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...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 religion; and the success of such attacks was supposed to be the overthrow of Christianity itself. The broad sweep of Rev 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 remembrance, 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 which 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 dignity--an elocution and manner peculiarly his own, bold, earnest, striking--a presence noble, imposing, dignified-these were his characteristics as a preacher. Every thought, every word, every movement was but the interpreter of the [?] reality of the man.
The leaves of the [?] plant yield not their aroma until they have been crushed.
Suffering is the Divine dispensation under which the highest graces of the spirit are developed, and the character of the children of God is purified and exalted.
The Bishop had been thoroughly trained in the school of affliction. Domestic bereavement, prostration of bodily strength by overwork and constant exposure, with consequent protracted physical suffering--disappointment in well-devised plans for the extension of the Church, and for the promotion of sound learning and religious education in his own Diocese--these were a part of the severe discipline to which he was subjected.
Two beloved daughters were snatched away, within the period of a few months, by the ruthless hand of death. A son in the gospel--the gifted Alston--whom he had trained, with a father's solicitude and affection, for the ministries of the [?], came from his parish work to lie down and die in his house and in his arms. Another, who was as a son in his...