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MCCALLA & STAVELEY, PRS., 237-9 DOCK STREET. 1884. |
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MCCALLA & STAVELEY, PRS., 237-9 DOCK STREET. 1884. |
ADDRESS. I hardly know how to clothe in words my thoughts to-day. Twenty-five years ago I was elected your Bishop. The unexpected call was a marked Providence of God. I was an unknown stranger in the Diocese. Two honored Presbyters had been selected as candidates for this holy office. The clergy twice selected one who was every way fitted for the trust. The laity failed to confirm their choice. The clergy retired for counsel and prayer. One ballot had been cast for myself. The conference was ended. They knelt in prayer. They agreed that if any one received a majority on an informal ballot, his name should be presented as the choice of the clergy. The informal ballot was taken. I was chosen. The clergy presented my name to the council. The laity retired for conference. They unanimously confirmed the choice of the clergy. I was elected. I can never forget the searchings of my heart when I received the tidings. My Diocesan, Bishop Whitehouse, and one who had been to me as a father, Bishop DeLancey, convinced me that the call was from God. I accepted it and was [3/4] consecrated the first Bishop of Minnesota in St. James's Church, Richmond, Va., October 13, 1859. The Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, D.D., was the presiding Bishop. The Rt. Rev. George Burgess, D.D., preached the sermon. The Rt. Rev. W. H. DeLancey, D.D., and the Rt. Rev. H. J. Whitehouse, D.D., were the presenters. The Rt. Rev. N. H. Cobbs, D.D., the Rt. Rev. H. W. Lee, D.D., the Rt. Rev. T. M. Clark, D.D., the Rt. Rev. T. F. Scott, D.D., the Rt. Rev. S. Bowman, D.D., united in the consecration. The Rev. W. D. Wilson, D.D., my theological teacher, and the Rev. A. B. Paterson, D.D., of St. Paul, were the attending Presbyters. I wrote from Richmond to secure a residence in St. Paul; failing to do this, my family remained in Chicago for the winter. During the fall and winter I visited every Parish and Mission in the Diocese, and selected Faribault as a residence because its citizens offered me a home. This choice seemed providential. The Rev. J. Lloyd Breck and the Rev. S. W. Manney had commenced in Faribault the work of Christian education. They desired the Bishop to be its head. It was a day of small things. The Church had secured fifteen acres of land near the site of Shattuck School; ten acres, a part of the present grounds of Seabury; one lot opposite the public park, on which there was a rude chapel; and two [4/5] lots on which there was a small cottage occupied by Prof. S. W. Manney. A Parish School was kept in the chapel under the charge of two candidates for Orders, George C. Tanner and James Dobbin, assisted by Miss Mary J. Mills and Mary Leigh. Our Divinity College was in the one-story wood building which still [5/6] stands on the Seabury grounds. We had no endowments--we were in debt for a part of the purchase of these sites. The meager salaries of professors and teachers (of which the largest was $500), came from the offerings of friends. You will smile when I tell you that these rude beginnings were known as the Seabury University. Oxford never had more joyous commemorations than our annual anniversaries. The people came from far and near. The bright, happy faces of children, the stirring music of the village band, the hearty words of speakers, and the open-handed hospitality of citizens made our commencement a gala day. There is an unwritten history of faith and love inwrought in every building erected here. We made the plan. We laid the corner-stone with prayer, and then worked and waited until the building was finished. Bishop never had better helpers. James Lloyd Breck was the "Apostle of the Wilderness." He was a sanguine, believing man. He saw the Faribault of to-day before one stone was laid upon another. He was the best of pastors. He was a rare shepherd. He was a leader whose words none would dare to question. In some elements of character he was one of the greatest men I have known. Rev. Solon W. Manney was a thoughtful scholar. He was always sure of his foundations. He was a wise builder. He [6/7] was never taken unawares. He never lost his head. He was always a wise counsellor. Our schools and missions were united as one work. There was no division of labor. The theological professor not only taught Divinity, Hebrew, Greek, Ecclesiastical History and Common Law, he was a missionary to several outside stations. I look back with wonder at the work done by those faithful men.
PORCH, SHUMWAY MEMORIAL CHAPEL. These were the happiest days of my Episcopate. There were no railways in Minnesota. I drove my faithful Bashaw three thousand miles each year. You will not blame me for loving memories of that dumb missionary who carried me nearly forty thousand miles in my Western work. He again and again saved my life in winter storms by his watchfulness and fidelity to duty. We had, in 1859, Churches or Chapels in St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Anthony Falls, Stillwater, Hastings, Red Wing, Shakopee, St. Peter, St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids, Gull Lake, Hassan, Chanhassan and Faribault. Most of these have been enlarged or rebuilt. Services were held in school-houses and public halls where there were no Churches. They were always crowded. No king ever received warmer welcomes or more open-handed hospitality than your Bishop from the people of the border. There were hardships and sometimes peril when lost on the prairie in winter [7/8] storm, but the love of clergy and people made the Bishop's life the happiest life on earth.
July 16, 1862, I laid the corner-stone of the Cathedral of our Merciful Saviour. The following day I laid the corner-stone of our first Seabury Hall on the grounds of Shattuck School. The death of Mrs. Breck led us to link this Providence with the erection of a house of God to be the centre of our work. It was the first building erected in the United States for a Bishop's Church. The first day Breck, Wilcoxson and Merrick stood on Minnesota soil they celebrated the Holy Communion under an oak tree on the bluffs back of La Crescent. Since that day this blessed feast has been celebrated on every Lord's Day in Minnesota.
SHATTUCK HALL AND GROUNDS. The day I laid this corner-stone, I recall the incredulous looks of some who heard me, as I told them that the time would come when these bluffs would be crowned with Christian schools, and the name of Faribault be a household word throughout the Church. These were troublous times. The country was desolated by civil war. We had hardly commenced this work before Minnesota was visited by an awful Indian massacre, in which eight hundred citizens perished. In one week our Indian missions were destroyed and the work of years was blasted. The times grew worse. Many said as of old "in the [8/9] morning would God it were evening," and "in the evening would God it were morning." Our schools and missions were crippled for lack of means. It is a miracle of God's goodness that we did not give up in despair. I only remember once that my heart failed me. One day I sat in my study, the unbidden tears stealing down my cheeks; one of our professors entered the door. I saw in his tell-tale face, despair. I sprang to my feet and said, "Don't tell me, brother, let us kneel in prayer." We did pray; we arose; without one word he threw his arms around my neck and kissed me and went away. That was the nearest to failure of any event in the history of Faribault. In the fall of 1863 Seabury Hall was finished. The Divinity School and its preparatory department were in this building. In 1865 we organized Shattuck School. It was named after the kind friend who gave us the means to begin the work, Dr. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, Mass. The school was opened in the Seabury Seminary Hall, which was under the temporary charge of Rev. E. S. Thomas, one of its professors. He was succeeded by Rev. J. Lloyd Breck, as Dean of the schools. On his removal to California in 1867 the Rev. James Dobbin became the Rector of the school. The Shattuck Hall was erected in 1868. For seventeen years our brother has given to this school the [9/10] watchful care of a loyal, loving heart. The Rev. George C. Tanner was our first Rector, and I believe it is to his ripe scholarship that we owe the high standard of excellence which has given Shattuck School its honored name. Parents and teachers often grieve over the sad influences of college life upon Christian boys, but I cannot recall one of our Shattuck sons whose college life has brought dishonor to our school. In 1866 I opened a girls' school in my own house. St. Mary's Hall is due to the faithful wife who all these years has been my best counsellor; Miss Sarah P. Darlington, of blessed memory, her associates and their successors, made the school what it is to-day, everywhere honored for its work for womanhood.
WHIPPLE HALL. On Thanksgiving Day, 1872, while we were kneeling in the Cathedral by the Lord's Table, our Seabury Hall was burned. It was a blessing in sorrow. The time had come to separate our schools. To do this we must build two new halls; one for Seabury and one for Shattuck School. Strong hands and warm hearts who had never failed me were ready to commence the work we had hitherto builded by day's labor. My health was broken and I was unable to superintend this new work. We had insurance money and good subscriptions, $30,000. We thought that [10/11] the whole amount could be secured before it was needed. The contracts were let. In 1873 there was a financial panic. If we suspended the work we were liable for damages. If we went on, we must incur heavy debts. We did go on, and for years we staggered under this burden. I mention this that I may put on record the fact that the trustees and a few faithful friends of "the Seabury Mission" in [11/12] Minnesota, paid this debt of thirty thousand dollars. I doubt if any Diocese in the United States can show such a record of confidence and love. In 1880 we completed Manney Hall. In 1883 we finished our new St. Mary's Hall. As I look back on this history, I do not know how to express my gratitude to God and to the loving souls who, for twenty-five years, have stayed up my hands and cheered my heart. "The Lord reward them in that day." I must not forget to tell you how faithfully the citizens of Faribault have fulfilled the pledge which they made at my first visit. They have always exhibited an honest pride in these schools, and have always been ready with willing hands and hearts to aid me in this work. I do not remember one word spoken which, dying, I could wish to blot. The Faribault schools are not my work. All that I have done has been to see that whoever was placed in any trust should be free from all outside interference and have my hearty co-operation and support. It is a rule of our trustees that all legacies shall be sacredly kept for permanent endowment. Those who desire to set apart a portion of their estate for God cannot find men who will more wisely administer this sacred trust.
SEABURY DIVINITY COLLEGE. Of those present at my first council in Minneapolis, Gear, Paterson, Van Ingen, Breck, Manney, Sweet, [12/13] Evans, Fitch, Olds and Russell, of the clergy, have entered into rest. Chamberlaine, Gray, Welles, Peake, Livermore and Knickerbacker have been called to other fields. The Rev. Timothy Wilcoxson, and the Rev. Charles Woodward are disabled. The Indian Deacon, Rev. J. J. Emmegahbowh, is the senior Presbyter, the only living representative of the clergy of that council, now actively engaged in Diocesan work. Of the laity of that council Rees, Parker, Ames, Christmas, Bowman, Hawley, Gilbert, Blakeman, Markham, Adams, have gone to the other home. H. T. Welles, Isaac Atwater, E. T. Wilder and J. P. Pond are the only laymen of that council who are with us to-day.
Since I came to Minnesota Churches have been builded at Winona, Wabasha, Lake City, Frontenac, Red Wing, Belle Creek, Hastings, Stillwater, Duluth, Brainerd, Detroit, White Earth, Mentor, Crookston, St. Vincent, Pembina Indian Settlement, Otter Tail, two at Red Lake, Cass Lake, Leech Lake, Fergus Falls, Alexandria, Sauk Centre, Melrose, Anoka, Elk River, six in Minneapolis, six in St. Paul, Howard Lake, Lichfield, Willmar, Benson, Morris, Brown's Valley, Ortonville, Appleton, Glencoe, Shakopee, Belle Plaine, Henderson, Le Sueur, Cordova, St. Peter, Redwood Falls, Mankato, Crystal Lake, St. [13/14] James, Windom, Worthington, Slayton, Waterville, Janesville, Wilton, Waseca, Owatonna, Blooming Prairie, Austin, Mantorville, Eden Prairie, Pine Island, Zumbrota, Rochester, Chatfield, St. Charles, Stockton, Fairmont, Blue Earth City, Wells, Albert Lee, Rushford, Houston, Caledonia, Brownsville, Cathedral and two Chapels Faribault, Morristown, Warsaw, Roberds Lake, Cannon City, Excelsior, Kenyon, White Bear Lake, Rush City, Oak Grove, Cannon Falls, Farmington, Point Douglass, Dundas, Northfield, Basswood Grove, Little Falls, Royalton, Bellewood, North Branch. One hundred and six Churches and Chapels. Parsonages have been erected in Stillwater, North Branch, Red Wing, Brainerd, Wadena, White Earth, Moorhead, Alexandria, Sauk Centre, St. Cloud, Anoka, Northfield, Cannon Falls, Benson, Le Sueur, Shakopee, Austin, Blue Earth City, Windom, Lichfield, Willmar, Janesville, St. Vincent, Wabasha, Little Falls, three in St. Paul and four in Minneapolis, in all, thirty-two.
MANNEY ARMORY AND GYMNASIUM. The Church has hospitals in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth and White Earth. The Churchwomen of St. Paul and Minneapolis have opened "The Sheltering Arms" for Christ's little ones. It is under the care of Sister Annette. All honor to those who are thus providing for the suffering kinfolk of our blessed Lord.
[15] The Bishop Whipple School, Moorhead, founded by Rev. Thomas N. Dickey, is winning an honored name, and is every way worthy of the confidence of its patrons.
The record of my official work for the past twenty-five years is as follows:
I have preached and delivered 6000 sermons and addresses, confirmed 9263, baptized 708 infants and 308 adults, celebrated the Holy Communion 978 times, buried 80 persons, performed 72 marriages, ordained 86 deacons and 67 priests.
A very large number of those who have been confirmed have removed to other Western fields. This restless spirit is the greatest hindrance to our work. It breaks up local attachments, sunders family, social and spiritual bonds.
In 1859 there were nearly twenty thousand Indians in Minnesota. In 1857 Rev. J. Lloyd Breck was driven from the mission at Leech Lake by drunken savages. It was a great sorrow, but God overruled it for good. It led to the foundation of these Faribault schools. The Indian deacon, Emmegahbowh, still resided with his people at Gull Lake. The mission was under the charge of Rev. E. S. Peake, who resided at Crow Wing. Our Indian affairs were at their worst estate. The funds so liberally provided by the Government [15/16] were wasted or stolen. The deadly fire-water flowed freely. The evil example of bad white men had dragged the poor Indians down to a depth of sorrow their heathen fathers had not known. Disease and death held a carnival in every Indian village. I shall [16/17] never forget the awful sights which met my eyes at my first visit to Gull Lake. A dead Indian was lying by the roadside--a few miles from the Agency, I saw bruised and bleeding men suffering from the wounds received in a drunken fight. An Indian mother was scraping the inner bark of the pine tree to satisfy the gnawing of the hunger of her starving babes. We found at the mission a crowd of squalid wretches whose rags did not cover their nakedness, and yet in their helplessness and woe they listened to my words as if I was a messenger from Heaven.
GROUNDS SHATTUCK SCHOOL. A few months later I visited the lower Sioux Agency. The Presbyterians had a mission among the upper Sioux. Wabasha, Wakean Washta, and Taope held a conference with me. I can see their upturned faces as they told the over-true story of their wrongs. The condition of affairs is seen in the fact that over $40,000 of Indian money had been expended for schools. There was no school-building, no school, and not one Indian child had been taught to read. The Sioux had suffered less than the Chippeways, but there was then the smouldering fires of hatred which burst forth in the massacre of 1862.
The outlook for Indian missions was very dark. Other religious bodies had established missions among the Chippeways, but all had been abandoned. Friends [17/18] advised me not to have anything to do with Indian missions. A brother Bishop urged me not to speak of this work in any missionary address. Dark as it was, I knew that He who died for me died for them. I resolved, God being my helper, that it should never be said that the first Bishop of Minnesota had turned his back on the heathen whom God had placed at his door. For years there was much irritation and hatred of the Indians. I was compelled to antagonize this feeling in their defence. They poured their tale of sorrows into my ears. The knowledge of the wrongs which lay behind our Indian wars forced me to be their defender. Once, without my knowledge, Congress placed large sums in my hands for Indians hundreds of miles from my home in Dakota. It added heavy burdens to my cares and called down on me much censure and some hatred. As I look back on these years, I wonder that the Diocese never faltered in my support, that whatever were the individual opinions of Churchmen as to the vexed Indian question, the Diocese always stayed up my hands.
I thank you for my own sake, for the sake of these poor souls, and most I thank you for His sake, who is the helper of the helpless. Our Indian system has not been reformed, but there is the difference between daylight and midnight in its administration. God has [18/19] raised up many noblemen and women to battle for the Indian's rights. It is not necessary now that I should keep myself before the public as their defender. This Indian work has given me much anxiety and some sorrow. I have sometimes wept as did St. Paul over the poor souls who have returned "as the sow who was washed to her wallowing in the mire." No work has given me more joy or brought more blessed rewards. Many whom I first met as painted savages are to-day civilized Christian men. Many are to-day with our loved ones in Paradise. In the blessed hopes of the other home is the thought that I shall meet many of those Red men in that company which no man can number, whose robes have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb.
ST. MARY'S HALL. When I came to the Diocese there was no organized work. Christian efforts had not crystallized into systematic plans. Strong men of marked individuality differed as to plans and methods. The Diocese was not a city at unity with itself. I tried to heal all differences with love. It is a grateful thought that, however brethren differed from me in those stormy days, there is not one living or dead who did not give me his confidence and love. I can see many mistakes, but I have tried to give to my flock a father's love.
Since my consecration thirty-nine Bishops have entered into rest. Bishops Brownell, Onderdonk, Meade, [19/20] Hopkins, McIlvaine, Otey, Kemper, Polk, DeLancey, Whittingham, Elliott, Johns, Eastburn, Chase, Cobbs, Hawks, Boone, Potter, Burgess, Upfold, Payne, Rutledge, Whitehouse, Davis, Atkinson, Scott, Lee, Bowman, Odenheimer, Talbot, Wilmer, Clarkson, Randall, Kerfoot, Armitage, Pinkney, Auer, and our venerable Primus, Bishop Smith, have finished their course on earth. In 1859 I was the youngest member of the House of Bishops. I am now the ninth in seniority. Since our last Diocesan Council our beloved Brother, Rev. George L. Chase, D.D., has entered into rest. He was as my own son. For twenty years he has been my fellow-laborer. He was a ripe scholar, a clear thinker, a gentleman, a loyal Churchman and a devout Christian. He is endeared to the Diocese not only for his missionary labors but most for his wise administration as the Warden of Seabury Hall. This Easter-tide we all mourned the death of the Rt. Rev. Robert H. Clarkson, D.D., the Bishop of Nebraska. He was my friend for thirty years. He was my fellow Presbyter in Chicago. For almost nineteen years he was my brother Bishop in adjoining Dioceses. Each year our love deepened. I shall mourn his loss until we meet in Paradise.
Our last General Convention was the Centennial of our branch of the Church. One hundred years ago a [20/21] shepherdless flock met to elect the first American Bishop. No Parish in America had ever been blessed by the presence and counsel of its chief pastor. No child of the Church in America had ever received confirmation. It was a large-hearted faith which sent Samuel Seabury across the Atlantic to seek consecration. It was an omen full of promise to a Missionary Church that our first Bishop received his consecration from the Free Church of Scotland. It was the large hearted faith of this despised branch of the Church which led the Church of England to unite in this Episcopate. From that day the Anglo-Saxon Church has been the nursing mother of colonial and missionary Churches throughout the world. Time would fail me to tell the story in-wrought in the lives of White, Seabury, Griswold, Hobart, DeLancey, Kemper, Elliott, Otey and a host of others who were among the noblest and bravest Bishops of the Church of God. One hundred years ago there were a few scattered Parishes and missions along the Atlantic coast, and strangers knew the Church of our love as "a sect everywhere spoken against." To-day there is a Bishop in every State and Territory of our country. The Church's voice is heard in the miner's camp, the wigwam of the Indian and the school-house on the border; and brave heralds of the cross are in the forefront of that [21/22] mighty movement which is peopling the West with millions of souls.
This century has been the missionary age of the Church. Lands unknown to civilization or surrounded by impenetrable barriers have been opened to Christian effort, and to-day there is no land on earth where we may not carry the Gospel of Christ. No age has witnessed more blessed results from Christian labors. Time would fail me to tell the story. In Greece, in India, in Japan, in China, in Africa, in Polynesia, abundant rewards have followed missions. Worldwide there are signs and tokens of the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Our King. Not less marvelous has been the influence of our beloved Church in the United States. Placed in a land shattered by sects; hedges builded everywhere in the Lord's garden; it was her mission to show Christian folk that the things about which they differed were not the things necessary to be believed for salvation, and that the things in which they agreed were the truths of the Catholic Faith. In a time of unbelief she has strengthened doubting hearts by the testimony of a historical Church. She has presented to men the facts of Christian doctrine and not the theories of men about these facts. She preaches the fact of an atonement, but has no philosophy about an atonement. She does not [22/23] explain what God has not explained. She receives men into the Kingdom of God and celebrates Holy Sacraments as they were administered for a thousand years after our Lord ascended into Heaven, before there was any East and West in the Church of God. In presenting Catholic faith, in using Catholic worship, in preserving Catholic orders she bears witness to the precious heritage which she has received from the Primitive and Apostolic Church. She sits in judgment upon none who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth. In sorrow she remembers that the blame of these separations does not lie at any one door. If one has sinned by self-will, the other has sinned as deeply by lack of charity and love. She has no human eirenicon to harmonize rival creeds. She has no mortar to daub over unseemly rents. She maintains, as the Catholic Church has always maintained, the validity of all Christian baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. She teaches, as the Catholic Church has ever taught, that the faith which justifies the sinner before God, is faith in the incarnate Son of God, the Saviour of the world. She teaches, as the Catholic Church has always taught, that the Blessed Comforter, the Holy Ghost, creates us anew in Christ Jesus and keeps up the life-current between disciples on earth and their ascended Lord in Heaven. This [23/24] faith, as set forth in the Apostles' Creed, is her condition of Christian fellowship. In holding up these truths which underlie the possibility of the reunion of Christendom, the Church bears the olive branch of God's peace and says to all who have been baptized unto Christ, "Sirs, ye are brethren."
Brethren, these may seem day dreams to some, but they are truths very dear to your Bishop's heart. I yield to no man in my love for the Church. I love it as the home our Lord gave for weary, sin sick souls. I love it because her message is always about Jesus Christ. I love it because her Catholicity is broad enough for all who love the Saviour. This divided Christianity cannot conquer the world. The day will come when Christian men will in Christ's love, love all whom He loves. The Spirit of God will be poured out in the latter days--every root of bitterness and every hedge of man's building will be taken away that His Divine prayer "that they all may be one," may be answered; and then the world will be redeemed.
During the past few years my health has been broken. It has sadly interfered with the work of the Diocese. You have been very patient; you have been more than kind. Each year you have asked me to seek rest in a milder clime. The past year has been [24/25] to me clouded by sorrow. I suspended my summer visitation to go to the death-bed of my son-in-law in New Mexico. After the General Convention sickness prevented winter work. During my absence from the Diocese a beloved grandchild died. I returned home with a sick daughter and was summoned from my visitation to her death-bed. This year I have laid three of my loved ones in God's acre. I recognize in these sorrows a Father's hand. I know that He is leading me by the best road for me to walk in to the other home.
At a time when you need all of a Bishop's care, I am broken in health. The division of the Diocese will not bring the relief. If the Diocese is divided, you would have very soon, if my life is spared, to provide for the support of three Bishops. The only relief is the by election of an Assistant Bishop. I have shrank from asking it until it seemed an absolute necessity. The Diocese may not have expected this question to come up at this council. It may be that lay representatives are absent who have the right to participate in its consideration.
There are grave questions for us to consider. The support of an Assistant Bishop ought to be provided before his election. The plan of assessment is a hindrance to all work. In weak Parishes and Missions [25/26] the burden falls upon the missionary and pastor. The assessment for the Bishop's support often comes out of his scanty stipend. No effort has been made in the Diocese to secure an endowment for the Episcopate. There are generous laymen who will feel that the time has come to secure such endowment. I leave the whole question to your wise decision.
I have no wish to avoid work. While I live I will gladly spend and be spent for you. If an Assistant Bishop be chosen, I may be able to do much for our educational and eleemosynary institutions. These endowments ought to be secured before I am called away, that the work which you have so well begun may be our children's inheritance forever. One request I do make. If you decide to elect an Assistant Bishop, ask God to show you whom He has chosen. Once chosen, give to him as you have given to me a love unclouded by a doubt.
The record of my official acts this year is as follows: I have preached and delivered 190 sermons and addresses; celebrated the Holy Communion 25 times; baptized 9 children and 16 adults; confirmed 420 persons; ordained 3 priests and 2 deacons; consecrated 1 Church; celebrated 1 marriage and officiated at 4 burials. Of those confirmed, 23 were confirmed by Bishop Wells and 79 by Bishop Walker. The Rt. [26/27] Rev. W. D. Walker, D.D., with a brother's love, took my visitation when I was called to the death-bed of my child. I know not how to express my gratitude for his generous service. My good brother, Bishop Wells, held confirmation for me at Minneapolis while I was absent in New Mexico. I have transferred the Rev. William D. Powell to Oregon; Rev. Charles D. Coer to Western New York; Rev. E. G. Hunter to Indiana; Rev. S. K. Miller to Albany; Rev. J. E. Higgins to Iowa; Rev. Geo. H. Mueller to Colorado; Rev. Norman Jefferson to Western Michigan; Rev. H. L. Gamble to Ohio.
I have received by ordination Rev. Norman Jefferson and Rev. Caleb Benham. I have received by letters dimissory Rev. P. A. Johnson from the Diocese of Arkansas, Rev. John W. Prosser from Diocese of Michigan, Rev. Anson R. Graves from Diocese of Vermont, Rev. Richard Noyes Avery from Diocese of Western Michigan, Rev. H. L. Gamble from Missionary Jurisdiction of New Mexico, Rev. Lucius Waterman from Diocese of New Hampshire, Rev. Charles A. Poole from Diocese of Central New York, Rev. Alfred Osborne from Diocese of Rupert's Land, Manitoba, Rev. T. M. Villiers Appleby from Diocese of Algoma, Canada.
June 17, 1883, I ordained Rev. E. A Bazette Jones, [27/28] priest, and Norman Jefferson and Caleb Benham were the same day ordained deacons. November 30, 1883, I ordained Caleb Benham priest. December 9, 1883, I ordained Rev. Reuben E. Metcalf priest. I have admitted Robert Coles, Benjamin H. Runkle, and C. H. Voorhis candidates for Priest's Orders. I have transferred Benjamin H. Runkle to the Diocese of Indiana. Our brother C. H. Voorhis has entered into the rest of the people of God. He was with us only a few months, but he won my love by his earnest zeal and devoted life. Frederick William Kellogg, one of our postulants and a son of Shattuck School, is dead, The Diocese has never lost a youth of greater promise.
Our present postulants are: John W. Graves, Ernest A. Kemp, Joseph Wazoo, Dobson Edward Goodman.
The candidates for Orders are: Edmund Buckley, May 30, 1879; Sherman Coolidge, November 10, 1881; Sydney G. Jeffords, May 29, 1882; Geo. H. Yarnell, November 10, 1881; Charles E. Hixson, November 20, 1881; Edward H. Clark, May 11, 1882; William Bowling Hamilton, from Northern Texas; Robert Coles, June 13, 1883; Mr. P. B. Peabody from Diocese of Wisconsin; H. M. Johnson, May 30, 1884.
I have transferred Samuel N. Watson to Missouri, George F. Griffiths to Chicago. I have dismissed [28/29] Edgar A. Heath. I have licensed Edwin Johnson, Charles C. Rollitt, C. H. Voorhis, Edward H. Clark, H. M. Johnson, lay readers.
Our last General Convention was the Centennial of our American branch of the Church. All hearts gratefully recognized the goodness of God. The ever-blessed Spirit watched over and guided our deliberations. The missionary meetings were crowded with those who came to listen to the earnest words of brave soldiers of the cross. Much of the session was devoted to the report of the Committee on the revision of the Prayer Book. It was adopted with comparatively few amendments. The report was remarkable for what it did, and not less remarkable for what it did not do. It made no change in any part of the service which affected doctrine. It altered nothing which has been endeared by the association of the past. Every change was in the line of flexibility, division of services, and adaptation of missionary work. The fact that some of those who had most warmly opposed any alteration of the Book of Common Prayer accepted and approved of the final report is the highest commendation of the work. The action of the General Convention is now submitted to each Diocesan Council. I suggest that you refer this subject to a Special Committee who shall report at the next Council, unless you are [29/30] prepared now to enter on its consideration in Committee of the Whole.
SHUMWAY MEMORIAL CHAPEL. The work of the Woman's Auxiliary is a branch of the organized work of the Board of Missions. No work excited more interest and none is more worthy of commendation. Twelve years ago a few Christian women began this blessed work. They have raised in this time nearly twelve hundred thousand dollars in money and missionary boxes. Unless you knew the poverty of our missionaries you cannot appreciate the value of woman's work. Many of our missions would have been given up without their generous aid. I am glad that Minnesota has a small share in this blessed work. I thank these Christian women for their kindness to Christ's servants, for their blessed work for Christ's little ones and His suffering brethren. The Lord will repay them all on that day, when they hear Him say, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
The Bishops of the Church in Scotland have sent me the following invitation:
Queen's Gate, Aberdeen, Scotland,
Feast of the Epiphany, 1884.Rt. Rev. and Dear Brother:
The year 1884 embracing the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Consecration of Samuel Seabury, D.D., [30/31] as first Bishop of Connecticut, and first Bishop of the American Church, by the Bishops of Scotland, at Aberdeen, on November 14th, 1784, the Church in Scotland has determined that that happy event, so signally blessed by Almighty God, and of such vast interest to the whole Anglican Communion throughout the world, should be celebrated with special services of praise and thanksgiving.
With this object in view, the Bishops of Scotland resolved that the actual day of the anniversary, November 14th, should be duly observed, but having in mind that in November our seas are very rough and often dangerous, and that we are liable to have snow storms by that time, the Bishops have determined that the great and general celebration of Bishop Seabury's consecration should be held October 5, 6, 7 and 8th, their object being to fix on a time as near the actual anniversary as possible, and yet at a period of the year when the largest number of Bishops and celebrities from America, England, and elsewhere could attend in Aberdeen, and could return home in comfort and safety. The arrangement is, that on Sunday, October 5th, there should be celebrations and sermons in every Church in Scotland, the latter being preached by Bishops and others from America and other foreign parts, they being the guests of the Bishop in each of the seven Dioceses of Scotland.
October 6th, rendezvous at Aberdeen.
October 7th and 8th, the special days of the [31/32] Centenary at Aberdeen itself. Celebrations of the Holy Communion services, sermons, public meetings, a banquet, paper reading, and addresses given, etc., and now, let me add how earnestly the Bishops of Scot-and hope that they may be honored by your Lordship's attendance on that happy occasion, and that they may have the pleasure of entertaining you as their guest. In conclusion, let me express the hope and prayer that the New Year, 1884, may be full of blessings for your Lordship, and for the Church committed to your Lordship's charge.
I remain, Right Reverend and Dear Brother, your faithful servant in our blessed Lord.
A. G. ABERDEEN AND ORKNEY.
At a special meeting of the House of Bishops, April 22, 1884, a Committee was appointed of the Bishops of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Minnesota to prepare a fraternal letter from our branch of the Church to their brethren in Scotland, and the Rt. Rev. John Williams, D.D., the successor of Bishop Seabury, was requested to be present to represent us at that commemoration. It would be a great pleasure for me to accept this invitation, but I fear that I shall not be able.
I am rejoiced to hear of the interest in the Diocese in the work of temperance. We cannot be silent. The waves of death are destroying many who were [32/33] consecrated to Christ at the font. It is the Church's work, for it concerns all we hold dear for time and eternity. The conservative spirit of our people will enable them to deal with this evil in a spirit of love and charity.
The outlook of the future is not hopeful. Clouds and darkness are resting over business interests. The present financial panic has crippled many who have long made us their almoners. The time has come for greater efforts at home. God has wonderfully blessed us. No State has made more rapid advances in material wealth. All we have is the gift of Our Father in Heaven. Our children need His blessing. We cannot, we dare not withhold the Christian tenth which belongs to Him. If we do withhold that which belongs to Him, it will surely happen to us as it did to some of whom the prophet said they put their treasure into "a bag with holes."
It is far better to give what we have to give while it is ours to give. Our wills are no better than waste paper while we live, and when we die our inheritance belongs to another. Why rob ourselves of the joy and gladness which always comes from noble gifts and deeds freely given unto God? Why place our gifts at the risk and uncertainty of the rulings of courts or the litigation of heirs? I could give you a [33/34] long list of such benefactions which have been thwarted and the pious wishes of the donor defeated; and I could give you a far longer list where the chances and changes of business or sudden death have made Christian plans of beneficence a failure. Better, brethren, to be your own large-hearted almoner and go down to the grave freighted with the love of your fellows, to receive from your Saviour His welcome, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." Has not He said to each of us: "Whatsoever thy hands findeth to do, do it with thy might, for their is no work in the grave whither thou goest."
GROUNDS SHATTUCK SCHOOL. There are schools in England which for four hundred years have sent out Christian men to work for their country and their God. Some of the best schools founded in America have perished, for lack of endowments, with the death of their founder. In a country like ours there will be periodical times of depression and financial panics. Endowments tide over the crisis and guarantee the future. There is no work which bears such an abundant harvest as the education of these boys and girls who are to be the men and women to mold the State. There can be no question as to our duty in the work of theological education. Without this training school for the [34/35] ministry, the Church in the West cannot provide clergy. Our Divinity School is the only well organized school west of the Mississippi, a territory of one million square miles. From the day we commenced this work we have steadily aimed to elevate the standard of theological education. No theological school in [35/36] the United States has a higher standard. None pay the same attention to the department of Ethics and Apologetics. In Exegesis, Divinity, Ecclesiastical History and Liturgies, I believe we have no superior. We are in this country far behind England in Biblical learning. I only wait for the endowment to secure one of the first men of the age to help our present able professor in this department. We ought to have some well endowed fellowships, so that men of rare ability and ripe scholarship may devote their talents to Christian learning. We need ten additional scholarships. Much is said of pauperizing the clergy. Is the army pauperized because the nation educates her sons to command it? If in this worldly age young men of a high order of talent are willing to give up all hopes of worldly preferment to devote their lives to the ministry, is it asking too much that the Church shall train and educate them for her service? No, brethren! There is no danger of a mendicant clergy, if the spirit and temper of the school is one of consecration. The only pauperizing of the clergy is the neglect of the people to provide for their support. There are men and women in Paradise who are year by year sending out from Seabury those who are to do our Master's work. Next to the meeting of the Saviour, next to having the broken ties reunited, will [36/37] be the joy of meeting those whom our gifts and our endowments have helped heavenward and home.
Brethren, I commit unto your hands the interests of the Church in this Diocese. May God the Holy Ghost guide you in your deliberations, that this council may be for the furtherance of His Kingdom.
Immediately after the address the Rev. T. J. Brookes, Rev. H. W. Kittson and Rev. E. S. Thomas, a committee on behalf of the clergy, presented the Bishop with a beautiful pastoral staff.
The following address was delivered by the Rev. Theophilus J. Brookes, A. M.:
Reverend Father in God:
There are seasons in which it seems peculiarly appropriate to take a retrospective glance on the journey of life. At this annual council of the Diocese, in the Cathedral which in the far future will stand, one among many silent but impressive witnesses of your work for Christ; here, surrounded by your clergy and other long familiar friends, those whose hearts have been with you alike in joy and sorrow; here, within these walls reared indeed for Time, but in whose sacred compass has issued from your lips earnest appeals which have borne fruit for Eternal Life; after nearly twenty-five years' labor in the Episcopate, may not the language of the ancient patriarch be fittingly yours in review both of trials and blessings: "With my staff I passed over this Jordan: and now I am become two bands!" For undaunted by obstacles which might well at times have discouraged, you have steadily persevered, true to your high vocation and sacred trust, sustained by the [38/39] Divine promise which cannot fail. To-day you possess the happy consciousness of one who has never been "weary in well doing." On the one side you behold the savage won to the cross; on the other, the schools which you have founded, the Churches planted under your fostering care in this fair Diocese, the result of your faithful, unremitting toil, your wise and peaceful rule.
This year marks an epoch in your life. But yet a few months and a quarter of a century will have passed since you became a Chief Shepherd in the Church of Christ. Well have you had in mind the solemn responsibilities of that first, that highest of offices in all this world. Well have you "borne the burden and heat of the day." Perhaps none but God can know what this for you has meant. Surely the Master's approval is yours. It is enough. For in this life nothing equal to it can be bestowed.
It is said to have been the boast of Augustus, "that he found the Imperial City of brick, and left it of marble."
Nobler far is he who, sharing in the spiritual fulfillment of Isaiah's glorious strains, has made "the wilderness and the solitary place glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose;" in Christ's army led the van; preached liberty to the captives in sin; [39/40] proclaimed the freedom which is alone in Christ Jesus.
The strength, safety and glory of a State are not in its wealth and numbers, but in the counsel, prayers and influence of God's holy servants. With such will "the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof" be ever safe; without such there can be no real blessing.
Reverend Father in God, accept, as a gift from your clergy, this pastoral staff. Our hearts you already have. We place in worthy hands one of the insignia of a Bishop's holy office. Long may you be spared to bear it, symbol as it is of careful watch and gentle restraint. May the Divine rod and staff be your sure stay and comfort. "In the evening time" may it "be light" with you. And, far distant be "the inevitable hour" when your voice in words of wisdom, of warning and of love, shall be heard no more in the Church of God.
The Rev. Henry Kittson, Rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul, then proceeded to explain the various symbols in the staff:
The metal point at the foot enables one to plant the staff firmly in the ground. This reminds us that the Church of God has been firmly established in this [40/41] land by the love and energy of our beloved Bishop. The lower part of the staff is of ebony, symbolical of the darkness of sorrow, pain, disappointments, which surround the beginning of every good work undertaken for God and His Church, or it may be of the darkness of souls which know not Christ. But above this we find seven precious stones, representing the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost which are able to overcome the powers of darkness. From this rises a shaft of white holly, the emblem of the Church of Righteousness. To this part of the staff is attached the "Vexillum" or banner, for the staff is also a standard and the Bishop is a leader going forth in the name of the Captain of our Salvation, conquering and to conquer. On the banner is the monogram of the Bishop and the Diocese. Above the "Vexillum" and at the base of the crook are seven niches in the tabernacle work, in which are inscribed, in regular succession, the names of seven Bishops. The first is of Gregory, the great patron of the missions in the British Isles; the second of Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury; the third of Parker, through whom the Church is assured of Apostolic Order; the fourth of Moore, who transmitted the succession to the American Church; fifth of White, the first presiding Bishop in the Church; sixth of Kemper, the first missionary of [41/42] the American Church; seventh of Whipple, the first and present Bishop of the Diocese of Minnesota. The crook indicates the pastoral office of the Bishop, but it is studded with seven jewels on each side, showing that the strength of the pastor is from the gifts of the Holy Ghost, but within the crook is placed the sacred monogram of our blessed Lord, for from Him proceed all rule, all authority and power. The numbers 3 and 7 prevail in its construction. There are twenty-one jewels (3x7). It is divided in three parts. The first is of oak, emblem of life; the second of holly, emblem of purity; the third of ebony, emblem of strength. The jewels are of various colors, as the gifts of God vary, but are all from the same source.
The crosier, which is very beautiful in workmanship, was designed by H. M. Congdon, of New York, under direction of Rev. Dr. Hopkins, of Pittsburgh, Penna. Its cost was $200, and is the gift of the clergy of the Diocese to the Bishop on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his Episcopate.
The address ended, Rev. E. S. Thomas placed the staff in the Bishop's hand. The Bishop was taken by surprise. For a moment he seemed unable to speak. He then said:
[43] Brethren, you have over paid me an hundred fold for all the work of years. It is not my work. All I have done is to give God the will and He through your loving help and willing hearts has found the way. No Bishop has ever had the help of braver or more loving hearts. I have, God knows, tried to be a father to you all and your place has been with loved ones in my heart. "It is toward evening and the day is far spent," and my prayer is that we who have lived, loved and worked together may be reunited, when our work is done, in Heaven. God bless you.
This year being the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Rt. Rev. H. B. Whipple's accession to the Episcopate of the Diocese of Minnesota, the citizens of Faribault--the Bishop's chosen home--and the city which has secured so many benefits from the building and maintenance of the several schools of his founding, conceived the idea of tendering him a public ovation and seizing the opportunity to express their esteem, their confidence and their appreciation of the great work he has undertaken and carried on so successfully, oftentimes in the face of the most trying circumstances and under the greatest difficulties.
The matter of arrangements was placed in the hands of a Committee composed of the following citizens: Hon. G. E. Cole, Hon. T. B. Clement, Hon. H. E. Barron and Messrs. E. N. Leavens, Stephen Jewett, Hudson Wilson, L. D. Newcomb, H. W. Pratt, J. B. Wheeler, J. C. N. Cottrell.
[45] Invitations were sent out to the friends and patrons of the schools asking them to be present at the ovation and extending them the hospitality of the city.
The public park, opposite the Bishop's residence and the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour, was designated as the place, and 10 o'clock a. m., Wednesday, June 18th, the hour for the ovation.
The Faribault Guards, under command of Capt. James Hunter, preceded by the Faribault Brass Band, at the hour appointed, proceeded to the Bishop's residence, and escorted him, the Committee of Arrangements, and the Mayor and Common Council, to the Park, where a large number of people had gathered, and were occupying the seats placed for them in front of the band pavilion. Soon as the Bishop and those accompanying him had been seated, Mayor C. L. Lowell stepped forward and delivered the following address of welcome:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The highly valuable privilege devolves upon me of extending to our honored guests the most sincere and hearty welcome of the city of Faribault.
The occasion of our gathering this morning is the [45/46] Twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession to the Episcopate of Rt. Rev. H. B. Whipple, D.D., Bishop of Minnesota, whom all citizens, without respect of party, sect or nationality, delight to honor. It is no vain show gotten up for the purpose of exciting the attention of strangers to our incomparable institutions of learning, nor to entice visitors to our beautiful city, but a spontaneous and most hearty gathering of our people to extend to an esteemed fellow-citizen some fitting recognition of the long and successful labors in his holy office, his unwearied efforts in building these justly celebrated schools, and his unflagging interest in everything pertaining to the beauty, honor and prosperity of the city and well-being of society.
As some of the results of his twenty-five years of unwearied labor, our city proudly points to the elegant grounds, spacious, substantial and costly structures occupied by these schools.
Seabury Divinity Hall, a school designed by the Bishop to prepare young men for the work of the ministry, although in its infancy, holds proud place among colleges of its class, and graduating such men as the Rector of Shattuck School, Revs. Tanner, Whipple, Bill, Dean Millspaugh, Gilbert and Knowlton and many others, it would be difficult for any of us to deny the local value of the institution, [46/47] or its influence upon the age and land in which we live.
Shattuck Military School, with its costly and beautiful Shumway Chapel, where boys are prepared for college and fitted for lives of honor and usefulness in all departments of business life, is acknowledged all over the land as one of the leading preparatory schools for young men.
And St. Mary's Hall, a seminary where young ladies may receive a finished education, is hardly excelled in America--all enduring monuments to the last twenty-five years of the Bishop's life, and constitute much of the beauty and glory of Faribault institutions, for the establishment and maintenance of which this city cheerfully acknowledges an everlasting debt of gratitude to him in whose honor and respect we assemble to-day; institutions which have made Faribault as you see it now--the Athens of the Northwest--and which shall continue to add to its beauty and prosperity long after the honored Bishop shall "rest from his labors."
The citizens of Faribault would have the friends and patrons of these schools feel that they are always welcome, and I tender you the freedom and hospitality of the city and extend you one and all a most hearty and cordial welcome.
[48] The Mayor then introduced the Hon. Gordon E. Cole, who mentioned the fact that twenty-five years ago he had the honor of delivering the address at the laying of the first corner-stone of what are now known as the Bishop Whipple Schools of Faribault, and on that occasion he prophesied far beyond his hopes of realization.
Mr. Cole made a glowing panegyric upon the self-sacrificing pioneers who carried Christian civilization into the wilderness in the early history of the nation, the story of whose deeds live only embalmed in the fading memory of Christian men and the pages of the historian. But to you, sir, he continued, addressing Bishop Whipple, the auspicious fortunes of your time have awarded a nobler and more enduring fame. Twenty-five years ago you came among the warring nations of the Dakotah and the Ojibway to take up a career upon a rude and barbarous frontier, which shall end only with your life; but the happy results of which shall endure so long as Christianity itself. Baring your breast to the perils of an inclement climate, braving the dangers of savage malignity, disregarding the discouragement of skeptical friends and defying the fierce opposition of interested foes, you became the constant and persevering defender of the untutored [48/49] savage for many years; to the frauds of designing traders and dishonest agents, to the licentiousness which demoralized his social life, to the vendors of the deadly fire-water which still further brutalized and degraded him, you opposed your single voice. You found those who are now your loving and happy wards sunk in depths of barbarism, degradation and misery. Hunger, disease, drunkenness and licentiousness had reduced the remnants of once powerful tribes to a condition below barbarism itself, All those evils fled before your beneficent administrations; colonies of Christian Indians sprang up on every reservation; the toll of the Chapel bell, supplanting the muffled drum of the medicine man, called in mellow tones in every agency to the Christian's devotions; the thriftless habits of wandering tribes were abandoned for fixed habitations and cultivated farms; the naked savage was clothed in the white man's garb, and subsisted upon the proceeds of his own honest labor. The chiefs sent their sons to your seminary to be educated, and many thriving Indian Missions are winning souls from barbarism to Christianity under the charge of Indian deacons, reared and fitted for their holy calling.
Long before the outbreak of 1862, when the fruits of long years of wrong were wreaked upon the defenceless heads of our innocent frontiersmen, and gentle [49/50] mothers and innocent babes expiated in one fell holocaust the accumulated injuries of generations of fraud and misrule, the ancient feuds of these contending nations had began to fade away before your successful efforts. Those who chanced to meet the band of Christian Indians who came last week as delegates over a territory larger than Rice county, among the pine woods of the north, could form some faint idea of the wonders which the quarter of a century of your Episcopate has wrought in this single branch. Animated not by the pardonable partiality of a friend and townsman who has witnessed all whereof he speaks, but only by a desire for truth and justice, I voice a sentiment which will find response in thousands of loving hearts, not alone in this country, but wherever the Christian's God is worshiped, that the name of Elliott must no longer be suffered to shine on our historic pages as the sole or greatest Apostle to the Indians, but first on the tablets, on which are inscribed the sufferings, the sacrifices and the triumphs of that glorious apostleship, must and will appear, there to shine on so long as time shall last, the name which we to-day delight to honor, the fame which we are here assembled to commemorate. To this you have dedicated, reverend and venerated sir, the best years of your life; you have given your health, your youth, [50/51] your strength; but nobly have you been repaid. The thousands of voices, which, in all the savage dialects of the border, make the prairie and the forest vocal with blessings on your head. The joy which contemplation of a good work done and successfully done in the alleviation of human misery always brings its own exceeding great reward.
But not alone among the ignorant and untutored savages have your victories been wrought. You came upon this frontier, and you found scarcely a vestige of the Church, which it may be almost said was founded in the wilderness by your unaided efforts, and out of which, under your ecclesiastical care, has grown, in a quarter of a century, one of the most prosperous Dioceses of the American Church. The name of Heber, the loved missionary Bishop of the English Church, is remembered more by his glorious poetry and the grand old anthem which has become a household word wherever the English ritual is celebrated, than by his success as a missionary. Beginning in the feeble infancy of our State, before the age of railroads or telegraphs, your footsteps led the way of the emigrant wagon through forest and prairie, and wherever the early hamlets rose there, side by side with the school-house, rose the Mission Chapel. Of the long list of communicants which now grace the rolls of our [51/52] Churches, by far the larger number came not here Churchmen, but have been won by your ministrations and those of your faithful clergy, emulous of your example, from those to whom the sweet ritual of our communion was an unknown tongue. The rapid advancement of Minnesota from a howling wilderness to one of the most prosperous of the band of Commonwealths which cluster in the Mississippi Valley, has had no parallel in the annals of colonization; but the Church over which you preside has, guided by your wise and faithful counsels, kept equal footstep with the State, until the history of Minnesota to-day is the history of its success.
But the most striking of the triumphs which have distinguished and adorned your career, has been the noble educational institutions which your labors have founded, and the liberality of your friends, some of whom are with us in person to-day, and all, I am assured, in spirit, have so magnificently endowed. In 1860 you found here in equal proportions the tepees of the Dakotahs, the wigwams of the Winnebagoes and the log cabins of the first settlers, interspersed with a few small basswood frames. Not a brick or stone building existed. These bluffs, now crowned with your noble edifices and smiling 'neath the skill of the landscape gardener, were clothed with dense and [52/53] unbroken forests. A one-story building, now used, I believe, for a blacksmith's shop, on Fourth street, was the only temple of learning, one small wooden Church the only religious edifice. You build, as you have often said, upon faith, and indeed it was a faith which could almost remove mountains only that could have wrought such miracles in stone as now crown the beauteous heights. We read in song and story of the labors of the genii and Alladin's wonderful lamp, but no marvels gleam in the pages of oriental romance which exceed those which your magic wand, aided by the generosity of friends, than whom more or better or truer no man ever had, has summoned forth, from the forest and the quarry, the lovely views, the park-like lawns and rustling groves of Shattuck, adorned by vases, flowers and statuary, the generous gifts of tasteful friends; the elegant memorial Chapel, that gem of architectural art, a monument of love, a royal gift which has linked the name of the generous lady who gave it with that of our good Bishop in the love and esteem of all our citizens; the breezy balconies and graceful minarets of St. Mary's Hall, the magnificent donation of friends of education all over the land, also having its origin in the beneficence of two ladies who honor a name long revered in New England, and which will go down the ages so long as [53/54] the noble Hall which their generosity founded shall stand embalmed in the hearts of Minnesotians, as it has long been in that of every son and daughter of New England; Seabury Hall, the Bishop's venture of faith, the gift of his loyal friends in his own Diocese; all these will, with every succeeding year, as they send out their graduates upon their mission of life, send with them the enduring mementos of the loving hearts which promptly responded to his appeals, entwined with those of the Christian pastor who could find time among his other soul-engrossing occupations to rear these enduring monuments of his labor.
The name of the Athenian statesman who adorned the Acropolis with the graceful facade of the Parthenon, has reached us from out the dim twilight of almost forgotten history; but small indeed is the debt which humanity owes to the founder of a heathen temple compared with that to him under whose auspices three magnificent temples of learning have sprung from the virgin soil of a wilderness, to send forth an ever-swelling tide of liberal culture through the long eons of time, during which our posterity shall possess and enjoy these seats, made beautiful by their presence. To few men, Right Reverend Sir, have so many golden opportunities for great things been [54/55] vouchsafed, on none (I say it with no savor of flattery) have they been so worthily bestowed.
The reply of Bishop Whipple was as follows:
Mr. Mayor and Friends:
It would be a colder heart than mine which did not gratefully appreciate this marvelous tribute of love. You praise me over much. Any man could have done all that has been done here, if he had been helped as I have been by the hearty support of fellow-laborers, and by the generous, warm-hearted citizens whose loving interest has outrivaled the measure of my hopes. You will bear me witness that I have always said, what I reaffirm in the strongest words, that this is not my work. God never gave a Bishop more loyal helpers to carry out his day dreams in work for man and God. I could not be silent as I heard your praise of my efforts for the red men. When I came to Minnesota there was a noble man, Rev. Dr. Williamson, and his associate, Rev. Dr. Riggs, who had given their lives to this work as missionaries of the Presbyterian Church among the Dakotahs. On this chancel wall is the name of Breck, known in England as the [55/56] Apostle of the Wilderness, who long years before went as missionary of our Church to the Ojibways. [Tuesday, June 10, 1884, Bishop Seabury Mission placed on the chancel wall of the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour a memorial tablet to the memory of the late Rev. James Lloyd Breck, D.D., founder of the parish of the Good Shepherd and one of the pioneer missionaries of the Northwest. The tablet is an oblong square, about 3 x 2 1/2 feet, the base being of blue Italian marble, and the inscription scroll burnished brass. The inscription is as follows: "In sacred memory of the Rev. James Lloyd Breck, D.D. Born June 27, 1818. Died March 30, 1876. The great pioneer missionary of the Northwest and founder of this parish. His faith and zeal marked a new era in the missionary work of the Church. Nashotah, Faribault and Benicia are his memorial."] I only followed in their footsteps. Perhaps I came to Minnesota at the crisis of her history. All the credit which I deserve, is that I learned the lesson which is for us all, that it is ours to do our duty; and perhaps the success came because I did not know when I was beaten. As for these schools, if you ask these boys of Shattuck School, who carry printed on their hearts the face of one whose love is large enough for every boy, they will tell you that its success under God is due to the Rector and his brave band of teachers. The name of Miss Sarah P. Darlington, the first principal of St. Mary's Hall, will always be linked with traditions of the school, which won its fair name under her wise administration. All the work of these schools is due to their faithful teachers who have known how to work and how to wait; and it is to them you owe the fair name which has made Faribault a household word throughout our Church. When in that rainy day in February, twenty-four years ago, forty of your citizens came to welcome the first Bishop of Minnesota, you [56/57] said, "we have called to pledge to you our help in building here the schools which are gathered around a Bishop's home. We are poor, but we have willing hearts and will always stand by you in this work." Long before the Diocese had heard a word of the Bishop's intentions, I had settled in my heart that I would make my home with these brave men of the border who had faith in this work, and that we would labor lovingly together, and if it was God's will they should bear me to my last resting place. I am glad to tell you to-day that the citizens of Faribault have nobly fulfilled their pledge. While we are men of differing forms of faith, I have not heard in all these years one word, which dying, I could wish to blot. I speak as a Churchman and a Christian. We have learned to love each other in this common work for the welfare of men and the glory of God. I said at our Diocesan Council that no Bishop had ever been blessed with a more loyal clergy or a more devoted, generous body of laymen. I should detain you too long if I attempted to tell the history of the devotion of the trustees of these schools, who have brought to this work the same energy and determination which has made them foremost in the walks of business life. I am saying, perhaps, more than I ought, but I cannot close without paying my heartfelt tribute of love and [57/58] respect to craftsmen and laborers, who have worked out our dreams into those beautiful buildings which adorn yonder bluff. I am glad to know that they have always been my steadfast friends, and when my work is over, I would rather have one of those honest souls drop a tear on my grave, than to have the proudest monument which was ever erected by man. I thank you kindly, dear friends, for this loving tribute, undeserved by me, and from my heart I give you my love and blessing.
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