Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-06-27
A Third Of a Century.
From the Southern CharchnaGn.

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From the Southern Chatrch7nGn.
A little more than third Of century
has passed since this writer attended the
Virginia Convention held in Fredericks-
burg in 1916. Those who assembled there
few weeks ago may have noticed a small
building on the church lot, now occupied
as offices. In that room the Convention
of 1916 transacted it's business, at which
time were present sixty clergymen and
fifty laymen Few of its members are now
alive. The two bishops who sat side by
side-Meade aud separated for a
few years, are once more together. Of the
other clergy present. Adie and Andrews,
Beall and Caldwell, Cole and Dana, Ear
nest and Empie, Friend and Grammer.
Jackson and Jones and Johnston and Lip
pit and Mann and May and MCGUIRE and
Rocker and Smith and Sparrow and Will
mer and others are numbered with the
dead.
Of the laity present, Gen. Lewis, Col.
Fontaine, DR.. Clagett, W. H. Fowle, VIM.
Williams, VIM. Pollock, Major Amber,
Colonel Tayloe, DR.. Stribling, Frederick
Foote and others have departed. Indeed
Of the clergy then present only twenty Or
one-third, survive; and of the laity, a large
proportion have crossed the river. 1.-THE
time is Short" In another third Of a CEN
fury how few Of those present at the last
Council will unite in plans for the welfare
of the Church militant.
In Bishop Meade's address he warned
the Convention against the tendencies to
Romanism. and through his faithful words,
aided by his successors, no diocese has
been kept so free from errors and so ear
nest for the truth.
At this Convention Mr.. Charles Min
nigerode was lay delegate, Mr.. VIM. M.
Blackford was appointed secretary, and
Mr.. Francis M. White was numbered
among candidates for orders, as was Mr..
Minnigerode. professor of William and
Mary College, Some words were spoken
by Bishop Johns, which should encourage
the diocese: "If the Church in Virginia
will come up to its duty and privilege, and
sustain the Diocesan Missionary Society
and the Education Society, together with
our Theological Seminary, as they should
be sustained, a day is before us, the dawn
of which we have yet scarcely seen, and
harvest is to be reaped, the first fruits of
which have hardly been gathered The
diocese has sustained these institutions,
and now we see change for the better.
The number of communicates then re-
ported were 2,515; those reported last
month were over $4,000. The number of
combinations reported were $50; the past
year more than 1000. An illustration of
growth is before us in the report from
Grace church, Petersburg, which then re-
ported fOrty-nine communicates, which
has now nearly five hundred. At the Con-
vention of 1915 measures were being in
augurated to erect suitable buildings for
the Virginia Female Institute. Now this
institute stands among the first in the
land. In those days DR.. Alexander Jones
was rector at Charlestown, Messrs. Dana
and Johnston in Alexandria, Kinckle in
Lynchburg, Lennon in Warrenton, Me-
CURE in Fredericksburg, Morrison and
Norwood and Empie and Woodbridge in
Richmond, slaughter in Petersburg, J.
P. B. Wilmer in Goochland, Wingfeld in
Portsmouth, and R. II. Wilmer in Clarke.
But those pulpits hear their voices no lon
ger. Packard and Sparrow and May re-
ported as professors in the Theological
Seminary. The last two have become
scholars in a higher school than where
they taught DR.. Packard remains to in
struct in that Word which has ever been
the source of his joy and hopes. At this
Convention Mr.. Dalrymple, then a young
man. was appointed to take charge of the
Episcopal High School; and the only
speech DR.. Sparrow ever made was at the
call of the Bishop. to testify to his high
qualification for the post.
Things have changed. Of the clergy
now there, Murdaugh had just been Or
dained and at work in Alabama; ener-
getic now as ever. McBryde had not yet
seen the light; but in the light now. he
sheds it forth to the comfort of Others
The old town has changed somewhat; but
the same kind hearts, the same generous
hands, the same heightened people, are
there that walked it's streets one-third of a
century ago.