The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-19
WORK OF THE DIOCESE
FIRST ADDRESS OFBrSHOP BREWS. TER TO GENERAL CONVENTION.


 Bishop Williams and Review of His Life and Worik-Other Departed Di- vines and Prominent Laymen of the Etc.
 Quitting the statistical portion, the address of Rt. Rev. Bishop Brewster at the recent Episcopal diocesan conven- tion, held at Hartford, is as follows: Brethren of the Clergy and Laity:
 You will not expect me to refer to the national events of this memorable year, nor to the recent general convention. There are many matters which might otherwise demand my notice and your consideration. One thought, however, is in all our minds to-day. The event which for us overshadows all else is the departure hence of our great bishop The fitting word you have this day heard from the eloquent lips of one more competent than I to rehearse the story of him who forty-eight years ago this very day was elected to the episcopate. Yet I cannot in my place, and at this moment, be silent.
 To this diocese John Williams has left great name and a great tradition. If we may not claim him as a son of the soil, his theology and churchmanship were of Connecticut. Ordained deacon by Bishop Brownell morffe than sixty years ago, he has been since, with the exception of six years, and since 1S4S, continuously connected with this dio- l. -rI t1. clergy of Connecticut in canonical resi- dence, but also, bishop for nearly half a century, he had been for twelve years presiding bishop of the American church, and for number of years the senior bishop by date of conservation in the Anglican communion. Nearly flf- ty thousand persons had from him re- N ceived the laying on of hands. Genera tions of church folk in Connecticut had not only loved him, but had pre-emi- nently with him associated their most sacred convictions and experiences. Throughout the state his name was a household word; everybody knew that clear-cut countenance and commanding figure, and honored not only the office, but the man.
 Of best New England stock, he was
 
 work in this old commonwealth. He could understand the people, and they him. In stature, in intellect in personal dignity, king of men, he was perhaps greatest in his unaffected simplicity. This, with his broad, human sympathy and his gifts of wit and humor, brought him into close touch with every one he met. The plainest people were drawn to Al IL 4I, fr, f lon guage of one of them, 'he was truly humble'' He never held himself aloof. His was no lonely mountain-peak of
 mind
 Broad prairie rather. genial. level-lned. Truly humble, he was also magnani- nous. His ready wit never betrayed him into bitter satire or an unkind word There was a uniform kindliness Of thought and bearing, a generosity carried sometimes perhaps to excess. He was unsparing of self in meeting < the demands of duty. speak to you who know how all those years he went about among you and them that were before you. There is for me pathos in those last visitations he made, an old man, 'tsuch an one as Paul, the aged"
 
 his departure at hand. In weariness and painfulness, it was verify living sacri- flee.
 Possessing New England characteris tics of reticence as to self, he was mo- Hably free from anything approaching kentimentalsm or cant. With his large lleartedness moreover, went large niindedness. true scholar, he was +po Of t6a nf dantry. By reason of his early experi- ence and his training in divinity strong In his convictions as a churchman, he was never narrow. One of his latest sayings to me was, in certain refer- ence, to deplore what he rightly called shard church position" Never running into loose Iatitudinaranism, he none the less discouraged that, to use his own words, marrow and really Donatistic temper which is sometimes mistaken for churchmanship." His mind was, l think, most at home in the sane, large, profound principles set forth by the great Anglican divines. Theology he was inclined to view from the historic standpoint rather than the speculative Theology for him was no system of met spi1ysicaI speculation, but an inheritance of truth revealed and by the church de- livered to us as it were a vast estate to he received and entered upon. Thus he stood fast in the faith.
 As theologian and canonist he was first among our bishops. AS an author he has enriched the church with Wri- tings all too few. As preacher he was singularly clear, concise and forcible, with graphic grace of illustration and power of pregnant speech, able at once 10 instruct, to win and stir. Long shall live the memory of his sermons, and nerhaps particularly his confirmation addresses. If l may venture to name the key-notes of his preaching and ex- hortation, they were these: the faith once for all delivered; the whole faith in its due order and completeness; Chris- tianity in the world, not an abstract idea. but as a concrete and visible in- stitution: the personality and mission of God the Holy Ghost, and His perpetual phesence in the church as the vicar of Christ; the Christian life as no htful, spasmodic thing to be galvanized into semblance of quickening through artifi- cially excited feelings, but as gradual \ growth in grace, by quiet and regular means and methods, according to divine laws. After using the best words one
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