Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1883-06-13

rection to bring baptized children to the DISH
CD when there was no bishop to whom they |
could be brought. 4
That there was no bishop in America was
not due to our clergy or people here. The
reason must be sought elsewhere. In the
second year of its existence the Society for |
the Propagation of the Gospel had enter
tanned the idea of sending a suffrRgan to |
America; and, even then, the bishops of Scot
land sswere regarded as the channel through |
which that assistance could most readily be
obtained The project came to no result.
If there is any truth in the tradition that had
been sent ont as Bishop of Virginia, We may |
be thankful that it failed. 81 & 81
It was renewed from time TO time. froa
the reign of Queen Anne to that of George
Ill, but always without result. Petition
after petition, appeal after appeal was sent
from America; the Episcopate of England
impIored to secure the appointment of Zone
or more resident bishops" in the
colonies for "the exercise of Offices
purely episcopal-offices to which the mem
bers of the Church of England have an nm
doubted claim, and from which they cannot
be precluded without manifest injustice and
oppression" The colonial churchman found
indeed some jealous friends in the English
Episcopate; and ones heart warns as one
reads the names of Sharpe and Berkeley
and Butler, of Gibson, Sherlock and Seeker.
But fear it might be truly said of the
majority of the bishops of England in those
days. ''that they thought more of the acts of
Parliament than they did of the Acts of the
Apostles" From Parliament or the English
ministry nothing could be hoped SO long as
Sir Robert Walpole or the Duke of Newcas-
tie controlled the action of the State. the
name of the first of whom Is synonym OF
private prodigacy and public faithlessnesS
while of the latter an English historian has
said that his selfish ambition twas SO intense
passion that it supplied the place of talents
and inspired even futurity with cunning.
Not under such auspices was the Episcopate
to be given to America.
To these causes of failure must doubtless
be added the opposition of the dominant re-
ligious bodies in the colonies. But here 1t
must, think, in all fairness be said that this
opposition was largely due to the fear that
were bishops sent to America they would,
| somehow and at some time, be invested
| with power of erecting courts to take cog
| nizance of all affairs testamentary and matr1-
/ monial, and to inquire into and furnish all Of
/ fences of scandal" In other words that they
| would be, or would become, officers of the
| State as well as bishops in the church. No
! such purpose, it is almost needless to say,
was in the minds of those who sought the es-
| tabIishment of colonial Episcopate. All
| they desired was bishop or bishops in
1 vested with those powers-and no others
| which were recognized in ''holy scrip
| ture and ancient canons." But this was just
i so that we would not and many others could
| not be brought to understand. The idea of
| the officer of State invested with civil pow
| ers and functions was the vision that disturbed
| more minds than we can readily imagine now.
| Says the elder Adams, writing in 1915: "Where
| is the man to be found who will believe
| that the apprehension of Episcopacy con-
tributed fifty years ago as much as any other
| cause to arouse the attention not only of the
| enquiring mind, but of the common people
and urge them to close thinking on the con-
| stitutional authority of Parliament over the
| colonies''
| Under all the circumstances, then, it is no
| wonder that when the war of the revolution
ended and the question came to the minds OF
| thoughtful churchmen how the church
should strengthen "the things that remained
I that were ready to die" their first thought
| should have been for the Epis-
| copate. The faith of the uni
| versal church they had in the historic
| creeds. Its worship was prepared for them
| in the Book of Common Prayer. But how
1 to provide for the perpetuation of the ''doc-
i trine and sacrament and the discipline of
| Christ as the Lord had commanded and tn S
| church had received the same, +" that was the
great practical, pressing question with which
| they were brought face to face. Ordination,
confirmation and the government of the
church, then, must of need be secured. Nor
\ can we greatly wonder if what no entreaties
had been able to obtain while the colonies
were part of the British Empire seemed
1 now to many an almost hopeless undertak-
1 ing. The surrender of Yorktown, in 1871,
4 was to many American churchmen the death
/ blow to their hopes for an American Episco
/ pate. There were men enough to see the
4 difficulties and discouragements, to talk and
write and speculate about them, but where
l should those men be found who would Crap
/ pie with them and by graphing with them
1 overcome them? answer they were found
! in those ten clergymen who met at Woodbury.
| in 1888, ''men that had understanding of
the times And is it not always somewhat
| after this sort when any great step Is to be
1 taken and there are manifold difficulties in
/ the way? Do not men dwell on the difficulty
1 and exaggerate the dangers and suggest ex-
| pedients and makeshifts till someone, with
/ out fuss or noise, takes the step and lol the
| mountain has been leveled and the way lies
| open? Depend upon it, there is q wealth of
| wisdom in these simple lines:
''Frorn an old English parsonage
Down by the sea,
There came in the twilight
message TO me.
Its quaint Saxon legend
Deeply engraven
HATH as it seems to me,
Teaching from heaven;
And all through the hours
The quiet words ring
Like low inspiration
Doe the nexte thynge.'"
And what the next thing was for this
church when these western colonies bscame
nation has already Deen seen.
The need of some decided and vigorous &C.
ton was made more obvious by the fact that
one of those makeshifts Just alluded to, by
which difficulties are evaded and not met
had been proposed in the emergency and
was not unlikely to be adopted. In the sum-
mer of 1892 pamphlet had been published
in Philadelphia, the author of which, i'm
pressed with ''the impossibility and present
undesirableness of attempting to obtain the
Fris ofa
combining of the clergy and of representa-
tives of the congregations in convenient dis
tricts with a representative body of the
whole" This representative body was to
issue "a declaration approving of Episcopa-
CIV, and protesting determination to pos
sess the succession when it could be obtain
ed :" but, meantime, prominent presidents
were to be elected from among the clergy
with powers of supervision and ordination,
land exigence of necessity was pleaded in
justification of this extraordinary PROPOSE
ton.
On what possible ground an "exigence of
necessity could be asserted or assumed when
no attempt to obtain the Episcopate had been
made, It is very difficult to see.
How completely is the fallacy and
unwisdom of the assumption ex-
posed by the clear straightforward words
of the reply sent from Woodbury. on that
memorable 25th of March: "Could neces
Christ and the immemorial usage of the
Church, yet what necessity can we plead
Can we plead necessity with any propriety
till we have been rejected We conceive the
present to be q more favorable opportunity
for the introduction of bishops than this
country has before seen. However danger
GUS bishops might have been thought to the
civil rights of the States, this danger has now
vanished, for such superiors will have no civil
authority They will be merely ecclesiastics
% equally under the control of civil
law with other clergymen; no danger, then,
can now be feared from bishops, but such as
may be feared from presbyters." And then
they further say, how wisely 'fShould we
consent to temporary departure from Epis
copacy, there would be very little propriety
in asking for it afterwards and as little room
to ever expect it in America"
The men who wrote those words grasped
the real exigency as they who spoke loudest
about exigencies and impossibilities did not.
They foresaw, moreover, with the intuition
of true wisdom, the danger of resorting to the
temporary expedient that had been proposed.
For, in truth, all history proves that such
expedients and makeshifts always exhibib a
tendency to become permanent; and very