James Hervey Otey Papers Box 1 Folder 2 Document 10

ReadAboutContentsHelp

Pages

1
Indexed

1

assilant who had the temerity to enter the lists and touch with pointed lance the shielded of such champion. Trained in part under the hand of that commanding intellect, the first Bishop of North Carolina, the teacher fixed an indelible stamp upon his pupil, which is visibile in all his future life.

Both of these great and good men--as has been very jusstly observed-- "were distinguished for their profound, intellgent, and hearty submission to the Church, as embodied in her creed, sacraments, and formularies; and both were equally distinguished for freedom and independence of thought and action beyond those limits, and especially in regard to all those "isms" of schools upon which parties are accustomed to divide. The minds of both were too large and comprehensive to be bound, by the rigid technicalities of a system, from taking in the whole area of truth as it lay before them. It was well for the truth and for our country, that these, and suchlike men, were raised up at this critical juncture in the history of the American mind. Our people had been carried off into wretched infidelity by assaults directed, for the most part, against these mere and oftentimes "false" technicalities of a region; and the success of such attacks was supposed to be the overthrow of Christianity itself. The broad sweep of Ravenscroft, Otey, and many of their noble compeers, brushed away these parasitical assailants together, and presented to the people the truth in its majestic simplicity, untouched and unimpaired."

Such a man was admirably fitted to lay the foundations of a new see: and he has laid them, broad--deep--solid. On the corner stone of this Diocese

"His name is registered in remebrance, For to endure by long continuance."

In the pulpit he was "the strong man armed." His eloquence was that telling mastery of a genuine orator whiel works its way straight through to the understanding and the heart; forcing conviction upon the one, and moving to action the other. No "solemn fooling" was visible there--none of the blandishments of popular oratory. Profound thought -- varied research -- argument clear, cogent, solid --a diction often elegant, always marked with strength and diginity

Last edit over 3 years ago by BattV
Displaying 1 page