The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-26

size of its congregation, for the town then became the centre of pride and power, of fashion aud luxury. and human nature, then as now. in render Ing tribute to the Creator, failed nos to remember what was due to the creature.
 The governor of the province was Alexander Spottswood. He considered the matter of so much importance that he drew the plan himself. requiring the church to be seventy-five feet by twenty-two feet with two wings, mak- ing 1t cruciform, offering to build feet of the length at his own expense. The Governor had a full appreciation, as was only just of his own dignity, and we may be sure that his plan was worthy of the representa- tive of royality. for the Governors pew, set aside for this great official and his council, was canopied with silk and emblazoned in letters of gold with the Governors name. Due respect was paid to the representatives of the peo- pie. for portion of the church was reserved for the members of the House of Burgesses.
 In this temple the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" of which Spotts- wood was the chief. bowed in grati- sahC Aoh thO SdlC OA their daring trip to the Blue Ridge. The Rev. James Blair, the faithful minister for thirty-three years, in spite of his sturdy resistance to the Governors encroachments and attempt ed usurpations, had given cordial en- couragement to what many considered the Governors rash enterprise and lauded him for his ardent desire to gaze upon the wonders west of the mountain barrier. He recognized the Governors good qualities; he honored his station: but he spared not his frail- ties. The goodly minister was also President of William and Mary Col lege; he expressed his mind to rulers as plainly as to his own students. Many of the great ones of the parish com plained that he was "too personal" The good man rejoiced that uulika England infidelity did not flourish in the colony, but he mourned over "the great-wickedness" which Haunted it. self in high places. In reading of the disputes occurring between the man of God and the representative of the King we are glad to own that both were benefactors of the Virginia they both loved so well, and in viewing the walls wherein one preached and the other listened. we can rejoice that both were
 
 honored in the other the virtues he possessed not himself.
 The day has long since passed since they served God and honored the king. Spottswood was succeeded in his state- ly pew by Drysdale, Gooch, Dinwiddie, Fauquier, Botetourt and Dunmore. and here in Revolutionary days, after he had vanquished the last named gover- nor. sat one whose towering genius and elevated soul threw his aristorcratic pre- decessors into the shade, the matchless Patrick Henry. whose fiery eloquence in another ancient church, had entitled him to fill the place, formerly occupied by long time of royal officials And as he filled this proud position, his eyes could rest upon the tomb of Eau quier. in the aisle, bidding him in sig nificant silence to remember the end of human power and reminding him that God alone is great"
 But perhaps even more appealing to the sympathy of the observer is that portion of the church referred to as set apart for the members of the House of Burgesses; for here worshipped men who afterdards occupied a position compared to which even that of the proud Dunmore was humble. For here were to be found four men who were
 
 ington, Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler.
 When Jefferson was a student at old William and Mary and was so fond of dancing with Belinda" at the Old Raleigh Tavern, perhaps on Sundays he would sit in Old Bruton and gaze, not on the godly minister, but on this vision of distracting grace and loveli- ness. We may be sure that the lines he composed while thus occupied dealt not with the equality of men or the indepedence of nations. but celebrated the sovereignty of woman and express ed a slavish declaration of the sub lection of man. When the student days were over and he had been bid den like the man in the Bible 'to go up higher" his reveries were doubtless of sterner themes
 True to the Bishops declaration that the men who contended for the inde- pendence of the colonies were the men who had been trained in the princi- pies of the vestries, Washington's 8 immortal name Is found eleven times on the register of Bruton parish. and here worshipped his friends and fellow laborers in the work of building the nation; Wythe. Mason, Bland, Lee. Ed mund Pendelton, Carr, Cary, Nelson, Nicholas. Peyton, Edmund Randolph, the Harrisons, Mefcers, Pages, the great chief justice, John Marshall. and other leaders of the State and nation. The walls bear many tributes to the memory of the great and good of the storied past, Beneath the chancel sleeps. full of rest from head to feet" one whose name and fame is dear to the heart of every churchman in our state, the Rev. Wm. H. Wilmer, fath-