I welcome your return to-day to this holy House of God, fraught as it is with such sacred memories, to you and me, of the day, when you "took me, a man of your own coasts, and set me to be a watchman" over you; and of the other day, when God gave to me, in all my unworthiness, the commission of my holy office and the responsibility of this tremendous trust. We have entered upon our Conventional services, our deliberations, our discussions. I have no desire to divert or to detain you from their continuance, by any consideration of remote or abstract matters; by the expression of my views upon the exciting questions of the Church at large; or by the introduction of subjects foreign to ourselves. In my first Address, to what is really our first Convention, I feel that the chief thing to be attained is a fair review, and a full knowledge, of what is as new to most of you, as a few months ago it was to me, the Diocese of Albany, its wants and work, its condition and its prospects, its brief past, its busy present, and by God's help, its brilliant future. And I set myself the task of furnishing the plain straight-forward story of the visitation of the Diocese, with such suggestions as my experience has forced upon me. I do this the more gladly, because the results of my observation furnish us, what all men will feel to be, the strongest stimulus for earnest effort, tokens of life and work, to which God's blessing has been given, and openings for larger ventures of enterprise and generosity, to which the voice of God calls.

I desire, at the outset, to bear reverential testimony to the faithful devotion which enabled my Right Rev. Brother, (I had almost said Father,) the Bishop of New York, to achieve, what seems to me, the impossibility of visiting, with so much regularity and with such warm acceptance, the distant and widely parted parishes of his Diocese. God grant that the partial lightening of [3/4] his still abundant labors may tend to prolong, for many a year, a life so precious and so important to the Church. And I desire to bear my most admiring witness, as well, to the large-hearted fidelity, the untiring energy, and the quiet sacrifices of my brethren of the Clergy throughout the Diocese, who, "to their power, yea, and beyond their power," give themselves unreservedly to unnoticed, unpaid, and unreturning work, "stretching themselves beyond the measure" of their parochial limits or their prescribed duties, "to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond them." They are not "enlarged by you abundantly," as they ought to be, my brethren of the Laity, with sympathy, or personal work, or giving, or prayers; though I am proud and thankful to own the spirit of zeal and intelligent interest in the Church, which gives to the Diocese of Albany a body of laymen, worthy to be the co-workers of its Presbyters and Deacons, and well able to bear comparison with the oldest Dioceses in the country. It becomes us all, beloved, to sing "Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed Nomini Tuo, da gloriam." But it is easiest of all for a Bishop to forego self-praise, since the spiritual results of his Diocese are but the aggregate of pastoral labors and parochial successes, which he only encourages, inspires and guides.

You will have patience with me, this year at least, when the work is all new and unknown to most of you, while I proceed, even with some tediousness, to spread out before you the outline map of what is doing, and what needs to be done.

Consecrated on the second of February, the Feast of the Presentation, I shall not fail to have your prayers, that, in that other Presentation Day, the Master may present us pure and clean, and in the likeness of His glorious Body. My first act was to attend a meeting in the city of New York, in the interest of what are called Domestic Missions. I may be allowed to say that the word is not altogether fortunate, if it be taken to imply distinction in the way of opposition; since all missions are, to those outside the household; and yet none redeemed, as all are, by the blood of [4/5] Christ, are strangers or foreigners now. And I may be further allowed to say that I distrust entirely the whole system of spasmodic excitement, whether musical, military or rhetorical, for the purpose of obtaining money for the legitimate work of the Church. They are make-shifts at the best; and as one palls, another keener relish must be found. And all the while, for clerical support, for parochial requirements, for charities, for education, for missions of every name, the Church will never rise to the measure of her ability, nor fulfill the mission of her Master, until we put in force the full system of the apostolic rule of Lord's Day offertories, given according to the Lord's prospering of every member of the Church, and laid for distribution at the apostles' feet, to be appropriated by the Bishop. A scheme like this seems new, in days when men have outgrown even the recollection of the old and true. It seems arbitrary, in days when men will brook no authority but the despotic tyranny of self-will. For all that, it stands, the Scriptural, Catholic, Churchly way. Our plans, long tried, have been found wanting, every one, and judged by secular and financial standards, the only systems that are pecuniarily successful, are those which, whatever be their errors, hold to this one right principle at least, Romanism, Mormonism, Methodism, and the following of Edward Irving.

On the occasion of which I speak, Friday evening, February 5, the Bishop of New York presided, and addresses were made by the Bishops of Oregon and Long Island, and myself.

On Monday, February 15,1 made my first visitation in St. John's Church, Copake Iron Works, where I preached, confirmed seven persons, and addressed them. The Rev. Mr. Johnston, to my great regret, has resigned the parish and left the Diocese. The Church at Copake owes its origin and maintenance to the earnest interest of one Christian woman. Luzerne furnishes another example. I wish there were more such. The parish, I am sorry to say, is very unnecessarily vacant. I refrain to say more for the present. There is a good parsonage here, beautifully situated, and a very nice Church building.

[6] On Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the Vestry Room of St. Peter's Church, Albany. I presided at a meeting of the Missionary Committee, all the members being present, and entering upon their duties with a cordial and accordant interest, which promised, and has accomplished the best results; and in the afternoon I presided at a meeting of the Albany Bible and Prayer Book Society. Of this organization I need not say much. Its importance cannot be overestimated. It was the first association of Churchmen in Northern New York; out of it grew the Northern Convocation, and out of that the Diocese. "The brook became a river and the river became a sea." I hope every energy may be bent to increase the efficiency of this Society, the only one I ever want to see in the Diocese. And I suggest, as means towards this end, that a Canonical position be assigned, during the meeting of the Convention, to the transaction of its business; that pains be taken to make the offerings for it large, and that some definite connection between it and the Convention be secured. And I hope that the distribution of church books and tracts may be made a part of its legitimate operations. I have authorized the Rev. Dr. Coit and the Rev. Mr. Brown to prepare an edition of the Prayer Book for publication by the Society.

On Saturday, February 20, assisted by the Rev. J. H. Hobart Brown and the Rev. Benjamin Webb, Presbyters, I held the Canonical examination of the Rev. J. Irving Forbes and the Rev. Wm. II. Capers, Deacons, candidates for Priests' Order. And on February 21st, the second Sunday in Lent, being the Ember Sunday, in St. Peter's Church, Albany, I admitted to the Order of Priesthood the two candidates above named. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. J. II. Hobart Brown and the Rev. Benjamin Webb. I preached the Sermon and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Win. S. Southgatc, of the Diocese of New York, and the Rev. H. T. Gregory, of the Diocese of Connecticut. The other priests present, who joined in the laying on of hands, were the Rev. Dr. Gallaudet, of the Diocese of New York, and the Rev. Messrs. Selkirk, Reese and Boardman, of the Diocese of Albany.

[7] On Monday, February 22, in the Marshall Infirmary, in Troy, I confirmed a deaf-mute, an inmate of that beneficent institution, the Rev. Dr. Tucker and the Rev. Dr. Gallaudet assisting in the services, which the latter interpreted in the sign-language. It was a touching and telling service, felt by all present. Dr. Gallaudet's noble devotion to these sufferers is beyond praise, and reaches, I am glad to say, into this Diocese, by means of a monthly service held in St. Paul's Church in this city. It is the very work which Jesus did, saying "Ephphatha," to those who by this labor of love are enabled "to speak and praise God." And it is a work for which the Church with her liturgical worship is singularly suited.

On Thursday, February 25, I gave my consent to the consecration of the Rev. Frederick Dan Huntington, Bishop elect of the Diocese of Central New York, to the office of a Bishop in the Church of God.

On Saturday, February 27, I began my first stated visitation of the Diocese, taking as the starting point the two counties of Otsego and Herkimer. It seemed an unpropitious season of the year, but I had very little choice in the matter; I was most anxious to go over the whole Diocese before I met you here. The time was all too short, and I desired to show at the start what my estimate was of a Bishop's work, as the first missionary in the Diocese. I see no reason to regret the choice. The farmers and work-people in the country were unoccupied in this month, and the result was large congregations everywhere, with a very unusual proportion of men; and the pleasant companionship of the clergy, the warm and cordial welcomes everywhere, and the courteous and comfortable arrangements made for me on every hand, turned the whole journey into a pleasure. The single regret, which I am glad to believe the people felt with me, was the hurriedness of the visitation. This has been the difficulty everywhere, and while, if God will, the full measure of a year's time will obviate it somewhat hereafter, I must give due notice that until this Diocese is broken into three, and Troy becomes one See city for the counties across the river, and either [7/8] Ogdensburgh or Plattsburgh the other, the Bishop's work will not and cannot be done here as it ought to be. I speak of this in passing, but it is a necessity which you will feel yourselves soon, as I feel it now; and I hope you will take such measures of preparation as will find you ready for it when it comes.

At Cooperstown I spent the third Sunday in Lent most pleasantly. The Rev. D. Hillhouse Buel, the rector, said the service, I celebrated, preached twice, and addressed the children in the Sunday School. This is a venerable Parish with recollections happily combining the sacred and the historic, as in its quiet churchyard lies the dust of the pioneer missionary, and of the first of American fiction writers, whose pen was never prostituted to corrupt popular taste. The name of Mr. Cooper and the influence of Father Nash, survive in the pious charities and earnest churchmanship of the parishoners of Christ Church.

In Grace Church, Cherry Valley, on Monday, March 1, in a very pretty church building, the rector, the Rev. David L. Schwartz, said Morning Prayer and baptized an infant. I preached, confirmed fifteen persons and addressed them.

In the evening, in the Presbyterian house of worship, at Spring-field, the Rev. Mr. Schwartz said Evening Prayer, and I preached to a very large congregation, baptized four adults, and confirmed five persons and addressed them. It is pleasant to see the interest of the Laity in the mission work carried on here, as an arduous addition to his laborious and well done parish duties by the rector of Cherry Valley, and gratifying to find the strong and sturdy purpose of the few church people here.

On Tuesday, March 2, in St. Timothy's Church, Westford, the Rev. A. H. Stubbs, the missionary, said Morning Prayer; I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion. I find the old Parish weak in numbers but strong in faith and purpose. It has given one faithful Missionary to this Diocese, and has sent three students, aspirants for the sacred ministry, to Annandale, where I am glad to say, that seventeen boys from this Diocese are enjoying advantages, which I believe to be unsurpassed in this country, for spiritual development, intellectual furnishing and all that tends [8/9] to make the Christian scholar. Three prospective candidates from Westford, a Parish with less than a dozen communicants, suggests a proportion which shames our stronger Parishes, in which the very last thought of Christian parents seems to be, the privilege of consecrating their children to the closest service of their Lord. In the evening, in the Presbyterian house of worship, in Worcester, the missionary (Mr. Stubbs) said Evening Prayer and I preached to a very large congregation, filling the building. With the removal of the only church family from here, the occasion for regular services has ceased. I am told that East Worcester offers a better opportunity. But until this mission can be divided, Schenevus and Westford to one, and Portlandville and Laurens to another, I shall discontinue the regular services at this point.

On Wednesday, March 3d, in the Baptist house of worship, at Schenevus, the Rev. Mr. Stubbs said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed one person.

At night, in St. John's Church, Portlandville, the Rev. Mr. Stubbs said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed three persons and addressed them; and on Thursday, March 4th, in the same Church, I preached, confirmed one person and celebrated the Holy Communion. The Churchmen here have endured, from the class of Christians who call themselves liberal, a persecution as bitter and bigoted, as I have ever known. The Church, of course, has lived and thriven and grown, and God has blessed their work, who, leaving their own trades and occupations, "hewed timber out of the thick trees and brought it to the excellent work" of glorifying God. I am glad to commend the example of these good people, and to commend to the generous interest of the churchmen of Albany, the effort now making by the missionary to pay off the balance of this debt, and enable me to consecrate the Church at Portlandville formally, as it is already virtually consecrated, by such prayers and sacrifices and works. Four hundred dollars are needed to put the Church out of debt, and I am sure will readily be given.

On Friday morning, March 5, in the Baptist house of worship at Oneonta, the Rev. Mr. Ferguson said Morning Prayer. I preached, confirmed three persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion, [9/10] Mr. Ferguson's presence here was a very courteous kindness and added much, in all ways, to the pleasure of the visitation. It was his old field of faithful, acceptable and successful work, and his corning before me prepared the candidates for confirmation here and at Otego. This thriving, beautiful village, demands a Church, and will have one as soon as a clergyman can take it in hand. A lot, I am glad to say, is now secured.

In the afternoon, in Immanuel Church, Otego, the Rev. Mr. Ferguson said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed three persons. The parish has been needlessly, and, to my great regret, vacant since it met with the serious loss of Mr. Ferguson's resignation.

On Saturday, March 6, in St. Matthew's Church, Unadilla, the Rev. Mr. Lighthipe and the Rev. Mr. Robinson, of Bainbridge, in the Central Diocese, said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the late rector, the Rev. Mr. Kidder. The spirit here is admirable. Disasters and difficulties have checked, but by no means' destroyed the life. The congregation was large. The Church is very seemly, and the music was rarely good, of the right sort and well done. Being Church music, it was simple and within the power of the choir. There were no shocking failures in the attempt at startling and impossible feats of operatic display. Devotional rather than dramatic, it was an act of worship, and I was glad to feel here with St. Augustine--would that we all could feel it everywhere--"I know the great use of sacred music, and when I am more moved by the voice than by the words that are sung, then I confess I have sinned greatly and had rather not hear the music at all." I am happy to report that this Parish, long vacant, has been filled by the election of the Rev. Mr. Scofield, late of Albion, Western New York.

In the evening of the same day, after a severe uphill drive through drifts and driving snow, in Christ Church, Butternuts, the Rev. Lewis H. Lighthipe, the rector, and the Rev. Mr. Rulison, said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed six persons and addressed them. Beside the pleasant sight of faithful work successfully done here, I ought to mention the pleasure I had [10/11] here, as elsewhere in many of the Parishes, of meeting numbers of the parishioners at an evening reception at the rectory.

On Sunday, March 7, fourth Sunday in Lent, in Zion Church, Morris, the Rev. Messrs. Rulison, the rector, and Lighthipe, said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed ten persons, and addressed them. A model country Parish is here; rich in historic tradition, clerical and lay, and with the full raciness of the old savour, living still, thank God, in those who bear the name, of that great layman, Gen. Jacob Morris, and in him who reproduces here the spirit of Nash, Wheeler and the Bishop of Montana.

In the evening, in the Methodist house of worship, in Laurens, the Rev. Mr. Rulison said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed one person. Mr. Rulison has added this point and two others to his sufficient labors at Morris. It is, of course, too much, and other arrangements must be made, for the opening is one of great promise.

On Monday, March 8, I entered the Missionary jurisdiction of the Rev. Joel Davis, a faithful and devoted laborer. In the Methodist house of worship in Garrattsville, the Rev. Messrs. Rulison and Davis said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed one person. A lot has been secured here, and there is good hope that the building will soon be begun.

On the evening of the same day, in the Baptist house at West Burlington, after the Litany had been said by Mr. Rulison, I catechized and addressed the children, preached, confirmed eight persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Davis. The service here was a necessity to which I sacrificed my own strong convictions against the celebration of the Holy Eucharist at night. But a Deacon, in a mission field so large that he has no neighbors, must be relieved somehow. On Tuesday, March 9, in the morning, I preached at the Union meeting house at Exeter, or rather, Schuyler's Lake, the Rev. Mr. Davis saying Morning Prayer. Everything here has died out, services, organization, congregation and interest. It is a fair example of the idle emptiness of a pseudo union where there is no unity. Churchmen anywhere had better bide their time until they can build their own Church buildings. And I take leave to say, [11/12] that if they use a building belonging to any religious organization, they had better hire it than borrow it. It is a questionable propriety to accept as a courtesy that which one cannot return in kind. The restoration of regular services here will enable, encourage and strengthen the few remaining Church people to reorganize.

In the afternoon, in St. Luke's Church, Richfield, the Rev. Mr. Davis said Evening Prayer, and I preached. Here, as at Exeter, owing to the long absence of the Rev. Mr. Hughes, things had got into a bad way. The building had been used for other than the Church services; but the vestry promptly met my wishes on this subject, and by the appointment of Mr. Woodbury as lay reader, and the kindness of Mr. Sykes, the rector at Richfield Springs, regular Church services were resumed with very encouraging results. The Parish is near enough to Richfield Springs to be united with it under the care of one missionary, which will hereafter be done.

On Wednesday morning, March 10, in St. John's Church, Richfield Springs, the Rev. Messrs. Stanley, of Little Falls, and Sykes, the rector, said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed three persons and addressed them. The Church is a very pretty building with a small congregation in the winter months; swollen to a largo number in summer. There are two sides to the consideration of the condition of Parishes like this. The influx of the tide of flippant and fashionable frivolity in the watering place seasons, during which, for a time, the world, the flesh and the devil run riot, brings with it, beside, a noble number of earnest Church folk. The preparation for, the engrossment in, and the recovery from the excitement, use up a large part of the year; and, apart from this, the very dependence upon the larger offerings of wealthier givers discredits and discourages the smaller alms of resident Church members. It is a partial evil, with its corresponding benefit, to which Albany, as a Diocese of summer resorts, is greatly exposed; and I may be excused for saying to my own people that they should guard carefully against the importation into their quiet and far more Christian ways, of city follies and city vices which many of these visitors bring; and for saying to some of the Church people who [12/13] come into these country places, that they hardly measure the harm they do by the worldliness and recklessness of their lives, setting standards of extravagance which breed discontent, and examples of excesses which engender sin. I should at the same time be guilty of a most gross ingratitude if I did not pay a deserved tribute to the generosity of those churchmen from other Dioceses whose visits to these resorts of health have left large benefactions behind them. Caldwell, Bolton and Sharon Springs, are standing monuments of this charity which makes Bethels of our Bethesdas.

On the evening of this same day, after a most difficult drive which delayed our arrival, in Emmanuel Church, Little Falls, I preached and confirmed eleven persons. The Rev. Drs. Van Deusen and Gibson, of Central New York, had said the Evening Prayer before my arrival, and the candidates were presented by the Rev. Mr. Stanley, the rector. The Church is transformed into a beautiful building and being now, by the untiring devotion of its admirable rector, almost out of debt, awaits consecration.

It becomes one of the painful duties of a Bishop to be a sort of Old Mortality, and while we have great reason to thank God for His merciful consideration of us as a Diocese, the mention of Emmanuel Church, Little Falls, calls for the notice of a very severe loss which we have sustained in the removal to Paradise, of the Hon. N. S. Benton, the founder and fosterer of the Parish, its first and only senior warden. I have no occasion to speak here of Judge Benton's honorable services to the State in various departments of civil and military duty. We rather thank God for the good example of His servant, who for half a century was the main stay of the Church at Little Falls, which he adorned by his example, sustained by his means, benefitted by his counsel and has bereft in his death; and who has honored the Master, ho was not ashamed to own before men, in a life of great diversity, and, if I may so say, great publicity, toner throughout by uprightness, integrity and religion. Judge Benton died on the twenty-ninth of June. On the twenty-seventh of May, I had seen him at the meeting of the Committee on Constitution and Canons, when I was impressed with the clearness, and [13/14] quickness and cheerfulness of his mind and manner. I have elsewhere acknowledged the service he rendered, to this Diocese as a member of that committee.

From Little Falls, which is the strong Church of Herkimer county, I pursued my visitation to the other points in the county. In the old Trinity Church, Fairfield, the mother of the Churches here, more than three-score years old, the Rev. Mr. Webb, the missionary, and Stanley, said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed two persons. Small as this Parish, is it has traditions of venerable sacredness, and new sanctity in the death of its last rector, the Rev. Joshua L. Harrison, whose life was laid down almost under the eaves of the Church building. After the service, I passed through Middleville, where, in the grave of very tender memories, is buried the corner stone of a Chapel. They will both have their resurrection to a holy and useful life, and I look for the day Dot far off when, under a new arrangement, this will become the central point of a vigorous missionary enterprise into the spiritual wilds of Herkimer county. In the Union meeting house at Norway, in the afternoon of this day, the Rev. Mr. Webb said Evening Prayer and baptized an adult. I preached, confirmed four persons and addressed them. The organization here is us old as 1823, but it is very small for its age, has no Church building, and but four communicants, but it deserves, as it demands, our fostering care.

In the evening, in the Universalist house of worship at Newport, the Rev. Mr. Webb and I said Evening Prayer, and I preached. The village of Newport is a most beautiful, thriving and important place. I cannot see why the Church should not be vigorously and successfully planted here.

But at present what can be done till more will come out to the help of the Lord against the mighty? Too much cannot be said of the fidelity and devotion of the missionary here. No jurisdiction in Christendom can point to more untiring missionary workers than Stubbs and Davis in Otsego county, Cook and Winkley in the North, Slade in Schoharie, and Webb here. But this field is enormous in difficulties, distances and duties--a circuit of forty [14/15] miles to be traveled, very often on foot, through drifts and cold, that vindicate the names of the two adjoining townships, Norway and Russia, and in it four stations, four Sunday Schools and four services. I wish my brethren of the laity could realize what clerical work and clerical life are here. A missionary in such a point has to endure things which we clergymen never dream of, (at least I never did,) bitter opposition from without, and too often lukewarm and critical support from within, with isolation from clerical sympathy and society, very little social enjoyment, small Churches, small congregations, small salaries. I thank God for the faith that is in them, (and I believe it too,) of the day when "the last shall be first." But we, brethren, Bishops, prominent rectors, wealthy laymen, first now, why shall we not be last then, if we let this go on, if we shut up our bowels of compassion from such brethren as these are? I call upon you with the intenseness of all best human impulses and instincts, and with the weight of my official duty to them, to come up to your duty in their behalf. Fill up the treasury of this Diocese that its official channels may be open always to convey the stipends of these missionaries to them fully and promptly. And beside that remember, that personally, I am their next friend. Use me as your almoner for them. Your duplicates of books, your magazines and newspapers read, a little fraction of the money made in some one of your worldly ventures, such things would hold up hands that are heavy, strengthen knees that are bent in anxious prayers 'first for the Kingdom, and next for their daily bread; lift up heads that hang down in honest shame; lighten hearts that are heavy enough with official anxiety, not to need the burthen our indifference adds to them of worldly care.

On the morning of Friday, March 12, in Christ Church, Herkimer, the Rev. Mr. Jennings, of Central New York, and Messrs. Stanley and Webb said Morning Prayer. The rector, the Rev. Mr. Wood, baptized two adults, and I preached, confirmed four persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Gibson, of Central New York. I am very glad to find that "the bars shine faint" between the Central Diocese and our own, as [15/16] the frequent and most welcome presence of border clergymen at my visitations, attests. I trust it may be long before the live Dioceses forget the historic unity and dignity and catholicity of old New York; and not, long before they are formally, practically and powerfully united, into what I am not afraid to call the Province of New York.

In the afternoon of the same day, in the Methodist house at Ilion, the Rev. Dr. Gibson and Mr. Stanley said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed one person.

I shall have more to say of this place in connection with another visitation here. Its existence is due to the energy and catholic spirit of the rector of Herkimer, whose Parish, a model in many ways, offers one example which I wish we all might follow, in the establishment and support of an excellent and successful Parish school: and who, deprived of Ilion by the appointment of a missionary here, has found a fresh field for the Church in Mohawk, where he is holding regular services.

This ended my visitation of the counties of Otsego and Herkimer. In Otsego county there are seventeen places where the Church is at work, two strong Parishes, the rest more or less weak, one Parish and one mission station vacant, one clergyman with four stations, two clergymen with three stations each, and two with two stations each. In Herkimer county there are eight stations, two Parishes strong, the others very weak, and only four clergymen, one of whom has the care of four stations.

On Saturday, March 17, in the vestry room of St. Peter's Church, I held the Canonical examination, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Payne and the Rev. Mr. Russell, presbyters; of the Rev. E. B. Allen, deacon; and on Thursday, March 18, in St. Peter's Church, I advanced the Rev. E. B. Allen, deacon, to the sacred order of Priest. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Boardman and Wainwright and Russell. The candidate was presented by the Rev. Dr. Payne. I preached the sermon and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Drs. Payne and E. H. Potter, and the Rev. Messrs. J. H. H. Brown and W. B. Walker.

[17] On Tuesday afternoon, March 23, in St. Paul's Church, Troy, Evening Prayer was said by the Rev. Drs. Potter and Tucker, and the Rev. Messrs. Widdemer and Mulford. I confirmed six persons, presented by the Rev. Dr. Coit, the rector, and addressed them. The new Chapel building will make this venerable Parish more than ever well liking and fruitful in its dignified age.

On Saturday, March 27, Easter Even, in St. Peter's Church, Albany, the Rev. Wm. Bogert Walker said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed thirty-six persons, (one in private the day before) making thirty-seven, and addressed them. Other confirmations later make the number in this Parish forty-two. It was a service of tender interest to me, as for other reasons, so from the fact that it was the last class I shall be permitted to prepare and present.

On the evening of Sunday, March 28, Easier Day, in St. Paul's Church, Albany, the rector, the Rev. J. Livingston Reese, said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed 27 persons and addressed them. St. Paul's has taken a noble stand in live work and live worship. The singing this evening, led by a choir of children near the chancel steps, was most inspiriting and beautiful. The last hymn, "Nearer my God to Thee," taken up by the large congregation and sung by people standing in the aisles, and crowded out into the vestibule and on the steps, really brought all our hearts "nearer to God."

Tuesday. March 30, Easter Tuesday, in the Church of the Holy Innocents, Albany, the Rev. Messrs. Reese, Boardman, the rector, Downie and Walker, said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed sixteen persons, (one being from St. Paul's.) The service was shadowed only by the fact of the rector's resignation, which took effect the next day.

Saturday, April 3, in the evening, in Christ Church, Troy, the Rev. Dr. Tucker and the Rev. Messrs. Townsend, McAllister, of New York, and Widdemer, said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed seven persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Joseph W. Mulford. The Church has been greatly changed and greatly improved in the interior, which is impressive and beautiful.

April 4, First Sunday after Easter, in Trinity Church, Albany, the rector, the Rev. Mr. Selkirk, said Evening Prayer [17/18] and catechized the children, and I addressed them, confirmed 12 persons and addressed them. The introduction of the children into the service was very grateful to me, and I shall always be more than happy, whenever it can be arranged, to see the children and talk to them in my visitations.

In the evening of the same day, in Trinity Church, West Troy, the Rev. Messrs. Chapman, Adams and Walker, said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed 16 persons presented by the rector, the Rev. John Townsend, and addressed them. The Rev. Dr. Tucker was present, and the service was in all ways most cheering in its evidences of growth and strength.

Tuesday, April 6, in St. Ann's Church, New York, I had the privilege of taking part in the service admitting three Christian women into the sisterhood of the Good Shepherd, preaching the sermon, and assisting the Bishop of New York in the celebration. The awakened life of the Church in this department of sanctified philanthropy, is slowly reaching us. Nothing is more important than the wise organization for work of this sort--of men and women set apart for the work. The only argument against it is that last of all resorts, the exaggeration of its abuses. The living argument for it, is the growth of Rome's organic errors gilded into attractiveness to the practical philanthropic spirit of the age, by the power of Rome's organized charities. It is lawful and needful and high time to learn from the enemy, and to sanctify the widespread benevolence of American men and women by giving it the direction and benediction of the Church: that the "cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple" may not lose its heavenly reward.

At night, in Christ Church, Newark, I had the great pleasure of greeting friends and brethren and fellow-workers of other days, at a meeting of the Northern Convocation' of New Jersey, before which, by request, I preached the sermon.

On Thursday, April 8, in Emmanuel Church, Boston, I took part in the consecration of the Rev. Frederick Dan Huntington, D.D., Bishop elect of Central New York, to the office of a Bishop in the Church of God. It was a noble service and a bright auspicious [18/19] day. The Bishop of Kentucky, presiding Bishop of the House of Bishops, and the Bishops of Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Western New York, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Long Island and Albany, were present, and it was a touching, and I trust an ominous feature of the service, that the five Bishops of the State of New York knelt together in the order of their consecration to receive the Holy Communion. But for the providence that I was "in Christ before" him, and the accident of my consecration occurring before his, it would be presumption in me to say, with what high hopes the American Church welcomes to the Episcopate, a man, my elder and better, whose previous ministry, in pastoral fidelity, in missionary interest and in the tokens of the highest intellectual and spiritual culture, gives such brilliant assurance of success.

On Sunday, April 11, Second Sunday after Easter, in the evening, in St. John's Church, Troy, the Rev. Drs. Tucker and E. N. Potter, the Revs. J. H. Babcock, of New York, and Fisher, said Evening Prayer. I preached, confirmed sixteen persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Walsh, and addressed them. The Rev. Dr. Coit and the Rev. Mr. Widdemer were present. The life of this Parish is not only taking the direction of a re-arrangement and re-adornment of the chancel, but is developing its mission work by the aid of a noble individual benefaction, into a Mission Church.

On Monday, April 12, in the evening, in St. George's Church, Schenectady, the Rev. Dr. Payne, the rector, and the Rev. Messrs. Wainwright and Weil, said Evening Prayer, and the rector baptized three adults. I preached, confirmed five persons, and addressed them. The Rev. Mr. Burd, of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, was present.

Tuesday, April 13, in the evening, in Christ Church, Schenectady, the Rev. Dr. Payne and the Rev. Mr. Wainwright, the rector, said Evening Prayer. I preached and confirmed two persons. The strong age of old St. George's, and the stirring youth of the daughter Parish, attest at once the fidelity of the workers and the promise of the field.

On Wednesday, April 14, in the evening, in St. Luke's Church, Middleburgh, the Rev. Mr. Slade, the missionary, said Evening [19/20] Prayer, and I preached, confirmed six persons, and addressed them. Through privation and actual suffering, the missionary has planted a foothold here for the Church which promises well. The generous kindness of a friend in St. Peter's Parish, Albany, has made available the patient exertions of Mr. Slade to secure a parsonage. When finished, there will be a mortgage on it of about $2,000 loaned for its completion, which I am sure the churchmen of the Diocese will pay.

The importance of a parsonage in every Parish cannot be overstated. It is the surest way to secure and retain a clergyman, whose efficiency is doubled by a sense of permanence and the feeling of home.

I believe the Bishops in Canada are thoroughly wise, in beginning their new missions by erecting the parsonage, in which the clergyman is fixed, before he builds his Church. I am sure no Parish is stable and no clergyman settled, without one.

I take occasion here to say a word to the Clergy about their Parish Registers. They are ordered to be kept for certain ecclesiastical facts, to be carefully noted, and no personal memoranda reflecting upon persons or personal events in the Parish, ought to be entered in them, as I have found in two instances. And they are to be handed down, and not, as in the case of the Middleburgh Register, carried off by the clergyman, who, I am sorry to say in this instance, refuses all demands from the Parish or from me to return it. Apart from their great importance in establishing facts of marriage and births, these records grow to have great historical value in time, and I beg the clergy of this Diocese to be thorough, accurate and systematic in their keeping.

On Thursday, April 16, in the morning, in the Methodist house of worship, in Schoharie court house, I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Slade. St. Andrew's, Schoharie, has no "local habitation," and not much more than a name. The Church people have almost all gone away. There is a lot belonging to the Parish, and I trust it may be revived. It is not to our credit that Middleburgh and Sharon Springs, [20/21] should be the only living stations in Schoharie county. Cobleskill, at least, should be reached soon.

On the evening of the same day, in Trinity Church, Sharon Springs, the Rev. J. I. Forbes, the missionary, said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed seven persons, and addressed them. The Church and parsonage together here, and each alike substantial, suitable and beautiful, are a cheering sight, and still more cheering were the evidences of the inner up-building in the quiet, normal growth of the Parish. The Sunday school, which is carried on in the churchly way, and used for its legitimate end, has the monopoly of the village, and the children are led through it to confirmation, as the next natural thing for them to do. The service showed the real strength of the Parish, being held before the summer crowds came in, and was a beautiful service, the banners of the classes and their music adding much to its beauty and heartiness.

On Saturday, April 17, in St. Peter's, Albany, at the usual Morning Prayer, I confirmed one person from St. Paul's Church, Troy, the Rev. Dr. Coit, the rector, presenting him.

On Sunday, April 18, in Trinity Church, Whitehall, the rector, the Rev. F. N. Luson, said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed forty-six persons, and addressed them and celebrated the Holy Communion. Everything tended to make this a while day--the weather, the congregation, the number of the confirmed and communicants, the music, the flowers, and the loving heartiness and unity of the people. Mr. Luson's four years of work have been richly blessed. The beautiful new Church has been built in this time, paid for, and the Parish lifted from great weakness, to strength and vigorous life. Imperative demands of health have required the rector's temporary absence from his post. I shall have your prayers, I am sure, beloved, that he may be restored to it and to us, renewed in strength, and ready for more of just such work.

On Sunday night, in Trinity Church, Granville, the Rev. Mr. Luson said Evening Prayer and I preached, and on Monday morning I preached again and celebrated the Holy Communion. The [21/22] congregations were excellent in this beautiful Church, which after six years' vacancy is now, thank God, filled, and will soon give a good report of itself.

Monday, April 19, in the afternoon, in St. Paul's Church, Salem, the rector, the Rev. Mr. Davis, catechized the children. I addressed them, joined with great pleasure in their singing at this and the evening service, in which they made the choir, when the rector and the Rev. Mr. Luson said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed eight persons, and addressed them.

On Tuesday, April 20, in St. Luke's Church, Cambridge, the Rev. Messrs. Davis, Luson and Wenman said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed five persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion. Temporary difficulties have checked for awhile the good work begun here by the Rev. Clarence Buel. Mr. Wenman's resignation, to take the Parish at Rensselaerville, I should regret more but that it transfers an earnest worker to another important part of the Diocese. Meanwhile, for the time, Mr. Davis has very kindly added the care of Cambridge to his ample and admirable labors at Salem.

On Wednesday, April 21, at St. Paul's Church, Kinderhook, the Rev. Messrs. James H. Tyng and Win. R. Johnson said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed one person, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Danker and Downie. The Rev. Messrs. Jarvis and Morrow, of Virginia, and Cooley, of Mass., were present. This Parish is a marvel to me. It is autocephalous. Without a rector for some years, it grows and thrives. The Church has been removed, repaired and beautified; the music is admirable, and the departments of parochial work all seem to go smoothly and steadily on. How it is I do not know. It is an example which I shall be sorry to see followed, except so far as the earnestness of the laity is concerned. But the fair argument is: if so much can be done "in the dry tree," without a rector, what could not be "in the green tree," when the legitimate requirements for life and growth are supplied.

On Tuesday, April 23, in the Methodist house of worship, in Lansing-burgh, the rector, the Rev. B. J. Hall, and the Rev. Mr. [22/23] Ferguson said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed twelve persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion.

On Sunday, April 25, St. Mark's Day and the 4th Sunday after Easter, I took part in the service of the centennial celebration of the incorporation of St. Peter's Church, Albany, the Right Rev. the Bishop of New York preaching the sermon and celebrating the Holy Communion, the Rev. Dr. E. N. Potter and the Rev. Mr. Maccarther, of Canada, and the Rev. Messrs. Fisher and Flack, of Minnesota, being present. The service was as interesting as the occasion was memorable and rare. And as the rich history of the Parish in the past opened into larger promises for the future, our common prayer was in the words of the legend which decorated the walls of the sanctuary: "The Lord God be with us as He was with our fathers."

In the afternoon, in Grace Church, Albany, the rector, the Rev. Mr. Russell, and the Rev. Messrs. Selkirk and Fisher, said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed sixteen (of whom one was from St. Peter's, one from St. Paul's, and one from Trinity), and addressed them. The one thing wanting here is more room to meet the growth of the Parish answer to the energies of the rector, and make the Church self-supporting. It is one of the innumerable recommendations of what is called the free church system, that it calls for largo buildings. Proprietary Chapels and Pewed Churches may be small, but the House of God in which the rich and poor meet together, and where support depends, as much on the two mites, as on the rich men's gifts, must be big enough to hold the rich and the poor too.

At night, in St. Mark's Church, Green Island, the Rev. Messrs. Adams, Danker and Townsend said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed thirteen persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Chapman, and addressed them. The Rev. Drs. Tucker and E. N. Potter were present. A lovelier service than this cannot be conceived. It was the realized beauty of holiness. And what devoutness and pain-staking patience can do in making beautiful building, music and service, without the aid of wealth, was never [23/24] better demonstrated. No one could wonder at the success of the work who shared in the glory of this worship.

On Tuesday evening, April 27, in the Church of the Messiah, Greenbush, the rector, the Rev. Dr. Clover, and the Rev. Mr. Danker, said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed fourteen persons and addressed them.

On Wednesday evening, April 28, in Bethesda Church, Saratoga, the Rev. Messrs. Wainwright, Carey and Fisher said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed seventeen persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Gibson. The Rev. Dr. Bostwick was present. What the Parish and the Diocese have lost by the resignation of Mr. Gibson, and his removal to New York, they know without my telling them. What I have lost I dare not undertake to say. But admirable as Mr. Gibson is as a Parish priest, ho has still higher qualifications for that rarest and hardest work of educating boys, and the Church at large is the gainer in the establishment of a Church school, to which any churchman may well be glad to send his sons.

On Tuesday, April 30, in Christ Church, Coxsackie, the Rev. Messrs. W. R. and J. E. Johnson said Morning Prayer. I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, and in the evening in Trinity Church, Athens, the Rev. Messrs. J. E. Johnson and Jarvis said Evening Prayer, and I baptized the rector's infant child, preached, confirmed nine persons, and addressed them.

These Parishes, hitherto under the care of the Rev. Mr. Johnson, have separated, owing simply to their growth. The Rev. Mr. Danker is now rector of Christ Church, Coxsackie, and Mr. Johnson retains Athens. The division I believe will strengthen both Parishes, and is the best witness to Mr. Johnson's faithfulness, who I earnestly hope will be enabled to remain at Athens.

Saturday, May 1, St. Philip and St. James, in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Stockport, the Rev. W. R. Johnson and J. E. Johnson said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed twelve persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. W. O. Jarvis, the rector. In the afternoon [24/25] Messrs. Johnson and Jarvis said Evening Prayer, and I preached in St. Barnabas Chapel, Stottville. This Chapel is the result of the sense of responsibility devolving upon two Christian men for the consecration of their wealth and for the sanctifying of the work whereby they have their wealth, in making provision for the religious interests of their operatives. Mr. Jarvis adds this to his care, and ministers most faithfully to both congregations.

On Sunday, May 2, third after Easter, in the afternoon, in Grace Church, Waterford, the Rev. Mr. Ferguson, the rector, and the Rev. Byron J. Hall said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed four persons, and addressed them. It was a sweet and beautiful service. Children's voices again, thank God, perfecting the praise. The Church is beautifully restored---the memorial glass in the windows being especially noticeable.

At night, in St. Paul's Church, Troy, by invitation of the managers, I preached a sermon in the interest of the Church Home, of the city of Troy, one of the many beneficent Christian works in which (I am glad to say it here in Albany) the live Church membership of Troy ought to provoke some other places to love and to good works. I hope the institution may grow to be Diocesan in its support and in the extension of its gracious charities. The Rev. Drs. Potter and Tucker, and the Rev. Messrs. Mulford and Danker were present.

On Tuesday morning, May 4, in Christ Church, Ballston, the Rev. Messrs. Gibson and Wainwright said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed seventeen persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Carey, and by the Rev. Dr. Babcock.

If anything had been needed to complete the pleasure of this service it was furnished by the presence and participation in it of the venerable Dr. Babcock, one of the early rectors of the Parish, which he graces and blesses still with his residence and loving interest. In the face of such a fact as the residence among us still of this faithful man who has given himself, and given three such sons besides, to the Master's closed service, I am sure that the Convention will act upon the proposition of the Committee [25/26] on the Constitution and Canons giving to such as he the fall status of his office. I have no hesitation in avowing my own conviction that orders and not occupation entitle clergymen to vote. But a claim like this stands upon the higher grounds of acknowledging and respecting the past services of a priest who worked hard while it was called day, and has more than earned the right to rank us all in every honorable recognition.

Wednesday, May 5, in the vestry of St. Peter's Church, I presided at a meeting of the Missionary Committee of the Diocese.

Thursday, May 6, the Ascension Day, in the morning, at St. Peter's Church, Albany, I preached, confirmed three persons presented by the Rev. Mr. Fisher, who read the Morning Prayer, and I celebrated the Holy Communion.

The same day, in the Church of the Holy Cross, Troy, after a most reverent and beautiful service, which according to the custom of the Church was choral throughout, the Rev. Dr. Tucker, the Pastor, the Rev. Mr. Danker, and the Rev. Mr. Peck, of Vermont, taking the service, I preached and confirmed thirty-three persons and addressed them. I have a birth-right to honor the venerable and beloved traditions of this holy and admirable work, sacred with the love of the living and the memories of the faithful departed. Leading the movement in this country which restored to the Church in America the Service of Song in the public worship of God, the Holy Cross still maintains the first place in the American Church, not merely for the beauty of its own elaborate service, nor merely for the power of the Church service when rightfully rendered, but better than either, for the assertion of the truth that praise is the highest and most heavenly act of worship, and for the restitution to the people of their right and ability to sing unto the Lord, and for the exhibition of the Church in her true position as the educator of children. It will be a good day for the over-strained minds of people, and the over-drained minds of clergymen when the Church shall generally adopt the sensible practice of St. Paul's and the Holy Cross, in Troy, of one sermon a day, and an afternoon service of worship that shall deserve the sweet and suggestive English name of Even-Song.

[27] On Sunday evening, May 9, in the Church of the Transfiguration, in the city of New York, I preached the sermon before the Church Union of Columbia College.

On Wednesday, May 12, I consecrated St. Peter's Church, Brush's Mills, in the town of Moira. The Instrument of Donation was read by the missionary, the Rev. Mr. Randall, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Mr. Kidney. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Neide, Potter, Ogden and Stewart. I preached, confirmed five persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Camp. The Rev. Messrs. Dolloway and Winkley, and the Rev. Mr. Hopkins were present, the latter doing good service at the melodeon. This very pretty Church is the final realization of years of patient waiting and prayerful toil. One heart was very happy in the accomplishment, and we all rejoiced with her. I hope others will learn the lesson of what can be done. In the afternoon I was present at a meeting of the Frontier Convocation, an earnest meeting of earnest men who have nobly rallied to revive and rescue the Church in this fur off and almost waste region. I learned two lessons, one of which I hope you will realize to-morrow, and the other at no distant day, the value of missionary convocations, and the need of a Bishop at the North. In the evening I presided at a missionary meeting, at which Mr. Kidney, Mr. Ogden and I made addresses.

Thursday, May 13, in the morning, in St. Mark's Church, Malone, the Rev. Dr. Camp and the Messrs. Ogden, Potter, Winkley and Hopkins said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed eight persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Jas. W. Stewart, and the Rev. Messrs. Neide and Randall. The children of the Sunday school gave a very beautiful Bishop's chair to the Parish, in the morning before service, and I was glad to meet them and thank them for the fact and the manner of the expression of their churchly interest. Malone really gave Robertson to Missouri (for he only took Western New York on the way), and the Church in America is already appreciating, as it will more and more, the value of the [27/28] gift. To have had Bishop Robertson and to get Mr. Stewart, are things that any Parish may be proud of and thankful for.

At night, in St. Paul's Church, Centreville, the Rev. Dr. Camp and Mr. Neide said Evening Prayer, the Rev. Mr. Hopkins being at the melodeon, and I preached.

On Friday, May 14, at night, in Trinity Church, Plattsburgh, the Rev. Dr. Camp and Messrs. Neide, Cook and Hopkins said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed one person, presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Ogden, whose resignation of the Parish, with all its surroundings and sequences of sorrow, was a sincere regret to me, as to many others, relieved only by his transfer to a very prominent and important position in another part of the Diocese.

On Sunday, May 16, Whitsun-Day, at night, in St. John's Church, Cohoes, the Rev. Messrs. Brown (the rector) and Hall said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed fifteen persons and addressed them. The music, reinforced by the introduction of wind instruments beside the organ, led by a large choir, and swelled by the whole congregation, was a marked feature of the fine service. There is no more laborious Parish in the Diocese than this, which is yielding abundant fruit to wise and indefatigable labors. A sword of the very finest temper has, I am glad to say, fairly worn out the old scabbard, and the rector will soon have a new and noble Church building, now only not commenced.

I note here the acceptance by the wardens and vestrymen of St. Peter's Parish, on May 18, of my resignation as rector of the Parish, offered on the 2d of April, and reiterated more than once. I am not one of those who feel that the headship of a Parish interferes with the administration of a Diocese. On the contrary, I think no Episcopate complete that has not a centre, the cathedral as well as a circumference, the Diocese. But I have no ambition to play at a cathedral (or at anything else) which is an utter unreality, unless the seats are free, and the administration of the Parish legally, formally and finally committed to a management of which the Bishop and his clergy form an integral part with the laity. What the future has in store I do not know. God helping me, if [28/29] I live long enough the Diocese of Albany will have the reality of a cathedral, with all that it involves of work and worship, in frequent services, in schools and houses of mercy of every kind. In the meantime I have gladly and gratefully accepted the considerate offer of the vestry of St. Peter's. I note the fact here that I may call the attention of the Convention to the following resolution, passed by the vestry in connection with their acceptance of my resignation, which demands, I think, the recognition of the Diocese. It is in full accord with the graceful courtesy of the offer of the Church for the service of my consecration, made by the delegation and accepted by the Primary Convention of this Diocese:

"Resolved, That the age and location of St. Peter's Church, as well as the election of its rector to the Episcopate, suggests the establishment and maintenance of such relations with the Bishop of the Diocese as will tend to the increased dignity and importance of the Parish, the convenience of the Bishop and the benefit of the Diocese, and we therefore respectfully tender to the Bishop and Diocese of Albany the free use of St. Peter's Church edifice for all such Episcopal acts and Diocesan purposes as may be agreeable to the Bishop and beneficial to the Diocese."

Since my resignation the Parish has been under my charge, and I have done for it what I could. But it owes very much to the indefatigable faithfulness of my good deacon, Mr. Fisher.

On Thursday, May 20, in the morning, in Christ Church, Cats-kill, the Rev. Messrs. Pidsley and J. E. Johnson said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed twelve persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Robert Weeks, under whose earnest care the very high spiritual tone of this Parish is fully maintained, and its efficiency increased by the successful establishment of a Parochial school.

In the evening, in St. Luke's Church, Clermont, the Rev. Mr. Clark, of Madalin (Diocese of New York), and the missionary, the Rev. Mr. Rowe, said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed eight persons (and one afterwards in private, making nine). A good parsonage has recently been added to this sweet little country Church, which is responding with good fruit to patient and pains-taking care.

Friday, May 21, in the morning, in Trinity Church, Claverack, the Rev. Messrs. Danker and Rowe said Morning Prayer, and I [29/30] preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Downie.

In the afternoon, in Christ Church, Hudson, the rector, the Rev. Mr. W. R. Johnson catechized the children, and I addressed them, and in the evening the Rev. Messrs. Gibson, Jarvis, Danker and Rowe said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed twenty persons (with one in private, previously, making twenty-one), and addressed them. Two such services, catechizings and confirmations show the sowing and the reaping of such a faithful husbandman as my good brother here is, in his whole-souled and thorough out-working of the Church. The Rev. J. E. Johnson was present.

On Sunday, May 23, Trinity Sunday, in St. Peter's, Albany, in the morning I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Fisher, and in the afternoon I catechized the children.

At night, in St. Luke's Church, Troy, the Rev. Drs. Coit and Tucker, and the Rev. Mr. Danker, said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed twenty-one persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Widdemer, and addressed them.

On Tuesday morning, May 25, in St. James' Church, Fort Edward, the Rev. Messrs. J. H. Babcock, Carey, Danker and Capers said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed five persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Dr. Bostwick, and the Rev. Mr. Gibson.

In the afternoon, in Zion Church, Sandy Hill, the Rev. Messrs. Gibson, Butler, Carey and Capers said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed thirteen persons, and addressed them. This lovely Church, singularly beautiful to-day with the abundant wealth of out-door flowers, is part of Dr. Bostwick's large and most ably served cure. The Church at Fort Edward has built into the front wall a stone with this inscription, deeply cut and firmly set: "FREE SITTINGS." It shames our modem Christianity that any House of God should need this distinctive designation. The marks of the Master's presence are not in the Church nor the signs of his power in the world, where pews prevent the preaching of the gospel to the poor, and hinder, with their tendencies to [30/31] pride, the poorness of spirit without which rich men enter not into the Kingdom of God.

On Thursday, May 27, I presided at a meeting of the Committee on Constitution and Canons, the results of which are already before you. The main features of the report will, I hope, commend themselves to the Convention, especially the new Canons on the missionary work and the organization of missions. There may be, and undoubtedly are, other features of legislation very desirable which may be introduced by them and passed by the Convention, which are not contained in the report. The requirement that delegates to the Diocesan Convention should be communicants of the Church, which the report recommends, for instance, wise and essential as it is, does not go far enough. There is a gross and most injurious inconsistency of practice lying further back than this, in the easy admission into office in our Parishes of men who are not members of the Church. I use the word in its correct meaning, the baptized. I know there have been and still are difficulties in the case, but the real difficulty is the lack of faith in the right, and the readiness to truckle to wealth and influence and position. This is not a sentiment which practical advantages may outweigh. It involves a principle which no lower considerations touch. Even if the organization of Parishes be hindered by such a plainly essential restriction, the Church can be planted and the gospel preached without the organization of Parishes, as they were before Parishes were thought of; and the adoption of the proposed Canon XVI provides a trust for the holding of the property in places where Parishes cannot be organized. From my heart, and as the conviction of many years, and with no little observation, I endorse the language, none too strong, of the Rev. Dr. Thompson in dealing with this question, which I commend earnestly to the consideration of the Convention. There may be difficulties in the way of immediate legislation, which will require reference to the Committee for consideration, but I shall be sorry if this Convention shall pass the canonical requisition about lay delegates without a recommendation giving a moral weight to another truth, that only members of the Kingdom of Christ can be officers in this Kingdom.

[32] "It has been the custom in, we believe, all our Dioceses, to elect as vestrymen and also as delegates to the Diocesan Conventions, anybody and everybody. It has not been necessary that the man be a baptized man, even 'a professing Christian,' as the phrase is, of any sort or kind. He might believe anything or nothing. He might be Unitarian, Universalist, or Infidel. The Church required no guarantees, demanded no conditions, and, nevertheless, appointed the man to legislate for her, to discuss her polity, her Prayer Book and her Canons, to help arrange her courts, to elect her Bishops, and to govern her clergy; to be the guardian, too, of her consecrated Churches, of her property, her 'temporalities,' and the adviser of her clergy, aye, even to select the pastors for her congregations!

"And there are men among us to this hour who do not see that this is a source of weakness and contempt!

"The gross absurdity of the thing has at last dawned on men's minds in some small degree, and a few Dioceses have ventured timidly to demand that a man who is chosen to legislate for the Church should be, at least in some slight degree, amenable to the laws he helps to make--that the lawmakers of the Church should be members of the Church!

"If the Lord had not made a Constitution for His Church, once for all, if He had left it to these queer 'Constitutions' that are printed in Convention Journals to be the organic law of His Church, we fear there would not be much of a Church to save at this present date!

"Office bearers in the House of God, guardians of its interests and honor, choosers of its pastors, official advisers of its clergy, and not one line of guarantee for their faith, their morals, or their Christianity! Officers in a body of which they are not members! Administrators of laws to which they owe no allegiance! That the Church has lived at all, has not sunk under such management into contempt before the whole community, is only proof that men's folly is not sufficient to destroy God's handiwork. Any Body but the Divine Body would have been ruined by such cowardly subservience to the world and its power.

[33] "The clergy may preach and plead, but here lies the practical fact, staring them in the face, that their pleadings and preaching go square against the Church's practice! They insist on the necessity of Baptism, of Confirmation, of Communion, of public profession of the name of Christ in order to membership in the Kingdom of Heaven, and here, before all men's eyes, men are holding office in that Kingdom without any of these things!

"And here come the peril and the wrong to men's souls. The practical Church gives the lie to the theoretical Church! We are confusing men's consciences and deluding their souls. We are confounding things as far apart as Heaven and earth. We preach that the Church and the world are two, that they are distinct, and ever at war. We turn about and belie our preaching by obliterating every distinction! Is it a wonder that men take our practice and not our theories? Is it a wonder if contempt for sacred things is the result when men know, by their own characters, how little the Church guards sacred things from profane hands?

"For it is no answer to say that 'vestries merely look to the temporalities.' Even Church temporalities are sacred because of their connexion. But vestries are not merely guardians of consecrated property. They are the choosers of fit pastors of the flock, they are the official advisers of the ministry. They have much to do with the form and ordering of divine service.

"The Church must rise to her own principles. She must come to the point of taking her own affairs into her own hands. She must make Baptism and Communion amount to something in practice as well as on the pages of the Prayer Book."--The American Churchman.

I have no patience with the absurd position of those, who begrudge to the laity their due power and position in the Church of God. It is the peculiar glory of the American Church that she acts upon the apostolic and primitive order--"apostles, elders and brethren"--bishops, clergy and laity, as we would phrase it. But laymen must be laymen, must be brethren, and the laymen must protect themselves. The moral of the Church of England tending towards disestablishment (for which I thank God and [33/34] pray that it may be without the sacrilege of disendowment, such as has despoiled the Irish Church), the moral of the state of things across the water ought not to be thrown away. The relation of the State to the Church there, is simply a way of introducing, into the administration of the Church, the lay element. Within its due and specified limits it worked well. But when the appointing power of the Episcopate may be in the hands of believers in anything or nothing (whether conventional delegate or court minister); when judicial decisions, in matters involving holiest mysteries, may come from a committee not necessarily Christian; when convocations and chapters are totally ignored; when the congé d'élire is the grinning skeleton of a shadowy sham; when, in fact, the lay element discards and disregards the QUALIFICATION OF CHRISTIANITY, the providence of God and the consent of man require such a change as is impending in England now. I believe we are hastening to the same danger. In the tendencies of vestries to control and overrule the clergy in purely spiritual matters (or else dismiss them), and in the admission to places of trust of men disqualified in every religious way for filling them, I see the "handwriting on the wall;" and because I value highly the influence of the laity, and attach great importance to their position and power in the Church, I warn them to secure and perpetuate that influence and position, by correcting gross abuses, to which looseness of legislation and a courting of popularity are exposing the Church. Every man in his own order is the rule, and whether the clergy tamper with temporalities, or the laity intrude into the spiritualities, in either case it is Phaeton ousting Phoebus, and confusion is the result.

On Friday, May 28, in the Methodist house of worship at Canajoharie, the Rev. Mr. Schwartz said Morning Prayer and I preached. In the afternoon I visited Fort Plain, and urged the few Church people to make some effort. So far nothing has come of it, but I hope, before another year has gone, to report Canajoharie and Fort Plain, as mission stations, with a missionary. At present I am sorry to say that St. Polycarp's Church, Canajoharie, has only the name of existence.

[35] At night, in St. Ann's Church, Amsterdam, the rector, the Rev. Porter Thomas, said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed thirteen persons, and addressed them. Things here are prospering and promising, with a better present and a brighter future than ever before, though I am sorry to record the resignation of the excellent rector, which goes into operation on the first of next month. Mr. Thomas will carry with him the warm respect and interest of his whole Parish, and of all of the Diocese that know him.

On Saturday, May 29, I consecrated Zion Church, Fonda, the result, "in stone," of the patient sacrifice, labor and liberality of one of our foremost laymen, Judge Cushney. The memorial window's are the seals of consecrated sorrows. The Instrument of Donation was read by the missionary, the Rev. Mr. Howard, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Dr. Payne. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Wood, Wainwright, Murray and Thomas. I preached, confirmed six persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Payne and the Rev. C. H. Lancaster.

On Sunday, May 30, 1st after Trinity, in St. John's Church, Johnstown, the rector, the Rev. J. B. Murray said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed fourteen persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion. There are historic interests in this old Church, among the very oldest in the State of New York, which the new and vigorous life enhances greatly. It is a wonder to me that the body of Sir William Johnson should lie in Johnstown, close to the Church, without a slab, even, or a sentence, to mark the place.

In the afternoon, in the Presbyterian house of worship in Gloversville, the Rev. Mr. Howard (the missionary) and the Rev. Mr. Murray said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed four persons. The large and very handsome building was crowded full. The Church people were the exception. But there were enough here, and they were1 earnest enough, according to their ability, to demand the practical sympathy of the Diocese for the erection of a Church building and the support of a missionary. It [35/36] is a great regret to me that Mr. Howard, who has worked most acceptably here, cannot continue the charge of the mission, in addition to his own parochial labors. I cannot bear to discontinue a beginning of so much promise, and I must ask special aid for this important point. The town is busy, growing and prosperous, and we must plant the Church here, firmly and soon.

At night, in the Church of the Redeemer, Northampton, the Rev. Mr. Eastman, the rector, and I said Evening Prayer. The rector baptized an adult, and I preached and confirmed fourteen persons. The facts of this service are such a tribute to the indefatigable rector and the earnest people, that I simply state them, to convey their own rebuke to the fair-weather Christians of our city Parishes, where distances are short, and pavements relatively dry. I was obliged to change an appointment from Monday to Sunday night, and could only notify Mr. Eastman late on Saturday evening. Nothing daunted, a messenger went 18 miles to Conklinville (a part of this mission cure), to notify the people there of the fact, and six of the persons confirmed came up from Conklinville, and went back that night, through darkness and rain, 36 miles in all. Mr. Eastman's labors reach out to Glenwild, also, where he has regular services, and now since Conklinville is attached to Luzerne, he is to take Northville instead.

On Monday, May 31, in the evening, in the Methodist house of worship in Hart's Falls, in the town of Schaghticoke, the Rev. W. B. Walker, missionary, and the Rev. J. H. Hobart Brown said Evening Prayer, and I preached. The remains of the organization made here twenty-five years ago are just visible. But there is a promise of a resurrection which will lead, I think, to a Church building and regular services. Mr. Walker, whose hands are full enough in his own Parishes, adds this to his duty, and is kindly aided by the clergy of Troy and Cohoes. There are earnest laymen left here yet.

On Tuesday, June 1, in St. John's Church, Stillwater, the Rev. Messrs. Walker, rector, and Ferguson said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Brown. A long dearth of services here has led to [36/37] something very near stagnation. But the generous piety of a faithful churchwoman has left pecuniary provision for the support of the services, and the present management of the Parish will revive it if anything can.

In the evening, in St. Luke's Church, Mechanicsville, under the care of Mr. Walker since April, he said the Evening Prayer and I preached and confirmed two persons.

On Wednesday, June 2, in the morning, at Calvary Church, Burnt Hills, the Rev. Dr. Payne and Messrs. Carey and Walker said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed cine persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. F. C. Wainwright. The Rev. Messrs. Gibson and Weil were present. This Parish is for the time disabled by a great loss in the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Betts, and by its separation from Charlton. But there is the true life and spirit here, which must succeed. Mr. Wainwright has most generously given his services to the Parish, in addition to his own duties, preparing this class for confirmation and officiating every Sunday.

On Thursday, June 3, I consecrated St. Luke's Church, Troy. The Instrument of Consecration was read by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Widdemer, the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Dr. Coit. The Rev. Messrs. Brown, Carey, Wainwright and Walker said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Tucker and the Rev. Messrs. Walker, W. R. Johnson, Mulford, Chapman and Weil. In addition to the large individual liberality of Mr. Winslow and the Messrs. Corning, and the customary missionary zeal and generosity of the churchmen of Troy, this Church owes its existence, under God, to the unwearied energy and perseverance of the rector, and to the self-denying earnestness of the people. It is a beautiful building, with a full congregation, a fine service, and the tokens of the spiritual prosperity of the Parish show that the inside building-up has been as faithful and successful as the outside.

On Sunday, June 6, second after Trinity, I had the great pleasure of rendering slight service to the Bishop of New York by visiting [37/38] three of his Parishes in his stead, and confirming in Christ Church, Riverdale, eight persons; in St. James the Less, Scarsdale, sixteen persons, and in Grace Church, West Farms, fifteen persons.

The 3d and 4th Sundays after Trinity, June 18 and 20, I spent in Boston and Hartford; and Tuesday, June 22,1 had the pleasure of taking part in the consecration of St. John's Church, East Hartford. It is the third of the mission points where I held services while rector of St. John's, Hartford, that has grown into a beautiful Church building, with a strong congregation. One of them there, the memorial Church of the Good Shepherd, is the most complete Church, and one of the few finished things in America. The appropriation of the offertory at the consecration service at East Hartford, to missions in the Diocese of Albany, was a most graceful and unexpected courtesy of the rector, the Rev. J. J. McCook, with the kind approval of the Bishop.

On Thursday, June 24, I attended a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the General Theological Seminary, which again, owing in part to Dr. Lyman's declination of the office of dean, accomplished nothing.

On Saturday, June 26, in the afternoon, in the new Church at Schuylerville, which is to be St. Stephen's, the Rev. Messrs. Gibson, Wainwright and Fisher said Evening Prayer, and I confirmed nine persons and addressed them, the missionary, the Rev. J. H. Babcock, presenting them; and immediately afterwards I laid the corner stone of St. Stephen's Parish school house, and made the address. This beautiful Church, the outgrowth of the labors, liberality and faith of a single layman, crowns and consecrates a site of unrivalled beauty, and enters on its life under the most favorable auspices of pastoral fidelity, and the complete appliances of a Parish, which is only about one-half working without its Parish school.

On Sunday, June 27, in St. Peter's Church, Albany, the Rev. Mr. Fisher assisting in the services, I preached, morning and afternoon, and celebrated, the Holy Communion and catechized the children.

On Tuesday, June 29, St. Peter's Day, in Trinity Church, [38/39] Rensselaerville, the Rev. Messrs. Wenman, the rector, and Luson said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed twenty-five persons (making, with one afterwards in private, twenty-six) and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Washbon. Three of the candidates were over 80 years old, and the service was altogether one that suggested the Church's love, care and prayers for "all conditions of men." The young and vigorous hand of the new rector is reaping here the faithful sowing of the wise and devoted husbandman who still lives to support and counsel his successor. Mr. Wenman has been prospecting for future work in the Helderberg region, giving occasional services also to Greenville, where he prepared the class for confirmation. There are openings here to which the Diocese ought at least to send an itinerant missionary, and by and. by, to plant an associate mission for South Westerlo, Berne, Knox, Durham and Potter's Hollow. One Church woman in New York gave me $200 for this work, and promises continued interest.

From this point I began my visitation of Delaware county and parts of Greene county, driving through the length and breadth of its most beautiful landscape, facing, skirting, and crossing the Catskills, tracking the Delaware, from its cradle in a lowly meadow spangled with field daisies and buttercups, for seventy miles, 'till I left it at Deposit, swollen into a promise of its broad beauty, beside which linger the holiest and happiest associations of my life, and near which is the shrine of my life's highest honor, my father's grave. In a Diocese that rivals the Country in variety and magnificence of scenery, I confess that, to me, these two counties take the palm. I must pass over the details of this visitation more hurriedly than I like to. The most agreeable companionship, through the fortnight's journey, of my Rev. brother, the rector of Whitehall, the lavish hospitality of the Church folks, the kind and pleasant provision that welcomed my coming, speeded, my going, and conveyed me from point to point, the delicious freshness of the weather, the exquisite landscape, and better than all, the cheering condition and prospect of the Church, made the whole journey, with all its toils, a long drawn enjoyment. The [39/40] condition of the Church throughout this country is in most respects excellent. I want workers, and money to pay them wages of which they will be worthy. Another year will tell, T trust, better things, of new points of aggression and advance of the Parishes registered in the Journals. Delhi, Franklin, Hobart and Walton, in Delaware county, are all filled now, and well filled. Bloomville, improperly recorded Bloomfield, is not. The opportunity for establishing the Church there for the present has past; but the rector of Delhi will seize it, if it comes again. The rector of Hobart is already extending the life of that venerable old Parish to the adjacent parts, and the rector of Walton adds to his own abundant and successful labors a care of the work at Deposit, where there is nothing yet but a name and a hope, to be cherished and nurtured into strength.

In Greene county the Parishes reported in the Journal are well filled. A change of town boundaries has put Trinity Church, Windham, in the town of Ashland, and the Parish there has built a little Chapel in Windham, which is served, as Prattsville also is, by the earnest energy of the Rev. Mr. Prout. The Rev. Mr. Boone, a deacon in Canadian orders, has just left Oak Hill, where he has done a very excellent work. I am hoping to hear every day of the settlement of a rector over this Parish and Greenville. Two nice Churches, the one at Greenville a perfect beauty, with two good parsonages, and no parson, represent a state of things suggestive of the difficulties of the Diocese, the anxieties of the Bishop, and the duty of the laity. There are memorable names associated with the Church's history in this county. Bishop Chase was at work as a deacon, in 1799, at Windham and Hobart; Samuel Gunn, the Lay Reader, came from Connecticut to Delaware county earlier than this. Windham is associated with the noble Bishop of Montana, and Deposit with the prince of American missionary priests and pioneers, Dr. Breck. The Windham Parish, small as it is, has given one to the Episcopate, two to the Priesthood, and two young men to the General Seminary, preparing for [40/41] Holy Orders. Why will not other Parishes emulate the example of Westford and Windham?

The statistics of the visitation are as follows:

On Tuesday, June 29, Feast of St. Peter, in the evening, in St. Paul's Church, Oak Hill, the Rev. Messrs. Washburn, Luson and Wenman said Evening Prayer, and I baptized four adults and two infants, and received two infants, preached, confirmed seven persons, presented by the missionary, the Rev. W. T. Boone, and addressed them.

On Wednesday, June 30, in Christ Church, Greenville, the Rev. Messrs. Luson, Pidsley and Wenman said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed four persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. W. R. Johnson.

In the afternoon of the same day, in Calvary Church, Cairo, the Rev. Messrs. Prout and Luson said Evening Prayer, the rector, the Rev. Mr. Pidsley, baptized an adult, and I preached, confirmed eight persons and addressed them. Mr. Pidsley is turning up the ground of the Church at South Cairo and at Acra, and cultivating very thoroughly the soil of his own Parish, beside.

On Thursday, July 1, in the morning, in Trinity Chinch, Windham, in Ashland, the Rev. Messrs. Pidsley, Luson and Doty, of Long Island said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed five persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Prout.

In the afternoon, in St. Paul's Chapel, Windham, the Rev. Messrs. Doty, Pidsloy and Prout said Evening Prayer, and I preached.

On Friday, July 2, in Grace Church, Prattsville, the Rev. Messrs. Luson and Prout said Morning Prayer, and I confirmed two persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion.

In the afternoon in St. Peter's Church, Hobart, the Rev. Mr. Willes, the rector, and Mr. Luson said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed two persons, and addressed them.

On Saturday, July 3, in the afternoon, in St. John's Church, Delhi, the Rev. Messrs. Willes and Luson said Evening Prayer, [41/42] and I baptized an adult, preached, confirmed five persons, and addressed them.

At Bloomville, where I stopped on the way, I found nothing left of the Church once started there, though I hope some seed may yet be waiting care, to spring up and bring forth fruit.

On Sunday, sixth after Trinity, July 4, in the morning, in St. Paul's Church, Franklin, where the now rector had only arrived the night before to welcome me and take care of this noble Church, the rector, the Rev. Wm. M. Ogden, and Mr. Luson said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion.

In the evening, in Christ Church, Walton, the Rev. Messrs. Luson and Ogden said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed sixteen persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Huntington, and addressed them; one was afterwards confirmed, and I baptized the infant child of the rector.

On Monday, July 5, in the morning, in the Methodist house of worship, in Deposit, I preached, confirmed two persons and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Luson and Huntington.

On Wednesday, July 7, in the morning, in the Chapel of St. Mary's Church, Luzerne, after a day of welcome rest in this lovely lake-country, I said Morning Prayer, preached, confirmed six persons (and one person afterwards at Warrensburgh, making seven), and celebrated the Holy Communion.

Joined with Conklinville, this Mission Station must soon be firmly fixed, and Colonel Butler's indomitable energy will not be wasted, nor the good work done by the Rev. Mr. Fisher, while at Schuylerville, be thrown away.

In the evening, in the exquisite Church of the Holy Cross, Warrensburgh, the Rev. Drs. Bostwick and Warren, of New York, said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed seven persons presented by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Capers (besides one for Luzerne), and addressed them. Mr. Capers' resignation of the Parish, although, under the circumstances inevitable, is greatly regretted.

On Thursday, July 8, in the morning, in Christ Church, [42/43] Pottersville, the Rev. Mr. Capers said Morning Prayer, I baptized an infant, preached, and celebrated the Holy Communion. There; is a forlorn hope here; a few Church people, from whom pecuniary support has died or drifted away. The Church is beautifully situated, but, as it seems to me now at any rate, in the wrong place. The parsonage is sadly out of repair. The congregation was large and interested, and we must try the Mission once more. If the Church were at Chester, or if a generous bequest, not yet received, of a church and lot, at the Glen, four miles away, could by consent be applied here, I should have more hope. It is Isaac's duty to dig again the wells of water which his father had digged, as well as to open the new wells in the places "where the Lord shall make room for us, and we become fruitful in the Land."

In the evening, in the lovely little Church at Caldwell, the Rev. Dr. Warren, of New York, and Mr. Matlack, of Pennsylvania, said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed two persons presented by the Rev. Dr. Bostwick.

On Friday morning, July 9, I consecrated St. Paul's Church, Harrisena. The Instrument of Donation (made by the vestry of the Church of the Messiah, at Glen's Falls, to whom the property is deeded.) was read by the Rev. E. E. Butler, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Dr. Bostwick, whose early missionary labors covered this ground. The Rev. Drs. Bostwick and Warren said Morning Prayer, and I preached and confirmed one person and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Butler. The Church is a memorial to the piety and charity of Mr. John J. Harris, whose funeral was the first service held in it. It is in Mr. Butler's charge, as missionary, and gathers a goodly congregation. A special Providence of God preserved it from destruction by fire, which caught in the basement on the night of Mr. Harris' burial, burned through the floor, charring the beams, and then, as we say in our heathen way, "went out."

At night, in the Church of the Messiah, Glen's Falls, a beautiful Church made more beautiful by the tasteful profusion of lovely flowers, the Rev. Dr. Bostwick and Messrs. Babcock and Butler, [43/44 the Rector, said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed nine persons (one being from Sandy Hill) and addressed them. Under Mr. Butler's admirable ministry here, the fine stone church has been built, a new organ is now building, the Parish is the first in the Diocese to resign the missionary stipend and support itself, and now takes care of Harrisena, an excellent record and a worthy example. It only needs a Parsonage now, and that will come.

On Sunday, July 11, seventh after Trinity, in St. Peter's Church, Albany, I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, and in the afternoon catechized the children.

On Thursday, July 15, I preached the sermon by the Bishop's invitation, in Christ Church, New Brunswick, at the ordination to the Diaconate of the Key. Francis Stubbs, the son of my father's old and faithful friend, who has lent two sons to this Diocese. Mr. Stubbs, with his Bishop's consent, is assisting the Rector of Whitehall, with especial interest in the work of reviving the Church at Ticonderoga. He is not yet transferred to the Diocese, but I trust he will be and as many more like him and his brother as there are.

On Sunday, July 18, eighth after Trinity, I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion in St. Peter's, Albany, and assisted in the Evening Prayer.

On Monday, July 19, I met with the Standing Committee of the Diocese, in St. Peter's Vestry room, to consider the request of the Rector and Vestry of St. John's, Cohoes, to take down their present Church building, with a view to the purchase of a better site and the erection of a more suitable Church. The proposition of the Vestry to remove the old building was most gratifying to us all, and the permission was promptly given. As the first action in the Diocese, under the new and admirable Canon of the late General Convention to stop the desecration of churches, it was an important act.

On Tuesday, July 20, I set out on the visitation through the counties comprising the Frontier Convocation. Brush's Mills, Malone and Plattsburgh, which I had visited before, I did not include.

[45] The unrivalled beauty of the sail down Lake Champlain was only clouded by the sense of our neglected duties, as I passed Port Henry, West Port and Elizabethtown, unoccupied by the Church which has no station on the Lake from Whitehall to Essex.

In the evening, in St. John's Church, Essex, vacant then by the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Weil, the Rev. Mr. Fairbanks, of Vermont, the former Rector, said Evening Prayer, and I preached to a large and thoughtful congregation gathered in this pretty vine-clad chapel, which commands one of the loveliest possible views, and perpetuates the good works and honorable memory of Mr. Ross. Mr. Hopkins is now the missionary here, and has entered, with his own energy and ability, upon a field, which ought to be in charge of an associate mission. Boquet, that was dead already, is alive again. Wadham's Mills, Whallonsburgh and Willsborough offer excellent openings which will be thoroughly tested soon.

On Wednesday, July 21, in the morning, in St. Paul's Church, Keeseville, the Rector, the Rev. Mr. Cook, and Mr. Fairbanks said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed six persons and celebrated the Holy Communion. The work of the missionary, here, is another instance of labor, to and beyond the power of any one man, reaching far outside of any requirements of pay or position; and it is flavored with such self denial, ability and devotion as ensure its success and acceptance with God.

Ausable Forks is fairly under weigh with admirable promise; and Peru, Trout Brook, Black Mountain and other points are overlooked, in the Episcopizing sense of the word. Not meaning to put two incongruous things together, I must say that the missionary, here, ought to have a Deacon and a horse. I should like to send him the former to train for a missionary, and I shall ask the means to do it from the missionary committee, as among its most important duties. The generous interest of a churchman in Troy has secured him, for the present, a house to live in. I may be pardoned for recalling the pleasure with which I found here, and at Ausable Forks, in the presence and interest of two noble Church women, graduates of St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, and, therefore, earnest upholders of the Church, the fruit of the good seed which my [45/46] father sowed broadcast, in his great work of the Christian education of women.

In the afternoon, at Ausable Forks, in the Methodist house of worship, the Rev. Mr. Cook said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed seven persons and addressed them. The prospect here is very good, and I hope soon to find a Church built.

On Thursday, July 22, I consecrated St. Paul's Church, Chazy. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. Mr. Neide, the missionary, and the Sentence; of Consecration by the Rev. Dr. Camp. The Rev. Messrs. Stewart, Winkley and Cook said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Randall and Du Vernet, of Clarenecville, Rural Dean of the Diocese of Montreal. The Rev. Mr. Hopkins took charge of the music which was, therefore, churchly, and, therefore, hearty and good. In the afternoon I presided at a meeting of the Frontier Convocation, and rejoiced in its good work; and in the evening, after Evening Prayer in the Church, at a missionary meeting, Mr. Cook, Mr. Winkley and I made the addresses. It is a very pretty Church, built, to a large extent, by his surviving family, as a memorial to the late Dr. Stevenson, "who found favor before God and desired to build a tabernacle for the God of Israel." The clergy will remember gratefully with me the genial hospitality of our two days visit here, and I trust the good people here will remember, in a practical way, the faithful and hitherto gratuitous service of the Rev. Mr. Neide.

On Friday, July 23, in Christ Church, Rouse's Point, the Rev. Messrs. Randall, Winkley, Neide and Hopkins said Morning Prayer, Mr. Stewart saying the Litany, and I preached, confirmed forty-two persons (with one afterwards in private and two at Champlain, making forty-live), addressed them and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Camp, the Rector, Dean Du Vernet and Mr. Cook.

Here, again, I find the concurrence of such work and worship, as explain each other. The whole service was alive with devotion and reverence. The children's music would have made stones cry out, if such hardness could have stayed unsoftened in that [46/47] atmosphere. The number confirmed speaks for itself. Many of them were children, and, if I read rightly the precedents and purposes of Confirmation, it is especially for children whose age, left undefined, is measured not by years but by such ripeness in religion and quickness of conscience as make very tender years, sometimes, years of discretion, of discernment, that is, between right and wrong with the desire to serve God, and the need, therefore, of His grace. Their admission to so solemn a position implies great discernment before, and great devotion afterwards, in the Pastor, and these both were here; and, these being present, I trust that Christian parents, more and more, will learn the lesson of the Child Samuel and the Holy Child Jesus in the Temple of the Lord.

In the evening, in St. John's Church, Champlain, the Rev. Dr. Camp and the Rev. Messrs. Randall, Cook and Winkley said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed six persons (besides the two reported before for Rouse's Parish) and addressed them. The Rev. Messrs. Neide, Stewart and Hopkins were present. This was another fine service, betokening faithful work under many disadvantages and drawbacks. A car load of Church people from Rouse's Point accompanied us, and added not a little with the cheer of their company, and the evidences of their sympathy, to the pleasure of the evening. Mr. Neide has been far-reaching in his fidelity to our Northern Missions.

On Saturday; July 24, m the morning, in St. Paul's Church, Centreville, the Rev. Messrs. Randall and Neide said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Neide and Hopkins.

In the afternoon, in St. Peter's Church, Ellenburgh, the Rev. Messrs. Randall and Neide said Evening Prayer, and I baptized an infant and preached.

These are sad places in their emptiness and desolation, waste places of Jerusalem. At Centreville, the property, through the faithfulness of Mr. Tomlinson, the Warden, is in good repair. But here "the swallows had found them a nest" in a way undreamed of by the Psalmist, and their fluttering at the unusual [47/48] intrusion into their undisturbed dwelling place suggested the forlorn desertion of this house, built in the faith and fear of God by the devoted exertions of Dr. Coit, of Concord. The people hero are not to be blamed, for they are few and weak, and the name of life that still remains is due to the faith and zeal of a venerable Church woman, a true Mother in Israel, who waits, as it were, to see the salvation of God. I mean that she shall not be much longer disappointed, for I hope to establish a mission in these two points, adding Chateaugay, for the present, to them.

At this point I dropped the last of the clergy, and felt greatly the loss of their delightful companionship.

On Sunday, July 25, St. James, and ninth Sunday after Trinity, in Trinity Church, Potsdam, the Rev. Mr. Kidney said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed eleven persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion. The Parish here is strong in every way, clerical and laical, in spirit and in substance. "Thrust out a little from the land," on an island in the Raquette river, it is attractive inside for its service and outside for its situation and beauty. The Frontier Convocation owes its energy, if not its existence, to the Rector of Potsdam, and we all owe a great deal to the Frontier Convocation.

In the afternoon, in the Methodist house of worship, at Potsdam Junction, the Rev. Mr. Winkley, the Missionary, said Evening Prayer; and I preached, confirmed three persons and addressed them.

On Monday morning, July 26, in the beautiful stone building, Grace Church, Norfolk, the Rev. Mr. Winkley said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion.

In the afternoon, in the Town Hall, at Massena, the Rev. Mr. Winkley said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed four persons and addressed them.

These three points cover Mr. Winkley's missionary field, in which he has wrought, with an untiring energy and fidelity, through difficulties that would have discouraged a man of less faith. It is too large for any one missionary, and yet, for the [48/49] present, it cannot be divided. At Massena and Potsdam Junction the promise is good, and Norfolk has a fair congregation and an unusually good church, needing repairs but substantial. A Parish has been organized at Massena, and in time something will come of it. How many missionaries will be worn out and wearied out first, remains to be seen, and depends on the liberality o churchmen in the Diocese. This is one of the points towards which I hope to attract your earnest and practical interest in all this year.

On Tuesday, July 27, I consecrated the little cemetery on Barnhardt's Island; and afterwards, in the upper room of the school house, the Rev. Messrs. Kidney, Winkley, and Laurens, of the Diocese of Ontario, said Morning Prayer, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Ven. Archdeacon Patten. It is pleasant anywhere to record the interchange of courtesies across the border; but in this instance there is the added duty of recognizing the faitnful service of several years which the Archdeacon has rendered here. The Island, though belonging to us is nearer the Canada shore, and the Archdeacon or his curates, winter and summer, often through inclement and difficult crossings (there is a tradition of his swimming it once), has taken most kind charge of the little flock here. I am glad to say he continues the care, to the great comfort of the people, and to my great satisfaction. The services here were primitive and simple, and most pleasant; and the open-handed and whole-hearted hospitality, the almost patriarchal dignity of the four living generations of the family who own and name the island, make the memories of the day very fresh and fragrant. It was a Bishop's first visit, and I trust it may not be my last.

On Wednesday, July 28, in St. Paul's Church, Waddington, the Rev. Mr. Clemson said the Morning Prayer, and I said the Litany, preached, confirmed fourteen persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Clemson and the Rev. Mr. Louckes, of the Diocese of Ontario. The Church is old enough to be historic with honorable names in the past and present, and with the always attractive memorials of [49/50] other days. It is St. Paul's, New York, in miniature. During the vacancy, now I am glad to say supplied, while the lay people have done well, they are greatly indebted, as I am, to the Rev. Mr. Clemson for his wise and earnest interest, and energy in officiating at the services and discharging the pastoral duties of the Parish.

In the afternoon, in the Universalist house of worship, at Madrid, I said Evening Prayer and preached, and afterwards baptized an infant.

On Thursday morning, July 29, I consecrated Trinity Church, Gouverneur. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. E. Dolloway, the rector, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Mr. Kidney. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Neide, Winslow, of Central New York, Clemson, of New York, and Potter. I preached, confirmed seven persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Babcock and Mr. Ely, of Central New York, Carter, of Minnesota, and Winkley. Earnest exertions and generous giving must have combined to accomplish the result of building this Church, and its freeing from debt during the last year, is greatly due to the exertions of the rector. It is a beautiful building, and the whole service was very satisfactory and encouraging. It was pleasant, too, to re-assemble the clergy.

On Friday, July 30, in Grace Church, Canton, I met the Sunday school children, and received and acknowledged their gift of a very handsome Bishop's chair to the Parish; and afterwards the Rev. Messrs. Clemson, Neide, Ely and Carter said Morning Prayer, the Rev. Francis Harison, of New York, saying the Litany, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the rector, the Rev. Mr. Potter, and Rev. Messrs. Kidney and Winkley. The Rev. Messrs. At well, of Massachusetts, Rich and Dolloway were present.

In the evening, in the same Church, the Rev. Messrs. Dolloway, Atwell, Ely and Carter said Evening Prayer, and I preached, confirmed fifteen persons and addressed them. The Church is strongly rooted here from the best New York stock, in a thriving and [50/51] beautiful village, overshadowed by a great Universalist college. A good work is doing by the rector and some Christian men in the Parish at the county almshouse, and Mr. Potter's energy is developing new and very important outside missionary fields. All who were with me, here, will keep long in mind the enjoyment of the hospitalities of a charming Christian home.

On Saturday, July 31, in the evening, in the little school house at Morley (which looks like a Church, or at least like a Church school, as I wish it were), the Rev. Messrs. Potter and Frank Harison said Morning Prayer, and I preached and addressed the children, after they had been catechized by Mr. Potter. There is a noble promise of work here, with every earnest of success. Madrid and Morley will be joined, and I shall hope to send a missionary here very soon. Mr. Potter has looked after Morley, as he has after Clifton and the county almshouse, besides his regular duties at Canton.

In the evening, in the Church at Lisbon, the Rev. Messrs. Harison and Potter said Evening Prayer, and I baptized four infants and preached. The Church here is a substantial and churchly building, barring the chancel. It has been recently repaired, through the exertions of a New York Churchwoman, and a lot has been bought for a parsonage. The town is small, and not increasing. It stands beautifully on the banks of the noblest of all livers, the St. Lawrence, and judging from the earnest interest and large size of the congregation, the Parish will grow, now that it is connected as a mission with St. Paul's, Waddington, and under the care of the Rev. Mr. Thorpe.

On Sunday, August 1, tenth after Trinity, in the morning, in St. John's Church, Ogdensburgh, the Rev. Mr. Ely of Central New York, said Morning Prayer, and I preached, confirmed seventeen persons, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Peters. There is real strength and the stir of life in the Church here. A new Church is in immediate prospect, and the Parish is second in influence and importance to none in the Diocese. I could have wished that the new Church were to be built upon another site, so that more accommodation ought to have been secured. [51/52] But every outlay and enterprise for the greater glory of God is too gladly hailed, and I am quite sure that a mission Church will be built soon by the contagion of this work. The future of the Church in Ogdensburgh I believe to be full of dignity and prominence as the cathedral city of a new See. And I am glad to feel that this future is laid upon the best of all foundations, the rare token of stability in the residence of the Rev. Dr. Peters, who has grown into the deep affections of his people by a rectorship of thirty years. Here, again, the old New Jersey associations were most grateful.

In the afternoon, by the courtesy of my kind host, Mr. Averell, the vestry and some of the parishioners accompanied me in his steam-yacht to Morristown, eight miles up the St. Lawrence, where in Christ Church the Rev. Dr. Peters and the Rev. K. L. Jones, of the Diocese of Ontario, said Evening Prayer, and I baptized an infant, preached, confirmed rive persons and addressed them.

The music and the whole service were delightful. The font bloomed with lily buds born in the water,

"That alternate sink and heave
Where small waves ebb and flow;"

and one could hardly realize, in the fact and faces of the congregation, the heaviness of heart that had been with them in the long two years' illness of their rector, his death and the dreary vacancy that followed, ended, I trust now, by the election of the Rev. Jas. H. Tyng.

Of the Rev. Dr. Humphrey's life and death, I know but little. The deep feeling evinced by his people when I spoke of his loss, their reverent recollections of him, and the tradition of his devotion in work, his patience in suffering and his faith in death, are the best tribute that can be paid to any priest. His is the only name we have to place upon the list of the clergy entered, out of this new Diocese, into the Paradise of God. It is not long, I know, since we were here. But in this changeful world only a short time is needed to make great changes, and while we thank the good Lord who has spared us all, may we take to heart the warning, and emulate the example, of our brother's death and life.

[53] On Wednesday, August 4, I confirmed in private one person, a parishioner of Trinity Church, Albany.

On Thursday, August 5, in the morning, in Christ Church, Cooperstown, at a second visitation of the parish, the Rev. Mr. Buel, the Rector, and Dr. Beach of Now York, and A. H. Stubbs, said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed five persons.

On Saturday, August 7, in the quaint and venerable building of Christ Church, Duanesburgh, the Rev. Mr. Eastman, and I said Morning Prayer, and I preached. The old Parish misses and mourns its beloved Rector, the Rev. Dr. Lowell, as well it may, and as we all do. I trust that the place may soon be supplied. Its filling is another question. Meanwhile it is to the credit of past training and present practice, that in the middle of "haying" such a congregation of farmers gathered for the service. There is a fine parsonage and a glebe, and the situation is beautiful. The work ahead involves, I hope soon, the fulfilment of a cherished hope of Mr. Duane, the building of a chapel at Esperance, six miles away, where already he has gathered and sustains a successful Sunday-school.

On Sunday, August 8, the twelfth after Trinity, I celebrated and preached in St. Peter's, Albany, and said the Evening Prayer.

On Tuesday, August 10, I laid the corner-stone of the new Trinity Church, Lansingburgh, whose beauty will be given to God for the ashes and from the ashes of the old wooden building, sacred with venerable associations, but far less worthy of its sacred use than this will be. The clergy present were the Rev. Drs. Nelson of Maryland, Fairbairn of New York, Tucker and Potter; and the Rev. Messrs. Hall (the Rector), Widdemer, Ferguson, Brown, Gary, Danker, Adams, Thorpe, Walker, Fisher and Tripp, of New York. Immediately afterwards I consecrated the chapel of the Parish to be used at present for the services, and afterwards for the Sunday-school and other sacred uses. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. Mr. Hall, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Mr. Brown. I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Drs. Nelson, Fairbairn and Tucker, and the Rev. Messrs. Gary and Danker, the Morning Prayer having [53/54] been said by the other clergy present. The example of this Parish cannot be too strongly commended for practical good sense and prompt energy, and for pious liberality. The service was delightful, and the Vestry entertained the Clergy afterwards most hospitably.

During my two weeks' holiday, I preached three times in Calvary Church, Cairo, and celebrated and preached once in Christ Church, Greenville.

On Sunday, August 29, fourteenth after Trinity (the only Sunday on which St. Peter's was closed), I said Morning Prayer, and preached, and said Evening Prayer in St. Paul's Church, Albany.

On Monday, August 30, I confirmed in private one person, a parishioner of St. Peter's Church, Albany.

On Thursday, September 2,1 consecrated the Church of St. Sacrament, at Bolton, Lake George. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. Wm, F. Lewis, of Maryland, minister in charge, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Fred. B. Van Kleeck, of the Diocese of New York, one of the trustees. The service was choral throughout and beautifully rendered, Mr. Messsiter and one of the boys from Trinity, New York, leading the music. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Mr. Ferguson and Messrs. Oberly, Stevenson and Locke, of New York. The Rev. Dr. Van Kleeck preached the sermon. I confirmed four persons and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Tuttle and Mr. Crary, of New York, and the Rev. E. N. Potter, D. D., E. E. Butler, Luson and Danker. It is only the truth, and it is the highest praise, to say that the Church, the service and the spirit of the day, were worthy of the place. On the shore of Lake George, where everything is beautiful, Bolton is most beautiful of all. Of all that lingers in the memory, it is hard to say what is the most lovely, the day, the situation, the Church itself, the service, the sweet memory of the departed "by the sea of glass;" or the thankful, well earned, unassuming joy of one heart in whose loving and pious purpose this exquisite work was born, and the holy-day hospitality, with waving flags, pealing bells and [54/55] booming guns that welcomed us to the beauty of this almost consecrated lake.

On Friday, September 3, in the Academy at Ticonderoga, the Rev. Mr. Luson, the Missionary, said the Litany, and I preached and confirmed seven persons, and immediately after I laid the cornerstone of the Church of the Cross, and made the addresses, the Rev. Mr. Luson and Francis Stubbs being present. This is eminently a work of restoration. The pious hopes and efforts of the past, thwarted for a time by disaster and desertion, are waking to life and growth.

On Saturday, September 4,1 consecrated St. James' Church, Caldwell, Lake George. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. R. F. Crary, of New York (once the Rector), and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Dr. Van Kleeck, of the Diocese of Long Island. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Crary and Locke, of New York, and I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Drs. Tuttle and Van Kleeck. The very beautiful church, fitting in suitably with the unrivalled beauty of its surroundings, replaces a smaller wooden building, blown down instantly upon its consecration. It completeness is due, under God, not more to the generous givings of churchmen from without, than to the patient persevering faith of the few resident churchmen here, whose number I am glad to say is growing.

On Sunday, September 5, fifteenth after Trinity, I said Morning Prayer, preached and celebrated, and said Evening Prayer in St. Peter's, Albany; and also said Evening Prayer and preached in Trinity Church, Albany.

On Monday, September 6, in the evening, in St. Paul's Church, Charlton, the Rev. Messrs. Wainwright and Carey said Morning Prayer, and I baptized the Rector's infant child, preached, confirmed three persons (one in private), and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Payne and the Rector, the Rev. Elias Weil. Two of the three confirmed were from the mission at Glenville, which the separation from Burnt Hills enables and encourages the Rector to develope.

On Thursday, September 9, I consecrated Christ Church, West [55/56] Burlington. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. Joel Davis, the Missionary, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Mr. Rulison. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Stubbs and H. G. Perry, of the Diocese of California, and I preached, confirmed nine persons and addressed them, and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Messrs. Hughes, Buel, Rulison and Davis. Many things have contributed to the success of this work, in the beautiful building and spirited service. The chapel is largely a memorial building, to which Mr. Moss has generously contributed. But the people all willingly offered themselves, and the present missionary treads faithfully in the footsteps of the venerable Mr. Hughes, as the builder up of the Churches in Otsego county.

On Friday, September 10, I consecrated the Morris Memorial and All Saints' Chapel, at Morris. The Instrument of Donation was read by the Rev. Mr. Lighthipe, and the Sentence of Consecration by the Rev. Mr. Rulison. Morning Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Scofield, Stubbs, Davis, Perry, of California, and Lewis of Central New York, and I baptized an infant, preached and celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Ayrault, of Central New York, and the Rev. Messrs. Hughes and Rulison.

The chapel complete, substantial and beautiful, is built in memory of Gen. Jacob Morris, by his lineal descendants. His name is most honorably connected with the very beginning of the Church in this county, and lives still, in something more than name, in those who do him honor and carry on his work. It is the All Saints' memorial as well, linking in other names, as well as his, in the communion of saints. The little child, knit together with them all in the baptismal service to-day, was one of Gen. Morris' descendants, and bore in part his name.

In the evening, in Christ Church, Butternuts, at my second visitation, the Rev. Messrs. Perry and Lighthipe, the rector, said Evening Prayer, and I preached and confirmed two persons.

On Sunday, September 12, sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, in [56/57] the morning, I preached and celebrated the Holy Communion in St. Peter's Church, Albany, and in the afternoon I said Evening Prayer and catechized the children.

On Monday, September 13, I laid the corner stone of the Church of St. Augustine, Ilion. The Rev. Drs. Van Deusen and Gibson, of Central New York, and the Rev. Messrs. Wood, Thomas, Stanley and Lancaster, the missionary, were present, and I made the address. The faithful labors of Hedges and Wood are followed up by the admirable missionary here, and the spirit of the people and the promise of the place are most encouraging. The arrangement for the service and for the entertainment were perfect, and will set the fashion, I hope, for all such occasions.

September 14, in the Vestry Room of St. Peter's Church, Albany, I presided at a meeting of the Missionary Committee.

On Friday and Saturday, September 17 and 18, I held the Canonical examination of the Rev. Wm. Bogert Walker, Deacon, and the Rev. Joel Davis, Deacon, candidates for Priest's Order. The examinations were conducted very thoroughly, by the Rev. Drs. Coit and Tucker, my examining Chaplains, and in the presence of the Rev. Dr. Fairbairn and Messrs. Selkirk and Russell.

And on Sunday, September 19, the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, and the Autumnal Ember Sunday, in St. Peter's Church, Albany, I advanced the Rev. Wm. Bogert Walker and the Rev. Joel Davis, Deacons, to the sacred order of Priesthood. Morning Prayer had been said at an earlier hour by the Rev. Dr. Fairbairn and the Rev. Mr. Fisher. The sermon was preached and the candidates were presented by the Rev. Dr. Fairbairn, and I celebrated the Holy Communion, assisted by the Rev. Dr. Hall, of Long Island and the Rev. Dr. Nelson, of Maryland; the other priests present, and joining in the laying on of hands, being the Rev. Messrs. Selkirk, Russell and Marshall.

This completes the record of the work done in the ten months that make up our Canonical year; or, more accurately speaking, in the eight months since my consecration. I have not, of course, counted what has been my privilege for more than twenty years, and my great refreshment and comfort on my returns home, the [57/58] attendance at the Daily Prayer at St. Peter's Church, Albany. It is the best soother, and the best systematizer of a busy life that can be devised. I have to thank God for His gracious providence which has enabled me to accomplish, with a single exception, the visitation of all the Parishes in the Diocese. The temporary absence from duty of the rector of St. Mark's Church, Hoosac, has led me to postpone my visit to his Parish until his restoration to health, now, I am glad to say, completed, returns him to his work.

To have travelled 4,126 miles, 1,028 of it in carriages and sleighs, in perfect health and safety, with the bountiful gift of pleasant weather, cordial welcomes and tokens of earnest work, crowned by the rich blessings of the Holy Spirit, is matter of devout thankfulness to God.

I have made one hundred and twenty-seven visitations, visiting twice the Parishes of Centreville, Ilion, Butternuts, Morris, West Burlington, Cooperstown, Lansingburgh and Caldwell.

The results of the visitations, in statistical statement, are as follows:

Confirmed 962 persons, of whom 923 belong to Albany, and 39 to New York.

Sermons 160

Addresses 80

Celebrations of the Holy Communion 71

Clergymen dismissed to other Dioceses 6

Clergymen received from other Dioceses 19

Clergymen died 1

Admitted and received as candidates for Holy Orders 9

Licensed as Lay Readers 15

Consented to the organization of five new Parishes.

Laid the corner stones of three Churches, and one Parish school.

Consecrated eleven Churches.

Baptized--adults 9, infants 15; total, 24.*

Solemnized 3 marriages.*

Officiated at 3 funerals.*

Consented to the consecration of 1 Bishop, and to the transfer of another.

Consented to the sale of the site and the taking down of 1 Church building.

Received notices of 10 sentences of deposition.

[* Not including services during my rectorship of St. Peter's.]

[59] Clergymen belonging to the Diocese.

Bishop 1

Priests 80

Deacons 5

Total 86

Gain, during the year, 11; disabled from regular duty, 2; absent, 4; not at work, 6.

Clergymen at work during the year not belonging to the Diocese, 3;--the Rev. Jas. H. Tyng, the Rev. Wm. J. Boone, the Rev. Francis Stubbs.

Number of Parishes in union with the Convention 100

Number of Churches not in union 15

Parishes without Church buildings 14

Number of Missions 20

Total number of Missions and Parishes 135

There are sixteen Parishes vacant, against thirty-two that were vacant last year.

Number of parsonages 50

Number of free sittings 11,600

You will bear with me a little longer, my brethren, while I speak to you plainly upon a few points which I consider of great practical importance to our work.

The number of changes among our clergy during these eight months is to me a matter of very serious concern. Among our eighty-four clergy there have been no less than thirty-seven changes. Such a state of things destroys the stability of Parishes, breaks up and mars the efficiency of clergymen, and washes out all characteristic color and tone from the Diocese. Nothing has so harrassed and troubled me. There must be fault on both sides, it seems to me, to account for such a state of things; allowing for the rightful and inevitable changes, and acknowledging the restless tendency of the times, that makes Albany no exception. One cause is the discreditable insufficiency of salaries. This is an old story, but it is a sad one for a Bishop to sec and feel. The laymen do not realize their own ability, if they would give systematically and frequently, and according to the only standard owned or known by God--not rich men in proportion to their means--but every man, poor as well as rich, according to his several ability. And they do not know the straits of the clergy, who are men and will not whimper, who are gentlemen [59/60] and will not beg, who are Christians and will "endure hardness." No clergyman's salary ought to be permitted to be less than $1,000. No Parish ought to be without a parsonage. And bad as I think the compulsory celibacy of Rome is, and I think it is very bad, I think it is surpassed by the meanness that sets a premium on an unmarried priest because he is cheap, or looks out for a clergyman who has inherited or married a pittance of property, wherewith he can eke out the dolings of a stinted support. I tell you, my beloved, the laborer is worthy of his hire, and the "hire of the laborers who have reaped" down God's golden fields of saved souls, which is of you kept back by fraud (so far as you can pay or can withhold the wages of such work), CRIETH, "and the cries of those which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." What is the reason of the cankered silver and the rusted gold? What is the meaning of corrupted riches and garments moth eaten? Why are the fortunes of the hard and hoarding hand scattered, to the dogs of dissipation, by the loose and lavish hands of degenerate sons? Why are so many "names put out in the next generation "that were known and read of all men in the last? Why can the homes, and commercial centres, and fortunes, and hopes of a continent be shaken to their tottering, whenever the reckless licentiousness of wanton profligates decides to play its desperate game of chance, with stakes of millions of other people's money, as a variation from its customary "points" of woman's virtue and man's honor? "The silver is n:ine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord." "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." These are the forgotten lessons, of an age that stints its religious tithes, starves its religious teachers and spends upon itself, whose echoes come back to us from the disasters and distresses that surround us on every side. There are magnificent monuments in this Diocese, and living witnesses, thank God, too, of the liberality of laymen in the surviving works, or in the prolonged lives of Warren, and DeWitt, and Marshall, and Stott, and Burhans, and Cushney, and Harris, and Stevenson, and Paine, and Brush, and Rosse, and Thurman, and Morris, and Farnam. May their noble [60/61] examples find repeated imitation, and make us all, in all ways, worthy of and up to their standard.

The irregularity of payment of salaries is another serious evil, and I would suggest to the Parishes, not merely in general terms a regular payment, but the adoption of a system of payments, either quarterly or by a monthly cheque, put in the offertory on the first Sunday in the month. But this is not all.

The selfishness that half supports the clergy is the correlative of the self-will that sets up an authoritative censorship of them, in the personal tastes of every parishioner, especially if he be rich and hires a pew. It has come to that pass, that the "I like, or I do not like a clergyman," is the signal for his dismissal, or for such withdrawal of support, pecuniary and personal, as involves his resignation. It is even worse than this, for in these days of suspicion, a single practice, however harmless, however private or however proper, a single expression misunderstood, often, by the imperfect theological knowledge of the hearer, becomes the ready pou stw, the point on which to place the lever of criticism, complaint, accusation, scandal, with which to pry out of his place a man perhaps unwise (but who is always wise); perhaps over-zealous (but excess must somewhere counterbalance defect of interest); perhaps not exactly agreeing with every one else's differing views; perhaps not suiting every one else's varying tastes; but still earnest, faithful, laborious, and at any rate so far sound in doctrine and loyal in practice that his opposers dare not resort to the only rightful method of faulting him; namely, complaint to, and investigation and decision by, the Ordinary. I beseech you, my beloved brethren of the laity, to banish from the Church this arbitrary egotism, this despotic individualism. In a well ordered Christian household servants are not treated so, and though we are your servants for Jesu's sake, yet are we, in such sort "ambassadors for Christ that He doth beseech you by us." Fancy what your position would be, if the clergyman neglected, condemned, excommunicated every one of you whom he did not like, or disagreed with. Fancy what the end would be if lawyers and jurors so treated a judge with whom they disagreed, or company [61/62] officers and regiments, a general of whom they disapproved. Fancy what the result is to be, so far as unity is concerned, so far as peace, so far as work, if, for the tyranny of the papacy, or the worse tyranny of the popular frenzy of a day, is to be substituted the worst tyranny still of self-will, a hydra hundred-headed (if there are a hundred parishioners), a pope whose claim to infallible sovereignty is its ignorance, its tenacity, or its balance in the bank. There can be no hope of a restoration of the legitimate confidence and stability in the relation between pastor and people, until personal preferences and prejudices are left out; until forbearance takes the place of fault-finding; until ideals of perfection are recognized as unattainable; until differences of tastes, temper and training are allowed for; until the little point, the thin sharp edge of individualism is forsaken, for the broad and catholic standpoint of charity.

The other side of this I may not fail to urge on you, beloved brethren of the clergy. The forbearance that I ask for you, you must extend to all the people of your cures. In these unsettled days, when rumors are rife and suspicions fill the air, when we are dealing with a people, many of whom were never grounded in the faith, and many of whom accept it on outside and icsthetic grounds, rather than from examination and conviction, our duty demands a cautious courage, a discreet decision, which only love of souls and for the Saviour of our souls can inspire. Doctrinal definitness and reverence in ritual, the trumpet's certain sound, and the wrought-gold raiment of the King's daughter--these things maintain and exhibit; but avoid the use of easily misunderstood words, however capable of sound and safe explanations--of things that may look like symbols of error, however much your use of them means only truth. As you love your Lord, your people and your own souls, deny yourselves in matters of mere individual taste, that you may not cause your brother to offend. Let not your thought or talk be of the outward acts of religion, and let the world attest that all your care for such things is for the substance that they shadow, and for the reverence of which they are the ritual.

[63] I greatly desire to cultivate in the clergy of this Diocese an esprit du corps, a love for and a loyalty to this portion of the Church of Christ--

Spartan elaceV tautan kosmei.

Our lot has fallen in Albany. Let us, therefore, elevate, adorn, dignify, advance Albany. You are not, I know, related to the Diocese as I am till death us do part. But I pray you, stand with me, as I will stand by you, God helping me; and let men see that you do not deserve, as I know the clergy do not deserve, the accusations, that a larger salary, a more prominent position, an easier field, are providential calls to changes. One year of work in this Diocese, with the men that are with me now; no loss, if God will grant it, to us by death; no falling away, if you will give it to me, by changes, and another Convention will sec such results as this year's blessings foreshadow, only, as the handful of the first fruits promises the barn's full of the harvest; only as the tiny grass blades of March paint the emerald hope, of waving plains and hillsides kissed by the July sun.

But, of course, I cannot hope for this Diocese an exemption altogether from the changes and chances of life, and I desire to call the attention of the laity to the evident expectation of our Canon Law, in reference to the filling and emptying of Parishes. Canon 4, section 1, title II of the "Digest" requires the consent of the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Diocese to any dissolution of the pastoral relation, making both sides, the clergyman and the people, amenable to discipline, as the Bishop and Convention may determine. And Canon XI of the Diocese requires immediate notice to be given to the Bishop, of a vacancy in the Parish. [CANON XI. Of Vacant Parishes. SEC. 1. Whenever a Parish becomes vacant, it shall be the duty of the Vestry to give immediate notice thereof to the Bishop. Sec. 2. The Bishop shall appoint those of the Clergy in the Diocese who can with the most convenience discharge the duty, to supply such vacant Parishes as have been reported to him, at such times as may be deemed convenient and proper. At every such Convention, the Clergy so appointed shall be called on for an account of the fulfillment of the duty, and to make a full report concerning the state of the Parishes which they have visited. It shall be the duty of such Vacant Parishes thus supplied, to defray all the expenses incident to such occasional services.]

[64] It seems to me that much difficulty would be avoided by a compliance with the letter and spirit of these laws; that fewer Parishes would be vacated; that Parishes would be better and sooner filled. For, while, of course, the Bishop could not compel the retention in, or the reception into a Parish, of an unwelcome Rector, ho can often in the first instance remove misunderstanding; and in the second, with his intimate knowledge of his Parishes, and his larger acquaintance with clergymen, he is far more likely to suggest the suitable man, than the source from which the suggestion usually comes--some irresponsible party, some prejudiced friend, some self-seeking clergyman; or the resort to that most unworthy of all absurdities, the trial of a clergyman preaching single show-off sermons, as a proof of pastoral fitness or power. As a priest or a layman, in politics or in religion, I never believed in withdrawing power where responsibility is put. The latter offsets and outweighs the former. I believe I was always an obedient citizen, a dutiful Deacon, and a loyal Priest. If a General has to fight a battle, he ought to select his corps commanders, to post his pickets and to choose his reserves. And a Bishop requires and deserves the advisory control, to say the least of it, over the men who work in his Diocese. If he has it, and advises unwisely, the responsibility and a large part of the injury are his. If he does not have it, the general work suffers, and in its suffering, every place and part of it are hurt. I do not believe in Rectors without Vestries, or Bishops without Conventions, or any irresponsible control; neither do I believe in Vestries, Conventions, Convocations, without the Bishop; the Bishop, like everybody else, being under the law. In fact, I believe that an Episcopal Church (saving the tautology) has an Episcopate. Granting the worst element in a Bishop (or in anybody), self-seeking, self-interest, what is his self, what is his interest, but the Diocese? Neither his success, his comfort, his influence nor his good name, is enhanced by Parishes in hot water with their clergymen, and clergymen failing to accomplish their work. His interest and the interest of the Diocese are identical, unless he is unprincipled and worthy of [64/65] degradation. And while certain fourth-of-July laymen and a few Exeter-Hall clergymen waste their breath in denouncing the tyranny and autocracy and aristocracy of prelatical pretension and Episcopal assumption, my knowledge of Bishops, and yours, too; and my sense of the effect of the office shows, that it tends to bow men down with a weight of harassing cares and crushing accountability, till those who are fit for the office, grow lowly and humble and conciliatory, and those who are not, are cowed into inoffensive-ness, and timidity, and compromise.

I am thankful to find in the Diocese an approximation towards, and an appreciation of the rightful position of music in the worship of God, and the right ideas of music as an act of worship. It is natural enough for Rome to resort to a style of music, gaudy and showy as the tinsel and artificial flowers and soiled lace of her churches; and as she takes her prayers out of people's mouths by an unvernacular language, to rob them also of their praises, by the intrusion of operatic choirs. And it is the spirit of all the Protestant services, except the Methodist, to make the congregation listeners and lookers on. But for our liturgical Church, with her manual of antiphonal worship, of common praise and prayer, and her heritage of tones and chants, of tunes and anthems, Gregorian and Anglican, to submit to the tyrany of organists and solo singers, advertising and admiring themselves instead of edifying the people and adoring God, and to allow the arbitrariness of musical committees, who prostitute the service of song, to raise the pew rents and attract the wealthiness and worldliness of men, is a miracle of degeneration and a surrender of principle which cannot be condoned. I hope the clergy will remember that they cannot escape their responsibility in this matter; theirs, as the ordained leaders of the people's worship, as well as by the plain Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer. I know that sometimes their ignorance or their peculiar tastes will lead to queer and undesirable results. But, with no end in view except the glory of God in the public worship of the congregation, with the ability to call in competent advisers and assistants, and with their legitimate responsibility and their concern for the peace of the Parishes, the matter [65/66] is safer with them than it can be in any other hands. I am glad to call attention to the wise and well timed opinion of the Bishop of Pennsylvania.

"The Rector has the right to control such arrangements, both in Church and in Sunday School, as in his judgment shall be for the best interests of each. The building and all the appurtenances of the building being designed for promoting the spiritual good of the Parish, the Rector has the undoubted right to use it, and to control the arrangement of it in such wise as shall best subserve the religious welfare of the people committed to his charge.

"The vestry are the legal trustees of the Church property. They have, or should have, the sole control of the finances. They are to direct and supervise repairs. They are to secure all such material aid as the exigencies of the Parish require. They are to elect the Rector, but they must remember that the money matters confided to them pertain to the Lord's treasury; that the clergyman whom they elect Rector is set over them by the Holy Ghost, and hence all their trusteeship has a spiritual bearing, and should work in with, and be in subservience to, the great object of parochial organization, viz: the ingathering of souls into the fold of Christ.

"As it respects the music of the Church, this also is, by the Rubric of the Prayer Book, placed in the hands of the Rector, who is especially charged with the oversight thereof. He has the full right to select the choir, to choose the tunes, to suppress what he deems ' light and unseemly music,' and consequently introduce such as he shall hold to be suitable for divine worship. Where there is a paid organist or choir, it is the duty of the vestry to pay them. It is the duty of the Rector to direct them; but not to pay them. As it is the duty of the vestry to guard with care the revenues of the Church, it is also their duty to apportion out the salaries of the elected officers of the Church in the wisest and most economical manner, yet in all matters relating to the salary of a Rector, and to make no changes without consulting with him. It is not a good spirit which would seek to express its dissatisfaction with a Rector by suddenly reducing his stipend. Such a [66/67] course is always unwise, and brings discredit on the Church which does it.

The subject of theological education is one of vital importance to us. We must, out of ourselves, supply to a great extent our own wants. I have already alluded to the importance of Christian parents devoting their children to the Master's service in their prayers, their purposes and their training, and I have spoken in emphatic terms of St. Stephen's College, Annandale, as deserving and demanding your confidence and support. I desire to call your attention again to this. It divides with Hobart College the Church collegiate education of the State. Seventeen young men from this Diocese are there preparing for the ministry. The institution lies just outside our border. Though in, it is not exclusively of, the Diocese of New York. The Bishops of the three Dioceses of New York are among its trustees, and the president of the board, the Hon. J. V. L. Pruyn, is a layman of Albany, retained in office, in spite of his proposal to withdraw, partly to prove the college to be co-extensive in its sympathies and services, if not with the whole State, at least with the Diocese of New York, as it was before division. And I beg you to bear in mind therefore the claims of Annandale. It needs money, and it has a right to look to us for it; and whatever is given in this Diocese for Theological Education, will, I hope, go there, or to the General Seminary, or to both these schools of the Prophets, through the venerable Society for the Promotion of Religion and Learning, whose benefactions are, and whose support ought to be coterminous with the State of New York.

With one last word I leave you, to return to the labors which lie before us in the Convention. There are three things closely connected with each other, which sometimes need defining:

Our faith, thank God, is fixed and settled upon the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which are the Word of God, as witnessed to by the undivided Church, defined by the six General Councils, and contained in the Catholic Creeds. The Divine [67/68] Author of the Faith, and the appointed Witness and Keeper of the Truth, have taught us also how to pray. And the Church Liturgy ringing the changes of its continual services upon the Lord's own prayer, is the manual and cordial, in the hearts and in the hands of all her children. These things are the same to all, and so in one sense are the agenda the duties, the things that ought to be and that are to be done. But with peculiar circumstances they vary, and I beg to leave with you a summary of the matters of special importance, which demand of us, as churchmen of this Diocese, prompt and liberal efforts and attention.

A Church school for girls, to be founded near this city, and cared for by Christian women demoted, for the love of Christ, to their great work:

Houses of mercy for the sick, for the fallen, and for orphans and for the aged, to be established where the best openings may occur, or developed out of existing institutions, such as the Church Home in Troy, and the Orphanage beginning now at Cooperstown:

And such an endowment of the Episcopate as will make assessments on the Parish unnecessary:

The building1 of the Churches already undertaken at Ticonderoga, at Garrattsville, at Ilion and at Middleville, and to be commenced at Schoharie Court House, Springfield, Madrid, Morley, Gloversville, Lawrence, Schenevus, Mohawk, Oneonta, Exeter, Newport, Chateaugay, Canajoharie, Conklinville, Ausable Forks, Potsdam Junction, Massena and Hart's Falls:

The payment of the debt on the Church at Portlandville, and the establishment of missions at Cobleskill, Clifton, Canajoharie, Fort Plain, Chateaugay, and in the Helderberg region.

I propose to assign the collection of funds for the Church buildings to the different Convocations in which they are situated, taking for this year's work, Ticonderoga, Garrattsville, Ilion, Middleville and Gloversville, and to suggest to the Convocations that they should make it their duty to employ itinerant missionaries in the Diocese, while the Diocesan Board of Missions pays the salary of all missionaries at our regular points of work.

We shall need much giving, much prayer, much denying [68/69] ourselves, much working shoulder to shoulder. We shall learn, in sympathy of interest, to forego differences of opinion, and in engrossment in work, to forget anger and controversy, and contention. And we shall need, all of us, a deeper and more devout consecration of ourselves to the service of our dear and divine Lord; living more holily and more humbly; illustrating, more and more, our faith by our works, and our precepts by our practices, seeking such spirituality of motive, work and life, as shall make us, and all we are, more and more instruments in the hands of the Great Head of the Church, Whose we are and Whom we serve; avoiding strifes about words, suspicions and evil, surmisings, angry vindications of ourselves and self assertion (as though ourselves were anything at all); cultivating in ourselves, and seeking to secure in others, what has been lately urged by one of the foremost living saints and doctors of the Church, the venerable Dr. Pusey, "SELF DENIAL IN SPEECH." For our warning and for our encouraging, I cannot leave with you wiser words of entreaty or worthier words of hope, than these golden sayings of his:

"If we would overcome the world, our weapons must not be of this world. Sarcasm, contempt, sharp retort may make a gladiatorial fight to amuse spectators or delight partizans. They cannot win to the faith in the Crucified. We must rule ourselves if we would win others. Petulance, bitterness, wrath, hard speaking, are but tokens of weakness. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. To the meek our Lord has promised the inheritance of the earth; for so He Himself won it, Who, "when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." And here, too, the deep convictions of the truth for whose sake we are called in question will aid us. For knowing, as we know, in our inmost hearts, that they who have not those blessed truths are under a loss, we cannot but be sorry for them, and sorrow is incompatible with anger. And so, as having a good future before you, you can afford to march on, heedless of contempt, reviling, charges of dishonesty, of unfaithfulness to the Church and to our trust, of meaning what we do not profess, and of all the other missiles of that [69/70] warfare. They will glance by harmless, if only we are not provoked to do the like. Self-possession is strength, because it is upheld by Him whose strength is made perfect in weakness. We have the might of the faith amid discordant "opinions;" we have the truth of God amid the Babel-sounds of error; we can tell men of a healing of their wounds, a forgiveness of sins, an union with God, a presence of His love, nearer, closer, more direct than they know of, who impugn us. We have, by virtue of the truth we teach, director access to the soul. Only in patience possess we our souls. They who assail us must, if they persevere, sustain a great defeat; and if we alienate them not by indulgence of feelings, or ways, or words of this world, that shall again be fulfilled, as so often in the History of the Church, "They shall surely gather together, but not by Me; whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall unto thee. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall arise against thee in judgment thou shalt defeat. This is the judgment for the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness of Me, saith the Lord." May we go out from this Convention revived and enabled for the toils and trials of the coming year. In all our deliberations to-day, and in all our labors for the time to come, may we remember and rely on His Holy Presence, who alone can make the devisings and the doings of men, well-timed and wise, and working out His glory, Who is our Alpha and Omega, the one foundation other than which no man can lay; our chief Bishop, our Great High Priest, our Head, our Lord, our King, our shield and our exceeding great reward, our joy in life, our hope in death, our delight through all eternity, the end of our conversation, the examplar of our lives, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day and forever.

The Rev. John Irving Forbes, Deacon.

The Rev. William Henry Capers, Deacon.

The Rev. Edward B. Allen, Deacon.

The Rev. William Bogert Walker, Deacon.

The Rev. Joel Davis, Deacon.

CLERGYMEN RECEIVED INTO THE DIOCESE.

February 8. The Rev. Alfred Houghton Stubbs, from the Diocese of Iowa.

February 18. The Rev. Win, Henry Capers, Deacon, from the Diocese of Georgia.

February 19. The Rev. Wm. Bogert Walker, Deacon, from the Diocese of L. Island.

February 23. The Rev. E. N. Potter, D. D., from the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

March 16. The Rev. D. Ellis Willes, from the Diocese of New York.

April 26. The Rev. Richard S. Adams, from the Diocese of Long Island.

May 17. The Rev. John H. Babcock, from the Diocese of New York.

June 7. The Rev. Royal Marshall, from the Diocese of Massachusetts.

July 13. The Rev. C. E. Butler, from the Diocese of Long Island.

August 3. The Rev. Henry Mc'Lory, from the Diocese of Massachusetts.

August 4. The Rev. James A. Upjohn, from the Diocese of New Jersey.

August 27. The Rev. Thomas May Thorpe, from the Diocese of Pittsburg.

September 8. The Rev. Benjamin Webb, from the Diocese of New York.

September 17. The Rev. Michael Scofleld, from the Diocese of W. New York.

September 17. The Rev. Joseph Richey, Deacon, from the Diocese of New York.

September 21. The Rev. John S. Clark, from the Diocese of Toronto.

September 22. The Rev. Charles H. Lancaster, from the Diocese of Montreal.

September 29. The Rev. Robert S. Locke, from the Diocese of New York.

CLERGYMEN TRANSFERRED FROM THE DIOCESE.

February 26. The Rev. Levi Johnston, to the Diocese of New York.

March 24. The Rev. A. Floridus Steele, to the Diocese of Maryland.

March 31. The Rev. Robert T. S. Lowell, to the Diocese of Massachusetts.

May 22. The Rev. Edward B. Allen, to the Diocese of Massachusetts.

June 8. The Rev. John H. Betts, to the Diocese of Connecticut.

August 23. The Rev. J. Breckenridge Gibson, to the Diocese of New York.

CANDIDATES FOR HOLY ORDERS.

1869--February 9. Mr. C. William Camp, for Deacon's Order.

February 9. Mr. Joshua N. F. Goss, for Deacon's Order.

1867--June 11. Mr. James E. Hall, for Deacon's and Priest's Orders. Received from Western New York, March 5th, 1869.

November 7. Mr. George D. Silliman, for Deacon's and Priest's Orders. Received from New York, March 29th, 1869.

1869--June 8. Mr. James Van Voast, B. A., for Deacon's Order.

July 28. Mr. Thomas Cole, B. A., for Deacon's Order.

August 17. Mr. Nelson Riley Boss, B. A., for Deacon's Order.

August 18. Mr. John H. Houghton, B. A., for Deacon's Order.

1867--November 7. Mr. William Skene, for Deacon's and Priest's Orders. Received from New York, September 18, 1869.

LICENSED TO THE OFFICE OF LAY READER.

Mr. H. K. Gardner, Sharon, under the Rev. J. F. Forbes.

Mr. J. N. F. Goss, Rouse's Point, under the Rev. Dr. Camp.

Mr. C. William Camp, Catskill, under the Rev. Dr, Weeks.

Mr. D. H. Woodbury, Richfield, under the Rev. Mr. Sykes.

Mr. George Herbert Lowery, under the Rev. Mr. Wenman.

Mr. W. N. Chadwick, Cohoes, under the Rev. Mr. Brown.

Mr. John II. Houghton, Cambridge, under the Rev. Mr. Davis.

Mr. E. S. Houghton, Cambridge, under the Rev. Mr. Davis.

Mr. George A. Somers, Portlandville, under the Rev. Mr. Stubbs.

Mr. Hobart Somers, Portlandville, under the Rev. Mr. Stubbs.

Mr. Howard Widdemer, Troy, under the Rev. Mr. Walsh.

Mr. Edmund G. Prout, Windham, under the Rev. II. H. Prout.

Mr. George H. Silliman, Delhi, under the Rev. Mr. Willes.

Mr. John Henry Fitzgerald, Butternuts, under the Rev. Mr. Lighthipe.

Mr. Burnet, Ticonderoga, under the Rev. Mr. Stubbs.

CONSENT TO THE CONSECRATION OF BISHOP.

The Rev. F. D. Huntington, D. D., Bishop elect of Central New York.

CONSENT TO THE ORGANIZATION OF NEW PARISHES.

Christ Church, Sehenectady.

St. John's Church, Portlandville.

St. Augustine's Church, Ilion.

Church of the Great Shepherd, Massena.

Trinity Church, Gloversville.

[73] CORNER STONES LAID.

August 10. Trinity Church, Lansingburgh.

Sept. 3. Church of the Cross, Ticonderoga.

Sept. 13. St. Augustine's Church, Ilion.

June 26. Of the St. Stephen's Parish School House, Schuylerville.

CHURCHES CONSECRATED.

May 12. St. Peter's Church, Brush's Mill's, Franklin county.

May 29. Zion Church, Fonda, Montgomery county.

June 3. St. Luke's Church, Troy, Rensselaer county.

July 9. St. Paul's Church, Harrisena.

July 22. St. Paul's Church, West Chazy, Clinton county.

July 29. Trinity Church, Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county.

Aug. 10. The Chapel of Trinity Church, Lansingburgh, Rensselaer county.

Sept. 2. The Church of St. Sacrament, Bolton, Warren county.

Sept. 4. St. James Church, Caldwell, Warren county.

Sept. 9. Christ Church, West Burlington, Otsego county.

Sept. 10. The Morris Memorial and All Saints Chapel, Morris, Otsego county.

CEMETERY CONSECRATED.

July 29, at Barnhardt's Island, St. Lawrence county.

NOTICES OF DEPOSITION FROM THE MINISTRY RECEIVED.

March 19. Samuel Hermann, Presbyter, deposed by Bishop of Nebraska.

April 19. Marshall B. Smith, Presbyter, deposed by Bishop of New Jersey.

May 14. H. W. Woods, Presbyter, deposed by the Bishop of Illinois.

May 24. J. J. Talbot, Presbyter, deposed by the Bishop of California.

Aug. 12. John W. Shatzel, Presbyter, deposed by the Bishop of Minnesota.

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