The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-06-10
COUNCILS BUSINESS ENDED
Continued from page L.

SUMMARY OF WORK IN TIE DIOCESE.
Visltations to churches where connrma
yis,taten wt to- clutches where hsro loS
combinations Observation-Disclosures. Is
Visitstions to consecrate churches ........ 3
Visitations for ordinations and special SER
VICES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ............. IL
Iotal ........... lbs
ordinations .............., 6
No. confirmed, white OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. . s9s
No. confirmed, colored.. ............... -. ia
Total Observation-Disclosures. 1857
Preached At all vsitations with four excep-
tlOn6...... Observation-Disclosures. lS2
Preached at request OF rcctors OF churches 6
Made addresses Mt missionary and other
n.p %s1ssdal9i Eiaat, - & &
Administered holy communion. Ii
ION the 18th OF May by the order of
the presiding bishop of the church at
tended and participated in the consecra-
tlon Of the Rev. John b. Newton as as
sistans bishop of the diocese of Virginia
For faithful work, for judicious admin
istration, for strong sense and for Chris
tan manhood tho diocese could not have
made, in my judgment, a better choice.
And while l speak Of Virginia and
its new bishop, 1 cannot but allude to
tho loss that has fallen upon that do
cese, and loss too, that has fallen
upon US, in an event which has touched
the sympeties OF all of our people in
this church. l refer to the death of tho
Rev George H. Norton, d. D., the
rector Of St. Paups Church in Alexan-
dria Last Septem Der he fell asleep in
his chair and the angel of death took
him away to God and TO his home AS
| have said elsewhere, we are, perhaps,
too prone, especially in the case of pub
lie men, 10 eIaggerate their virtues af-
ter they are dead, and in moments when
the regrets of their loss are fresh and
keen.
MANY, doubtless, who are called
great arc in reality common place in
their lives and in motives, and the
world, after the funeral discourse is
uttered, can afford to let their names
and their memories drop into Cultivation,
but not so with the man whose name
have mentioned. The younger genera
tion OF the clergy and the laity will
perhaps never know the extent of his
influence in molding the ecclesiastical
policy OF the church in the diocese Of
Virginia. For justice in his judgment s
OF men and of measures, for fairness of
mind, for Wilderness OF thought and for
that charity which thinketh no evil, and
that believeth all things and hopeth all
things, he was surely exceptional in his
day and generation. AS religious
thinker, have long regarded him as
Episcopal Church.
His funeral was attended with rev.
erence and grief by Romanists and
Quakers, by Presbyterians and by
methodists, and by community Of
every grade OF social life and OF re-
ligious opinion AS man he WAS one
OF the purest and best I ever knew Nav
God bless his memory and keep itgreen.
The largenesS of his mind and of mis- &C
clesiastical sympathies was due to his
wide culture upon the basis of deep re.
ligious character.
And while l speak of ecclesiastical
sympathies | am reminded, in closing
this address to the clergy and laity OF
my diocese, to say few words upon a
subject which is in the atmosphere of
our ecclesiastical life, and which has
formed theme for church literature in
newspapers, in books, in ecclesiastical
councils, and from the pens and lips of
bishops, priests and deacons. refer to
the subject of church unity.
The ancient conception Of the unity
OF the Christian church was oneness of
organization. The Roman empire had
| cherished the dream, the ambition to
gather the nations of the earth under
one form of government-one central
liz d power. 1t fell to pieces by it's own
weight, and demonstrated by its failure
tho vanity OF its dream, the futility Of
It's conception. The Christian church
is graphing with the forces of Pagan.
ism, and under the dominance of this
idea, that it had learned from the secu-
lar power OF Rome, conceived that the
unity OF the Christian church must also
consist in unity of external orgapiza-
ton, and strove TO realiZs its ideal con-
ception.
but that too fell to pieces by it's own
weight and the dream vanished The
| modern conception OF church unity that
has taken the place Of this early one, is
the unity of spirit, the unity OF the
family Of the lord Jesus Christ, the
unity Of love and OF federation under
meath diversity of external organization.
1t is true that the old conception still
fingers, that the old yearning for q
church that will bs, visibly, one in it's
| ecclesiastical government, one in it's
Wishes one In the human expressions of
It's Interpretation of Christian doctrine
and of the word of God, that kind OF
unity is still the hope and the dream of
good men, OF earnest men, but is based
upon misconception OF the meaning of
the prayer of Christ when he asked the
father that all the members of his re-
deemed ones might be one. The unity
of nature ia not unity in form, but unity
in spirit; and, SO. the unity in the higher
realm Of the soul is, as your prayer
book says Unity Of Spirit in the Bond
of Peace Unity OF organization, if by
| possibility attainable, would share the
same fate Of disintegration Of the old
worlds ecclesiastical empires.