Evening star., 1928-03-18

That one Is God. You do not believe
In endowments: He does. You say it
is impossible 10 raise It, Things i'm
possible TO men are possible with God
and He has provided It. l showed the
two papers. the extract from the will
and the bankers telegram. end they
agreed that the diocese should be di-
vided.
Then came another wonderful CO.
incidence. The New York bankers
wrote me few days later that the
market value of the fund was sl0l 900
And out of this my legal advisers esti-
mated there would be about $4,000 fox
commissions and other expenses. At
my meeting with the laymen one of
them showed that instead of $4,000
our loss In annual income by the going
off of the new diocese.
Decision About Funds.
Now al our next convention IL was
voted We would give to the new diocese
one-third OF all our invested funds up
to the time OF its full establishment.
From Sl0l 900 take $1,000 and We have
500 900. OF which one-third would 60
to Washington and two-thirds remain
with us. And two-thirds of $4,000
would be $64.000. the exact amount we
needed. These condolences, in time
to the minute. and in money to the
dollar, are so wonderful that 1t would
De hard to doubt that 1t was Gods
Will that the diocese should be divided
Il have found 1t impossible. In noting
these remembranccs, to keep to any
thing like chronological order, and I
must group without order OF time, some
matters not yet fully touched upon.
have alluded too briefly TO some things
connected with the division of the
diocese. When ! was consecrated as
bishop. January 8. 1885. the diocese
OF Maryland included both all of Mary
land west Of the Chesapeake Bay. and
also the District Of Columbia. including
the City Of Washington. 1t had i62
clergrmen, 1870 fully organized parishes
or congregations and 10 mission sta
tions and chapeis.
Although the canons do not re-
quire that the bishop should visit ALI
ottener than once In three years. vet
the very long interrcgnum in the
b!shoprtc seemed 10 call for something
more and l began by making a COM
plete round of the diocese every year.
For many years, being then in full
bodily strength, ! was able to do this
"" A"NAAA ~ ~ pICaSuIt- IL DIuuknt
me INTO close relations with all the
parishes and their people. and quick.
ened my own interest and helped me to
develop plans for work The church
NE quickly responded TO my efforts.
The numbers confirmed were large; the
number OF communicates grew steadily
In 1885 there were reported 22,l04
communicates. in 1894 the number was
29.9i8
Long Absent From Home.
"A full visitation OF the diocese re-
quired that the bishop should be absent
from his home for nearly three-fourthS
Of the time; so that there was scant
opportunity for study and deliberate
thought. Besides with each year added
TO my age my bodily strength, became
less and l was convinced that the
measure OF work with which l began
could not much longer be maintained.
Two ways OF solving the problem pre-
sented themselves to me. One was the
lcASening OF my ViSltations: making
them one In two years. / sent out
letter OF inquiry to the clergy In the
rural parishes suggesting that change
and asking their advice and wishes:
whether they counted an annual viSi-
tation n necessity: whether my coming
less frequently would harm their work
and make the numbers coniirmed-Small-
er From more than half the answer
was that while the bishops visit was a
pleasure and stimulus 10 clergy and
people, they would not really suffer by
having him once In two years, And yet
quite number seemed 10 think the
more frequent viSitations would be
much more helpful,
II turned then to the other plan.
the division of the diocese. But before
making any decision OF my own. I
again tried 10 find the Judgment and
wish of the diooeS> at large. The gem
eral impression was In favor of divi~
sion II the money problem could be met
tin the support Of two bishops and two
fun working organizations instead OF
nne> Besides. II was felt that the city
of Washington, large IN Itself and I'M.