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IN the midst of a Winter of almost unexampled mildness and beauty, and after a week unsurpassed even under the bright skies of New-England, the morning of the twenty-fifth of January opened dismal with cloud and storm. For a time the fleecy snow, pure and white as the robes of the righteous, fell lightly upon the earth, but soon followed the dropping rain--symbol of sorrow, although GOD'S instrument of life--and filled the hour with gloom.
Such was the burial day of the first Bishop of New-Hampshire.
At an early hour the earthly form of the deceased, clothed in his official robes, was laid in a plain casket and placed upon the table in his study, whither his friends, the spiritual children of a long life of pastoral faithfulness, with many of his brethren in the Church, came to bid a last farewell. The Masonic fraternity came also, to honor the remains of their late brother and companion.
[4] At three o'clock, the procession was formed at the house, consisting of the Rev. Drs. Haight and Hubbard; the pall bearers, Rev. Drs. Herrick and Eames and Rev. Messrs. Smith and Renouf; the remains; the family and immediate friends, The Clergy of the town were next called--representatives of Trinity Church, Claremont, and Immanuel Church, Bellows Falls--Classmates at Dartmouth College, and other graduates--Masonic bodies and citizens generally. These, entering the Church, filled it to its utmost capacity.
The remains were met at the Church door by Bishops Williams of Connecticut, and Bissell of Vermont the latter reading the sentences. Beside those already mentioned, there were present, of the Clergy, all in surplices, Rev. Dr. Parker and Rev. Messrs. Haughton, Brown and Binet of this Diocese, Rev. E. M. P. Wells, D, D, and Rev. H. L. Jones, of Massachusetts, Rev. Dr. Jackson. President of Trinity College, of Connecticut, Rev. Dr. Douglass, and Rev. Mr. Hale, of Vermont, Rev. Dr. Twing, of New York, Rev. Messrs. Hopkins and Wainwright, of Albany, and Rev. T. F. Davies of Pennsylvania.
The Church was elaborately and tastefully draped in black and white--those mournful emblems producing a most solemn and impressive effect, especially in the gas-lighted chancel.
Upon the platform, just without the altar rails, on the very spot where, but one month previously, [4/5] when the Christmas services were ended, he sat to witness the baptism of his grand-daughter, rested the casket which contained all that was mortal of the departed Prelate.
The Canticle commencing "LORD, let me know my end and the number of my days," was chanted by the choir and congregation. The Lesson was read by the Rev. Benj. I Haight, D. D. of New-York. The Hymn was the one hundred and forty-second of Hymns Ancient and Modern:
"Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there.Oh happy retribution!
Short toil, eternal rest:
For mortals and for sinners
A mansion with the blest.And now we fight the battle,
But then shall wear the crown
Of full and everlasting
And passionless renown;And now we watch and struggle,
And now we live and hope,
And Sion in her anguish
With. Babylon must cope;[6] But He whom now we trust in
Shall then be seen and known;
And they that know and see Him
Shall have Him for their own.The morning shall awaken,
The shadows shall decay,
And each true-hearted servant
Shall shine as doth the day;There GOD, our King and Portion,
In fulness of His grace,
Shall we behold forever,
And worship face to face.O sweet and blessed country,
The home of GOD'S elect!
O sweet and blessed country,
That eager hearts expect!Jesu, in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest;
Who art, with GOD the FATHER,
And SPIRIT, ever blest." Amen.[7] The Rt. Rev. John Williams, D. D., Bishop of Connecticut, then delivered the following
Address. When the House of Bishops met at the last general Convention, with--for the first time in nine years--every diocese represented, a shadow was cast upon the great joy of their reunion by the remembrance, that in that nine years' interval, sixteen of their order had passed away from the scenes and labors of their earthly stewardships. Death had, indeed, been busy in their ranks. And well might their Pastoral letter say. "A mortality so unusual impresses your Bishops with a deep sense of the shortness and uncertainty of their own future upon earth."
It was not, however, to the past alone that thoughts were turned by the impressive warning. They struggled onward also towards the unknown and silent future. Memory recalled the well remembered forms and features of the departed, and filled with them, for the moment, the places where they should never more be known. The bodily eye rested upon those who held the stations left vacant by the dead. And both what was remembered and what was seen waked in many hearts the question with solemn recollection of their own relation to it, with searching application of it to themselves--
"Who next shall drop and disappear?"
That question the providence of God has answered in the bereavement which has now fallen upon a [7/8] household, a diocese, nay, on the Church at large. And the answer brings us here to-day, to commit to its long home all that was mortal of the first Bishop of New-Hampshire. It is the third time in five years, that, here, in New-England, the new year's first month has witnessed such a service. And it is, perhaps, even a more striking coincidence that this day which brings the last rites of honor to one who has laid off the armor of the episcopate, sees another girding it on for a distant field of the warfare of the militant Church of Christ.
May I dare, my brethren, to say, for myself, that I come to join you in this sad service, with a heart full of love for my venerated brother who has been taken from us, as well as of living sympathy with those on whom the weight of this day's sorrow rests? The memories of an unbroken friendship of more than a score of years come back as I speak, with a deeper tenderness. Nor can I forget, as I stand beside the honored dust of my dear brother, uttering words which his ear can no longer hear, how in the most solemn moment of my life he once stood at my side, and joined with the lamented Burgess--I almost seem to hear their voices now--in presenting me to the revered and sainted Brownell, to be set apart for the work of the episcopate. Pardon me, my brethren, these words so wholly personal. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."
The eye runs back today over a lengthened life. "With a physical constitution always delicate, and so severely shaken in early manhood as to give little hope of long-continued labor, Bishop Chase still lived six years beyond the allotted age of man. Nor has he been taken, till gathering [8/9] infirmities had made it plain that had more years been granted him, they must have been passed under those conditions in which men are "afraid of that which is high," and "fears "are "in the way," and "the grasshopper "becomes "a burden,"
Doubtless "they serve who only wait and pray." And such a service, in its patient suffering and almost literally unceasing prayer, is a very precious service; bringing to the Church gifts and ministrations which enter into its deepest life, and share in its grandest achievements for the Cross. Still these are, and ever will be, the exceptional cases; and it must, as a rule, be counted a merciful dispensation of GOD, when any man, and beyond all other men a bishop, is not required long to survive his ability for active service. It is, at least, a blessing to himself. "To depart and to be with CHRIST is," indeed, "far better."
The life of which I am speaking was also a peaceful, and as men would say, an uneventful life. By far the larger part of it was passed among "the green pastures "of this lovely valley of the Connecticut, and "beside the still waters "of its queenly river. One rectorship of a quarter of a century in duration, from 1819 to 1844, and then an episcopate, with which was held, conjointly, for many years, the rectorship of this parish, covering a little more than another quarter of a century, these--with one temporary exception--are all the changes which Bishop Chase's ministerial life presents. These--how strangely the statement sounds in these worrying, tortured days of incessant change--sum up the fifty years of faithful service in the Church of GOD.
Is it not a privilege, greater than tongue can tell, to leave behind one so fair, so pure a record [9/10] as your Bishop, brethren, leaves, of patient, well-done labor? Is it not a privilege to look and meditate on such a record? This vision of a long and faithful pastorship, this "image of a long and pure episcopate, left on the most sacred recollections in parish Churches, in Christian families, in secret hearts," does one dream of lack of eventfulness when lie thinks of these? What natural days are those to which men love best to go back in memory? Are they days marked with the scenic displays of nature, resounding with the crash of storm and thunders, and brilliant with the glare of lightnings? Or are they not rather days' that are "bridaf days of earth and sky" in which the calm morning has passed on to the quiet noontide, and that again to the peaceful sunset, and where all is so blended together; that even if no one thing stands very prominently out, the whole impression is one of blessing and of peace? "What streams bear fullest floods to join the ocean? Are they those that dash and scatter themselves away with foam and fury in headlong courses? Or are they not rather those, that with a gentle, placid flow,--so gentle that a superficial gazer hardly thinks they move at all, so placid that in their quiet depths they mirror all the beauties and the glories which the hand of GOD has spread on earth or scattered in the skies--sweep onward with their brimming fulness to the sea? And as it is with them so is it with human lives. O! in this age of reckless change, and noisy pretension, and bustling self-assertion, and pushing after notoriety, place, influence, the spectacle of a calm, quiet life of contented discharge of duty which shuns the observation of the world; which bears its own burdens, and does its own work, seeking [10/11] no changes, but only taking those which God may send; which does not strive to create duties for itself that may bring it before men's eyes, but does quietly, in its Own place, the duties which GOD allots to it; which thinks not of itself more highly than it ought to think, but loves to think soberly, to take the lowly place and do the humble work; such a life is indeed a blessed thing to look upon. When we contrast it with that other style of life, it is like leaving some gaudy, man-made spectacle with its coarse daubing, its glare of gas-light, and poisoned atmosphere, and coming out upon some peaceful, rural scene, swept over by the fresh, pure airs of heaven, and bathed in God's own sunlight. If this age has fewer of such lives to show than some others may have had, and I fear it is even so, then let us be the more thankful, and the more bless and praise the GOD of every grace, that our departed Father lived, in his elevated station, such a life, and left its record and its memories to his children, to his Diocese, and the Church of GOD.
We recognize in every Christian life, primarily and above all other things, the grace of GOD; but we also recognize, along with it, the working of the individual besides. And so it comes to pass that while there is one pattern, even the Blessed Lord, and one grace, that of the Holy Ghost, still all GOD'S servants have their own separate and distinguishing notes of character. And it has always seemed to me that there was in my departed brother's character that same balance and proportion that I have been noting in his life. Calm, equable, judicious, acting from well-considered convictions and not from hasty impulses, a man of more thoughts than words, not eager to [11/12] push forward his opinions, but ready with them when the proper time for their expression came as his character commanded respect, so his decisions commanded confidence. And the same, balance that marked him intellectually, marked him also as a Christian man. All was quiet, well poised and placid, nothing fitful and spasmodic. Not much moved or flashed, perhaps, on the surface; there were no very striking emotional demonstrations; but down in the depths where GOD'S eye looks, though man's cannot, there was a life, that was strong, and vigorous, and true--a life that controlled the man--a life that had its being from the grace of the Holy Ghost, and that, for its ultimate result, its glory and its crown of achievement, brought him, body, soul, and spirit into subjection to the law of Christ. His was not one of those natures that take light and passing impressions from all that comes and goes. It took on impressions quietly and slowly, but what it took it held. Above all other words, the word that I think best describes him is steadfast.
And this character, which I have so briefly sketched, as it shaped his life, so, also, it shaped his episcopate. It gave it cohesion and consistency. He had no delight in ecclesiastical experiments. He rode no hobbies. He spent no time in trying to invent labor-saving schemes for achieving great spiritual results at the least possible expense of individual exertion. He set himself to discover no wonderful panacea by a single administration of which all the diseases of the Church, perhaps of the world, would be cured on the instant. He entered into no plan to pull away from the Church what does belong to it, nor to patch on what does not belong to it. But as a [12/13] true-hearted and loyal Churchman, for that he was in his whole soul and life; as a humble, self-sacrificing Christian, looking only to the Crucified for all hope of salvation, and treading the pathway of the Cross as well as resting on its unfathomable merits, he walked "in the old paths;" not foolishly conservative, not obstinately set against every thing that might seem to involve a change of method, not turning his back on any wise and well-considered adaptation of the Church's modes of working "to the diversity of countries, times and men's manners;" but distrusting change for change's sake, and setting his face as a flint against any thing, however specious, that did not recognize and place in the fore front the duty of keeping the faith "whole and undefiled."
And all this gave his opinions weight among his brethren, and in the councils of the Church. He made not many words in his place in council, but when he did speak he spoke to purpose, and he was listened to. His quiet, gentle tones, uttering well-considered conclusions,--for he dealt with them more than with argument even,--far more than with appeal, carried more weight than ten times the amount of rhetoric and declamation. His well-weighed words impressed others all the more because they were, as a rule, so few. Many of his brethren have spoken of and mourned the loss that has fallen upon us, in losing the aid of his well-balanced judgment and reflecting mind.
In the special field over which the Holy Ghost had made him Overseer, it was not his to rear the superstructure, to carry on to completion lines of work that were already well begun and well pushed forward, to lay the top-stone amid rejoicing shouts, to bring home the joyous harvest at the [13/14] eventide. His--like, in its narrower sphere, to that of the great Apostle for whom the Church thanks GOD to-day--was initial, not consummating labor. It was his, amidst trials and discouragements of no ordinary character, in a region from which the eye of the Church was drawn away by the rush of emigration westward, to strengthen the things that remained from other days, to lay foundations where it was possible to do it, almost literally to "sow in tears." And O! how much better in such a work was patient continuance than headlong haste, steadiness of movement than vaster plans perpetually changing; a willingness to bear with the necessities of the "day of small things," than mere dreaming of some far distant future. If it is not understood now, the day will come when, tracing back the successive steps by which this Diocese shall have reached the strength which I trust and believe GOD has in store for it, men will find the living source of all they rejoice in and are thankful for, in the episcopate--faithful, diligent, unobtrusive--of its first Bishop; and so the thanks which we offer here to GOD for his holy life and blessed memory, shall be echoed from the lips of unborn generations, bearing him witness that "he is numbered among the children of GOD, and his lot is among the saints! "
But now, the peaceful life, the faithful stewardship, are ended. Their records are closed and sealed for the final reckoning. GOD be thanked, that in the sorrow which clouds this day there is only joy for him; that with the tears which fall, no bitterness but that of bereaved affection mingles. ~No more for him the weary day or watchful night; no more the burdened heart nor mind perplexed; no more the patient waiting and the hope deferred; [14/15] no more the chief shepherd's wearing watch, and crushing load of care and responsibility that he must bear alone; no more the dread of something left undone that might have been accomplished. But now, gift of gifts and joy of joys for him, there come on earth, the folded hands and the closed eyelids, the stilled heart and the unracked brain; and in Paradise, the rest in Jesus, and the blessed antepasts of Heaven. And there will come in the day of GOD, may the dear LORD grant it to us all! the accepted stewardship and the unfading crown 1
The Rev. I. G. Hubbard, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, Claremont, then delivered the following
Address. It is a painful office, assigned me by my mourning friends and reverend brethren, to attempt to give utterance to the feelings which naturally oppress us all, on the death of our beloved Father in GOD, the first Bishop of this Diocese. Whatever he may have been to others, to us he was endeared by the sacred bonds of his official relationship, and by the gentle, affectionate manner in which he has discharged the duties of his high and holy office. Many, in other parts of the Diocese, have been thus drawn toward him in love; some, to whom it is my privilege to minister, have the added tie of long and most faithful pastoral ministrations. For all, I can at least speak most sincerely, in deepest sympathy.
[16] He has been to me a Spiritual Father. Pursuing my theological studies, in part, under his supervision, I was among the first on whom he laid his Apostolic hands in ordination, both to the Diaconate and the Priesthood.
His long Rectorship, in this my native parish; my own ministry in his Diocese during nearly three fourths of his Episcopate; my Rectorship here for the past two years and more, while he still lived among us;--all these circumstances have brought me into frequent converse, and finally into most intimate communion with him, and have given me the right to speak of him, as one who knows whereof he affirms.
But it is not my purpose to dwell on personal considerations except as they tend to confirm my testimony and commend it to your attention. Let me ask you to go back with me a little more than twenty-five years in the history of this Diocese, when our late Bishop was consecrated in the Fall of 1844, at the General Convention in Philadelphia. There were then, in the Diocese, eleven clergymen besides the Bishop--now there are twenty-two. Then there were twelve parishes--now twenty-three. Then five hundred communicants--now thirteen hundred and fifty. The Church edifices then existing, with the exception of St. John's, Portsmouth, which has itself been entirely remodeled in the interior since, were either small, temporary, wooden structures, or un-suited in form and appointments for the uses of Holy Worship. Since that period, Churches and Chapels have been built, many of them beautifully designed, and constructed in a costly and most substantial manner, and consecrated to GOD'S worship, as follows; in Concord, two; in Claremont, [16/17] Manchester, Keene, Nashua, Charlestown, Epping, Holderness, Pittsfield, Exeter, Dunbarton, one each. At Sanbornton Bridge and Hanover, houses of worship have been purchased and refitted for our use, and in Goffstown a Church has been built but not yet consecrated,--in all, fifteen. The Church in Drewsville has been greatly improved and beautified. Two parsonages have been built, and two purchased. There have been ordained, within the Diocese, twenty-five Deacons, and twenty Priests, and sixteen hundred and ninety-six persons have been confirmed.
The noble institution of St Paul's School, the beneficent influence of which is felt very widely in our American Church, has been established and fostered, so far as buildings and landed estate are concerned, mainly by a single layman of Massachusetts, a devoted friend of our late Bishop.
All these items by no means fully express the contrast between now and then, nor indicate the real strength of the Church in this Diocese, at the present moment. In the first place, the spiritual life and power of the Church, its missionary and aggressive force, have been much more than proportionately increased.
Any one who remembers the Diocese at the period referred to, will understand me when I say, that the Church in this region seemed then to be slumbering at her post: at most, she only thought of standing on the defensive. With but a few feeble parishes, scattered and isolated, having scarcely any communication with one another; without a head, or any efficient missionary organization; with the impression prevalent in some parts of the Diocese, that our Church had little to do with the masses of the people, and little hope of [17/18] reaching them; the older and stronger parishes laid on a pillow of ease, and their energies paralyzed by endowments, so situated that any increase of parishes in the towns about them would decrease their own income; the faces of Churchmen generally in the country turned away toward the great and growing West, averted from the sources of religious influence springing up here among the hills, and to a large extent by emigration leavening the whole land""; the traditional notion cherished generally in the community that this was the aristocratic Church of Old England, the nursery of pride, and the daughter of Babylon; surely here was an outlook which might well discourage the heart of any man called to superintend the work of restoration and invigoration, "who had not the root of the matter in him, who had not the wise head and the patient, untiring heart of a servant of the MOST HIGH GOD.
Brethren, such a man GOD gave us in our now departed Bishop. Fitted under the venerable Bishop Griswold for the sacred office, he had caught his spirit of calm endurance and patient waiting upon GOD. His first official act was the administration of the rite of Confirmation in Union Church in this town. The Rev. Mr. Smith, (still Rector there, and with us here to-day) after the service, mentioned the interesting fact that thirty-three years before, the sainted Bishop Griswold held his first Confirmation in the same place. Our Bishop says in his journal, "the coincidence impressed me deeply, and I could not leave the altar until I had secretly offered a prayer that I might have grace to walk in the steps of his most holy life, and that I might be enabled, as he so eminently was, to give myself, soul and body, health [18/19] and strength, time and substance to the work of the LORD." A hard trial of his power of endurance was before him. For more than ten long years the Church made very little progress. But steady, unfailing confidence in GOD at length triumphed. It is within the last sixteen or seventeen years that all the churches I have mentioned have been built, and most of the new parishes organized. The Diocese generally has, in a good degree, awakened to the work of the LORD committed unto her, and though a great part of the land yet remains to be possessed, the leaven is working and the power developing more and more.
And here let me say that as our beloved Church, here planted, has roused herself at the call of duty, rallied around her Bishop and sustained his plans for her extension, just in that proportion has she gained in the respect and estimation of our citizens generally. The prudent, considerate course of our late Bishop forms a strong element in the growing appreciation which is now accorded to her. One of the people himself, and ever ready to identify himself in sympathy with the lowly, and to take a lively interest in all that concerned the well-being of society, he has won for himself a large place in the regard and veneration of men of every calling in life, and of all varieties of religious opinion.
We hardly understand yet, brethren, how much we are indebted for the present position of our Church in this State, to the silent, continuous, firm, but conciliatory and kindly influence of her first Bishop.
Here let me briefly advert to the closing scenes of his long life of usefulness.
But how can I calmly speak of those intimate [19/20] conversations, those revealings of the hidden man of the heart, often under sore trial; those disclosures, when strength was failing, of his deep anxiety for the Churches; of sleepless nights under the burden of care for their welfare; of his constant, tender, personal sympathy and encouragement during the last two years, especially as the shadows lengthened and deepened around him, the comfort of which can never be effaced from my heart. All these scenes have opened to me a truer estimate of his character than I had ever possessed. They have bound me to him with links of iron, aye with far more enduring bonds, I trust.
The circumstances in which I have been placed, in relation to him, have not been such as always tend to draw men together, but I think it is a plain evidence of his goodness of heart, that in this case they have strengthened and confirmed the affection and veneration previously felt for him, more than I am able to express.
Let me only say in conclusion that after repeated warnings, of which he often spoke to me in private, with perfect calmness and composure, and with implicit trust in the Saviour whom he loved, he was seized, about a week before he died, by a severe attack which paralyzed in some degree his mental faculties, and he gently fell asleep in Jesus, surrounded by those dear children whose unfailing care had comforted him in all his sorrows and infirmities, with the Church's prayers and benediction breathed over him, commending him with unfaltering trust to the mercy of GOD, till the final resurrection of the just.
Address BY THE REV. BENJAMIN I. HAIGHT, S. T. D., OF NEW-YORK. We have met to-day, Christian Brethren, not simply to commit the remains of our Right Reverend Father in GOD, to the ground, according to the solemn rites of the Church; but also, before proceeding to this sacred duty, to dwell for a few moments on his life and character; and to draw therefrom the lessons of wisdom which they so impressively teach.
I stand here not to eulogize the departed Prelate; but to present a few particulars of his work as a Christian Minister and Bishop, which may not be inappropriate, and by GOD'S blessing, worthy of the occasion, and not without benefit to us who survive.
I do not propose to give his biography in full, but to recount simply some of the leading events of his life.
The Right Reverend Carlton Chase was the son of Captain Charles and Sarah (Currier) Chase, of Hopkinton, New-Hampshire. He was born February 20th, 1794, at the house of his grandfather, Captain Jonathan Chase, on "Dimond's Hill." He was educated at the common schools until he was fifteen years of age, but then completed his preparation for college at Salisbury Academy, New-Hampshire, in the summer of 1813; and entered Dartmouth College in September of the same year. "While in college his attention was strongly turned to religious subjects; and to the [21/22] position and claims of the Episcopal Church; and in his senior year (May, 1817) he rode fifty miles, on horseback, to receive Holy Baptism, at the hands of the Reverend Joseph R. Andrus, who afterwards became a Missionary of this Church to Africa. Though he had intended to study Law, up to this time, yet now, under the counsel and advice of the Reverend Mr. Andrus, he determined to fit himself for the Ministry of the Church.
He was graduated at Dartmouth, in the summer of 1817, standing second in his class,--the Reverend Doctor Marsh, formerly President of the University of Vermont, a very able and accomplished man, being first.
He studied Theology under the Right Reverend Bishop Griswold, at Bristol, Rhode Island, and by him was ordained Deacon, in St. Michael's Church, on December 9th, 1818; and afterwards Priest, September 27th, 1820, at Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island. After officiating for a short time, first at Lynn, Massachusetts, and afterwards at Springfield, he became the Rector of Immanuel Church, Bellows Falls, Vermont, on September 26th, 1819, and so continued for the space of nearly twenty-five years, discharging the duties of his office with singular ability, great acceptance, and good success.
During the first two years of his residence at Bellows Falls, he officiated, one third of the time, at the neighboring village of Drewsville, New-Hampshire. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Vermont during the greater part of his residence therein, and its president for the last ten years. He was chosen a Deputy to the General Convention from the [22/23] session of 1823 to that of 1844, when he entered the" House of Bishops. He received from the University of Vermont the degree of Doctor of Divinity, in 1839, and subsequently was admitted "ad eundem" at Bishop's College, Lenoxville, Canada.
On the 4th of October, 1843, he was unanimously elected Bishop of New-Hampshire, and was consecrated at the ensuing General Convention, at Philadelphia, together with Bishops Cobbs and Hawks, on the 20th of October, 1844, and immediately entered upon his duties, in which the remaining twenty-six years of his life were most assiduously spent. He had previously fixed his residence at Claremont, having accepted the rectorship of Trinity Church in that town, which he held till the year 1863, at which time he relinquished it, on account of increasing infirmities, the Diocese having assumed his support*
During the years 1849-62, by invitation of the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Diocese of New-York, which, at that time, was deprived of the services of its Bishop, he performed Episcopal services for several periods of varying lengths: for, so acceptable were his services that, the Ecclesiastical Authority renewed their invitation several times, and pressed it upon his acceptance.
The health of the good Bishop gradually failed, during the latter years of his life, and at length he fell asleep in Jesus, revered and beloved by all who knew him, on the 18th day of January, 1870.
And, thus, you see, dear brethren, that the whole life of the departed Bishop was spent in New England. In this beautiful valley of the Connecticut he was educated, taking high honors from old Dartmouth. Here was the scene of all his manly labors in behalf of Christ and the Church, Here, [23/24] amid lovely scenery, amid fertile meadows and vales, and under the shadow of its graceful mountains he studied and taught and ministered the blessed Sacraments and went about among the people of his charge, "doing good" after the example of his Divine Master. "But while he was thus in a high sense all your own, as student, preacher, pastor, bishop, he was yet, so to speak, not wholly your own. In his quiet seclusion amid these beauteous scenes which he knew so well how to prize and enjoy, he gave his best thoughts to the interests of the Church at large, and laid up stores of wisdom, which, when he took his seat as Counselor of the Church, whether in her Diocesan or General Conventions, he was ready to give forth according to the needs arid requirements of the occasion.
A sober-minded, discreet, thoughtful man of rare independence of character, swayed by no passions, trammeled by no party, his words in council were words of wisdom, which always commanded the attention, and almost universally the hearty assent, of those to whom they were spoken. Probably, there was no one in the House of Bishops in which he sat for twenty-five years, who was ever listened to by the assembled prelates with deeper and more respectful attention. And most touching was the homage which was paid to him as he entered the House on the last occasion of his presence, in the general Convention of 1868. He did not arrive until some days after the commencement of the session, and it was not known that he was in the city, when he entered the room in which the Bishops were assembled busily engaged in deliberation. As he walked into their midst the speaker paused, the business was suspended, [24/25] and every bishop arose from his chair to do him reverence as he walked with trembling steps towards his seat near the President. It was an involuntary act of homage to an honored brother for whom they entertained the deepest regard.
During one portion of his life he was several times called away from the quietude of his own diocese to enter upon busier scenes, amid much greater excitement, in another section of the Church. During the three years from 1849 to 1852, he made, by request of the ecclesiastical authority of New-York, five distinct visitations amid its parishes. It was during the time of a very sore affliction of that diocese. Its Bishop was indefinitely suspended. The excitement among his clergy and the people was very deep. There was angry controversy and bitter contention, rendered the more acrimonious by the doubt and uncertainty which hung over the future. It was, indeed, a time which tried men's souls. To enter the diocese under such circumstances for the performances of Episcopal Services, to go about among its clergy and parishes, preaching, confirming, ordaining, and to do this so prudently, and wisely, and lovingly, as not only not to add to existing excitements, but to allay them, and to be recognized as a Minister of peace and blessing, required no ordinary qualities of heart and mind. And yet this he accomplished, never leaving behind him any other result of his ministrations but grace and truth. The Diocese of New-York thus became very largely his debtor, and I am here to-day as its representative, by his open grave to acknowledge our indebtedness, and to witness to our high sense of the dignity and wisdom of his character, and the value of his services. And I [25/26] bear with me from his friend, the Bishop of New-York, the following letter, in which he utters the same testimony.
NEW-YORK, 38 EAST 22D ST., Jan. 22, 1870.
MY DEAR DOCTOR HAIGHT:--
I am very thankful that you have it in your power to attend the last offices to the mortal remains of our dear departed friend and brother, Bishop Chase of New-Hampshire. It is a painful thing to me that I am denied the privilege of accompanying you on that sad journey. I can hardly express how highly I valued him for the soundness of his judgment, for the manly frankness and integrity of his character, for his whole-hearted devotion to the best interests of the Church, and for the kindness and sincerity of his dispositions. It seems to me that in his death I have suffered a great personal loss, and I feel, if possible, still more deeply, that the House of Bishops has suffered a great loss.
While he was never inclined to make himself obtrusive in the Councils of the Church, and was averse to much speaking, yet his judgments were so calm and so deeply founded in reason and principle that his opinions always had great weight with his brethren.
When I heard of his election to the Episcopate of New-Hampshire, I at once wrote to him, expressing my earnest hope that he would accept the heavy responsibility. I knew his habits as a thoughtful student and an affectionate Christian pastor, and I feared that he might shrink from the change.
From that day to this I have ever thought of him with reverence and love; and it is now a consolation to me [26/27] that I wrote to him, to express my feelings, just previous to his last attack, and that I had, in return, through his son, a most kindly response.
When I came myself into the Episcopate, and entered upon my visitations in this Diocese, I met, almost everywhere, warm expressions of respect and regard for Bishop Chase, who had made extensive visitations in this Diocese, during the years in which we were deprived of the services of a Bishop of our own. Everywhere he had made warm friends, and in all parts of the old Diocese of New-York the news of his departure will be received with lively sensibility.
In that day you were in a position to see more of him than I could, and to observe more closely his powers of administration, and his admirable qualities as a Christian Bishop. His health and spirits were then unbroken. The partner of his joys and sorrows,--the soother of his cares,--the light of his house, was yet with him; and I have often heard you speak of the pleasure and satisfaction you had in transacting business with him in those days.
To me, in later years, was reserved the pleasure of hearing his praises as my visitations led me to place after place, to Parish after Parish, to family after family where he had been before me!--And a great pleasure it was,--the feeling of Clergy and people toward him was so warm and abiding. Sure I am that our Standing Committee, and our next Diocesan Convention will express in no feeble or doubtful terms the veneration and affection which he awakened in all our hearts.
May GOD in His great mercy be gracious to his family and to the bereaved diocese, and by His Holy Spirit [27/28] guide the mourning flock to the things that are wise and right for the future.
Affectionately yours,
HORATIO POTTER.
To THE REV. DR. HAIGHT.
It remains for me to say but very few additional words. Bishop Chase was a man of no common intellectual endowments, and these had been ripened by severe study and close application. His scholarship was varied and accurate. He prosecuted the study of Theology with deep interest, and became a sound and admirable Divine. He was one of the most upright of men, thoroughly honest and truthful in all his words and deeds. He was a wise man, very rarely making a mistake as to the course proper to be pursued, whether in domestic, civil or religious matters. He was a kind man, not ostentatiously so, but unobtrusively kind, in thought, and word, and deed to all men. He was a Christian man; a meek, gentle., faithful follower of the blessed Jesus, believing in Him, trusting in Him with his whole heart; living to honor, and serve, and obey, and follow that adorable Redeemer. And he was a Churchman, true and loyal to the Communion of which he was an honored servant; prizing her holy ways beyond his highest joy, arid ever praying and striving for the increase of her peace and prosperity. And yet while holding his own principles firmly and decidedly, he failed not to see and respect and love the good qualities of those from whom he was constrained to differ. His charity was of the widest kind, embracing within its range all who loved the Lord Jesus [28/29] Christ in sincerity, and who followed Him in humility and truth.
Such was the beloved Father in God, whose mortal remains are now to he consigned to the tomb, with our tears and prayers, and yet in the sure and certain hope of his glorious resurrection at the last day, to receive the reward of a good and faithful servant.
On account of the storm, which raged with violence, the remainder of the service was said in the Church by Bishops Williams and Bissell, Bishop Williams pronouncing the committal.
The Bishops and Clergy then repaired to the door of the Church, and through their lines was borne all that was mortal of him whom they had loved and revered. The people saw, with moistened eyes, the form of their chief-shepherd carried forth from the portals which he had so often entered to minister to them in the things of GOD.
Silently, amid the rain, his mourning family, the Clergy, friends, and Masonic brethren carried him to the place appointed for all living, and laid him in the earth, whence, by the all-conquering power of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he shall, in the fulness of time, be raised, and his corruptible body made like unto Christ's own glorious body.
II. THE life of a man whose official course covers more than half a century, in the formative period of this Church and Nation, can not but be of value and interest to the world. Such was the period and extent of the life of Bishop Chase, The history of his official career is a portion of the history of the growth and development of the American Church from the feebleness of infancy to the well-compacted strength of an institution which now commands universal respect--from a condition of apologetic weakness among the religious societies of this land to one of solidity and power. The compilers of this sketch feel, therefore, that they need offer no apology for having entered upon the work which they here propose to themselves.
Carlton Chase was born at Hopkinton, N. H., on Dimond's Hill, so called, on the road to Concord, and about five miles from that place.
The Chases were among the first settlers of the region where they lived. Thomas and Aquila Chase, known to be brothers, and William Chase, whose kinship is uncertain, are supposed to be the progenitors of all now bearing their name in this country. These came from England with [30/31] some of the earliest bands of emigrants. William died in Yarmouth, Mass., in the year 1659. Thomas and Aquila, from the latter of whom the subject of our sketch was descended, came to Hampton, N. H. in 1639. From Aquila, also, was descended the late Bishop Philander Chase; he being the fourth from Moses the youngest, while Carlton Chase was the fourth from Daniel the fourth son of Aquila.
Carlton Chase's great-grandfather moved to Concord, N. H., when his family was nearly grown, and bought a farm--his house standing on or near the present site of Abbott & Downing's carriage shop. Jonathan, the second son, moved, about a year after his marriage with Sarah Stickney, to Hopkinton, where, on Dimond's Hill, he built a small house, in which all his sons were born. Charles Chase, son of Jonathan, lived on a farm comprising a large portion of the homestead, where he married Sarah Currier. Carlton, their oldest son, was born February 20, 1794. Shortly afterward, the house in which the family resided was sold to the town for a Poof House, they removing to another portion of the same farm. Referring to Charles Chase's birth-place being after-ward turned into a pig-pen and his own into a poor-house, the Bishop used playfully to say that while his father was born in a pig-pen, his own birth took place in a poor-house.
Sarah Currier was from a strong Baptist family, [31/32] consequently the Bishop's early influences and associations were connected with that denomination. Late in life his father joined himself to the Episcopal Church at Hopkinton.
Carlton was of an exceedingly feeble constitution--one of those children of whom the good mothers are wont to say--"it was a miracle that he was raised." "While an infant he had a very severe attack of scarlet fever, from which it was only by the best of loving care that he recovered. He remained for years afterwards puny and unable to endure hard work. The labors of the farm were distasteful, being of too severe a nature for his physical system. He had little taste for the ordinary rough sports of the hearty farmers' boys of his own age, and seldom mingled in them, enjoying, however, an occasional frolic with his brother and sister.
He had no early advantages for study but those afforded by the district school. This he attended regularly till eleven years of age, and after that during winters, until he was fifteen. In the month of February, 1808 he went to live with his uncle, Dr. Stephen Currier, at Hopkinton village, where he attended a private school kept by Amos Allen, who afterwards practiced law in Newton, Mass. In the winter following, at Mr. Allen's suggestion, he took a small district school. In the spring he returned to his father's house for the summer's work on the farm.
[33] Now occurred an event which proved the turning point in his life and one which seemed to be a direct interposition of divine Providence. Of this remarkable circumstance he wrote--"I returned in the spring to my father's house, without the least idea of ever following any other pursuit than that of farming. One pleasant day, in the month of May, as we were planting corn in the field, I observed John O. Ballard, Esq., of Hopkinton, (Goo bless him), enter the field and hold a long conversation with my father. That conversation decided the course of my life. In consequence of it I undertook, in a few days, to instruct a small family school for Mr. Ballard and his friend, the Hon. John Harris; while it was arranged that during spare time I should attend to the study of Latin, under the direction of Mr. Harris, who was an excellent scholar in that language. The winter following, I took charge of a common district school, in which I continued several months, and returned in the spring to pursue my studies with Mr. Harris, with whom I continued till the school-keeping season of the next winter. To the gentlemen above named, I owe all that I know or am. By their habitual care for correctness in first principles, and their patient attention to elementary accuracy in every thing, they were the means of throwing my mind into a position which it has never lost nor left. And I often think how fortunate it was for me to [33/34] have commenced my education under the eye and influence of such men."
In school-keeping, Carlton Chase was remarkably successful, though so young. He was an excellent penman, and retained the same habit and style, almost precisely, to the last. Some of the latest entries in his record are in the same carefully executed, plain and distinct chirography which appeared in his earliest manuscripts. His second term was taught in Concord "street," where an unruly school was put into his charge. His father tried to dissuade him from attempting so difficult a task, while yet comparatively without experience. He nevertheless took the school and commenced proceedings by appearing in the room on the opening day while the young fellows, heroes of many a rebellion, were clustered about the stove, waiting to see who was to be master there, he or they. Young Chase was then quite tall, but slender, with dark hair and firmly set features. When he fastened the door and ordered all to their seats, the boys discovered that the days of their rule were over. Mr. Chase quietly laid down the laws which were to govern the school during that term, and it is needless to add--there was no disturbance during that winter.
Mr. Chase completed his preparation for college, at Salisbury Academy, in the summer of 1813, and in September following entered Dartmouth College. The class commencing that year [34/35] numbered sixty, most of them younger than Mr. Chase. Of him, at that time, Hon. Amasa Edes, of Newport, N. H., writes--"His personal appearance then was good; tall, straight, rather spare and slender, but of good form, with countenance much as in later life, except being expressive of more spirit and vivacity."
Rev. Horace Fletcher, of Townshend, Vt., speaks of him as follows--"My recollections of your father when in college are very distinct and vivid. There is no one of our large class whose personal appearance I can more readily and distinctly recall. Although fifty years, and more, have fled away since we trod the Halls of College together, and went the rounds of college studies and exercises in company, yet I can recollect with strange distinctness his appearance in the class. I seem to see him standing near the head of the class, as we were placed alphabetically, tall and pale with study, reciting coolly and with great self-possession and accuracy, the lesson of the morning. I have no recollection that he ever came to recitation without thorough preparation. My impression is that mathematical and philosophical studies were his favorites, though he was by no means deficient as a linguist.
His demeanor through his college life was characterized, as it now seems to me, by a certain gravity and dignity of carriage. I have no remembrance of ever seeing him engaged in the [35/36] sports in which the students sought relaxation. I have often seen him sitting on the steps of the college building while some twenty or thirty of the students eagerly engaged in the game of foot-ball, on the common before him. He seemed to look on with interest and be amused, but I cannot recollect his engaging in the sport. This gravity, and keeping aloof from the sports of the students, may be attributable, in some measure, to the fact that he was the senior in age of a majority of the class."
The quietness of his bearing, thus described by Mr. Fletcher, probably arose also in some degree from the feebleness of his physical frame, discouraging him from engaging in the rough-and-tumble contests of the more hardy and robust.
Mr. Edes thinks "his standing, as a scholar in his class, was by some considered as first, by others as second. Opinions were divided between him and the late President James Marsh of the University of Vermont." In speaking of those times, the Bishop used to say that "he considered Marsh the first, while Marsh insisted that he had a better right to that position." Mr. Marsh was appointed valedictorian, Mr. Chase having the next appointment--the philosophical oration.
"During the months of July and August, 1815," writes the Rev. Jacob Scales, of Plainfield N. H., "a terrible typhus fever prevailed among the students, of whom many were sick and some died. [36/37] Chase, rooming with a kinsman of a lower class, in a private house, near the Medical College, was very sick, and, for four weeks, did not stand alone on his feet. His roommate and I took care of him, providing watchers, &c. I wrote his father, at Hopkinton, who mounted his horse and came directly to Hanover. It being haying season he could stay but one day. He handed me some bank-bills, seeing which, Carlton raised his head, saying to me 'you take care of that--Pierce feels so bad because he has no money.' Pierce was a fellow-student who died the next day."
The end of the term having come, Mr. Scales and Mr. Chase's room-mate borrowed a wagon, in the bottom of which they placed a straw bed, and on the bed the weak and sickly student. They drew him to the house of a Mrs. Chapman, in whose care they left him. The room-mate went home, was taken down with the fever and died. How long a time elapsed before Mr. Chase was sufficiently recovered to return to Hopkinton is not recorded; but from a minute account of college expenses, which he kept, it appears that on September 27th he paid Mrs. Chapman for his board during his sickness. The entries for medicine, &c., would indicate that this illness lasted from about the twenty-third of August to the above date.
While he was at home spending the summer vacation of 1814, a report reached Hopkiuton that [37/38] British vessels had appeared off Portsmouth harbor, meditating an attack. This roused the patriotism of all the farmers' sons, who, Mr. Chase among them, volunteered at once for the defence. Their company marched to Portsmouth, spent a few days in moulding bullets, and then returned home, the enemy having disappeared.
Mr. Chase was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society in the summer of 1816.
In relation to his first religious impressions, his being drawn to the Episcopal Church and his choice of a profession we find the substance of the following in his own handwriting. He says that until the latter part of his college course it was the expectation of both himself and friends that he would follow the profession of the law. The spring of 1815 was distinguished at Dartmouth College by a remarkable religious revival. This gave an impetus to the pious influences which, surrounding him from infancy, now produced their effect by inducing in Mr. Chase a new and fuller appreciation of his duty to GOD, and by inspiring him with a resolution immediately to fulfil it. He did not, at this time, for good reasons, join himself to any religious organization. He says, "In the winter of 1816-17, I was engaged in a school at the village of Hopkinton, where was, and still is, an Episcopal Church. My attention was attracted by its solemn forms and regular ministrations, and by the faithful preaching of the Rev. Joseph R. Andrus, [38/39] the officiating minister. I had now found a Church which answered my idea of what a Christian Church ought to be. I dismissed the intention of studying law, and determined to devote myself to the ministry of the Episcopal Church."
With characteristic determination, on the fourteenth of May following, he mounted a horse and rode from Hanover to Hopkinton, about fifty miles, where he received Baptism at the hands of Mr. Andrus. This clergyman afterwards devoted himself to the Christianization of Africa, where he died among the first of those who served under the Colonization Society.
At Commencement, in July, 1817, he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and departed from his Alma Mater, leaving the reputation of a thorough student and a man who, if somewhat austere in his intercourse with his fellows, was yet "a perfect gentleman." If they feared, "they certainly loved him, regarding him as scrupulously conscientious." "Distinguished in College for his scholarship and dignified bearing, and for his honorable course throughout, he occupied a proud position in the estimation of the Class and of the Faculty."
It was early in the winter of 1816-17, that Mr. Chase determined to devote himself to the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and, accordingly, made immediate application for admission as a candidate for orders in the Eastern [39/40] Diocese. The request was granted in January 1817, as appears in a letter from Bishop Griswold dated "Bristol, January 30th. 1817," and running as follows:--
DEAR SIR:--It gave me no small pleasure to learn from Mr. Andrus and yourself, your wish to devote yourself to GOD, in the work of the sacred ministry. Though we are yet strangers, from the testimonials forwarded and your own declaration, I have no doubt that your motives are truly Christian and that the LORD will make you a useful Minister of His word. Your determination to labour in the Protestant Episcopal Church, is not, I trust, without the Divine Counsel. There is a very great call for able and pious ministers among us, and to the present state of our Church may be applied the words of our Divine Master; "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few." I presented your testimonials to our Standing Committee, and, on their recommendation, have enrolled your name as a candidate for Holy Orders. That the LORD may direct and bless your studies, and fit and prepare you for that important work, is the humble and earnest prayer of your affectionate friend,
ALEXANDER V. GRISWOLD."
Very shortly after his graduation, Mr. Chase proceeded to Bristol, Rhode Island, where, as was the custom in those days, he pursued the study of Theology, in company with two or three other students, under the direction of the venerable Bishop. His life there was an exceedingly pleasant one. The town was old, and the society of the [40/41] best. As might be expected, the company and conversation of an intelligent young man were by no means despised. Accordingly Mr. Chase passed through the ordinary experiences of young men, whether they be clerical or lay. To the end of his life, Bishop Chase spoke often and kindly of the good ladies of Bristol, remembering them always with the greatest interest.
In consideration of the circumstances of the case, his term of study was shortened so that, on the 9th of December, 1818, he was ordained Deacon, by his venerable preceptor, in St. Michael's Church, Bristol.
The first winter he spent, under the direction of the Rev. Thomas Carlisle, of Salem Mass., in carrying out plans for raising up a Church in Lynn. At the end of four or five months' service, matters had not prospered sufficiently to warrant a permanent engagement. A letter from the projectors of the parish speaks in the highest terms of Mr. Chase's faithful labors, but regrets that they were not in position to offer a salary.
About the first of May, 1819, at the recommendation and by the advice of Bishop Griswold, Mr. Chase left Salem and went to Springfield, Mass., where, it seems, the Church was scarcely more advanced than in Lynn--the services being held in the Armory Chapel and under the auspices of the Commandant. This arrangement lasted but three months, terminating the last of July.
[42] On the 26th of September, Mr. Chase entered into an engagement with Immanuel Church, Bellows Falls, Vt., and St, Peter's, Drewsville, N. H., by which he was to officiate two thirds of the time for the former and one third for the latter parish.
The Church at Bellows Falls was founded, in the year 1789, by Samuel Cutler, a physician^ who came, in that year, to Buckingham, from Hart* ford, Connecticut He was a staunch Episcopalian^ and immediately organized a parish, having services at the "Old Town," as it was called. Through his exertions the glebe lands in Rockingham were taken up, rented, and the proceeds applied towards paying for the services of a clergyman. Dr. Cutler read the Church service on Sundays, obtaining, as means allowed, occasional visits from neighboring clergy. Reverend Virgil Barber, of Claremont, afterwards a pervert to Rome, was one of those most frequently called upon. Thus the services of the Church were kept up, the people baptised) the dead buriedj and the Holy Communion occasionally administered, while, once in a year or two, the hearts of the faithful were gladdened by the visit of their chief pastor, the Bishop of the Diocese.
About the year 1816 a Church building was erected at Bellows Falls, whither Dr. Cutler had removed, and where several other warmhearted Church people had settled. The Reverend George T. Chapman, now living, at a venerable [42/43] old age, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, was the rector, and the only one, who preceded Mr. Chase. He, in the year 1818, reported eleven communicants as belonging to Immanuel Church.
Mr. Chase, on arriving at Bellows Falls, went to board in the family of Dr. Cutler who resided in a large, low house situated where the Island House now stands. In this sound, true-hearted household he found Harriet Cutler, the woman who, on the 13th of September, 1820, became his wife. They were married in Windsor at the house of Miss Cutler's brother-in-law, E. R. Campbell, by the Rev. George Leonard, rector of the Church in that place. They proceeded directly to Bristol, where, on the 27th, Mr. Chase was admitted to Priest's Orders by Bishop Griswold. Having returned home, they boarded with Dr. Cutler until his death, Oct. 30th, 1821, after which they kept house in the same dwelling, till the year 1830, when, having erected a house of his own, on the hill, near the Church, he made that his residence till his removal to Claremont, in April, 1844.
About the year 1819, he became a member of the order of Free-Masons, and, June 3, 1820, he took three of the Chapter degrees at Trinity Chapter then located at Hopkinton, N". H., being exalted to the degree of Royal Arch Mason at the same place Sept. 2, 1826. He ever held the Order and its tenets in high esteem, delivering Masonic addresses on several occasions.
[44] After fifteen months, St. Peter's Church, not having obtained certain expected allowances, from Church Lands, gave up its share of ministerial service. In Oct. 1821, Immanuel Church made provision for the entire support of their clergyman, at a yearly salary of five hundred dollars. In his record, Mr. Chase wrote--"At the beginning of my residence here, the sum of five hundred dollars was proposed by the vestry as my salary. This sum, from that time to this, neither the parish has proposed to lessen nor I to increase. Though small, the kind providence of GOD, has enabled me to live within it, and indeed, to relinquish very large arrearages at different .times. My receipts have not averaged four hundred and fifty dollars, per year. To be economical without meanness, and liberal without profusion or extravagance is a lesson which every minister of the gospel ought diligently to study."
Mr. Chase found Bellows Falls a pleasant little village with wild natural scenery both of mountain and river, and, what was more to his purpose, settled mostly by families of refinement and culture. The canal, constructed around the falls in the Connecticut, was owned by an English family by the name of Atkinson; several members of which, in their various connections, resided in the neighborhood. Moreover, these people were Churchmen. They were born and bred in the Church and trained up their families to walk in the same "old paths." [44/45] Of course such society attracted new comers of like principles and tastes; wherefore, during the entire fifty years, which have now elapsed, since the Reverend Carlton Chase commenced his ministrations in Immanuel Church, a solid influence, always perceptible and active, in the midst of the amenities of refined social life, has existed there, in favor of the Episcopal Church. At his first undertaking the rectorship, the village being new, with its population still unsettled, this sentiment had hardly taken shape. But with a learned, enterprising and industrious pastor, fresh from contact with some of the best and brightest men and women of the time, acting upon and with such material, there could not fail to result just such a united and harmonious Christian community as it was this clergyman's happy lot to minister unto during twenty-five of the best years of his life.
Although the Church edifice was already constructed when the new rector took possession, it was hardly completed, and was burdened with a debt, which, in those times of scant currency, was heavy indeed. This incumbrance was paid off by contributions of parishioners, aided by a legacy from a friend in New York, whose munificence was commemorated on a marble slab placed upon the front of the altar.
Mr. Chase found on the records of the parish the names of eleven communicants; these increased, with remarkable steadiness and regularity, [45/46] notwithstanding constant losses by removals, to one hundred and forty-six, as reported to the Convention in 1843. In 1826 the Church was improved and furnished with an organ. In 1833 an important enlargement was effected. A Sunday School library was gathered; while a parish library, commenced in 1828, reached, during this rectorship, above five hundred volumes. In 1839 a lecture room was built, and in 1842 the Church was again repaired and painted. In contributions for missionary work, and other benevolent enterprises, this parish was one of the most prominent and reliable in the Diocese. All this was owing to the quiet, systematic and judicious labors of the pastor, seconded by a people among whom it was a constantly increasing pleasure to live and work.
It is related that at one time during this period the Reverend Mr. Burchard, a leading revival preacher among the Baptists, was holding a series of meetings in a neighboring town. One evening, according to custom, he invited the members of his congregation to suggest subjects for prayer. Among several who responded was one man who called for prayers for Bellows Falls. No notice was taken of this for some time: and the man loudly repeated his request, till Mr. Burchard was obliged to attend. Stretching his long arm out in the direction from which the voice proceeded, he exclaimed, "Our brother need not trouble himself at [46/47] all about Bellows Falls--the LORD will take care of Bellows Falls."
From the beginning of the pastorate of Mr. Chase at Bellows Falls, till the year 1832, Vermont was included in what was termed the Eastern Diocese, presided over by Bishop A. V. Griswold, whose memory will ever be affectionately preserved among Churchmen. Bishop Griswold was an able administrator, and possessed the faculty of keeping in mind and providing for every portion of his extensive jurisdiction. This comprised the united dioceses of Massachusetts, (which included Maine,) New-Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode-Island. He seemed to regard with equal care and solicitude the few Churchmen in the obscure villages of New-Hampshire--as it were cast away on an island amid the sea of Puritanism--and the wealthy and conspicuous parishes of Massachusetts and Rhode-Island; and as often as circumstances permitted, he visited them personally at their churches and homes.
The difficulties attending a visitation, over this part of New-England, in those days, can hardly be appreciated now; an expedition from Bristol through the Northern portions of his diocese being more of an undertaking than would now be a trip to Portland, Oregon. We find an interesting letter written by the Bishop to his late pupil, probably while the latter was at his father's house, between the time of his leaving Springfield and [47/48] commencing service at Bellows Falls, in which he lays out the plan for a visitation in New-Hampshire.
"August 23d, (BRISTOL) 1819.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR:--
I have received your favour of the 16th, and thank you for the information it gives. As I hope soon to see you, it will suffice, at present, to make you acquainted with the arrangements of my intended journey, as respects the parishes in your vicinity. My intention is, the Lord permitting, to go in the stage from Boston to Concord, Monday, the 6th, of September next. Tuesday, the 7th, (if requested) will officiate in Concord. Wednesday, the 8th, go to Plymouth, the 9th, officiate at Holderness, the 10th, return to Concord, the 11th, shall be able to officiate in Hopkinton, or other place, as shall be thought expedient. Sunday, ye 12th, may be at Hopkinton except it shall be thought better that I should be at Bradford. Monday, I intend going to Bradford when (if not before) services may "be held there. Tuesday, the 13th, I would go to Claremont. I have delayed giving this information longer than was intended by waiting for some necessary information from Boston. If you shall not be otherwise engaged I shall be glad of your company to Holderness. Perhaps you will also find it convenient to go with me to Claremont and over to Bellows Falls. I have no conveyance provided after reaching Concord. You will oblige me by giving attention to that business. If some of our kind friends there will let us a horse with a chaise or small wagon, I will gladly pay for the use of them. I wish also that you will give all [48/49] the information respecting the above arrangement which shall be useful and in your power.
Your friends, here in Bristol, are generally well--and I remain most affectionately your friend and brother,
ALEXANDER V. GRISWOLD."
Under date of Boston, April 9, 1842, we find another letter, in which a visit to the Western portion of New-Hampshire is planned. After this is one dated at Claremont, May 16, 1842> in which the Bishop mentions being attacked, at that place, with an illness, which necessitated a return to Boston, leaving his intended work unfinished. His venerable form was never seen among those people again.
We introduce these matters without apology, for they belong to the history of a period full of interest to the Church, the sources of which are fast passing away.
From his first appearance at the Diocesan Convention of Vermont, to his election to the Episcopate of New-Hampshire, the Reverend Mr. Chase bore a prominent part in the councils of the Church. He was made a member of the Standing Committee in 1820, and continued as such, by annual election, one year excepted, when he intended a visit to Europe, till he left the diocese; and was president of that body from the year 1834. He attended every annual Convention of the Diocese during his residence therein, excepting the year [49/50] 1824, when sickness prevented. He was an active member of several committees appointed at different times for the revision and improvement of the Constitution and Canons of the Diocese.
At the early settlement of the country certain lands were reserved in each township, by the English Government, for the use and benefit of the Church. These were glebe lands and propagation rights, which from lack of care, on the part of the authorities of the Church, were now mostly occupied and held by individuals, or in some cases, by the towns in which they were situated. Thus they were apparently lost to the sacred uses for which they were originally set apart. In 1831, Mr. Chase was appointed, by the Propagation Society in England, one of its agents, to recover and protect its rights in these lands. Accordingly, he, with the Hon. Jonathan H. Hubbard, of Windsor, and others, commenced a course of litigation for this purpose. The distinguished Daniel Webster being engaged as counsel, Mr. Chase and his associates were entirely successful, and thereby secured to the Church a property which yielded a yearly income of over three thousand dollars a very important help in carrying on the missionary enterprises of the diocese.
In the course of one of his journeys, while engaged upon this business, he was as effectually scalped as though he had fallen among Indians and been operated upon by their dexterous hands. [50/51] He was, one night, crossing the Green Mountains, in company with Judge Hubbard, when the coach in which they rode was overturned and fell down the side of the mountain, rolling completely over. Mr. Chase's head coming in contact with the sharp corner of a rib in the roof of the vehicle, his scalp was torn up and turned forward nearly over his eyes. He supposed himself to be fatally injured, and so announced in a loud voice to his companion; which, however, was not the case, for the skin being replaced and skilfully dressed, adhered and grew on again perfectly--the scar remaining through life. This was really a narrow escape, for had not the coach been stopped by a tree it must have gone a very great distance down, in which case death would have been almost certain.
At the very important Convention of 1832, at which time Vermont separated itself from the Eastern Diocese, or rather Province--for such it really was--and the first Bishop of Vermont was chosen, Mr. Chase's activity and influence were employed most wisely and usefully. He led in the legislation by which the separation was effected; and, being chairman of the committee, prepared the touching and admirable parting address of the diocese to the venerable Bishop Griswold.
The clergy were almost equally divided in their choice of a new bishop, and the feeling was at first so strong that it threatened to break out in [51/52] opposition to the result of the ballot. A lay member of that convention, a man of excellent memory, attributes much of the fraternal acquiescence which followed to the "conciliatory course of Mr. Chase * * * * his manner of meeting the opposition, cool, quiet, dignified, at the same time firm; not once losing the Christian deportment which followed him through life."
To him Vermont is indebted for the first systematic attempt to collect and arrange the materials for a history of the Church in that State. The task of gathering up and arranging the scattered and often disjointed fragments was assigned to him, by the convention of 1837. This movement resulted in the collection of letters, from different rectors in the diocese, containing parochial history now of great value, and in his preparing the sketch of the history of the diocese and its several parishes which was printed in Thompson's Gazetteer of Vermont.
Mr. Chase was chosen delegate to the General Convention of the Church for many successive years, but attended only in 1823, 1832, 1835 and 1838. At those sessions, however, his business tact, as well as his soundness of judgment, were so remarkable that he was brought into contact with all the leading men in the Church, and thus became intimately acquainted with very many distinguished persons, both clergymen and lay-men, from all parts of the country.
[53] About the year 1837, the Diocese of Vermont was agitated by troubles which some, who talk of the "good old times," are wont to consider as belonging only or chiefly to this present. A clergyman named Perkins, who was settled at Arlington, was so ill-advised as to attempt to substitute his own wisdom for that of the Church, in the Order for Public Worship. Mr. Perkins was brought to trial for his disorderly practices. Mr. Chase was appointed Proctor, and attended to his duties with marked ability. The same captious advantage was taken, by Mr. Perkins, on technical points and there was the same working up of sympathy, and the same cry of persecution which attend similar trials now; but the law of the Church was so vindicated, and irregularities so checked by this act of discipline, that peace has reigned in the diocese ever since.
In the year 1839, Mr. Chase received the degree of Doctor in Divinity from the University of Vermont. This honor was peculiarly grateful to the recipient, coming as it did through the hands of his classmate and constant friend, the Reverend President James Marsh.
On account of his connection with Hopkinton and Concord, Doctor Chase was, of course, intimately acquainted with the affairs of the Church in New-Hampshire, while his reputation as one of the first men in Vermont could not be unknown to the churchmen of that diocese. Moreover the [53/54] growing and united parish of Immanuel Church, just across the dividing line, was a constant witness to his success in the pastoral relation. Accordingly, after the death of Bishop Griswold, in 1842, the thoughts of many New-Hampshire churchmen were turned towards bringing Doctor Chase back to the State of his birth, to administer in that diocese, the affairs of the Church in which he had been for a quarter of a century a successful and honored presbyter.
At a special convention of the Diocese of New-Hampshire, held at Concord on the 4th day of October, 1843, Doctor Chase was, with most singular and gratifying unanimity, elected Bishop. Having consulted his own diocesan, Bishop Hopkins, and maturely considered the subject, he gave the following answer to the communication of the committee appointed by the convention to announce his election.
To the Reverend Charles Burroughs, D. D., President of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of New-Hampshire.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR:--
Through a committee of your convention it has been announced to me that on the fourth day of October instant I was unanimously elected to the Episcopate of the Protestant Episcopal Church in that diocese.
In answer, I respectfully beg leave to say, that I received this communication with humble and [54/55] reverent submission to that Divine Redeemer who appears to have ordered it, and, if it please Him to spare my life and health till the canonical time for consecration and to interpose no forbidding obstacle, I will, in devout reliance on His grace, hold myself in readiness for the further solemnities necessary to the consummation of this act of your convention.
I have the honor to be,
Reverend Sir,
Very respectfully yours,
CARLTON CHASE.
BELLOWS FALLS, VT., Oct. 25, 1843.
The severance of his ties to Immanuel Parish caused him no little pain. A letter written home from the General Convention of 1838 contained the following: "I often think of home and Immanuel Church, and I can truly say that I see no clergy-man here, whom I believe to be more happily situated in the midst of an affectionate people than I am."
He wrote the following touching letter to the Reverend Doctor Sprague, afterwards of Drewsville, under date of October 9, 1843:
REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER:--
I thank you most sincerely for your kind letter, and wonder greatly how you could have got the news (of the election to the episcopate) so soon. Yes, the brethren in New-Hampshire have solicited me to become their chief pastor. And the election has come about in such [55/56] a manner, and attended with such circumstances as to affect me very deeply. I am informed that though the members of Convention came together without preconceived agreement, each one, almost, having his candidate; yet upon conference they settled into a unanimous decision, both clergy and laity, in favour of your unworthy brother and fellow laborer. And with the LORD'S blessing, on my doing what in me lies, they shall not have occasion to regret it. Whether I shall accede to the election I do not yet decide. Most probably I shall, if satisfactory arrangements can be made on the point of subsistence, though it will necessarily involve the sacrifice of comfort and ease, and the long cherished feelings of love for a home reared and" arranged by my own hands, and pastoral ties and attachments most dear; yet there are considerations urging to it which have much force. * * I love Vermont, and shall to the last hour of my life:
"For her my tears shall fall;
For her my prayers ascend;"and I would that I might, by an exchange of field, be able to add the other two lines of the stanza,
"To her my cares and toils be given
Till toils and cares shall end."But probably it is not so to be. In twenty-four years I have done much for Vermont, and she has dealt kindly with me. GOD bless her,--and bless her Church, and guide and bless her Chief Shepherd. ****** I have been a sad man from the moment this matter was announced to me. I find my roots have run deep in this spot, and the pulling them up is dreadful. Too much [56/57] for my own comfort hereafter have I loved this flock, and too much have they loved and indulged me. Never, never was a pastor more blessed, and few are the Churches so united, consistent, faithful, prosperous and happy. I never can look upon its like again. There is not a soul under my charge, old or young, for whom I do not entertain a personal affection, and from whom I do not receive tokens of affection returned. GOD bless Immanuel Church "and all her children within her," and send her a Shepherd who shall faithfully dispense to her the bread and water of life. Soliciting another letter, and begging the help of your prayers, I have only time to add how affectionately I am
Your brother in Christ,
CARLTON CHASE.
REVEREND N. SPRAGUE.
In the book in which, for years, the records of the alms and offerings at Holy Communion were kept, at Bellows Falls, is the following entry:
"April 7, 1844, Easter Communion, $6.15 Here ends my blessed and happy connection with Immanuel Church, Bellows Falls. I go with hope of a blessing from GOD, to labor in another field. Claremont is henceforth my home, and Trinity Church the field of labor to which Providence calls. So farewell dear flock of Immanuel Church. The LORD be with you."
Owing to his election's occurring within the year before the meeting of the General Convention, the consecration of Doctor Chase could not canonically take place till October, 1844. It was, [57/58] however, thought best that he should connect himself with the diocese at an earlier day. The choice of a residence lay between Concord and Claremont. The latter place was decided upon. It being arranged that with his bishopric he should assume the rectorship of the Church where he might reside, he took charge of Trinity Church, Claremont on the first Sunday after Easter in 1844. This parish was organized as a corporation separate from Union Church, whose church edifice was in West Claremont, in the summer of 1843--Doctor Chase being consulted in regard to the movement while under consideration--and the Reverend E. A Greenleaf was engaged to officiate until the new rector, in the person of the Bishop elect, should arrive, which he did in the following spring, and spent the summer of 1844 in labors among the people of his new charge, and in preparing a home for his large family.
The church edifice, which was purchased from a "union" organization, and which had been in use for several years, as a chapel to Union Church was a curiously constructed brick building of sixteen sides, with windows in two stories thickly set in. The roof rose to a point in the centre, whence a nondescript sort of cupola seemed to sprout. There was originally no provision made for warming in winter, people depending on foot-stoves and a vigorous action of the feet when the cold was too intense to be endured in quiet.
[59] In 1851, after strenuous efforts, a new church was built, which still challenges the admiration of many visitors. Of the cost, considerably over a thousand dollars was contributed by Churches in New-York, out of personal regard for Bishop Chase. Meanwhile the parish grew steadily in strength and character, and was one of the most vigorous of country Churches. This rectorship Bishop Chase held till the year 1863, when his infirmities and the needs of the diocese rendered it necessary that this portion of his cure should be relinquished. The diocese, being now of sufficient ability, assumed the entire burden of the modest salary agreed upon--the sum of nine hundred dollars.
Thus ended a pastorate of forty-five years, divided between only two parishes, which in mutual love, respect and esteem never faltered, and which was accompanied with regular and abundant success.
In October the General Convention met at Philadelphia where, on the 20th, in Christ Church, with Doctors C. S. Hawks and N. H. Cobbs, he was consecrated to the holy office of a Bishop in the Church of GOD by the Right Reverend Philander Chase, assisted by Bishops Brownell, Onderdonk (of New-York), Ives and Smith.
From motives of delicacy, having but just been consecrated, he would not sit on the trial of Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, but returned home to [59/60] commence his work for the Church in Few-Hampshire. The first entry in his official journal is, "October 28, 1844, I received from the presiding Bishop the sentence pronounced by the House of Bishops against the Right Reverend Henry Ustick Onderdonk, and immediately communicated the same to the clergy of the Diocese. I am sorry to begin my work with such an entry."
It is proper to remark here that Bishop Chase, many years after, that is to say, at the Convention of 1865 held at Philadelphia, had the satisfaction of aiding materially in the restoration of Bishop Onderdonk, and of communicating the grateful news to the loving family of the penitent and long enduring Bishop.
Under date of November 2, 1844, he records the transfer of I. G. Hubbard, a candidate for orders from Connecticut, to the Diocese of New-Hampshire; whom he afterwards ordained, and for whom, during many years, as a faithful presbyter in his diocese, he felt the heartiest affection; in whose judicious counsels he had the greatest confidence, and upon whom, as Rector of Trinity Church, Claremont, during the three years before his death, he constantly leaned for advice and assistance. Doctor Hubbard's respectful, considerate kindness Bishop Chase ever acknowledged; and of his affectionate solicitude during the last illness the family of the Bishop now desire to record their grateful appreciation.
[61] Bishop Chase's first visitation was made November 6, 1844, at Union Church, West Claremont; of which he records, "This, my first Confirmation, was held in the same church where that sacred rite was first performed by the late venerable Bishop Griswold."
On the seventh of December he received notice of the trial of Bishop B. T. Onderdonk, to take place at New-York on the tenth. The notice was so short that, perhaps not unwillingly, he was prevented from attending the trial. Without undertaking to pass judgment in a cause which he had not heard, he always, afterwards, indulged the kindest feelings to wards his suspended brother; and sympathized with him in the galling bondage under which he lay during the rest of his life.
It is impossible in this connection to introduce a history of the Diocese of New-Hampshire during the Episcopate, more than twenty-five years ill length, of Bishop Chase. Upon his accession he found but twelve organized parishes with eleven clergymen; while on the first of January, 1870, the churches numbered twenty-three, and the clergy, twenty-two.
The field which now lay before him in the Episcopate was far different from the Pastorate he had left. At Bellows Falls the Episcopal Church was the Church of the village. A small Methodist society managed to live, indeed, but public opinion was so strong in favor of the Church and its ways, [61/62] that the clergyman's work for it was always comparatively pleasant and easy. New-Hampshire, on the other hand, was at that time like a sterile, rocky pasture, where the cultivated plants struggled feebly for existence, and almost apologized for not absenting themselves altogether. The Church but just existed. In its progress there was no head-way, no momentum. Every movement involved a steady, continuous pull. There was everything to be done, and also nothing to do with. The laity in the diocese were unused to paying their money, and the attention of those outside was directed to the more inviting prospects for building up the Church amid the new countries of the West.
In the presence of all these difficulties, however, the work was diligently carried on. The various, Churches were visited once, and often twice, each year. The old parishes were encouraged, and indications of new openings judiciously and ardently followed up. Thus year by year, with little change, the work went on. Now and then some old parish would give evidence of increasing life and vigor, or an especially favorable opening would appear for a new one. Many a time was the Bishop called upon for help when he had none to give; and he found the slenderness of the means at his disposal the chief hindrance to the missionary operations he desired to set forward. The daily mail brought its never-ending round of cares. Difficulties and disputes, which in larger dioceses [62/63] are of necessity settled at home, were sent to be laid before the. Bishop for adjudication. No one except the Bishop of a small diocese can under-stand how near the labor of its administration approaches to that of a large one.
On Sunday, September 16, 1849, Bishop Chase visited Keene, where the Reverend H. N. Hudson was officiating. He succeeded, though suffering great pain, in preaching in the morning, but kept his room during the afternoon. The next day he was hardly able to make the journey home, and when he reached there, immediately betook himself to his bed, entirely prostrated by an attack of inflammatory rheumatism. Here he was confined for three or four weeks, not recovering strength until the last of the month following.
The Bishop of the Diocese of New-York being at this time under disability, the necessary episcopal services were performed by various Bishops, acting at the request of the Standing Committee. On the 5th of October Bishop Chase was invited to take temporary charge of that large and important jurisdiction. One reason, doubtless, for his selection to perform this duty, was the fact, mentioned before, that Bishop Chase had no part in the Onderdonk trial; and, consequently, was not obnoxious to any persons or parties in New-York.
In compliance with this request, though before he had fully recovered his strength, he started for [63/64] the scene of his labors on the thirty-first of October. He was met by his friend, the Reverend Benjamin I. Haight, D.D., Secretary of the Standing Committee, at whose house he was most hospitably and kindly cared for.
He rapidly recovered his health in traveling from parish to parish, during a series of visitations which lasted six weeks, without interruption. During this time he officiated nearly every day, and some days twice, mostly in the Churches on Long Island and Staten Island, and in West Chester County. This duty was unaccompanied by remarkable events, but was lightened by many circumstances of the most agreeable nature. The excellent and hospitable people whom he met, and at whose homes he staid; and the hours of pleas-ant, social intercourse among cultivated people, became never-ending sources of pleasing reminiscences, and were often spoken of by the Bishop with cordial appreciation and gratitude. While on this visitation he held service in forty-one churches and chapels; confirmed five hundred and forty persons; ordained two priests; consecrated five churches, and delivered nearly fifty sermons and addresses; besides administering Baptism and the Holy Communion on several occasions. No untoward event of any kind befell him in his constant journeys, and he returned home with reestablished health and strength.
On the 22d of the following February he again, [64/65] by request, entered upon service in the same diocese, his visitation lasting till the end of March. Of this second visit he records that he "officiated on thirty-three occasions in thirty-two churches or parishes: pronounced sentence of degradation against three clergymen; gave the 'laying on of hands ' to eight hundred and ninety-three persons in Confirmation; delivered forty sermons and addresses; and traveled between six and seven hundred miles." He adds, "I feel humbled at the thought of the little gratitude which warms my heart in remembrance of the mercy and good-ness which carried me safely and happily through so great an undertaking. Not the slightest failure, disaster, loss or disappointment of any kind. Nothing could exceed the kind attentions and hospitable assiduities of this people in all places. Again I must bear testimony to the piety, devotion, zeal and active Christian life of our brethren, clerical and lay, in New York. Again I enjoyed the hospitality of that learned, laborious, and admirable minister of Christ, the Reverend Doctor Haight, and his blessed family. My grateful heart will ever warm towards them all. How much they ministered to my happiness and contributed to my useful ministration, GOD only knows. The arrangements made for the meeting of the various appointments, by the Reverend Doctor Haight, were perfect in all their parts. With no trouble nor anxiety to myself, at the [65/66] proper time a carriage was sent for me by the clergyman whose church I was to visit; service being ended, I was immediately taken to whatever place I chose. My only care was to be prepared for each appointment at the proper time. My conveyance depended upon others. On the whole I reckon the last half year as a most delightful portion of my life."
Bishop Chase was again placed in charge of this important field doing duty there from the first of May, 1852, in which time he performed the following services: Confirmed, in forty-six churches, eleven hundred and seventy-two per-sons; Ordained four priests and two deacons; Consecrated three churches; delivered fifty-nine sermons and addresses.
He continued in charge till the Diocesan Convention in September, having spent from the twentieth of June till the ninth of July, and from the fourth to the nineteenth of September.
On the tenth of November he was present in Trinity Church, New-York, at the consecration of the Reverend Doctor Wainwright, as Provisional Bishop of that Diocese. He records of this service, "The sermon, at the urgent request of Bishop Brownell and of Doctor Wainwright, though quite against my own judgment, and inclination, was delivered by myself. It was a day of surpassing interest. There were ten bishops and two hundred clergymen present, and a congregation [66/67] of two thousand people. Thus happily the affairs of the Church in New-York are settled. In this event I sincerely rejoice."
This sermon, one of the best from the pen of Bishop Chase, was received with the heartiest encomiums and was published.
On the seventh of October, 1852, Bishop Chase attended the first trial of Bishop Doane, at which time the complaint was dismissed. Of the reopening of the case, September 15, 1853, when, after an examination of thirteen days, the complaint was again dismissed, he records: "The decision was unanimous. None were dissatisfied, apparently, except the presenters and those persons, enemies and revilers of Bishop Doane--of whom there is but a small class in the Diocese--who had long been virulent and bent on destroying the Bishop. With a most noble, manly and Christian bearing, and with an ability of the most transcendent order, he managed his own case. Thus this troublesome business has been finally disposed of, and can never be brought up again. It is not for a moment to be supposed that the presenting Bishops were governed by bad motives, but, at the same time, I have no hesitation in recording that, in my opinion, they greatly erred in judgment. They listened too readily to scurrilous tales; and they ought to have rested satisfied with the proceedings of the year before. I can-not comprehend the views of duty which engaged [67/68] them in this second prosecution. It is wonderful how united the Churchmen of New-Jersey are in their Bishop."
In the year 1852 an act of incorporation was procured from the Legislature, by which a board of Trustees was empowered to hold property for the benefit of the Church in New-Hampshire. This was an important step, and laid the foundation for the accomplishment of much good in future years. The Bishop writes of it, "I think we can now manage the pecuniary interests of the Church in this Diocese to good advantage."
In October, 1854, movements were initiated, which ended, by the munificent liberality of Doctor Shattuck, of Boston, in the establishment of a boys' boarding school, at Concord, under the title of St. Paul's School, which stands second, in sound scholarship and in reputation, to none in this country. In this institution and its affairs, the Bishop took the greatest interest; and his pains, with those of the other Trustees, of the Founder, and of him who has been from the beginning the Rector of the School, have been fully rewarded by the marked success which has attended the enterprise from the very beginning.
During the early portion of his Episcopate, the only mode of communication with the middle and eastern portion of the Diocese was by a toilsome journey of fifty miles by stage. One had to rise long before daylight to avail himself even of that [68/69] conveyance. Several times each year the Bishop undertook this labor, and never spared himself any exertion necessary to the performance of his duties. The project of connecting Claremont with Concord by a railroad was often debated, and indeed, one was constructed, over a portion of the distance. At the beginning of the year 1870, the full completion of the enterprise seemed near, and it was thought that Bishop Chase might yet live to enjoy its benefits. This however was not granted him. To the end of his active life, in all weariness and pain, a long detour, or a stage ride, greatly dreaded by him in his weakness, was necessary in order to cross the State to the eastern portion of his charge.
Bishop Chase attended the General Convention which sat at Richmond, Virginia, in the fall of 1859. There he made many friends, Mr. Botts, Mr. Rives, and others, with whom he afterwards had much correspondence, in relation to the troubles in which the country was then involved. It is well known that, in Virginia there were, at that time, many men who, after their own fashion, were ardent lovers of the Union. The Bishop had frequent communication with them, in the winter of 1860-61, in the course of which they begged him to endeavor so to influence action at the North as to enable them to hold the South to duty, and thus to save the Country. Bishop Chase, though never sacrificing his just pride in [69/70] the rectitude of the North, did all that was possible at the time. The difficulties were not to he settled in that way. These people were but trying to put the new wine of the public opinion of 1860 into the old bottles of 1789; consequently, after several patchings, the old bottles utterly failed. The new will now probably hold the wine for many, many years.
During the winter of which we have spoken, the Bishop was much troubled at the condition of the country, and in a sermon, on the occasion of the National Fast, in April, 1861, labored to assuage the excitement and wrath of the multitude. He was by nature and from long habit unable to believe that all the good was to be found on one side, and had many words of warning for men at the North as well as for those at the South. After the war fairly opened, however, his patriotic zeal for the Union was without stint or measure, and he lived to see her fully and triumphantly restored. The officers of government who were stationed near his residence, have spoken warmly of the assistance they derived from his counsel and example.
In the spring of 1863 he was attacked with a violent Pneumonia, which, though thrown off for the time, so seriously affected his health that he was never after entirely free from its effects. From that time must be dated the decline which ended in his death on the 18th of January, 1870. In the summer following that sickness, he resigned the [70/71] rectorship which, blessed with the undiminished affection and regard of those to whom he ministered, he had held for nearly twenty years. The Bishop thenceforth devoted his entire time to the interests of the Diocese.
During the spring and summer of 1864, Mrs. Chase was in feeble health, though not supposed to be in a critical condition. Her husband and children viewed her condition with solicitude, but not with alarm. In the course of the summer, she visited her friends in the neighboring towns with great satisfaction; still she was not permanently relieved from the unfavorable symptoms. In August, Bishop Chase went on a visitation to Lancaster, in the northern part of the State, and while there, visited an old parishioner in the town of Guildhall, Vt., and was entreated to remain several days. Though there was no apparent reason for declining, yet he had a feeling that he must not delay his return home. He accordingly hastened thither, reaching Claremont on Thursday, August 25. He found on his arrival that Mrs. Chase had just been seized with a serious attack of illness, and was sinking rapidly; so rapidly, that on the following Saturday she breathed her last. The Bishop often mentioned this providential circumstance his being brought home, as it were, when there seemed no occasion for coming: for there was great reason for his presence with his family.
[72] Mrs. Chase was a woman of the most excellent Christian character, and of the highest and best qualities both of mind and heart. Entirely unobtrusive, but gentle, loving and sympathetic, she was not one to excite the admiration of the crowd, nor to charm the casual observer; but her friends were bound to her by no ordinary ties of affection, and valued her regard by no meagre standard. Among them she was the pattern Christian woman, to be compared with whom was deemed the highest praise. The influence of her example, and even of her peace-breathing presence was a great assistance to her husband in his pastoral relations. Her memory is inexpressibly dear to her children, who can never cease to regard and reverence in her the tender, even-tempered, loving mother, and the best of women.
Though calm and self-possessed through the whole, the Bishop felt the death of his wife most keenly. His affection for her was deep and tender, and his thoughts constantly dwelt upon her beloved memory during the remaining years of his life.
Bishop Chase attended to the business of his diocese in the most prompt and careful manner, being called upon to exercise his influence and power in all sorts of affairs, many of which in larger jurisdictions never reach the Bishop's ear. His tact at reconciling differences was remarkable, and was more effectual because he [72/73] never moved in haste, nor on a partial view of a matter.
During the remainder of his Episcopate, there is little to call for special notice. His record of events remains to the Church, and furnishes a minute and systematic history of the administration of the Diocese. Up to the year 1869 he per-formed in his own person the duties of his office almost without exception. Though deeply feeling his increasing infirmities, nevertheless he always accomplished the work. But at this time, on his-request, he was kindly relieved of some of these labors by the Bishops of Maine and Vermont.
The last entry in his record bears date of January 1, 1870, and is in a handwriting almost as firm as the entries of twenty years before.
Bishop Chase was one of those men who live on to comparative old age in a condition not far removed from sickness. His health in childhood was very poor, and his illness in College was thought to have destroyed what little constitution he had possessed. Several sicknesses afterwards added to his disordered condition. When a young man he set his life to end at forty, and after that was constantly in expectation of an early demise. During the last five or six years, the physicians felt that he might be taken away at any time; this was his own belief; and in the long and lonely hours of sleepless nights he thought much of eternity, beguiling the time with [73/74] the hymns and collects with which his memory was stored. His mind could scarcely be said to have failed, although, during the last few months, the power of concentration was very much impaired. Long continued attention exceedingly fatigued him; and matters which would have seemed easy and clear when he was in health, now worried him inexpressibly. His judgment was still sound, and his apprehension of the relations of things perfect. His memory of recent events became somewhat treacherous at the last, but as to events long past it was as good as ever.
His fatal illness commenced on Monday morning, the 10th of January, in the form of a slight numbness of the left hand and arm, which spread gradually to his entire side. This so passed away in the course of the forenoon, that he spent the afternoon and evening in the most pleasing and easy conversation with his family. Tuesday morning he was unable to finish dressing without help, and was assisted to a lounge in his study. He lay upon this in great uneasiness, which steadily increased till half-past eleven, when a spasmodic attack came on. This passed away, but was repeated at two, at five, and at seven, leaving him almost unconscious, and in a state of great nervous agitation. After seven o'clock in the evening these attacks did not recur, and he gradually became more quiet. On Wednesday morning a good prospect appeared of a substantial rally. [74/75] The next day, however, typhoid symptoms set in, under which he sank; and on the following Tues-day, at the going down of the sun, his spirit quietly departed.
During this sickness his mind often wandered. He fancied himself away from home, taken sick while in attendance upon a Convocation of his clergy; and was constantly hoping to be able to return to his own home, that place of comfort and rest. He recognized, and was glad to see, all his friends. His family find satisfaction in the thought that everything which constant care and watchfulness, and the skill of his physician could effect, w r as done for their dying father and friend. From an early hour on the morning of his first attack, he was attended with unremitting assiduity; friends and neighbors most kindly adding their efforts to those of the family in this work of love. And his trusted friend, the rector of the parish with which he himself had been so long connected, was often by his bedside, and at the last commended his soul to GOD in the prayers of His holy Church. The Bishop was patient under all suffering and affliction, and grateful for every attention. He joined in the prayers which were daily offered by his bedside, and at last, quietly and without a struggle, gave up the ghost,--his form was with us, but his spirit had returned to GOD who gave it. Truly, he died the death of the righteous,--may our last end be like his.
III. THE character of Carlton Chase was singularly rounded and symmetrical; and in. this very symmetry lies the difficulty of giving it an adequate description. An intimate friend writes of him "In a character so admirably proportioned, as was the Bishop's, in a life and conversation so harmonious, there could be little of the sensational or telling order. Biographies of such men as he are the hardest to write, for the general reader. Lives that are in themselves evangels, seem to render commentary and illustration alike needless and unsatisfactory. Yet it is precisely such lives that stir the hearts of those who have been privileged to read them most closely, with the irrepressible desire to lay them open to the larger audience."
Bishop Chase was rather a man of ability than of genius. His was an active--a working mind; not rapid, but steady and thorough in its action; not fitted for the easy yet brilliant exhibitions which excite the astonishment and kindle the admiration of the public, but for the successful evolution, by diligent study, of the principles which are most useful to man in all his various relations. He was eminently an exact man--early training and long use having rendered this [76/77] habit a second nature. Every thing he undertook was accomplished in his best possible manner, and at the precise time required. He was one of the most punctual of men, and so strenuous was he on this point that it is probable that he never, by his own negligence, caused loss of time to another.
Nature endowed Bishop Chase with a well balanced mind, and gave him energy and perseverence for its cultivation. No unusual aptitude made him easily great in some conspicuous department--in fact, nothing was easy unless it had become such by previous hard work.
He says of himself--"I have written a great deal for magazines and religious newspapers, but have published no books. Having an active mind, I should probably have done something in this way if chirography, or the mechanical operation of writing had not always been very irksome. I never could see what pleasure there was in scribbling characters on paper. Habit has, however, long since reconciled me to it, in a degree, so that I compose sermons with nothing very unpleasant in the labor." For sermon-writing he had certain days in the week set apart, and of them particular hours, each of which must produce its quota of manuscript. He says--"As to the modus operandi of executing a composition, I take leave to remark here that, at an early period, I cultivated the habit of getting every thought perfectly into form, even to a single word, before I began to lay it on [77/78] paper. This was painful, laborious and slow, at first, but it contributed greatly to accuracy of expression and distinctness of conception, and at length became easy and tolerably rapid. I seldom copy anything for the purpose of correction or alteration, or to get rid of the necessity for un-couth interlineations." He made a point of considering upon every thought, which he desired to put into words, till he was sure he had it framed in the best possible manner. Even the simplest announcements in church were carefully prepared, so that he might, without peradventure, tell the congregation just what he wished them to know. At the same time, whether from lack of the peculiar faculty, want of early discipline, or from his habitual diligent care in the selection of words, when seated at his writing table, he was not ready at expressing himself extempore.
His style of composition was, ordinarily, plain even to excess. On appropriate occasions it could be eloquent--even grand, but never ornate. He employed no rhetorical tricks nor expedients for gaining attention; but, on subjects of high import, having noble thoughts he embodied them in fittingly noble words. His sermons were very largely subjective--dealing in argument, and in appeal only as based on and growing out of the argument.
His early reading, other than theological, consisted chiefly of Shakspeare, the Spectator, and the [78/79] metaphysical writings of the time. These works taught him accuracy and nicety of expression but gave him a language that was singularly free from the qualities that attract listeners to itself. The ideas of the preacher shone through his words into the mind of the hearer--the language dropping instantly out of appreciation.
The philosophical speculations of Coleridge, coming to him as they did, fresh from the author's mind and hand, were his especial delight, He had correspondence upon them and upon subjects suggested by them with many of the leading men of the time. The earlier years of his ministry were rife with troublesome questionings, whereby less stable souls were led off into the paths of error. In all these discussions Mr. Chase bore his full share, working out his own conclusions in faith, but with great searchings of heart. He saw clearly the danger towards which many were drifting, and distinguished, from the true pointings of sound philosophy and of revelation, the false lights which led astray numbers, both among ministers and people, of persons of the warmest hearts and most sincere piety. The influence of his thoughtful mind was powerful to stimulate and direct thought in others; and several men who, coming from other bodies of Christians, have adorned the ministry of the Episcopal Church, owe to his suggestions that impulse to study their position which led to the change.
[80] Bishop Chase's knowledge, both of things common and of those not generally known was extensive, and surprisingly accurate. So far as he proceeded with a subject, he mastered it. In his best days, any question relating to the learning current from his youth up to that time, would receive an instructive answer. Whatever subject might be discussed in the lecture-room, or elsewhere, it had almost invariably been studied by himself long before. He seemed to have read, with interest and profit, works on all subjects to which attention was liable to be called.
His taste for mathematics was strongly developed, while in Latin and Greek he was by no means deficient. On one occasion, several years after leaving college, he found himself able to converse intelligibly, by means of the Latin language, with a Pole, whom he chanced to meet in a stage-coach, utterly unable to make himself understood in his own native tongue, and totally ignorant of ours. He was an expert mineralogist and geologists His connection with Diocesan business, in Vermont leading him into all parts of the State, he amused himself by examining its physical formations, and by gathering specimens of the minerals which the country afforded. Thus, and by exchange with other men, of like tastes, he accumulated a cabinet of no mean value and extent. He was, in Bellows Falls, one of the original promoters and principal managers in an [80/81] enterprise, then new and untried, for bringing water through long distances from the spring to the consumer. He refreshed his scientific knowledge by such practice as the establishment, in conjunction with his friend, the now venerable Dr. Elisha E. Phelps, of Windsor, Vt, of a true meridian line in the town where he lived; also, by measuring the height of neighboring mountains, by the aid of the barometer.
His mechanical taste was great, and his practical skill considerable. His "work-shop" was a favorite resort when tired with the labors of the study. When Immanuel Parish built a lecture-room, their rector made all the settees for it with his own hands. And many old friends now possess tokens of his kind remembrance in the shape of choice bits of furniture which he made for them. Gardening and the care of fruit trees was another great source of recreation and pleasure. He kept a diary, for many years, in which he recorded events as he happened to feel their importance or himself in the mood for it. Of keeping this record he writes--"Aug. 12, 1832. A long hiatus in this important journal! How easily we neglect and forget what we mean to do regularly. Nothing particularly memorable has occurred since the last date, as I remember." He added to this entry, several months after,--"I did not, however, exactly mean to do this regularly but, simply, just as and when the humor took [81/82] me." When he grafted his trees he recorded, with care, the situation of the tree, the variety of the cion, the method pursued in doing the work, and, afterward, the result. At one time he set down, with great apparent satisfaction, the very careful and skilful manner in which he performed the operation, and also his strong faith in the growth of a particular cion. Against this entry he subsequently wrote, with some little grim humor, "It failed notwithstanding." He moreover made record of the changes of the weather, the extremes of heat and cold, the rains and snows. The book, however, suffered seriously from frequent seasons of neglect, which he now and then deplored, in a serio-comic vein, saying--"I never could keep a journal." In another place he wrote--"This book is a perfect melange." Sometime afterward he added--"Did I say perfect? Much depends, I say, on what I meant by the word. He who produces a 'perfect melange' does a good thing, so far as a perfect melange is of use. But if the more perfect the melange the more useless, he who produces it does an ill thing."
In his religious, as in his literary character, Bishop Chase was unostentatious to a degree. There was in it no element of noise or vehemence. He had no fancy for mere "pious talk," or the sort of religion which shows itself greatly through movements of the tongue. Consequently, many good people misunderstood him, and some, whose [82/83] religion was of a different sort, thought he had none, because its manifestations in him were different from those in their own case.
Whatever he deemed to he his duty he did inexorably. A friend writes--"There is an incident in your fathers life, which occurs to me as especially characteristic. It was told me by himself. During the early days of his ministry, he became specially interested in the spiritual welfare of one of his parishioners, a man of exceptionable breadth of character, warmth of heart, and, as the pastor thought, of unusual capacity for spiritual growth. He was not a man of culture, not a gentleman, in the conventional sense, and his life was somewhat irregular. Among his beset-ting temptations was a passion for cards. On one occasion he had sought the rector's study for counsel and comfort, when the pastor thought it a good time to warn him of the danger he was in through his love of play. The man heard him with respect and earnest attention, and then replied I have heard, sir, that you are very fond of a game of chess; now is there any more harm in my cards than in your chess?' The pastor was silent for a moment, then said, ' Look here, my friend, I will make a bargain with you: if you will give me your word never to play another game of cards, I will pledge you mine never to play another game of chess.' The man, in his turn, was silent with astonishment, and apparently [83/84] greatly moved. 'Do you mean it, sir,' he asked at length. 'I assuredly mean it,' answered the pastor. 'Then it is a bargain,' said the man. 'And from that day to this,' said the Bishop, as he told me the story,--'I have never played a game of chess, nor do I believe that man ever played cards after his promise,' I ventured to say some thing about the sacrifice of an innocent and intellectual recreation having no analogy to the putting away of an incipient vice. 'Do you suppose,' he answered, 'that man would have understood any such tine wiredrawing? Don't you suppose it would have had the appearance of sophistry, with him, though he could not have so named it? And was I to hesitate at resigning an amusement when it was a question of doing my best towards saving a soul?'
In his pastoral labors Bishop Chase was assiduous in sowing the good seed, and then patient in waiting for the promised harvest. He used the regularly appointed means for doing the Lord's work; consequently, without times of either spasmodic activity or of spiritual dearth, the additions to his list of communicants were always regular and satisfactory. In his diocesan work he seldom made haste. He believed that, in ordinary cases, the movement that would not endure--the test of time the test of waiting till the morrow when it could best be taken in hand, had better not be taken hold of to-day. He never made promises [84/85] trusting to good fortune to enable him to fulfil them--that rock whereon so many eminent and good men wreck both themselves and the cause that they have in hand.
The characteristic of his administration was, having little to do with, to make the most, prudently and diligently, of that little, Eminently a careful, clear-headed business man, he carried on the secular affairs of his diocese strictly upon safe business principles. In his private affairs, he adorned the doctrine which he preached, by a life of perfect purity and uprightness. Keeping his expenses rigorously within his means, he always had money to pay for what he bought, and never bought that for which he could not pay. A tradesman, in Claremont, with whom he dealt for many years, says he never differed with Bishop Chase in relation to an account except in two or three instances, when, upon settlement, it was found that the Bishop's private pass-book contained several items not set down in the bill as rendered. These, to the amount of several dollars, he always paid--simply because he knew they were due, though the tradesman omitted to charge them. He was true and just in all his dealings, and consequently died, not only without an enemy, but universally honored and respected.
He was habitually slow in the utterance of opinions, not throwing off crude and ill-digested dicta, which he must, upon reflection, modify. [85/86] It may be truly said that never, even in the most earnest advocacy of what he deemed right and desirable, did he speak unadvisedly with his lips.
In his intercourse with his brethren he was eminently a conciliator and peace-maker. He was such, not by the use of persuasion or soft talk, but because all parties, feeling sure that they possessed his sincere regard and affection, as well as having confidence in the soundness of his judgment, gladly received him as umpire in their differences. He saw good among the partizans who were ranged on both sides of a question; while his calm, judicial cast of mind enabled him to render a just judgment in the matter at issue. He, moreover, while holding his own opinions strongly, could perceive the virtues of those who differed with him. During his terms of service in New-York, he moved among the adherents of all the conflicting parties, then painfully rife, winning the hearty regard of all, and retaining it to the last. He had, at that time, a correspondence with Doctor Tyng, which was characteristic of and honorable to both. The Bishop's flock in Claremont were engaged in erecting a new church. Towards this enterprise the Doctor promised a certain sum of money; but afterwards, when application was made for it, he declined to pay, on the ground that the Bishop's course in connection with the Bishop Doane trial was unsatisfactory to those who contributed the money, and whose [86/87] trustee he was. The Bishop replied that his original promise was unconditional, that the parish had gone on relying upon that source for so much money, and he begged that his poor flock might not be made to suffer from any error which he might be supposed to have committed, and for which of course they were not responsible. Doctor Tyng's reply came quickly and to the point,--"You are right and I am wrong, here is your money."
As a Churchman, Bishop Chase was sound and strong; holding uncompromisingly to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He regarded this body, not simply as the Church of his affections and choice, but as that to whose membership he was called by all the obligations of duty and of truth. He was strictly regular in the observance of liturgic rules; having little sympathy either for those who exhibited their reverential devotion by unusual gestures, postures and modes of performance in divine worship, or for those who, from real or imaginary principle, sought to prove their reverence for GOD by an irreverent handling of His holy things. He did not adopt a new practice only because it was not wrong, nor did he change lightly from a practically good way to a theoretically better one. Still, where he considered that no principle was involved, he was liberal in allowing others to follow their own tastes, though differing materially from his own.
[88] A letter, from his pen, addressed to his old and greatly esteemed friend, the editor of the Banner of the Cross, dated March 30, 1848, referring to an article which had just appeared in the Christian Witness, denouncing Bishop Doane, for having the Psalter chanted in Latin, in the Chapel of Burlington College, expresses very perfectly his mind, and shows the principles upon which the practice of his life was based.
"The eminent person reflected upon usually knows what he is about, and I will take leave to add that when that remarkable day comes which shall find him idle and no good work for Christ and the Church in head or heart or hand, he may 'be left' to reply to some of his rebukers. There could plainly be but two objections of much weight to the Latin chanting in the classic seminary of Burlington--neither of which occurred to the aforesaid critics. I. Unless if it were a customary thing there was danger of its being regarded simply as a musico-literary exercise, without the proper devotional feeling. But I could willingly leave this to the judgment of Bishop Doane, and not distrustingly nor captiously call him to account afterwards. And, II. That it would be likely to furnish occasion, for them who desire occasion, to call forth such articles as that in the Witness. Chanting in Latin is not to my taste, but in a Latin school, where 'it is understanded of the people,' it is no offence to me if others enjoy the grave and [88/89] stately diction of that language, when uttered in music. No more has the Church consecrated English than Latin."
He considered that the ordinances of religion were intended for man, not man for the ordinances; consequently, within proper limits, not going be-yond the sanctions of sound doctrine and the recognized usages of the Church, whatever tended most to the edifying of individual souls, varying greatly as they do in their capacities and their needs, he allowed not imposing upon the quiet, cool, phlegmatic Christian a highly wrought ceremonial, nor denying to those, whose devotional feelings crave much outward manifestation, an opportunity to build themselves up in Christian graces by the means best adapted to produce that effect.
In his intercourse with the clergy of his diocese Bishop Chase was always most courteous and considerate yielding his own convenience, when-ever possible, in deference to their wishes. While he was unsparing in praise of the efforts of a brother, blame was carefully and most gently ad-ministered. At one time, when preaching in a new church, he was very painfully annoyed by some defective construction of the pulpit, in the matter of light. After divine service was over, while still suffering under the pain and fatigue induced by this fault, he somewhat decidedly pointed out to the rector the imperfection in his pulpit arrangements insisting upon the [89/90] correctness of his views. The clergyman maintained with much persistency that everything was as it should be. After his return home the Bishop wrote the following letter, in reply to one which he had received from the clergyman, which exhibits clearly his character as a true Christian gentleman.
"REV. AND DEAR BROTHER:
Your letter is read by me with very great pleasure, I assure you. I will not disguise that the manner in which you received what said about the pulpit was very unpleasant to me the more so because I felt that I had a right to give advice and express an opinion about a thing which affected the performance of my own duty in your church. I had delivered my sermon under painful inconvenience owing to the lowness of the desk and the position of the light but it is no matter now. I thank you with all my heart for this frank, unsolicited communication. I determined at the time that I would not allow the occurrence to bring over me any change of feelings or conduct towards you. In this I have been successful.
And now, my dear brother, let me turn the leaf and make an apology myself. I have not ceased to regret that I said so much. I ought to have been satisfied with expressing my mind without following it up so persistently. I was nervous at the time, partly from loss or deficiency of sleep, and partly from these noises in my head which never cease and are sometimes very dreadful and thus I showed impatience.
Very truly and affectionately
Your brother,
C. CHASE."
[91] While Bishop Chase acted truly and justly in all his dealings he was also solicitous lest he should come short of his duty towards GOD. He very early determined that the old rule of tythes was equally binding upon us as upon those to whom the direction was especially given. Accordingly he set apart one tenth of his income, small as it was, and devoted it to charitable and religious purposes he gave it to the LORD. So, year by year, not trusting to a tardy testamentary bequest, bestowed when the giver can no longer use his means, he gave of his substance continually; thus, we trust, laying up treasure in heaven, where moth and rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal.
Bishop Chase, as he says of himself, wrote much, but chiefly articles of an argumentative character, on theological questions. Of formal charges and addresses to his clergy, he made very few. In the year 1857, he wrote several papers of great weight on the subject of Baptismal Regeneration. His views were highly regarded by many of the best minds in the Church, yet they excited but little general remark. This was not much to be wondered at, considering the abstruseness of the matter, under discussion, and of its treatment; and considering the fact that the tendency of thought in these days is rather in the direction of things objective than of those subjective. In 1837, he compiled a history of the Church in [91/92] Vermont which was published in Thompson's Gazetteer. He left, also, in the archives of the Diocese a collection of sketches and statistics which the Reverend Dr. Bailey, Historiographer of the Convention, declares to be of very great value.
He was, in 1832, elected an honorary member of the New-Hampshire Historical Society. His services in the promotion of sound literature were also acknowledged by other testimonials of an honorable nature.
In writing poetry Bishop Chase was not a proficient. Among his papers was found a scrap marked--"My first and last attempt at poetry." He, perhaps, lacked the imaginative quality of mind, or, possibly, the power to use it; yet his taste in both poetry and music was delicate, cultivated and reliable. Joking he seldom indulged in; though of humor he had a considerable fund which shone out on genial occasions, and in very many friendly letters, which he wrote most charmingly. His numerous correspondents can testify that no one could better clothe a fine thought in beautiful and dignified language than could Bishop Chase.
It was with men of thought men who were able to evolve original ideas from their own minds, or with those who were intelligent observers of that which was new in nature, science and art, that Bishop Chase felt most at home; and it was such, who best understood and most truly appreciated [92/93] the strength and capacity of his mental endowments.
His thoughtful, practical Wisdom was very much relied upon by his parishioners and fellow-citizens, who were accustomed to go to him for advice on the greatest variety of subjects; from buying land, planning houses, and investing money, to healing the sick and cultivating the mind and heart. He was invariably found a kind and judicious adviser.
The personal appearance of the Bishop was most striking. He had a handsome, manly figure, slightly over six feet in height, and well proportioned; with a head and face finely shaped, His bearing was dignified, and his manner, especially when performing the public duties of his office, exceedingly impressive. His countenance was indicative of intellectual strength, and of a character self-contained and Well poised. Few saw him without receiving an impression which they never forgot.
Although always disliking to leave home, and returning to it at the earliest moment consistent with his duties, he thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of his numerous friends, and, as a guest, no one was ever more heartily welcomed than he. His sincere appreciation of the kindnesses bestowed upon him, his genial conversation, spiced with rare and entertaining anecdotes, his dignified presence and manner, and, withal, his unaffected [93/94] simplicity made him a desirable inmate in every house where he had once sojourned, His infirmities greatly increased during the last few years of his life, and, though the hand of age was heavy upon him, his humble patience grew stronger to the end. His considerateness in his family was such that it was often difficult to learn his wishes; he fearing to add to the cares of his children, who sought to fill their mother's place in solacing his declining years. It is pleasant for those who had that privilege, to remember the confidence and love with which he repaid their efforts.
Thus we have attempted a sketch of the life, services and character of Carlton Chase, first Bishop of New-Hampshire. It is and must be imperfect, for he was a man of a mind and character so justly rounded and filled out in every part, that the salient points whereon to hang vivid descriptions and glowing accounts, can hardly be discovered, A mind like his, to many seems possessed of no important powers; just as the human figure, when perfectly proportioned, excites less remark than when a single member of it is extraordinarily developed. As was eloquently said of him "Bishop Chase was a man and a Bishop of an antique mould. In him was no weakness, no littleness. Calm, self-centred, faithful and true, of a grand simplicity, he stood four-square to every wind that blew."
So in the fulness of time, at the ripe age of [94/95] seventy-six years, the oldest prelate on the bench, with the exception of the venerable Jackson Kemper, just now gone to his rest, died Carlton Chase. What he accomplished GOD knows. His work is done and the record of it is laid up in Heaven, and when the great day of reckoning comes, by it alone will he be judged. He is in the keeping of a merciful Redeemer Who will raise him up at the last day. And in His just and loving care we who loved and mourn are content reverently and trustingly to leave him.
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