnson, and this 
 was probably his last letter to him; but his great 
 American friend, who never ceased to love him for his 
 virtues and honor him for his learning and philosophy, 
 published about the same time a work entitled " Ele- 
 menta Philqsophica," which, " from the deepest sense 
 of gratitude," he dedicated to the Bishop of Cloyne, 
 and not knowing that he had broken up and removed 
 to the classic vale of the Cherwell and the Isis, he 
 sent him a copy accompanied by a letter, neither of 
 which was received in time for the eyes of the patron. 
 
 His son George had been entered a student at 
 Christ Church, and ill health prevented the father 
 from going on with him in May, 1752, but in the mid- 
 dle of the ensuing August he left Cloyne forever with 
 his wife and daughter, — his eldest son Henry, born 
 in this country, had been abroad for his health in the 
 south of France nearly two years, — and when the 
 party reached their destination, the Bishop was so 
 prostrated that he had to be '" carried from his landing 
 
 1 Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, D. D. 1874. 
 
272 ADDRESSES AND. DISCOURSES. 
 
 on the English shore in a horse-litter to Oxford." He 
 had scarcely had time to be settled in a house'in Holy- 
 well Street, and form the acquaintance of a few of the 
 heads of the colleges, and give attention to the reprint 
 of one or two of his works when a change came to 
 him greater than all before. If he had begun to real- 
 ize his dream of repose in this classic seat, where the 
 memories of a thousand years are gathered, it was not 
 long that he did so, for his " removal to eternal 
 rewards," as his son wrote to Dr. Johnson, " happened 
 suddenly and without any previous notice or pain on 
 Sunday evening, January 14, as he was sitting with 
 my mother, sister, and myself, and although all pos- 
 sible means were instantly used, no symptom of life 
 ever appeared after, nor could the physicians assign 
 any cause for his death, as they were certain it was 
 not an apoplexy. . . . He arrived at Oxford on the 
 25th of August, and had received great benefit from 
 the change of air, and by God's blessing on Tar- Water, 
 insomuch that for some years he had not been in bet- 
 ter health than he was the instant before he left us." 
 Berkeley provided in his will that his body, after being 
 " kept five days," should be buried in the churchyard 
 of the parish where he died, and accordingly his re- 
 mains were interred in the cathedral at Oxford, and a 
 monument was placed over them with a Latin inscrip- 
 tion commemorative of the virtues of his pure and 
 beautiful life. 
 
 Let us leave him here and look for a moment in 
 conclusion at the revival of an interest in his works 
 and philosophy. Professor Fraser in the little vol- 
 ume named at the head of this article, makes a an 
 
BISHOP BERKELEY. 273 
 
 attempt/' as he says, " to present for the first time 
 Berkeley's philosophic thought in its organic unity." 
 He had previously done an admirable service in gath- 
 ering and editing his works in three octavo volumes, 
 with his "Life and Letters," and an account of his 
 philosophy in a fourth, to which the last publication, 
 forming one of the series of Philosophical Classics 
 for English Readers, is but supplementary. No one 
 coming after him will find many facts to glean in re- 
 gard to the mitred Saint of Cloyne. His excellent 
 and catholic spirit comes out not more in his mis- 
 sionary deeds than in the letters and papers which 
 have now been rescued from oblivion and committed 
 to the press. 
 
 Want of clearness is incident in some degree to the 
 study of metaphysics, and Professor Fraser is not 
 always perfectly lucid in his explanation of the ideal 
 system or of the dividing line between true and false 
 philosophy. But he is to be congratulated for having 
 done so much to perpetuate a great name, known and 
 honored in Europe and America. He is an ardent 
 admirer of the character he portrays. " Of the vari- 
 ous imperfect thoughts," are his words, "about our 
 mysterious life, that of Berkeley — wrapped up in his 
 conception of the material world — seems to me, when 
 truly understood, to be among the simplest and most 
 beautiful in the history of philosophy." Scant men- 
 tion is made of his theological discourses, because his 
 high reputation was won in other fields of thought; 
 but judging from those delivered at Newport, he was 
 a scriptural, calm, unimpassioned preacher, who took 
 
 the common doctrines of tbe Church as the frame- 
 is 
 
274 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 work of his instruction and applied them to the prac- 
 tical duties of the Christian life. 
 
 A few domestic relics of Berkeley, given by him to 
 friends in this country, when he left for England, are 
 still carefully cherished and preserved. One of these, 
 of special interest for its associations, is the chair in 
 which he was accustomed to sit at Newport, and in 
 which he is believed to have written out " Alciphron, 
 or the Minute Philosopher." It descended to the late 
 Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Coit of Middletown, from his 
 grandmother, a Newport lady, who received it from 
 her father, to whom Berkeley had presented it, and 
 the chair was given her to help furnish a new house 
 on her marriage and removal to New London. It has 
 been committed to the custody of Trinity College, 
 Hartford, and on each occasion of the annual com- 
 mencement of that institution, the president sits in it 
 and confers the degrees upon the graduating class. 
 In itself it is of little worth, far less valuable than the 
 oak chair in Westminster Abbey, — u where kings and 
 queens are crowned," — but time and historic associ- 
 ations have surrounded it with an interest and made 
 it precious to the student, the scholar, and the philo- 
 sopher. 
 
FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB. 
 
 SERMON AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH OF THE 
 ASCENSION, NEW HAVEN, JULY 12, 1883. 
 
 And Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, 
 and the other on the other side ; and his hands were steady until the 
 going down of the sun. — Exodus xvii. 12. 
 
 When the Israelites were upon the march from 
 Rephidim to Horeb, they came in contact with Ama- 
 lek and his hosts, who resisted their progress and 
 stood forth to battle. In this condition of things it 
 was not enough for them to rely upon the arm of 
 Jehovah and expect to be victorious over their ene- 
 mies without personal services and personal sacrifices. 
 They remembered that they were to go forward 
 under the Divine protection, and surmount the ob- 
 stacles and difficulties which might meet them in 
 their weary way to the land of their inheritance. 
 Moses, standing on the top of the hill with the rod of 
 God in his hand, was a signal for Joshua and his 
 chosen men to fight with Amalek, and the battle was 
 won or lost according as the great Hebrew com- 
 mander held up or let down his arm. 
 
 The sight of the rod inspired the Israelites with 
 such courage that the enemy fell back before them, 
 but when the rod dropped their spirits flagged and 
 they despaired of victory. Aaron and Hur accom- 
 
276 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 parried Moses to the mount where he was to stand, 
 not as mere spectators of the warfare below, but 
 as his assistants to stay up his hands and prevent 
 them from becoming heavy. They were to lighten 
 his labor, and relieve him at the very moment when 
 relief would be the means of rescuing Israel from the 
 power of Amalek. 
 
 This passage of Scripture history has suggested to 
 me some thoughts which may not be deemed unsuit- 
 able to the happy occasion that has called us together. 
 But before proceeding further, it should be simply 
 mentioned, without attempting to trace the pedigree 
 of Aaron and Hur, that one was of the tribe of Levi 
 and in the line of the priesthood, though not yet 
 consecrated to that office, when the conflict between 
 Amalek and Israel arose. Hur appears to have been 
 a layman, and, for that matter, they were both lay- 
 men in the services they rendered to Moses in mo- 
 ments of weariness or excitement. 
 
 I. We get many grand lessons, and a stay for our 
 souls in these unquiet days, from the real life and con- 
 tentions of the past. Among these is one teaching 
 the perpetuity of truth and the mighty power of Him 
 who rules in the midst of His enemies. What was 
 Israel, marching on to conquest and Canaan, but an 
 image of the Christian Church pushing its way in the 
 world, and struggling with bitter and deadly foes that 
 start up on all sides to deny her Divine character and 
 oppose her progress ? There were times when the 
 Hebrews, whom Moses by the command of Jehovah 
 led out of Egypt, rebelled against him, and were almost 
 ready to stone him, because he had conducted them 
 
FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB. 277 
 
 forth into the wilderness, where they found no water 
 to slake their thirst, and no bread till it was rained 
 from heaven to save them from perishing by hunger. 
 Miracles were multiplied for their benefit, and still 
 the two main difficulties which the Divine lawgiver 
 had to encounter were the reluctance of the people 
 to submit to his guidance and authority, and the 
 impracticable nature of the country which they were 
 obliged to traverse. Never was the Church put to 
 severer trial. Never has any people before or since 
 been called to such a mission and to such a work. 
 Surely it was for no mere earthly glory or temporal 
 end that God wrought wonders in behalf of Israel, 
 and kept the nation from being overthrown by the 
 power of her enemies or absorbed into the kingdoms 
 of the idolater. Moses, who did not live for himself 
 but for his people, asked : " Hath God assayed to go 
 and take Him a nation from the midst of another 
 nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and 
 by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched 
 out arm, and by great terror, according to all that the 
 Lord your God did for you in Egypt?" These stupen- 
 dous agencies might well have guaranteed both their 
 hope of His protection and their fear of His threaten- 
 ings, and convinced them that, whether for good or for 
 evil, God, in whose hands all power lay, was indeed 
 the Being with whom they had to do. More than 
 this, it was He who chose Israel to be his peculiar 
 people, to be the custodian of religion, of truth, of the 
 Divine oracles, of duty, and of salvation. 
 
 I do not think I need to dwell in this presence on 
 the value of the Mosaic economy as connected with 
 
278 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 the scheme of Christian redemption, or to defend the 
 appointments of God against the criticisms of those 
 who esteem them of light obligation and greatly 
 underrate their efficacy. The Christian Church is but 
 the continuation and development of the Jewish, and 
 what God did to guard and preserve the one, He 
 will, if need be, do to fortify and uphold the other. 
 We know not with what eyes those men read the 
 Holy Scriptures who cannot see in their teachings the 
 unity of Divine truth — the oneness of the great 
 Doctrine of the Atonement, enthroned in the Church 
 and appearing in some form or sense under all the 
 dispensations. As little do we know how infidel 
 minds can thrust aside the revealed oracles, and see 
 in them no steady and enduring light to direct the 
 hopes and control the destiny of men. They who are 
 ready to welcome any philosophy which will engage 
 to overcloud the Sun of Righteousness, or which will 
 attempt to bury the soul decently in the folds of 
 matter, or which will ask religion to accommodate 
 itself to the varying circumstances and imperious 
 necessities of the time — they who are thus inclined 
 are not to be followed for the depth of their wisdom, 
 or believed because they prefer weakness and con- 
 fusion to the gospel which speaks in plain words of 
 the sense of sin, of the atoning blood, of the power of 
 the Blessed Spirit, and of the sacraments. 
 
 How many people forget that the peace and hap- 
 piness and civilization around them flow from the 
 influence of the Divine system which infidels rudely 
 assail and bad men reject. Why, there is not an 
 interest of the State or of society that Christianity 
 
FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB. 279 
 
 does not or will not further, or an agency for pro- 
 moting the welfare of the human race which it will 
 not develop and extend. It upholds and consecrates 
 the authority of law. It puts the seal of Divine 
 omniscience on personal purity and social order. It 
 ministers to learning and the liberal arts. It deepens 
 and strengthens the foundations of liberty and good 
 government. It regulates and refines the habits of 
 the domestic circle. It makes each home that fully 
 accepts it a centre of blessing to the neighborhood, 
 and every land that really adorns and honors it be- 
 comes a centre of light unto the world. 
 
 God by His mighty and unseen power will prevent 
 this truth, so fruitful of good, from utterly falling 
 away before the attacks and resistance of its enemies. 
 It is quite true, the Church occasionally suffers defeat, 
 and as often laments that advantage is taken of this 
 fact to belie her character and gain over to the side 
 of unbelief the weak and unstable souls that dare not 
 rest in perfect trustfulness on the strong arm of God. 
 But the failure in such cases is not the result of any 
 inherent defect in the system. It is rather the fault 
 of those who, though appearing to sympathize with 
 all that is good, have nevertheless yielded to tempta- 
 tions and become blinded in their minds. As Bishop 
 Ken in his " Christian Year " describes it : — 
 
 "Lord, 'tis not in Thy Church alone 
 That tares among good corn is sown ; 
 Satan, our hearts to discompose, 
 His tares there sows." 
 
 Every church built as this has been is a contribu- 
 tion to the testimony that the truth and power of 
 
280 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 God are invincible ; that in an age of movement and 
 inquiry, when the pulse of life beats more quickly 
 than in the days of our fathers, the way of salvation 
 is still the old way, following the uplifted banner of 
 the Cross, and teaching us, while we sing the hymn 
 of human progress, to repeat with fervid faith the 
 creed of the apostles. No wonder that the Church, 
 our mother and our home, is distinct in essence from 
 the perishing forms of thought and philosophy which 
 are the product of ingenious speculation only, since 
 her religion has for its basis, its object, not a beautiful 
 idea, but a Divine Person. It has for its accompani- 
 ment, not a majestic rapture in the contemplation of 
 virtue, but the action of faith that stretches to Christ 
 from our feebleness, and the utterance of worship 
 that speaks to Him — now in the spontaneous famil- 
 iarity of prayer, and now in the sublimer accents of 
 praise. 
 
 II. We get other and more practical lessons to fit 
 this occasion from the example of Israel under the 
 leadership of Moses, — lessons which serve to show his 
 strength under the Divine guidance, and the strength 
 of the people whensoever they were united in obedi- 
 ence to his commands and followed him, the type of 
 the great Mediator. 
 
 There was nothing in the rod which he lifted on 
 the hill that could of itself have saved Israel from the 
 power of Amalek, and yet if Moses had thrown it 
 away and disregarded the appointment of God, he 
 never could have invented anything whereby to work 
 miracles and accomplish the stupendous results of his 
 mission. " The kingdom of heaven cometh not with 
 
FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB. 281 
 
 observation," we know; but means which have no 
 power in themselves become an invisible and mys- 
 terious power by their right use and improvement. 
 The church — the building of a church, however 
 beautiful for architecture it may be, will not save 
 souls or be a blessing to a neighborhood, unless it is 
 statedly filled with those who come to it for worship, 
 for instruction in righteousness, for the testimony of 
 the word, and for the comfort and life-giving power of 
 the sacraments. We hear a great deal of complaint 
 in our day of the neglect and indifference of people 
 in regard to attendance upon public religious services, 
 and various causes are assigned for what many claim 
 to be a growing evil. Sometimes it is said that the 
 preachers are not so earnest, self-sacrificing and elo- 
 quent as they used to be, and on the other hand the 
 preachers are inclined to believe that the root of the 
 difficulty lies more in the laity, who often satisfy their 
 consciences by a generous or grudging pecuniary sup- 
 port, rendered for the sake of their families or as a 
 tribute to decent respectability. Then again there 
 are those who put a kind of dividing line between the 
 clergy and the laity, who seem to think that we of 
 the clerical order are appointed to bear the burden of 
 parish prosperity without Aaron and Hur to hold up 
 our hands when heavy, and that as men of faith and 
 hope we ought to live upon our principles and never 
 shows signs of weakness and discouragement. 
 
 I do not forget that there are those among us — 
 few in number, it is believed — who are too much in- 
 inclined to be self-seekers; who ask for wages they 
 cannot earn ; who are afraid of work, or, if not afraid 
 
282 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 of work, would have it given them in a field where no 
 thorns spring up, and where the flowers are always 
 in bloom. They venture to tread upon holy ground, 
 not being shod with the preparation of the gospel of 
 peace, but with the shoes of worldliness upon their 
 feet. 
 
 These exceptions, however, are no apology for 
 underestimating or disregarding the labors of the 
 great body of the clergy. We can certainly accom- 
 plish very little without the help and sympathy of 
 those who, from the heart, recognize us as their Chris- 
 tian teachers, appointed to guide and watch over their 
 souls with earnest and devoted love. The laity are 
 powerless for spiritual good without the clergy, and 
 the clergy need the cooperation and influence of the 
 laity in building up and strengthening the Church, 
 which in the New Testament is declared to be " the 
 pillar and ground of the truth." There should be no 
 antagonisms between them. Their duties and their 
 privileges are mutual, and it is a narrow intelligence 
 that would separate them and make them independent 
 one of the other. 
 
 How common it is for people to indulge their 
 thoughts in imagining improvements which, if at- 
 tempted, would oftentimes be only changes and pro- 
 vocations to anxiety and disturbance. They know 
 not the best way — possibly the way of trial and dis- 
 comfort — by which they are to be conducted. The 
 deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage of 
 Egypt through the wonderful moving of the waters 
 of the Red Sea at first stirred their hearts with thank- 
 fulness, and they sang anthems of glad praise to God. 
 
FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB. 283 
 
 But soon they began to murmur; and the omnipo- 
 tence of Him who " led them in the daytime with a 
 cloud, and all the night through with a light of fire," 
 was forgotten, and they looked back wishfully to 
 Egypt, and wondered why they had been taken from 
 its plenty and enjoyment to perish with hunger and 
 thirst in the wilderness. So great a leader as Moses, 
 so strong in will, so unbending of purpose, so deter- 
 mined in fulfilling his mission, and bowing the hearts 
 of the stiff-necked Hebrews to the yoke of the Divine 
 law, was at times almost discouraged by their unjust 
 complaints, and he would have left them to destruc- 
 tion but for the voice of the Lord, which came to him 
 in thick clouds and reinforced his authority. That 
 same voice, my brethren, in lower tones, comes to us 
 in these days, and bids us patiently abide in our work. 
 It bids us be patterns of gentle forbearance and equa- 
 nimity under trials and murmurings which might well 
 excuse some severity and reproof. No less does it 
 teach the people of religious faith the folly of dwell- 
 ing upon minor and immaterial points, and leaving 
 so much out of view the great ends for which the 
 Church and the ministry were established. I suppose 
 we never can expect that the murmuring Israelite will 
 cease to exist. As long as the world lasts there will 
 be numerous individuals who begin the morning with 
 no sunlight upon their faces, and go through the day 
 gloomy and dissatisfied, not seeing the streaks of 
 encouragement that cross their path, and not turning 
 to a practical account the fears they may entertain 
 about their own personal neglects and shortcomings. 
 We, priests and people, ought always to be men of 
 
284 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 hope, men of progress. If around us there are signs 
 of unrest and discontent, if the Christian bodies 
 which once looked upon us with little favor and 
 appeared to feel their own superiority are beginning 
 to recast their theology and their covenants, and to 
 provide themselves with a partial liturgy, we ought 
 to be thankful that we belong to a historic Church, 
 the cardinal verities of whose faith are less likely to 
 undergo change than is the sun to fail in the heavens 
 or the everlasting hills to melt. Christ would have 
 neither the form without the spirit, nor the dogma 
 without the life ; neither the lamp without the oil, 
 nor the oil without the lamp. And so the Church of 
 our fathers, blending ceremony and substance, Prayer 
 Book and the Word of Life, gives us all we need, and 
 expects and invites us in return to honor her with 
 reverence and loyalty by loving her worship and 
 keeping steadfastly to her ways. 
 
 But I must be drawing this discourse to a close. 
 Perhaps full enough for the occasion will have been 
 said when I have offered my hearty congratulations : 
 First, to the rector of this parish, 1 who with singular 
 faith, courage, and liberality, has prosecuted the 
 effort, and seen it crowned with success, of adding 
 another solid edifice to the number of Episcopal 
 Churches in New Haven — an edifice of such complete 
 ecclesiastical architecture that if " the stone shall cry 
 out of the wall," " the beam out of the timber shall 
 answer it." Most assuredly, whoever is the instru- 
 ment of planning and guiding the erection of a new 
 church, which sometimes resembles not a little the 
 
 1 Rev. Edward W. Babcock. 
 
FROM REPHIDIM TO HOREB. 285 
 
 task of the Hebrews when they were required to pro- 
 duce the tale of bricks, though no straw was given 
 them — whoever does this accomplishes an enterprise 
 which has peculiar trials, if it brings peculiar satisfac- 
 tions. He may not find everybody ready to thank 
 him for devoting his prayers and his thoughts, so 
 long and so earnestly, by night and by day, to the 
 good work, or ready to thank him that he has been 
 willing to consecrate in this manner a portion of his 
 own substance to Him who is " Head over all things 
 to the Church." But no matter, gratitude will come 
 hereafter, and so will reward. 
 
 " Since with pure and firm affection 
 Thou on God hast set thy love, 
 With the wings of His protection 
 He will shield thee from above." 
 
 I give my Christian congratulations, secondly, to 
 the people of this parish. You have been interested 
 in the rearing of a house of worship, which is not to 
 continue for a little time and then pass away. Unless 
 accident befalls it, it will stand long after every one 
 here to witness its consecration has gone to the rest 
 of the grave. A succession of worshipers will enter 
 its portals, but none should love them better than 
 you, or be more grateful for the free and liberal con- 
 tributions which have enabled you to "bring forth 
 the head stone with shoutings." Come, then, to this 
 sanctuary with your children, and be taught the 
 gospel of our Lord. Open wide your bosoms to the 
 sway of that most gracious Spirit, of whose countless 
 gifts the best and most illustrious is charity. As 
 Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses when he 
 
286 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 lifted the rod to encourage Israel in the battle with 
 Amalek, hold up the hands of your rector and help 
 him in his contentions with the evils of ungodliness, 
 and in his efforts to bring into the way of righteous- 
 ness all those among you who have erred and strayed 
 from the fold of the Good Shepherd. And never for- 
 get while doing this that the offering which is most 
 acceptable to God is the free-will offering of your- 
 selves, your souls and bodies ; and that this, though 
 now His House, can be " the gate of heaven " to none 
 that do not come to Him " a living sacrifice," the pur- 
 chase of the Cross of Jesus Christ, renewed and sanc- 
 tified, in heart and life, by His eternal Spirit. 
 
THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED. 
 
 SERMON AT THE RECONSECRATION OF CHRIST CHURCH, 
 REDDING, CONNECTICUT, JULY 6, 1888. 
 
 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generations 
 to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and his wonderful 
 works that He hath done. 
 
 For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in 
 Israel, when he commanded our fathers that they should make them 
 known to their children. — Psalm lxxviii. 4, 5. 
 
 The Church of God was not provided for a single 
 age. It was intended to be perpetuated, to be kept 
 up from one generation to another, and wonders were 
 wrought in behalf of the people of old to make the 
 truth a living power among them, as well as to estab- 
 lish the law of divine righteousness. 
 
 This Psalm, the longest of the historical Psalms, 
 opens with a call upon the Israelites to incline their 
 ears to the oracles of God. Speaking in His name 
 and by His authority as an inspired messenger, the 
 writer comes forward to rebuke sin and ingratitude, 
 and to bring out sharply and clearly the lessons with 
 which the past teemed. What was done to punish 
 rebellion by the special interference of Jehovah may 
 be done again by the ordinary exercise of His provi- 
 dence, if in these days the conduct of believers be 
 marked chiefly by forge tfuln ess of His benefits, by 
 murmurings at His dispensations, and by general un- 
 
288 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 godliness. It was laid as a solemn duty upon the 
 Israelites that they should pass down from generation 
 to generation what the Lord had done for them, so 
 that parents were bound to acquaint their children 
 with the historical as well as the perceptive and doc- 
 trinal parts of their religion. All revealed truth is 
 a sacred trust, given to us, not for ourselves alone, but 
 that we may hand on the torch to others. As the 
 text affirms : — 
 
 " We will not hide them from their children, show- 
 ing to the generations to come the praises of the 
 Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works 
 that He hath done. 
 
 " For He established a testimony in Jacob and ap- 
 pointed a law in Israel, when He commanded our 
 fathers that they should make them known to their 
 children." 
 
 It need not be said in this presence that the Chris- 
 tian Church is the continuation of the Jewish, and 
 that, considered collectively as a body, it cherishes 
 the ancient law appointed in Israel, and holds out, 
 through its Divine Head, the offers of salvation, not to 
 one tribe or family only, but to the whole human 
 race. When our Lord commanded little children to 
 be brought unto Him ; when He took them up in His 
 arms, laid His hands on them and blessed them ; when 
 He declared that each of His followers must " enter 
 the kingdom of heaven as a little child," He was 
 showing the identity of His religion in this particular 
 with the patriarchal and the Jewish, and how the best 
 natural affections may be enlisted in communicating 
 Christian instruction to the young, and preoccupying 
 
THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED. 289 
 
 their minds with right views and devotional senti- 
 ments. Future generations and ages to come are 
 helped to the remembrance of religious duty by the 
 good lives and righteous deeds of children as taught 
 by their forefathers. It has always been admitted to 
 be a blessed thing for our Church in Connecticut that 
 its earliest clergy, with rare exceptions, were men of 
 blameless character. They stamped upon it an im- 
 press which it has strongly retained. Every time I 
 dip into their work, my reverence for them is revived, 
 and I thank God that He gave us such champions to 
 " establish His testimony." 
 
 There was no minister of any religious denomina- 
 tion whatever on Bedding Ridge when Henrj^ Caner 
 came up from the centre of his mission in Fairfield, in 
 1727, to look after and serve a few families here that 
 professed attachment to the doctrines and worship of 
 the Church of England. Among these families were 
 some who well understood the principles of their 
 belief, and contended for them with an earnestness 
 and self-sacrifice which no amount of opposition or 
 persecution could overcome. What was rooted in this 
 village and in the neighborhood grew into a tree 
 which spread its salubrious branches far and wide, 
 and formed a shade and shelter for the refreshment 
 and comfort of those who desired to worship God in 
 the forms of the liturgy. We look back with amaze- 
 ment to the days of bigotry and religious intolerance, 
 and wonder now how good men could have opposed 
 with so much bitterness the introduction of Episcopal 
 ministrations into the colony of Connecticut. When 
 
 John Beach announced to his flock in Newtown, over 
 19 
 
290 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 which he had been settled as a Congregational pastor 
 for eight years, that, from a serious and prayerful 
 examination of the Scriptures and of the records of 
 the early ages of Christianity, he was fully persuaded 
 of the invalidity of his ordination, and had determined 
 to conform to the Church of England and seek orders 
 therein, he filled this region with alarm and excite- 
 ment, and a lawful town-meeting was called to con- 
 sult what was to be done with him after such a decla- 
 ration. It ended in the severance of Mr. Beach from 
 the ecclesiastical society in Newtown and the appoint- 
 ment of a day of solemn fasting and prayer, to be ob- 
 served by the inhabitants of the town " under the 
 present difficult circumstances." 
 
 And now the dismissed or deposed minister is on 
 his way home, as it was termed at that period, for 
 Holy Orders. Lemuel Morehouse and others, mem- 
 bers of the Church of England in Bedding and New- 
 town, 1 have put into his hands a petition to bear to 
 the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, to the effect that he may be returned, accord- 
 ing to his own desire, to the scene of his former min- 
 istrations, and the petition has been granted. Hither 
 he comes, and enters in faith upon the work, which 
 for half a century he prosecuted with singular intre- 
 pidity and unremitting diligence. The hardships that 
 he endured, the trials and tribulations through which 
 he passed, in fulfilling his ministry and defending with 
 his pen the church of his adoption from the bitter 
 assaults and misrepresentations of enemies, made him 
 a prominent figure in the ecclesiastical history of 
 
 1 Church Documents, Connecticut, vol. i. p. 149. 
 
THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED. 291 
 
 the time, and drew closer around him a people who 
 never ceased to regard him with love and veneration. 
 During his long pastorate, interrupted only by occa- 
 sional illness, he divided his residence between Red- 
 ding and Newtown, and officiated alternately on Sun- 
 days in their respective houses of worship, often going 
 from one to the other and holding a third service in 
 the evening. His week-day ministrations reached out 
 to Ridgefield, Danbury, New Milford, and other places, 
 in all of which the Church has since become stronger 
 than on this spot where he had, in the most prosper- 
 ous days, about three hundred hearers, and wrote so 
 many encouraging letters to the Venerable Society. 
 He lived to see a first and a second church built in 
 each of his mission stations, which was a gratifying 
 evidence of his faithfulness and of increase in the 
 strength and number of his people. These churches, 
 as in other towns of the colony, were constructed of 
 wood, and of the plainest architecture, in keeping 
 with the rustic habitations of the early settlers ; but 
 they answered well their purpose, and have been 
 succeeded by the more convenient, substantial, and 
 ornate structures demanded by the luxury, the cul- 
 ture and wealth of the present day. 
 
 I have no doubt that churchmen loved and hon- 
 ored those rude old sanctuaries with all the inter- 
 est and affection which we bestow on ours now. 
 They traveled, many of them, it is certain, six, eight, 
 and ten miles to offer in them prayer and praise, and 
 to be publicly instructed in the way of Christian truth 
 and duty. Long years ago, when I was holding my 
 first pastoral charge in Cheshire, a venerable parish- 
 
292 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ioner presented to me a manuscript sermon written 
 by the Kev. John Beach. It was delivered to your 
 ancestors in this village in 1754, and from the text, 
 " Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, 
 and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice 
 of fools, for they consider not that they do evil," he 
 drew lessons which are as significant and important 
 at one time as another. A single passage may be 
 cited for its peculiar pertinency to this occasion : — 
 
 " When we are in the house of God, we should say, 
 as Jacob did, ' How dreadful is this place — this is 
 none other but the house of God, and this is the gate 
 of heaven/ God says, ' Ye shall keep my Sabbaths 
 and reverence my sanctuary.' The reverence is not 
 to be paid to the place for itself, but to God, whose 
 house it is, and who is here in a special manner. 
 Where two or three meet in His name, there He is. 
 He was visibly present in the tabernacle and temple 
 by the cloud of His glory, and He is as really present 
 in all the assemblies of His saints." 
 
 Nothing shows the presence of thrift and care so 
 completely as the neat farmhouse, kept with all its 
 surroundings in the best order, and giving evidence 
 thereby of the peace, the comfort, and the happiness 
 of its occupants. In like manner, the neat little 
 church, rising on the hillside or nestled in the valley, 
 is among the most attractive objects in a landscape, 
 and it stirred to enthusiasm the sentiment and feel- 
 ings of the Christian poet when he penned the charm- 
 ing ballad : — 
 
 " As I rode on my errand along, 
 I came where a prim little spire 
 
THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED. 293 
 
 Chimed out to the landscape a song, 
 And glowed in the sunset like fire. 
 
 " Its cross beamed a beckoning ray, 
 
 And the home of my Mother I knew ; 
 So I pressed to its portal to pray, 
 
 And my book from my bosom I drew. 
 
 " How sweet was the service within, 
 
 And the plain rustic chant how sincere ! 
 How welcome the pardon of sin, 
 
 And the kind parting blessing how dear! 
 
 " And the parson — I knew not his name, 
 
 And the brethren — each face was unknown; 
 But the Church and the prayers were the same, 
 And my heart claimed them all for its own." 1 
 
 More than half a century has passed away since 
 a society was formed in Cambridge, England, which 
 took for its motto the words of Horace, Donee templa 
 refeceris ; and its object was to stimulate an interest 
 in church architecture and especially to direct public 
 attention to the condition of parish churches through- 
 out the realm, many of which were then sadly neg- 
 lected, and even sinking into decay. No recent 
 traveler in England can fail to note the wonderful 
 restorations and improvements which have been made 
 within the last few years of buildings, large and 
 small, set apart for public worship according to the 
 ritual of the Church. 
 
 The interest thus awakened in the mother-land has 
 been brought over to this country, where it has de- 
 veloped itself in the erection or reconstruction of 
 churches better fitted to a rubrical and more dignified 
 rendering of our service. A large part of this con- 
 
 1 Bishop Coxe. 
 
294 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 gregation may recall the time when the chancel 
 arrangements were clumsy and inconvenient, when 
 pulpits in rural churches, overhung with sounding- 
 boards, were spacious, built against the wall nearly 
 midway between the level of the t floor and the apex 
 of the roof, and used frequently both for the prayers 
 and the sermon. Sometimes, lower down in front of 
 the pulpit, a high breastwork was raised, and outside 
 of this stood the Lord's Table, which the minister 
 approached only on Communion Sundays. The pro- 
 cession of a single clergyman from the vestry-room 
 at one end of the church to the chancel at the other, 
 and, when a surplice was worn, his recession to 
 change for the black gown to deliver his sermon, are 
 things in the past not to be revived, and not pleasant 
 for many of us to remember. 
 
 To say nothing about the new edifices, I believe I 
 am safe in the statement that since the consecration * 
 of our present bishop nearly every old parish church 
 in the diocese has been enlarged, remodeled, beauti- 
 fied, or reconstructed. You have done a good thing 
 for yourselves, my brethren, and a shown to the gene- 
 rations to come the praises of the Lord" by richly 
 adorning your church and making tasteful improve- 
 ments in it, conformable to the spirit and require- 
 ments of the day in which we live. 2 This chancel, 
 
 1 October 29, 1851. 
 
 2 The improvements reflect great credit upon the rector and people of 
 the parish, and upon the Rev. G. M. Wilkins, rector of Trinity Church, 
 Newtown. The handsomely carved eagle lectern bears the inscrip- 
 tion : — 
 
 This lectern is placed here to the glory of God, and in grateful recognition 
 of the valuable aid rendered by the Rev. Gouverneur Morris Wilkins to this 
 ancient parish of Christ Church, Redding Ridge. 
 
THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED. 295 
 
 erected by the munificence of descendants of John 
 Beach, is a fit memorial of one, the intimate convictions 
 of whose mind could not be smothered by persecution 
 and adversity or overlaid by the sharp controversies 
 into which he was unwillingly drawn. How it would 
 have gladdened his heart to behold the spectacle be- 
 fore us, and to have shared with a bishop and a com- 
 pany of clergymen in a service which it was not per- 
 mitted him to witness on this continent. He labored 
 zealously to build up the Church under the superin- 
 tendence of an earthly head three thousand miles 
 away, and never ceased to wonder why one of the Epis- 
 copal order could not be sent over to perform the Apos- 
 tolic offices, and save young men, who might have it 
 in their minds to apply for Holy Orders, the expense 
 
 The memorial gift of the chancel and its furniture is described in a 
 brass tablet occupying the space over the door leading into the vestry- 
 room from the rear of the church : — 
 
 To the glory of God and to the blessed memory of the Rev. John Beach, 
 A. M., faithful missionary of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel in Newtown and Bedding in the troublous times from 1732 to 1782, this 
 chancel is erected and furnished by two of his descendants. 
 
 Near by is another brass tablet which preserves a relic of the early 
 history of the church in Bedding, and on which is engraved: — 
 
 This bullet was fired at the Bev. John Beach, A. M., while officiating in the 
 ante-Revolutionary church of this parish, and was found lodged in the sound- 
 ing-board when that building was taken down and the present edifice erected. 
 Pausing for a moment, the venerable pastor repeated these words to the 
 alarmed congregation : "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able 
 to kill the soul ; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and 
 body in Hell." The bullet is preserved here as a relic of his loyalty to the 
 Church. 
 
 The musket ball forms the centre of a Maltese cross in the left-hand 
 corner of the tablet in bold relief, to be seen from any part of the church. 
 Other memorial gifts to the church are recognized with suitable in- 
 scriptions. 
 
296 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and dangers of a voyage to England. It is impossible 
 to interpret the policy of British rulers in denying 
 the repeated entreaties of the colonial clergy for the 
 Episcopacy on any ground but the fear of offending 
 the Puritan element and exciting the colonies to rebel 
 against the home government. The narrow states- 
 manship of the day would not allow anything to be 
 done for the Church which might be thought to put in 
 peril the possessions of the Crown, or interfere with 
 the trade and commerce of the country. But Provi- 
 dence worked out the problem in His own way, and 
 in time gave us bishops untrammeled by the State 
 and free to exercise the spiritual functions committed 
 to them in the Church of God. 
 
 With greater privileges and advantages come 
 greater responsibilities. If the age, with its special 
 characteristics, makes new demands upon the clergy, 
 and requires them to meet and ponder the questions 
 which science and philosophy are perpetually raising, 
 they are not to forget, and the people are not to for- 
 get, the old truths, the old plan of salvation. No era 
 of religious thought can take away or lower the 
 claims of Christ and the standard of Christian duty. 
 The worship which your fathers offered on this sum- 
 mit was to the same God who claims your homage 
 and worship now. Your present condition is but a 
 link in a chain of events which stretches over a long 
 period, and teaches you, as the children of a blessed 
 inheritance, not to be unmindful of what is before 
 you, at the same time that you are not forgetful of 
 what is behind. The way to keep alive an old par- 
 ish that is constantly drained by a stream of its people 
 
THE TESTIMONY ESTABLISHED. 297 
 
 running outward is for those who remain to be pa- 
 tient and more self-sacrificing, to stand fast by the 
 teachings of Christ and his apostles, which are the 
 standard of the Church and the rule of its existence. 
 I have often thought that the early churchmen of 
 Connecticut were more careful to remember the Lord 
 in their wills than men of the present day. You will 
 not find great stones, elaborate in design and exqui- 
 site in sculpture, erected to their memory in ceme- 
 teries, but their names are written in many a parish 
 record-book, and, if the legacies they devised were in 
 some instances absorbed by the Revolution and in 
 others misused or misappropriated by vestries, they 
 show at least a desire on the part of those who made 
 them to serve the Church after death and help main- 
 tain constant regular ministrations. Sometimes a 
 man who has gone forth to the great city and been 
 successful in accumulating a fortune and making a 
 name for himself looks back to the home of his boy- 
 hood and the Church where he was dedicated to God 
 in baptism and, by a timely benefaction, revives the 
 drooping hopes of the little rural parish and starts it 
 into a new and better life. 
 
 Much is said in these days about Christian unity, 
 for which we may all labor and pray. Time has 
 mellowed the prejudices and modified many of the 
 opinions that existed a century ago, but no true church- 
 man will for a moment maintain that the decomposi- 
 tion of the kingdom of Christ into a multitude of sects 
 * is a matter of indifference to Him, or that all the mul- 
 tifarious communions around us are of equal value in 
 His eyes. John Beach never surrendered a cardinal 
 
298 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 principle of his belief to gain a friend or secure peace. 
 He carried on a war at a distance in defense of the 
 Church, but here at home he was gentle as a lamb, 
 and taught his people to be so in the intercourse 
 of private life ; else how could he have gone through 
 the struggles of the Revolution, and continued to 
 pray for the king and royal family. In one of his 
 communications to the Venerable Society, ten years 
 before his death, he said: — 
 
 " We live in peace and harmony with each other, 
 and the rising generation of the Independents seems 
 to be entirely free from any pique and prejudice 
 against the Church." 
 
 This is the way for Christian bodies to live, side by 
 side. May the Lord through His Spirit strengthen 
 you and give you prosperity. By all the hallowed 
 memories of the blessings of the Christian ministry, 
 by the eucharistical feast, by the baptismal rite, by 
 the marriage vow, by the remembrance of your dead 
 buried out of your sight "in sure and certain hope of 
 the resurrection to eternal life," — by all these be en- 
 treated to hold the truth " in faith and love which is 
 in Christ Jesus." That truth will endure when every- 
 thing which is not true shall have passed away. 
 
LOVING THE HABITATION OF GOD'S HOUSE. 
 
 SERMON AT THE REOPENING OF ST. PETER'S CHURCH, 
 CHESHIRE, AFTER ADDITIONS TO THE ORIGINAL EDI- 
 FICE, JANUARY 16, 1890. 
 
 Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where 
 thine honor dwelleth. — Psalm xxvi. 8. 
 
 Well-nigh half a century has passed away since 
 this church was consecrated, and it is the third time 
 that I have been asked to come up here and preach a 
 sermon on the occasion of reopening it after additions 
 and extensive improvements. The cost of the original 
 structure, erected in a day when money went much 
 farther than now, was but a fraction compared with 
 the aggregate of the later expenditures. We all know 
 that fashions change with the demands of the age, and 
 hence much more is now required than formerly in 
 the way of comfort and convenience to carry on suc- 
 cessfully the work of a city, or a rural, parish. No 
 man builds himself a house to live in without finding 
 when he comes to occupy it where it can be altered 
 and improved. It is somewhat so with churches. 
 " The pattern showed to Moses in the Mount " would 
 not be acceptable to the Jewish mind in these days. 
 If the earliest disciples of our Lord in the poverty of 
 the Christian Church had places of worship religiously 
 set apart from every secular use, they must have been 
 
300 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 simple in their character and devoid of ornament and 
 splendor. Magnificent temples, large and decorated, 
 did not appear until Christians had increased in num- 
 bers and in wealth — nor until God was pleased to 
 raise up kings and queens and emperors to be 
 defenders and guardians of the true faith. 
 
 This parish in the period of its infancy and feeble- 
 ness had those connected with it who made sacrifices 
 for Christ worthy of the good name which they bore. 
 They worshiped with their brethren in Wallingford 
 after the cherished liturgy of their English ancestors 
 until 1760, when they "built themselves a small 
 church " on this site " for their greater convenience 
 in the winter season," and it was opened with suitable 
 religious services, and the little flock kept together 
 by lay-reading and a regular parochial organization. 
 Nature has always taught us on the completion of an 
 important structure designed for public and lasting 
 good to solemnize its first appropriation to the purpose 
 for which it was reared by some special recognition, 
 and we have done to-day what your forefathers did 
 when they set up here in love and faith a church as 
 " an ensign on a hill." 
 
 In the expansion of towns and villages and the 
 shifting of popular centres, it has frequently been 
 found necessary or advisable to select new locations 
 in rebuilding houses of public worship, but no such 
 necessity has existed in this place. All the successive 
 churches of your parish have risen on the same old 
 historic ground, and you may read the names of their 
 builders engraven upon the stones and monuments so 
 thickly set in the adjoining churchyard. The Barneses 
 
LOVING THE HABITATION OF GOD'S HOUSE. 301 
 
 and the Beaches, the Bronsons and the Brookses, the 
 Doolittles and the Driggses, the Hitchcocks and the 
 Humistons, the Iveses and the Jarvises,the Mosses, the 
 Potters, the Weltons, and many others that might be 
 mentioned, rest together in " the night of the grave," 
 and from each of them we seem to hear as the linger- 
 ing voice of a departing echo — " Lord, I have loved 
 the habitation of thy house and the place where thine 
 honor dwelleth." 
 
 A fixed resolution to adhere to the worship of God 
 in the sanctuary was a noble characteristic of those 
 who in the olden time hated the company of evil- 
 doers and hallowed their lives by keeping ever fresh 
 in remembrance the duty of prayer and praise. When 
 David in another Psalm affirmed, "I was glad when 
 they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the 
 Lord," he spoke the best feelings of our nature, and 
 showed how with a full heart he welcomed the priv- 
 ilege of participating in the public ordinances of 
 religion. Who will deny that this is a precious priv- 
 ilege still ? Faithfully improved, it will not only lead 
 to a love of the Lord's house but to inward spiritual 
 blessedness. One day in seven is set apart for the 
 purposes of rest and religion, and where or how can 
 some portion of it be better spent than by joining with 
 a multitude of Christian worshipers in praying the 
 prayers of the Church and listening to the instructions 
 of her authorized ministers ! Churches are not built 
 simply for the adornment of a city or a village. They 
 are imposing objects, which no reflecting person can 
 pass by without thinking for a moment of their use 
 and design. The more we frequent them the more we 
 
302 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 shall prize the worship within their walls. " One 
 great part of the history of the Bible," says Dean 
 Church, "is the history of calls, widely different in- 
 deed in their circumstances, but alike in this, that 
 they were a claim of Almighty God on the will and 
 choice of man for a free and unconditional service.' ' 
 This unconditional service we render when we wor- 
 ship Him in the sanctuary in the beauty of holiness, 
 and though we may adore Him elsewhere, — in the 
 family and in the closet, in the forest and in the field, 
 in the valley and on the mountain-top, yet His house 
 is called His habitation and the place where His 
 ft honor dwelleth." We must remember that the 
 church is very much to us what we choose to make 
 it. We may come to it with a worldly feeling, and 
 not reap the benefits which its sacred ordinances were 
 designed to impart. We may take no pains to con- 
 trol and mould our thoughts, and so allow images and 
 recollections to crowd in upon us which are positively 
 destructive of religious enjoyment and profit. The 
 careless, undisciplined worshiper has all kinds of loose 
 ideas carrying off his mind at every moment from the 
 proper business of the sanctuary. We are all liable, 
 the best of us, to wanderings in prayer, but if the 
 cares of the world turn our devotions into a sea of 
 tumultuous thoughts, the Spirit moves upon that sea 
 and immediately there comes a blessed calm. Not 
 that we are to have or to expect sensible or mir- 
 aculous interpositions in the kingdom of grace any 
 more than we expect visible upliftings of the Divine 
 arm on our behalf in the kingdom of providence. We 
 do not live on the calculation of miracles, but on the 
 
LOVING THE HABITATION OF GOD'S HOUSE. 303 
 
 observed and prescribed conditions of the Christian 
 economy. Apart from all answers, whether present 
 or future, prayer both public and private, persevered 
 in, must tend to the improvement of individual char- 
 acter. It keeps the soul to its work. If you can each 
 say, " Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house 
 and the place where thine honor dwelleth," then you 
 have been here at stated times and seasons to manifest 
 your love for it, to pay religious homage to the Most 
 High, to express and strengthen your pious venera- 
 tion, your thankfulness and your confidence, to seek 
 and receive pure influences from above, — in short, to 
 be instructed in the Divine word, and to consecrate 
 yourselves afresh to the honor and glory of God. 
 Habitual prayer builds up the moral life and makes 
 men as members of society different in their whole 
 bearing and character from those who do not pray. 
 It deepens the sense of a personal existence and places 
 the soul face to face with facts of the first order of 
 solemnity and importance — with its real self and with 
 its God. 
 
 The institution of the Sabbath was a blessed thing 
 for the human race and the command to remember 
 and keep it holy is a perpetual invitation to enter the 
 sanctuary of the Lord and do honor to His great 
 name. It was a wise and merciful ordering of Provi- 
 dence that earthly toil and the rumbling of carts and 
 the hum of busy industries should be suspended every 
 seventh day. God knew that men who bow down 
 their backs always unto the burden, and beasts that 
 He has made obedient unto man, needed this suspen- 
 sion to rest and regain fresh vigor. Why, a century 
 
304 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 ago, during the reign of atheistic terror in France, the 
 National Assembly passed an order substituting for 
 the week and the Sabbath the decimal division of 
 time, and making every tenth day a holiday. What 
 was the result ? The peasants in the rural districts 
 very soon discovered that the law of God was better 
 for the brute beasts, and more profitable, than the law 
 of man. " Our cattle," said they, " know the Sabbath 
 and will have it," and before the order was reversed 
 and the nation and its rulers had recovered from their 
 wild delirium, the Sunday — the seventh day — was 
 resumed in many quarters for reasons of economy 
 and public utility. 
 
 If such a thing were possible as striking down all 
 churches in a Christian community and doing away 
 with all remembrance of the Fourth Commandment, it 
 is quite certain that that community wouid suffer 
 morally and religiously, and sooner or later relapse 
 into a condition but little above heathenism. Irre- 
 ligious persons do not comprehend how much they 
 are indebted to those who love and maintain the 
 habitation of the Lord's house and " in everything by 
 prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make 
 known their requests unto God." They cannot help 
 feeling a sincere sympathy with the success of their 
 work, but they fail to be impressed with the aims of 
 that Divine revelation which lifts us up from earth to 
 heaven. Too many become critics and doubters, and 
 shield themselves under the cover of mystery and 
 darkness. They appear to think they are safe in a 
 negative goodness, and that what they do not perfectly 
 understand they need not practice. Possession in- 
 
LOVING THE HABITATION OF GOD'S HOUSE. 305 
 
 volves responsibility, and the word of salvation given 
 to us in order that we may use it for ourselves has 
 enough in it so plain that he who reads it may learn 
 his duty, if he will, and be guided to its habitual 
 practice. How can any one expect to be instructed 
 unless he comes within reach of the instructor ? In 
 the man Christ Jesus, the Son of God, there lie the 
 thoughts for all our knowledge and the master prin- 
 ciple of all our conceptions. One thing is certain : 
 nothing can take the place of Christianity. There is 
 no substitute which its enemies may propose that will 
 help to remove a shadow that foils upon our paths or 
 lighten a burden that rests on our souls. 
 
 When our Lord was upon earth, He bade men 
 follow Him; the spell of His presence drew them and 
 they followed without delay. He is a living Lord, 
 and He bids us follow Him now and love the habita- 
 tion of His house, where He offers His gifts, His word, 
 His sacraments. No change in the phases of modern 
 thought, no teaching that attempts to represent and 
 interpret the spirit of the times, is safe teaching if it 
 leaves out of view the essential doctrines and com- 
 mandments of Christ. We ought to think of miracles 
 in the past, we ought to think of the manifest pres- 
 ence of God in the future, as parts of the one great 
 system of mercy and love which is to be upheld and 
 propagated till we come to " the new heavens audi 
 the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
 
 I do not know that I need to extend this line of 
 
 thought. Enough has been said to show the value of 
 
 preserving the truth in its integrity and of cherishing 
 
 a love for " the habitation of the Lord's house." Both 
 20 
 
306 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 individual and social happiness will come from keep- 
 ing close to duty and following the example of Christ. 
 " The State can make certain kinds of vice unpleasant 
 or unprofitable; it can absolutely forbid certain 
 crimes, and punish them with a terrible vengeance ; 
 it can enforce a certain amount of moral training 
 and discipline upon children, and upon the servants 
 in its own employment ; but it can do little to make 
 virtue directly pleasant or profitable to the mass of 
 its citizens." 1 It is Christianity which does this — 
 Christianity which supplies the power of living above 
 the world and of taking an active part in the objects 
 and movements of society without being borne down 
 by evil influences or swayed by evil teachings. Its 
 " ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are 
 peace." That thousands and tens of thousands sit 
 beneath the shadow of the true faith and yet are not 
 obedient to it, and find no satisfaction in coming to 
 the Lord's house, no one will deny ; but this is not 
 the fault of Divine revelation, but rather of depraved 
 human nature which is so blind to spiritual peace and 
 contentment. Even in human nature there is a want 
 which the world cannot supply, — a thirst for objects 
 on which to pour forth more fervent admiration and 
 love than visible things awaken, — a thirst for the 
 unseen, the infinite, the everlasting. There is only 
 one way of satisfying it, and that is by going to the 
 wellspring of Christ, and taking there the water of 
 life offered to every thirsting soul through the grace 
 and mercy of our Heavenly Father. 
 
 Every earthly thing is characterized by change and 
 
 1 Wordsworth's Bampton Lectures, p. 232. 
 
LOVING THE HABITATION OF GOD'S HOUSE. 307 
 
 decay. As years come upon us, and we live in recol- 
 lection more than in hope, the heart goes back to 
 those places and circumstances which were dear to us 
 in early life. Of the eleven clergymen present at the 
 consecration of this church on the first day of August, 
 1840, not one is now living except myself, and of the 
 congregation then gathered within these walls, how 
 many sleep the sleep that will know no waking till 
 they hear the trumpet-call on the morning of the great 
 Resurrection ! So one generation passes away and 
 another succeeds. So one generation does its work 
 for the church, and leaves to its successors this precious 
 admonition : " While we have time let us do good 
 unto all men, and especially unto them that are of 
 the household of faith." 
 
 Probably no one as his steps draw near to the end 
 has other than pleasant recollections of his charities, 
 and of the good deeds which God has enabled him to 
 do for his house and people. Men eager for the 
 riches of the world toil night and day to gather them, 
 and make investments in institutions which are occa- 
 sionally wrecked by mismanagement or dishonesty, 
 but nothing given to the Lord is ever really lost or 
 fails to be an element in storing up for the true- 
 hearted believer a good foundation against the time 
 to come. A gentleman who had been eminently 
 successful in his accumulations, and had never for- 
 gotten to honor the Lord with a measure of his sub- 
 stance was by a strange disaster suddenly stripped of 
 his fortune and reduced almost to poverty. A sym- 
 pathizing friend said to him, " What a calamity ! 
 You have lost all." " No," was the reply. " In my 
 
308 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 prosperous years I devoted regularly a liberal sum 
 to the Lord. That is saved, that is saved. The rest 
 is gone." By the help of one * who was a native of 
 this town, and whose munificent gifts to church and 
 educational objects adorn the history of a good life, 
 you have made an addition to this edifice which gives 
 it outwardly a new character, and supplies what most 
 parishes in these days feel to be an absolute necessity. 
 No such noble work is accomplished without anxiety 
 and self-denial on the part of minister and people. 
 Those who come after you will reap the advantage, 
 and yet not know what you know. I should have 
 thought that the lines had fallen to me in a very 
 pleasant place, if I had come a deacon to a church 
 like this instead of coming to the creaking old build- 
 ing which threatened to tumble together every time 
 a gale swept over the village. 2 It does not seem that 
 anything more can be done in the way of material 
 improvements, and now let a new life breathe through 
 the worship of this house and a new love join the 
 hearts of the worshipers. Remember your responsi- 
 bilities. Remember yourselves. Love this house as 
 the habitation of the Lord and the place where His 
 honor dwelleth. And remember, too, how the apostle 
 Paul winds up the greatest picture of human life and 
 human destiny ever set before the minds of men, thus : 
 " So we being many are one body in Christ, and every 
 one members one of another." 
 
 1 Mr. George A. Jarvis, of Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 2 The late Rev. Dr. Tillotson Bronson, attending a service when the 
 church was shaken by a violent wind, is said to have looked up and 
 around fearfully for a moment, and then to have seized his hat and 
 walked hurriedly out. This was done on several occasions. 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 
 
 DISCOURSE AT THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNI- 
 VERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF ST. JAMES'S PARISH, 
 BIRMINGHAM, CONNECTICUT, JUNE 30, 1891. 
 
 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. — Psalm lxxxvii. 3. 
 
 Bishop Horsley has translated this verse : " The 
 glories of the wilderness are in thee, city of God." 
 The whole composition was one which evoked his 
 genius ; but the most important change from the 
 common translation made by him is at the sixth 
 verse, where for the words : " He write th up the 
 people," he renders "Jehovah shall record in the 
 scriptures of the peoples." He applies the Psalms 
 for the most part to the Messiah, but his notes upon 
 them are fragmentary, — mere hints to help the Bib- 
 lical student. 
 
 The eighty- seventh Psalm opens with an out- 
 burst of intensely national feeling, and celebrates not 
 earthly splendors or victories, but the glory of Zion 
 as the city of God. The Jews are constantly re- 
 minded that they were a separate people, distinct 
 and intended to be distinct from all others. Their 
 land was a special gift from heaven, and the narrow- 
 ness of their spirit corresponded to the narrowness of 
 their geographical position. Judaism as such held out 
 no hope of a brotherhood of nations. Psalmists and 
 
310 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 prophets shared the feeling of antipathy to the world 
 around them, and were slow to believe that a time 
 would come when the Gentiles would be gathered in, 
 and the temple of Jehovah become the centre of a 
 common faith and worship. It lends force and dignity 
 to the idea of the comprehensiveness of the Kingdom 
 of Kighteousness that God, by His prophet, says : " I 
 will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them 
 that know me. . . . The Lord shall count when he 
 writeth up the people that this man was born there." 
 
 The privileges of citizenship were among the " glo- 
 rious things " to be extended to the Gentiles, and they 
 surely would be finally welcomed as brethren. A 
 better and higher fulfillment, therefore, than that 
 which lies on the surface of the words, has been given 
 to this Psalm, for it was fulfilled in the coming; of 
 Christ, and every member of His great family is 
 solemnly introduced into it and registered among its 
 redeemed people. The saying of our Lord : " Except 
 a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of God," is an aid to 
 its interpretation, and strengthens the conception of 
 a new birth unto righteousness. 
 
 " See," expounds St. Augustine, " of what city he 
 sayeth that very glorious things are spoken of it. 
 The earthly Jerusalem is destroyed. It has endured 
 the violence of its enemies ; it is laid even with the 
 ground ; it is not what it was ; it expressed the image 
 of what it was to represent, and passed away like a 
 shadow." What has taken its place ? 
 
 The old Psalms of the historic Jerusalem are set to 
 the music of the Christian Church, "the Church of 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 311 
 
 the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 
 A branch of this Church was planted here one hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago, and watched and nurtured 
 in its weakness by missionaries of the Venerable Soci- 
 ety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts. The unhappy effects of the spirit of the times 
 had awakened an interest in religious subjects, and 
 sharp controversies sprang up on the order and gov- 
 ernment of the Church, and on the principles of 
 divine worship as well. Men read with eagerness 
 the publications of the day — ■ books were not as plen- 
 tiful then as now — and if you could have asked one 
 of them, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" 
 he would have been able to give you a ready and in- 
 telligent answer. Just over the river, within the lim- 
 its of Ripton (now Huntington), there dwelt a layman 1 
 of large landed possessions, — one of the little band 
 that welcomed to Connecticut the early visits of Muir- 
 son and Heathcote, and who, in spite of the bitter per- 
 secutions that befell him, kept the faith, and so by 
 his example revived in others an affection for the 
 Church of England. One strong man of unblemished 
 moral character and ri^ht Christian belief can do 
 much in a lay capacity to sow the seed of the King- 
 dom and bring forth fruit unto perfection. 
 
 The first Episcopal Church in Connecticut was 
 erected in Stratford, and while Samuel Johnson was 
 serving; in it he carried his ministrations into different 
 places, and sometimes ascended the valley of the 
 Naugatuck as far as Waterbury, and even farther, 
 baptizing and performing other Christian offices for 
 
 1 Daniel Shelton. 
 
312 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 the scattered families of churchmen. I am sure he 
 put his finger upon the enterprise started in Derby, 
 in 1737, by John Holbrook and seven men of like 
 religious feeling, and he must have watched with 
 interest the building of a little church, which it took 
 nine years to complete. He instructed the people in 
 the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and put into 
 their hands volumes of discourses to be read from 
 when they assembled for Sunday services. This can 
 be proved by an incident worth relating. Beyond 
 the banks of the Housatonic — beyond the hills in the 
 centre of Ripton — there was an over-zealous Congre- 
 gational minister, 1 an enthusiastic follower of White- 
 field, who had broken a lance with Johnson on original 
 sin several years before, by writing him letters, and 
 calling in question his belief and doctrinal teachings. 
 In one of his replies, dated November, 1741, 2 John- 
 son said : " You talked about Dr. Clarke, but I never 
 undertook to justify his doctrine of original sin, which 
 I even allowed to be expressed too loosely and un- 
 guardedly ; only I was willing to put a more favor- 
 able construction upon it than you did ; nor do I 
 remember I ever advised Darby people to read his 
 sermons in public, but I am sure I advised them not 
 to do it, and lent them another book to read, that 
 they might not read his." 
 
 Jonathan Arnold, the immediate successor of John- 
 son, in the Congregational ministry, at West Haven, 
 and probably led by him, conformed to Episcopacy 
 in 1734, and his name was entered in the parish 
 register of the church in Stratford as making his first 
 
 1 Jedediah Mills. 2 MS. Letter. 
 
GLOKIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 313 
 
 communion on Easter day of that year. An infant 
 son of his was baptized about the same time, and 
 going afterwards to England for Holy Orders, Arnold 
 returned with the appointment of an itinerant mis- 
 sionary for the Colony. The society was at that time 
 pledged to the full amount of its income, but possessing 
 some means of his own, he expressed a willingness to 
 serve without stipend or remuneration other than the 
 trifling allowance afforded by the people. He contin- 
 ued to reside in West Haven, and the houses of wor- 
 ship begun in that place and in Derby stood unfinished 
 when he removed to Staten Island, N. Y., in the spring 
 of 1740. 1 He was succeeded by the Rev. Theophilus 
 Morris, an English clergyman who, in his first letter to 
 the society, said : " Should I give you an account of 
 the geography of my mission, you would find it large 
 enough for a diocese." Mr. Morris soon tired of his 
 work and of what he was pleased to call "the wretched 
 fanaticism that ran so high in this country," and re- 
 turned to England, having served here scarcely more 
 than two years. Then came the Rev. James Lyons, 
 a clergyman sent over from Great Britain, who was 
 met on the very threshold of his ministrations with 
 the taunt of being " an Irish teague and a foreigner." 
 He took up his abode in Derby, and went out from 
 thence to the various points of his extensive mission, 
 but with all his fidelity and earnestness he could not 
 overcome the prejudices of the people, or save himself 
 from trials and tribulations which, even in these days, 
 sometimes beset the most judicious servants of Christ. 
 He was transferred to Long Island after a period of 
 
 1 See Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, p. 94. 
 
314 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 service no longer than that of his predecessor, and 
 again the infant churches were without pastoral over- 
 
 Bigh^ except such as was given by the occasional 
 visits of Johnson and his resolute and uncoin promis- 
 ing brother, John Beach, of Newtown. 
 
 A young man. a native of New Haven, the son of 
 Congregational parents, graduated with distinction 
 from Yale College in 1741, and with a classmate, 
 Noah Welles, who had no good affection for Episco- 
 pacy, was awarded the Berkeley premium, given to 
 each student in the senior class who sustained the 
 best examination in Greek and Latin, provided he 
 remained a resident graduate one or more years. 
 Richard Mansfield, for such was his name, was appre- 
 ciated for his scholarship, and appointed in 1742 
 rector of the Hopkins Grammar School, in New 
 Haven, — an honorable position which he held nearly, 
 if not quite, a lustrum. He had great reputation as 
 an instructor of youth after he had begun to exercise 
 the duties of the ministry. "Perhaps no man in his 
 day " says a biographer, " had greater celebrity in 
 preparing young men for college, — a considerable 
 number of whom he always had under his care." 1 
 
 The bent of his mind was toward the sacred minis- 
 try at the time he graduated, and his predilections 
 
 1 Churchman's Magazine, 1821, p. 263. After the death of Dr. John- 
 son, he was the best guide in Connecticut in the higher education of the 
 Church. " Candidates for Holy Orders frequently pursued their theo- 
 logical studies under his direction, and until a very late period in [his] 
 life previous to their entering the ministry they had recourse to him for 
 their final instructions, which his sound judgment, great experience and 
 learning enabled him to give." 
 
 Bishop Seabury placed Charles, his youngest son, with him before he 
 commenced theology under his own immediate supervision. 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 315 
 
 were naturally in favor of the religion of his parents, 
 of his instructors, and the community to which he 
 belonged. But the excitements and divisions conse- 
 quent upon the itinerancy of Whitefield, and the reli- 
 gious controversies which sprung up at this period, 
 set him on an investigation into the doctrines, gov- 
 ernment and worship of the Church of England, and 
 early in the summer of 1746, Dr. Johnson asked leave 
 of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to 
 allow him to " come home " for Holy Orders, and be 
 returned with the appointment of a missionary to 
 Derby, where the people were providing a glebe, and 
 verv desirous of having; him stationed. The leave 
 was ere long granted, and the time of his return is 
 fixed by the Kev. Ebenezer Dibblee, who wrote to 
 the secretary of the society, under date of November 
 14, 1748, "I take this opportunity, the first that con- 
 veniently offers, to acquaint you that by the blessing 
 of God Mr. Mansfield and I arrived safe and in good 
 health, at New York, on the 23d of October, and to 
 my mission at Stamford on the 25th. My mind is 
 impressed with a sense of the divine goodness to me 
 in my voyage through so many dangers." 
 
 Yery little is now thought of the perils which at- 
 tended the men who crossed the Atlantic one hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago to obtain valid ordination from 
 the bishops of the Church of England. In these days 
 of steam navigation, when quick passages in large 
 floating palaces are confidently anticipated, we are apt 
 to forget the sacrifices and trials of those who, in the 
 narrow, uncomfortable cabins of sailing vessels, were 
 tossed for weeks and months on the ocean, and were 
 
316 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 entirely dependent on favoring winds to waft them to 
 the point of their destination. Nothing but a sense 
 of religions duty impelled them to venture themselves 
 in the arms of Almighty God and make the sacrifices 
 they did for the sake of what Johnson called that 
 "excellent church, the Church of England." As the 
 Ordinal teaches, they believed it " evident unto all 
 men diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient 
 authors that, from the apostles' time, there have been 
 these orders of ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops. 
 Priests, and Deacons." 
 
 The church in Derby was finished when Mansfield 
 established himself in this place, which was the centre 
 of his extensive mission, some of the towns requiring 
 his visits being thirty and forty miles distant. In a 
 letter to the Society, July, 1750, he said: "I have 
 continued this last half year constantly to officiate in 
 the several parts of my mission, occasionally, espe- 
 cially on holy days, at six or seven other towns which 
 are destitute of a missionary. The Church seems to 
 be in a flourishing condition in the places which I 
 visit, notwithstanding the hardships which some of 
 them labor under in being distrained by the dissenting 
 collectors of money to support their teachers." His 
 mission included besides Waterbury, Westbury, and 
 Northbury, what has since become the incorporated 
 towns of Orange, Oxford, Woodbridge, Naugatuck, 
 Seymour, and Ansonia, but from 1755 he kept chiefly 
 within the limits of Derby, which was of large extent 
 territorially, and embraced Oxford, where a church 
 had been built in which he regularly officiated. 
 
 An important event of his life ought not to be passed 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 317 
 
 over at this point. On the 10th day of October, 1751, 
 Dr. Johnson married Richard Mansfield and Mrs. 1 
 Anne Hull, in the little church "up town," — at that 
 time one of the " glories of the wilderness/' and long 
 after, since it continued to be the place of worship 
 for the early Episcopalians of Derby and their de- 
 scendants. 
 
 A quarter of a century goes by and we fall upon 
 troublous times when the Church and the State 
 were alike shaken by bitter dissensions and unhappy 
 divisions. It was a fiery soil upon which men trod 
 here during the War of the Revolution. Mansfield 
 took the side of the Crown, and taught his people 
 peaceableness and obedience to the established gov- 
 ernment. He had taken the oath of allegiance to the 
 King when he was admitted to Holy Orders, and, like 
 his clerical brethren, he was receiving a stipend from 
 an English society which, by its charter, would dis- 
 continue it the moment the Colonies were acknow- 
 ledged to be independent. He did not carry his whole 
 flock with him, however, for in Derby as in other 
 places there were some who, if they loved the Church, 
 loved American independence more. Among this 
 number was Captain John Holbrook, who joined his 
 wife in conveying the land for the burying-ground 
 
 1 Under the head of Marriages, in the parish register of Christ 
 Church, Stratford, the record in the handwriting of Dr. Johnson is : 
 " Darby, Oct. 10, 1751, Mr. Richard Mansfield with Mrs. Anne Hull." 
 
 " Miss, at the beginning of the last century, was appropriated to girls 
 under the age of ten. Mistress was then the style of grown-up unmar- 
 ried ladies, though the mother was living, and for a considerable part of 
 the century maintained its ground against the infantine term of Miss." 
 Imp. Diet. 
 
 Anne Hull was not sixteen when she was married to Mr. Mansfield. 
 
318 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 and the site of the first Episcopal Church in the town. 
 He withdrew to support the cause of the Revolution, 
 and united with others in organizing* the " Great Hill 
 Ecclesiastical Society " (Congregational), of which he 
 was elected the first deacon. The society ceased to 
 exist after a few vears, and its members were absorbed 
 by the Methodists, and by the erection of an Episcopal 
 Church at Humphreysville. 
 
 Mr. Mansfield was insulted and abused and de- 
 nounced as a Tory and a Papist by the populace. In 
 a letter to the Society, December 29, 1775, he said : 
 " After having resided and constantly performed paro- 
 chial duties in my mission full twenty-seven years, 
 without intermission, I have at last been forced to fly 
 from my church and from my family and home, in or- 
 der to escape outrage and violence, imprisonment and 
 death, unjustly meditated of late and designed against 
 me ; and have found a temporary asylum in the loyal 
 town of Hempstead, pretty secure, I believe, at pres- 
 ent from the power of those violent and infatuated 
 people, who persecute me in particular and disturb 
 the whole British Empire. As soon as these sparks of 
 civil dissension appeared, which have since been blown 
 up into a devouring flame, I did (as I thought it my 
 duty) inculcate upon my parishioners, both from the 
 pulpit and in private conversation, the duty of peace- 
 ableness, and quiet submission to the King and to the 
 parent state." 
 
 He was returned to Derby under guard, and the 
 " Committee of Inspection," as it was called, publicly 
 advertised him as a very dangerous person, altogether 
 inimical to the liberties of America, and admonished 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 319 
 
 the people to break off henceforth all dealings with 
 him. But he had his friends and was fed, and the 
 War of the Revolution went on to the end, and to the 
 acknowledgment of American independence. One of 
 the most painful duties which he was required to per- 
 form, after signs of peace began to appear, was to 
 preach a sermon at the funeral of the Rev. John 
 Beach, who died March 19, 1782. It was from the 
 text : " I have fought a good fight ; I have finished 
 my course ; I have kept the faith," etc., — words with 
 which he triumphed a few hours before his decease, as 
 the sermon, which was printed, states. The country 
 was poor, and the interests of the Church in Connecti- 
 cut, more than those of any other religious body, were 
 involved in the common destruction that war makes. 
 The offer of the Crown to the Loyalists to remove 
 into the British Provinces of North America was 
 accepted by Episcopal clergymen * and laymen in 
 Connecticut as a means of living and escaping further 
 distress, — but Mansfield remained at his post, and 
 was one of the ten that met in Woodbury to delibe- 
 rate upon ecclesiastical affairs and organize for the 
 future. You know the issue of that meeting, and I 
 will pass over the period that intervened between it 
 and the coming of Bishop Seabury to Derby, Septem- 
 ber 21, 1786, to meet his clergy, and hold an ordina- 
 tion in the little church " up town," — still one of the 
 " glories of the wilderness." Four candidates were 
 admitted to the diaconate. Nor was this all. It was 
 
 1 There were fourteen clergymen in the Colony when the war ended ; 
 four of whom — Samuel Andrews of Wallingford, Richard Clarke of New 
 Milford, James Scovill of Waterbury, and Roger Veits of Simsbury — 
 moved with portions of their flocks to the British Provinces. 
 
320 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 in the same church, and at the same convocation, that 
 he delivered his second and last charge to the clergy 
 of Connecticut, and set forth his Communion Office, 
 which is substantially the Office that we now have in 
 our Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 But the little church had served its day and gene- 
 ration, and the time had come for building a larger 
 one, and removing the site half a mile down towards 
 the " Narrows," where the enterprise of the town was 
 centring. The rector had been given an assistant, 
 Rev. Edward Blakesley, — not a graduate of Yale 
 College, but ordained a deacon on St. Matthias's day, 
 1788, and he was here officiating in 1790, and laid the 
 corner-stone of the new church in 1797. He died 
 suddenly, July 15, of the same year, in the prime of 
 his life and the vigor of his usefulness. The church 
 was completed in the summer of 1799, and conse- 
 crated by Bishop Jarvis, November 20, of that year, 
 by the name of St. James's Church, 1 and was the 
 
 1 It had been hitherto called Christ's Church, and that was the desig- 
 nation of other unconsecrated churches in Connecticut, before and after 
 the Independence of the Colonies. The names of the majority were from 
 the beginning the same as now — but on the erection of new churches and 
 the presence of a bishop in Connecticut to consecrate, their style and 
 title in a few instances were changed. For example, the old historic 
 parish in Newtown was called Christ's Church ; but when Bishop Sea- 
 bury, on the 19th of September, 1793, consecrated the "well-finished" 
 edifice which preceded the present stone church in that place, it was 
 given the name of Trinity. 
 
 Much important business was done in the convocation of the clergy 
 at this time. Among other things bearing upon the* general interests of 
 the Church, was the approval of an Office for Inducting Clergymen into 
 vacant Parishes or Churches. It had been prepared by the Rev. Dr. 
 William Smith, at the request of the Annual Convention, held six months 
 before, and having been "examined paragraph by paragraph," it was 
 ordered to be printed and transmitted to the bishops in the United States, 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 321 
 
 fourth edifice which that prelate set apart in this 
 manner to the honor and glory of God. 
 
 At the Commencement of Yale College, in 1792, 
 Mr. Mansfield received the singular distinction of 
 being honored by his Alma Mater with the degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity, which, up to that time, had not 
 been conferred by the corporation upon any clergy- 
 man of the Episcopal Church, however learned he 
 might be. Dr. Mansfield had passed beyond three- 
 score years and ten when his first assistant was taken 
 away, and another does not appear to have been per- 
 manently employed till 1804 ; when the Rev. Calvin 
 White, a graduate of Yale College, and an humble 
 and pure-minded man, was invited here, and served in 
 this parish and at Humphreysville, till he glided into 
 Romanism, and was ultimately displaced by Bishop 
 Brownell from the ministry of the Episcopal Church. 
 He did not enter the Romish priesthood, but lived 
 henceforth the life of a peaceful layman in sight of the 
 sanctuary in which he had so many years officiated. 
 
 It cannot well be supposed that at this time (1819) 
 Dr. Mansfield was very active or did much in the 
 way of public religious instruction. He still ap- 
 
 and standing committees, where there were no bishops, with a view to 
 opening the way for its adoption and use by the Church at large. It was 
 first prescribed by the General Convention, in 1804, and " set forth by 
 it with alterations in 1808 — the title changed from Induction into Insti- 
 tution, and its use made to depend upon recommendation and not upon 
 requisition. On comparing the present Office in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, with the first printed copy, they are found to be so nearly alike 
 as to give to Connecticut the whole credit of providing the Church a 
 service which, however much it may be neglected in these days, was in- 
 tended to impress upon the pastor and his people their intimate, mutual, 
 and solemn relations to each other." See History of the Episcopal Church 
 in Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 19. 
 ty 21 
 
322 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 peared among his brethren on great occasions, and 
 was at the Annual Convention which elected the third 
 Bishop of Connecticut, as he was at the Annual Con- 
 vention held here in 1797, in the little church "up 
 town," when Dr. Jarvis was chosen to that office. 
 He presided in both these conventions, "by senior- 
 ity," though he had formerly requested to be excused 
 on account of his age and infirmities. He had lived 
 to witness the coming in of a kindly popular feeling 
 towards the Church, and a gradual increase in Con- 
 necticut of clergymen and parishes. " Mansfield, of 
 Derby," says the late Rev. Dr. S. F. Jarvis, " I knew ; 
 one of the holiest and most guileless of men. When 
 the present Trinity Church, New Haven, of which I 
 laid the corner-stone in 1814, was consecrated by 
 Bishop Hobart, Dr. Mansfield was present. He went 
 up into the pulpit, and after looking around in silent 
 thought, he said, * I remember when there were but 
 three Churchmen in New Haven, and two of them 
 were of doubtful character.' So great was the Puritan 
 bitterness, that when young Mansfield sailed for Eng- 
 land, to receive Holy Orders, his own sister prayed 
 that he might be lost at sea." 1 
 
 The venerable saint died on Wednesday, the 12th 
 of April, 1820, in the ninety-seventh year of his age, 
 and the seventy-second of his ministry and of the 
 rectorship of this parish. His successor was the Rev. 
 Stephen Jewett, who for thirteen years rendered effi- 
 cient services to the parishes in Derby and Hum- 
 phreysville, adding to his labors the oversight of a 
 family school, kept to fit young men for college, and 
 
 1 Hawkins's Missions of the Church of England, p. 234. 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 323 
 
 eke out a scanty income. For a year or more before 
 he resigned his cure and removed to New Haven, 
 he generously relinquished his salary ; Providence 
 having thrown into his hands the means of support 
 without calling upon his people. But this was a step 
 which he ever afterwards regretted as wholly unwise. 
 The laborer in the vineyard is worthy of his hire, and 
 it is no excuse for withholding it from him that he 
 is not actually in a state of indigence. 
 
 Under your next rector, the Rev. Joseph Scott, who 
 was the first rector to confine his ministrations to this 
 parish, was projected the movement to procure another 
 site and build a new church. Centres of population 
 change with the development of richer industries, 
 and under such circumstances, necessity requires that 
 the convenience of worshipers and the growth of a 
 parish should be consulted and promoted. Old asso- 
 ciations may be sundered and painful feelings excited, 
 but good Christian people will accept the change and 
 see the wisdom of keeping in the line of progression. 
 Events have proved that the transfer of the historic 
 St. James's Church to this summit and to the edifice 
 in which we are assembled was a sagacious scheme, 
 the execution of which touched the growth of re- 
 ligious interests above and around. 
 
 I am not going to sketch the life and work of those 
 who have ministered here for longer or shorter peri- 
 ods since the erection of this church. With its added 
 enrichments, the beautiful memorials of the good and 
 beneficent Christian men and women who have passed 
 away, how different does it now appear from what it 
 did on the 11th of April, 1843 ! It had been inti- 
 
324 ADDRESSES AND DISCOURSES. 
 
 mated to Bishop Brownell, who was here on that day 
 to consecrate it, that it should receive the name of 
 Christ Church, instead of St. James, and for a time he 
 hesitated, and thought as a measure of peace it might 
 be expedient to do this. When the instrument which 
 contained the essence of the ceremony — the Sentence 
 of Consecration — was handed me to read, I remem- 
 ber there were some anxious faces in the congrega- 
 tion lest the old historic name had been set aside. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that the united period of all 
 the rectorships of the parish since 1820 does not equal 
 that of the venerable Richard Mansfield, who held it 
 successively for seventy-two years ; the longest rec- 
 torship known in our American Church and, with 
 one exception, the longest on record in the Church 
 of England. 1 Of the thirteen clergymen who have 
 served you in the later generations, there are with us 
 to-day, Brainard, Baldwin, and Buck, the present 
 rector; others are living in remote sections of the 
 country ; but the most part have crossed the great 
 river and are awaiting us on the other side. 
 
 The lot of your ancestors, my brethren, was cast in 
 
 1 The Kev. Bartholomew Edwards, Rector of Ashill, Norfolk, Eng- 
 land, was born in 1789, and took the degree of B. A. at St. John's Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, in 1811 — the year that George IV. became regent. 
 He was the patron of his own living, which he entered upon in 1813, 
 two years before the battle of Waterloo was fought. He held it till his 
 decease, February 21, 1889, when he was within ten days of tfye comple- 
 tion of his one hundredth year. 
 
 The Guardian (London), in mentioning his death, speaks of him as " a 
 very active man, and a strong supporter of the claims of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel. . . . He took part in the two services 
 held in his church on Christmas Day (1888), and afterwards called on 
 some of his parishioners to present his Christmas salutations." 
 
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THE CITY OF GOD. 325 
 
 eventful times, and so are yours, in another sense. 
 The change from want to affluence is shown by the 
 mansions that cover your hillsides and the factories 
 that send up their smoke from the valleys and along 
 the banks of the Naug^/tuck and Housatonic. Very 
 beautiful and interesting it is to note these evidences 
 of worldly prosperity ; and to the spiritual mind it is 
 alike interesting to witness the growth of the Church 
 and the "glories of the wilderness' 3 exchanged for 
 richer temples dedicated to the worship of the Triune 
 God. You owe it to His grace and to the memory 
 of those who have passed away, to keep the faith in 
 its integrity, to love truth and righteousness, and to 
 set forward and make prominent as far as it lieth in 
 you what is for the good of the individual soul, for 
 society, and for the communion to which we belong. 
 
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