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Addresses
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ADDRESSES AND HISTOEICAL PAPEES
BEFORE THB
CENTENNIAL COUNCIL
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH
DIOOESE OF YIEGII^IA,
AT ITS MEETINGS IN
ST. PAUL'S AND ST. JOHN'S CHURCHES, IN RICHMOND,
MAY 20-24, 1885.
NEW YORK:
THOMAS WHITTAKER,
2 AND 3 Bible House.
1885.
Copyright, 1885,
Bt the Centennial Endowment Committee of the Theological
Seminary of the Diocese op Virginia.
FRANKLIN PRESS:
BAND, AVERT, AND COMPANY,
BOSTON.
PREFACE.
By a resolution of the Council at its closing session,
the following addresses and historical papers were
placed in the hands of the Committee on the Endow-
ment of the Theological Seminary of Virginia, for pub-
lication in book form. The spirit of love and cordial
interest manifested by the members of the Council,
and the large number of our Church-people from all
parts of the Diocese who came to honor the occasion,
should be grateful to lovers of the Episcopal Church
everywhere. We regretted the absence of many of the
alumni of our seminary whose career we follow with
loving interest, and many of the Virginia Clergy in
other Dioceses who we had hoped would share with
us the joy of the centennial celebration. We hope
that these pages will be read by them with some
interest, and that the book will remind them to offer
a prayer for God's blessing upon the old Diocese. We
desire to express our thanks to Mr. Thomas Whittaker
iv PREFACE.
of New York for his cordial interest and kind help
in the publication of this volume. For want of time,
considerable portions of the opening address, and also
of the historical paper upon the Colonial Church,
which are printed here, were omitted in the delivery.
As an expression of the spirit, and a contribution
to the history, of the oldest Episcopal community in
America, we publish this book, and pray for God's
blessing upon it.
A. M. R.,
Chairman of Endowment Committee.
CONTENTS,
PAGE
OPENING ADDRESS 1
Rev. a. M. Randolph, D.D,, LL.D.
THE COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA .... 19
Rev. p. Slaughter, D.D.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA ... 60
Rev. T. G, Dashiell.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA .... 97
Rt. Rev. George W. Peterkin, D.D.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA . . .107
Rev. Julius E. Grammek, D.D.
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. . . . 127
Rev. C. L Gibson, D.D.
CENTENNIAL SERMON 177
Rev. 0. A. Kinsolving, D.D.
OPENING ADDEESS.
BY A. M. RANDOLPH, D.D., LL.D., ASSISTANT BISHOP OF
VIRGINIA.
We have expressed, in the lessons from Scripture and
in the hymns and prayers of this service, our sense of
God's goodness and mercy to our Church in Vu'ginia for
the past one hundred years, since its independent estab-
lishment.
The committee to whom was assigned the duty of
arranging religious services for this centennial of our
Church have appointed speakers and writers, who have
kindly consented to treat the subjects committed to them
before the several meetings to be held during the Coun-
cil. They will review the history of the Diocese from
its organization to the present year, the history of the
Church in the colony of Virginia from the settlement
at Jamestown to the close of the American Revolution,
the life and character of some of its representative men
whose names are distinguished in that history, and then
the origin and growth and present condition of the reli-
gious institutions of our Church in the Diocese. They
have done theii' best to make these centennial services
profitable and helpful and warming to the heart of the
Church in Virginia.
God grant that the retrospect may be wise and useful !
2 OPENING ADDRESS.
Memory has its blessed uses in the growth of individual
character, and in the providential training and progress
of nations and communities. In Revelation it is en-
joined as a command of God, that we keep green in our
memories the great facts of our religious history. It is
one purpose, perhaps the main purpose, in the positive
institutions of religion, whose history we have in our
Bibles. It is an essential element in the plan of re-
demption. " Thou shalt remember all the way which
the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness," was the command to the people of Israel.
We are to observe the religious principle in the com-
mand if the remembrance is to be a means of grace and
a channel of the Divine blessing. The memory is to
be a religious memory. When we look back over the
past, it must be to find God in that past if the retro-
spect is to be salutary : " Thou shalt remember the Lord
thy God that led thee," is the command. Memory must
work under the distinct recognition of Divine guidance
in every stage of the journey.
We are prone to abuse memory. We use it to look
at the human side of things, and at that alone, — to exalt
the men whom we paint as the heroes of the past, and,
in glorifying them, we glorify ourselves, their children,
and the supposed inheritors of their spirit ; or we use it
to pick out the dark things that lie in the distance be-
hind us, — the disappointments and losses, the pains and
sorrows and wrongs, of the past. When we do this,
memory becomes a hinderance instead of a help. Some
people, in looking either at their own lives or at the
world around them, may be said to have a talent for
OPENING ADDRESS. 3
misery. They remember just the things they ought to
try to forget, and they forget the blessings they should
keep green in memory. They are miserable themselves,
and they make other people miserable. They cultivate
an iugenuity for extracting bitterness out of every pleas-
ant thing. When the sun is rising, and filling the east
with the fresh glory of the dawn, they look persistently
westward, where the shadows of the night are still hang-
ing in funereal gloom. When the west is burning with
the glories of the sunset, they look obstinately eastward,
where the fading memories of the departing day are still
lingering.
In some of our moods, we are prone to use memory
as Jacob did when he stood before the king of Egypt.
Pharaoh asks him, "How old art thouV Jacob an-
swers, " Few and evil have the days of the years of my
life been." He looked at the human side of his life, —
his sorrows, his disappointments, his failures, his follies,
and his broken vows. If we look at our sins, and away
from God's mercies, Jacob's answer finds an echo in every
life. It was wrong in him to talk of his life in that way,
for overarching all his sins and sorrows were the mercy
and the love of his covenant God. Later on, when in
a better and truer spirit he looks back at his checkered
life from out of the gathering mists of death, he speaks
to his children standing around his dying bed, of " the
God which fed me all my life long unto this day," and
" the Angel which redeemed me from all evil." We
should look for God in our history ; and, if we do that,
the retrospect must be strengthening to our faith and
cheering to our hope.
4 OPENING ADDRESS.
There is a passage in the hundred and nineteenth
Psalm which I think is illustrated by the prayer and the
spirit of the men who were most largely instrumental in
the revival of the Church in Virginia three-quarters of a
century ago. The words are these : " It is time for the
Lord to work. . . . Therefore I love Thy command-
ments above gold. . . . And I hate every false way.
. . . Mine eyes run down with rivers of water, because
they observe not Thy law."
The writer is looking out upon an age of indifference
to religion, and defection from God's law. The specta-
cle turns him away in despair from man, and away from
all human resources, and draws forth this sublime invo-
cation of the activity and the power of God. The
defection and antagonism of his age deepens his own
reverence and loyalty to God's law. And then, as a
consequence of this loyalty, and as the reverse side of
his enthusiasm for God's law, he hates every false way.
This seems to be the movement of his feelinsr.
There are principles here that are worthy of our ear-
nest attention. The fost is this : An awakened spiritual
life, which comes in answer to prayers to God, is the
motive-power of His kingdom in this world. It is the
secret strength of every true religious reformation and
revival. The antidote for scepticism and godlessness is
the spiritual quickening in the Church. I believe that
Christ has a great variety of ways for propagating His
truth and defending His cause, and we should pray to
Him for guidance and wisdom to the right use of every
weapon of offence and defence in the work of evangeliz-
ing the world. We are not to despise organization in our
OPENING ADDRESS. 5
Christian activities. We are not to regret the time we
spend upon perfecting the machinery of our churches.
But churches are continually gravitating towards faith
in mechanism, to the detriment of living faith in spirit-
ual power. They catch this from the spirit of the age,
which is characterized by an unlimited confidence in
machinery. One would suppose, from an observation
of some parishes in some quarters of the Church, that
the work of saving souls and redeeming mankind is to
be done by committees in the various departments of
what is called Church- work. Every principle has to
have its machine to propagate it. Each one of the Ten
Commandments, if its authority is to be respected and
its principle upheld, must be put into the hands of a
committee with a president, a secretary, and a treas-
urer. Dear friends, the simpler the machinery in the
work of the Christian Church, the better. Some one
has said, " The heavier your machinery, the more power
you need in your engine, the more fire in your furnace."
The higher the organization in churches, the more spirit-
ual life do they need to work them, lest faith be over-
weighted, and we put our trust in drill rather than in
Christian courage, in mechanism rather than in Christ.
No organization will avail to perpetuate itself, or stand
against the foes of Christianity.
The history of the Church is one long illustration of
the facility with which minds cultivated and uncultivated
have fallen into the snare of trusting in Church form and
Church government to propagate Christianity. Our
mother-Church of England, with its historic dignity, its
primitive order, and the resources of the wealthiest
6 OPENING ADDRESS.
nation on earth behind it, fell into that snare ; and now
one-half of the numerical strength, and perhaps one-
half of the intelligence of the country, is in the ranks of
what we presumptuously and injudiciously call " dissent-
ing bodies " of Christians. Trust in your organization,
teach and preach your Church, its forms, its government,
its traditions, instead of teaching your Bibles, and preach-
ing the Gospel, and you will find the life ebbing, and the
inteUigence of the country drifting away from you, and
Church bodies with inferior organization and vastly in-
ferior machinery, but with the true apostolical succession
of spiritual power and fidelity to Christ, doing the work
of the world's evangelization.
Nor, again, may we rely upon the intellectual and
logical defences of the faith. They have their uses,
and they are absolutely needful in an age of intellectual
activity. Every Church should have trained minds ; and
God will raise up such, if we use the means of educa-
tion at our disposal, to meet the foes of His Word on any
and every ground they may select for the attack. But
unbelief never has yielded and never will yield to logic.
An argument upon evidences may strengthen a waver-
ing faith, or confirm an honest doubter ; and it is an
immense moral power upon the Christian Church to see
its defences standing firm against the onset of its foes,
generation after generation. I have never yet seen an
infidel go unanswered. I have never yet seen an assault
upon God's Word that was not triumphantly repelled.
From Lucian and Porphyry, Celsus and Julian, down to
the latest phases of unbelief, the Christian apologists all
along the line have more than held their own. But
OPENING ADDRESS. 1
unbelief cannot be vanquished upon logical grounds,
because it does not rest on logical grounds. You may
convince a man that he is in error, by argument, if he
has arrived at the error by a process of reasoning. If
logic led him into it, logic may avail to lead him out
of it. With the majority of men, the judgment, the
conscience, and, above all, the feelings, form conclusions,
and then enlist the intellectual powers to support them
by the processes of ratiocination. The reasoning is an
after-thought. Behind it lay the original conviction
embedded in the higher faculties of feeling and spirit.
Change these, and you uproot the most obstinate con-
victions, as a building falls when you undermine the
foundations. You may grind a piece of ice as fine as
powder, but if you leave it out in the cold, it will freeze
again, and become as hard as ever. If you melt it in
the sun, it flows down in streams that quench the thirst
and fertilize the earth. Answer unbelief, beat it off
from its logical grounds, grind it to powder, and it is
unbelief still, but bring it close to the heart of the
Gospel, warm it in the sun of God's love, and its cohe-
rence is dissolved and its spirit broken. A constitution
of low vitality^ of feeble tone, is open on every side
to disease. Build up the constitution, and the tenden-
cies to disease are progressively diminished. A cold
and formal Church breeds unbelief, as a diseased tree
breeds the fungus of growth.
Unbelief is not a set of opinions. The men in this
country, of the period after the American Revolution,
who had imbibed the infidelity of Voltaire, had no con-
sistent opinions or theories about religion. The most
8 OPENING ADDRESS.
intelligent of them knew little about the Bible. Some
of them were great political thinkers ; but, in dealing
with Christianity, their objections and speculations and
criticisms are for the most part ignorant and childish.
They stumbled over interpretations of the Bible, of
which an intelligent Sunday-school scholar would now
be ashamed. Their arguments for unbelief were com-
monplace, coarse, and crude, — such as have been an-
swered a hundred times in the history of free thought.
Voltaire, their master, is now discredited by every school
of educated infidelity, and his books, which constituted
the armory for their attacks upon Christianity, are re-
garded as frivolous, and relegated to the dust of neglect.
Jefferson, and others of that time who were supposed
to be tainted with those views, were too strong as think-
ers to be satisfied with such surface arguments upon a
great subject. They did not apply their reasoning
powers and their faculties of investigation to the prob-
lems of religion. They found that their faith was gone,
and they groped about for reasons to justify its absence.
They had imbibed doubt from the spirit of the time ;
and there was nothing in a cold, formal Church, or in a
worldly and perfunctory ministry, to give the lie to that
doubt. Their difficulty was, that as far as they could
see, or cared to see. Christian people seemed to them
neither to believe the creeds they repeated, nor to feel
the power of the great truths and obligations which they
professed. Their scepticism and that of the masses of
that time was not rational, but it was moral and spiritual.
It was the chill of a wave which had quenched the fii-e
of zeal and the fervor of Christian convictions.
OPENING ADDRESS. 9
In a great degree that is true of all sceptical ages,
and of all phases of unbelief which become general.
It is a feeling in the community. It is an atmos-
phere which men breathe, and to change it we must
create a new atmosphere. The arguments that we
bring to bear upon men must be the practical logic
of regenerated lives. A renewed spiritual life must
work in us a higher tone of character in all our tem-
poral relations. Men can see this. They are bound
to be moved by its power, as they feel the warmth
of the sun. They pass by the subtleties of religious
controversy, and the endless and ever-shifting battle-
grounds between Christianity and its foes. They are
unfurnished for such discussions. Life is too busy and
too short, and faith is too precious, to encounter such
gratuitous perils. If the Gospel comforts sorrow, and
cleanses from sin, and answers the cry of the hungry
souls, that is enough for them. Men of all ages and
conditiojis judge principles by their fruits. Our faith
must change our characters. What Christian men pro-
fess to believe, must control their common life, and, if
it does not, we are helping the cause of scepticism far
more than th^ writers who assail the evidences of the
Christian faith. No matter how solemn may be our
religious assemblies ; no matter how fervent our prayers
may seem to be, or eloquent our preaching ; no matter
how many may join our churches, — we will make no
lasting impression on the commuunity unless within the
Church there is a loftier type of character and a nobler
morality than exists in the world outside of the Church.
Men are silently, and sometimes openly, saying to us
10 OPENING ADDRESS.
Christians, " You say you want to convert us. Convert us
to what 1 To love and to keep God's laws 1 What laws
do you keep that we do not ? In your homes and in your
public duties, where is the difference between us and
you? Are you less extravagant in your furniture, your
dress, in what we call the shows of life, than we are ?
Are you less anxious to be rich, and more scrupulous in
your ways of making fortunes, than we are? Are you
less reckless in your speculations ? Do you submit your
business transactions to the eye of God, as you tell us
to do ? You talk of the future life of glory ; you sing
hymns about heaven. What manner of persons would
you be if you really believed those hymns to be true 1
Would it be possible for you to be so moved by petty
ambitions, so distracted by the petty struggles and re-
wards of this world, if you believed that you had within
your reach crowns that never fade away, and the glories
of heaven that pass man's understanding? Do you
believe that Christ died for your sins ? And what are
you doing, and what are you willing to do, for Him?
Where is the life that illustrates the reality of these
wonderful convictions ? "
That is the reasoning of multitudes who reject the
Christian revelation, or pass it by with indifference.
There may be in it much that is exaggerated and un-
reasonable, but still the basis is true. There must be a
quickened spiritual life in the Church. There must
be a renewed loyalty to the laws of God, a spiritual
and a moral reformation within the Church, before it
can propagate a real faith in the Gospel, or rescue men
from eternal destruction.
OPENING ADDRESS. U
The history of the Church in Virginia, which we
commemorate to-day, illustrates the truth of these prin-
ciples. In the papers to be read, you will be told the
story as I have not the time to tell it. At the beginning
of this century, the friends of the Episcopal Church in
Virginia had almost abandoned the hope that it could
ever be revived. From the re-organization of the
Church in 1785, to the year 1814, the decline in morals
and religion continued, and spiritual lethargy deepened,
even though the greater part of this time the Church
had a Bishop. The steady east wind of scepticism,
which had chilled the heart of the English Church dur-
ing the early and middle years of the eighteenth century,
reached the churches here during the last half of that
century. Thirty years of blight and chill passed before
the breath of a new life came from the same quarter.
During the last part of the eighteenth century, a great
movement began under Whitefield and the Wesleys,
which rescued vast masses of the English people from
atheism, and, under God, renewed the heart of the Eng-
lish Church. That wave travelled over the sea to us.
The historian of the Diocese, in his admirable sketch
of Bishop Meade, has this passage : " At sixteen years of
age the Bishop read Wilberforce's ' Practical View.' He
says of this, ' It gave direction and color to my whole
life.' It is curious that Wilberforce derived his reli-
gious impulse from his aunt, who got hers from White-
field. And thus is brought to light a chain connecting
two centuries and two continents through an influence
flowing from George Whitefield to William Meade, the
future Bishop of Virginia."
12 OPENING ADDRESS.
And what was Whitefield's power over that backslid-
ing generation \ Undoubtedly he was a great preacher.
Absurd it would be to deny to him that title, in the face
of the fact that his preaching moved all classes of men.
There is little in his sermons, as we read them, that can
help us to understand their wonderful power. You find
in them nothing of the learning of Barrow, the rhetori-
cal fervor of Jeremy Taylor, the logic of Howe, the
freshness and vigor of Frederick Robertson of our own
time ; but, judged by effects, he was a far greater
preacher than any one of them, or all of them put to-
gether. No class of society escaped the kindling power
of his enthusiasm and his personal intensity. Hard
sceptics like Hume, cold and unimpressible politicians
like Franklin, frivolous worldlings like Chesterfield, fol-
lowed him from place to place, and hung upon his
words.
We are told that Whitefield often prayed this prayer
of the Psalm : " Lord, I can do nothing ; it is time for
Thee to work. They make void Thy law, therefore I
love Thy commandments above gold, and hate every false
way." It was praying to God for help, and believing
that He would help ; a love for the Gospel, made warm
by the antagonism of a sceptical age, and an awful
sense of the consequences of sin to his countrymen in
the violation of God's commands, — that, under the Spirit
of God, gave him his power. It was a spiritual and a
moral reformation which he preached, and that was
stronger with the cultivated and the ignorant than
Paley's Evidences and Butler's Analogy.
The story is repeated when the wave reached our own
OPENING ADDRESS. 13
land and our own dear Diocese. Bishop Moore comes
to us in 1814. Under his fervor, and the fidelity of
the men who worked with him, the tide of religious
life began to rise. Bishop Meade is consecrated in
1829. The story of the work of these two men and
their contemporaries will be told in the memorial papers
that are to be read. They illustrated the same princi-
ple upon which we have been dwelling. They were
men of prayer. They were men with an humble esti-
mate of themselves, and a great faith in the power
of God. In their preaching, as far as I can form an
opinion from memory and from reading, they did not try
to prop up the cross of Christ, but they pointed men
to it. With them Christian faith and Christian morality
were related as the fountain is related to the stream.
They taught that spiritual regeneration must bear its
fruit in moral reformation, and in newness of life in
Christ Jesus.
Abundant success crowned their labors. They would
have been the first to warn us that it was not their own
arm that built up the waste places, and revived the lan-
guishing Church in Virginia, but " Thy right hand, and
Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because
Thou hadst a favor unto them." And we can do just the
work that they did, for God's strength is not spent : He
fainteth not, and is never weary. It is not humility,
but a lack of faith in the power of God, which speaks
of men like these as greater in faith, in self-denial, and
in spiritual power, than the men of our own day. We
may do a work for Christ as great, or greater than they
did, if we pray for Christ's grace, and lean upon His arm.
U OPENING ADDRESS.
The lesson of that revival is a lesson of faith in God.
Those men were true to God, and God blessed them
beyond the measure of their largest hopes. When we
cease to rely upon our own strength ; when we cease to
glorify ourselves, our own Diocese and our own tradi-
tions, our Church polity and our evangelical fervor;
when we learn to trust God and Christ with all our
hearts, and to care for nothing but the propagation of
His Gospel, and the victory of His righteousness among
men, — we shall then discern that He is as willing to
help us as He was to help them, and that the brightest
and best days of our fathers are but prophecies of
brighter and better days that are coming to us.
There is another principle in this passage, to which
I will call your attention before I close. The Psalmist
says in his prayer, " I love Thy laws, and I hate every
false way." As I said in the beginning, the idea there
is, that the love of God's truth and God's law involves a
protest against their denial. Churches are intrusted by
Christ with the positive truths of the Gospel, to proclaim
to the world. They are intrusted also with negations ;
that is, with protests against the errors springing out of
human nature that tend to overlay these positive truths.
A correlative of a love for a truth is the hatred of its
denial. A belief in, and a love of, a truth, implies a
protest against the denial of that truth.
In the English Church in 1833, and in the American
Episcopal Church a few years later, another movement
began, denying that principle. The Church of Home
had all the positive truths of Christ's Gospel, but along
with these it affirmed a set of principles which neu-
OPENING ADDRESS. 15
tralized and buried those positive truths. Protestants
taught that the sinner is saved, and his sins forgiven,
by and for the sake of Christ's atonement. Romanists
held that too ; but, in addition, they taught that the
intervention of the priest is necessary to apply that
atonement to the sinner, and that we must come to the
one Mediator between God and man through confession
and absolution, and the priestly sacrifice of human medi-
ators. Protestantism contends that this neutralizes the
Gospel, and protests against it.
Again : the Episcopal Church and all the Eeformed
Churches believe in the real presence of Christ, not
tied to ordinances, but where two or three are gathered
together in His name, or in the inner court of the sanc-
tuary of the soul, the walls whereof are not made with
hands. The Romanist also believes in the real presence
of Christ, but conditions that presence by the consecra-
tion of the bread and wine in the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, under the hands of the human priest-
hood. Protestantism contends that this neutralizes the
Gospel, and brings back the gloomy superstitions that
hung like a pall over the religious life of Europe for
many centuries.
To withdi-aw these protests of Protestantism in the
Episcopal Church, has been the aim of the party which
arose in 1833, and which has agitated both Churches
ever since. Neither in the mother-Church in England,
nor in her daughter in x\merica, has this party achieved
a direct success in accomplishing its ultimate aims. It
has not succeeded in expunging any one of the Thu'ty-
nine Articles which breathe a condemnation of the errors
16 OPENING ADDRESS.
of Rome, and which bear witness to the profound con-
ception, in the Church of the Reformation, of the disaster
to Christianity, and the ruin to souls, which those errors
had entailed upon Christendom for long ages. It has
not succeeded in restoring to the prayers, the offices,
and the rubrics of the Prayer-Book, the corruptions of
doctrine and the symbols of falsehood which had grown
into them through the centuries of Roman domination,
and which were ruthlessly excluded by the Reformers.
In this country it has failed, so far, to shake the loyalty
of the vast majority of Episcopalians to the name " Prot-
estant" in the title of the Church. Only the feebler
minds among them have aimed directly at these radical
changes in the direction of Rome. The wiser ones
have directed their efforts towards sapping the founda-
tions, instead of an assault upon the citadel.
Their endeavor has been, to undermine the sen-
timent of antagonism to Romish principles, not with
a view to a re-union with the Roman Church, which
they profess to repudiate with as much emphasis as
Protestants do, but to claim for themselves and their
Church the power, the functions, the doctrines, and the
exclusive validity, which Rome claims for herself. They
have, in their writings and teachings to the people, re-
pudiated the name of Protestant. They have cast im-
putations upon the names of the Reformers, and sought
to pour contempt upon their spirit and their principles.
They have taught the women and children to call the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Mass, and the com-
munion-table the altar. They have, by the power of
a compact minority, held the balance in the legislation
OPENING ADDRESS. H
of conventions. They have worried and intimidated
some of the Bishops until the protests against them from
that quarter have weakened, and become in many in-
stances ineffectual ; whilst many others who profess to
deprecate their practices have withheld their condem-
nation, and closed their lips, for fear of being assailed
as narrow-minded, impolitic, and uncharitable. They
have among them, in their ministry and their laity, men
and women of noble character, and self-sacrificing de-
votion worthy of a better cause.
If they succeed, and in proportion as they accomplish
permanent success, the Prayer-Book must not only be
revised, but relegated to disuse, and another book of
worship must take its place. The history of our Church
in this country and in England must be re-written, and
its glorious achievements for the Gospel under the Prot-
estant spirit must take theii' place among the records of
the past. Its catholic love, and its conservative influ-
ence upon all the Protestant Churches around us, must
wane, and pass away. Of such a result I have no fear
if we watch and pray, and ask of Christ the courage
and fidelity to stand for our convictions of His truth.
God forbid that here or anywhere I should say a
word to fan into a flame the fires of ecclesiastical con-
troversy ! God forbid that I should cultivate the spirit
of suspicion towards the opinions or the practice of any
Christian brother in the ministry of the Gospel or out
of it! God save me from the spirit that measures a
man by my o^vn conscience, and requires, before I can
commune with him, an absolute accord with my own
intellectual convictions ! God save us all from the spirit
18 OPENING ADDRESS.
that hunts for heterodoxy in pulpit and in chancel, and
that will not be satisfied until it finds it ! If my brother
is in error, I must love him, I must pray for him. He
needs my prayers and my love more when he is in error
than when he is safe upon the highway of truth. But
still I must pray for myself, I must pray for you, and for
the Church in Virginia, that we may be true to the
Gospel that Paul preached, of a sinner's justification by
faith, of a sinner's free access to Christ by faith, true to
a gospel that has only one Priest, one Altar, and one
Sacrifice once offered for the sins of the world, — a gos-
pel that was overlaid and cumbered for long ages, but
was revived, under God, in the glorious days of the
Eeformation. Of that Reformation I hold that our
Prayer-Book is the noblest monument.
I invoke upon the Church in Virginia and in all of
our Dioceses, and in her dear name upon our sister
Churches of other denominations who hold the same
Gospel, and are fighting by our side in the strain and
the burden of the same great conflict against the enemies
of Christ, — I invoke the blessing of God the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now and evermore.
THE COLONIAL CHUECH OE YIEMNIA.
ADDRESS DELIVERED BY P. SLAUGHTER, D.D., HISTORI-
OGRAPHER OF THE DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA, AT THE
CENTENNIAL COUNCIL IN THE CITY OF RICHMOND
ON THE 21ST OF MAY, 1885.
"En dat Virginia Quintam." — Motto of seal of Virginia.
There is a God in history. History is a di'ama of
Divine Providence ; and, to my mind, one of the greatest
of all marvels is, that myriads of men, each doing his
own will, are all marching (unwittingly it may be) tow-
ards the realization of the Divine Idea, as seemingly
antagonizing forces in the heavens result in a sublime
harmony.
I cannot think that it was a mere coincidence, that
the revival of letters and of the arts, the discovery of
printing and of the polarity of the needle, just suc-
ceeded the reformation of religion, and just preceded
the discovery of America. It looks as if the new ideas
and the new instruments of that era demanded a new
world for their development, and as a fulcrum for the
new levers, which were to lift the old world out of the
old routine, and bring it under the influence of serener
heavens, and of an awakening spring. The minds of
meditative men were expectant of great changes, and
of a new world as the scene of them. The old fables
20 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
of the Islands of the Blessed, of the golden Gardens of
the Hesperides, of the lost Atlantis of Plato, and of
the Ingens Tellus of Seneca, were revived. And, more
remarkable still, James Harrington a little later \)yq-
dicted and pictured a coming free republic, fairer than
had yet been seen, which he thought could not be
realized in England, but was reserved for the descend-
ants of Englishmen in a new Atlantis beyond the seas.
The discovery of America overturned the geographi-
cal systems of the ancients ; the opening of her mines
produced a revolution in commerce ; and the plantation
of her colonies gave land to the landless, a home to
the adventurer, and an asylum to the exile, from all
lands, where each might find a freer life and a fresher
nature. It disclosed an open field where truth and
error might have a fair fight, and where Church and
State, which had been so long leaning on each other,
might, in the contemplation of a new world, fresh, as
it were, from the hands of the Creator, outgrow the
fetters which impeded their progress, and, by toilsome
marches through Sloughs of Despond and over Moun-
tains of Difiiculty, with bleeding feet, at last reach that
serene height on which, according to the laurelled poet
of England, " Freedom sat of old," and, under her
inspiration, accomplish a revolution which had no par-
allel in the annals of the world, and rear civil fabrics
which had no model on the face of the globe.
As " coming events cast their shadows before," it was
fit that events of so much magnitude should have their
appropriate heralds and attendants. For the ancient
and mediaeval world, the Mediterranean Sea was the
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 21
great highway of human intercourse, and, as has been
sententiously said, the one " sea of history." Egypt,
Palestine, Greece, and Italy all lay around it. But
times change. The old nations went to the rear ; and
Portugal and Spain, France and England, came to the
front, and looked out upon the wide Atlantic. The
attraction of the New World was added to the moving
forces let loose by the Reformation. Then began that
series of battles, from Louis XIV. to Napoleon Bona-
parte, which Professor Holmes of the University of
Virginia long ago, and Professor Seely of Cambridge
lately, have shown, by a large induction of particu-
lars, were fought for the possession of the New World.
Whether the scene of these battles was Europe, Asia,
Africa, or America, the New World was the " prize for
which they fought." How this view dignifies and invests
with new interest the battles of which Virginia was
the field during the colonial era ! By the light of these
f[icts they are seen to be acts in the drama of Divine
Providence, by which Virginia became the heritage of
the people and of the institutions of England, instead
of those of France or of Spain. The rivahj of princes,
the ambition to make a name, the lust of gold, and the
spirit of knightly adventure, inflamed the minds of men ;
and, under these impulses, vessels were traversing every
sea, raising crosses in every land they touched, and ex-
ploring rivers with the hope of finding a middle inland
passage to Cathay, of whose riches mariners told such
bewitching stories. Charters had been given by the
kings of England, to divers companies, for settlements
in Virgmia, — which name covered the whole eastern
22 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
coast of America. The gallant Sir Walter Ealeigh
and others had failed in their efforts to make a per-
manent plantation. Spain and France were ahead of
England in America. The people were impatient.
The poets felt the inspiration of the hour, and gave
expression to thoughts and emotions which were beating
in many hearts. Drayton, in his " Poly-Olbion," gave
utterance to these thoughts in the words, —
" Britons, you stay too long.
Quickl}^ aboard bestow yo\x ;
And, with a merr}^ gale,
Swell your stretched sail
With vows as strong
As the winds that blow you,
To get the pearl and gold.
And ours to hold
Virginia,
Earth's only paradise.
And in regions far
Such heroes bring ye forth
As those from whom we came ;
And plant our name
Under that star
Not known to our North."
In January, 1606-7, three frail barks left the Downs
in England, and, after a circuitous voyage, were driven
by a storm into the capes of Virginia on the 26th of
April, 1607, not knowing where they were. They
landed on the south cape, and erected a cross, calling
it Cape Henry, after the son of King James. On the
28th, says Percy, they " discovered up the bay," and
found a river on the south side, " running into the
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 23
main." Here they were regaled by the wild flowers
bloommg on the banks, and by strawberries blushing
in the grass. Finding the water too shallow in the
mouth of the river, they rowed to a point of land where,
finding from six to twelve fathoms, they were " put in
good comfort," and called the place Cape (or Point) Com-
fort. On the 80th they coasted to Kichotan^ (Hampton),
and, continuing their explorations up the river, finally
(May 13) came to " Paspehas Country," where they
moored their ships to the trees in six fathoms of water ;
and on the 14th of May they landed, and laid the
foundation of the first permanent plantation of English-
men on the continent, — the site of the first city, the
first parish, and the first church, and the scene of the
first baptism,^ the first marriage, the first Holy Commun-
ion, in " his Majesty's ancient colony and dominion of
Virginia," and of the first Representative Assembly in
America. On the 21st of May (this day two hundred
and seventy-eight years ago), Capts. Newport, Smith,
Archer, and Percy, with others, ascended the river,
resolved, they say, not to return without finding either
" the head of the river, the reported lake, the sea, or
some other issue." They had interviews with the In-
dians at Weyanoke, called upon the queen of the
Appomattox at her wigwam, and were interrupted, they
say, by " great craggy stones in the midst of the river,
where the water falleth so rudely that not any boat can
1 This word is variously spelled by diiJerent authors, — Kechoughtan,
Kichetau, Kichotan, etc.
^ The first Indian baptized by Protestants in America was Manteo at
Roanoke (1595), whom Raleigh appointed Lord of Roanoke.
24 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
possibly pass." On an islet at the foot of the falls, they
erected, on Whit Sunday, the 24th (and it is curious
that next Sunday is Whit Sunday, and the 24th of
May), a cross with this inscription : " Jacobus Kex,
1607;" and in a fit of loyalty, but with wretched
taste, they changed the name of the river from impe-
rial Powhatan to the royal James, proclaiming- King
James of England to have the most right to it, says
Percy.
On the 27th of May they returned to James Fort, as
they then called Jamestown, in honor of their new
triangular fort, which had been thrown up for their
protection against the Indians. On the 10th of June,
Capt. Smith, who had been excluded from the council,
was sworn in. They spent some weeks in "palisado-
ing " the fort, which had been assailed by four hundred
Indians during their absence.
On the 21st of June, they had their first public re-
ligious service in a grove. " The groves were God's
first temples," and the grandest cathedrals are dwarfed
in their presence. Of them it may be said with more
truth than Byron said of St. Peter's at Rome, —
"Thou, of temples old or altars new,
Standest alone, with nothing like to thee, —
Worthiest of God, the Hoi}' and the True."
The pulpit was a plank nailed to two trees ; the seats
were unhewn logs. The congregation numbered about
one hundred : we have a list of their names. Fifty-five
are set down as gentlemen, and the remainder as labor-
ers, mechanics, bricklayers, smiths, and a barber. The
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 25
minister, Rev. Robert Hunt, read the first Church-ser-
vice, preached the first sermon, and administered the
fii'st Holy Communion to worshippers kneeling upon
their mother-earth. The wilderness, whose awful si-
lence had hitherto been unbroken save by the war-
whoop of the Indians, the screams of the eagle, and the
voices of other wild birds and beasts, now resounded
with the Word of God and the trumpet tones of our
grand old liturgy. Thus was inaugurated the Colonial
Church of Virginia. We would like to dwell upon the
picturesque phases of our primitive Church, describing
the three successive edifices of timber and the first one
of brick, and the apostolic character of our first mission-
aries ; but I cannot do this without repeating what I
have lately contributed to Bishop Perry's " Centennial
"History of the American Church." And an event now
occurred pregnant with such momentous consequences
to the present day as to demand especial attention and
illustration.
Just before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,
a Dutch ship ascended the James River, and landed at
Jamestown twenty African slaves ; and the white man
and the red man and the black man stood face to face,
and gazed upon each other, in the New World. What
a subject for a grand historical picture by an artist who
had the " vision and the faculty divine " to see lying hid
in this group the germs of the history of these three
races, which have been unrolled before our eyes ! From
this point in space and this moment in time, these three
races started upon a new career of development. The
white man ran up the rivers, transcended the moun-
26 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
tains, and poured along the plains, until the western
sea seemed to say to the wave of Anglo-Saxon people,
" Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther ; and here
shall thy proud waters be stayed." The red man melted
away before the pale faces like the snow before the sun.
He retired from Tidewater to Piedmont, and over the
hills, and far away towards the setting sun, as if he
could find rest for his weary feet only in the bosom of
the Pacific Ocean, or was destined to realize the fate
of the crew of the fabled phantom ship —
"Whose bark rides on and on,
And anchored ne'er shall be."
Now, what was it that distinguished the fates of these
two races ? The white man was the heir of a long line
of illustrious ancestors. Behind him was the history of
England. He brought with him the language, the
laws, the literature, the religion, and the arts and arms,
of England. The red man had no historical past, no
literature, not even an alphabet, and no monument but
the rude mounds which mark the graves of his sires.
It was another illustration of the law, that, where two
races come into competition, the weaker must go to the
wall, — the law of the survival of the fittest. But how
came the black man to escape the fate of the Indian ?
He had no historical past. For ages his forefathers had
roamed over their native wilds without adding one cubit
to his intellectual or moral stature, or contributing one
mite to the progress of humanity. Here we must again
adore that mysterious Providence by which the Africo-
American " was bound to the car of the Anglo-Ameri-
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 27
can," and, through the manual-labor school of slavery,
was borne onward and upward, until he reached an
intellectual, moral, and religious stature which had
never been attained by his race, in any age of the
world or any clime under the sun. For aught we
know, this may have been the best discipline for teach-
ing the rudiments of civilization to the savage ; that,
when the fulness of time had come, his fetters might
fall, and he stand, as he does to-day, upon the same
political platform with the white man, equal before the
law, and having a voice in the government of this great
Eepublic : while the poor Indian, original lord of the
soil, is still denied the rights of a citizen. " This is the
Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." It is
thus He makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and
restrains the remainder thereof.
The religious education of these races was devolved
by Divine Providence upon the Colonial Church, be-
cause for a century after this meeting there was no
other Christian organization in this colony.
And first as to the white race. We have already seen
something of what was done by the infant Church to
this date. Returning to the point of departure, let me
say that Jamestown was the port of entry to which all
ships must come before " breaking bulk," and was the
centre of population from which lines of radiation ran
to all points of the compass. The rivers were the chief
roads along which the pioneers penetrated the wilder-
ness. Hence the first counties and parishes were on
both sides of broad rivers, it being easier to go to
church and to court by water than by land. Hence
28 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
from 1634 there was a constant progression of peoples,
counties, parishes, and churches, up James Eiver and its
tributaries, down James Kiver, and up the Elizabeth and
Nansemond, over to " Middle Plantation " (Williams-
burgh), thence up York, Rappahannock, and Potomac,
and the tributaries of each, to their head-springs in the
great mountains. It was not until 1716 that Gov.
Spotswood and his Knights of the Golden Horseshoe
fii'st lifted the blue veil which had hitherto hidden from
the eye of the white man the valley of Virginia. Then
the wave of people " poured through the passes," and,
meeting a tide of Scotch-Irish and Germans from
Pennsylvania, blended with it ; and the course of empire
continued its westward way. In 173-1 the county of
Orange, whose bounds were nominally the utmost limits
of Virginia, was divided, and the counties of Frederick
and Augusta were formed. These in process of time
were broken up into other counties, to keep pace with
the people, until the procession terminated in the
County and Parish of Kentucky.
Over the Tidewater and Piedmontese sections, there
still stand venerable monuments of this grand march
of the Colonial Church, — the ruined tower at James-
town, old St. Luke's in Isle of Wight, St. Paul's
(Norfolk), St. John's (Hampton), Christ (Williamsburgh),
Blandford, and Wood's, and others too many to mention,
except old St. John's, which looks down upon us to-day
from Richmond Hill, and seeming to echo to the other
churches of the parish the words of the beloved apostle
after whom it is named : " Little children, love one
another."
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 29
Dr. Johnson, who was no sentimentahst, said, " I do not
env}' the man who can walk unmoved over historical
ground, and whose piety does not grow warmer among
the ruins of lona ; " and our own William Wirt said of
the ruins at Jamestown, " I feel my soul drawn towards
it by tender ties of sympathy, and I involuntarily open
my mouth to offer consolation to the drooping pile."
And I am confident that there is not one of my hearers
who will not join me in saying, —
More costly temples may around thee rise,
To pierce with taper pinnacles the skies.
Gorgeous with glittering dome and sculptured towers,
As if the stone had bloomed in giant flowers ;
But none of these have charms for me
Like those mossed roofs and green embi'oidery.
But there are other monuments of the Colonial era
which will endure long after the old churches shall have
crumbled into the dust from which they sprung. These
are the names of the parishes and counties, which are
historical, and point to persons and places and events in
the old country and in the olden time. They perpetu-
ate the memory of kings and queens, princes and prin-
cesses, statesmen and soldiers and battles, in English
history. Although we have so many beautiful Indian
names, our forefathers were so loyal that they preferred
English names. There are only four counties in Eastern
Virginia that have Indian names. All the others com-
memorate som^e member of the royal family, or English
statesman, or soldier, or colonial governor. When you
find a seeming exception, as Nelson or Madison, you may
be sure they are new counties, made since the Declara-
30 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
tion of Independence. The same is true as to counties
and parishes instituted in the valley before the Revolu-
tion. After that date, the new counties represent the
new order, and are named after governors of the State,
members of Congress, soldiers, and pioneer settlers, with
a few Indian names. The change of Dunmore into Shen-
andoah, in 1777, is one of the first indications of the new
era. It would be a mistake to suppose that this ex-
tension of the borders of the Church sprung out of the
bosom of the Church. The Church had no power of
self-motion. She was tied to the State, and the State
carried the Church along with it. The method of
progress was this : the State offered bounties to pioneers
to penetrate the wilderness, and settle new plantations ;
and, when the settlers were too far from court-houses
and churches to attend them, the State threw the net
over them in the form of new parishes and new counties.
The great instruments of civilization in those days
were courts, jails, whipping-posts, stocks, ducking-stools,
and churches and church-wardens ; the latter being civil
officers, and a sort of censors morum^ whose duty it was
to present all overt immoralities and breaches of the
peace to the county courts.
The execution of these duties often brought this officer
into conflict with the dissenters from the Established
Church, and thus involved the Church in the odium
attached to the State, with which it was so blended
that the people could not distinguish the one from the
other.
I have said that the religious education of the Indian
was devolved by Divine Providence upon the Colonial
COLONIAL CIIURCn OF VIRGINIA. 31
Church, there havmg been for more than a century no
other chm'ch organization in the Colony. Let us see if
any thing was done in execution of this high trust.
This inquiry will bring to light some facts which have
been entu-ely ignored by general historians, and barely
touched by others, in whose eyes kings and queens,
knights and gentlemen, merchant princes, and the like,
are the prime factors in history. While the kings of Eng-
land looked upon the Colonies as so many plantations to
be worked for their benefit, to put money in their pockets,
and furnish places of honor and preferment for their
courtiers and satelhtes, it is also true that the missionary
spirit was neither dead nor dormant in England during
the colonial era : on the contrary, there were many
Christian hearts beating behind this enterprise. Some
such as the gallant Earl of Southampton, the Ferrars,
Hakluyt, and Sandys, were members of the Virginia
Company of London, under whose auspices the Colony
of Virginia was founded, and nursed in its infancy. Li
then* view, the chief end of the enterprise was the " plan-
tation of the Church in the New World," wholly given
to idolatry, and the diifusion of the light of the Gospel
among the Indians, who had so long sat in darkness and
the shadow of death. It was their influence which pro-
cured the insertion, in the charters and like documents,
of those " saving clauses " which redeemed the move-
ment from utter worldliness. These persons took care
that sermons should be frequently preached before the
Virginia Company, to keep before their minds the truth
that the chief end of the enterprise was to plant the
banner of the cross in the camp of Satan. In 1609
32 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
Crashaw, the father of the poet, preached before the
Company a rousing missionary sermon, the first ever
preached by a minister of the Church of England to those
about to carry her name to the New World. To Lord
Delaware, the captain-general, who was present, and
about to sail for Virginia, he said in conclusion, " Thy
ancestor took a king prisoner on the field of battle with
his own hands ; but thou shalt take the Devil captive in
his own kingdom, and thus the honor of thy house shall
be greater at the last than at the first. You are a general
of Englishmen, you go to commend Christianity to the
heathen: then practise it yourself" Among the ser-
mons of like spirit before the Company, was one by Dr.
Symonds, and another by the famed Dr. Donne. The
latter said, " You have your charters, seals, and com-
missions ; what you lack is the Holy Ghost. This seals
the great seal, and authenticates authority. Without it
your patents and commissions will be but feeble crutches ;
with the breath of the Holy Spirit they will be as wings
on which you will fly the faster. Those of you who
are young may live to see that you have made this island,
which is the suburb of the Old World, a bridge, a gal-
lery, to the New, to join all to that world which shall
never grow old, — the kingdom of heaven." Sk Wil-
liam Alexander expressed the missionary feeling in the
lines, —
" In this last age time doth new worlds display-,
That Christ a Church in all the earth may have.
America to Europe may succeed ;
God ma}' of stones raise up to Abram seed."
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 33
And our own saintly Church songster Herbert awak-
ened the jealousy of the courtiers of the King by his
lines, —
" Religion stands tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand." ^
It was these good men who conceived the idea of
founding in Virginia a great university for the educa-
tion of young men, and " the training of the children
of the infidels in religion and civility." The site of the
college was Henricopolis, which classical name has de-
generated into the vulgar Dutch Gap. The scheme
included a high school as a nursery for the university,
whose site was to be at Charles City, now City Point.
The university was endowed with fifteen thousand acres
of James-river bottom-land on both sides of the river
from the Falls to Curies Neck. The King was induced
to request the Archbishop to have collections taken up
in all the dioceses for this end. Dr. King, Bishop of
London, collected a thousand pounds. Five hundred
pounds were given by one who signed himself " Dust
and Ashes." Bibles, prayer-books, plate for baptismal
and communion offices, and other donations, flowed
into the treasury. A hundred and twenty-five pounds
were collected for the school by Copeland, chaplain
of an East-Indian ship. Tenants for the college lands,
including mechanics, brickmakers, etc., were sent
over under the charge of Thorpe, a model Christian
man.
This brilliant prospect was blighted in a single houi' by
1 Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, puts this language and sentiment
of Herbert into his prose without acknowledgment.
34 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIROINIA.
the massacre by the Indians on the 2'2d of March, 1622.
The whites and the Indians had been living in the kind-
liest intercourse. The latter up to the eve of the
targedy had been going in and out familiarly among the
whites, and had even borrowed their boats in maturing
the conspiracy, without exciting suspicion. The Indians
fell upon the whites like lightning from a clear sky.
Upwards of three hundred colonists, including six mem-
bers of the Council, fell under the tomahawk in a few
hours. Of eighty plantations, but eight escaped. But
there was one redeeming feature in the tragedy. The
colony was saved from utter extkpation by a Christian
Indian living with Mr. Pace opposite Jamestown. His
Indian brother slept with him that night, and tempted
him to kill Mr. Pace. But he quietly slipped out, and
informed Mr. Pace, who rowed over the river where it
is more than three miles wide, and gave the alarm at
Jamestown ; and eight plantations were saved. The
name of Chanco should be ever green in the memory
of every Christian and patriot. A terrible revulsion of
feeling ensued; and a cry of vengeance was heard in
England and in the colony, in which at least one of
the colonial ministers joined. Rev. Mr. Stockton said,
" Kindly means for their conversion have failed. I
am no statesman, nor love I to meddle with any thing
but my books ; but I am persuaded, that, if Mars and
Minerva go hand in hand, they will do more good in
an hour than all your verbal Mercuries (missionaries) in
their lives. And until their priests and ancients have
their throats cut, there is no hope of their conversion."
The company in England instructed the authorities in
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 35
Vii-ginia to wage war upon the Indians, without quar-
ter or truce. The authorities in Virginia replied, " We
have anticipated your instructions." Mr. Treasurer fell
upon the Tappahannocks, Sir George Yardley upon the
Weyanokes and Pamunkeys, Capt. West upon the Pow-
hatans, Capt. Madison upon the Potomacks.^ They
burned their towns, destroyed their corn and fishing-
nets, and chased them with mastiffs and bloodhounds.
Many years elapsed before laws were passed for the
better treatment of the aborigines, and the first mis-
sionary measure appears upon the statute-book in the
following questionable shape. An Act of Assembly,
1665, declares, that, "for every eight wolves' heads
brought in by the Indians, they shall have a cow," and
adds, " This may he a step towards making them Chris-
tians" But, before further steps were taken, the war-
clouds rolling dun darkened the horizon, and issued
in Bacon's so-called " rebellion," when —
" Peace and Merc^', banished from the plain,
Sprung on the viewless winds to heaven again.''
Nothing more was done until the Rev. Dr. Blair came
to Vu-ginia as the commissary of the Bishop of London.
He was the chief instrument in reviving the scheme for
building a college, which had been initiated by the Gen-
eral Assembly in 1660-61. I cannot here give in detail
the history of William and Mary College, whose success
was chiefly owing to the ability, zeal, and untiring energy
of Commissary Blair, manifested both in England and
in Virginia. It will suffice for my purpose now to say
1 In Indian names, the orthography of the olden time is retained.
36 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRCINIA.
that the end of this institution was affirmed both by the
charter and the General Assembly to be, " That the
Church in Vkginia may be furnished with a seminary
of ministers of the Gospel, and for the pious education
of young men ; but also that the Christian faith may be
propagated among the Indians." In 1691 Hon. Robert
Boyle left a legacy which was invested in an English
estate called Braiferton, and the interest applied to the
building in the college green, known as the Braiferton,
where Indians were educated until the Revolution.
Most of these relapsed into heathenism after returning
to their people ; a few of them became servants to the
English. Gov. Spotswood founded an Indian school on
the Meherrin River, called Christanna, under the care of
that good man Mr. Griffin. The governor went in per-
son among the Indians, and selected scholars. Hugh
Jones, professor at William and Mary, says, in his " His-
tory of Virginia," that he had seen as many as seventy
pupils there, and that Mr. Griffin was so beloved by the
Saponeys that they would have made him their king.
But he adds that the school was broken up through
" opposition of pride and interest," and Griffin was trans-
ferred to the Brafferton professorship in William and
Mary. Persons came down in sloops from Maryland,
and Virginia planters attended in their coaches, four-
in-hand, the first commencement at the college ; and
the scene was made more picturesque by the presence of
Indians. From these scattered items we cannot form a
just judgment of the efficacy of the means used for the
conversion of the Indians. Sufficient data are wanting,
church records being few and far between. The cases
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 37
of Pocahontas and Chanco warrant the hope that there
may have been many such.
But if these had been the only fruits gathered, they
would have been worth far more than the labor ex-
pended in their culture. We have seen that the colony
was saved from utter extirpation, by the pious offices of
one converted Indian. But for his warning, Virginia
might have been a French or Spanish province, and the
course of history reversed. And Pocahontas not only
saved the life of Smith by interposing her own person
between him and the uplifted tomahawk, and by timely
warnings of impending danger saved the colony from
extinction, but her descendants have been leading mem-
bers of the Church in every generation ; and they sit here
to-day in the persons of ministers and lay delegates to
this Council, of gracious matrons and maids ; and her
blood runs in the veins of the present honored and
Right Reverend Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia. It
is curious, that, when Sir Thomas Gates first visited
Kecoughtan (Hampton), the Indian commander there
was Pochins, the brother of Pocahontas, and that Hamp-
ton should have become the site of the present Indian
Institute. When, some time ago, the Bishop of this
Diocese confirmed a class of Indian youths there, their
hearts would doubtless have been stirred with a deeper
emotion if they had known that he who laid his hands
on their heads was a descendant of the aboriginal ruler
of this realm.
38 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
THE BLACK RACE.
But I have said that Divine Providence had devolved
the rehgious education of the black race upon the Colo-
nial Church of Virginia.
In considering this subject, it should be borne in
mind, that, abhorrent as slavery is to the men of this
generation, it was quite otherwise in those days. It had
always prevailed in some form in the Old World, and
was not limited to the African race. White men were
enslaved at that very time by the Moors in Africa.
Bishop Cosin of England gave five hundred pounds out
of his own purse for the redemption of Englishmen
from African slavery. Columbus himself sent to Seville
five hundred Indian slaves. Indians were enslaved in
New England. Political and other white convicts were
sent by England to the colonies, and made slaves for a
term of years. One hundred vu'tuous young English
white women were sent from England to Virginia, and
sold for wives at the rate of five hundred pounds leaf-
tobacco each. But it must be confessed that the African
race had been in a peculiar sense the victims of slavery,
not only among their own people in Africa, but specially
in America. The Portuguese initiated the African slave-
trade in the fifteenth century. Isabella and Ferdinand
of Spain, Charles V. of Germany, Queen Elizabeth and
the Stuart kings of England, encouraged it, and profited
by the traffic. The North- American colonists generally
objected at first to receiving them, and often afterwards
protested against the trade in vain. And one of the
counts in the indictments of England in the original
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 39
draft of the Declaration of Independence was " the
inhuman negative interposed by the mother-country " to
the Colonial laws forbidding the slave-trade. The twenty
negroes brought to Virginia in 1619 were bartered for
provisions, of which the master of the vessel pleaded he
was in dire need. The massacre of the whites by the
Indians occurred in less than three years after the land-
ing of the negroes. We have a census of the victims
of that massacre, and it is remarkable that there is not
an African among them. Whether they were spared
on account of their color, is not known. We have also
a census of the Colonists one year after the massacre ;
and we find at Flower de Hundred eleven negroes, at
James City two negro women, at Isle of Wight four
men and one woman, at Basses Choice one man and
one woman, at Elizabeth City one man ; at Shirley one
man had died, leaving just twenty-one negroes. But,
what is more interesting, we find at Elizabeth City in
the following year, 1624 (incidentally mentioned in the
census), that a negro child was baptized, and called
William ; and what adds to the interest is, that the very
next entry is the baptism of an Indian child called
William Crashaw, after the preacher whose sermon I
have quoted. Now, we have no baptismal registers till
forty years after this date, which invests these two en-
tries with special value because they prove, what would
otherwise be unknown, that within two years after the
massacre an Indian child was baptized, and within a
few years after the landing of these heathen negroes
one of their children (it may have the first born in the
Colony) was taken into the Christian Church. These
40 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
significant facts have escaped the notice of all the his-
torians ; and they raise the strongest presumption, that,
if we had the Church records of this date, we should
see that it is not true, as has been so often affirmed,
that " no man cared for their souls." This presumption
is enhanced by the further fact that our earliest extant
baptismal registers, as those of Gloucester, Middlesex,
and old Charles Parish, beginning just after 1660, are
full of the baptisms of negro children, intermixed with
the whites, and often outnumbering them. Another
deeply interesting fact, which will surprise many of my
hearers, is, that the first man who ever lifted up his
voice against the African slave-trade was one of the
poor, despised Colonial Clergymen of Virginia. Clark-
son awarded this honor to Rev. Morgan Godwyn, even
over Bishop Sanderson and Baxter. Godwyn went from
Virginia to Barbadoes, where he fought a good fight for
the negro and the Indian, in the face of fierce oppo-
sition. He wrote a very strong pamphlet in America,
entitled " The Negro and the Indian's Advocate," which
was printed in London in 1680. He asks if the negro
and the Indian, like the barren fig-tree, are smitten
with a perpetual curse. He cites with force the case
of the Ethiopian in Acts, and of Ebed-melech in
Jeremiah. He also published a sermon, and concludes,
" Whatever may be the issue, I have delivered my soul;
and my work is with the Lord." A curious question
was started in Virginia as to the efficacy of baptism,
whether it did not operate the emancipation of a slave,
— a new phase of the opus operatum. His Majesty's
solicitor-general in England was consulted on it, and
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 41
gave his opinion in the negative. In 1700 the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Whites,
the Indians, and the Negroes in the Colonies, was char-
tered by William and Mary. It was composed of the
most eminent men in Church and State in England, and
accomplished a great work among the three races in
many of the Colonies, especially in South Carolina and
the Northern Colonies; but the Church, being estab-
lished in Virginia, did not partake of its nursing care
and protection. One hundred and eighteen sermons
were preached before it by English bishops. Its very
seal was a sermon. Gibson, Bishop of London in 1727,
made a powerful appeal to the ministers and people of
the Colonies in behalf of the religious education of the
negroes. Ten thousand copies of it were distributed in
America, and awakened much interest. There was once
a picture in the Colonies, in which were represented the
eighteen first-fruits to Christ from the heathen who had
died in the faith. They were dressed in their native
African costumes, and standing before the throne w^ith
palms in theii' hands, with this inscription : " These
are redeemed from among men, being the fii'st-fruits
unto God and the Lamb.'' I do not know what its
merits were as a work of art ; but the conception is beau-
tiful, and touches the heart. ^ One of the most success-
ful preachers in Virginia to the negroes was that great
and good man the Rev. Samuel Davies, whom they
delighted to hear, and who thought their singing better
than oratorios, or St. Cecilia's Day. The Baptists, and
^ Since this address was delivered, I have found this picture: it is
called " The First-fruits."
42 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
the Methodists too, who came much later, had a great
attraction for these Africans, and ultimately nearly mo-
nopolized them. It is well known, however, that many
of the negroes were interested in the services of the
Episcopal Church, and worshipped with the families of
their owners. Robert (known as King) Carter owned
nearly or quite a thousand slaves ; and it is an interest-
ing fact, that, when he built the historical church in
Lancaster, he reserved one-third of it for his tenants and
servants. When old St. Paul's Church in King George
was in ruins, and had been forsaken as a place of wor-
ship, an old negro woman who had come from Africa in
her childhood, and had been instructed in Christianity,
and accustomed to attend the church with her mistress,
gave a very touching testimonial of her attachment to the
service. She used to go alone on Sunday, and sit amid
the ruins, and say the prayers and chant the anthems ;
and, when asked why she did not go with the multitude,
replied that it " did her more good to think over the old
prayers, and sing the old psalms, than to go in any of
the new ways." To my mind, this African woman, thus
sitting and singing in the ruins of the old church, was
a sublimer spectacle than that of the Roman Marius
among the ruins of Carthage, of whom Velleius Pater-
culus has so touchingly said, —
"Marius aspiciens Carthaginem — ilia intuens Marium alter
alteri possent esse solatio."
Could this African Church-woman have had a fore-
sight of what our eyes see to-day, — a miniature repub-
lic, like a light-house, on the western coast of Africa,
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 43
with a Church and Bishop-elect, most of whose pioneer
settlers and whose first president were negroes Christian-
ized in Virginia, whose capital, Monrovia, was named
from a Virginian slaveholder, — and then, turning her
eyes homeward, see thousands of African communicants
in the South and in her own Virginia churches, and
schools springing up on every side, an Episcopal Theo-
logical Seminary for her race in Petersburgh, under the
charge of an accomplished white professor, and ordained
ministers of her race sitting by the side of their white
brethren in council, she would doubtless have chanted
the swan-song of Simeon, —
" Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."
THE MORAL OF THE STORY.
History is not merely a chronological narrative, a
dead thing of names and dates and facts, a body with-
out a soul. It is a living growth, from germ to shoot
and stalk and flower and fruit.
The old method of writing history was to distribute
it into reigns of kings and queens, and then fit the
facts, by a Procrustean process, into these artificial divis-
ions. If I were to pursue this method, I would make a
chart, putting at the head of it the names of the kings
and queens who reigned over the Colony, marking the
date and duration of each reign. Under this line I
would place the names of the Bishops of London, with
the dates of their jurisdictions. I would then enumerate
the parishes and theh incumbents, with the date and
duration of the ministry of each Clergyman in each
44 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGimA.
parish. This I have done in a manuscript book for
reference. One may improve his memory by mastering
all the facts of history, and never learn the lesson they
teach. It is like the old method of teaching geometry
in the Oldfield schools. The pupil committed to memory
a proposition m Euclid as it was written in the book.
He came before the blackboard, drew his diagram, and
rattled off the words like a parrot, concluding with a
triumphant air. Quod erat demonstrandum. But, if the
master should unhappily change the letters of the alpha-
bet which marked the lines and angles of the diagram,
the pupil was covered with confusion. His memory,
not his reason, was called into play; and he had learned
nothing but words, and had no conception of the prin-
ciples involved in the proposition. A great master has
said that the historian should ask himself questions, set
for himself problems, and try and find out what it all
means.
The first moral I would deduce from the history of
the Colonial Church is, that a Church without a Bishop
is not an Episcopal Church at all. An Episcopal Church
derives its very name from its characteristic feature, —
episcojws, Bishop. This office is essential to its being,
to its propagation, and to its discipline. Without a
Bishop, its baptized members cannot be confirmed, nor
can its ministers be ordained. It has no overseeing and
directing head, and no centre of unity to fall back upon,
and rally its broken ranks. That such a Church should
be inefficient was inevitable, and to visit her sins upon
her severely is unjust and cruel. Such, practically, was
our Colonial Church. To say that we had a Bishop in
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 45
London, is little to the purpose, if not a mockery. The
Bishop of London never made a single visitation to Vir-
ginia in a hundi-ed and seventy-five years. During that
long period there was not a confirmation or ordination
in Virginia. A Colonial candidate for Orders had to
incur the expense and peril of a protracted voyage to
England in a frail bark. About one-fifth of all who
went over for Orders never returned. Two, returning,
perished almost in sight of their haven in New Jersey.
One congregation in 1745 sent over a candidate, who
was ordained, and, on returning, was lost at sea. They
sent another in 1752, and he died on his passage from
England. The same congregation sent a third (1757),
who was taken by the French, and died a prisoner at
Bayonne. They sent a fourth (1759), who was seized
by small-pox in London, and barely escaped with his
life. The famous Devereux Jarratt was near dying of
the same disease in London when he went for Orders.
Many promising young men, graduates of colleges, who
would have taken Orders in our Church if we had had
a Bishop, entered other ministries rather than encounter
the peril and delay and expense of going to London.
Under such circumstances it was impossible to supply
our pulpit with a native ministry ; and the people, who
would not be without the offices of the Church, were
constrained to tolerate many ministers who left their
country for their country's good. In the words of a
chronicler of the time (Hammond), " Many came who
wore black coats, could babble in the pulpit, and roare
in the tavern." Kather than entertain such ministers,
many parishes preferred lay readers. Jamestown was
46 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
without an ordained mmister for twenty-five years.
Hence the vestries generally refused to present minis-
ters to the governor for induction, which would have
fastened the minister on the parish for life. Their only
protection was, to hire them from year to year, and then
put them upon their good behavior. This was a per-
petual cause of strife between ministers and vestries, and
of complaint by the Clergy to the governors and to the
Bishops of London. They complained that the vestries
were their masters. They called the lay readers " leaden
lay priests " of the vestries' ordination. Bishop Wilber-
force and others have echoed the plaints of the Clergy ;
but the truth is, that, in the absence of a Bishop and of
conventions with legislative powers, these were meas-
ures of self-defence.
As an historical fact, the Bishop of London had no
legal jurisdiction in the Colonies.
The Colonial governors were ordered not to suffer a
minister to officiate in the plantations without a license
from the Bishop of London, as a matter of convenience,
several of these having been members of the Virginia
Company in London. When, in 1679, the king, in a
fit of favoritism, gave Vii-ginia to Lord Culpepper, the
patent included absolute power over the Church, without
avy reference to the Bishop of London. When Bishop
Gibson acceded to the See of London, in 1725, he con-
sulted the attorney-general, who reported that jurisdic-
tion in the Colonies did not legally belong to any Bishop in
England. He refused to act until he was empowered
by a patent. But the patent was limited to his person,
and expired with his life, and was never renewed ; so
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 47
that he was the only Bishop that ever had lawful juris-
diction in Virginia. This is a specimen of 'the " nurs-
ing care and protection" of our "nursing fathers and
mothers" in England. Among the many ills flowing
from our want of a Bishop is the following fact, but
little known. Virginia should be credited for special
kindness to the Huguenot refugees, and to German
Protestants who sought an asylum in her bosom. The
Huguenots were given lands on James Kiver, and had
special privileges conferred upon them by the General
Assembly. Like favors were bestowed upon the Ger-
mans at Gov. Spotswood's u'on-works at Germanna, the
site of the first iron-furnace in America. The Germans
were Lutheran. Their minister was very old, and they
wished to have a young man to aid and succeed him.
They petitioned the Bishop of London to ordain a min-
ister, and to send over with him the liturgy of the
Church of England translated into high Dutch, which
they wished to use in then- public service. Nothing
more was heard of this petition. These Germans moved
to Madison County, and built the antique church now
standing in good condition. The funds for building the
church, and for buying a large pipe-organ, now in use,
were collected by a special agent in Europe. The sub-
scribers entered their names in a book, with the sums
given ; and many of them added some sentiment. It is
a curious literary melange of diverse languages and
dialects, — Latin, French, and German, Dutch and Eng-
lish. Some of the subscribers were eminent m the
Church and in the State and in colleges. The date is
1736. I have that book noiv. If we had had a Bishop,
48 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
or if this petition had been heeded in London, we might
have had to-day a flourishing German Episcopal Church
in Virginia.
Another moral which this story teaches is, that pro-
scription for religious opinion is not only wrong in prin-
ciple, but an egregious blunder in policy. Christendom
was a long time in finding out that religion is not the
mere bending of the knee to authority, but the alle-
giance of the mind and heart to what seems to be the
truth. From the time of Constantme it had been held
throughout Christendom, that Christian princes were
bound to defend and enforce the faith with the secular
arm. The Reformation recognized this duty in the civil
magistrate, and all Christians when dominant acted on
this principle. Romanists proscribed Protestants, and
the latter when in the ascendant retaliated.
The Church of England proscribed Protestant dis-
senters, and the latter entered into a " solemn league
and covenant " to extirpate Episcopacy from the earth.
The Colonial authorities in Virginia punished with fine
and imprisonment dissenters from the Establishment who
would not avail themselves of the provisions of the Act
of Toleration. The Puritans in New England deprived
Episcopalians, Baptists, and Quakers of the right of
suff"rage, — of the liberty of worshipping God according
to their consciences, — forbade the use of the Prayer-
Book and the keeping of Christmas, and put some
Quakers to death. In the words of the Baptist chroni-
cler (Leland), " The dragon roared in Virginia, but he
was not red ; no blood for religious opinion ever stained
our soil."
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 49
From the way in which the subject is sometimes
treated, one would infer that rehgious persecution in
Vu'ginia was something exceptional, — a sin not seen
elsewhere, and never to be forgiven or forgotten. The
fact is ignored, that Episcopal ministers in Virginia who
felt themselves bound in conscience to pray for the King
were punished ; as in the case of Rev. Mr. Macrae of
Cumberland, who was knocked down in the night, tied,
and scourged nigh unto death, and Mr. Boucher, who
passed through a mob, pistol in hand, to his pulpit.
These men were wrong in their opinions, but they were
sufferers for conscience' sake. Patrick Henry protested
against the outrage upon Macrae, and Washington re-
spected Boucher. Men were a long time finding out,
that, while power may force outward conformity, love
is the only key which can unlock the human heart.
Individuals among the primitive Fathers, and moderns
like Locke and Jeremy Taylor, saw the truth ; but they
were voices crying in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the
way of the Lord." But even Taylor, like the Maryland-
ers, did not embrace in his charity infidels who denied
the foundations of the faith. To us it seems incredible
that any one could find the Inquisition in the Gospel,
and persecute their brethren in the name of a God who
is love, and commands us to love one another. Every
thing which obscures love is doomed to disappear.
Charity is, after all, the highest mark of the true
Church.
CHURCH AND STATE.
Another lesson which this story teaches is, that the
union of Church and State is an unnatural union, " the
50 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
direful spring of woes unnumbered." We may liken
it, as Sheridan did the coalition between Fox and Lord
North, to the conjunction of certain planets which were
supposed to shed a disastrous influence upon the earth.
Among other ills, it was the cause of our not having a
Colonial Bishop, and also of the odium brought upon
the Church by its leaning upon the secular arm. If
the Church of England had been free, she would have
organized the Church in Virginia when we had such
men as Hunt and Whittaker for the office of a Bishop,
and when there was no other religious organization in
the land to oppose it. But the Church of England had
no power on the premises. Bishops were nominated
ostensibly by the king, but really by the prime minister,
who was governed by the political effect of such meas-
ures. Dissenters held the balance of power, and most
politicians courted their favor. Dissenters were opposed
to the appointment of Bishops in the Colonies, not only
upon sectarian grounds, but also because Bishops were
associated in theu' minds with the " Star Chamber " and
" Courts of High Commission," which had long been
engines of oppression in England. The appeals of the
Colonists for a Bishop were piteous enough to have moved
a heart of stone. There never was, they said, so large a
country, with so many Christians in it, without a Bishop.
" Do, we implore you, take away our reproach among
the enemies of our Church." The Roman Catholics had
a Bishop in Canada. The Moravians had a Bishop.
The staff of the Spanish Church in America consisted,
as early as 1649, of six Archbishops and thirty-two
Bishops, while the Church of England had not one.
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 51
Clarendon induced Charles II. to appoint a Bishop
for Virginia ; and Dr. Murray, the king's companion in
exile, was nominated, and the patent made out by the
lord keeper (Bridgeman). But Bridgeman was removed
before the measure was perfected. When Commissary
Blair begged the attorney-general to consider that "the
Americans had souls to be saved, as well as English-
men," Seymour replied, " Souls "? D — your souls ! make
tobacco." Of the famous " Cabal Ministry " (so called
because the initials of their names spelled that word),
one was an atheist, one a deist, one a Roman Catholic,
and one a Presbyterian ; and this composite cabinet
controlled the appointment of Bishops. In Queen
Anne's time the measure was once more on the eve of
consummation, but was frustrated by her death.
The Dissenters had a standing committee to agitate
against Colonial Bishops. Bishops Butler, Gibson, and
Seeker thought they had devised a scheme which would
remove the objections of the Dissenters ; but it came to
nought. Nothing could better illustrate the temper of
the politicians than the treatment of the saintly Dr.
Berkeley by the wily Walpole. Berkeley had procured
a private subscription fund of five thousand pounds for
a college in America for the education of Indians. The
British Government had given him a charter, and prom-
ised to add twenty thousand pounds to the endowment.
Berkeley came to Newport, and waited several years
for the money. In the mean time he built a house,
now standing. He spent his time in writing his " Minute
Philosopher," and composed the poem beginning, —
" Westward the course of empire takes its way."
52 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
Becoming weary of waiting, he induced Bishop Gibson
to call upon Walpole, and demand an explicit answer.
Walpole said to Gibson, " If you ask me as prime min-
ister, I say the money should be surely paid ; but if
you ask me as a friend, I advise Dr. Berkeley by all
means to give up his present expectations." I need not
recite the history of the subject further.
The dissatisfaction of Churchmen in America at the
frivolous indifference of the British ministry, and the
rising spirit of independence among the people gener-
ally, stimulated by a feeling which culminated in the
" Stamp Act," made any further agitation of the subject
so inexpedient that even a convocation of the Virginia
Clergy voted against it, and received the thanks of
the General Assembly, which was composed chiefly of
Churchmen. It has been said by several historians,
upon the authority of Mr. Jefferson, that, at the time
of the Kevolution, Dissenters outnumbered Churchmen
two to one. Jefferson afterwards (vol. i. p. 31) reduced
his conjecture to a bare majority. His biographer. Pro-
fessor Tucker, treats both estimates as clearly erroneous.
William C. Rives, in his "Life aiid Times of James Mad-
ison," says the opinion of Mr. Madison is doubtless more
to be relied on. " The proportion of Dissenters was
considerably less than one-half of those who professed
themselves members of any church." Mr. Saunders,
the eminent lawyer of Williamsburgh, says, •' It is man-
ifest, from the history of the day and from the legislative
proceedings, that the great majority of the representa-
tives who dissolved Church and State were Episcopal-
ians, and that they clung to the Church as long as they
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 53
could." This will explain the gradual dissolution of
Church and State. The Bill of Rights, which, Mr.
Grigsby says, contains in essence the history in minia-
ture of England's struggle for liberty, struck the first
blow. Then followed acts suspending, from time to
time, the salaries of ministers ; then the Act of Incor-
poration, open to all Christians ; then propositions for
a general assessment for support of religion, for the
benefit of all sects alike, which was defeated by a re-
monstrance prepared by Madison at the instance of
Mason and Nicholas; then, in 1799, the act repealing
all laws since the Revolution touching church property.
Bishop Meade compared the roll of delegates with
the vestry-books, and said nearly the whole of them
were vestrymen. It is certain that the president (Pen-
dleton) and draughtsmen of the Revolution, the chair-
man of the committee of the whole (Cary), its mover
(Nelson), and its leading advocate (Henry) were.
The great work of the Convention was the Bill of
Rights and the first written Constitution. The master-
spirit of the Convention was George Mason, who drew
the famed Declaration of Rights, which declares that
" Religion is the duty we owe to our Creator, and the
manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason
and conviction, and not by force ; and therefore all men
are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion,
according to the dictates of conscience." The word
" toleration " was stricken out of the original draught
on motion of Mr. Madison. The Convention expunged
from the liturgy the prayer for the king, appointed
Patrick Henry governor, and surrounded him with a
54 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
council consisting of the following vestrymen : John
Page, Dudley Digges, Jno. Taylor, John Blair, Benjamin
Harrison of Berkeley, Benjamin Harrison of Brandon,
Charles Carter of Shirley, Edmund Randolph attorney-
general. It has been the habit of some writers, to rep-
resent the Episcopalians as struggling in a body to save
the Establishment. This is an error and an injustice.
The contests in the Legislature were between Church-
men and Churchmen. Patrick Henry and Pendleton
and Nicholas tried to save something from the wreck.
Churchmen like Mason and Madison were leaders in
securing religious freedom. Nicholas joined with Mason
in asking Madison to prepare the remonstrance which
defeated the assessments. The last tie was severed by
the confiscation of the glebes in 1802, — a measure
which would have been decided to be unconstitutional,
but for the sudden death of Pendleton with the opinion
of the court in his pockets. The present speaker thinks
that the confiscation of the glebes was right, they hav-
ing been paid for by a tax on all the people.
I would not pluck one laurel from the brow of any
champion of civil and religious liberty. The leaders, as
Washington, Mason, the Lees, etc., were members of
the Church of England. But the Dissenters, whose
necks were galled, spurred the leaders to a quicker pace,
giving an onward motion to the car ; while the Conserva-
tives kept it from running off the track.
I will now try and sum up the whole subject in a bold
figure.
In the Scandinavian mythology, the human family is
likened to a tree, which is called " Igdrasil," the ash-
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 55
tree of existence. Carlyle admired the metaphor very
much, as if it had been original. It is a favorite figure
in the Bible, where it is applied to individuals, dynasties,
and races. A good man is likened to a tree by the
water-side, that will bring forth its fruit in due season ;
a prosperous wicked man, to a spreading green bay-tree.
The prophets use it profusely. Ezekiel, by a very bold
metaphor, compares the Assyrian to a cedar of Lebanon
whose height rose above all the trees of the field, and
there was not one like to it in its beauty. It was made
great by the waters running around its roots, and under
its manifold boughs and wide-spreading branches the
nations came and dwelt. Daniel has the same figure of
a tree whose top touched heaven, and was seen to the
ends of the earth. Encouraged by such examples, I
venture to give a new application to the figure. As
I have meditated upon the history of Vii'ginia and of
our fatherland, in my fond fancy I seemed to see it rise
before me in the form of a grand old Druidicai oak,
with its original Celtic root in the caves of the old
Britons, grafted in succession by Gothic, Anglo-Saxon,
and Norman shoots, fertilized by a stream of culture
whose spring was Athens, and by another stream whose
fountain was in Jerusalem, both conveyed in Roman
aqueducts. By a marvellous power of assimilation, it
incorporated all these heterogeneous elements into one
homogeneous growth. It gradually and grandly rose
through the centiu'ies, stretching forth its weather-beaten
arms to the peltings of the pitiless ravages of time, war,
flood, and fires of persecution ; and yet it survived, and
brought forth fruit, — good fruit and evil fruit. Civil
56 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
excrescences disfigured it, superstitious mistletoes fas-
tened and fed upon its vitals ; and yet it grew great men
and great measures, — Magna Charta, Bill of Rights,
Trial by Jury, Habeas Corpus, and the like, — every bud
a book, every leaf a literature, every bough a biography.
As in Daniel's figure a great eagle with great wings came
and plucked off the twigs from the topmost bough, and
transplanted them in a land of traflfic in a good soil by
great waters ; so, in the fulness of time, offshoots from
the old oak were transplanted all along the coast of
America, and first here in Virginia. In the virgin soil
of the New World they struck their roots deeply, and
grew vigorously for nearly two hundred years, repro-
ducing the like phenomena, with civil excrescences,
superstitious mistletoe, and also great men and great
measures. But when the hour had struck in heaven,
as in the case of Daniel's tree, the watcher came down
from heaven, and cried with a loud voice, " Hew down
the tree, but leave the root ; and when seven times have
passed, when iniquity is broken off, and mercy is showed
the poor, and men know that the Heavens do rule, the
dew shall fall upon it, and it shall grow again." So the
axe was laid to our tree ; and it tottered under blows re-
luctantly struck by loving hands, for seven years, before
its final fall. But the root was left ; and from it has
sprung our Liberty Tree, bearing freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom of religion.
" Welcome, great Ceutuiy of Liberty,
Thou fairest daughter of slow-teeming Time ! "
This is our century-plant, which has interlocked its
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA. 57
branches with all the other transplants which together
cover the continent, and afford shade and shelter and
food for all the nations. And they have come, and are
coming, — Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The world has never witnessed an emigration like
that to America, since the first dispersion of mankind.
They are swarming in a tide as resistless and unreturn-
ing as the travellers to eternity. " Those who are left
behind seem to feel a melancholy restlessness, like a bird
whose wing is crippled at the season of migration; and
a voice like that heard before the final destruction of
Jerusalem seems to cry in their ears. Arise, let us depart
hence." These heterogeneous peoples of every clime,
kindred, and tongue, mingling together, like the disinte-
gration of different rocks, ought to make a richer soil
for a greater growth in the future than has been seen in
the past. The time may come when it may overspread
South America, and one pulse and one spirit circulate
from the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle, and America
realize the dream of Cromwell for England, and become
the grand propaganda de fide for the inhabited world,
sending back a refluent tide of Christian people speak-
ing all tongues to the ends of the earth.
But what became of the vine that leaned upon the
old tree for support? When the old tree around which
it was twined fell, it was torn from its embrace, trailed
upon the ground, and trampled in the dust, until it was
thought that the life was crushed out of her. And men
took up the lamentation of the Psalmist, — " Thou hast
brought a vine out of Egypt : Thou hast cast out the
heathen, and planted it. . . . She sent out her boughs
58 COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIRGINIA.
unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why
hast Thou then broken down her hedges, so that all
they which pass by the way do pluck her ] . . . Look
down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine. ... It
is cut down. . . . Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy
right hand, upon the son of man whom Thou madest
strong for Thyself. . . . Quicken us, and we will call
upon Thy name." And the prayer was heard. So soon
as it was remembered that the source of vitality was
not the State, but the Christ, — "I am the vine, ye are
the branches," — the life-current began to flow, and
" the vine revived like the corn, grew like the barley ;
its scent was as of the wine of Lebanon, to say nothing
of occasional feasts upon the ' clusters of Eshcol.' "
To drop this long-drawn figure, and come down to
plain prose, let me say, that, as our Church no longer
leans upon the secular arm, but is self-supporting, —
clothed only with the armor of God, the shield of faith,
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God, with her feet shod with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace, — we may humbly
hope that she, as a part of the sacramental host of God's
elect, may win victories against the rulers of the dark-
ness of this world, if not upon so grand a scale, yet like
those which the primitive Church won on the fields of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, when she first was free.
Fifteen hundred years of civil and religious despotism,
and one hundred years of liberty, have prepared our
weak eyes for the new transfiguration, when, — as the
sun, as he rises, draws up the vapors till they hide his
face, and at noon scatters them, revealing the landscape
COLONIAL CHURCH OF VIROINIA. 59
in its beauty, — so the "fulness of the Godhead" in
Jesus shall blaze through the veil of flesh, chase away
the vapors with which the passions of men have clouded
His face, and He shall be recognized as the central Sun
of the universe, before whom all creatures in heaven
and earth shall bow, and " every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA FROM 1785
TO THE DEATH OF BISHOP MEADE.
ADDRESS BY REV. T. G. DASHIELL.
This narrative must of necessity include events with-
in the memory of some who are now living. It is a
history which brings before us what some might call the
romance, and which all should regard as the heroism, of
religious annals.
No proper idea can be formed of such a history of
our Church, unless we can have, to some extent, an
adequate statement of its circumstances at the date
when the narrative begins.
The war of the Revolution had been practically con-
cluded about two years when the Convention of 1785
assembled.
It was a Convention without a head, representing a
Diocese without organization, and laboring under a
pressure of poverty, of disheartening distress, and of
opposition, which compels one to present a mournful
picture of our beloved Church as she was then, in her
struggles.
No class of citizens had to feel the desolations of
war as severely as those who composed our Episcopal
congregations. As a matter of necessity, no church
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 61
emerged from that Avar as much demoraHzed as our
own. No church was so stripped of the means of mate-
rial support. Our church edifices were dismantled, most
of the congregations dispersed, and many of the clergy
were reduced to the hard alternative of starving in their
abundant fields, or of themselves becoming deserters of
our altars. This poverty, this material wretchedness,
was bad enough ; but worse than this was the poverty
in religious principle, the scant appearances of piety,
the feeble, flickering flame of devotion, the symptoms
of approaching death of reverence and godliness. All
history tells how the desolations of war are more sadly
and more plainly left upon a people in this respect than
in any other. Fields that have been wasted can soon be
made to rejoice with a teeming harvest ; homes and towns
demolished may speedily be renewed : but the waste of
character, the destruction of morality, how slowly is such
a loss repaired ! In addition to this formidable negative
evil, the destruction of religious character was the more
formidable positive evil of opposition to Christianity.
Let the garden alone, and not only will the flowers die
out, but weeds will grow apace. Let religious culture
alone, and not only will the Church become enfeebled,
but sin will be vitalized. Not only will the garden of
the Lord fail to bring forth the fruits of righteousness,
but the fair fields will be overrun with the noxious
growth of indifl'erence, of profligacy, of infidelity.
We cannot fully describe the condition of things when,
in May, 1785, the Convention met to re-organize this
Diocese. But let a few facts be stated, — facts which,
perhaps, can be easily remembered. When Vii'ginia
62 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
committed herself to the war of the Revolution in 1776,
the Diocese had ninety-five parishes, one hundred and
sixty-four churches and chapels, and ninety-one clergy-
men. At the time I speak of, she found many of her
churches utterly destroyed, or so injured as to render
the work of repair entirely impracticable. This de-
struction or irreparable damage might have been ex-
pected as a consequence of the seven-years' war, but in
some cases there was no such excuse admissible. Be-
sides this loss of church property, she found twenty-
three out of ninety-five parishes out of existence. They
were extinct, their organization gone. Of the remain-
ing seventy-two parishes, thirty-four were without min-
isterial supply. Of her ninety-one clergymen, only
twenty-eight remained. As to these twenty-eight, there
was such a feeling of bitterness toward some of them,
that thii-teen had to leave the parishes which they had
served, and seek employment and support in some of
the vacant fields. This left only fifteen in the cure
of the parishes which they held during the war. Eight
others came in, which increased the total number of the
clergy to thirty-six. This was the exact number that,
with seventy-one laymen, made up the Convention of
1785.
What a work they undertook ! To build up a Diocese
upon ground absolutely vacant, may necessitate hard toil ;
but how much more difficult where there must first be
cleared away the debris occasioned by material destruc-
tion, by intellectual and moral confusion ! To recon-
struct, any one can see how far that may exceed the
labor and discouragement of any efi"ort at first construe-
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 63
tion. Our brethren of that day went with courage to
their undertaking.
The Rev. Dr. James Madison was president. A large
committee was appointed to prepare rules and regula-
tions for the Church in the Commonwealth, and also to
report upon the proceedings of the General Convention
of the Protestant Episcopal Church held in New York
in October, 1784. The Convention declared itself
willing to unite with the other Dioceses in the organi-
zation of the general Church.
It took positive ground as to its independence as a
Diocese by declaring, that, in its opinion, " The canons
of the Church of England have no obligations on the
Protestant Episcopal Church in this Commonwealth."
That resolution stands unrepealed.
An earnest and pathetic address was sent forth to the
friends of the Church in the Diocese, appealing to them
to come up to its help ; that it had languished from neg-
lect, but that its friends were doubtless true, and there-
fore were confided in as men and women who would
not desert the object of their choice. It pointed to the
glebes and the affections of the Church-people as all
that was left to the Diocese ; yet, with assurance that
this Church is the plant which God Himself had planted,
and which we in His name must nurture, and which
must bless mankind and glorify the Master, the people
are urgently entreated to come up to the arduous work.
Some of the canons and orders of this first Conven-
tion may be worthy of citation. One of them required
a Bishop to hold a parish, afiarming that a Bishop's office
differs nothing from that of other ministers of God,
64 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
except the power of ordaining and confirming. That
opinion was afterwards revoked.
Ministers were not allowed to leave their parishes
longer than a month without the consent of the vestry.
Ministers were required to wear a surplice during
time of prayer at public worship, and a gown whilst
preaching.
No action was taken, at this Convention, toward what
would seem the first act in the work of re-organization ;
viz., the election of a Bishop.
The next year, however, that important step was
taken. There was an attendance far less than in 1785,
— only sixteen clergy and forty-seven laymen. It con-
tinued in session a week, and on its last day elected as
Bishop the Rev. Dr. David Griffith.
Dr. Griffith was elected but never consecrated. He
was a good man, and would, no doubt, have been earnest
and zealous in rebuilding the Church ; but such was the
low condition of the Diocese that means could not be
raised to send him to Europe for consecration. He went
to Philadelphia as a delegate from Virginia to the Gen-
eral Convention in 1789, and whilst in that city was
taken to his eternal rest.
It would be impossible to set before you any detailed
history of these years. Still I think it practicable,
within the limits that may be allowed me, to recite
with distinctness the most important subjects that ought
to be borne in mind. I will then state that a review of
the decade from 1785 to 1795 presents, first, an accu-
mulation of hinder ances and difficulties, constituting a
dreary page in religious history, together with a very
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 65
discouraging condition at the end of that time. The
work done by the conventions was carefully and wisely
matured. No blame can attach to the good men who
legislated for the Diocese. Then* enactments especially
worth recording here are as follows : —
I. A determination to have Episcopal supervision as
soon as possible. This was carried into action by the
election of Dr. Griffith in 1786, and in 1790, the year
after his death, by the election of Dr. James Madison.
Bishop Madison was consecrated in September, 1790;
and upon his return to Virginia the Diocese found itself
for the first time really officered as an Episcopal Church,
although that Church had existed in Virginia for a hun-
dred and eighty-four years.
II. Aggressive plans were formulated with a view to
reaching and improving every county in the State. The
whole Diocese was in 1786 laid off into districts.
These were twenty-four in number, called presbyteries.
Each district contained several counties, and was placed
under a minister, called its " visitor." His duty was to
assemble annually the Clergy in these counties, that
they might consider and adopt the best measures for the
purposes had in view.
III. Instructions of a solemn and pungent nature
were pressed upon the laity with real apostolic fervor by
Bishop Madison, insisting upon their earnest co-operation
in the work of Church revival. He entreats them to
have life and ardor in worship ; to be liberal in giving
to the support of the Church, in order, that, through a
standing ministry, there might be secured to the parents,
to their children, and theu* children's children, the
66 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
great blessings of the Gospel of Christ. More solemn
instructions even than these were pressed upon the
Ministry, to be preachers of the Gospel, not readers of
sermons ; to be animated in rendering the services of
the liturgy ; to promote interest in the singing ; to urge
regularity and devoutness as to the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper ; to declare the whole counsel of God ; to
be prudent, gentle, yet fearless in discipline ; and, above
all, to be patterns of all good works. Certainly the
plans were well laid. That they met with no immediate
encouragement, does not detract from their meetness.
Now we must turn for a moment from the excellence
of these measures, to the peculiar and persistent opposi-
tion these good men had to face.
I. There was the growing indifference of many in the
Church itself. Iniquity abounded, and the love of many
waxed cold. The influence of Church-members was
against, not for, the Church, which calls itself holy.
Even when Christians live their best, and work most
zealously, it will often be necessary to ask, " Who hath
believed our report ^ " When they have no zeal except
for self-indulgence or worldly enjoyment, there is no
testimony for her about which the question can be raised.
There has never been a time in which there was not this
discouragement, but it was peculiarly so in the early
years of our present Diocese.
II. Then the Church was actively hindered by some
whom she had a right to regard as friends. It was in
this way: An Act of Incorporation had been granted
to her prior to 1785. It soon became an occasion of a
great outcry. The other denominations were especially
HISTOBY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 67
clamorous ; and some highly distinguished men, who
beyond doubt preferred the Episcopal Church to any
other, helped to swell the tumult. How far they were
influenced by a desire to gain the approval, and so to
gain the votes, of "ot ttoAXoi," we need not speculate.
It is the fact, that, in a somewhat indirect way, men of
place and power brought the force of their talent and
the prestige of their antecedents to aid in striking down
our Church in those trying days.
III. Another great trouble was the low state of reli-
gion everywhere, and in all denominations, in the Com-
monwealth. The enmity towards the Episcopal Church
seems, in great part, to have led to this. Very possibly
some who reviled and persecuted us may have thought
they were doing God service. They may have sup-
posed, that, if they could only crush our Church, they
could establish a purer and more spiritual order of
things. But beyond all question they made a sad mis-
take. The war upon us seems to have engendered
universal unfriendliness to all that was holy and of
good report. It gives me no pleasure to recite the
actual condition of things at that time, but truth com-
pels me to quote from the record. Says Devereux Jar-
ratt, in writing upon this subject, " It must be apparent
to every man, that religion was more respected and re-
vered, and had a greater influence on the manners of
men in general, while the Church had the countenance
of the State, than now."
He depicts faithfully the mournful condition of the
Episcopal Church ; but as a faithful historian, he asserts
that there is nothing better to be declared of other
68 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
Christian bodies. Says he, " There is an awful falling-
off on every hand." Upon Presbyterian authority he
learned that religion was at a low ebb among them.
The Baptists, he ascertained, were equally declining.
The Methodists were splitting, and falling to pieces. As
revival in any one evangelical body is sure to radiate its
warmth and to extend its re-animating power, so spiritual
deadness makes itself just as surely felt. This was a
great, perhaps the greatest, discouragement in the earlier
part of Bishop Madison's episcopate.
IV. Another and sadly discouraging part of the
Church history in this decade was the persistent and
finally successful attempt at spoiling the Church of her
property in the glebes. This was all that was left her
to aid in the maintenance of her impoverished Clergy,
and upon these possessions the eyes of her enemies
fastened with the unyielding determination to wrest
them from her. Whilst the contest between the Church
and her persecutors goes beyond this decade, it still
must be considered as part of the first ten years after
her re-organization. It is painful to know that Christian
bodies were the chief promoters of this great wrong,
and the employers of the specious, uncandid arguments
by which the spoliation was at last accomplished. I
speak of the arguments as specious and uncandid : so
they were. The technical point raised by the prose-
cutors, that exclusive rights and privileges could not be
conferred upon a Church, was abundantly met by the
reply, that no exclusive privilege had been conferred
upon this Church in allowing it merely to hold its own
property.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 69
The statement that most of the glebes were originally
purchased by " the people," and that they ought to be
disposed of according to the wishes of a majority of
" the people," was also abundantly met by the reminder
that many of the glebes were private donations, and
that " the people " whose taxes bought the others were
Episcopalians, as there were no other Church-people in
the Colony at that time. The controversy went over to
1802, when an Act was passed under which the glebes
were confiscated.
I must stop at this point to close the history of the
fii'st decade.
The depressions of the Church, by all that I have
mentioned, showed their effect in the decreasing attend-
ance upon the conventions. In 1795 we have no record
of any such meeting. Beaten against by all the assaults
upon her peace, the Church declined ; so that at the end
of ten years there was not enough of life or force to
bring her sons together.
It may be well to notice here, that there were, in
all, ten such omissions of the annual convention ; which
explains the fact, that, whilst this is our one-hundredth
anniversary, it is our ninetieth council.
Now I shall endeavor to group together the facts that
are embraced in the history from 1785 to 1814. In
1802 the Church spoliation was legalized. A remark-
able providence, in the death of Judge Pendleton of the
Supreme Court, whose voice would have been for us,
left that court divided w^ien the case was brought before
them on appeal. He died the night before the decision
was to be rendered, and the equal division of the court
70 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
allowed the Act of 1802 to stand. Says the record,
'• Under this Act, not only glebes, but churches, and
even communion plate, have been sold. The purchasers
of the glebes have, in every instance vs^here a sale was
made, paid almost nothing for them. After all that has
been done, how has the public been benefited, either in
a moral or a pecuniary way ] If it has been benefited,
let those who can, show it. It is denied that the public
has in any way derived the least benefit from the sale
of any of the glebes which have been sold. It is well
known that in some counties money has got into the
hands of some of the overseers of the poor, and there it
has remained."
Says Dr. Hawks in his history, " Nay, at this mo-
ment, should we ask where are the vessels which were
once consecrated to the service of Almighty God, to be
used in that holy sacrament which the Redeemer insti-
tuted for a perpetual memory, etc., what must be the
answer'? The sacred vessels of the temple have been
scattered ; they have passed, in some instances, into
impious hands. A reckless sensualist has administered
the morning dram to his guests from the silver cup
which has often contained the consecrated symbol of
his Saviour's blood. In another instance the entire set
of communion plate of one of the old churches went
into the hands of a non-Episcopal family."
The Convention agitated the question until 1805,
when it abandoned the cause as hopeless. Wrongs of
this kind were not contemplated by the law of 1802, but
they were the consequences of that law. It was during
Bishop Madison's episcopate that the Church, with the
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 71
aid of the very ablest counsel, was engaged in the fruit-
less effort to maintain her rights.
Of course, the effect of such a bitter contest upon the
spiritual condition of a Diocese would be very great.
The Church-members were angered by what seemed a
relentless persecution, and by a shameful yielding of
legislators to mere popular clamor. The re-action upon
themselves was lamentably, and is shown in the decline
of Church interest and religious affection, especially in
the failure of a number of conventions to meet in the
years intervening from 1798 to 1812.
How far the spkit of the Bishop himself was affected
by these adversities, does not appear from the record.
He must have felt them very oppressively ; but he seems,
however, to have been unwearied in exhortation to his
Clergy, and to the Diocese at large ; pleading for the
cultivation of holiness, of an unfeigned devotion to
the work that was upon them ; urging all to more
constant efforts for the Church of their affections.
As an illustration of the greatness of Bishop Madi-
son's desires for the good of all men, and of his large-
hearted catholicity, it will be proper to mention his in-
troduction to his convention of the idea of bringing about
an union of all Christian churches. His words I need
not quote : they will be found in his address to the Con-
vention of 1793. As he A^ery likely ascertained in ad-
vance that his Diocese regarded his hopes as altogether
beyond the possibility of realization, and that none of the
Christian bodies of the day were prepared to second his
opinions, he rested content with the mere publication of
his own thoughts, but suggested nothing in the way
of a matured plan.
72 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
In 1806 a convention was called to elect an assistant
to Bishop Madison, who felt the infirmities of age in-
creasing so as to render him unequal to the manifold
burdens of his office as he was then circumstanced.
His episcopal duties at that period of our history
were of necessity very arduous. The anxieties on ac-
count of his peculiar difficulties, his cares for his minis-
ters, and his distress at the decline of the Church,
greatly augmented this heavy pressure.
In addition to all these, he had charge of the interests
of William and Mary College. For these reasons he
asked the Diocese, poor as it was, to consider the weak-
ness of his failing body, and to elect a colleague to share
the duties of his office. If the Convention of 1806 met, it
left no record. It quite certainly never met. The Con-
vention of 1805, which appointed an election for 1806,
had only sixteen Clergy and twenty-three laymen. The
question of giving Bishop Madison an assistant was not
again considered. Indeed, so great was the decline of
the Church, that from 1806 to 1811 it seems that there
was no convention at all. These were emphatically the
dark days of Episcopacy in Vii'ginia. The Bishop was
gradually sinking in health, and he and his few Clergy
appear to have yielded almost to despair in reference to
bringing the Church up from the dust. In the year
1811 the General Convention in New Haven expressed
the fear that the Church in Virginia was gone.
Two months before the time for the Convention of
1812, Bishop Madison's death occurred. As is often
the case in affliction, this event seemed to act as an
emphatic call to the few resolute spirits who were left
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 73
in the Diocese ; and on the 13th of May in that year, a
special convention assembled in Richmond. They were
few in number : thh'teen Clergymen and twelve laymen
were all who were gotten together. It was a small
gathering, but it is not for God to work by many or by
few. The character rather than the numerical propor-
tions of an assembly gives presage of results. Quality,
not quantity, is the great desideratum in times of trial.
I have nothing to say as to the members, generally, of
the Convention of 1812 ; but in that little council there
was one young man whose name for the first time
appears in our journals. From the start, he gave proof
of the material of which he was made. The impression
of his simple, sturdy piety, his unselfish devotion, his
unfaltering courage, his unyielding determination, was
most decided. No wonder he went right to the front
as a prince and a leader in those difficult times ; for, if
ever a man was endowed with all the gifts to make him
pre-eminent as a hero in the cause of truth, that man
was William Meade.
The chief result of the Convention was the election
of the E,ev. John Bracken, D.D., to the episcopate.
Whether the choice was a suitable one or not, we are
at this date unable to say, as Dr. Bracken resigned at
the next convention (May, 1813) and gave the Church
no opportunity to judge him. The assembly this time
was smaller than it had been the year before, only eight
Clergy and nine laymen being present. Bishop Meade
says in 18ri5, " This convention adjourned, and its mem-
bers scarce expected ever again to meet for ecclesiastical
purposes." The feeling of utter despondency as to the
74 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
Church seems again to have asserted itself. No attempt
was made to elect a Bishop to take the place resigned
by Dr. Bracken. It looked as though the time for
surrender, complete and unconditional, had come.
But man's extremity is God's opportunity. This
feeble convention prepared the way for the gathering
next year, when, under the guidance of Divine Provi-
dence, a choice was made for Bishop in the person of
Dr. Richard Channing Moore. This started the Diocese
on a new career, which was the first step in the steady
onward march of success in which it has kept ever since.
This series of years, from 1785 to 1814, was an era
of strife, litigation, distress, and feebleness. In the
constant tight that was kept up for the plainest rights,
and the ceaseless wear and tear of effort to keep the
Church alive, what a weary life that of Bishop, Clergy,
and devoted laymen must have been !
In the series of years which will mark our third
epoch, beginning with 1814 and going on to 1829, we
find a history having something of the signs of cheer,
along with many accompaniments of hardship. There
were prejudices far and wide through the Common-
wealth, against us, and these had to be endured or over-
come. There were scattered communities longing for
the Church and her services, but too feeble to maintain
them. There was the call heard from almost every
part of the Diocese, for ministerial help, and there were
neither the men nor the money with which to respond.
There were great difficulties ; but, for all that, the Church
took a movement forward. A new interest was awak-
ened, new desires kindled ; so that it is not surprising
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 75
to us now, as we look back upon those days, and see the
tokens of cheer, to hear Bishop Moore say, in his first
address to his Convention, —
"In every parish which I have visited, I have discovered the
most animated wish in the people to repair the waste places of our
Zion, and to restore the Church of our fathers to its primitive purity
and excellence,
"I have found their minds alive to the truths of religion, and
have discovered an attachment to our excellent liturgy exceeding
m}' utmost expectations. I have witnessed a sensibility to Divine
things, bordering on the spirit of gospel times. I have seen con-
gregations, upon the mention of that glory which once irradiated
with its beams the Church of Virginia, burst into tears, and, by
their holy emotions, perfectly electrify my mind."
Where there is revival, we expect to see the signs
of returning power, of recuperating vigor and energy.
The old Diocese was not wanting in such evidences
of returning vigor as would justify the ardent hopes of
Bishop Moore. Touching upon the most important facts
in the years now under notice, we see especial proofs of
encouragement in the organizations that were invoked
to expedite the building-up of our Church. First, there
was in 1816 a Prayer-Book and Tract Society. It was
intended to be general at first, — a society under the
control of the Convention: next year, however, each
parish in the Diocese was urged to form auxiliaries, and
to have parish officers as patrons, friends, and helpers.
We have the accounts of it going on for some twenty
years, when it fell in with, and became part of, the
great missionary work of the Diocese. In the year
which tells of this society, we find Bishop Moore report-
ing seven hundred and thirty confirmations.
76 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
Another and far more important society organized in
these years was that which is known to us now as the
Virginia Education Society.
If it is true now, it would all the more certainly be
true when our Church was struggling as it did about
seventy years ago, that not many of those looking to
the ministry of the Gospel would be blessed with an
abundance of this world's goods. Nor was our Church
then so favored as to be able to help worthy and needy
candidates for Orders. The Diocese was poor, and was
begging for ministers. " In order to meet a twofold
necessity, it was recommended in 1818 that such of
the Clergy as are settled should receive young men
into their families for the purpose of assisting them
in their studies ; which young persons, when properly
qualified, may be licensed by the Bishop as lay readers,
by which means the Clergy would be occasionally enabled
to make excursions into distant and vacant parishes
without leaving their own charge entirely unprovided
for, and would have this further advantage, that these
students would join practice with theory."
Here was the germ of our Education Society. I call
it ours, and so it is. But it may seem strange to the
readers of our journals, that we nowhere find any men-
tion made of its organization in our proceedings. Allu-
sions to it are frequent, but no account is given as to
when or by whom this noble institution of our Diocese
was originated. We must go' outside of our official
records to learn what was the pressing necessity for
relief to the young men who were offering themselves
for God's work : and then, who were the Christian men
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 77
that proved themselves in such emergency as men of
God, who could teach Israel what to do. In the year
1818 (the same as that in which there was made to our
Convention the recommendation above referred to), there
was in the city of Washington a gathering of Clergymen
and laymen to take part in the laying of a corner-stone
of a church. Upon that occasion, and by the brethren
there assembled, the Education Society was formed. It
was then, as we perceive, in its beginning, not purely
and entu'ely a Virginia society ; still its organization
looked to action more especially in Virginia, and subse-
quent events caused this Diocese to be altogether the
field of its operations. Its work centred here, and
hence it became ex necessitate the Virginia Education
Society. The testimony given to this society as far
back as 1836 was, that it never failed to aiford assist-
ance to every properly qualified applicant, and has
aided more than one-tenth of all the Clergy in this
country. In supporting students, it helped to support
the seminary. " For many years," says Dr. Packard,
"it supported not only its beneficiaries, but, in a great
measure, our professors. It is still doing a noble and
greatly enlarged work."
It would seem perfectly natural just here to speak of
our seminary, the most valuable of all our institutions,
and the one with which the Education Society was and
yet is especially connected.
It comes within the period that we are now consider-
ing, and will claim attention. But there is another part
of the history of these years which comes in for prior
notice, according to the record in our journals. It is
78 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
a record which shows a growth, not of numbers or of
resources, but of character ; which evinces a regard for
purity, rather than for mere potency. It is a fact well
known to every student, and to every observer of the
conduct of religious bodies, that they are often inclined
to yield to the temptation to aggrandize themselves nu-
merically at the expense of principle. There has been
in all the ages a disposition to lower the fence so that
outsiders may easily get in, and then an over-readiness
to keep them in when they ought to be excluded. It
is probable that there was, for various reasons, a relaxa-
tion of discipline in the years subsequent to the Revolu-
tion, which was likely to end in the removal of all
marks of distinction between the kingdom of this world
and the kingdom of Christ. It was in the year 1818
— the same year that saw the birth of the Education
Society — that we can see an awakening in our Diocese
as to the perils of worldliness, and the duty of Christians
to take and to hold the position which should be held
by God's peculiar people. It was an awakening which
showed the courage, the earnestness, and all the energy
of true revival. The Convention adopted a resolution
which spoke in trumpet tones against the vices of the
times, — horse-racing, gaming, public balls, and theatres.
It condemned these as having the effect of staining the
purity of Christian character, of giving offence to our
pious Christian brethren, and of endangering our own
salvation by rushing voluntarily into those temptations
against which we implore the protection of our heavenly
Father.
We can judge what must have been the spirit of that
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 79
Convention, by reading the ineffectual efforts made by
parliamentary tactics to stave off any action upon this
subject, and also by reading the long substitute prepared
by a distinguished layman, in which the topics were
plainly argued, but argued to no purpose, from a stand-
point of compromise. The resolution uttering the voice
of the Diocese, solemnly pleading against these modes
of worldly conformity, was adopted, and stands as our
Church record in those days. The mind of the Diocese
was more solemnly expressed upon this subject by the
adoption of the nineteenth canon in 1850. At the
same time in this series of years that the voice of Clergy
and laity was uplifted to make confession of Christ
something more than a mere profession, there was a
resolution adopted looking to a more aggressive policy
upon the part of the Diocese to make its religious power
felt. It is only one of the many evidences in Christian
history, that, if we purify character, we magnify our
efforts ; the more we reach after the spirit of Christ,
the more we will imitate the works of Christ. The
proposition, as it came before the Convention of 1819,
was a very simple, very crude attempt to organize for
mission-work in the Diocese. It was a scheme quite
sure to be impracticable, as it made no centre of mission
effort as we now have, but merely called upon each
congregation to form societies. Still it shows how the
heart of the Diocese was beating. Thank God for any
endeavor, rather than total inaction and indifference !
It struck the keynote of concern for our feeble churches,
for our places that were desolate and out of the way,
and led gradually on to the organization of our Diocesan
80 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
Missionary Society, which will directly come before us
for a more particular notice.
Simply in the observance of chronological order, I
must recite here the steps which led to the establishment
of our Theological Seminary. As the Diocese under the
episcopate of Bishop Moore continued to realize the
fulfilment of the glowing prophecies to which from time
to time that venerable father in God gave utterance, as
the demand for pastors continued to increase, there
seemed to be a growing sentiment in the Diocese favor-
ing the establishment of a divinity school, to be our
own, under our own auspices, and intended especially
to supply our own pressing needs. In May, 1820, the
Convention adopted resolutions expressing its sense of
the importance of a pious and well-educated ministry,
also favoring most earnestly the prospect of having a
professor of William and Mary College employed for
such a purpose. The resolutions further announced the
gratifying assurance that liberal offers of assistance had
been made to students of all denominations who would
seek their care.
Next year the Committee on the State of the Church
formally recommended the establishment of a theologi-
cal school at Williamsburgh. They further nominated
a board of trustees ; recommended that correspondence
be opened with the standing committees of the Dioceses
of Maryland and North Carolina, to ascertain whether
these Dioceses would not co-operate in the important
measure thus projected ; and also proposed to appoint
Mr. John Nelson, jun., to solicit subscriptions throughout
the Diocese. These recommendations were all adopted ;
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 81
and, whilst that with reference to seeking the co-opera-
tion of the adjoining Dioceses was acted upon, the result
was, that the next year, 1822, the Convention adopted a
constitution for the seminary, which after due considera-
tion and amendment was named " The Constitution of
the Theological School of the Diocese of Virginia."
Thus our school of the prophets was as an institution
formally established, and, by the election of Dr. Keith
as instructor, made part of our diocesan machinery. Ap-
pointments made in connection with our present council
render it altogether unnecessary for me to give any pro-
tracted account of our seminary. I merely state, there-
fore, that it was in 1824 removed from WiUiamsburgh to
Alexandria, in 1827 from Alexandria to its present
location. It has gone on .prospering in its gain of
friends, in its gathering of funds, and in training and
equipping young men for the Gospel ministry. It has
been at times straitened for means, but never has it
become so much so as to be seriously threatened with
embarrassment. At times it suffered losses of funds
that were left to it in wills, because of not being incor-
porated. This continued up to the year 1845, when it
received a charter under an Act incorporating the trus-
tees of the Theological Seminary of Virginia and of the
High School.
It is sad to think, where departed friends manifestly
wished to help on such a work of God, that any sur-
vivors would avail themselves of technicalities to keep
God's work from that which was bequeathed. Yet our
seminary was made to suffer often from this cause. A
charter was the great thing needed to protect it. Here.
82 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
too, is another unpleasant part of our history. Any one
in these days would think that Protestants of any and
every name would have been glad to see the protection
of the law thrown around our seminary. Certainly no
one would be likely to imagine that Christians would
deske to see any thing done or omitted that would give
trouble to our Church school ; much less would we expect
to see any Christians take an interest in contributing, by
then- influence and by their speech, to oui- Church's detri-
ment. It is a fact, however, that when Bishop Meade,
with his friends, tried hard and tried repeatedly to have
something done by the State Legislature to save us from
losses, the effort was met and thwarted chiefly by a promi-
nent divine of a Christian denomination. This had to
be endured until 1854, when the Legislature gave the
seminary and high school their charter.
These statements bring us down to years that are be-
yond that to which I pointed as the limit of the series
now considered ; but it will be easy for us now to return
to that time, whereas it could not be easy to disconnect
the seminary's history in 1825 from that of thirty years
later. In order to insure his support. Bishop Moore
had charge of the Monumental Church ; and in 1824
asked for a parochial assistant, in order that he might
give more time to visiting destitute parts of the Diocese.
The Church in Virginia, he felt assured, would find many
who would gladly contribute to a fund for such a pur-
pose ; one-half of the expense he agreed to pay himself.
In 1828 he felt more his need of help, and, calling
attention to his age and infirmities, asked the Diocese to
allow him the more important aid that would be given by
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 83
an Assistant Bishop. He said, " It is my desire that a
Bishop should be appointed during my Hfe ; and, as such
an appointment can now be made with perfect unanimity,
it is expedient it should be done. It will give me pleas-
ure to unite in labor with the man of your choice. It
will render me happy in the hour of my departure, to
know the individual to whom I am to resign the arduous
duties of the episcopate, to whose care this peaceful,
quiet Diocese shall be committed."
Next year, 1829, his request was granted; and the
Convention with remarkable accord elected the K,ev.
William Meade, D.D., as the Assistant Bishop.
The action taken by the Convention in connection with
the election of Bishop Meade was so important, and dis-
similar from any thing done at any other such election in
this or (as far as I know) in any other Diocese, that I
quote the full text of the resolution : —
Resolved^ That this Convention deem it expedient, considering
ttie age and bodily infirmitj' of our most venerated Bishop, to pro-
ceed to the election of an Assistant Bishop, who is not to be consid-
ered as entitled to the succession, but that it shall be the right and
duty of the Convention of the Diocese of Virginia, on the demise
of our venerated Bishop, to proceed to the election of a principal
Bishop as a successor to the said deceased Bishop.
Subsequent action upon this subject was taken in
1830 ; and I will refer to that, though I must now com-
plete the survey of the period which ends with the year
1829 by a reference to that important event, the organi-
zation of our Diocesan Missionary Society. Looking
at the journals up to 1829, we find in almost every case
the Lay delegates outnumbering the Clergy. There
84 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
were more parishes thau rectors. Besides the parishes
thus unsupplied, there were the waste places, where the
privilege of worship was ardently craved, but the sound
of worship seldom heard. Besides localities which were
destitute of parish organization, there were parishes hav-
ing the form of life, but life too feeble to exert itself.
These mission-fields were an occasion of sore anxiety.
How could they be helped ? In the poverty that was
upon the Diocese, what plan could be matured by which
the slender resources of the Church could , be made
available ? In 1805 it was proposed that suitable men
should be selected by the Bishop and the Standing Com-
mittee, and that circular-letters be sent to these fields to
provide for the travelling expenses of ministers, who
would thus be enabled to reach them, and take to them
the services of the Church.
In 1813 action almost exactly the same was taken.
In 1819 the parishes were exhorted to form missionary
societies. In 1827 the Convention requested the Bishop
to lay off the Diocese into districts, and to assign to
each district two or more ministers, whose duty it should
be to meet in association at their appointed places twice
in the year for the purpose of preaching and adminis-
tering the ordinances of the Church to the people.
All these plans show the necessities of the Church ;
they show the spirit of eager desire to relieve the neces-
sities : at the same time, the changes of policy show that
none as yet adopted would suit the emergencies. The
Diocesan Missionary Society, with a central organization
radiating its influence to every part of the Diocese,
seemed to be what was required ; and from that time to
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 85
the present it has been the missionary agency, and has
controlled the missionary work.
The name at first was " The Protestant Episcopal
Missionary Society of the Diocese of Virginia." In
1839 its name was changed to the " Protestant Episco-
pal Association for the Promotion of Christianity in
Virginia ; " and by that title it was known until 1843,
when it was called, as it is to-day, " The Diocesan Mis-
sionary Society." In 1844 it was charged with the duty
of supplying missionaries with tracts and religious
books. Taking now another series of years, beginnmg
with 1830 and ending with 1842, we notice a gratifying
progress under the joint supervision of Bishops Moore
and Meade. The Convention of 1829, as already men-
tioned, annexed a restriction to the election of Bishop
Meade, whereby he would not be the successor of
Bishop Moore to the bishopric of the Diocese unless ap-
pointed thereto by the Convention. This action led to
some hesitancy on the part of the General Convention in
approving the election of Bishop Meade. The election
was, however, finally ratified under protest. The House
of Bishops expressed their disapproval of the restrictive
clause ; but as it was a new case, and as it was their
belief beyond all doubt that Bishop Meade would be
the successor of Bishop Moore, they would interpose no
bar to his consecration. They uttered their determina-
tion, however, not to countenance any similar proceed-
ing ; and, to give further expression to their views, the
General Convention adopted a canon giving the succes-
sion in all cases to the Assistant upon the death of the
Diocesan.
,86 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
In consequence of this action by the General Conven-
tion, our Diocesan Convention in 1830 removed the re-
striction in the case of Bishop Meade. The Diocesan
Missionary Society reported its collections for the year
to be $324.72, but had no missionary employed, as none
could be found. Their first missionary was reported
in 1831. It was the Rev. Mark L. Chevers, who was
employed to officiate a part of his time in the counties
of York, Warwick, and Elizabeth City. The same year
there were reported to the Convention one hundred
organized churches and less than fifty Clergy. Interest
in this work has, under God, steadily advanced, and
especially in the last ten years. Churches that gathered
Sunday after Sunday large congregations and flourish-
ing schools were fostered by it. The contributions and
the number of missionaries have increased so as to
demonstrate the wisdom as well as the necessity of such
an agency. This year it has helped forty-five mission-
aries, and has received the largest amount of offerings
ever sent in any year into its treasury.
It will interest any one to read in detail the action
by different conventions respecting the peculiar trials
of those times in the way of prevalent usages. They
seemed, at least, to consider those trials peculiar ; but
there is no new thing under the sun. The human na-
ture of Virginians of fifty years ago was just what it is
now. Perhaps if those venerable Fathers could look into
our town and country congregations now, if they could
know, as ministers do at present, the prevalence of
drinking-usages with communicants, they would ima-
gine, perhaps, that they had done their work in behalf
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 87
of temperance rather mildly, as it had only seemed to
bequeath an aggravation to the ills of the Church of
the present day. If they could look into those same
communities on Sunday, and see the sparse congrega-
tions at the second service, because the people need
rest and the recreation of visiting, or if they could see
the crowded trains and steamers going off on cheap
excursions, and communicants helping to enlarge the
throngs, perhaps they would feel it to be incumbent to
publish even more solemn and searching manifestos
than were issued by them in 1832 and in 1837.
The first notice we have of our diocesan paper, the
" Southern Churchman," founded by Rev. William Lee,
was in 1835, when it was commended to the Diocese.
It went through various experiences until it was taken
in hand by its present editor in 1854, and was by him
made a success. In 1839 the Church in this country
and Europe was agitated by what is known as the
" controversy on the Oxford tracts." Our Convention,
through its Bishop and its Committee on the State of
the Church, spoke in plain words upon the important
doctrines involved, and asserted the utter hostility of the
Church in her standards to the sentiments of the tracts.
Some of Bishop Moore's words in 1839 might well be
republished as if intended for this generation. As a
specimen, I quote the following : —
" Many subjects present themselves towards which I might be
tempted to direct 3-our thoughts. One more especially concerns the
Church at present, because it is dail}' assuming a more serious and
alarming aspect, and threatens a revival of the worst evils of the
Romish S3'stem. Under the specious pretence of deference to an-
88 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
tiquit}", and respect for primitive models, the foundations of our
Protestant Church are undermined by men who dwell within her
walls ; and those who sit in the Reformers' seats are traducing the
Eeformers. It is under the banner of the Redeemer that we have
enlisted. It is under his banner that we have succeeded in our
ministr}^, and that our labors have been blessed. It is by preach-
ing the doctrines of the cross that the Church in Virginia has been .
resuscitated, and that it now holds a conspicuous place in our com-
munion. But should the awful period ever arrive when we should
be reserved on the doctrine of the atonement, or teach poor,
fallen man to trust to his own merits for salvation, the blessing of
Almighty God would be withdrawn from us ; ' Ichabod ' would be
written on the doors of our sacred temples, and we should be left
to grope our way in midnight darkness. Be steadfast, then, my
beloved brethren, I beseech you, in the discharge of your duties.
Suffer not your minds to be influenced by any novel doctrines which
may be presented to j'our view by restless and speculative men.
Be immovable, ' alwa^'s abounding in the work of the Lord, foras-
much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.' "
The Committee on the State of the Church said, " We
deem well-timed the effort made by our Bishop in his
address, to place the members of our Church on their
guard against the influence of error. To ' resist the
fii'st beginnings of evil,' to espy temptations at a dis-
tance in order the better to guard against them, and
give warning of approaching danger, are common duties
of God's ministers and people. And he knows little of
the weakness and depravity of our nature who thinks
either that the orthodoxy of all the members of our
Church is -proof against heresy, or that the holy wisdom
of our people is superior to all the wiles of the arch-
adversary."
On the 11th of March, 1841, the venerable Bishop
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 89
Moore entered into his rest. It would be an affecting
chapter of the history which tells of the trials of Bishop
Meade, if I could stop here to speak as my heart urges
me of this beloved and devoted Father in God. His
memory will find its place in the proceedings of this
Council, and so I will adhere as closely as possible to
the record of such facts as it is my duty to present.
This, however, must be said : his relation to his Dio-
cese, and especially to his Clergy, was paternal in its
truest, tenderest sense. What a joy it was to his heart
to go about in his loving way amongst the churches, and
to gather his brethren around him at the close of each
convention to speak to them his words of wisdom, and
to give them his affectionate benediction ! Thank God !
he lived to see the work of the Lord prosper in his
hands ; and he could witness the ample response to
his prayer, that one eminently fitted would be chosen
to tread in his steps, and to accomplish his plans. The
strength of Bishop Meade failed very much this year ;
and in 1842, at his request for an Assistant Bishop, the
Rev. John Johns, D.D., was elected to that office. It
was thought by some who were at the Convention, that
a surer and more permanent relief would be afforded
Bishop Meade if the Diocese should be divided, rather
than an Assistant elected. The two questions thus pre-
sented appear to have had very careful consideration,
and the Convention at last came to the conclusion that
it was inexpedient to attempt a division. One of the
reasons for their action was the difficulty of fixing upon
a line of division which would leave in each of the two
Dioceses the requisite number of self-supporting parishes.
90 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
The canonical requirements in those days were very
different from what they are now as to the number of
parishes and Clergy required in a new Diocese. The
division was also declared inexpedient because of the
difficulty which would be inevitable in making a proper
and equitable division of the funds of the Diocese, and
because every effort should be made to keep together a
Diocese whose influence upon all our people had been
so salutary, and so potent in binding together all the
parts of the State. The report embodying these views
appears to have had no appreciable opposition when the
vote was taken. Bishop Johns was chosen by a large
majority, and shared the work of the Diocese with his
Diocesan until Bishop Meade ended his days. The Con-
vention of 1842 adopted the resolution which provided
for episcopal support by the assessment upon the par-
ishes at the rate of one dollar for each communicant.
In 1845 there was made an eff"ort, and a successful
one, to revive the High School. It had suffered misfor-
tune, — had for a time been closed, — when it was re-
opened by the Eev. Dr. Dalrymple, who made it what
the school in Staunton is for the girls of our Church
families.
There are two other movements in the Church under
the episcopate of Bishop Meade, which deserve grateful
notice and remembrance. One is the plan to make
some provision for the disabled Clergy of our Diocese.
The journals of the present day can tell what success
has attended the eff"ort begun in 1853 to insure material
help for those faithful men who had spent their strength,
and some of whom had spent their substance, in trying
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 91
to build up the Church. Whilst the appropriations
made are not in such measure as our affection for them
would prompt, we may be grateful that they are not
left in the time of age or infirmity without some token
of tender regard from their Diocese.
Another movement was the society to make provision
for the widows and orphans of the deceased Clergy.
"We see from time to time in our journals prior to 1858,
reports made from this society. In fact, as far back as
1792 there are statements in the records which go to
show, that, even in those days of distress and adversity,
the Diocese was concerned to make provision for the
widows and orphans of the Clergy. It was reserved,
however, for the late Rev. John Grammer, D.D., of
Halifax Court-house, — a minister known to many still
in our councils, — to mature a plan which gave promise
of a permanent society and of a reliable treasury. The
society was organized in the year 1838, and in the results
which followed gave evidence of the marvellous sagacity
of its organizer. At the end of twenty years, in 1858,
at the convention in the town of AVinchester, the society,
after a full investigation of its affairs, found itself called
upon to disband just because of its overrunning pros-
perity. Never, perhaps, had money gathered in small
contributions increased as had done the annual payments
of Clergy to this fund. The society found itself in 1858
without the prospect of a beneficiary, and with so much
capital that it could return to the Clergy every dollar
they had paid from the beginning of their membership,
could give them compound interest upon the same for
all that time, and then could die, bequeathing to the
92 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
Diocese the handsome legacy of thirty-two thousand dol-
lars, to be held as a fund sacred to similar purposes for
the widows and orphans of any of our Clergy who might
afterward be taken from their families. The interest
from as much of that fund as was not lost in the war
is still disbursed annually. It now amounts to about
twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1860 was the last con-
vention prior to the calamitous war between the States.
It reported a larger amount than had ever been raised in
the Diocese. It arranged for evangelistic work which
had been tried the year before with signal encourage-
ment. It also initiated carefully elaborated plans for work
with the colored people, — work which was not broken
up, but was, of course, greatly interfered with, by the hos-
tilities which began about one year from the time that
the Convention took its action. The clash of arms had
really begun before the Convention of 1861 assembled
in Richmond. The convention sermon was preached by
Bishop Meade. It was the last time he appeared before
us as a convention. The proceedings were decidedly
tinged by the strong current of feeling which the war had
set in motion. The Convention arranged with its sisters
of the South for a council of the Dioceses in the Con-
federate States. The name "Convention" was dropped,
and that of " Council " taken. A General Council was
formed, and Virginia remained in this with the Southern
churches, until, by the occurrences of 1865 and 1866,
the General Council was dissolved. When she renewed
her connection with the General Convention of the
Church in the United States, Bishop Meade was taken
to his rest after a short illness in this city, to which he
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 93
had come in March, 1862, to take part in the conse-
cration of Dr. R. H. Wilmer as Bishop of Alabama.
Having been, under God, privileged to be with him
during the last thirty-six hours of his stay upon earth, I
would fain speak of the solemnities of the closing hours
of this man of God. But that work has been committed
to another ; and so I conclude the duty assigned to me
by asking you to stand for a moment at the end of this
history, and see what, under God, he was permitted to
accomplish. He began his ministry when the Church
in Virginia was at its lowest ebb, — so low that the
General Convention made a record to the effect that its
restoration might be considered hopeless. Against the
protests of friends who thought it a real sacrifice that
such talents as his should be given to the Church, he
entered the ministry. Against their more earnest pro-
tests that he should not go into the Episcopal Church,
and become identified with what they declared emphati-
cally was a lost cause, he entered our ministry.
When we remember how he toiled, how he denied
himself, how long he had to wait, and then what the
Church in Virginia was before he left us, we thank God
that the dear Bishop's own eyes were permitted to see
the glorious triumph. In a sermon upon the occasion
of the Bishop's death. Dr. Sparrow eloquently recites
the points here touched upon, and adds, —
" And he had his reward : he lived to see the Church in Virginia
in gi'eat prosperit3\ Never was it so prosperous as at the beginning
of our national troubles. The Bishop then saw around him a body
of Clergy surpassed hy none for efficiency and faithfulness. He saw
the congregations committed to their care increasing yearly in all
94 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
the fruits of the Spirit. Missionary zeal was spreading on every
hand, and substantial aid more and more afforded to the cause.
Neither foreign, domestic, nor diocesan missions were overlooked.
The Education Society, for the aid of 3'oung men preparing for the
ministry-, was deriving an adequate support from Virginia alone,
though helping 3'oung men from all the States ; educational insti-
tutions for both sexes in connection with the Church were prosper-
ing ; and the Theological Seminarj- was far better provided with
everj' species of accommodation, and better filled with students, than
it had ever been before. In the progress of things toward this point
of prosperity, it should also be mentioned, there had been very little
fluctuation and no ' backsets.' Owing to the consummate prudence
of him who took a leading part in all these matters, the progress of
the Diocese had been as continuous and unbroken as the advance
of the dawn to the broad daylight."
We may truly add, he left a Diocese loyal to the truth
as our standards set it forth, loyal to all the requirements
of the Church.
I feel it to be a simple yet bounden obligation, as the
author of this narrative, to put this statement upon record.
So many and so absurd have been the accusations that
have been bruited about for years as to the irregularities
in this Diocese, that my account would be unfair and
incomplete if this part of it should be suppressed. Our
Missionary Bishops in the wide West, or some of them
at least, tell their Clergy to remember that the Prayer-
Book was made for man, and not man for the Prayer-
Book. They urge them to speak the truth boldly and
in love as they have opportunity ; to go on in the way of
common sense, and not to let themselves or the word of
God be bound by impossibilities in the matter of our full
liturgical worship. When we remember that almost all
of Virginia was missionary ground for many years after
IIISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 95
1785, it would be strange if our Clergy could always find
themselves able to preach the Gospel along with the
enjoyment of our service in its integrity. But, despite
all their disadvantages, they adhered to that ritual with a
fidelity that deserved what was said of them sixty years
ago. It was in the Convention of 1825. Bishop Moore
had urged the great excellences of the liturgy ; and, fear-
ing that the charges against his Diocese which had been
scattered broadcast might have some foundation, he
affectionately addressed his brethren upon the subject.
The Committee on the State of the Church, whilst in-
dorsing all his eulogium, and seconding his fervent appeal
for a close adherence to the prescribed order, said, •' At
the same time, the Convention feels bound, in duty to
the Church in Virginia, to state that but few instances of
departure have occurred, and also that there is a growing
attachment to the services of the Church throughout the
Diocese."
In closing this necessarily hasty survey of the labors,
the trials, and the successes of Bishops Madison, Moore,
and Meade, let us chronicle this as the greatest of their
successes, that they built up, under God, a Church loyal
to the Gospel of Christ, loyal to the Prayer-Book, — a
Protestant Episcopal Church. And, with a very slight
change in words, let us believe with the venerable senior
professor of our seminary in his address at the semi-
centennial —
" Should the time ever come when another spirit than that of
Bishop Meade shall be the spirit of this Diocese, when another gos-
pel shall be preached here and another theology taught hdre, when,
though the symbols of the Divine Presence are here, that Presence
96 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN VIRGINIA.
itself shall be withdrawn, . . , then shall voices be heard, as when
Jerusalem was destro^'ed, saying sorrowfuU}', 'Let us depart
hence ; ' and the fingers of a man's hand shall come forth, and write
upon our pulpits, ' The glory is departed.' "
But without any such foreboding, and indulging in
no vain spirit of prophecy, I would rather close here
with the words of Bishop Madison in 1791, — words in
such exact sympathy with the opening sermon of this
Council : —
"My brethren, vain will be our endeavors for the prosperity of
our Zion, unless they be attended with fervent prayers that God
will graciously enable us to perform our duty with zeal, fidelity,
and success. Our sufficiency is of God : to Him let us look with
our united supplications, that He will look down from heaven, and
behold and visit this vine and the vineyard which His right hand
hath planted ; that He will shed the dew of His blessing upon the
labors of His servants here assembled ; that He will prosper the
ministry in their endeavors to revive a just sense of true religion ;
that He will dispose the hearts of the people to receive the Word ;
and that the fruits of righteousness may abound more and more in
every member of this Church, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Amen."
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OE YIEGINIA.
BY RT. REV. GEORGE W. PETERKIN, D.D.
I AM to speak a few words to-night in the interests of
the Virginia Seminary.
The history of that seminary in its general outUnes,
and the work in its main features, are so well known,
that, even if no one else were to speak on the subject,
I need not go into many of those details which in them-
selves would be interesting and important. It is only
about twelve years since the alumni and friends of the
seminary met to celebrate its semi-centennial, and I
doubt not but that the remembrance of that occasion
is still fresh in the minds of many who are here to-night.
The addresses of Bishops Johns and Lee, and of Drs.
Packard, Andrews, Tyng, Slaughter, and Dalrymple,
made on that occasion, have been pjreserved in suitable
form, and furnish to-day a rich storehouse of material
for him who would make himself familiar with the
history and work of the seminary.
We learn from those published addresses, that to the
Diocese of Virginia belongs the credit of being the first
in this country to take steps to provide for the education
of its candidates for Orders.
This was in 1813 ; and the movement culminated ten
98 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
years later, when, Oct. 15, 1823, the Theological Semi-
nary of Virginia was formally opened.
Associated with its early history are the names of
Wilmer, Norris, Addison, Mcllvaine, Hawley, Allen,
Meade, Lemmon, Johns, Henshaw, Tyng, Mann, Mc-
Guire, — names that are not born to die.
We may say, in general terms, that the history of the
seminary runs parallel with that of the history of the
Diocese, or at least of the revival of the Church in
Virginia. There is between the two not only a coinci-
dence in time, but a close and vital connection. The
same illustrious men conceived and carried on both
works, and with a like spirit and devotion ; and we to-
day enjoy the fruits of their manifold labors.
To what extent the founders of the seminary realized
what was to be its influence upon the character and
progress of our Church in Virginia, we may not certainly
tell ; but, with the records of the past sixty years before
us, we can see how great that influence has been in
both respects. It has been great not only in extending
the Church by furnishing the men to carry her standards
everywhere forward, but great also in determining the
spirit and character of the Church when it was extended.
The seminary has been chiefly remarkable for its
general prevailing religious atmosphere. This atmos-
phere has not been literary or philosophic or scien-
tific, but distinctively religious. The spirit of zeal for
Christ and the Church has been dominant through all
the period of its history.
To state this a little more explicitly, the seminary has
been remarkable for —
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 99
I, Its evangelical character. I use the word in a
natural, not in a narrow or partisan, sense.
I mean by it, that we have always repudiated the
sacerdotal theory of the ministry ; that we have not
ventured or desired to urge exclusive claims for our
Church, or taught that the validity of the sacraments
was dependent on an unbroken tactual succession.
I mean by this word to convey the idea that Dr.
Packard has expressed when he says, substantially, that
the doctrine of a complete justification by the sole merits
and death of our Saviour Jesus Christ has always held
such a high, central, chief, and controlling place in our
system, that, like the sun in the zenith, nothing is hid
from the heat thereof.
I mean by it, that, while we desire to feel all the
inspiration that ought to come to us from the life and
example of our Saviour Jesus Christ, yet that we still
chiefly glory in His cross ; not as the witness of a
martyr to the truth, not as an example of sublime
self-sacrifice, but rather as the full, perfect, and suffi-
cient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of
the whole world.
We have always believed and taught at the Virginia
Seminary, that the gospel which St. Paul and the other
apostles preached is just what the world needs to-day ;
and so we are still satisfied to hold fast by this, although
it be to the objectors of our day, as it was to the Jews
and Greeks of old, — a stumbling-block and foolish-
ness.
This is our idea of ministering the truth as this
Church hath received it; of settini? forth the distinctive
100 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
features of this grand old historic Church ; of contend-
ing for the faith once delivered.
II. This seminary has also been remarkable for its
missionary spirit ; and this missionary spirit has grown,
I believe, out of its evangelical character. The two
things go together as cause and effect.
I suppose that every seminary has its missionary soci-
ety, and, however it may have been some years ago, yet
that now, at least, others besides our own have their
representatives in the foreign fields of the Church ; but
I have never heard of any but the Alexandria seminary
in which this missionary spirit was so distinctive a mark.
With the faculty meetings, it is to be taken as one of
those things that have helped to create the atmosphere
of the institution. No one could fail to feel the influ-
ence in some way.
About forty men have gone forth from the seminary
into the foreign fields of the Church. We cherish their
memory with peculiar pride ; and, while we point to
their names on our rolls, we pray that we too may not
forget that the field is the world.
III. Again, the seminary has been remarkable for its
steady conservatism.
Amid the many novelties which have so much dis-
turbed the peace of the Church, we of the Virginia
Seminary have been asking for the old paths, and walk-
ing in them ; and we have done so on principle, and
as a matter of choice.
It matters not if some have called us slow ; it matters
not if some have suggested doubt as to our attachment
and loyalty to our Church, — I say it matters not : for.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 101
in the result, " Wisdom is justified of all her children ;"
and so the events of a few years back showed before all
the world how true and loyal were the hearts of our
Church-people in Virginia.
The men of the seminary were not to be driven away
or enticed from the Church in which they had been
born and nurtured. With unswerving devotion they
stood, and still stand, in the lot where God's providence
has placed them, and have, I believe, done a work which
is beyond all estimate in influencing the whole Church
against extremes either on the right hand or on the
left.
The history and work of the seminary has been along
the lines indicated, and, fairly to state the case, presents
its strongest claim upon our continued confidence and
support.
I speak with all the greater freedom, because we of
West Virginia claim our heritage in the seminary as in
the Diocese. Your past is ours also, full of the same
associations, hallowed by the same experiences, and
adorned with the same illustrious names. Yes, your
past is ours also, and we can look back upon it with
equal pride to-day; and we are encouraged for all that
is before us, because we feel that the past, at least, is
secure.
We have come here to take part in all the exercises
connected with this centennial observance : so we would
erect a memorial here in your very midst, to testify that
we also who live beyond the distant hills are not of
another people or another faith ; but that, as we have
been, so we would be, one with you in the life-work of
our common Church.
102 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
Now, then, the practical bearing of all this that I have
said about the seminary lies in this simple application
of it : that in the future, as in the past, as is the semi-
nary so is the Diocese, or, rather, let me say the two
Virginia Dioceses.
The histories will continue to run parallel ; you could
not separate or disconnect them, even if you would.
Certainly, then, those who had charge of the exercises
connected with the centennial of the Diocese did well
to provide for special mention of the seminary, its history
and work. It could not have been ignored at a time like
this. It has been too important a factor in the life of
our Church in the Old Dominion, and we look for con-
tinued usefulness for it in the years that are to come.
I must ask your indulgence if I add here what was,
perhaps, not at all expected of me, yet what seems to
me to have a very close connection with the whole
subject.
I want to remind you of this : that, in many ways,
what the seminary is to the Diocese, that the Education
Society is to the seminaiy ; not formally or necessarily
a part of it, yet so ministering to it, and co-operating
with it in all its work, that you can hardly speak of the
one without thinking of the other.
The Education Society of Virginia is one of the
instruments — would it be too much to say the chief
instrument I — by which the seminary has been able to
do its work. In all that has been done m the Diocese
of Virginia for the last fifty or sixty years, these things
have stood together, and mutually supported and
strengthened one another.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 103
During all these years the history and work of the
seminary and the Education Society have been so woven
together, that, in telling the story of either, you tell the
story of both. The same illustrious men have carried
on both these institutions, with a like spuit and suc-
cess.
In the objections you sometimes hear raised against
both seminaries and education societies, I think that
people forget ju«t the place they occupy among the
working-forces of the Church. It must be remembered
that they are auxiliary to the regular Church machinery ;
not controlling, but being controlled.
They can of themselves do nothing, having no author-
ity to commission and send forth ministers. The re-
sponsibility of deciding upon the qualifications of
candidates for Orders, and of admitting them into the
ministry, does not rest upon seminaries and education
societies, but rather with the vestries and standing com-
mittees, with the Chaplains and the Bishops.
The ultimate responsibility lies with these ; and, if
mistakes are sometimes made, they must bear the blame.
While, then, the administrators of the seminary and
Education Society ought to remember what an influence
rightly attaches to their recommendation, and should
exercise a most scrupulous care, yet let not others shift
upon them a responsibility not properly theirs.
In the last fifty years there have been about five
hundred Clergy laboring from time to time in Virginia.
It would be interesting to know how many of them
came from our seminary. At all events, this we can
say : that, out of upwards of a hundred and fifty now
104 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
belonging to the Diocese, more than a hundred and
twenty came from the seminary ; and that, of the thirty-
nine who have been connected with West Vii'ginia since
its separate organization, more than two-thirds were
educated at this same school of the prophets. Further,
of the thu*ty-six hundred and forty-five Clergy in our
whole Church in the United States, upwards of six
hundred and twenty are from our seminary.
These men have made a noble record at home and
abroad, in every position of responsibility and trust.
They are Bishops in the Church in domestic and for-
eign fields, professors in our seminary, parish ministers
in town and country and in the isles of the sea.
In the work they have done and are doing, they
speak for their alma mater. To be ignorant of this
work, is not to know its history of the past fifty years
or of the present times. I shall not attempt to eulo-
gize men who need no eulogy beyon.d theii* record,
known and read of all men.
We are here to-day to strengthen each other's hands
in the work which God has given us to do, and to renew
our devotion to those principles which have ever guided
the seminary, and to that spirit which has always ani-
mated it in the past. In ourselves we may be nothing,
but we believe that the work we do for Christ and the
Church shall live after us. And so, while Paul plants
and Apollos waters, we will pray God to give the
increase.
Twelve years ago, on the occasion of the semi-cen-
tennial already alluded to, Dr. Packard used words I
desire to repeat and emphasize to-day. He said, " Let
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 105
this great era in our seminary life be not only an occa-
sion for reviewing the past, but a starting-point for a
new era of greater progress."
And although the income which he then stated as
about seven thousand dollars has been increased to
about twelve thousand dollars, still we say to-day, as he
said twelve years ago, that we need to have our endow-
ment increased, for it is not equal to our pressing needs.
And yet more emphatically may we say to-day, since
we have increased the number of our alumni by at
least twelve classes, that now is the time to do this work,
as the seminary, with an ever-widening circle of alumni,
enters upon a new era with an ever-brightening prospect
of wide and healthful influence.
At the same time it was also said, " We need a new
chapel." We thank God to-day that that need has been
so well supplied.
And then I recall those other words, "We need a
new library building : the present building is not only
full, but has great and irremediable defects." If that
was true ten years ago, much more is it true now. It
may be that we shall take such words as these as indi-
cating what is the next thing for us to do. At all events,
there is work for us of to-day, — work for us to do in
carrying forward to a still higher state of efficiency that
great institution which has been left as a sacred trust
by those who have gone before. Let us devise liberal
things, let us do with our might what our hands find to
do, and, by God's blessing upon us, we shall hand down
this seminary to those that come after us, stronger and
better equipped in every way to do its work.
106 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
May its future be more full of honor and usefulness
than its past, and may God ever bless it in maintaining
the pui-e truth of His Word, in making His way known
upon earth, His saving health among all nations !
THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OE YIRGINIA.
ADDRESS OF REV. JULIUS E. GRAMMER, D.D., RECTOR
OF ST. PETER'S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
BALTIMORE.
A GREAT English writer has said, " Far from me and
my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct
us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which
has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or vhtue. That
man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not
gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety
would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona."
With equal truth we may say, he is not to be envied
whose love for the Church of God, for this Diocese,
and the work of the ministry, is not increased by the
history of the Virginia Theological Seminary. They
who have been nurtured for the ministry of the Gospel
as her sons call her their Alma Mater, but she has been
a nui'sing and dear mother to the whole Church. What
a great company of preachers have gone forth from her
halls as the Lord gave the word! What wide fields
have been sown and garnered by those who have been
nourished by her into the spirit and work of preaching
Christ!
In all ranks of the Christian ministry, in all climes,
and I had almost said among all races, her alumni
108 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
have heralded the good news. If we could summon
before us all who have been enrolled among her stu-
dents, what a vast array would appear of men mar-
shalled under one banner, in allegiance to one Master,
and pledged to the conquest of the world for Christ !
They would equal foui' times as many Clergymen as
are now in this Diocese, and they would constitute one-
fifth of the whole number enrolled in this Church in
the United States.
The history of the seminary is identified with a large
part of the history of the Diocese, and, indeed, with
that of the whole Church in America.
When it was founded we were comparatively a feeble
folk, both in secular and ecclesiastical life, both as a
Church and as a Nation. At that time there was a
population of nine millions in this country, and now
there are over fifty millions. At that time there were
only three hundred and thirty-one Clergymen in all the
Church, and now there are over three thousand six
hundred and fifty. The number of communicants did
not exceed thirty thousand, and now it is estimated to
be three hundred and eighty thousand. When the
seminary was begun, there had been only twenty Bish-
ops consecrated, and of these but ten were living : now
there are sixty-seven. The Clergy in Virginia were but
a handful, and widely scattered, and with limited facili-
ties for travel. There were in all the land about thirty
colleges and universities, and now there are three hun-
dred and seventy exclusive of numerous agricultural
and mechanical colleges, and special schools of science,
law, and medicine ; and nine of these are under Protes-
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 109
tant Episcopal influence. At that time there were not
more than twelve theological seminaries in the country,
and now there are about one hundred and forty-five of
known existence, and some others whose continued life
is doubtful. Then there were about sixty-one candi-
dates for Holy Orders, and at the last General Conven-
tion the summary amounted to four hundred and one.
Now there are at least sixteen theological seminaries in
our Church. Then there were few libraries, and the
cost of these excessive : now the press teems with the
best productions of the consecrated talent of America,
and furnishes reprints of the best authors abroad.
" Knowledge increases," and all the aids of sacred
learning and of a critical study of the Holy Bible are
richly supplied to us.
It is a striking and suggestive fact, that on the roll
of the seminary there are as many as seven hundred and
fifty-nine names of its alumni. Of these, forty have been
missionaries in foreign lands, and eighteen consecrated
as Bishops in the Church of God.
Surely the little seed has grown to be a great tree,
and the handful of corn has been made to shake like
Lebanon.
We may well pause to contemplate this work of faith
and patient love on which God has set his seal. " We
have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told
us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of
old."
That we may fix in our minds some salient points in
this review, it would be well to notice the men who have
been identified with the seminary, the work which it has
110 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
accomplished, and the principles which have governed
its history and administration.
I. —THE MEN.
Their names are well known, and deserve to be had in
remembrance.
The Rev. Dr. Slaughter, whose fervent eloquence and
poetic imagination have given unusual attractiveness to
the details of the diocesan history, tells us how there
were stationed at that time, in Alexandria, Rev. Dr.
Wilmer and Rev. Mr. Norris ; in Georgetown, Rev. Mr.
Addison and Rev. Mr. Mcllvaine ; in Washington, Rev.
Mr. Hawley and Rev. Ethan Allen; in Frederick
County, Va., Rev. Mr. Meade; at Hagerstown, Md.,
Rev. Mr. Lemmon ; at Frederick, Md., Rev. Mr. Johns ;
in Baltimore, Rev. Dr. Henshaw ; in Prince George
County, Rev. Mr. Tyng ; in Charles County, Va., Rev.
Mr. Mann; and in Fredericksburgh, Va., Rev. Mr.
McGuire.
These in then- due order, and in their proportionate
strength, and in theh full opportunity, each helped to
found this seminary. They were men whose future
career, in some instances, made them conspicuous for
their service to the whole Church ; they were men, for
the most part, of zeal and prayer and wisdom. But
foremost of them all stands the name of William Meade.
On his monument it is recorded that he was " the founder
of the Theological Seminary of Virginia." And while
he bore many titles, as Doctor, Bishop, and president
of learned and benevolent societies, yet no title ever
conferred upon him a more pronounced distinction, or
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. HI
entitled him to a more lasting gratitude, than that of
" founder of the Theological Seminary of Virginia." In
his character were blended virtues which made him a
marked man.
He united the intrepidity of a soldier with the devo-
tion of a saint. He impressed upon his time and peo-
ple and the Church the type of his sturdy and valiant
hardihood. Certainly he led in paths of brave endeavor
and severe discipline. He endured hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ. He had native eloquence and
a strong mind, with well-disciplined power of reasoning.
He was keenly alive to the pathos of sacred poetry,
and in his heart there glowed a love of God and man
which shone through all his deeds. But his chief quali-
ties were a stern integrity and a holy zeal, united to
extraordinary gifts of administration.
Exercising himself in keeping a pure record and in
the cultivation of simple habits, he set the example of
a good leader to his flock and his Diocese. As Alexan-
der refused to enjoy luxuries which his soldiers were
denied, so did Bishop Meade live as simply as the hum-
blest of his Clergy. He saved, that he might give, and
gave with a secrecy often known only to God. His
benefactions were, relatively to his ability, large ; and,
like a father, he pitied and succored the sons of the
Church in their distress. Though the Church in Vir-
ginia was so feeble when he entered its ministry, as to
provoke the regrets of Judge Marshall that a young
man of such promise should link his destinies with so
forlorn a hope, yet he lived to see it revived and strong,
and was acknowledged as, under God, the chief instru-
112 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
ment in attaining that result. His wise discrimination,
his judicious administration, his patient and toilsome
labors, entitle him to a place in this Diocese like that
of Washington in the Nation. He was the father of
the Church here, and eminently of the seminary. His
prolific pen has furnished treatises, charges, tracts, and
sermons imbued with the spirit of the Gospel, and well
fitted to guide and uphold his growing Diocese. The
seminary has attained such a mature strength because
the pure milk of the Word and the strong meat of the
Gospel were given to her by his hand. Men sought to
asperse his churchmanship ; but he exercised an honest
and independent judgment, guided by the light of his-
tory and of the Bible. He sought to make this sem-
inary a school where evangelical truth and apostolic
order should be duly cultivated and practised. He
lived to taste the sweetness of the fruit of his own
planting, and to realize in this great Diocese and this
established school of sacred learning the hopes of his
life.
At the side of Bishop Meade, and among the best
friends of the seminary, gathered its professors. Dr.
Keith was eminent as a preacher and a philologist.
He seemed to realize, as another has described him,
" the powers of the world to come." The fervor of his
piety and his evangelical preaching greatly favored the
ministerial efficiency of his students. His spotless rec-
ord and faithful labors are the heritage of the seminary.
God honored him in his office, and in the gift of a son
of missionary zeal and martyr spirit.
After giving his life to the cause of missions in China,
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 113
that son left his entu-e fortune as a legacy to that cause.
On the walls of the seminary chapel is a mural tablet
whose simplicity is equalled only by its honest testimony
to the great and good man who was, in historic order,
the first professor of this institution.
Professors WiJmer, Norris, and Lippitt should be held
in grateful memory for their learning and patient labor
in this cause. They were like faithful workmen who
put their conscience into every part of the structui-e,
and sought to bring it to a glorious consummation.
Nor should we forget Bishop Johns., whose relation to
the seminary was that both of professor for a season
and of vice-president and Bishop for many years. His
fame was in all the churches as a man of rare eloquence
and fervent oratory. The echoes of his ministry linger
in our memory like the chimes of sabbath bells. His
memory was wonderfully accurate, and his voice of sil-
very sweetness ; and he had a pathos and tenderness,
a power and persuasiveness, which drew all hearts after
him, and after the Saviour he preached. If Bishop
Meade was eminent for administrative gifts. Bishop
Johns was equally so for the superiority of his attain-
ments, as a preacher.
With such men as Meade and Johns, we are not
surprised that the Diocese and seminary grew, and
attracted from far and near those whom God called to
preach his Gospel. They were lights that could not be
hid, burning and shining in the intensity of zeal and
the beauty of consistency ; and we rejoiced to see
them.
Among these professors there is one living to-day,
114 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
whose head is frosted with well-nigh fifty years of ser-
vice in the chaii- which he has adorned by his learning
and piety. Sharing in the life of the seminary, he has
given in this half-century his support, his prayers, and
his daily labors, " in season and out of season," to make
it what it is. A great procession of students has passed
under his review as he has trained them in the knowl-
edge of those languages inscribed upon the Cross, and
through which the Gospel has been made known under
the whole heavens. The Greek and the Hebrew ; the
languages of learning and of religion, of philosophy/ and
of poetry ; the most rhythmical and ductile, possibly, of
all tongues ; the languages hallowed by prophets and
apostles, — are associated in the mind of every student
of the Virginia Theological Seminary with the venerable
and beloved professor Dr. Joseph Packard.
His golden-wedding day as a professor, now so near
at hand, we trust, may be worthily commemorated in
giving the seminary a dowry of as many thousands of
dollars as he has given years to her service, and by a
lasting token of theu' gratitude to him from his many
hundred students.
When the learned Dr. Keith was lost to the seminary,
it pleased God to raise up a man whose name became
a tower of strength to the Church in this Diocese. No
worldly possessions could equal the value to this sacred
institution of such a character and qualification as dis-
tinguished the late Dr. Sparrow.
With a mind that understood the most difficult prob-
lems in ontology, and that held easy converse with
the masters of English theology, he spent over thirty
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 115
years of his life as one of the most iUustrious teachers
in the whole Church. Never can we forget how his
piety rose above the altitude of his intellectual great-
ness, like the sun above the Alpine peaks. While
students were fascinated and awed by his endowments
and greatness, they were captivated by the charm of his
humility and gentleness. His own beloved and accom-
plished pupil, Professor Walker, has done such justice
to his qualities, in his Commencement address of 1874,
that it deserves to be written in letters of gold, and given
to every student as the model for his imitation. As
long as virtue and learning, as intellect consecrated by
piety, as gentleness united with heroic devotion to the
truth, are held in high esteem, so long will the name
of William Sparrow be as a bright particular star in
the canopy which overhangs the seminary, studded as
it is with such a constellation of great lights.
And by his side walked, in unbroken friendship, that
saintly teacher whose name was typical of his character.
James May was the impersonation of a mild and genial
nature. His life was fruitful of kindness, hospitalities,
and good works ; and his memory redolent of the per-
fume of a charity which never failed. His home was the
Bethany of the missionary ; and with the lovely attrac-
tions of his most enthusiastic and godly wife, and the
worshipping circle that gathered around his board, it
gave one a foretaste of heavenly re-unions. His learn-
ing and qualifications for the chair he fiUed, with
so great advantage to the seminary, commanded the
highest respect of his students ; and his addresses at
the faculty meetings, and his sermons in the chapel,
116 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
impressed all with a sense of his deep experience of
personal religion.
"When such a man, familiar with the skies,
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise ;
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings. —
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide,
Which tells us whence his treasures are supplied."
Well may we rejoice that the mantle of such men
has fallen upon worthy successors. The professors, at
the seminary, hold with a strong grasp the banners they
received from their hands. They walk by the same
rule, and mind the same thing. The seminary moves
on in the harmony and strength, in the joy and patient
service, of former years. May it ever be, as in the past,
a nursing mother of sons who shall be true to the
heritage of such names and such memories !
In connection with those, so noted for learning and
piety, there ought to be remembered on this occasion
those godly men and women, whose prayers and alms,
in behalf of this " school of the prophets," have been
their memorial before God.
Mrs. Sophia Jones of Virginia, and Mr. John Bohlen
of Philadelpha, and Rev. William H. C. Robertson, a
devoted alumnus, have been the principal benefactors
of the library.
Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, sen., of New York, with
many other expressions of a practical generosity to the
seminary, contributed the building-fund for St. George's
Hall.
The brothers William and James Aspinwall of New
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 117
York, parishioners of Dr. Bedell of Ascension Church,
have left in the hall, named after them, the memorial of
their Christian devotion.
" Bohlen Hall " is the benefaction of a layman, whose
charities have extended throughout the Church, and
even to Africa.
" Meade Hall," is the lasting testimonial of the love
and reverence of the sons of the seminary for their
father, in God, the Bishop of the Diocese, for so many
years.
The chapel is the contribution of alumni and friends,
in all parts of the country, and particularly of the much-
loved and respected Dr. H. Dyer of New York.
The name of Samuel G. Wyman, of Baltimore, should
be mentioned here, as a patron, whose favor was long
enjoyed ; and it is to be hoped that a proposed endow-
ment of fifty thousand dollars, from his estate, may yet
be realized, in view of his generous intent, frustrated
only by the sudden and relentless hand of death.
As the foremost of all givers to our seminary, the
name of Mr. Anson Dodge of New York should be
gratefully mentioned. His benefactions have exceeded
forty thousand dollars.
But there have been others whose gifts are known
not so generally. They have prayed, and labored, and
exercised a jealous vigilance, above all price in money.
Such a friend has been Mr. Cassius F. Lee.
Bishop Meade, in one of his addresses, said, —
" From an early period, to the present time, he has been active-
ly engaged, by correspondence, in raising funds for the Education
Society, for the various buildings which have been put up ; acting
118 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
as receiver and disburser of the same, as well as making contracts,
and superintending the work. Much care and trouble have de-
volved upon him in the performance of these duties ; and to no
individual in the Diocese are we indebted for so large a share of
labor and anxiety, in our behalf, as to himself, besides the occa-
sional advance of moneys, when our funds were low."
As Bishop Johns writes, in his Life of Bishop Meade,
" Cassius F. Lee is, with one consent, considered as
eminently ' the seminary s benefactor.' "
Thus God has honored this institution, by gathering
around it a band of workers, skilled in teaching, and of
fervent piety, and of one heart. There it stands to-day,
the monument of a prayer-hearing God.
Situated over against the Capitol of the nation, it pre-
sents a striking contrast in its simplicity and purposes
to that stately structure. Near the metropolis of the
political and social glory of this Western world, it offers
a beautiful illustration of the quietness, and content-
ment, which are given to those who seek God, compared
with the restless aspirations of those who are tempted
by pleasure, wealth, and power.
Happy would it be if the principles, and spirit, that
govern the Theological Seminary of Virginia, possessed
the hearts and minds of all rulers and legislators.
Happy, indeed, would we be, if it could be graven upon
their memories that " Righteousness exalteth a nation : hut
sin is a reproach to any people.'"' Surely we ought to
pray that more of the young men, of our land, may be
led, from the passionate greed for gold and worldly glory,
to seek that substance which is enduring, — that unfading
crown, and that ministry which the Holy Gnost blesses
and honors.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 119
" The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few:
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He
would send forth laborers mto His harvest."
II —THE WORK.
We turn now to consider the work of the seminary.
It has supplied the Diocese with "a great company"
of preachers. Like a spring, it has sent out streams of
refreshment to all the parishes of Virginia, and, indeed,
of many other Dioceses. Like the military and naval
academies, which train men for valiant exploits, by sea
and by land, and seek to cultivate in them the spirit of
a soldier, this seminary has been a training-school for
those who would be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
To its influence we may trace that purity of life, that
zeal in labors, that accomplishment in sacred learning,
that pastoral efficiency and pulpit power, which have
distinguished her Clergy.
And not only in Virginia, but throughout the whole
country, we see the sons of this seminary, holding posi-
tions of wide influence, and exercising their ministry,
with the tokens of God's richest blessing, to the great
comfort of the whole Church.
The time would fail to mention the names of the
Bishops, and Presbyters, here and over all the territory
of the Church's large work, who have been nourished
by this dear mother of us all, for a holy ministry. We
find them in New York, and Boston ; in Ohio and
Kentucky ; in California and Iowa ; in Long Island,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland, stationed along our coasts,
like lights, cheering and refreshing by their example
and doctrine.
120 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
If you cast your eye over the sea, there in distant
China and Japan, and in Africa, the brave and devoted
sons of this seminary are laboring to preach among the
heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. The roll
of honorable names is too long to recite. Conspicuous
among them, are those of Boone and Payne ; of Henning
and Messenger ; of Hoffman and Holcomb ; and those
godly women, Catharine Jones, and Susan Sparrow,
whose piety was kindled on that hill, and whose devo-
tion to Christ was crowned with such heroic service.
" They climbed the steep ascent to heaven
Through peril, toil, and pain ;
O God ! to us ma}' grace be given
To follow in their train ! "
The seminary has won the confidence and reverent
love of the Church, by furnishing these bright examples
of the Christian life.
The pictures, in Prayer Hall, of those missionaries,
seem to speak to us, as did the portrait of Henry Mar-
tyn, to Charles Simeon, and echo the solemn appeal :
" Don't trifle."
No wonder they were men of such power before God,
for they anticipated the day to ask in prayer for that
strength and faith which made their lives so fragrant
and fruitful.
It was their example, which moved others to give of
their substance to this dear seminary.
The message of the sainted Hoffman rings upon our
ears to-day, as reported to us by Bishop Payne : " Tell
them, by the living Crucified One, not to hold back their
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 121
hands." And, as if to remind us of our high and holy
commission, he raised his dying head to utter these
memorable words : " Tidings, tidings from the Lord
Jesus ! "
The work of this seminary can never be told. God
only has recorded these silent and mighty influences,
which have gone forth from it, like a deep and full-
flowing river, gladdening all it touched.
The students of this institution have, for the most
part, been true to their commission, and to " the doc-
trine of Christ, as this Church hath received the same."
No encouragement or sympathy has been found here
for those who would efi'ace the Protestant character or
title of our Church. The whole tendency of its teach-
ing has been to cherish a love for the order, in govern-
ment, and purity, in doctrine, which have distinguished
this branch of Christ's Church upon earth. The pro-
fessors, bishops, and alumni have contributed to this
result by essays, sermons, articles in the periodical lit-
erature of the Church, as well as by biographies and
more extensive publications. Thus they have greatly
aided, in protecting the pulpit and the chancel, from all
ii'regularity and error in worship and doctrine ; and,
most of all, in seeking to secure the lives of God's min-
isters and people from reproach.
In attempting to count up the results of this work,
we would remind you of the parishes and churches,
which have been, and are now being, ministered unto
by the sons of this seminary. Wbat, above all, deserves
to be mentioned is, the constant appeal made here to
cultivate a holy life, and those meetings of the faculty,
122 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
when the dignity and responsibility, the duty and the
divine aid pledged to the ministry, were so faithfully set
forth.
Surely those good professors were wise master-
builders ;• and they sought to warn and teach every man
that he might not profane the Church by a spirit of
merchandise or sacrilegious traffic in sacred things. The
ministry was shown to be a calling from God, for the
edification of the Church, and not one of the professions,
to be followed in a secular spirit.
Those solemn and sacred evenings can never be for-
gotten, as rich in heavenly influences.
" How sweet their memory still ! "
A heart yearning to glorify God, and charged with
love to Christ, is to be counted as the highest qualifica-
tion for a minister of the Gospel.
III. —THE PRINCIPLES.
The principles which have been at the foundation of
all this work are those of the Holy Bible. The super-
structure is enduring and symmetrical, because it has
been fashioned, after the plan of God, as revealed in
His Word. The formative power has been that of God's
Spirit, and this institution has sought to follow and
reflect the mind of God.
Certain great doctrines have here been distinctively
set forth, as giving meaning to the mission and ministry
of the seminary. These doctrines are such, as distin-
guished the Reformation in England, Germany, Scot-
land, and Switzerland.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA. 123
They are Scriptural, as authorized by the Word of
God ; they are Protestant, as contrasted with those of the
Church of Rome.
The Keformation, in England, had for its basis the
great truth that the Bible is the supreme and ultimate
authority in matters of faith and morals. That, in Ger-
many, established, as the article of a standing or falling
Church, our justification before God, by faith only, in
the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. That, in Scotland,
was for the vindication of the supreme authority of
Christ, as King in Zion, and Head over all things to
His Church. That, in Switzerland, was for the clear
determination, upon the warrant of the Bible, of the
value of the sacraments, as signs and pledges and means
of grace, but not as the sources and channels of spir-
itual life. Holding these cardinal principles, this sem-
inary is identified with the English Chui-ch, and with
her daughter, the Protestant Episcopal Church in Amer-
ica, in seeking to establish and promulge them more
and more.
Her teaching has been Protestant, as refusing to make
(as the Roman Church does) tradition of co-ordinate
authority with the Bible ; Protestant, as refusing to adore
relics, invoke saints, pray for the dead, and accept any
mediator between the soul and the holy God but the
one mediator, Christ Jesus.
Besides this, the doctrines taught by this seminary
are Evangelical ; and by that, we mean they are distin-
guished from a system of sacramental ceremonialism,
which professes to work ex opere operato. Evangelical
religion sets forward the salvation of all men, hy faith
124 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
in Christ. It proclaims the sovereign grace of God, by
the operation of the Holy Ghost, and in connection with
the truth, " as in Jesus." It exalts Jesus as the only
priest; the cross as the only altar; and the death of
Christ as the only sacrifice. Evangelical religion regards
preaching, as the chief office of the ministry ; and depends
upon it as ordained of God for the salvation of the
believer, and not upon the mechanical application of
positive institutions.
It teaches the faU of man, and his need of a new
birth ; the sovereignty of Divine grace, and the respon-
sibility each one is under, in the exercise of his free
agency, to give an account of himself to God.
This seminary has sought to uphold that system of
Protestant, Evangelical religion, which condemns the
practice and teaching of priestly absolution and auricular
confession of sins.
It has sought to cultivate a worship free from mere-
tricious ritual, and to lead the soul to realize that
" God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must wor-
ship him in spirit and in truth."
It is Episco2)al, holding with the Ordinal, no more and
no less ; not exclusive, but historic, in its spirit and
practice, as to the order of Church government.
And at the same time it is Catholic, in that it not only
recognizes, but greets and prays for grace to all those,
who love our Lord Jesus Christ, in sincerity. It owns
the body of Cliiist, which is the Church, to be " the
blessed company of all faithful people."
Such an institution has the highest and holiest claims
upon all, who love the Church and her mission.
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIROINIA. 125
It needs an increased endowment^ and a larger force to
cover the field of preparation, required for its students.
It needs a new library edifice, and a supply of new
books.
The immense progress of the country, in material
wealth, involves a corresponding responsibility. The
chief security to the State and the Church is an enlight-
ened pulpit and a consecrated ministry.
The founding of scholarships in England, and the
endowment of the Bampton and Boyle lectureships, have
contributed to the increase and diffusion of sacred learn-
ing. In this country, of late years, large offerings have
been made for the generous education of our young
men. Paca, Cornell, Peabody, and Hopkins have given
their millions, for secular sciences. What better com-
memoration of this centennial year could be made, than
to endow this great seminary of our Church % A few
strong institutions deserve the united patronage of the
many; a few poorly endowed colleges and seminaries
take away the supply which should be given to those
which are strong. The Divine plan is, that " to him
that hath shall be given ; " and there is a reason for
the law of " the survival of the fittest." The Virginia
Seminary has become more than historic : it has gained
the confidence and the support which the most scrupu-
lous discrimination can bestow.
Worthy of this centennial year of the Diocese of Vir-
ginia would it be, to endow the seminary, as a memorial
of God's goodness. Such an act would bring down the
blessing of God, upon the donors, and yield the richest
return, in a living ministry of salvation to dying souls.
126 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF VIRGINIA.
It would help to extend those principles which are the
life of the Church, and to promote the glory of God.
May He send the dew of His grace upon this vine
of His own planting, and make it to grow as the corn,
and flourish as the lily, and be a joy and a praise in the
future, as it has been in the past. Amen and Amen.
SKETCH OF OUE FIEST FOUE BISHOPS.
BY REV. C. I. GIBSON, D.D.
It is God's own command, that His people should
" remember those who once had the rule over them,
who spake to them the Word of God, and that we
should consider the end of their conversation ; " i.e.,
note carefully the effect of their lives, and " imitate
their faith." A most sacred duty is it, therefore, to our
God, as well as to the departed rulers of the Church in
Virginia, to "keep their memories green;" and a no less
sacred duty to ourselves, by a careful study of their
manner of life, their walk with God, and method of
work for the prosperity of the Church in this Diocese,
noting their failures as well as their successes, to
strengthen our own faith, and increase our own useful-
ness. If it be interesting and profitable to study " God
in history," it is surely no less so to mark the workings
of his providence and grace in biography. It must he
so if the finger of inspiration point us to the lives
of our own spiritual rulers and teachers as the field of
observation.
The consecration of the first Bishop of Vii-ginia was
an event in the history of the Church in this country of
far greater importance than is generally supposed; it
128 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
was a step which became essential to the peace and
prosperity of the whole Church.
The Seabury centennial of last November did not fail
to remind us that ours was not the first Bishop that the
Church in America received. We recognize the fact,
and acknowledge cheerfully that to the Diocese of
Connecticut belongs the honor of receiving the first
Bishop. But is it not a most significant fact, that eight
years was sufi"ered to elapse before Bishop Seabury was
called on by the Church to exercise his episcopal powers
in aiding to perpetuate the apostolical succession, — a
thing then much needed, much desired, by the Church ?
Is it not a significant fact, also, that — although Bishops
White and Provoost had been consecrated in 1787, and
thus three Bishops, the number required by ancient
canon for a regular consecration, were now in the coun-
try; and although a Bishop-elect from Massachusetts,
Dr. Edward Bass, had been recommended to them for
consecration in 1789, — it was not until September, 1792,
more than five years after the arrival of the two Bishops
from England, and eight years after Bishop Seabury's
arrival, that the former called upon the latter to unite
with them in the consecration of Dr. Thomas John
Claggett of Maryland, the first Bishop consecrated on
American soil? Now, why this delay? The truth appears
from the following facts, which show plainly the great
importance to the welfare of the whole Church of that
step which gave Virginia her first Bishop. " The time
has long since gone by," says Bishop Seabury's excellent
biographer, " when there need be any timidity or hesita-
tion in speaking freely of those upon whom obloquy
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 129
was once heaped for conscientiously espousing the cause
of the Crown. . . . Dr. Seabury began life as an enthu-
siastic royalist, and asserted his political opinions with a
sturdiness and ability which, in the heats of the Revolu-
tion, put him in great peril and distress." This fact of
itself, that Dr. Seabury was a Tory, and one of a most
aggressive stamp, is almost enough to explain the pecul-
iar state of things which then existed, — the tardiness of
the other Bishops and Clergy in receiving him into their
ranks, and the difficulties which on every side, both
within and without, beset our Church in the first years
of its independent existence. But, besides being an
outspoken opponent of the American Revolution, Bishop
Seabury had been chaplain to Col. Fanning's regiment
of Tories in the British army, and had served with
them through the war. He had left New York for
England, to seek consecration, before the city had been
evacuated by the British troops ; and it was said he
continued after consecration to receive his half-pay as a
retired ofiicer, from the British Government. But this
was not all.
The succession from the non-juring Bishops of Scot-
land was not at that time officially recognized by the
English Church. The laws against them were repealed
after Bishop Madison's consecration. It is well known
that Bishop Provoost of New York would have nothing
to do with the Scotch succession, and pronounced it
" irregular."
The New- York Convention in 1788 had "resolved,
That it is highly necessary that measures should be pur-
sued to preserve the episcopal succession m the English
130 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
line ; " and while they declared the proposed union with
the Diocese and Bishop of Connecticut, then pending,
much to be desired, they add the express condition that
it must be with " the continuance of the episcopal suc-
cession in the English line" Another fact : In the appli-
cation to the English Bishops for consecration. Bishop
White, who wrote it, declares that he intended to ask
for the number of Bishops competent, according to the
English rule and practice, to perpetuate the succession ;
and he felt himself pledged to them on that point. Our
own Diocese applied to Bishops White and Provoost to
unite with Bishop Seabury in the consecration of Dr.
Griffith, our first Bishop-elect; but they refused, be-
cause three Bishops of the English line had not then
been obtained. Bishop Madison, after his consecration
and return to Virginia, wrote to Bishop White, Dec. 19,
1790,—
"A few days before I left London, the Archbishop requested
a particular interview with me. He said he wished to express his
hopes, and also to recommend it to our Church, that, in such con-
secrations as might take place in America, the persons who had
received their powers from the Church of England should be alone
concerned. He spoke with great delicacy of Dr. Seabury, but
thought it most advisable that the line of Bishops should be handed
down from those who had received their commission from the same
The question excited no little feeling in that day.
For instance, in the General Convention of 1786 a
motion was offered, " That this Convention will resolve
to do no act that shall imjjli/ the validity of ordinations
made hy Dr. Seabury." Three Dioceses voted "aye" to
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 131
this motion, — New York, New Jersey, and South Caro-
lina. It was lost by a majority of only one Diocese ;
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia voting
in the negative. Under such circumstances, is it not
evident that another Bishop of English consecration
must be given to America, or the union of all its Dio-
ceses could never have been effected, nor peace and
harmony secured to the Church? To the Diocese of
Virginia, then, was allotted, by God's kind providence,
this glorious privilege of becoming the tightening keystone
of the ecclesiastical arch which made strong the Church's
foundation in this country. Ought we not, as a Diocese,
ever to be devoutly thankful that the first Bishop of
Virginia took his place among his brethren with the
blessing of the "peacemaker" resting upon him; yea,
upon the very office itself which he brought among us \
May the Diocese and its Bishops to the end of time
continue to fulfil this their high and glorious mission to
their brethren of the Church in this country, maintain-
ing apostolic ORDER as well as apostolic doctrine, and
always promoting that unity among brethren so dear to
the heart of our Lord !
It was not the fault of the Diocese of Virginia, that
her first Bishop was not consecrated at the same time
with the Bishops of Pennsylvania and of New York.
Her Convention of 1786 responded at once to the call
for fit persons to be made Bishop, and elected a gentle-
man, who, however little known now, was honored by
his brethren then, both at home and abroad. The Rev.
David Griffith was the first Bishop-elect of Virginia ;
and in any sketch of our episcopate, however brief, to
132 SKETCH OF OUE FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
omit his name would be inexcusable. He was the per-
sonal friend and pastor of Gen. Washington; — '• a large,
stout man," so Mr. Custis describes him, " compact, and
rather tall and strong, gentle and gentlemanlike " in his
manners, but " firm ; a favorite with the officers of the
army ; himself a chaplain to the Third Virginia Regi-
ment; an intimate associate with the best and most
refined families ; always a welcome guest at Mount Ver-
non." Like our own dear Bishop Moore, he was a native
of New- York City, and like him had also been a prac-
tising physician. Receiving orders from the Bishop of
London in 1770, he settled first in New Jersey, a mis-
sionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
In 1771 he removed to Leesburg, highly recommended
to them by the Governor of Virginia. In 1776 he
entered the army, and served as chaplain until the close
of the year 1779, when he was chosen Rector of Christ
Church, Alexandria, and continued such until his death
at Bishop White's house in Philadelphia, the 3d of
August, 1789, He was a prominent man in this Dio-
cese from its very first formation, and very active in pro-
moting the restoration of the Church. Before any steps
towards organization, either in the general Church or
the Diocese, had been taken, he attended the first meet-
ing of the Clergy in New York, October, 1784, at which
some principles of ecclesiastical union were adopted, and
the first " General Convention" was proposed. In Vir-
ginia's first Diocesan Convention he was the leading
clerical deputy, chosen for the General Convention of
1785, and elected their secretary by that body. In 1786
he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 133
University of Pennsylvania, and was made president of
the General Convention of that year, having been
already chosen to the office of Bishop by his own Dio-
cese. But he was never consecrated. Poverty in his
own purse, and poverty and indifference combined on
the part of the Diocese, prevented his going to England
with the other candidates for consecration ; and, after
waiting for three years for the Diocese to raise the
money to send him, he resigned his appointment. Pity
and shame upon our poor, proud Church! Unable'?
No ! unwilling to raise a hundred pounds to procure a
Bishop ! Some excuse may be given. Our people under
the Establishment were never taught to give. Most of
the Clergy were scattered, and the people impoverished
by the war. Still we must say the delay in obtaining our
episcopate must be remembered against ourselves, as a
ground of humiliation to the laity, even more than to the
Clergy, of the oldest and the largest Church in America.
Dr. Griffith, however, was again honored by an elec-
tion to the General Convention of 1789; and during
its session he died of acute rheumatism. The Conven-
tion, by resolution, made all arrangements for his fune-
ral, — appointed the senior Clergyman of each Diocese
(except Virginia) to act as pall-bearers, the other mem-
bers to attend as mourners ; invited the Clergy of all
denominations in the city to attend ; Dr. William Smith
to preach the funeral sermon, and Bishop White and
Mr. Andrews, Virginia's lay deputy, to walk as chief
mourners. " There may have been many men more
brilliant than Dr. Griffith," says Dr. Hawks, " but he
was practical and active ; and when he died the Church
134 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
lost a useful and a worthy man." Dr. Smitli tells us :
" In the service of his country in our late contest for
liberty and independence, he was near and dear to our
illustrious Commander-in-Chief. He was also his neigh-
bor, and honored and cherished by him as a pastor and
friend." He was a sound and able divine, and " highly
estimable among us ; " a true son, and afterwards a
father, as Bishop-elect of our Church; with his voice
always, with his pen occasionally, supporting and main-
taining her just rights, and yielding his constant and
zealous aid in carrying on the great work for which we
are assembled. I am sure we need not be ashamed of
Virginia's fii'st choice for Bishop.
Still less need we blush for the second ; for him who
was favored by God to bring at last to the suffering
Church in Virginia that apostolic office which ought to
have been given her by the Church of England one
hundred and eighty years before. The Rev. James Mad-
ison was born near Port Republic in Rockingham
County, Va., then West Augusta, Aug. 27, 1749.
He was second cousin to President Madison, and came
of heroic, as Avell as highly educated, stock. His
father, John Madison, was the pioneer of the Western
branch of his family, originally founded in Westmore-
land. He settled on lands on which he found it neces-
sary to build a fort to protect his wife and children from
the incursions of the Indians. The Bishop's brother
George was colonel in our army during the War of
1812, won distinction, and was afterwards Governor of
Kentucky. " The annals of the State, of the army,
and of the Church," says the accomplished biographer
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 135
of the President, " have thus all in their turn been illus-
trated by the name of Madison." At the age of nine-
teen young Madison entered William and Mary College,
and soon obtained high distinction both for scientific and
classical attainments. He graduated in 1771 at the
age of twenty-two, winning the "Botetourt" gold medal,
the highest honor in the School of Languages. He
began to study law under Chancellor Wythe, and was
admitted to practice. But in 1773, after having been
elected professor of mathematics in William and Mary,
his thoughts were turned to the ministry of the Episco-
pal Church; and, in the spring of 1775, he proceeded
to England for ordination. It was a standing order of
the Board of Visitors of that old college in that day, in
order to encourage the growth of the ministry, to appro-
priate to every student of divinity fifty pounds out of the
college funds, to defray the expenses of a trip to Eng-
land for ordination. By this means he took orders, and
returned at once to the duties of his professorship.
In 1777, though only twenty-eight years old, the statute
of the board, which required the president to be thirty
years of age, was suspended in his favor, and he was
elected president of the college. This position he held
for thirty-five years, until his death. In 1785 the
degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him
by the University of Pennsylvania "At all periods of
his life," Dr. Hawks tells us, "he was much devoted to
scientific studies, and furnished several valuable papers
to literary and philosophical publications. His habits
were those of a student, mild and benevolent in dispo-
sition, with simple yet courteous manners. He was
136 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
much esteemed by the drcle of his immediate friends."
The best picture of him is from the pen of one of his
pupils, President Tyler : —
" He was spare in his form, but approached six feet in height.
He possessed not the massive brow so indicative of deep thought
and clear mind ; but yet a single glance impressed 3-ou with the
idea that you stood in the presence of one whose life had been
devoted to study, and who might justly be regarded as rightfully
exercising the office of a high priest in the temple of science. His
manner to the inmates of the college was kind and parental. His
reproof was uttered in the gentlest tones, nothing harsh, nothing
morose ; but his chidings wore always the appearance of being
uttered more in sorrow than in anger. No one who attended the
college while he presided over it hesitated to acknowledge him as
a second father. As president he exercised a general superintend-
ence over the whole college ; and his attentions were bestowed
equally upon ' the grammar boys ' as upon the students of the
higher classes."
A curious illustration of this spirit of kindness is
given us in the pages of a book of " Travels " written
by a young Irishman, Isaac Weld, a connection of the
poet Tennyson, who, about the year 1795 or 1796, called
at Williamsburg, and took dinner with the president.
He says, —
"The Bishop of Virginia is president of the college, and has
apartments in the buildings. Half a dozen or more of the stu-
dents, the eldest about twelve years of age, dined at his table one
day while I was there. Some were without shoes or stockings,
others without coats. During the dinner they constantly rose to
help themselves at the sideboard. A couple of dishes of salted
meat and some oyster soup formed the above dinner. I only men-
tion this, as it may convey some idea of American colleges and
American dignitaries."
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 137
The temper of this wild young Irishman was evi-
dently very cynical and very objectionable. He after-
wards expressed regret at the publication of his book ;
but to us his reckless criticism throws a flash of light
upon Bishop Madison's private life, nowhere else to be
found, and confirms President Tyler's account of him,
that his parental care was bestowed equally upon the
shoeless grammar boys as upon the students of the
higher classes.
As a preacher Bishop Madison was very popular
among the educated classes, and as a reader remark-
ably attractive to all. " Nothing could exceed," says
Mr. Tyler, "the impressiveness of his reading, or the
clearness and distinctness of his enunciation. The
deep tones of his voice, and its silvery cadence, were
incomparably fine. It has been my fortune to hear our
first and most distinguished orators, as well in our pub-
lic assemblies as in the pulpit ; but I recollect nothing
to equal the voice of Bishop Madison. No word was
mouthed, no sentence imperfectly uttered ; but all was
clear and distinct, and fell in full harmony on the ear.
In the pulpit he was regarded as eminently eloquent.
His style was copious and Ciceronian, and his manner
strikingly impressive. His discourses were not so much
of a doctrinal as a moral cast. He addressed himself
to the moral sense, and enforced the importance of
observing the high moral duties." The Bishop's first
address to his Convention, in the spring of 1791, shows
how heavily upon his heart lay the responsibilities of
his high ofiice, and with what good sense and piety
he began his endeavors to fulfil them. He exhorts
138 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
the Clergy, first, with great earnestness, to renew their
vows of consecration, and to increase their zeal in their
holy work. He fearlessly charges upon them much of
the spiritual deadness, and defection from the Church,
which was then prevailing. In the most practical and
pointed way, he suggests improvements in their ser-
mons, both as to matter and to manner. As to matter,
they must, as ambassadors for Christ, make their con-
stant aim the salvation of souls. They must preach to
the wants of the poor as well as of the better educated.
They must make known the Gospel of Christ and the
manner of our redemption. As to manner of delivery,
they must cease the dry reading of sermons, do without
manuscript as much as possible, and throw more warmth
and genuine feeling into both reading and preaching.
Could any advice be better \ Then he recommends the
exercise of discipline upon themselves first, and then
upon the laity ; more frequent communions in their own
parishes, and associations with then* brethren in each
other's parishes; the writing and circulation of tracts,
both controversial and devotional. Admirable in spirit
and in the wisdom of the suggestions !
From Bishop Madison's Convention addresses we gain
perhaps the best view of the deplorable condition of our
Church in his day ; for the Bishop's vision was keen,
his views were evangelical, and his standard was high.
He was possessed also with a true Churchly spirit of
liberality to other bodies of Christians. " His heart was
intensely fixed on uniting, if possible, all sincere Chris-
tians." " There is no one," he says, " but must cordially
wish for such a union, provided it did not require a sac-
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 139
rifice of those points which are deemed essentials by our
Chui'ch : from them we have no power to retreat. But
in such matters as are subject to human alteration, if,
by a candid discussion, they could be found capable of
being so modified as to remove the objections of any
sect of Christians, and thereby effect a union, we should
surely have reason to rejoice, not only in the event, but
also in being the first to set an example to Christians,
which it is the duty of all to follow, and in convincing
them that there is infinitely more religion in not contend-
ing than in those things about which they contend," All
honor to our first Bishop for these noble sentiments ! To
his praise, too, let it be recorded, that he was the first
man to bring to the notice of the Church, in the General
Convention of 1792, "a plan of union among all sin-
cere Christians." Our present Standing Committee on
Unity is a tardy outgrowth of the motion made in the
House of Bishops hy the First Bishop of Virginia. But
with all his earnestness and talents. Bishop Madison did
but little to support our falling Church. His emphatic
protests against the sins of the Church and of the age
did comparatively nothing towards removing them.
Down, downward to the very " dust of death," went
our poor Church, undermined by a fashionable infidel-
ity, fostered by friendship with France, and admiration
of Mr. Jefferson and his principles ; stunned by the
fatal blows which levelled the Establishment, and de-
prived om- Clergy of their salaries ; sneered at as " the
British Church^'' and "the pet child of monarchy;"
and all her life-blood exhausted by the exodus of the
Methodists, and the untiring efforts of every other
140 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
body of Christians around her to draw away disciples
after them. One single instance may serve as an ex-
ample. In Bath Parish, Dinwiddie County, there were
three churches under the ministry of the Rev. Dev-
ereux Jarratt, a noble preacher of a genuine Gospel.
On sacramental occasions, he tells us, the number of
communicants in the year 1773 often reached nine hun-
dred or a thousand. After the Methodists separated
themselves, and formed a Church of their own, he says,
" Where hundreds used to attend my sermons, I can
now scarcely get foi'ti/ hearers." Then " genuine reli-
gion, the religion of love, flourished : " now " com-
municants have decreased tenfold, and love and har-
mony are gone." Still, at the rallying call of her first
Bishop, there was a slight revival of spiritual life. The
zeal and piety of the laity had not become entirely ex-
tinct. The Bishop found, on his visitation, congregations
in general numerous, and attentive to our forms of wor-
ship, and the Clergy, though wanting a decent mainte-
nance, for the most part exemplary and diligent in the
discharge of their duties. In five parishes of the tide-
water section, upwards of six hundred were confirmed ;
and the aspect of affairs was beginning to be cheering.
But what could a Bishop, however zealous and accom-
plished, do for the prosperity of the Church, tied down
as Bishop Madison was to the college in Williamsburg,
and to its exacting duties ? The spiritual ancestors of
our Bishops, the blessed Apostles, were, in their unlim-
ited sphere of jurisdiction, almost always the pioneers
of the glorious Gospel which they bore around to the
ends of the earth to everi/ creature; and they appointed
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 141
elders in the churches they themselves had gathered.
When diocesan episcopacy began in Timothy at Ephe-
sus, and Titus at Crete, and James at Jerusalem, and
the angels of the seven churches, the law of their
ministry was still, " Do the work of an evangelist"
How, then, could the life of a dying Church be, by any
possibility, kept in her by a chief officer who was en-
gaged in secular duties nine months of the year, and
made his visitations only in a three-months' vacation?
Dr. Hawks well says, "The times called for uncommon
activity in the episcopal office." " Obliged by canon
to visit each church in his Diocese at least once in three
years, there is not one of the American Bishops not
enfeebled by age or disease, who does not aim to do
more than this. Many of them pay an annual visit to
each parish, and this course is felt by them to be essen-
tial to the growth and prosperity of the Church. If in
these times such diligence be necessary, it is obvious
that less would not suffice when the Church was seek-
ing to recover from a blow which had well nigh de-
stroyed her."
Fettered as he was, however. Bishop Madison con-
tinued to meet and address his annual conventions, and
to aid them with his pen in their fruitless struggles
against the spoiling tand of the Legislature, which now,
under Mr. Jefferson's lead, was about to confiscate her
property, and at last successfully accomplished it by the
Glebe Act of 1802. Bishop Madison maintained on
principles of law the rights of the Church. His views
were sustained by four of Virginia's ablest jurists, —
Bushrod Washington, Edmund Randolph, John Wick-
142 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
ham, and George Keith Taylor, — and, at a later day, by
the Supreme Court of Appeals. But the great Head of
the Church, Himself, as if to cut loose His people from
all earthly dependence, refused to permit the decision
to be pronounced in her favor. Judge Pendleton died
only the night before he was to have rendered it, with
the decision in his pocket. The court was then equally
divided. To this day the Church remains defrauded of
her rights. Meantime, the long-continued contest for
these rights was slowly but surely destroying the feeble
spiritual life which had been revived in the Church by
the Bishop's first efforts. Discord and contention pro-
duced their usual consequences, spiritual declension and
decay. The bitterness and wrath, the malice and the
evil speaking, grieved away the Holy Spirit of God.
In 1799 the Bishop thus addressed his convention: —
" Ah, brethren ! is it not a melancholy truth that j^our temples
are the just emblems of your regard for religion? You see them
almost ever3'where tottering to their base. Shall ruin seize them?
Shall these venerable fabrics perish, and leave not a trace of public
worship among us? Is not even the appearance of religion almost
laid aside, nay scoffed at, by the great bulk of society ? Do not
our days of public worship manifest this truth? Does not the
entire neglect of parents in the religious instrucMon of their children
manifest this truth ? Does not the rapid growth of immorality in
general, of profaneness and impiety ; do not the beginnings of pro-
digious crimes ; does not that party rage, which, not content with
blasting by slander's envenomed breath the well-earned fame of
honest}' and worth, but tiger-like, thirsts even for the blood of fellow-
citizens, — do not all these effects demonstrate that religion no longer
dwells among us? "
From 1799 onward, until 1812, the time of the
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 143
Bishop's death, things grew no better, but rather worse.
The General Convention of 1811 at New Haven became
hopeless. " They fear," said the House of Deputies to
the Bishops, " that the Church in Virginia is so depressed
that there is danger of her total ruin." And the voice of
Bishop Madison was only an echo and re-echo of the same
painful sound. Shut up as he was in his pleasant prison-
house in Williamsburg, it continued to utter, like the
prophet Jeremiah, only notes of lamentation and woe,
until at last, hopeless of doing good, it was hushed in
silence, March 6, 1812. In 1805, on the plea of bodily
infii*mities,he asked for an assistant, — " the first instance,"
says Dr. Hawks, " in the history of the American Epis-
copal Church, in which mention is made of Assistant
Bishops ; " but the Virginia Convention postponed action,
and never met again until after his death. Evidently
a vast deal more was needed for the Church's revival,
besides eloquent preaching and piety and learning,
and unquestioned regularity of orders. Even inspired
apostles could not build up the early Church, until per-
secution had swept over it, and they themselves had
suffered pains of martydom, and become indued with
special power from on high, x^nd what a power is
given from on high to tribulation! Our Virginia
Church seemed to need repeated blows from the chas-
tening hand of her God. Loss of property was not
enough. That seemed only to iiTitate. The removal
of her teachers. That was only too readily assented to.
At last, a tremendous judgment from Heaven — the
burning of the Richmond Theatre, with the Governor
of the State, and more than seventy of Virginia's best
144 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
people — seemed to awaken and to bring to their knees
a lukewarm Church. In these " perilous times " of " the
last days," when human life has become so cheap ^ it is
very hard to form a true conception of the deep and wide-
spread influence of that appalling disaster. Through-
out the whole country it was talked of and dwelt upon
in parlor and in pulpit. In the parishes of England, it
furnished the theme of many a solemn admonition.
The great " Dresser of the Vineyard " was Himself at
work, digging about the roots and pruning the branches
of the vine which His own right hand had planted.
There, on the ashes of that old theatre, stands now, in
its meek, solemn majesty, the " Monumental Church,"
most fitly named, — the spontaneous offering to their
chastening Lord of an afflicted and repenting people !
In 1814 God sent in mercy to his suffering Church,
still in tears all over the State, another Bishop, an
apostle Barnabas, indued indeed with " singular gifts
of the Holy Ghost," and with grace to use them always
to God's honor and glory. " He was a good man, full
of the Holy Ghost and of faith ; and much people were
added unto the Lord." Seven Clergymen and seventeen
laymen formed the Convention that elected Bishop Moore.
He was chosen by twenty-three votes out of the twenty-
four; the other vote having been cast for Richmond's
favorite, " good old Parson Buchanan." That it was
indeed the blessed Spirit who gave the men of this
Convention " a right judgment," is evident from the
results that soon began to follow. Richard Charming
Moore, the second Bishop of Virginia, was born in the
city of New York, Aug. 21, 1762. His father was
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 145
Thomas Moore ; and his grandfather, the Hon. John
Moore, one of the King's council for the province, a
lineal descendant of Sir John Moore of Berkshire,
knighted by Charles I. The Bishop's mother, who,
under God's blessing, formed his religious character,
was Elizabeth Channing, " a lady of highly respectable
family of New- York City, of the finest disposition and
accomplishments, and of devoted piety." She, like
Hannah, dedicated her son to the service of her Lord ;
and the history of his childhood shows how thickly
sown were the seeds of personal holiness, and of that
reverent familiarity with holy things which seemed to
foretell his consecration to the ministry. He was a boy-
preacher, with a decided taste for elocution and a talent
for public speaking. His mother was one of a band of
pious ladies belonging to Trinity Church, who, encour-
aged by Dr. Ogilvie, one of Trinity's assistants, a man
of fervent zeal, met at each other's houses every week
for social worship and religious improvement, always
closing them with a collection. Mrs. Moore frequently
took her little boy with her. Who is there here of the
old Monumental congregation that may not remember
how our dear old Bishop perpetuated these teachings of
his childhood in the week-day lectures, which he used
to announce from his pulpit to be held " at the residence
of Mistress Elsie Williams" or of " old Mistress Hayes " ?
Who can say that many of the cold parishes of these
days might not be revived by the use of just such teach-
ings, ^^from house to house" as this genuine successor of
the apostles adopted? But the bright promise of the
Bishop's childhood was not at once realized. He grew
146 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
up in the gay cii'cles of fashionable life in New York,
only to adopt its irreligious habits and some of its posi-
tive vices. He entered upon the medical profession, not
the ministry, and practised on Long Island and in the
city. He married at the age of twenty-two, still an
unchanged man, of quick temper and a too ungoverned
tongue. Once, in the presence of his wife, he gave way
to the senseless sin of profanity ; and the bitter tears of
this pious wife, and her fervent prayers for him on that
occasion, seem to have been the means first employed to
show him his guilt and vileness. Like Bishop Ravens-
croft of North Carolina, whose experience was very simi-
lar, — nay, like the chief of the apostles, — sin must be
permitted to " revive " powerfully, and show its hideous
life in his soul, before pride and self-sufficiency could
begin to die. About this time, also, another incident
occurred. He went one day into a barber-shop to have
his hair dressed : he carelessly opened a Bible on the
table, and his eye caught the words, " Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?" The sentence proved a call
from the Lord Jesus indeed. It rang in his ears. It
lingered in his memory. It brought him at last to say,
with sincere contrition, " Lord, what ivilt Thou have me
to do?'' He obeyed the call, and, having finished a
preparatory course of study, was ordained Deacon in
old St. George's Church, July, 1787. by Bishop Provoost,
who, just five months before, had been consecrated in
England. It was the first ordination that had ever
taken place in New York, and there were but six
Clergymen there to welcome the new Bishop. In Sep-
tember of the same year, and in the same church, he
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 147
was admitted to the Order of Priesthood. From that
time onward to the hour of his death in Lynchburg,
November 1841, the blessing of a God of love seemed to
rest with peculiar power upon his labors as a pastor, as
a preacher, and as a prelate.
At Rye, Westchester County, where he staid two years,
he strengthened the Church, and built a new house
of worship. On Staten Island, where he staid twenty
years, his ministry was most signally favored by the
presence of the Holy Spirit. It was in this parish that
occurred that well-known event in his ministerial history,
which, alas ! brethren, is not paralleled in many of ours.
He had been preaching at one of his usual stations in
the afternoon ; and, the ordinary closing devotions being
ended, he pronounced the benediction. But not a per-
son moved to retire. All seated themselves in the atti-
tude of fixed and solemn attention. A member of the
Church arose, and said, " Dr. Moore, the people are not
disposed to go home : please give us another sermon."
At the close of that, the like scene was repeated. And
the services were continued until, at the close of a third
sermon^ the preacher was obliged to say, " My beloved
people, you must now disperse ; for, although I delight
to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation, my strength is
exhausted, and I can say no more." It was the begin-
ning of a glorious revival of religion, and during that
year more than a hundred communicants were added to
the Church. From Staten Island he removed to St.
Stephen's Church, New- York City ; and his five years'
ministry there increased the communion from twenty
to four hundred. What were the fruits of his labors
148 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
among us in the twenty-seven years God gave him to
Virginia ? The Clergy increased from eight or ten to
ninety-five. In the first year of his episcopate he ad-
mitted three persons to the ministry, and enrolled four
candidates. The communicants increased from three or
four hundred to nearly four thousand. But figures can-
not express the amount of life and vigor which had
been given to the whole Diocese ; the hopefulness and
activity infused into both Clergy and laity ; that "Joy
of the Lord which is our strength^' in which our Diocese
at that time abounded. When Bishop Moore was taken
from us, the Church in Vu-ginia was growing rapidly; she
seemed " alive unto God," and her daily prayer seemed
to be visibly answered. Her " Bishops and other Clergy,
and the congregations committed to their charge," were
having poured upon them " the healthful spirit of God's
grace," the " cojitinual dew of His blessing." It was this
that made our old Virginia Conventions so delightful
f and so profitable. The spirit of those conventions was
If' Bishop Moore's own spirit, — eminently social, yet re-
! strained from any thing like levity by an abiding sense
of the Divine presence, with a tenderness of heart and a
fervency of spirit in His worship, drawn from the attrac-
tive purifying power of our crucified Saviour, who on
such occasions was always " lifted up" before the people
conspicuously by a band of Clergy, who, like their
Bishop, seemed to feel that they themselves had " received
mercy." Our Barnabas was indeed endued with gifts
which peculiarly fitted him for the work God gave him,
to raise our fallen Church. No other man could have done
as well. He had such a peculiar skill in exhortation.
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 149
He was so pre-eminently " a son of consolation." Then
his personal appearance was so attractive. " His snow-
white locks," says one who saw him often, "which hung
in thick profusion over his shoulders ; his face, broad and
full ; his eye, so expressive of benevolence and charity ;
and his lips, evermore wreathed with a smile such as
a kind father wears towards his children, — added to a
walk and a deportment which bespoke to the beholder
the man of God, — made an impression upon one, not
easily to be forgotten." His voice was sweet, clear, and
flexible ; his enunciation very distinct ; and his delivery,
without the least affectation, remarkably impressive.
In the General Convention of 1808, in Baltimore, he
was a deputy from New York, and chairman of a com-
mittee of the House to propose additional hymns to
our then very scanty stock. When he read the report,
one hymn after another was adopted without discussion,
until at last an opponent of the measure arose, and said,
'■^ I object to the hymns being read by that gentleman;
for we are so fascinated by his style of reading that we
shall without hesitation adopt them all." That persua-
sive voice was peculiarly effective in his exhortations.
When " stirred up," as he expressed it, by any of his
brother ministers, in an effort to " win souls " to the |
Saviour, the full flow of his sympathetic nature, and the]
warmth of his loving heart, made him a preacher of un-J
common power. His pastoral gifts were no less remark-
able. With a good deal of dignity, he was eminently
sociable and cheerful, looking always on the bright side
of things ; with admirable prudence and common-sense ;
the tenderest comforter in a sick-room and in affliction :
150 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
there was not a home or a church in all the Diocese that
was not purified and refreshed by a visit from him, nor a
child whom he met that did not wish to see him again.
It was by these annual visitations chiefly, that the life of
the Diocese was restored. If he had only been loosed
from his parochial ties, how much more might he not
have effected ! " Wherever he went," says Dr. Hawks,
" he diffused a portion of that zeal which inspired his
own labors ; and in those labors no one could be more
abundant. He traversed his Diocese from north to
south ; and, crossing the mountains more than once, his
presence was both seen and felt eastward of the Blue
Ridge. He was compelled to be a missionary, or see his
Diocese go backward." Must not that be always the
easel Is not the Bishop's office that of the chief mis-
sionary of his Diocese % Has not the Church in Virginia
Iways grown in proportion as our Bishops have thrown
^themselves among their people ? Thus our good Bishop
Moore labored on cheerfully, untiringly, up to the last
moment of his life, Nov. 11, 1811, when at the house
of one of his dear sons of the Clergy, the Rev. Thomas
Atkinson, afterwards Bishop of North Carolina, in the
eightieth year of his age, he gently breathed his last.
When told by his host he could not live, " Well, sir," he
answered, " I trust all things are arranged with me for
both worlds." When asked what message he had for
his family, " Nothing hut love," he said, '''■for his dear chil-
dren." Brethren, we of the Diocese are his children.
The last breath wafted to us all from his lips, let us
remember it, brethren of the ministry, " Nothing hut
love ! "
If
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 151
But Bishop Moore was not the only instrument, by any
means, our Good Shepherd employed to recall his scat-
tered sheep, and to restore his flock in this old Diocese.
In the convention that called him, there were some
four or five active and earnest young prophets and
teachers, who, like those at Antioch, often fasted and
prayed before the Lord, concerning the interests of his
Church ; and to them God the Spirit often spoke.
There were the Aarons and the Hurs, who, at their
Bishop's side, helped him to hold forth before the faint-
ing eyes of our struggling hosts " the rod of God ;" and
upon their strong arms it was his delight to lean. The
Kevs. William H. Wilmer, Oliver Norris, John Dunn,
and William Meade were his most efficient co-labor-
ers in the cause which lay nearest to all their hearts, —
the revival of true religion in the Church of this old Dio-
cese. The three first mentioned finished their course
before their beloved leader. It was upon the last one of
the four, the Rev. William Meade, that the chief weight
of his important and burdensome office was made to rest
twelve years before Bishop Moore's release ; and finally,
in 1841, he succeeded to all its responsibilities.
The key of spiritual government could not have been
laid on broader or better shoulders, nor could the high
office of leader in the dispensation of the Gospel have
been committed to a more faithful messenger of the Lord
of hosts. In everj/ inch of him a man, of commanding
presence, and with talents to command, if the army or
the navy had been his choice, he would have surelij made
his mark and won success. But the fervent prayers of a
mother whom he dearly loved, and honored as well as
152 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
loved, were answered by his choice being directed, at
the age of eighteen, to the sacred ministry, instead of to
the bar, to which his thoughts at first were turned.
He was born in the county of Frederick (now Clarke),
Virginia, Nov. 16, 1789, the fifth child of Col. Richard
Kidder Meade and Mary Grymes, whose first husband
was William Randolph of Chatsworth. About seven-
teen years old, he was sent to Princeton instead of
to William and Mary College; for at that time (1806)
" the College of William and Mary," he tells us, " was re-
garded as the hotbed of infidelity and of the wild poli-
tics of France. Strong as was the Virginia feeling in
favor of the ' alma mater ' of their parents, the Northern
colleges were filled with the sons of Virginia's best
men." He graduated at Princeton, the valedictorian of
a class of more than forty, and through the influence
of a much-loved cousin, Mrs. Custis of Arlington, de-
termined to pursue his studies in divinity under the
care of Rev. Walter Addison of Georgetown. It was
while reading under Mr. Addison's direction, and chiefly
through the instrumentality of two books, — Soame
Jenyns on " The Internal Evidence of Christianity," and
Wilberforce's " Practical View," — that he received
those strong views of evangelical truth, which colored aU
his preaching, and governed him in all his future work.
He says, himself, " The first clear, satisfactory, and de-
lightful view of the necessity and reasonableness of a
propitiation for sin by our blessed Lord was presented to
my mind" at that time. " I shall never forget the time
or the instrument, or the happy eff"ect, and how I rose
up again and again, from my bed, to give thanks to God
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 153
for it." In the summer of 1809 he returned to Prince-
ton to complete his theological preparation ; but, while
there, he was taken with a dangerous illness, which
stopped his studies, and he returned to his mountain
home. A few months after, having no rules of a theo-
logical seminary, nor the fear of a dean and faculty, be-
fore his eyes, and just in his twentieth year, he happily
married a near cousin to whom he had been for some time
engaged. It is but right to say, however, in his book on
the "Pastoral Office" he decidedly discourages young
candidates for the ministry from following his example.
Pursuing, then, the labors of his farm and his studies
together for about a year longer, he was admitted to
Deacon's orders by Bishop Madison, in the old church
in Williamsburg, on the morning of Feb. 24:, 1811. It
was a bright Sunday morning. Two ladies and fifteen
gentlemen formed the congregation, most of them his
own relatives. One citizen was filling his ice-house,
and companies of students with their dogs and guns
were going to spend the day in hunting. Such was the
religious condition of our Church in the old Colonial
capital ! Soon after he was ordained Deacon, he took
charge of Christ Church, Alexandria, and some time
next year was admitted to the Order of Priesthood by
Bishop Claggett of Maryland. From the beginning of
his ministry, his stand among the Virginia Clergy be-
came a conspicuous one. He was connected by blood
or marriage with many of the first families of the State ;
and the very fact of his taking orders in the Episcopal
Church, so low was its condition then, awakened a large
amount of surprise at his boldness, as well as of warm
154 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
interest in his success. It was some years after his or-
dination that Judge Marshall told him, while giving
him some money for the Seminary, " it was a hopeless
undertaking, and that it was almost unkind to induce
young Virginians to enter the Episcopal ministry, the
Church being too far gone ever to be revived." But
like the prophet Isaiah, in Israel's darkest days, to the
soul of this young Virginian had been given a vision
of the High and Lofty One, whose " train filled the
temple," whose grace is omnipotent, and whose glory
shall fill the whole earth. He heard His voice, "Whom
shall I send ? Who will go for us ? " His soul, like the
prophet, answered " JVoe is me! I am a man of unclean
lips ; " but " here I am, send me'' And he who " touched
Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire " certainly gave to this
young man of God a message to His people in the Dio-
cese, which he most faithfully delivered. It was a mes-
sage oftentimes of warning, sometimes of sharp rebuke,
but always solemn, always searching, and always the
saving Gospel of our crucified Lord, quickening the soul
by its life-giving precepts and its rebukes and chasten-
ings as well as by its comforting doctrines and precious
promises. " Whenever he preached," says his accom-
plished biographer, " a crowd gathered to admke, if
nothing more, his manner of reading prayers and the
eloquence of his sermons, — not the eloquence formed
by art of oratory, but flowing from a heart pervaded by
intense interest in his message and for his hearers, and
which the peasant and the philosopher could alike appre-
ciate and enjoy." " As a minister of the Gospel he was
highly gifted. His youthful appearance at the first, the
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 155
manly presence into which this matured, his sound and
vigorous and well-balanced intellect, his naturally brave
and feeling heart, were very important contributions for
efficiency in his sacred office. And when to these are
added a voice singularly sonorous and sweet, and a man-
ner very earnest and persuasive, it is unnecessary to
say he was capable of the very highest order of elo-
quence."
To this let me add, his manner of reading the service
was profoundly reverent and fervent. He prayed^ not
read the prayers. His sermons were highly practical
and faithfully pointed. Their spiritual teachings came
from his own deep religious experience. His theology
was not drawn from books or " Bodies of Divinity."
He confesses to a very scanty theological training. But
it came from something far better. It came from his
own warm heart, and his admirable common-sense, de-
voutly studying God's Word, and kept fresh and fervent
by habits of constant devotion. He was early taught by
his mother to realize the presence and the eye of God
ever with him. Bishop Madison had recommended to
him the " Sacra Privata," and other writings of Bishop
Wilson. And his own book of " Family Prayers " shows
to what a large extent he had imbibed the devout spirit
of the old Bishop of Sodor and Man. His religion was
therefore eminently of a spiritual type. While he con-
stantly enforced the duties of the Christian life, he never
failed to show both the motive and the power from
which all actions must proceed to render them accept-
able. He never would avow himself to be what is called
a Calvinist, but no man ever valued more highly " the
156 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
doctrines of grace ; " and his associations and his sympa-
thies were all with the writers and the men of that class.
Yet his mind was averse to speculation ; and whatever
tended, as he thought, to mere theorizings about holy
truths, he had no fancy or toleration for. But when the
controversy about the Oxford Tracts arose, and he
thought the vital doctrines of oui- Protestant faith were
threatened, he did not hesitate to say " the truth was
safer in the hands of men of the Augustinian and Cal-
vinistic schools than among their opponents." So dear
to him, as a Christian, were those truths which form
a large part of the fabric of that system of theology !
No preacher ever proclaimed with more sincere feel-
ing than Bishop Meade the corruption of human nature,
nor dwelt upon it oftener. The older he grew, the
more earnestly he sought to humble the sinner, and
exalt the saving grace and power of the Divine Re-
deemer. Who that heard it can ever forget that re-
markable Convention sermon of 1861, " Few and evil
have been the days of the years of my life " ? No one
but a man of the truest humility could ever have preached
that sermon. So much about himself, and yet so evi-
dently only to exalt the Lord and Saviour at whose feet
he was imlUiig to show himself ashamed and humbled!
Such preaching as Bishop Meade's could not fail to tell ;
and, while it built up Christians in their holy faith, it
also roused into more decided hostility the worldly
minded, the formal, and the self-indulgent. One of the
earliest and most important works which Bishop Meade
accomplished for this Diocese was the creation of our
Theological Seminary. As far back as 1815, at the
SKETCH OF OUB FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 157
suggestion of Dr. John Augustine Smith, then president
of William and Mary College, the Convention of the
Diocese had considered a plan to establish a theological
professorship in the college. Trustees of a fund to
support the professorship were appointed, ten thousand
dollars were raised, and the Rev. Dr. Keith occupied
the position for two years. One student only presented
himself, and the attempt was abandoned. About the
time the Educational Society was formed, in 1818,
frequent consultations were held at the house of Dr.
Thomas Henderson of Georgetown, between himself,
Francis S. Key, and the Revs. Messrs. Hawley, Wilmer,
and Meade. The result was the establishment in Alex-
andria, in 1823, of the Theological Seminary under Dr.
Keith, assisted by Messrs. Wilmer and Norris. To build
up this institution, from that time onward Bishop Meade
gave all the energies of his mind and body, and much of
his " estate." " To him, more than to any one person in
the Diocese, the Seminary owes its existence." Bishop
Moore thus spoke of him to the Convention of 1828.
Most appropriately, therefore, is inscribed upon that
monument which whitens our Seminary Hill, " The
founder and the liberal patron of the Theological Sem-
inary of Virginia." The episcopate of Bishop Meade
is marked most conspicuously, perhaps, by the introduc-
tion, both among ministers and people, of stricter views
of discipline. Trained in his own early youth to strict
obedience to parental authority, and to great plainness
of dress and manners ; cultivating as a matter of prin-
ciple, in all his habits of life, economy and simplicity ;
always maintaining that discipline was a mark of the
158 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
true Church, — he boldly set himself, first as a parish
minister and then as a Bishop, to correct that dangerous
laxity in manners and morals, to which God's people at
all times and in all places, while in contact with a sedu-
cing world, are fearfully liable ; and from which the
Church in Virginia, just emerging from the overflowing
of infidelity and irreligion, was greatly suff'ering. To
counteract the Church's worldliness, he sought to bring
her members up to the high standard of their own form-
ularies. No man ever loved the Episcopal Church, in
all its distinctive features, more warmly and sincerely
than Bishop Meade. Some one asked him to influence,
by his advice, a young member of the Episcopal Church
to join the church of the gentleman she was about to
marry. He replied, " I have never advised any of my
young people to leave their own church. I cannot do it."
Soon after he finished his book on the " Old Churches and
Families in Virginia," he said, " I hope it will make some
of the children of the old families that have left us, desii*e
to come back." He loved our dear old Church, especially,
because of the thorough spirituality of all her forms and
teachings, their strict conformity to God's word, their
peculiar fitness to promote a rich growth in grace and
in the knowledge of our adorable Redeemer. To the
teachings of our Church he was always turning the
attention of the Clergy and laity, thereby to render
discipline less necessary. Look at his many Pastoral
Addresses to Parents and Sponsors ; his Tracts on Con-
firmation, declared by Dr. Seabury, the Bishop's grand-
son, to be worthy of St. Chrysostom ; his " Baptismal
Vows and Worldly Amusements," — in all these, em-
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 159
phatically setting forth this truth, that, to be a good Epis-
copalian, the member of the Church must keep himself
" unspotted from the world." May his faithful warnings
never be forgotten !
In his relations to the Church at large, Bishop Meade's
position ought to be noticed. No one of our Bishops
had as much to do with the affairs of the Church out
of our own Diocese, or impressed as strongly his charac-
ter upon the mind and conscience of the whole American
Church. He was sent to the General Convention as
early as 1820, and in 1827 was voted for as assistant to
Bishop White by Dr. Bedell and a large minority of
the Clergy of Pennsylvania. Elected in 1829 Assistant
Bishop of this Diocese, he seemed never to forget that
he was still a Bishop of the Church of God, to exert his
influence wherever it could be used for truth and purity.
In the legislation of the General Convention, therefore,
he always took a warm interest ; and his strong^ active
mind, good judgment, honesty, and earnest piety soon gave
him a leading position among those who agreed with
his views, and commanded the respect, even if they did
not in every case silence the bitter tongues, of those
who differed from him. Bishop Alonzo Potter was once
asked, " Who is the ruling spiiit in the House of
Bishops % " He said, " There is a man who lies on the
sofa from ill health, who often soems half asleep ; but
let any question of moment come up, and he is wide
awake, and wields an influence which no other man in
the House of Bishops comes near." As a reformer of
the morals of the general Church, he certainly stands
conspicuous. Like John the Baptist, he " constantly
160 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
spoke the truth, boldly rebuked vice, and patiently
suifered for the truth's sake." But for Bishop Meade,
it may be safely said the Episcopal Church in this coun-
try would never have been purified, as she certainly has
been, at least in the ranks of her Clergy, by the well-
known "trials" of 1844 and 1845, and of 1851. Two
years and a half before his death, the General Con-
vention was held, for the first time in the history of the
Church, south of the Potomac, in this city and in this
church ; and the voice of Virginia, up to the Revolu-
tion the strongest part of the Church, seemed then for
the first time to be allowed to have something of its
proper weight and influence. The Diocese at that time
numbered a hundred and thirteen Clergy and seventy-
eight hundred communicants.
When the war separated the States, and the General
Council of the Confederate Dioceses was formed, in 1861,
Bishop Meade took his place among them as the senior
Bishop, and presided at their deliberations. The last
ofiiciai act of his life was here at this chancel to lay his
trembling hands, in consecration to the episcopate of
Alabama, upon the head of the son of his early friend
and co-laborer in Virginia, Dr. William H. Wilmer.
He died a few days after, March 14, 1862, at the house
of a valued friend, Mr. John L. Bacon, when the skies
were darkening all around us with the heavy clouds of
war. It was my privilege to stand at his bedside until
he became unconscious, and to witness his last interview
with Gen. Lee. It was eminently characteristic of the
men. Visitors had been forbidden by the doctors ; but,
when the general was announced as having called, the
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 161
Bishop roused himself, and said, " I must see him for a
few minutes." The general was brought in by Bishop
Johns ; and, grasping warmly the extended hand, he
said, " Bishop, how do you feel ? " — "I am almost gone,
but I wanted to see you once more." He then made
inquiries about the members of his family, — Mrs. Lee by
name, the daughter of his much-loved cousin of Arling-
ton, — and put several earnest, eager questions about
public affairs and the state of the army, showing the
liveliest interest in the success of our cause, to all which
the general returned brief but satisfactory answers.
He then said, "God bless you! God bless you, Robert,
and fit you for your high and responsible position. I
can't call you ' general,' I've heard you your catechism
so often." — "Yes, Bishop," said the general as he
stooped over him, and pressed his hand tenderly (and
I think I saw a tear drop), " very often." Again our
dying Bishop shook his hand warmly, and said, "Heaven
bless you ! Heaven bless you, and give you wisdom for
your important and arduous duties." The general then
slowly withdrew. Not one word said for effect ! not a
thing done that was not entirely consistent with the
simplicity and majesty of perfect truthfulness !
An hour or two afterwards I took his hand, which
was shaking with every throb of his heart, and asked
him if he suffered much. " Yes," he said, " I suffer a
good deal; hut I have a blessed Redeemer" He died, as
he had always lived, very near to his lord.
For more than twenty years before his death, even
before Bishop Moore was taken, Bishop Meade's vigor-
ous frame had begun to give way under the heavy duties
162 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
imposed upon him by this large Diocese. In the spring
of 1842 he asked for an assistant; and so evident was
the necessity, the Convention promptly responded by
the election of the Rev. John Johns, D.D., Rector of
Christ Church, Baltimore. On the strong and tender
arm of this beloved brother the Bishop leaned for nearly
twenty years, with manifest relief and gratification.
Bishop Johns was born in Newcastle, Del., July 30,
1796. On his father's side he was of Welsh extraction.
His ancestor, Richard Johns, a native of Bristol, Eng.,
emigrated to Maryland, and settled in Calvert County.
In 1671, through George Fox's influence, he joined the
Society of Friends, and became a minister among them,
and a man of much influence for good in the province.
The Bishop's father, the Hon. Kensey Johns, Chan-
cellor of the Supreme Court of Delaware, whose ven-
erable form we saw at the consecration of his son in the
Monumental Church, October, 1842, was born at West
River, Md., June 14, 1759. He was a member of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, and rendered efficient ser-
vice in both Diocesan and General Conventions. He
married, about 1783, Ann Van Dyke, daughter of Nicho-
las Van Dyke, delegate from Delaware to the Conti-
nental Congress, and president of the Commonwealth.
Of their three sons and three daughters, the Bishop
was the second son. It is remarkable how often in the
chronicles of the kings, both of Israel and of Judah,
we meet with the short sentence attached to the person
named, " His mother s name was" so and so. Is it not
to tell us how much the sons character is formed by the
mother? It was certainly so with Bishop Moore and
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 163
Bishop Meade. No less so with Bishop Johns. His
mother's devoted piety, and firm adherence to high
religious principle both for herself and her children,
saved her family from falling into those dreadful social
sins of Sunday/ visiting, card-playing, drinking, and the-
atrical amusements, which surrounded the Bishop in his
early youth. In 1812 he entered Princeton College,
and during his four-years' course there, in a season of
religious awakening, became a communicant. In New-
castle, Judge Johns's family had been accustomed to
attend the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches alter-
nately. Each of the ministers had a country parish,
and they so arranged that they never officiated in the
town the same part of the day on Sunday. The same
congregation went in the morning to one church, in
the afternoon to the other. As a natural result, in the
judge's family, some of the children became Presbyte-
rians and others Episcopalians ; and the Bishop's mind
remained for some time undecided as to the Church in
which he should minister.
It was by the advice of one of his father's intimate
friends, who afterwards became an eminent Presbyterian
minister, — Dr. James P. Wilson, — his decision was at
last made for the Episcopal Church. At Princeton was
formed that friendship for Dr. Charles Hodge, which
continued to increase in strength and tenderness for
sixty-four years, and which, beautiful in itself, minis-
tered greatly to his comfort to his dying day. Strange
to say, our Bishop's decision for the Episcopal Church
seems to have given to the Presbyterian Church one of
her most valuable and honored ministers. Dr. Hodge
164 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
himself tells us how: "This decision of Bishop Johns,
although neither of us at the time knew any thing
about it, determined my whole course in life. When Dr.
Archibald Alexander was appointed professor in the
seminary at Princeton, he had under his care the de-
partments of didactic, polemic, and pastoral theology,
together with instruction in Hebrew. He soon found
this was too burdensome, and therefore determined to
select some young man on whom he might devolve the
Hebrew department. He selected Johns. When he
decided to enter the Episcopal Church, he took up with
me."
Thus it is, God uses every one of us, unconsciously, to
influence others. Bishop Johns's habits and career as
a student are well worthy of notice and of imitation.
There was a great deal of enthusiasm in his nature,
well guarded, however, with a large amount of caution.
In youth he was full of fun and frolic, bright in intellect
and genial in disposition, passionalely fond of hunting,
and a fine shot. All this vivacity of natural tempera-
ment, and love of excelling, he threw into his studies ;
and the result was what Dr. Hodge tells us, " Johns
was always flr.^t, — first everywhere, first in every thing.
His success was largely owing to his determination
always to do his best. He was always thoroughly pre-
pared for every exercise in the college and in the semi-
nary. When in the seminary, he would be able, day
after day, to give what ' Turretin,' our text-book, calls
• the state of the question,' — stating that the question is
not this or that, until every foreign element is elimi-
nated, and then the precise point in hand is laid down
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 165
with, unmistakable precision. Then follows, in distinct
paragraphs, the argument in its support. Then come
the answers to objections. Dr. Alexander was accus-
tomed to give us from twenty to forty quarto pages m
Latin to read for a recitation. When we came to recite,
the professor would place the book before him, and say,
' What is the state of the question ? ' ' What is the
first argument 1 ' Then, ' What is the first objection,
and its answer?' Dr. Johns would be able, day after
day, to give ' the state of the qtiestiofi,' all the arguments
in its support in their order, all the ' objections ' and the
'answers' to them, through the whole thirty or forty
pages, without the professor saying a word to him."
With such a thorough foundation, no wonder he took
a high stand as a preacher. From the very fist, this
seems to have been his aim, — to excel as a jweacher.
The text of his first sermon, delivered in the afternoon
of his ordination by Bishop White in St. Peter's, Phila-
delphia, June 10, 1819, was indicative of his purpose,
and prophetic of his success. It was our Saviour's text,
that of His fist recorded sermon. " The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to
preach the Gospel to the poor," etc. Did he not, to the
end of his life, try to fulfil his divine mission among us
in the same Scriptural strain, just as his Saviour would
lead him by the hand and suggest to him the topic and
the words, with the " good tidings to the meek, deliver-
ance to the captive, sight to the blind, liberty to the
bruised, and acceptance with God," ever upon his lips ?
He never forgot his •' Turretin," nor the systematic
training it gave him. Still it was " the glorious Gospel
166 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
of the blessed God," which formed his theme through
the whole of his ministry. At the risk of the charge
of " sameness " in his discourses, he would continue to
preach Christ and Him crucified, to all classes of
hearers. Not for want of other matter. He chose to
know nothing among men but that one theme. His
mind was exceedingly quick and well furnished, and to
the end of his days he was very careful in the prepara-
tion of his sermons. At first he memorized them. He
would take his text on Monday morning, and by
Wednesday evening the sermon was written : the rest
of the week, he was committing it to memory. But
he soon laid aside this method for a better one. He
would impress upon his memory the thoughts of his
sermon, arranging them methodically as he intended
to utter them ; helping his memory by copious notes, but
never bringing them into the pulpit.
His natural gifts, moreover, were of an uncommon
kind, — not merely the tenacious memory : his voice
was well toned as well as well trained, his delivery
exceedingly animated, and his gestures graceful. His
readiness of utterance was most remarkable, and his
choice of language exceedingly happy. One instance
of his readiness of utterance came under my own ob-
servation. Just before the war, he was to confirm for
me at Nottoway Court-house, then a mission station.
He arrived in a freight-train, late and very tired. He
assigned to me the service and the sermon, promising to
make an address after sermon. I took my text, pro-
ceeded, and closed my sermon, and, turning to the
Bishop, discovered to my dismay, — what the congrega-
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 167
tion fortunately had not discovered, — that he was ^^ro-
foundli/ asleep. The sound of my voice ceasing waked
him up. He started to his feet ; and, with only a
moment's hesitation, he delivered one of the most
appropriate and useful addresses I ever heard from him,
exactly fitting into the sermon, and producing an excel-
lent effect. He told me afterwards he had heard only
the text. His fii-st parochial charge was in Frederick-
to'svn, Md. It is interesting to know, that, as early as
1819, the acquaintance and the friendship of our two
Princeton Bishops began. In " The Fredericktown
Herald" of Aug. 7, 1819, the following notice was
printed : " The Rev. John Johns and the Rev. William
Meade are expected in town to-morrow, when the
Protestant Episcopal Church will be opened for Divine
service." There was only seven years' difference in
their ages. In Fredericktown, Bishop Johns remained
nine years, with God's rich blessing upon his ministry.
There, too, he married, Nov. 20, 1820. While there,
he was called to St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia. He
asked advice of Dr. Alexander upon the matter, and
received in reply from that wise Christian minister words
which all of us Clergy, especially the younger ones,
would do well to remember : " Do not think the amount
of your usefulness depends upon the size of your congrega-
tion." During his ministry in Fredericktown, a young
man who had been educated in the Church of Rome, and
was then a student of law in Chief- Justice Taney's office,
was one evening playing at billiards with a friend : they
determined from curiosity to go and hear the new
Episcopal minister, whose reputation was already rising.
168 SKETCH OF OUB FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
God blessed that single sermon ; and the next morning
found the young law-student in that minister's study,
asking what he should do to be saved. The final result
was the entrance into our ministry of the Kev. John
Thompson Brooke, one of our most distinguished and
useful Clergymen. In 1829 Dr. Johns was called to
Christ Church, Baltimore. There, also, his ministry was
greatly blessed; and, when in 1842 he was elected
Assistant Bishop of this Diocese, the congregation was
one of the largest in Baltimore. His standing in that
Diocese is shown by the fact that he was the prominent
candidate for Bishop of the Low-Church party, during
the memorable contest of 18J:0. In fulfilling his duties
as Bishop Meade's assistant, he soon acquired through-
out the bounds of this Diocese that popularity as a
preacher he had always won elsewhere ; and, instead of
waning, it rather increased, as the experience of years
and his own growth in grace made him more fervent
in spirit and more anxious for the salvation of souls.
Dr. Packard tells us, in his bright sketch of him, —
"Bishop Johns gloried in the cross of Christ. On the fifty-
fifth anniversary of his ordination, he preached in the chapel of
the^ Theological Seminary ; and after expressing his gratitude to
God, that He had called him by His grace to the ministry of recon-
ciliation, and granted him so long a continuance in it, he earnestly
and affectionately exhorted his young brethren never to be weary
in the service of Lord and Master. He was a laborious preacher,
and labored to the last. It was no uncommon thing for him to
preach twice a day for a fortnight together."
The Bishop's residence, after his consecration, was in
Richmond; and during the winter and spring months,
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 169
before the season of his visitations began, he spared
not himself. This congregation of St. Paul's, at least
its older members, can bear witness how cordially he
resumed the pastor's labors, and how faithfully he
performed them, during the constrained absence one
winter of their beloved and over-worked Rector (Dr.
Norwood). In 1849 it was thought best that he should
remove to Williamsburg, and do what he could, as
president of the college, to revive its declining life.
He assumed the position, and threw himself, with his
accustomed zeal, into its duties. His daughter writes
of that period, " Five happy years spent in the refined
society, surrounded with the literary atmosphere, and
pleasant associations with the professors, was most con-
genial to my father. His consideration and thought for
the students still bear fruit in the lives and examples
of many." Bishop Meade's testimony is still more em-
phatic : " During the five years of his continuance, not-
withstanding the arduous labors of his episcopal office,
he so diligently and wisely conducted the management
of the college as to produce a regular increase of the
number of the students, until they had nearly reached
the maximum of former times ; established a better dis-
cipline than perhaps ever before had prevailed in the
institution ; and attracted more students of divinity to
its lectures than had ever been seen there in the memory
of any now living." It seems, then, that in teaching, as
well as in preaching, Bishop Johns was in his element.
In September, 185-i, the Bishop removed to his own
sweet home on the Seminary Hill at " Malvern," and
soon began to identify himself with the interests of the
170 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
seminary, and to exert a marked influence over the
successive generations of students thence passing into
the ministry. The rude shock of war dislodged him
from his quiet resting-place ; and when the Federal
troops invaded Alexandria, in 1861, he became, for the
four dark years of our contest, a " refugee," enduring
all dangers and discomforts with a quiet and even a
cheerful spirit. With Bishop Meade, and many other
patriots both in Church and State, he had disapproved of
and prayed against the war. But, when forced out of
the Union by the Government's resort to arms, he, with
our elder Bishop, cast in his lot heartily with the South
and the Southern Dioceses, and prepared to suffer. It
was during the conflict that our elder Bishop, like Elijah,
was translated, almost in a chariot of fire, not long
before the battle of Seven Pines ; and upon Elisha's
shoulders rested the duties and responsibilities of keep-
ing up the spiritual life of our poor shattered Diocese.
During those eventful years, without a home, with many
discomforts, he ceased not to teach and to preach, and,
as he had opportunity, to do good unto all men. He
ofl'ered the prayer at the inauguration of President Davis ;
and he preached the Gospel of peace to the soldiers in
the camp, and to many of the regiments just on the eve
of battle. The journals of 1863 and 1864 show how
busy he was in supplying the Confederate army, person-
ally and officially, with the ministrations of the Gospel.
Gen. Jackson, just before his death, sent him a spe-
cial request to send, if possible, forty faithful ministers
to supply that number of vacant chaplaincies in the
army of the Rappahannock. Gen. Lee added his ear-
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 171
nest request, and the Bishop appealed to the council.
By a solemn resolution the Bishop was asked to call
upon the ministers then without parishes, to render
reHgious services to the array for such a time and at
such a place as he might designate ; and the whole
Clergy of the council, in a body, offered themselves for
the work. Another war reminiscence is worth recalhng.
It illustrates his character, and his position in those try-
ing days. Early in 1864 a letter reached him by flag
of truce, from Dr. Addison of Wheeling, then a part
of his Diocese, asking him to permit some Bishop to
administer for him the rite of confirmation to the
many candidates there awaiting that important ordi-
nance, promising in the selection "to conform as closely
as practicable to his known wishes on the subject." To
this the Bishop replied courteously and affectionately ;
firmly declining, however, to give the permission asked,
but offering with all readiness to go himself, on his
parole of honor, to perform the service, if the Federal
authorities would give him a safe-conduct. The " safe-
conduct" was never given ; but, when the war was over,
the Bishop returned from his visitation to that part of
his Diocese, much gratified by the courtesy and kindness
with which he had been everywhere received. In the
steps taken towards the re-union of our Dioceses in the
fall of 1865, Bishop Johns was by no means slow to
move. Having been invited, by a cu'cular from the
then presiding Bishop of the Northern Dioceses
(Bishop Hopkins), to resume our representation in the
General Convention of 1865, Bishop Johns advised
the Diocesan Council to take action in response to the
172 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
invitation, plainly showing his own desire for immediate
re-union. In this important matter, however, the Bishop
was in advance of his Diocese. The committee to whom
the matter was referred decKned to recommend such
action until sanctioned by the General Council of the
Confederated Dioceses, to whom we felt ourselves
pledged. The Church in Virginia was not represented
in the General Convention of 1865.
Alone now in the office of the episcopate, Bishop
Johns began the toilsome work of rebuilding the wasted
parishes, and cheering the many darkened homes and
broken hearts of his Clergy and people. Though blessed
with an uncommon degree of health and vigor, he soon
began to feel the incessant labor too great for one who
had already attained his " threescore years and ten."
In the spring of 1867 he intimated his need of an assist-
ant. A majority of the committee to whom were referred
the subjects of an assistant, and the division of the
Diocese, were in favor of giving the Bishop relief by a
division ; but, as the need seemed pressing, they yielded
their own wishes to his wants. His request was granted
by the election of the E,ev. Francis M. Whittle of St.
Paul's Church, Louisville, Ky. And, in the consecration
of this our fifth Bishop of Virginia, the Church in the
United States gave to the Diocese of Virginia the first
visible sign and seal of her willingness to accept the prof-
fered hand of reconciliation. On the 30th of April,
1868, our present Diocesan received his consecration
at the hands of Bishop Johns himself, assisted by his
brethren of Delaware and Ohio. " Thus," says Bishop
Johns, " after an unprecedented and unreasonable delay
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 173
of twelve months, your right as a Diocese has been rec-
ognized, and your devout desire happily accomplished."
And so it has happened a second time in the history
of our Church, the Episcopate of Virginia became, by
God's good providence, the keystone to make strong the
foundation-arch of the Church prosperity in this coun-
try, by completing the wiion of the Dioceses. Mark that,
ye brethren who desire Diocesan independence ! Twice,
in her history, has God made the Episcopate of Vir-
ginia to become the seal of the union of all the Dio-
ceses, — first, when the Union was formed; next, when,
broken by war, it was ac/ain cemented. Eight years
longer after this was our Bishop spared to us, fulfilling
more than thirty-three years of a most useful and hon-
ored episcopate. The Psalmist's description was true of
him : he " shall bring forth fruit in old age ; " " his leaf
also shall not wither." His love to God and to his
fellow-man seemed to increase as he grew older. His
mind and heart enlarged and softened. His influence
in the House of Bishops was year by year more dis-
tinctly felt and acknowledged. His opening sermon at
the General Convention of 1871, "The love of Christ
constraineth us," touched a chord in every true Christian's
heart, and largely promoted the spirit of harmony and
charity and missionary zeal which marked the proceed-
ings of that body. Dean Howson, who was present, said
of that sermon, " I could not help thinking of the Apos-
tle Paiil during the concluding words of that most effec-
tive, most serious sermon, which we had the advantage
of listening to, from the Bishop, who was the preacher
yesterday. I felt that he had concentrated in that ser-
174 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS,
mon the main spirit of St. Paul's life and character. And
it seemed to me, as he spoke (evidently showing the
traces of long experience and hard work), that there was
a persuasiveness in his language and his manner of
speaking w^hich was extremely like what must have been
witnessed and heard by those who listened to the great
apostle. The impression at the close of that sermon was
simply this : that I never before had fully understood
the depth and breadth of those words, ' I believe in the
Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints.'" It
was at this convention, also, our Bishop showed his un-
abated vigor of mind, and his skill in the command of
language, as well as his increasing influence among
the Bishops, by the important part he took in framing
the " Declaration of the House of Bishops" on the use
of the word " regenerate " in the baptismal service.
He told me it cost him a night's sleep to fix upon that
single word " determine " in the sentence, " We declare,
that, in our opinion, the word ' regenerate ' is not there
so used as to determine that a moral cJiange in the subject
of baptism is wrought by that sacrament."
Consulting next morning with Bishop Mcllvaine and
Bishop Whittingham, the two extremes that were to be
reconciled, to his delight he found the expression satis-
factory to them both ; and the Declaration was adopted
almost unanimously. On the 19th of February, 1876,
the Bishop preached his last sermon. Soon after came a
slight attack of paralysis, and he felt and said Us work
ivas done. His dying hours moved slowly to their end,
but they witnessed only unmurmuring patience and
abounding peace ; sometimes seasons of unmeasured
SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS. 175
comfort and joy, yes, of exulting triumph. " I would
not raise a finger to dictate. It is all well. If the Lord
had ordered it, I would willingly have labored on in this
service. I loved my ivork, but God has ordered it other-
wise. If He raises me up, I would strive to preach
Christ with more zeal, and His love more impressively. I
have preached it all my life ; and, if I were to get up
to-morrow, I could preach nothing better than that." That
expressive couplet was often upon his lips, —
" I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all ;
But Jesus Christ is my all in all."
" That's enough ; that is the Gospel. The sting of
death is taken away. Victory ! Victory ! " On the last
Sunday of his life he prayed for all his Clergy and peo-
ple : " O God, send down Thy Holy Spirit upon Thy
Church and Thy ministers ! May they proclaim Thy
Gospel with power, to the salvation of souls ! God bless
my Church, my ministers, my people [opening his arms,
as if he would embrace them all], and fold them in
the arms of the Everlasting Covenant." Often he would
pray aloud for " humility ; " for " grace to bear and be
benefited by the trial ; " to be " kept from the Tempter's
power." As he grew weaker, he whispered, " Guide
me^ wash me, clothe me, help me, under the shadow of Thy
wings." And must he not have felt it to be a special
favor vouchsafed his departing soul, that, in his last con-
scious moments, he was permitted to hear the voice of
his own youngest son, one of our Clergy, commending
his father's spirit into the hands of his faithful Creator
and most merciful Saviour, humbly beseeching Him that
it might be precious in His sight ?
176 SKETCH OF OUR FIRST FOUR BISHOPS.
And now, what final lessons does the remembrance of
our rulers impress upon us ? Shall ice glory in men ?
God forbid ! " Your glorying is not good'' " Who, then,
is even Pmd, and who is Apollos" but ministers by whom
ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man ? To
Him be all the glory, who " holds the stars in His right
hand" "We bless His holy name for the good ex-
amples of these " our spiritual rulers, who have spoken
to us the Word of God. Let us see to it that we ^'follow
their faith." Let our Church in Virginia, which has
hitherto gained all her little strength from looking only
to a crucified Saviour, never, never turn away her eye from
Him. He " walketh," too, " among the golden candle-
sticks." He " knows our works." Let us try always to
realize His presence, to do His works, and to enjoy the
light of His countenance. Brethren of the Clergy, let
us follow our Bishops, as they have followed their Sav-
iour. liCt us always preach, " not ourselves, but Christ
Jesus our Lord," simply, fervently, experimentally. Like
Bishop Madison, let us protest earnestly against the
floods of infidelity, irreligion, and lukewarmness now rising
around us everywhere, and try to rouse ourselves and
others to more zeal and godliness. Like Bishop Moore,
let us preach more fervently and continually the love of
our divine Redeemer, and the unsearchable riches of His
grace. Like Bishop Meade, ever studying to " show
ourselves approved unto God," not man, and keeping
ourselves " unspotted from the world." Like Bishop
Johns, ready to every good word and work, proclaiming
the Saviour's all-sufficient grace, and counting the blessed
work itself its own " exceeding great reward."
CENTENNIAL SERMON.
PREACHED BY REV. O. A. KIN^SOLVING, D.D., BY REQUEST
OF THE CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE OF THE DIOCESE
OF VIRGINIA, IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND,
MAY 24, 1885.
" Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.
Mark ye -svell her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the
generation following." — Ps. xlviii. 12, 13.
One hundred years ago the venerable building in
which we are assembled to-day to continue our com-
memoration of the completion of the first century in the
history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Dio-
cese of Virginia occui)ied the same ground on which it
now stands. It was even then reverenced among the
old sanctuaries in which the fathers of past generations
had worshipped God, and was hallowed by historic asso-
ciations both of a secular and religious character. It
was here in this the oldest place of worship in the new
capital of the new Commonwealth, this beautiful city
upon the hills, during the Colonial days when the
Church in Virginia was still under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of London, its connection with the mother Church
of England not as yet having been severed, that devout
Episcopalians were gathered together from Sunday to
Sunday to worship the God of their fathers, with the
178 CENTENNIAL SERMON.
same holy offices, and in the same form of sound words
in which we worship Him to-day. It was here, within
these walls of an old Colonial Episcopal church, that in
1775, — ten years before the re-organization of the
Church the centennial anniversary of which we now
commemorate, — a political convention was held, before
which the great orator of the American Revolution — him-
self an Episcopalian, the son of an Episcopalian, and the
nephew of an Episcopal Clergyman — made that wonder-
ful speech which accomplished such important results
in establishing civil and religious liberty in this Com-
monwealth and in this country. It was here, too, that
in 1788 another convention was held to ratify the Fed-
eral Constitution, which body was composed of men of as
splendid talents and noble characters as any country in
any times has produced, among whom the leading spirits
were Episcopalians who had been taught to reverence
God's sanctuary even though gathered under its roof in
the transaction of secular business. These and other
incidents in its early history, with the added fact, which
connects it so closely with the services which we are
now celebrating, that it is a centennial churchy aye,
almost a hi-centennial church, being much more than a
hundred years old, dating its erection back to 1740; and
having been standing here so long on this old hill over-
looking the ancient river that flows at its base, " going
on forever," it has witnessed the growth of the city, as
it has extended its limits into the surrounding country
dotted over with churches lifting their spires heaven-
ward, among which a goodly number may be recog-
nized as the prosperous daughters of this venerable
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 179
mother ; and then as this ancient building has stood
here " embosomed among these trees " as they have
cast their shadows upon " the mansions of the dead,"
and for a whole century has been looking out from these
quiet shades abroad over the great Diocese of Virginia
as it has gone on from prospering to prosper, growing
up, like all important influences in our world, from
small beginnings, being composed first of the gathered
fragments of what remained of the Church after the Rev-
olution, then repairing the old waste places, with their
ruined churches and sequestrated glebes, and, worse
than all, their alienated people, winning them back to
the faith of their fathers, reviving the spirit of piety
throughout her borders, and causing even those not of
her fold to say, " We now wish you good luck in the
name of the Lord," — I say, as this old Church of St.
John's has stood here through a century, connecting the
present with the past, — the resort of antiquarians,
the subject of civil as well as ecclesiastical tradition,
the silent yet eloquent witness of the growth of the
Church in Virginia, — if all those hallowing associa-
tions do not make this a sacred and a classic spot, then
I know not where, on this continent at least, we can go
to find one.
It seemed meet and right in our walk about our Zion
during these happy memorial services, that we should
remember as we draw nigh hither to-day, that " the
place whereon w^e stand is holy ground," not only conse-
crated long years ago to God's service, but venerated
because of the sacred memories of the past which clus-
ter around it.
ISO CENTENNIAL SERMON.
Our service to-day is a memorial service. If any one
should ask, "What mean ye by such a serviced " then
the obvious answer is, that it is to call to mind God's
mercies, and His gracious dealings with that branch of
His Church in which our lot is cast, in order to awaken
our devout gratitude to Him from whom all blessings
flow, and to kindle afresh our faith and love and zeal
in His service, that in our Church relations, as well as
" in all our works begun, continued, and ended in God,
we may glorify His name."
Yes, brethren, this is obviously the one grand object
of such a memorial celebration as that in which we now
participate. It is to glorify God, and not man : it is to
" remember the days of old, the years of the right hand
of the Most High, to meditate also of all His work, and
to talk of His doings." As we gather here in this an-
cient sanctuary, as we have gathered in another church
from day to day, to let our thoughts go back for a hun-
dred years and to take in at a glance the history of the
Episcopal Church in Virginia during that period, is it
now, or has it been, only to magnify ourselves or our
own work, or the work of the noble men whom God
raised up and employed as instruments in the resuscita-
tion and building-up of this Church in Virginia ? I am
sure this is not the spirit or object of this glorious occa-
sion. It is rather to fix our thoughts, in humble thank-
fulness, on God's wisdom and loving-kindness in having
preserved and blessed this Church with such a goodly
measure of prosperity that the words of the prophet
seem to describe it most appropriately, " a little one
has become a thousand;" for a small band, assem-
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 181
bled in this city a hundred years ago to organize a
Diocese out of the ruins of the Colonial Church, has
become a strong organization, " in which Christ is faith-
fully preached, and the sacraments duly administered
according to Christ's ordinance," and which has about
it the elements of spiritual growth, of strength, stability,
and perpetuity, for which we are not unduly elated or
boastful, but humbly thankful, and ready " with one
heart and one mouth to glorify God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ."
When we review the position which the Episcopal
Church occupied at the time when the first efforts were
made towards its re-organization, not only in Vkginia,
but throughout the United States ; when we see it emer-
ging from that fiery ordeal through which it had passed
during the war of the Revolution, which was not mere-
ly depressing in its influence but consuming^ — enough
indeed to have extinguished it forever if it had been the
work of man only; when we observe its attitude and
environment at that time, and then follow it on in its
progress down to the" present, we shall be ready to say,
" Lo, what hath God wrought ! " and we shall see what
cause we have to think of His loving-kindness on this
auspicious occasion, " in the midst of His temple."
On the eighteenth day of May, 1785, the first Con-
vention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia
assembled in this city to begin the work of re-organi-
zation, when there were present thirty-six Clergymen and
seventy-one laymen, — a goodly number, it would seem,
of both orders, considering the times in which they
met, and the circumstances by which they were sur-
182 CENTENNIAL SERMON.
rounded. It is right hard for us now to take in the
situation then. These surviving Church-people were
encompassed with difficulties on every hand ; chief
among which was the fact that the Church in Virginia,
as in all the Colonies, had never been under any real
episcopal supervision. It had been under the care of a
non-resident Bishop, with the broad Atlantic ocean roll-
ing between him and his distant spiritual jurisdiction,
which left it in the anomalous position of an Episcopal
Church without a Bishop to visit its congregations, to
ordain its ministers or to confirm its members. And
now, after the disruption between the two countries, the
Episcopal Church in Virginia was cut off even from the
imperfect supervision which it had formerly received,
and its people were indeed " as sheep having no shep-
herd," — a disorganized and scattered flock, which would
have perished in the wilderness but for the tender,
watchful care of the great Shepherd and Bishop of
souls, who is never so near, never so gracious, never so
watchful over His Church as when it is passing through
some trying crisis in its history. So depressed were the
members of that primary Convention of the post-Revo-
lutionary days that they issued an address earnestly ap-
pealing to those who still cherished any love for the old
Church, which was now disestablished and severed for-
ever from all civil and political complications, to unite
and co-operate fervently in the work of its revival. In
plaintive words they asked, " Of what is this Church
now possessed] Nothing but the glebes and your
affections." And even those glebes were destined soon
to be taken away. Already had that Church encount-
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 183
ered the strongest opposition. This was to be expected
as entirely natural in the minds of a people, many of
whom, from ignorance or prejudice, were unable to
separate its Scriptural authority and teaching from the
oppressions of the civil government with which it had
been so closely connected, and whose yoke had so
recently been thrown off. It was associated in the
minds of vast numbers of people with the political
institutions under which the Colonies had groaned ; and
being thus identified, most unjustly, with the wrongs
they had suffered, they were alienated from it, and
looked with suspicion upon any efforts that were made
to rehabilitate it. No wonder, then, that, in the subse-
quent meetings of the Diocesan Convention for several
successive years, the number of members gradually
diminished, until at last the fear was expressed that the
Episcopal Church in Virginia would be entirely extin-
guished. But happily " God's ways are not as our
ways " either in His dealings with churches or individ-
uals ; for he often converts the most untoward events
into sources of prosperity, making darkness light before
Him, causing the thickest clouds that lower over us to
pour out the most refreshing showers, making " even
the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of
wrath He restraineth." Was it not thus in the revival
of the Episcopal Church in Virginia? Did not the
causes of its decline after the Revolution become the
sources of its purity and strength and progress after-
wards ? The fact that its property was in great
measure destroyed or alienated resulted in immeasur-
able good by overcoming the old prejudices, by infusing
184 CENTENNIAL SERMON.
into the minds of people a just appreciation of her
Scriptural foundation, and, more than all, by develop-
ing in her ministers and members that one leading
apostolic grace of "striving together for the faith of the
Gospel."
In September of the same year (1785) the first Gen-
eral Convention was held in the city of Philadelphia,
which was attended by delegates from Vii'ginia, and at
which the incipient steps were taken towards a general
re-organization of the Church, and the alteration and
adaptation of the Liturgy to its changed condition. This
work being done, the Prayer-Book as it is was ulti-
mately adopted, with such alterations as were necessary
in the altered circumstances of the Church, and as
seemed good to the wisdom of the wise men who were
its representatives in that important crisis. In the
adoption of this book, which has now been in use
for a century and is very dear to the hearts of all
true Episcopalians, the work of the English Reforma-
tion was fully indorsed, the doctrine, discipline, and
worship of the mother Church established in all essen-
tial parts, with the same articles of faith, the same litur-
gical forms, and the same offices of administration of the
sacraments and other ordinances of Christianity, which
had been in use since the Reformation, and many of
which had come down as a sacred heritage of the
Church from a remote antiquity.
Need we be reminded to-day, as we are engaged in
this solemn ceremony of " walking about our Zion, and
going round about her " to examine her foundation, and
to trace her history, " teU her towers, and mark well
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 185
her bulwarks," that we find this Church of which we
are members to be not only an historic Church, connected
with the past, and tracing her form of government and
religious worship and observances as well as her doc-
trines back to apostolic or primitive times, but a Church
" built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone " ^
Antiquity, no doubt, does lend its charm to every
thing pertaining to the permanent welfare of society
and to all its institutions both human and divine ;
for whatever has long existed and still exists, having
been tried, tested, and sanctioned by the experience of
the past as well as of the present, is, for the most part,
highly valued, and is appreciated all the more for being
old. There is that in human nature, when it is not
perverted or biassed by some undue influence, to rev-
erence what is old, and to surround the past with sacred
associations. And when an ancient lineage can be
traced and a noble ancestry claimed for any institu-
tion, it gives weight to its claims, and adds to its merits
the traditional sanction and recommendation of past
generations.
But it must not be forgotten, that while some things
are better other things are all the worse for being old.
Si7i is as old as the history of man ; and yet it does not
lose any of its sinfulness or gain any additional claims
upon mankind because of the antiquity of its origin.
Error, which is only akin to sin, may be very old, and
in some of its varied forms may trace its lineage back
to the very beginning; especially may some forms of
religious error run back to the apostles' times : and yet
186 CENTENNIAL SERMON.
it is not more tolerable or lovely or attractive, but all
the more to be dreaded and scrutinized and opposed
because of its antiquity. There is a tendency in human
nature to undervalue old truth and to cling tenaciously to
old error. Truth, like its Author, is always the same, and
changes not ; but to some minds it may become antiquated
or old-fashioned., and ill suited to the times or to the
progress of modern ideas ; while error being itself the
outgrowth of the human mind, the human perversion
of divine truth, appeals more directly to the nature in
which it originated, and roots itself there more fii'mly
and ineradicably. It is the same principle, developed
in a different channel, that makes people dissatisfied with
old usages as well as with old doctrines in religion, and
to prefer something that is new and modern ; while the
old errors are continually assuming new forms, and thus
winning their way in the world through blind predilec-
tions for change. But, thank God, amid all the changes
through which this Church of ours has passed, it has
never been moved from its chief corner-stone, that one
and only foundation on which it is built, which is the
Kock of ages. "The Church's one foundation is Jesus
Christ the Lord." We find Christ prominent every-
where in this Church, in her standards, in her offices,
in her forms of worship, in every collect which is offered
through Jesus Christ. He is the one central figure, to
which they all point, like the needle to the pole, with
magnetic attraction ; and let the mind of the student
or devout worshipper vibrate as it may for a time
between different theories, yet under this teaching, un-
biassed by human glosses or forced interpretations, it is
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 187
sure to settle down to its equilibrium, being firmly fixed
upon Christ. If He had not been put here where He
is, which is just where the Bible places Him, as " the
elect corner stone," " the one foundation laid in Zion,"
then what would be the value of our Church system,
or of our claims to antiquity, apostolicity, or primitive
order ? Suppose this system of doctrine and polity had
been covered up with human inventions and innovations,
so that Christ had been made to occupy an inferior
position, or had been hidden from our view so that we
could not without difficulty find access to Him, then of
what use would it be to us to be told that these dogmas
or usages have come down to us from the olden times,
and have been sanctioned by long experience and cus-
tom ? We do not glory in a Church that rests upon any
other foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ
the Lord ; nor do we mean by our service to-day to
rejoice in our ecclesiastical organization only because
of its antiquity. While we trace its lineage back, not
through a hundred years only, nor through the two pre-
ceding centuries that connect it with the Reformation,
but farther back still to the beginning, so far, indeed,
as the " diligent reading of Holy Scripture and ancient
authors make it evident : " still we do not celebrate its
antiquity only, but we meet together to express our
thankfulness that amid the " sundry and manifold
changes " through which this Church has passed, it has
not been moved from its foundation, nor has that foun-
dation been buried out of sight by a superstructure of
human theories or unauthorized additions, but stands
where it stood at the beginning, — with Christ the
188 CENTENNIAL SERMON
first, Christ the middle, and Christ the end of all her
doctrine, of all her works, of all her worship, and of
all her hope.
In the train of thought suggested by the text as suit-
able for our reflections on such an occasion as this, next
to the foundation on which our Zion rests is that we
" tell the towers thereof, and mark well her bulwarks,
and consider her palaces ; " which, without any strained
interpretation, obviously means that we observe the su-
perstructure that has been built upon that foundation.
And if we find it according to God's will, " ordered in
all things and sure," being in full strength for the work
that is to be accomplished, then we should be thankful,
and do our utmost to use and preserve without damage
our heritage as we have received it, which can only be
done by keeping its towers manned with watchmen who
will be true to their high calling ; to preserve her bul-
warks as we found them, strongly fortified with " the
truth as it is in Jesus," and guarded at every point
against error in every form ; to let her palaces be adorned
and beautified, not merely with outward symbols of
architecture or ornaments of aesthetic taste or elaborate
material decorations, but fitted for the holy uses for
which all temples of religion ought to be erected, which
is for the solemn worship of Almighty God, the exposi-
tion of His word by His appointed ministers, and the
due celebration of the two sacraments which Christ hath
ordained in His Church, and all other ordinances of His
house.
We of the Episcopal Church in Virginia have reason
to keep in afi"ectionate and reverent remembrance the
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 189
line of Bishops who have been called to preside over
this Diocese and under God have been the instruments
of restoring, preserving, and transmitting to us this
Church, as a depository of " the faith as it was once
delivered to the saints," as re-embodied by the Fathers
of the English Reformation and handed down by them
to the generations following. We have been ah'eady
reminded of the part that has been done by the wise,
faithful, vigilant overseers of the flock who have suc-
cessively watched over the Church in Virginia with true
apostohc care and zeal, doing their utmost to keep away
from it " aU erroneous and strange doctrine ; " which is
doubtless the true secret pf the conservatism of the Epis-
copal Church in Virginia. Nowhere in our broad land
can there be found a more sound, healthy, conservative
influence exerted by the Episcopal Church than is to
be found in Virginia. The Church here has been kept
steadfast in its adherence to the teaching of the Prayer-
Book as it is, without yielding on the one hand or on
the other to the spirit of change that is sweeping by.
There has been maintained here a spirit of toleration
for every thing except positive, essential error; and a
proper latitude has been allowed for all difi'erences of
opinion that do not touch the foundations of faith,
without running into latitudinarianism. Its system of
worship has been strictly that laid down in the Prayer-
Book, and its loyalty to the standards to which it has
subscribed has never been justly impeached. This,
doubtless, has been due in great measure to the wise
administration of the faithful men whom God has set
over it to guide its destinies. At the same time these
190 CENTENNIAL SERMON.
faithful chief pastors have been sustained by a body of
Clergy of " like precious faith with themselves."
There were some admirable men among the earlier
Colonial Clergy, such as the apostolic Whittaker and
Hunt, and many others who labored faithfully in those
trying days of the Church ; and their mantle seems to
have fallen on the Clergy of modern Virginia, who have
proved themselves to be a band of earnest, zealous,
devoted co-laborers in the cause of Christ and His
Church. Nor can we fail to mention that tower of
strength to this Diocese, which has been also a subject
of distinct consideration at this Centennial Council: I
mean that admirable school of the prophets, that nursing
mother of the Church in Vii'ginia, which stands on the
hill near Alexandria, — our beloved Theological Seminary.
It is there that our young men, candidates for the min-
istry, go to learn the art of spiritual warfare, and thus to
be equipped and prepared to stand on the watch-towers
of Zion to " watch for souls as those that must give
account," that they may bring them to Christ to be
enlisted " under His banner to fight manfully against
sin, the world, and the great Adversary of man."
These are the towers which we are to tell to-day.
And who will not join in thanksgiving for the past, and
earnest prayer for the future that God will ever watch
over this branch of His Church, which His own hand
has planted in this Diocese ; that He will this day send
a Pentecostal blessing upon our present Bishops and
Clergy and people ; and that He will continue to give it
faithful men to stand upon its towers, and " make it a
praise in our land"?
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 191
Not only are we here to-day to " tell the towers,"
but to " mark well the bulwarks of our Zion," which
are manifestly those things which are connected with
her government, her doctrine, her discipline, and her
worship, which constitute her strength ; not because
they have originated in the wisdom of man, but because
they are Scriptural, — in strict accordance with the
teaching and spirit of the New Testament. It is all-
important for us to remember that the strength of our
Church consists not in any thing that is human, and
therefore transient, changeable, and liable to decay, but
rather in those great fundamental truths which consti-
tute the essence of Christianity because they are the
substance of what Christ the divine Founder of the
faith taught as the basis of human salvation. These
truths we hold to be as clearly and definitely set forth in
the Thirty-nine Articles, the Creeds and Offices of this
Church, as in any formularies in any branch of the Chris-
tian Church in any age since the xlpostles' times. Not
only are the principles of the doctrine of Christ here
stated explicitly in the form of dogma, but the life and
character of Christ as He lived here on earth, as God
manifest in the flesh and yet as a man among men, is
held up vividly and continuously before the mind's eye ;
and even the spirit and mind of Christ are so infused
into the whole system, that we are never allowed to get
far away from Him, but are taught to regard Him, as
long as we adhere to the true animus of these standards,
as our " all in all," the " strength of our hearts, and
our portion forever."
Let it never be forgotten that the bulwarks of our
192 CENTENNIAL SERMON
Church are not mere human inventions or variable
dogmas or partial systems of truth, but " the truth as
it is in Jesus " or as Jesus taught it, — the saving,
sanctifying truth, which unites the soul to Him as the
one Saviour and the one Sanctifier of men by His Holy
Spirit who has now come to preside over the dispensa-
sation, " the Author and the Finisher of our faith."
Then once more, in considering her palaces, I trust
no one will regard the interpretation as forced or un-
natural, when we apply the phraseology, very much
according to its original application, to the churches or
places of worship belonging to our Zion. Just as the
bulwarks of Jerusalem were not her material walls, but
God's presence, God's truth, God's power, and God's pro-
tection, so her palaces were the buildings of the temple
and the ordinances of worship " whither the tribes
went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of
Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." Do
we not find a lesson here that teaches us to reverence
God's sanctuaries, to love the gates of Zion more than
all the dwellings of Jacob, and to desire earnestly that
these gates of Zion may be multiplied and opened wide
for the entrance not only of devout worshippers but of
all who are still aliens from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers to the covenant of promise, without God
and without hope, who may be induced to come into the
house of prayer and find it the gate of heaven ?
Our thoughts naturally recur here to the old churches
of the Diocese, many of which were built at an early
period of our Colonial history. There is a sort of pious
romance that gathers around these old temples, impart-
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 193
ing a pensive pleasure in thinking of or revisiting these
former palaces of our Zion. Some by neglect have
fallen into decay and ruin ; some have been destroyed by
the ruthless hand of desecration ; while others, including
some of the oldest places of worship in Vu'ginia, are still
used as they have been from the beginning in the wor-
ship of the same God, " with whom there is no variable-
ness," and in the same devotional words that were long
ago used by the pious dead who sleep together, pastors
and people, around and near the altars where they once
ministered and worshipped and heard together " the
word of the truth of the Gospel." While many of those
old sanctuaries have been disused or deserted or de-
stroyed, others have arisen in their places more favor-
ably located, and better suited for the use of the present
congregations ; so that we may now look abroad with
thankfulness over our Diocese studded with churches, —
too few still for the needs of the people, — in which
the God of our fathers is now " worshipped in spirit
and in truth."
It is indeed a source of gratification and encourage-
ment that since the close of the late war there have
been more churches built in the Diocese than within
the same period during the preceding years of its
history. Surely this is, or ought to be, a matter of joy
and of praise and of thanksgiving to our God who has
done so much for us in the past, giving us the light of
His countenance and the help of His gracious presence.
We may still pray for the peace and prosperity of
these parishes and churches of our Zion, that " the
comfortable Gospel of Christ may be everywhere truly
194 CENTENNIAL SERMON.
preached, truly received, and truly followed to the
breaking-down of the kingdom of sin, Satan, and death,
and the establishment of the kingdom of the Redeemer."
And now having enumerated and dwelt sufficiently, I
trust, upon these several subjects which appeal to-day
so pointedly and so eloquently to our religious grati-
tude, what remains to be done but that we love and
cherish and keep this heritage which we have received,
unblemished by any erroneous or strange doctrines or
practices, and untarnished by the spirit of worldliness
and vanity, letting " not the foot of pride come nigh to
hurt it, nor the hand of the ungodly to cast it down," and
then transmit the blessings which have been so richly
bestowed upon us "to the generation following " \ It
is indeed a sacred inheritance which has been committed
into our hands to be used for our own benefit and for
the advancement of God's glory in our own day, and to
be so used that it may be handed down to posterity,
to our childi'en and children's children, with its substance
unchanged, its strength unimpaired, its true beauty which
is holiness undiminished and undimmed even by the
lapse of centuries. Tell it to the generation following,
transmit this truth to posterity, and let it be known that
the God whom our fathers worshipped is the God
whom we worship and glorify as one God, world without
end ; and that this God will be their God for ever and
ever ; that He keepeth covenant with them that are His,
and will transmit the blessings of that covenant from
parents to children, and from age to age unto a thou-
sand generations of them that love and fear and serve
Him. Has He not been the guide of His people in all
CENTENNIAL SERMON. 195
ages ? Has He not " brought them by a way which
they knew not, and led them in paths that they have
not known " % And is He not leading and guiding them
still? Has He not watched over this Church of ours
thi'ough all its perils and vicissitudes, guiding it through
its perplexities, and guarding it against its dangers, and
preserving it with wonderful love and wisdom and care,
even in the darkest periods of its existence ? And shall
we not trust Him still, and so use the heritage which
has been committed unto us, that we may transmit it as
a sacred deposit to them that come after us ?
'V;>
