Star.
London, England, 1830-01-26 00:00:00

THE LATE BISHOP SANDFORD.

From the Caledonian Mercury.
The obsequies of this eminent and lamented Divine
were performed on Thursday with great solemnity in St.
John's Chapel, amidst the profound grief of a congrega-
tion over which he had presided 37 years, and of a clerical
body, who had looked up to him as their head and orna-
ment for a large portion of that period. Bishop Sandford
was the second son of the Rev. Dr. Sandford, of Sand-
ford Hall, in the county of Salop, and was born in the
house of Dean Delaney, the friend of Swift, near Dublin,
in the year 1766. His earliest predilections inclining
Lim to the clerical profession, he was entered a com-
moner of Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1784, and
ws soon after presented to a studentship in that distin-
guished institution. His talents and assiduity recom-
mended him to the peculiar notice and friendship of the
venerable Cyril Jackson, then Dean of Christ Church.
Among his most intimate associates at the University
were the present Lord Bexley and the late Earl of Liver-
pool. The elegant and accurate scholarship, for which
the Bishop was remarkable through life, obtained him
great credit at Oxford. He won the Christ Church prize
for a *Latin essay in 1787, and was always eminent for
the beauty and correctness of his Latin composition.
From his first establishment in Edinburgh, in 1793, his
inerifi`ith a pastor and preacher were acknowledged and
admired. The deep and unaffected piety of his character,
the spotless integrity of his life, the soundness of his
doctrinal views, and the meek yet fervid tone of his prac-
tical exhortations, made a profound and durable impression
on`the minds of his hearers. In 1807 he was induced to
accept the office of Bishop in the Scottish Episcopal
communion, which considerably interfered with a more
lucrative advancement in the Church of England, and
was'resisted on that account by many of his most intimate
friends, who were both able and willing to have promoted
his interest in the wealthier department ; but a strong
sense of duty prevailed with him, and for twenty-three
years he presided over the diocese of Edinburgh in a
manner that at once adorned and benefited the Church
to which he thus devoted himself. By men of all parties
and professions, respect was uniformly paid to his amiable
virtues, his unobtrusive dignity of manner, and the extent
and variety of his classic and theological acquirements.
He lived and died a rare example of true Christian excel-
lence, and no feelings but those of regret and veneration
attend him to the grave.
From a Correspondent of the Mercury.
The lives of wise and virtuous men, though the most
useful to be contemplated, are yet apt to be disregarded
in comparison with such as owe their chief celebrity to
splendour or originality of genius. When examples,
however, of the former kind have been long before our
eyes, and placed in situations which natarally attract some
degree of attention, our habitual carelessness to simple
and unassuming. goodness, does not operate so much to
their prejudice ; we feel that they have left an impression
upon us perhaps of a more lasting kind, than if it had, at
first, been more forcibly stamped ; and we are unwilling
that they should quit the world without some testimony
being borne to their unpretending deserts.
We believe this has boon a very general feeling on the
demise of the venerable individual whose name is prefixed
to this paragraph. Though not born among us, he has
been so long one of our fellow-citizens, that we almost
claim him as belonging to ourselves ; and presiding as he
did for 25 years over the respectable communion of which
he was a member, he concentrated around him the at-
tachments not only of the English families residing in our
city, who were in him enabled to enjoy the pastoral super-
inteudance of one of their own countrymen, but likewise
of the numerous remnant of the old Episcopalians of this
land, whose feelings are peculiarly national and Scottish.
It was impossible that a person in such a station should
pass through life unmarked. The impression, accord-
ingly, of his character has been universally felt, but felt
chiefly as a moral impression, aided by little else more
striking or questionable. With sound and correct abili-
ties, with the accomplishments both of an elegant and
complete scholar, Bishop Sandford put himself forward in
no department oliterature, and bad, apparently, no other
object of ambition, except the truly Christian one, of dis-
charging his pastoral duty well and faithfully. Yet few
men, in our day, have left us, around whose grave more
numerous mourners have assembled, or have been con-
signed to the dust with a wider or more respectful ex-
pression of esteem and regret.
A character of this kind was of inestimable value in
the delicate situation in which he was placed. The first
Bishop who bad united the two Episcopalian bodies in
this part of the kingdom, if he had not possessed, along
with great prudence, an honest and humble mind, he
might easily have brought himself and his communion
under suspicion with the Established Church. But we
believe there has never been, through the whole period
of his administration, a feeling of this kind entertained;
it.was so evident that no encroachment or assumption
was ever in his contemplation, that nothing of the sort
was so much as suspected—and his aim throughout was
so apparent, to preside, not over a meddling and factious
priesthood, but a pure and learned body of churchmen,
aware of their own place, and with no wish to step be-
yond it—that not a few of the most eminent clergymen
of the Establishment were seen on Thursday united with
his own in paying the last tribute to his remains.
It was in private and domestic life, however, that the
full excellence of Biehop Sandford's character was to be
felt, and it was •by those who were admitted to his inti-
macy that the sacred source from which that excellence
flowed, could likewise be most clearly discerned. It
might be said of him. if of any man, that he " did not
live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth
out of the mouth of Goa." The Holy Scripemes were
his constant study—in his closet at home, and in his
journeyings abroad ; and though the least obtrusive of
human beings, ar the least disposed to make any display
of his inward piety, it was impossible to be with him for
any length of time without being sensible of its deep seat
in his soul. By this he was enabled, during all his life,
to endure with patience much continued bodily seffering,
and by this,• too, a saintly gleam of well-founded trust
was thrown over his concluding .hours. The Bishop
had entered his 64th year.
At a quarter past two o'clock, the hearse, containing
the mortal remains of the deceased, moved from his late
residence in Melville Street, followed by a number of
mourning coaches, and a long train of. gentlemen's car-
riers, to St. John's Chapel, which was nearly filled by
reepectable parsons. The pulpit and reading desks were
covered with black cloth, and the attendants of the chapel
were dressed in mourning. The body was received at
the entrance of the chapel by the whole, of the Episcopal
clergy in their robes, who proceeded two and two to the
altar,• in front of which the .c.eirm wee. deposited. The
Reverend Mr. Lane, Bishop Bandford'r •in-law, read
,
4 the 23d

ammo
church,
Ito the

Reverend Mr. Lane, Bishop Sandford's son-in-law
the Amara service, which was introduced thi
Psalm. • At the end of that beautiful portion of
two, the 15th 41 I ip lor of 2d Corinthians, which
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was sung, during which the corpse was removed