Leonidas Polk Family Papers

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that after the Bishop had retired Ross had asked if it was true that they travelled through that country without weapons. "I was not going to let him and his people think that about us," said the Negro, "so I told him that we were always heavily armed. And so you are, master," he continued, "Aren't you armed with the sword of the Spirit?"

In the course of his missionary visitations Bishop Polk repeatedly observed "the eminent value of our liturgical services" and the "usefulness of our Church institutions for the education of the young is Christian principles". When visiting a school for Cherokee Indian girls at Fayetteville in 1841, he was told by the woman missionary who had been head of the school for over fifteen years that the Book of Common Prayer was best suited for the religious training of Indians.

During the less than three years of his missionary episcopate, apart from the uncounted scores of services conducted and sermons preached, Bishop Polk reported the following summary of his