The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-07

the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, which IS more than an illustration, because
 under God, it has largely been the nov ing power of this new life. And While
 l recognize the value of this organiza-
 ton, like best about it is the individu-
 ality of it's work. I long most for the
 separate, individual, personal service of
 every baptized person, not because they
 belong to a guild or an order but be-
 cause they are members of Christ. It
 is the spirit of St. Andrew, who must
 first find somebody else to bring that is
 valuable, not the teaching of the organi-
 zation.
 Now about the layman and the bishop. Here think there is the closest and the most enduring relation of all. Nobody
 feels more than 1 do that vital intimacy
 of relation between the bishop and the i "other clergy" simply because he is one
 of them; and because he feels, as being
 one of those called by lot to the closer
 and higher service of the Lord, every pastoral instinct and all that it means
 of anxiety, of responsibility, of disap- pointment, as well as of infinite happi-
 ness and joy But really and truly, the
 relation between the bishop and the lay
 men is the permanent element of dio-
 cesan life. There is more or less nov
 ing away of lay-people, especially now
 adays in the country parishes (and in
 the Diocese of Albany everybody that goes away from country parish is sure
 to be one of our people); but the
 fluctuation of the clergy is chronic and
 incessant, partly from restlessness and
 partly from meagreness of support. l
 want to bear my testimony to the com
 fort and help that the laity give to the
 bishop. This is no new story here
 Your dear old Bishop, whom we loved
 together, had the strongest sense of this What I said of him in my memor- ial sermon was true, that he was so proud of his laity as to make his brother
 Bishops envious, and there are great names which I recall and remember,
 the Goodwin's the Ferguson Hunt ington, and Boardman the Hllhouse, and Toomey, English and Nail, and the Seymours, and the Sheffields, and good old Captain Godfrey and love to many more of whom the time would fail me to tell, historic names not any in this Drous but in the American Church. And there are some, thank God, whom you and l not only remember, but who are still here, All honor to them.' I want to say a practical word here in the private ear of the laity. Something has got to be done between you and me, between the bishop and the clergy, about the matter of vacant parishes. It is one of the common phases of our common and joint responsibility, When the parson is here, he has the spirituali- ties and you the temporalities of the parish to look after; and parish is well off with a parson that can help you about the business affairs, (and very i'll off if he wants to and has not the ability.) and the parish is still bet ter off with laymen, that are heart and soul and hand helpful about the spirit ualities But when the parish is va cant, it is the bishop and the lay-people on whom the responsibility comes. Anything more haphazard and unsatis- factory, than the undefined recognition of this fact as it now stands cannot be imagined. It would be only very poor kind of sham popery if the bishop could fill parishes at will. It is only as poor kind of real congregationalism when the laymen act without the bishop. No body knows better than I do that in- 1uence goes a great way where a bish- op has (and most of have the confidence of the people Nobody knows more than I do the fallibility of the episco- pate But then all bishops do know something about the clergy and have some knowledge of their own parishes, and have no conceivable object in get ting themselves in hot water, by put ting round men into square holes think some Connecticut Yankee might devise way out of the present abom- ination of trial sermons, of the incess- ant application by candidate to bishops and vestries, of unasked advice from friends, of the intrusion of everybody into what belongs to the parish and the bishop, of long vacancies, of sad mistakes, of hopeless failures. I believe the first step to be taken is for bishops to recognize the laymen as the other half of the permanent parochial element. And the next step Is for the laymen to recognize the bishops as their natural allies and friends, And then I wish here to say, for the laymen and to the laymen, that scant recognition is, I think made of the large and generous devotion of the busy and brainy men of the church. both in the professions ana in business, to the tedious details of it's financial affairs and to the careful con- sderation of knotty and troublesome questions in business, alike in conven- tions and in committees, and as indi- viduals. Of course it is their duty, but it is done ably and generously to he in- finite advantage of the church. One of my laymen said to me the other day that ten thousand dollars a year would not tempt him to spend the time and wear and worry he had spent in one of our diocesan business administrations and I am very sure that it would not have paid him. And I often think of an old lawyer whom I had to consult at times, who never would accept a fee, but always said, "No, I take it out ill preaching" I do not think he got pal I either, for he certainly very rarely sas under me.
 Now I want to say word about the layman in his larger relations, first to the church and then to the Master. You and are called upon to realize, as eve- rybody else is for that matter that our first relation is the larger one. That is to say, you are, first of all, members, I Rrgf nf oil hiCh i, t1,n