The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-06
WELCOMING THE BISHOP.
The Cordial Greeting Extended Bishop
Knickerbacker Last Night.
The Right Reverend Gentleman Welcomed
in Addresses by Gov. Porter, DIR. Wake
field, and Judge StOtsenberg,

have been difficult to find a more unfavorable
one from a meteorological standpoint than that
of yesterday on which to welcome public guest.
That the welcome of Right Rev. David B. Knick-
erbacker the new Bishop of this Episcopal do
cese of Indiana, was both hearty and sincere
was attested by the number who, in spite of the
weather, attended the reception given him at
the Denson House last night. More than two
hundred ladies and gentlemen gathered in the
hotel parlors to receive the Bishop and his wife.
and the occasion was of a warmth and geniality
long to be remembered. The attend
ance Yves composed of the representa-
tive people of the city, aud was not
confined to members of the Protestant
Episcopal Church alone. but embraced clergy
men of nearly every denomination and laynen
of nearly every sect. There were also present
number of churchmen from other cities in the
State. After the lunch, which was spread in the
hotel dining-room, had been disposed of, the
company repaired to the parlors, where Rev E.
A. Bradley, of Christ Church, In a few brief but
well chosen though informal remarks presented
the Bishop to the clergy and Citizens and left the
set speech OF welcome on behalf of the clergy OF
the diocese to Rev. DIR. Wakefield, of Richmond.
DIR. wAKEFIELD's WELCOME.
DIR. Wakefield said On me the agreeable duty.
right reverend father, has devolyed of vel
coming you, behalf of the clergy of the
diocese, to this, your see city. immediately af-
ter your acceptance of the high office to which
you were elected by our convention last June,
member OF the Society of Friends an influ-
ential and weliknown resident of that city
where, for quarter of a century, you have Ia
bored with such eminent success, in extending
the kingdom of our Lord, meeting in the
street, accosted me after this manner: ''Dr.
ia RI tn hoa
rs Bishop of thy church. tell thee he is an
No. 1 man, one that will do to tie to under all
circumstances. No man in Minneapolis is more
esteemed or better thought OF. hope you will
treat him we'll" 1 assured him that we should,
and the cordial greeting you received on
the eastern border OF our State on IAN Saints
Day." the assembly here tonight comprising
as it does representative men Indiana, with
out regard to their religious beliefs or party
preiudices,) s.an earnest of the welcome you
will meet with in every section of our Hoosier
Commonwealth. AS to the outlook, Irecently
read some pessmsts wall over the state OF re-
ligion in Indians based statistics which
showed that attendance at places OF pubic w0r-
ship was. relatively 70 populatlon on the de-
crease, comparing 1870 with 1880. do not
Dispute the figures, but deny the inference, for
believe, whatever may be the reason for non
attendance at the various houses of worship
and have my own opinions on that subject
never was the harvest so ready. never
were there more seekers after God; never more
craving for light, more lght never so many
asking prayerfully, where shall wisdom be
ingq" Never were books protesting to solve
Pilates question, "What is truthf" more eager
ly read. Such, sir, are among the number OF
those you may exnect to win to open confess
sion of faith IN Christ These thinkers, these
cravers for the real, have hitherto regarded our
church as conservators OF the legends OF the
past, even at the expense of truth, represslve,
lacking in the f1exibility requisite for aggres-
sive work. Perhaps we have been so misrepre-
sented, even by ourselves, but you, father, will
go forth as the representative of the new life of
the church, and, imbued with the cathO-
licity of the spirit of her early
youth when she was first endowed with power
from on high, that cathoiiclty which allows to
men, If they only hold historic Christianity as
expressed in the apostles creed, the widest diff
ferences of theoretical Interpretation regarding
the sacraments atonement, justification, in
SEPARATION, the future state, in the words of an
other, not of us, at is church in which new
ideas, drifts Of thought find welcome not
accorded to them elsewhere"
You go forth free from many or tine letters
which bound your predecessors in office. Thirty
years since, when in this State, 1 entered holy
orders, even a missionary address in school
house or forest clearing had to be preceded by
the dearly beloved brethren" etc, to the end
of morning or evening prayer. Now you can
commission men to go forth and act on such oc
casions according to their discretion, guided by
your ghostly and fatherly counsel.
Then q layman, however we'll instructed,
might not publicly teach preach, although
THE word was in hls heart a burning fire
smut up in his bones" Now that for which that
godly priest of the mother Church Of England
John Wesley, commended and prayed for hath
been accorded by our late general convention,
authority to send forth lay preachers
Then the Episcopal Church was thought to be
almost exclusively the church of the cultured
and wealthy classes, and her only missionary
work to gather within her fold those who had
elsewhere been instructed in the faith of the
Cruel fed. Now she il recognized as tine pioneer
church of the far West, and in her care for the
neglected, the outeasT, the wretched and the lost
literally fulfilling the commission Entrusted to
her by our Lord-"Heal the sick''
You may enter the duties of your great
work full OF hope. The ''day 1t breaketh." ''The
pioneers of the Church in this State hath not
Deel utterly cast away, though in solitary
musings they may at times have given utJerance
TO the thought which poet thus translates into
words
.sOthers, doubt not, if not we,
The issue of our tolls shall see;
Young children gather their own
The harvest that the dead have sown;
The dead forgotten and unknown"
No, not forgotten shall We he, the gentle KEN
per, our missionary bishop; Uphold, who in his
zeal for the cause, contracted in our swamp
lands, that malady which made his entire epis-
c0pate one of exceeding suffering; Talbot. the
op. whose great monument is the church hard
by, and on whose grave the
flowers are ~ hardly vet touched by
memory loves to recall the sanity Samuel R.
Johnston, of Lafayette; the self-denying, the
holy, the beloved servant of God, George Fiske,
OF Richmond, and the pioneer missionary, Van
Vaux.
Amongst the laymen who do now rest from
their labors and whose works do follow them,
permit me to name Joseph Morse, whose "suu
went down when il was yet day" James Sid
dali, whose years reached beyond those gener-
ally allotted to man-both of Madison; Hon
kins, OF Evansville, whose spirit of liberality in
giving has descended to his daughter, Mrs.
Veille: Judge Smith, of Terre HAute; Ingram
Long, diocesan treasurer; Burr, of Delphi; John
b. Howe, of Lima, that wise representative of
the church in her general diocesan conventions;
my lifelong, well beloved friend Judge Morri-
son, who could not do a wrong true steel
and his brother william more than princely in
his gifts--I NAV almost say she founder of your
cathedral church. Also of holy women not a few.
They sleep the sweet sleep OF peace. May God
refresh them.
"They need no tablet to record their worth,
Where names are written in the book of lIfe"
These all have sown-many of them in tears.
They have labored, and the generation that now
is, and the generations which are to come, shall