TO
WILLIAM DAVID WALKER, D.D., LL.D., D.C.L.,
BISHOP OF NORTH DAKOTA,
THIS
NARRATIVE OF EVENTS,
IN WHICH WE WERE SO HAPPILY ASSOCIATED,
IS
LOVINGLY INSCRIBED
BY
THE WRITER.

These sketches of the Lambeth Conference of 1888 have been written with a view of placing in permanent form the memoirs of personal experiences during a visit to the mother-land, which cannot fail to be memorable. They are not published, bat are solely intended for the use of the writer and his friends. They have been prepared in the spirit of a similar narrative issued ten years ago and recording the doings of the Conference of 1878.

It was after midnight, on the 3d of June, 1888, that we reached Chester--the rigorous customs examinations at the landing-stage at Liverpool having detained us far into the night. We were, however, in time for the Sunday sermons which had been promised long before, and in the morning we kept our appointment in old S. John's, the Mother Church, the original cathedral of the see where, for a thousand years, the Church's prayers had been said, the Church's Creeds avowed, and the Church's Sacraments administered, by members and ministers of England's Holy Church.

In the afternoon we exchanged our quarters at the "Queen's," for the Bishop's Palace, where we had been expected the day before; and were soon made most pleasantly at home in the Episcopal residence overlooking the river Dee, a stream renowned in song and story. The Bishop of Chester, since translated to Oxford, the learned Dr. William Stubbs, was an old Oxford acquaintance, and the opportunity of renewing and deepening an intimacy of more than twelve years' standing with the most learned historian and the best informed student of constitutional law of modern days, was one we fully prized. Mrs. Stubbs, by her charming hospitality, her sweetness of manner, her devotion to her [1/2] husband and her beautiful home, made our days at "The Palace" most agreeable; while the Bishop's only son, a lad of great promise, precocious beyond his years, was unremitting in his attentions to the household's guests, and proved a most interesting entertainer.

In the evening we preached in the nave of the Cathedral, which was crowded to its fullest capacity. The Lord Bishop and the Cathedral clergy were in attendance, and the choral service was rendered with exquisite taste. On the following day, the City Hall was thrown open for a public missionary meeting under the presidency of the Lord Bishop, at which the Bishops of North Dakota and Iowa spoke in behalf of the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It was a privilege and a pleasure to us, on this occasion and at many similar meetings during our summer abroad, to commend this great missionary agency which, since its inception in the year of grace, 1701, and for nearly a century following, had done so much for American Christianity and churchmanship by its abundant and freely rendered ministrations to the colonists and aborigines on the Atlantic Coast.

Several days were given to sight-seeing in this famous old-world town, the good Bishop or his charming wife kindly acting as our guides, and enabling us to renew and revive impressions of earlier visits, and to add to our experiences much that was wholly new. We made excursions to Eaton Hall, the magnificent [2/3] seat of the Duke of Westminster, meeting most pleasantly the Duchess, and Lady Grosvenor on several occasions. We visited Hawarden, the seat of Mr. Gladstone, where, we were kindly entertained at the vicarage by the ex-Premier's son, the Rev. Stephen Gladstone; and we renewed most agreeably our acquaintance with the family of the late Dean Howson, and the sisters of General Sir Richard Wilbraham, with whom we had travelled in Italy, years before. Our stay in Chester was all too short, for with the kind attentions of our old friends and new, and the courtesies extended by the Lord Bishop and his family, the Dean, the Archdeacon, and others of the Cathedral staff, the limit to our visit was reached before we were well aware of the lapse of time, and we hurried quite unwillingly to Shrewsbury, where we had promised to speak to the clergy of the Archdeaconry, and to the friends of missions, in behalf of the Venerable Society. In this quaint old town, full of historic associations, and quite rivalling Chester in its specimens of the half-timber houses of early English domestic architecture, we spoke in the Workingmen's Hall, a commodious structure erected by the Church people, for the use of the numerous artisans and others connected with the industries of the town.

Our duty done, we hastened on to Rugby, en route for Cambridge, where we had been invited by the Vice-Chancellor to attend the interesting function of conferring degrees on Prince Albert Victor, and the leading [3/4] members of the ministry. We visited the school buildings of Rugby by moonlight, for we were to leave in the early morning, and our Shrewsbury appointment had delayed our arrival at this famous spot till nightfall; and we thought, as we passed the halls, the chapel, the dormitories, the play-grounds, the gymnasium, and the science laboratories and museums, and then watched the lights go out in almost numberless rooms where the future men of thought and might of England were being trained for letters or usefulness in other ways, of our own Kemper and the opportunities offered to our Iowa Churchmen by benefactions and bequests to build up in our own commonwealth a school of equal merit and no less fame and promise.

We failed to reach Cambridge in time for the conferring of the degrees in the Senate House, but we were not too late for the even more noteworthy lunch in the Fitzwilliam Museum, at which the Vice-Chancellor entertained the Prince and Princess of Wales and other notabilities. Our seats were beside that of Canon Westcott, the Divinity Professor of the University, and directly in front of those assigned to the royal family. There were present at this brilliant gathering, the Prince and Princess of Wales; the Princesses Louise, Victoria, and Maud, of Wales; the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs. and Miss Benson; the Duke of Devonshire, Chancellor of the University; the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury and Lady Gwendoline Cecil; [4/5] the Earl of Selborne; the Earl of Rosebery; Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill; the Earl of Powis, High Steward of the University; the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mrs. and Miss Goschen; Lord and Lady Edward Cavendish; Mr. A. J. Balfour, Chief Secretary for Ireland; Lord Acton; Lady Rayleigh; Lady Suffield; Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Alison and Lady Alison; the Chief Justice of Hyderabad, the Nawab Mohsin ool Moolk; and of ecclesiastics, the Metropolitan of Rupert's Land, with the Bishop of Ely, Lord Alwyne Compton, in whose see Cambridge is situated. The Bishops of Albany and Iowa represented the American Church. Of this distinguished gathering, H. R. H. Prince Albert Victor Charles Edward of Wales, with the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earls of Rosebery and Selborne, Lord Randolph Churchill, Baron Acton, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Postmaster-General, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Alison, Bart, had received the honorary Doctorate in Law in the morning, and were arrayed in their doctors' gowns.

The spectacle was most imposing. It was a "scarlet" day, and the newly made Doctors in their scarlet robes, and the members and officers of the University in their official dress, with the appropriate insignia of their station, made up a scene never to be forgotten.

Speeches were made, when the feast was over, first of all by the Prince of Wales, who referred, with evident feeling, to his [5/6] undergraduate years at the University, and to the pleasure he felt in seeing his son numbered among the notabilities of Cambridge. The heir to the crown was followed by the Marquis of Salisbury, whose touching allusion to his "political opponent," Mr. John Bright, who had been detained from attendance on this occasion and prevented from receiving the honors of the University by severe illness, struck a chord in every heart. This tribute, so gracefully rendered, was addressed to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Taylor, of S. John's, who had alluded to the absence of Mr. Bright in introducing the distinguished Premier:

"I thank you, sir, for the kindly and just words in which you referred to the absence of the most eminent among us. Speaking of one who is in most matters my political opponent, I feel the deepest regret that he did not have this opportunity of ascertaining from the lips of his fellow-countrymen best fitted to confer the distinction, the deep veneration in which his name is held by every class and type of Englishmen. He has passed a long life in the vigorous and energetic combatting of oppression, and in the unsparing expression of his own honest convictions, at the end of which, I am sure, he has acquired the respect, esteem, and attachment, quite as much of those whose views he is opposed to as those whose views he has advocated. In conclusion, I can only say on behalf of those I am commissioned to represent that whatever other causes there may be for their being conspicuous in the field of national life, whatever other grounds of distinction they may have acquired in the various forms of public service in which they belong, I am sure they will all unite in feeling that there is no recognition of it which they will value so highly as that which has been conferred to-day by one of the most enlightened communities in the world."

Lord Rosebery followed in a felicitous speech, proposing the health of the venerable and distinguished Chancellor of the [6/7] University, the Duke of Devonshire, whose response was in keeping with his dignity and years. Lord Randolph Churchill added a few words in his inimitable style, and then the guests separated, most of the party proceeding to Newnham, where the corner-stone of a new hall for this famous "annex" was laid by the Princess of Wales, the scene bringing vividly to mind our own Saint Katharine's Hall with its "sweet girl graduates" of the present year and the time to come, who, on the other side of the world, were receiving the same training in letters, science, and art that the daughters of England had offered to their hand.

On Sunday, the Bishop of Albany as special preacher, delivered a most eloquent and impressive discourse before the University in Great S. Mary's Church. Graceful in manner, eloquent in discourse, and of commanding presence in his academic dress, the speaker won universal commendation by the charm of his style and the force of his arguments. The American Church could have had no more effective or worthy representative than the "select preacher" of this interesting day, and we felt it indeed a privilege to be present in the brilliant throng filling every place in this great church. We attended evensong at King's, where the anthem seemed to transcend earthly music and lift one to the courts above; and we closed our Cambridge Sunday, on which we had attended eight services, by listening, for a while, to a university man who, in cap and gown, was haranguing a crowd in [7/8] the market place. The motley throng seemed impressed by the speaker's earnestness, and one and all united with him in a familiar hymn, which was sung with great expression and musical taste. We dined, the following day, at the Vice-Chancellor's, with a number of the University dignitaries, among them the great astronomer, Prof. Adams, and the celebrated classical scholar, Prof. Mayor.

We made a trip to Ely at the invitation of Lord and Lady Alwyne Compton, by whom we were most charmingly entertained at the Bishop's Palace. Here we visited the Cathedral, called on Dean Merrivule, the historian, and examined, quite in detail, the architecture and archaelogical wonders of the buildings in the Close; and then returned to Cambridge to start afresh for London, where the Bishop of Albany was to preach, in S. Paul's Cathedral, the annual sermon before the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts--following, in the performance of this honorable duty, our own appointment for a year ago.

At this imposing service, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President of the Society, presided, it was our privilege, as representing the American Church, to read the Epistle, standing in front of the magnificent new reredos lately unveiled. The sermon, the production of one of our most learned and eloquent, prelates, the Bishop of Albany, was in every way worthy of the preacher and the occasion on which he spoke. [8/9] It has since been printed, and widely circulated, as among the most thoughtful and forcible presentations of its great theme that have appeared in modern days. We spent several days in London visiting its galleries and places of interest, and making excursions to noted localities in the neighborhood; and, at the close of the week, proceeded to Oxford, where we purposed spending the Commemoration. It was with a home-like feeling that we established ourselves in our pleasant lodgings in this ancient university town. We were surrounded by friends; each street, each college hall, each public building bore a familiar look, and memories of earlier visits came fresh to mind at every turn. On Sunday we were to preach at Matins at S. Barnabas's, erected by the late Thomas Comb, M.A., the founder of S. Edmond's Hall for boys, the builder of the Radcliffs Infirmary Chapel, and foremost, while living, in every good word and work. This noble church, under the charge of the Rev. H. N. Noel, M.A., its Vicar from the start, has revolutionized one of the "slums" of Oxford and accomplished a work and won a recognition well worthy of the praise bestowed upon it on all sides. There are twelve hundred sittings in the church, which is Byzantine in style and only gorgeous in its chancel appointments.

Here, as in all English Churches of its class, the men sit on one side, the women on the other; and at Matins every place was filled. Conforming to the custom of the Church we [9/10] wore the proper Episcopal habit, as described in the Ornaments' Rubric of the Prayer Book of Edward VI. The service was hearty and participated in by all. In the afternoon, at the same church, upwards of a thousand children were present at Evensong. It was "Show Sunday," and as the sun went down the people thronged the "broad walk" where all the notabilities, attracted to the Commemoration, were to be seen. A third service, also at S. Barnabas's, which was again crowded, completed our Sunday services where they had begun, and with the Early Celebration, which we had also attended, gave us full opportunity of acquainting ourselves with the workings of this important parish. The clergy gathered, when all was over, at Mrs. Comb's hospitable home in "The Press," where we remained till it was time for rest. "Commem." brought with it dinners, receptions, garden parties, fetes, flower shows, concerts, balls, and every variety of entertainment; and although the general merry-making was somewhat hampered by the mourning for the Emperor Frederick, and black and white took the place of gayer colors in costumes and decorations, still the week was full of enjoyment, much of which, in our case, consisted in the meeting with old friends. We visited the colleges, attended the various fetes and concerts, met the various Heads of Colleges, drove out to Cuddesden and spent a few hours with the Lord Bishop, Dr. Mackarness, on the very day on which he had sent in his [10/11] resignation of the see he had so wisely and faithfully administered for many years, and, on the Encaenia, enjoyed the Saturnalia which invariably accompanies the giving of the honorary degrees, attending, at its close, at All Souls', through the kind invitation of our friend, the Chichele Professor of Modern History, the grand banquet, with which this notable day is ended. It was on this occasion that we met and had the opportunity of conversing with Robert Browning, who, in a ripe and beautiful old age lives a poem, possibly more intelligible to those about him than much he has written.

We may not pass over, in this personal narrative, the conferring of the Doctorate of Divinity on the Bishop of Iowa. It was an honor the more appreciated because quite unexpected; and its bestowal, on the ground of literary merit and success, as stated by the Regius Professor of Divinity in his presentation of the recipient to the Vice-Chancellor, made it the more grateful as coming from the oldest and most distinguished University of the English-speaking race. The Bishop of Bedford received this distinction at the same time, and the two doctors, in their robes of scarlet and black, were presented to the Vice-Chancellor by the Regius Professor in Divinity, Dr. Ince.

In the all too flattering speech with which we were presented for our degree the references to the American Church were received with great applause, showing that in this ancient [11/12] seat of learning, where first, Seabury, Bishop of Connecticut, and Presiding Bishop of the American Church, then McIlvaine, of Ohio, then Whitehouse, of Illinois, and then Horatio Potter, of New York, had been similarly honored, there was still a feeling of loving recognition for the "Greater Britain" and the Daughter Church beyond the sea.

We found time, during this busy week, to run up to London to attend a meeting at Lowther Lodge, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of the Mission among the Assyrian Christians, established by his Grace. Agreeably to the appointment of the Archbishop, we addressed the meeting, giving, in our remarks, special prominence to the policy of our own mission in Athens which, as shaped and influenced by White and Griswold, sought, from the first, the reformation and revival of spiritual life in the national historic church, instead of attempting to proselyte from the established Communion. This principle had been followed by the Archbishop in the interesting and promising mission work he had inaugurated.

At the close of this week of academic gaities we visited Worcester, where at "The College," the lovely home of Canon Claughton, the son of the Lord Bishop of S. Alban's, we were most hospitably welcomed and most charmingly entertained. Full of historical associations as is this "faithful city,"--so styled from its devotion to the cause and person of Charles I., "Saint and Martyr,"--and attractive as was [12/13] its grand Cathedral, so exquisitely restored and so architecturally perfect, there will ever be to us a greater charm in the recall to mind of the cultured, Christian courtesy of this consecrated home. Nestling amidst the rose trees and fair meadows on the slope between the Cathedral and the river, the quaint old-time architecture of ''The College" told of its being, in part, one of the conventual buildings originally grouped around the sacred fane. Shaded by vines and climbing flowers, through its latticed windows the warm sunlight stole with a warm benediction all through the day, and when the hours of dark had come, on the old hearth the fires gleamed with a glow of comfort. Curiously carved furniture was met at every turn. The intricate passages and winding stairways led to cozy chambers and dressing rooms, offering every comfort and perfect rest. Our host, his lovely wife, and the dear little lad, whose faultless manners and unaffected winsomeness won our hearts at once, anticipated every wish, and ministered with lavish hospitality to all our wants. Coming from the whirl of Commemoration, there was, in this restful and most lovely spot, the gracious gift of the peace of God. We can never tell half the pleasure or the spiritual profit of our visit to "The College" and its delightful occupants, while we lingered in the "faithful city." The Cathedral services; the visits to the schools; the tour among the potteries, if so common a word can be applied to the factories where the "royal Worcester" is [13/14] made; the pilgrimage to the scenes connected with the Royal Martyr's stay in this loyal town; the opportunities of meeting with the Dean and his interesting family, where the Metropolitan of Sydney and Mrs. Barry were being entertained--all made up one of the most delightful of our experiences in our pilgrimage to the shrines and sepulchres of the Mother Land and Church.

Our delightful visit to Worcester was followed by a stay of several days at Selsdon Park, the beautiful home of the Lord-Bishop of Rochester. Here we were entertained most royally, and his Lordship and his two little girls, most interesting and most lovable in their sweet attractiveness, which was as charming as it was unconscious, spared no pains to make us welcome, as we had been made again and again before on earlier visits, to this most hospitable home. Here we met most pleasantly the Metropolitan of Rupert's Land, whose work has been that of an Apostle, and the story of whose success quite carries one back to the days of apostolic triumphs for the faith. We had met this most interesting and accomplished prelate at Cambridge, where we sat vis a vis at the famous lunch at the Fitz-William Museum, on the occasion of the giving of the honorary doctorate to Prince Albert Victor and other notables, but it was a most enjoyable experience to be for several days with one whose wide experience in Episcopal work, particularly in shaping the educational system of an ecclesiastical province, made his every [14/15] word of value, and his advice worthy of the closest attention and following. The dear Bishop of Rochester was, as he had ever been, the most thoughtful and devoted of hosts. An author of religious works, well known throughout the world for their deep spirituality and Christian fervor, his life was such as he sought to commend in his writings, and his daily walk and conversation were conspicuously in heaven. A sweetness of nature, a genuine interest in everything of importance that was transpiring at home and abroad, unusual conversational power, and an earnest devotion to the work given him to do, made the good Bishop one of the most agreeable of companions, as well as one of the most active and popular of the Bishops among whom he is, perhaps, the most overworked. It was with regret that we noticed signs of a physical feebleness, which has since required the departure of the Bishop on a long journey to Australia, which, it is to be hoped, will bring to him with the needed rest, a thorough restoration to health.

Combining, as he does, the fervor and enthusiasm of the best examples of the old evangelical party with a singular tolerance and a wide charity, the Bishop of Rochester is not content with doing the work allotted to him, but he seeks work. If the "secularists" will not come to him, he will go to them, receiving, in the spirit of his Master, the gross insults of those who, in their blind hatred of ecclesiasticism, fail to recognize the love and [15/16] longing for their souls which leads a spiritual peer to meet them in their very misery, and labor for their good. One may judge of the eloquence and zeal of his earlier ministrations at S. Giles in the Fields, and S. Pancras, Euston Square, by the intense earnestness of his present addresses and sermons. It is easy to see that in raising to the bench one of the most popular and successful of the London clergy, there has been lost to the Church and cause of Christ not one particle of the old ability, devotion, fervor, and self-consecration.

As was the case ten years ago, the public services connected with the Lambeth Conference begun with a "Canterbury Pilgrimage," in which nearly a hundred of the assembled Bishops participated. Ere our arrival at this historic city, we had secured rooms at "The Rose," a famous hostlery, dating back its founding to the olden days of English inns; but the Vicar of S. Mary Bredin, the Rev. M. B. Moorhouse, M.A., took us, with a charming persistence, to his delightful vicarage, where we found ourselves in most attractive quarters, with every surrounding that could minister to our comfort or taste. It was a holy home into which we were taken, and our experiences "within the veil" were such as to gladden and strengthen our very souls.

The day before that appointed for the formal welcome--S. Peter's Day--the Annual Commemoration of Benefactors had taken place in the Chapel, beginning with an early celebration, the Rev. Dr. Maclear, the Warden, [16/17] so well known as an author and a divine, being the celebrant. The venerable Dr. Medley, Bishop of Fredericton and Metropolitan of the Canadian Church, was among the prelates in attendance at this solemn service;--the only survivor of the seven Bishops who took part in the consecration of the Chapel and the dedication of the College, on S. Peter's Day, 1848. The sermon, which followed matins, was preached by the Metropolitan of Canada, who most acceptably discharged the honorable duty assigned to us at the Commemoration a year ago. The Commemoration service proper followed, the Warden reading a roll of the most illustrious of the benefactors of S. Augustine's, "who, in their lifetime, out of zeal for God's glory, and earnest desire for the increase of His Kingdom, contributed of their substance to its establishment." The list closed with the ever-to-be-remembered name of the late Alexander J. B. Beresford Hope, M.P., D.C.L., to whose princely munificence, be wisely and energetically guided by the first Warden, Rev. Edward Coleridge, the restoration of the remains of the old Abbey, and the redemption of its long-deprecated site were wholly due.

This service over, there was a lunch in the Coleridge Museum--the under-croft of the library--where, after the meal, toasts and speeches followed, giving a foretaste of the day to come, when the Bishops would receive, from the Primate of All England, his Grace's loving welcome to his archiepiscopal seat.

A special train brought the Bishops from [17/18] the Victoria Station, London, and on the way there were many most pleasant meetings of long-separated friends. At noon the end of the pilgrimage was reached, and in a few moments we found ourselves, with Mrs. and Miss Benson, driving through the narrow streets of Canterbury to the great gate of the old Abbey of S. Augustine, through which were passing Bishops, Deans, and ecclesiastical dignitaries, with other noted guests assembled from all quarters of the world.

Among the visiting prelates, the Oriental Bishop, Mar Gregorius, Bishop of Homs, the ancient Edessa, and representing the Patriarch of Antioch, was conspicuous in his quaint head-gear and long, flowing robes. On the lawn of the Quadrangle, and in the midst of groups of interested visitors one noticed, with special pleasure, the lovely wife of the Dean of Windsor--daughter of the late beloved Archbishop of Canterbury--who, with Mrs. Maclear, the Warden's charming wife and her beautiful children, were the observed of all observers. After a pleasant interchange of greetings and the assembling of the many distinguished guests, the Bishops and others, with the Warden and Masters of the College, and the students, proceeded to the Coleridge Museum for luncheon. Besides the Bishops, the Deans of Windsor, Canterbury, Rochester, and Davenport were present, and the number of guests, including the students, was fully one hundred and fifty. The Warden occupied the chair, supported by the Archbishops of [18/19] Canterbury and Dublin on either side; the Metropolitans of Fredericton, Guiana, Rupert's Land, Calcutta, and Sydney, the Bishops of Meath and Minnesota, and Dean-Payne Smith, Lord Knutsford, the Secretary for the Colonies, and J. G. Talbot, Esq., M.P., also having seats at the high table. Beginning with the toast Floreat Domus, proposed by the Warden, to which his Grace of Canterbury responded with great feeling and eloquence, speeches followed, among which that given in response to the toast "The Sister Church of America," by the dear Bishop of Minnesota, was most happily conceived, and was received, as was Bishop Whipple's every public utterance in England, with unstinted applause. Lord Knutsford, as Colonial Secretary, bore willing testimony to the work done throughout the Empire by the Colonial Bishops, and to "the deep interest felt by her Majesty's Government in the approaching conference, and the welcome they extended to the assembled prelates, and the hope entertained that the result of their deliberations would be the strengthening of the foundations of the Church of England, and of the Church of Christ, throughout the world." The gathering in this noble hall, amidst the trophies of successful mission work sent in from all parts of heathendom, was one of the deepest interest, whether one regarded the men who formed this assembly, the work for the cause of Christ they had done, or the various quarters of the globe whence they had come on this Canterbury pilgrimage. On [19/20] either side, above, around, were idols, and all the instruments of idol-worship; models of heathen temples, and all the evidences of the sad, sorrowful lives of those who dwell in darkness. But the words that woke the echoes in this vaulted hall and called forth the hearty cheers of an interested auditory were those of the Church's missionary apostles reciting what the Lord had done through their agency in all parts of the world. One could not share in such a gathering without catching something of the enthusiasm, which seemed the proper genius loci, as it inspired the self-consecration to the mission cause of the students assembled here for preparation for the foreign field.

Following the lunch came the service of welcome, the Bishops passing directly from the college quadrangle to the Chapter House, where they robed and took their places in the long line which reached through the cloisters and to the great West Door. Met by a procession of the cathedral and city clergy, the Rural Deans, the civic authorities, the King's scholars, and the choirs, the procession moved through the nave and into the choir, to the chanting of a part of Ps. lxviii., Exurgat Deus, followed by the hymn, "Onward, Christian Soldiers!" The Bishops, ninety-seven in number, walked two by two to their places on either side of the sacrarium, while the Archbishop, preceded by the Rev. Montague Fowler, M. A., his Grace's domestic Chaplain, bearing the Primatial Cross, and attended by his other chaplains and officials, proceeded to [20/21] the patriarchal marble chair linked by tradition with S. Austin, Canterbury's first Archbishop. The Te Deum Laudamus, by Sir John Stainer, in A was nobly rendered, after which the Archbishop delivered from his patriarchal seat the following

ALLOCUTION:

To the Bishops Assembled at the Chair of Augustine, June 30, 1888:

"Brethren most dear and to me most reverend. Few privileges of my office can surpass that which, all unworthy, I exercise to-day.

"It is to bid you welcome in the name of the Lord. Happy should my soul be if it were given me to take in all that such welcome means.

"Welcome from all continents and seas and shores where the English tongue is spoken.

"Welcome, bearers of the Great Commission to be His witnesses unto the ends of the earth.

"Welcome, disciples of the Great Determination to 'refuse fables' and seek the inspiration of the Church at the Fountain-head of Inspired Reason.

"Welcome to the Chair which, when filled least worthily, most makes up its own parable, and speaks of unbroken lines of government and law and faith, and forgets not the yet earlier Christianity of the land whose own lines soon flowed into and blended with the Roman and the Gallic and the Saxon strains.

"Bound this chair have clustered the glorious memorials you see through ages--none more dear than his who spoke from it last, with a pathos and a courage quite his own. His simple words to you, 'our brethren of the Great Republic,' 'the particular welcome from himself,' which his great sorrow and your love privileged him to give you, still shed a tender human light upon the solemn matters we are to treat of, and the heavenly enterprises to which we and our successors are pledged.

"We know how dear to you is this sanctuary of our fathers and yours--yes, of 'your Father and our Father.'

"And even because of the potency of its deep appeal to us to be holy in worship, pure in doctrine, strong in life--even for this appeal's sake, we bid you here [21/22] remember the pregnant words of Gregory to Augustine himself, 'Non pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt.' 'Love not the things for the sake of the genius of the place; love the place for the good things wrought there.'

"This he said in answer to Augustine's question, 'The Faith being One, are there different customs in different churches?' The answer was worthy of him who has been called the greatest of Popes, and called the first of the Methodists. He says, you remember, 'What thou hast found in any Church more pleasing to the Almighty God, that do thou solicitously choose out, and in the English Church, young in the faith, pour in with excellent instruction what thou gatherest from many Churches.'

"For the moment, while his Church was young, Augustine stood in a strange unique position, commissioned to represent in one person the very Church itself which sent him, and bound to represent the future Church for which he was responsible.

"Were not the words prophetic and characteristic?

"The task assigned him has surely fulfilled itself in the manifoldness of his Church, the embracingness, the comprehensiveness, and the integrity of her spirit--the versatility with which she enters into the life of new nations, the readiness with which she receives them to herself, the simplicity of the unvarying rule of her faith, yet the steadfastness of the claim she makes for other Churches, as well as for herself, that they have liberty in things doubtful or indifferent. We honour her when we say she has all the right -which the most venerable Churches have to order her service of God as they did, 'according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners,' 'so that nothing be ordained against God's Word.' 'We vindicate her dignity when we say the right is hers, not ours. It is for her to choose for us, and not we for ourselves--for her in her lasting power, not for us severally in our passing weakness. We honour her when we say that her right is the right of all Churches, and of no individuals.

"If this voice of Gregory to Augustine be worked into the fabric of oar Church, it may well be the 'sermon in stones' which we shall hear to-day, as the last echoes of the service tremble along the arches, and seem to fancy's ear to quiver with anxiety to leave one true tone with us, for comfort and for strength. It is this. Liberty for all the holy Churches of God. Loyal allegiance of [22/23] Churchmen to each his own. Lastly, may He inspire and bless the work of all believers, be they Churchmen or no, who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth. And now for the last words of ten years since. Let us to prayer."

At the close of this striking "Allocution," the Archbishop left the patriarchal chair, and with his chaplains and preceded by his crucifer, proceeded to the archiepiscopal throne on the south side of the choir while evensong was sung. The anthem was from Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, concluding with the chorus, "The Night is Departing," and the grand chorale, "Let all men praise the Lord." The familiar hymn, "The Church's One Foundation" followed the prayers, the service being concluded by the Blessing of Peace, given by the Archbishop, first from his Episcopal throne, and then from the steps under the lantern, just outside of the screen, to the great congregation assembled in the nave. Slowly the long procession passed out of the noble Cathedral, and the noblest pageant ever witnessed in this ancient shrine was over.

We were on historic ground, and both in the Abbey precincts, where every step told of S. Augustine and the bringing in of the faith of Christ to Anglo-Saxon England twelve hundred years ago, and in the noble shrine where had occurred the martyrdom of h. Becket and where one could still see the worn stones bearing the impress of the countless pilgrims coming from all portions of Christendom to Becket's crown and shrine, we were singularly impressed with recollections of the historic [23/24] past. We were in the cradle-home of English Christianity, and the noble function in which we had engaged, had never, in the annals of the past, been surpassed in dignity and beauty. The present Episcopal habit is historically the street dress of the Elizabethan prelates, and, with the many-colored hoods of the academic degrees giving tone and color to the spectacle, it was a most brilliant procession that threaded its measured way through the crowds within and without the grand old Cathedral, so noted in legend, history, and song. No better proof of the catholicity of England's Church could have been afforded than the very grouping of the assembled Bishops, representing, as they did, the farthest corners of the earth. As the long array was marshalled in order, we could not fail to note, walking side by side with the courtly and elegant Bishop of Western New York, Dr. Cleveland Coxe--poet, author, scholar, preacher, publicist, as well as prelate--the black Bishop of the Niger, Dr. Crowther, who, in his youth had been sold as a slave for a puncheon of rum and later exchanged for a hogshead of tobacco. Who could doubt that "the Morian's Land shall soon stretch forth her hands to God." Bishops were here from the islands of the sea, from New Zealand, Australia, New South Wales, from the Falkland Isles, from the West Indies, from Newfoundland, Madagascar, Ceylon, the Island of Japan, the vast territories of China, India, Burmah, from the North American provinces, from Guiana, from the great dark continent, Sierra [24/25] Leone, Equatorial Africa, and the province of South Africa. The very presence of Bishops having charge of sees in all this world-wide reach of territory proved that the Anglican Commune was no longer insular but was indeed Catholic, covering all portions of the globe.

As a pageant, the display could not have been more magnificent. As a service, it was reverent, impressive, grand, befitting the occasion and the place. As an "Allocution," the words of his grace sunk deep into every heart as the utterance of one universally beloved and revered, who was worthily occupying the chair of Augustine, and who was recognized by each member of the Anglican Commune, if not as a Patriarch, at least as primus inter pares--a chief of the apostles, and an apostle indeed himself.

At the close of the Cathedral service a reception was tendered to the visiting Bishops and others by the Dean of Canterbury and Mrs. Payne-Smith, in the gardens of the Deanery. The afternoon, though somewhat overcast, was still suited to out-door entertainment, and, under the shadow of the Cathedral walls and turrets, each and all gave themselves to the full enjoyment of a social ecclesiastical gathering of a character at once unique and agreeable. At the Deanery we were renewing acquaintance with old-time friends. We had enjoyed the hospitality of the Dean and his household ten years before, and it was with great pleasure that we revived a friendship with Dr. and Mrs., and the Misses, Payne-Smith.

[26] As we passed through the well-remembered rooms of this historic home, we could not but recall the welcome here extended a century and three-quarters ago, to a little band of Americans--Timothy Cutler, the late Rector of Yale College, and Samuel Johnson and Daniel Brown, two of his fellow-instructors in this then lately organized school of learning, who, in their studies of the master-pieces of Anglican theology collected in the little library of this Puritan college (founded indeed by a Churchman's liberality, but established in the interest of separation and independence), had been led to doubt the validity of their Congregational ordination, and had come, strangers in a strange land, to seek from the Bishops of England's Church the authoritive commission to minister to souls. Crossing, with painful and protracted experiences such as are unknown in these days of rapid, luxurious travel, the ocean in their quest, they had landed at Ramsgate in the Isle of Thanet, on Saturday, December 15, 1722, and proceeding to Canterbury they had seen for the first time a Cathedral, and on the Third Sunday in Advent, for the first time, had found the opportunity to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, with the accompaniment of choral song. Humbly applying, the following day, for entrance at the Deanery gate, through the very portals we had passed, the worthy Dean, the celebrated Dr. Stanhope, who had just been reading in a London Gazette of the conforming of [26/27] these converts to the Church, gave them a welcome for which we of this day and generation who have entered into their labors and reap the fruits of the toil and sacrifice they made for the Church of God may well be grateful.

It was late when, after meeting so many friends of ten years ago and making the acquaintance of so many who had entered into the places made vacant by death during the interval between these decennial meetings, we returned to the vicarage and enjoyed a most delightful evening with our host and his lovely wife. Our slumbers were sweet that night, and were not disturbed even by the ponderous pealing of the "great Harry" in the Cathedral bell-tower.

[Note.--The following is a list of Bishops taking part in this memorable service, all of whom, with one or two exceptions, were also present at the lunch at B. Augustine's:--England--Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishops of Bangor, Bath and Wells, Carlisle, Ely, Exeter, Lichfield, Rochester, Salisbury, and Truro; the Suffragans of Dover, Colchester, Penrith, and Shrewsbury; Bishops Mitchinson and Perry. Ireland--The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Meath, Cork, Limerick, Ossory, Cashel, Killaloe, Kilmore, and Clogher. Scotland.--Bishops of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Moray and Ross. North America--The Metropolitan Bishop and the Coadjutor Bishop of Fredericton, the Bishops of Huron, Newfoundland, Niagara, Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto; the Metropolitan of Rupertsland, the Bishops of Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Newark, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Springfield, Tennessee, Washington Ter., and Wisconsin. West Indies--Metropolitan of Guiana, Bishops of Antigua, and his coadjutor. Bishop Branch, Barbadoes, Jamaica, Nassau, Trinidad. Africa--Bishops of Grahamstown. Kaffraria, Maritzburg, Niger, Pretoria, Zululand, and Central Africa. Asia--Metropolitan of Calcutta, Bishops of Bombay, Colombo, North China, Japan, Rangoon, Singapore, Travancore, Bishop of Jerusalem. Australia and Sew Zealand, etc.--Metropolitan of Sidney, Bishops of Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Falkland Isles, Honolulu, North Queensland, Nelson, Waiapu. The Bishop of Gibraltar.]

On the morning of Sunday, July 1st, we [27/28] officiated and preached at one of the oldest Churches in Canterbury, where all are old, and were interested in finding in the incumbent a former missionary in Australia who claimed acquaintance with his guest on the ground of having read and used in his distant field of labor a volume of lecture-sermons we had preached and published years ago. In the afternoon, we attended the Cathedral Service, at which the Bishop of New York preached, and at its close we made a pilgrimage to S. Martin's, the oldest Church of English Christianity, where Queen Bertha worshiped ere Augustine came. This venerable shrine, connecting England's Church of to-day with the Church of Augustine and the earlier Romano-British Church bears indisputable traces of Roman masonry in its foundation walls and is said to contain the ancient font in which Ethelbert, in Holy Baptism, put on Christ We spent some time walking about this ivy-clad sanctuary and were most kindly shown over it by one of the Church officials whose antiquarian lore and personal interest made him an invaluable guide. We failed not to stop for a moment at the grave of the late Dean Alford, musing on the well-remembered inscription--Deversorium Viatoris Hierosoltyman Profiscentis, which we had seen and fixed in mind, before. [The inn of a traveller on his way to Jerusalem.]

In the evening we preached at the comparatively new and elegant Church of S. Mary Bredin, where the congregation was large and [28/29] the service simple but devoutly rendered. The Evensong, with its service, was followed by a still later service, the clergy here as elsewhere throughout England making of the Lord's day an occasion for repeated services, whereby the Church's ministrations can be brought within the reach of all classes and conditions of men. It was a busy Sunday, but it was one filled with pleasant memories; and when, on Monday morning, we left Canterbury for London, we felt that we had in our delightful host and hostess added most pleasantly to the number of our dear English friends.

On the eve of the assembling of the Conference, there was a service falling little short in its impressive splendor of the pageant at Canterbury. This was in Westminster Abbey where the Archbishop of Canterbury preached to the gathered Bishops who had now arrived from all portions of the world. We had taken "afternoon tea" at the dear Bishop of Salisbury's London House, and after a prolonged and most pleasant stay with our kind host and the Bishop of Newcastle, son of the great Wilberforce, we walked together to the appointed place of meeting, which was the famous "Jerusalem Chamber" of the Abbey,--the Jerusalem to which Henry IV., as Shakespeare reminds us, was borne when nearing his end.--

[30] Warwick.--'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord.

K. Hen.--Land be to heaven!--even there my life must end.
It hath been prophesied to me many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem;
Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land:--
But, bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.

It was a striking spectacle as the long procession of one hundred and twenty Bishops, each preceded by his chaplain, moved through the corridors from the Jerusalem Chamber up the nave of Westminster into the choir of that grandest of English shrines and sepulchres. Our feet trod reverently over the memorial brass, marking the last resting place of Richard Chenevix Trench, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, whose presence ten years ago among us had added so much interest in the minds of those who had studied and profited by his scholarly writings. We passed over the grave of the explorer, Livingston, and as some one pointed out in passing this special memorial stone to the Bishop of the Niger, the tears ran down his black cheeks as he recalled the memory of him who had done so much for Africa and the colored race.

The flickering blaze of candles gave a "dim religious light" as we took our places amidst the shadows which seemed peopled with the personages of the Abbey's historic past, and listened to the choral song and heard the words of Holy Scripture and the evensong, falling on the ear in soft, sweet cadences almost as if we, too, were shadows and had "entered [30/31] within the veil." It was a weird, strange scene of solemn stillness, of hushed prayer and praise, not inappropriately broken when the sudden illness of a Bishop's chaplain, who was borne in the arms of several white-robed choristers through the startled crowd, recalled us to the present and its pressing duty. The sermon was the noblest utterance we have ever heard from his Grace's lips and was worthy of the man, the occasion, and the place.

It spoke to us with a depth of feeling and a consciousness of responsibility that could not fail of finding a response in each listener's heart. It was a fitting prelude to the solemn service which was to follow on the morrow. Each one was impressed, as he listened to those stirring words, with the feeling that in the Archbishop's fervent discourse there had been given an indication of the policy and the conclusions the Conference might rightly be expected to follow and find. Each one was confident, ere the sermon was ended, that the handling of the Conference by its head would be wise, considerate, and loving, even if not as masterly and impatient of opposition as was the presidency of the great-hearted and large-minded Tait in 1878.

The theme of his Grace's discourse was "The Structural Growth of the Church," and the text was from the Ephesians iv., 16, "All the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth."

* * * Some thinking people still find it doubtful whether the world will ever be absorbed by Christianity, as Christ and the writers of the New Testament [31/32] evidently conceive that it will be. But there was a time when greater thinkers still would have held any theory of the unity of man, to be brought about by any cause whatever, irrational and unnatural, an evident contradiction of all such design as could be attributed to nature. For instance, in the long and beautiful fragment which remains to us of the Sixth Book of Cicero's greatest work--his treatise Of the Republic--he sketches the physical features of the distribution of man on the globe. From the Milky Way he marks in vision the few, the narrow, and the scattered "patches" of the earth which were habitable--the waste, impassable tracts which severed the races of mankind--the invincible impossibility of serviceable communications. It is from these laws and certainties of nature that he draws the lofty, melancholy moral of the worthless narrowness of human fame. "The Southern Zone bears absolutely no relation to the condition of Europe. Even Europe has very little interest in the eyes of the humane world of Italy."

This was the judgment of a mind open to all the considerations which had hitherto suggested themselves in thought and literature. Yet a few years later a society was summoned into existence whose earliest call was to be "fishers of men," to gather together in one "the children of God who were scattered abroad." The statesman expressly affirms it to be "unimaginable that the mightiest name from lands of civilization and culture should pass the eternal barriers of Caucasus or be wafted over Ganges." A few years later the Apostle was writing of "One Name to which every knee would bow." To the Christian it was in the nature of things that scattered humanity should be welded into one mass, and the uniting attraction to the human name of Jesus. The oneness of humanity is the essence of the faith. The One Body not yet "fitly framed together," but, as the Apostle literally wrote, "framing itself together" as by an hourly process, is the ideal to which all work, all energies should be directed. This includes and involves every impulse, every labour of the Church. This is the sum of her self-offering to the glory of the Father. *****

It has been pretended that the development of the Anglican communion springs rather from the extension of our race from the energy of our faith. It would, indeed, be difficult to outrun the race-wave which now sweeps all shores. Yet there are bounteous archipelagos, populous tropic wildernesses, primaeval Churches in peril among the heathen, where the English or American missioner's is the only household which belongs to our race. And were it otherwise, at least the Mission spirit is now eminently characteristic of the blood. Southern Europe has been drawn out earlier, through its natural contact with the East, and the struggles at home kept our efforts low. With the Reformation came one touch to our national conscience. Our Elizabethan mariners, dedicating continents to Christ, witness in some measure to a consciousness that Gospel and Church were gifts to be imparted. Yet it ought to sting us to think that it is but a century since England found in her heart to give her America a Bishop; but a century since our convict ships landed their terrible freight in Australia, with no more spiritual comforters than the musketeers. Alas! it is not ninety years since we first began to repay the precious earthly things of either Africa or Asia with a share in our spiritual things. Would that it were more possible than it is to identify the extension of our race with that of our faith. Yet signs do still follow the footsteps of them that believe; and new churches are forming new nations even as we were formed. Higher ideas of the basis of society, of the marriage union, of family life, of self-restraint, of truthfulness not only lift the individual, but form the people. A recognised commercial morality, an even administration of justice, a conscience in dealing with subject races, public action on principles not merely selfish, the devotion of lives to benevolent causes are things found under Christian Governments, and scarcely looked for elsewhere. Independent witnesses avow these to be direct results of Christian faith, and the growth of national character through these, far more than numbers of adherants, or prevalence of observances, assures us that the Church is still the nurse of nations. * * * * *

The ages lengthen out apace. The work of Christ is not accomplished. The world judges by results. That matters not if it be the Master's will that His chariot drive heavily; that the salvation of the Gentiles linger, and the unity of man tarry. But we do think it is so? or are we conscious of causes purely human, of wills and factions which despise peace?

Yet the movement is onward, though the pace is halting. Tremblingly, yet rejoicingly, we do believe that new charities blossom from our differences. The [33/34] attitude of an opponent now is almost always an attitude of respect. The asperities of the present are almost milder than the forbearance of the past. Affection between advocates of mutually destructive views is no unreal or unwonted thing. If rougher tests of progress are of value, much more so is the prevalence of a spirit which makes characteristic diversities not merely tend towards truce, but lean longingly towards unity. For this, beyond question, is the working of the Spirit of Christ.

If we look back now for causes which have promoted this growing unity of spirit we find it in the activity of those forces which rescue, which teach, which guide, which comfort, which raise, which feed, which warm. Whatever outside of Christianity does these works does Christ's work.

The forces which are set forth in Christ's two sacraments and in the two Apostolic rites of confirmation and ordination are these. They are the forces that cleanse, and bind together; that strengthen and organise for growth. On the contrary, the spirit of regulation--the intrusive meddling spirit which travesties the spirit of order--whether it exhibit itself in minute prescription or minute litigation--the spirit (to speak plainly) of so many councils since the earliest has been often the apple of discord, and often the germ of schisms.

I. The energy which within the Church has in our times revived the courage and increased the activity of our peoples, which has added continents and islands to the conquests of the faith, the attraction which has held together many elements of division, and even welded them into strong instruments of work, has been found again and again to reside in those Strong Centres which Apostles designed for this very function of assigning work to all, and stimulating the zeal of all. Natural analogies are, perhaps, not mere resemblances, but the same laws of God. In our own national history at any rate, and in the history of the Churches, we find ourselves well-warned to keep our Christian groupings wide enough and our centres strong enough. Strong by position to traverse, to learn from, to influence each rank and class by turns, strong in councils of men sufficiently versed in the world's thought and experience, habitually taught by devotional lives to refer daily questions to eternal principles, faithful to administer and to apply far-reaching organizations for the benefit of bodies and minds and spirits of men. Through this [34/35] strong system, however short of its ideal, still an ideal influence has been exercised within Christian society, and by that society on all surrounding powers. * * *

Half a century with us has seen seven colonial sees grow to seventy, and so vast still is their area that another half-century will not be too long to work out the sub-division. Yet the old policy of England must be nowhere forgotten, that sub-division should cease before dioceses become too small for the influence of each to radiate through all, before the administration anywhere becomes so narrow as to represent only local patriotism.

II. Yet strong central forces are not all that is required to prevent a merely larger Congregationalism from supplanting the Catholic system. Much has been said, done, tested, which shows that these times demand supplementary organizations. We should lack either courage or intelligence if we did not admit it. The threefold ministry is complete in itself for its own great ends. The seals of its origin are patent But outside those ends are many functions to which it is not adapted. The long attempt to adapt it brings out the inadequacy. From the Apostolic test of the Epistles down to the last parochial report of any well-worked district we see how much energy and blessing lives in other orders in the Church. There is a vast reservoir of devotion truly ministerial, which cannot possibly discharge itself through that tripple channel. We have on a small scale the partial dedication of lay-reading, school teaching, visiting, "Church work," as it is called at large. Very precious are these; all of them practical uses of spiritual gifts. Nothing less. But it is confessed that the whole Anglican group is weak in the life of sisterhoods, and brotherhoods, and "armies," as, when well trained, they may be not unfitly called. The self-devotion of such auxiliaries, as they elsewhere exist, is not less but more absorbing than that of the ministry itself. One Church there is which candor places beyond praise for the ceaseless multitudinous self-surrender of men to energetic life-work, without fee or reward, without property or domestic life. They multiply indefinitely the effectiveness of the ministry. Say that that Church is careless of pure doctrine or ignorant of Scripture truth; that makes the facts still more marked for us, if truth suggests sacrifice for the truth, or for the souls that want the truth. Here with us they would be, not as of old foreign influence set against the organization of diocese and parish, but as already in these [35/36] beginnings dependent on both, and part of both, and their main work the carrying of the Gospel into unreached places. Why are they missing? Have abuses created an eternal prejudice against the thing abused? Have we no confidence in our own safeguards? Have we out down the oak to kill the ivy? Or are the centres we spoke of not now strong enough to take additional strain? Or is there force, but no material for it to lay hold upon?

Or may we think there is indeed a gradual deepening of spiritual yearnings, a gradual leavening of spiritual men into readiness to reply, "Here I am; send me!" when the voice is heard from the throne, "Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?"

I incline from some signs, even from the safeguards themselves, to think this is the account of our position. There are flecks of glory along our horizon, and they surely are lights of dawn, not relics of sunset.

III. "Some spiritual conquest," I said. The word "spiritual" must be the keynote of all we do, say, think about the Church's daily new-born work. The spirit makes itself a body to dwell in. All needed material help would wait upon a spiritual outburst as ever of old.

"Ye are built up a spiritual house"--spiritual yet built; built but remaining spiritual.

Prophets and Apostles foresaw all worldly material brought and built into it. Yet it was to remain spiritual. When it ceases to be so, it is no more the building which will bear the trial and the fire.

We know well that spiritual life may be real without Apostolic form. Only we seem to see that, even in its most beautiful and manifold manifestations, it cannot without that form propagate itself indefinitely. Time after time spiritual varieties surrender their separate life and merge into the completer existence.

On the other hand, we know well that there may be Apostolic form without spiritual life, and that, like any other form that lacks life, its end is to break up and supply pabulum for lower forms of life.

Our own humble, hopeful confidence lies in the possession of Apostolic form with fervent spiritual charity and living faith. The form is secured. Our every-day vigilance must be for the spiritual animation, the spiritual "increase of every part in that which every joint supplieth."

An unworldly Church, an unworldly clergy, means not a poor Church or poverty-stricken clergy. A poor, [36/37] unprovided, dependent clergy is scarcely able to be an unworldly one, and certainly cannot betoken an unworldly laity. A laity which breaks the bread of its ministers into smaller and smaller fragments, and has none of the divine will to multiply, works no miracle and has no honour.

Unworldliness is not emptiness of garners, but the right and noble use of garners filled by God. An unworldly clergy is not a clergy without a world, but one which knows the world, uses and teaches man how to use the world for God, until it brings at last the whole world home to God.

Never more necessary than now to use the world as not abusing it. To abuse it gracefully is the temptation of the age;--and to gild the abuse with philanthropy of the Gospel without its philotheism is popular. But its philanthropy will never live without its philotheism any more than the form of a Church will live without the spirit.

To say "Christianity is not a theology" is in one sense true, because Christianity is a life. But it would be just as true to say Christianity is not a history, or Christianity is not a worship. But you cannot have, the life without the worship, without the history, or without the theology. The spiritual life is the life of God. As material life has its science of biology, so has spiritual life its science of theology. Without theology Christian life will have no intellectual, no spiritual expression, as without worship it would have no emotional expression, without history no continuous development. Intellectual expression is necessary to the propagation and so to the permanence of the faith. To know it is the profession of the clergyman, and the most living interest of a cultured layman.

Let us, the whole world over, where the common speech is spoken, the common prayer prayed, the Scripture open, keep touch with each other, firm, inseparable--find all the points of contact that we can honestly with them that are in a way separate; yet not risk our greater unity for the sake of smaller ones.

* * * * * *

May we catch the inspiration of the hour, the place, the Name. Then may we work out our work; strengthen oar centres of force; throw out organizations which will penetrate society, poor and great; flood every corner of our house with spiritual light; have nothing cold and "no part dark," "the whole body full of light" and [37/38] of warm blood. This is the very hope set before us, that we "may grow into Him in all things, Which is the Head--even Christ."

At the close of this impressive, masterly discourse the missionary hymn, "Saviour Sprinkle Many Nations," written by our own beloved Bishop of Western New York, Dr. Cleveland Coxe, was sung; and the service was closed with the Benediction by the Archbishop standing before the Altar. The long procession slowly retired in reverse order to that in which it entered the Abbey and soon the vast crowd was dispersed all over the great metropolis.

To those of us who recalled the opening services of the Second Lambeth Conference, held in Lambeth Chapel ten years before, it was with a feeling of deep solemnity that we assembled on the 3rd of July. Ten years ago the Lord Bishop of Bombay and the Bishop of Iowa were the youngest Bishops of the English and American Churches present at the opening of the Conference. We walked together again, but it was not at the head of the long procession, but well-nigh in the middle where we formed the line of demarkation between the attendants on the two Conferences. As before, the service was held in the historic Chapel in which lie Matthew Parker's remains, rescued from the dung-heap where Puritan malevolence had thrown them, and where, ere he went forth to prison, to trial, and to death, William Laud knelt in prayer and sang the psalms and read the lessons so singularly appropriate and comforting to this [38/39] tried and tormented Saint in his extremity. Here, too, but a little more than a century since, William White and Samuel Provoost had been consecrated the first Bishops in the English line for Pennsylvania and New York respectively, and here, a few months later, Charles Inglis, the first Colonial Bishop of the English Church, was set apart for his great work on the North American shores. We robed in the Guard Room and then, after answering to our names, filed into the beautiful Chapel where, after a sweet, solemn service, our own beloved Bishop of Minnesota addressed us with words which might have fallen from the lips of the Apostle S. John himself, so full of love and longing for unity were they, and so well suited to give the keynote to our gathering as Christian Bishops in conference respecting the things pertaining to the Church of God. From his earnest words we may cull a few worthy of lasting remembrance:

* * * * "We meet as the representatives of national Churches; each with its own peculiar responsibility to God for the souls intrusted to its care; each with all the rights of a national Church, to adapt itself to the varying conditions of human society; and each bound to preserve the order, the faith, the sacraments, and the worship of the Catholic Church for which it is a trustee. As we kneel by the table of our common Lord we remember separated brothers. Division has multiplied division until infidelity sneers at Christianity as an effete superstition, and the modern Sadducee, more bold than his Jewish brother, denies the existence of God. Millions for whom Christ died have not so much as heard that there is a Saviour. It will heal no divisions to say, Who is at fault? The sin of schism does not lie at one door. If one has sinned [39/40] by self-will, the other has sinned as deeply by lack of charity and love. The way to reunion looks difficult. To man it is impossible. No human eirenicon can bridge the gulf of separation. There are unkind words to be taken back, alienations to be healed, and heartburnings to be forgiven. When we are blind, God can make a way. When 'the God of Peace' rules in all Christian hearts, our Lord's prayer will be answered--That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they all may be one in Us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent Me.' * * *

"It is a singular providence that at this period of the world's history, when marvelous discoveries have united the people of divers tongues in common interests, He has placed the Anglo-Saxon race in the forefront of the nations. Its representatives are carrying civilization to the ends of the earth. They are bringing liberty to the oppressed, elevating the downtrodden, and are giving to all these divers tongues and kindreds their customs, traditions, and laws. I reverently believe that the Anglo-Saxon Church has been preserved by God's Providence (if her children will accept this Mission) to heal the divisions of Christendom, and lead on in His work to be done in the eventide of the world. She holds the truths which underlie the possibility of reunion, the validity of all Christian baptism in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. She ministers the two sacraments of Christ as of perpetual obligation, and makes faith in Jesus Christ, as contained in the Catholic Creed, a condition of Christian fellowship. The Anglo-Saxon Church does not perplex men with theories and shibboleths which many a poor Ephraimite cannot speak--she believes in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, three Persons and one God, but she does not weaken faith in the Triune God by human speculations about the Trinity in Unity. She believes that the sacred Scriptures were written by inspiration of God, but she has no theory about inspiration. She holds up the Atonement of Christ as the only hope of a lost world; but she has no philosophy about the Atonement. She teaches that it is through the Holy Ghost that men are united to Christ. She ministers the sacraments appointed by Christ as His channels of grace; but she has no theory to explain the manner of Christ's presence to penitent believing souls. She does not explain what God has [40/41] not explained, but celebrates these Divine mysteries, as they were held and celebrated for one thousand years after our Lord ascended into heaven, and before there was any East or West arrayed against each other in the Church of God. Surely we may and ought to be first to hold up the olive branch of peace over strife, and say, 'Sire, ye are brethren.'

"In so grave a matter as the restoration of organic unity, we may not surrender anything which is of Divine authority, or accept terms of communion which are contrary to God's Word. We cannot recognize any usurpation of the rights and prerogatives of national Churches which have a common ancestry, lest we heal 'the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,' and say 'peace, where there is no peace;' but we do say that all which is temporary and of human choice or preference we will forego from our love to our own kinsmen in Christ.

"The Church of the Reconciliation will be an historical and Catholic Church in its ministry, its faith, and its sacraments. It will inherit the promises of its Divine Lord. It will preserve all which is catholic and divine. It will adopt and use all instrumentalities of any existing organization which will aid it in doing the Lord's work. It will put away all which is individual, narrow and sectarian. It will concede to all who hold the faith all the liberty wherewith Christ has made His children free."

Passing to the second theme of his discourse the Bishop--himself a Missionary Apostle--spoke of the Church's missionary work,.

* * * * "The providence of God has broken down impenetrable barriers--the doors of hermit nations have been opened; commerce has bound men in common interests, and so prepared 'a highway for our God'--Japan, India, China, Africa, Polynesia, amid the solitudes of the icy north, and in the lands of tropic suns, world-wide there are signs of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The veil which has so long blinded the eyes of the ancient people, our Lord's kinsmen according to the flesh, is being taken away. We bless God for the good example of martyrs like Patteson, Mackenzie, Parker, Hannington, and others, who have laid down their lives for the Lord Jesus. We rejoice [41/42] that our branch of the Church has been counted worthy to add to the names of those who 'came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' 'A great and effectual door is opened.' There is no country on the earth where we may not carry the Gospel. The wealth of the world is largely in Christian hands. The Church only needs faith to grasp the opportunity to do the work.

"In the presence of fields so white for the harvest, we must ask, 'Lord, what wilt thon have me to do?'

"1. There must be unceasing, prevailing intercessory prayer for those whom we send to heathen lands. The hearts of all Christian nations were turned with anxious solicitude to that brave servant of God and His country in Khartoum. Shall we feel less for the servants of Christ who have given up home and country to suffer and it may be to die for Him? Some of us remember that when missions were destroyed, when clouds were all around us, and the very ground drifting from under our feet, that we were made brave to work and wait for the salvation of God by the prayers which went up to God for us. When 'prayers were made without ceasing of the Church unto God,' the fast closed doors of the prison were opened for the Apostle. It will be so again.

"2. There must be the entire consecration of all unto Christ. The wisdom of Paul and the eloquence of Apollos may plant, but 'God alone giveth the increase.' If success comes, if 'the rod of the priesthood bud and blossom and bear fruit,' it must be 'laid up in the ark of God.' He will not give His glory to another. The work is Christ's. We are ambassadors for Him.' 'I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit.'

"3. They who would win souls must have a ripe knowledge of the sacred Scriptures. 'They were written by inspiration of God .... that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.' Our orders may be unquestioned, our doctrine perfect in every line and feature, but we shall not reach the hearts of men unless we preach Christ out of an experimental knowledge of the truths of Divine Revelation. There is but one Book which can bring light to homes of sorrow, one light to scatter clouds and darkness, one message to lead wandering folk unto God. This blessed Book will be to every weary soldier and lonely missionary what it was to Livingstone dying alone in Africa, or [42/43] to Capt. Gardiner dead on the desolate shores of Patagonia, whose finger pointed to the words, 'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.'

"4. We must love all whom Christ love. We may have the gift of teaching, we may understand all mysteries, we may have all knowledge, we may bestow all our goods to the poor, we may even give our bodies to be burned, but without that love which, comes alone from Christ, we shall be 'as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.' With S. Paul we must say, 'Whereinsoever Christ is preached I do rejoice, and will rejoice.'

"5. Above all gifts we need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When this consecration comes there will be no cry of an empty treasury. We shall no longer be weary with the bleating of lost sheep, to whom we have to say, I have no means and no shepherd to send you." The closing division of this noble discourse was on Christian work:

"We rejoice at every sign that Christians realize that wealth is a sacred trust, for which they shall give an account. We rejoice more that they are giving that personal service which is a law of His kingdom. Men and women of culture and gentle birth are going into the abodes of sickness and sorrow, to comfort stricken homes and lead sinful folk to the Saviour. Brotherhoods, Sisterhoods, and deaconesses are multiplying. Never was there greater need for their holy work. Many of our own baptized children have drifted away from, all faith. To thousands God is a name, the Bible a tradition, faith an opinion, and heaven and hell fables. But that which gives us the deepest sadness and makes all Christian work more difficult is that so many of those to whom the people look for example have given up the Bible, the Lord's Day, the house of God, and Christian faith. Alas! they are telling these weary toilers whose lives are clouded by anxiety and sorrow that there is no hereafter. 'They know not what they do.' They are sowing the wind and will reap the whirlwind. May God show them the danger before it is too late! The loss of faith is the loss of everything; without it morality becomes prudence or imprudence. When the tie which binds man to God is broken, all other ties snap asunder. No nation has survived the loss of its religion. We are appalled at the mad cry of anarchy which tramples all which we hold dear for time and eternity under its feet. [43/44] We cannot look into its face without seeing the lineaments of that man of sin who 'opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God and worshipped.' Antichrist is lie who usurps the place of Christ. 'He is antichrist who denieth the Father and the Son.' Our hearts go out in pity to those whose mechanical ideas of the universe may be a revolt from a mechanical theology which has lost sight of the Fatherhood of God. We stand where two ways meet. We shall take care of the people or the people will take care of us. The people are the rulers; the power of the future is in their hands. Limit their horizon to this life, let penury, sickness, and sorrow change the man to a wolf, let him know no God and Father Who hears his cry, no Saviour to help, no brother to bind up his wounds, let there be on the one side wealth and luxury and wanton waste, and on the other side poverty, misery, and despair, there will be, as there has been, a cry for blood. * * * What the world needs to-day is not alms, not hospitals, not homes of mercy alone. It needs the spirit and the power of the love of Christ. It needs the voice, the ear, the hand, and the heart of Christ seen in and working in His children. No powers of government, no prestige of social position, no prerogatives of Churchly authority can meet the issues of this hour; we have waited already too long. Brotherhood man will have, and it will be the brotherhood of the commune, or brotherhood of Christ as the children of our God and Father. Infidelity answers no questions, heals no wounds, fulfils no hopes. The Gospel will do, is doing to-day what it has done through all the ages, leading men out of sin and darkness and despair to the liberty of sons of God.

"In a day of division and unrest there will be many questions which perplex earnest souls. Some will dwell on the subjective side of the faith, others will think most of its manifestations in the life. These questions will affect organization for Christian work, public worship, and find expression in the ritual of the Church. There is no room for differences if Christ be first, Christ be last, and Christ in everything. The ritual of the Church must be the expression of her life. It must symbolize her faith; it must be subject to her authority. As the years go by worship will be more beautiful. The 'garments of the king's daughter may be of wrought gold,' and she 'clothed in raiment of needlework,' but 'she will have a name that she liveth and is dead,' unless her 'fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.'"

[44] The Holy Communion followed, and then, the solemn services over, the Bishops assembled in the great dining hall of the Palace for lunch and social intercourse, which passed the time till the appointed hour for organizing and debate.

The Library with its choice collection of books and historic MSS.,--among them the original record of Archbishop Parker's consecration, and the entries in the official register of our own White's, Provoost's, and Madison's consecration, with that of Inglis, first Bishop of Nova Scotia,--was the place of meeting. In the open space between the alcoves, on a semicircular dais, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the centre and the Archbishop of York on his right hand and the Archbishop of Armagh on his left, sat the Archbishops and Metropolitans of Dublin, of Calcutta, of Canada, Rupert's Land, Sydney, Cape Town, the Primus of Scotland, and here would have sat our own Primate, the beloved Bishop Williams of Connecticut, had he been present. Arranged in front of the Archbishops and Metropolitans were the seats of the Secretaries, the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, who had been Secretary of the preceding Conferences, being the chief, assisted by the Very Reverend the Dean of Windsor, Dr. Davidson, and Archdeacon Smith.

In an alcove at the left of the dais were the stenographic reporters, while in the comparative seclusion of the alcoves, or occupying seats arranged directly in front of the dais, [45/46] were the Bishops, grouped agreeably to their own pleasure and without reference to seniority of consecration or nationality or race. A special form of prayer was used at the opening of each session, which was read by the President. The minutes of the preceding session were read by the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and after the presentation of memorials or communications from outside bodies or from individuals, the theme assigned for discussion was announced and the speakers appointed to lead in the discussion took their appointed parts. It is not our purpose to betray the confidence of the Conference by attempting to give an authoritative report or record of its proceedings; but so much has been already made known of what passed within the walls of Lambeth Library on those eventful days in July, that the story we shall tell from recollection and hurried notes made at the time will serve--if not to reveal secrets that should be held sacred--at least to give a fair statement of what was said and done in reaching the conclusions already published to the world. As others were equally regular in attendance and even more painstaking in making record of speeches, and their impressions, we are sure to be corrected if we are at fault; and in any event, our story of the Conference will be written in the same spirit in which our personal narrative of that of 1878 was prepared, which received on its appearance in print the kind commendation of the late Archbishop of Canterbury as the best [46/47] report of the proceedings that had been published.

It was not till some time after the appointed hour--1:30 p. m.--that the Archbishop called the Conference to order, and after a few words of prayer and others of kindly, loving welcome, the discussion of the second subject set down on the Agenda was begun. "Definite teaching of the Faith to various classes and the means thereto," was the theme introduced by the Bishops of London, Maine, and Carlisle. The formal motion with which the discussion opened proposed the appointment of a Committee to consider the particular subject in question and to report in the closing week of the Conference. The opening of this first discussion, and in fact of the business of the Conference, was assigned to Dr. Temple, Lord Bishop of London, and the weight of the arguments he used and the clearness and precision of the statements he made in this striking speech will not be forgotten by any of the auditors. The Bishop of Maine, Dr. Neely, followed in another but equally important line of argument, enforcing in his clear, incisive manner, the great importance of inculcating fundamental principles by catechetical instruction in the earliest years and the careful following out of this idea in the further training of the young. The Lord Bishop of Carlisle, Dr. Goodwin, was the third speaker in this interesting discussion; and in his nervous, analytical treatment of that portion of the subject assigned to him, [47/48] commanded the closest attention and elicited the hearty approval of his hearers. The time had been so fully occupied by the appointed speakers that there was little, if any, volunteer discussion of the subject ere the hour of adjournment, 4:45 p. M., was reached. The formal vote for the appointment of the Committee was taken and the first session of the Conference came to its close. The names of the Committee were not announced by the Archbishop till later, but we will give them in their proper connection to render our narrative more consecutive. The Bishop of London, Dr. Temple, was named as the "Convener" and Chairman, and the Bishops of Winchester, Dr. Harold Browne; Carlisle, Dr. Goodwin; Maine, Dr. Neely; Brisbane, Dr. Webber; Wakefield, Dr. Walsham How; Cork, Dr. Gregg; Chicago, Dr. McLaren; Ripon, Dr. Boyd Carpenter; Newfoundland, Dr. Llewellyn Jones, and the Coadjutor of Fredericton, Dr. Kingdon. It is needless to say that the Bishop of London was the leading spirit of the Committee, and the report as finally accepted by the majority of the working members of the Committee was chiefly of his composition, certain portions being evidently contributed by the Bishop of Maine. The Bishop of London's special supporters and sympathizers in the Committee were the Bishops of Brisbane and Ripon.

On Wednesday, the Fourth of July, the Litany was sung in Lambeth Chapel by the Bishop of Salisbury, the Precentor of the [48/49] Province of Canterbury, kneeling before the altar at the Litany desk at the head of the aisle, and almost directly over the stone marking the resting place of Matthew Parker's remains. On assembling in the Library after prayers by the Archbishop and the reading of memorials and petitions and the brief minutes of the preceding session, the third subject on the Agenda was announced as follows: "The Anglican Communion in relation to the Eastern Churches, to the Scandinavian and other Reformed Churches, to the Old Catholics and others." The discussion was opened by Lord Plunkett, Archbishop of Dublin, who was followed by the Lord Bishops of Winchester, Dr. Harold Browne; Gibraltar, Dr. Sanford; Lichfield, Dr. Maclagan; Jamaica, Dr. Nuttall, and Bishop Blyth, the Anglican Bishop at Jerusalem.

The Lord Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Harold Browne, spoke with much of his old earnestness and eloquence in support of the claims made in behalf of the Church in Sweden that it preserved the Apostolical Succession and a valid ministry. Much that was said by this distinguished prelate and scholar seemed at variance with investigations we had undertaken, in connection with the Dean of Davenport, prior to the assembling of the Conference, with a view of gaining light on these mooted points; but it was deemed best, at this stage of the proceedings, to reserve until the committees were appointed and duly convened, the presentation of any [49/50] documentary evidence that might influence or correct their judgment. The Bishop of Gibraltar, Dr. Sanford, spoke chiefly with reference to inter-communion with the Eastern Churches, though at this time, and later in committee, he had something to say on the favorite scheme of the Archbishop of Dublin which proposed the consecration of a Bishop for the reforming congregations of Spain and Portugal. To the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr. Maclagan, was assigned the subject of the Old Catholics, he having, with the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. John Wordsworth, visited both the Jansenist Bishop at Utrecht and the Old Catholic Bishop in Germany with a view of eliciting the fullest information as to the condition and prospects of their respective Churches. The Bishop of Jamaica, Dr. Nuttall, had a few words to say respecting the Moravian Episcopate having come in contact with this "ancient Episcopal Church" as an act of Parliament of the last century describes this body, in his own see. Bishop Blyth referred briefly and in admirable taste to the work he had been commissioned to undertake in the East, and especially in Jerusalem; and the excellent temper of the speaker and the importance of the facts elicited, made the occasion full of interest.

Two Committees grew out of this discussion. The First, to which was assigned the subject "The Relation of the Anglican Communion to the Eastern Churches," had for its Convener and Chairman the Bishop of [50/51] Winchester, and was composed of the Bishops of Gibraltar, Dr. Sanford; Meath, Dr. Reichel; Limerick, Dr. Graves; Iowa, Dr. Stevens-Perry; Springfield, Dr. Seymour; Travancore and Cochin, Dr. Speechley, and Bishop Blyth.

To the second of these two committees was assigned the subjects of "The Relation of the Anglican Communion (a) to the Scandinavian and other Reformed Churches; (b) to the Old Catholics and other Reforming Bodies." The Bishop of Winchester was also the Convener and Chairman of this committee, which comprised the Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Plunket; the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr. Maclagan; Derry, Dr. Alexander; Western New York, Dr. Cleveland Coxe; Salisbury, Dr. Wordsworth; Central Africa, Dr. Smythies; North Carolina, Dr. Lyman; Gibraltar, Dr. Sanford; Cork, Dr. Gregg; Albany, Dr. Doane; Dunedin, Dr. Neville; Cashel, Dr. Day; and Iowa, Dr. Stevens-Perry.

After the lunch in the great dining room of the Palace, the Conference again assembled for work, the fourth subject on the Agenda being under discussion, "Polygamy of Heathen Converts," and "Divorce." The consideration of the first of these themes and incidentally of both, was prefaced by two most exhaustive and learned speeches, the one by the Lord Bishop of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot, the other by the Lord Bishop of Chester, Dr. Stubbs; the former giving attention chiefly to the exegetical points involved, the patristic views and the practice of the early Church on this [51/52] subject, and the latter continuing the treatment of the theme in its historical and legal aspects with special reference to the questions involved in the conduct of missions to the heathen. The Bishop of Zululand, Dr. Mackenzie, followed these remarkable speeches which left little to be said, so fair and complete were they in their consideration of every point involved, with a few personal remarks, and was in turn succeeded by the Bishop of the Niger, Dr. Crowther, who gave a most interesting recital of experiences, together with the results of wide observation bearing on the subject under debate. The quaintness of manner and the intense earnestness of the aged Bishop; his color, the marvellous vicissitudes of his life, and the position he holds, gave to his words a singular force and quite enchained his auditory. The Bishop of Maryland, Dr. Paret, spoke forcibly and fully on the question of Divorce, and the Bishop of Bombay, Dr. Mylne, concluded the list of appointed speakers. A few of the Bishops spoke briefly and to the point on the questions at issue, and the debate from its beginning to its close, produced a marked impression on the Conference. In the appointment of the Committees there had been named, in response to a memorial read by the Metropolitan of Sydney, Dr. Barry, from the Synod of the Australasian Province, and in view of the almost universal sentiment in favor of efforts for the reunion of Christendom, a Committee on "Home Reunion," numbered Four, of which the Lord [52/53] Bishop of Hereford was the Convener, and on which were placed the Metropolitan of Sidney, Dr. Barry; the Metropolitan of Rupert's Land, Dr. Machray; the Bishops of New York, Dr. Potter; Jamaica, Dr. Nuttall; Brechin, Dr, Jermyn; Ripon, Dr. Boyd Carpenter; Manchester, Dr. Moorhouse, St. Andrews, Dr. Charles Wordsworth; Edinburgh, Dr. Dowden; Nelson, Dr. Suter; Adelaide, Dr. Kennion; Minnesota, Dr. Whipple; Coadjutor of Antigua, Dr. Branch, Rochester, Dr. Thorold; Lichfield, Dr. Maclagan, and Wakefield, Dr. Walsham How.

Committee No. Five, to which was assigned the subject of "Polygamy of Heathen Converts," had for its Convener and Chairman the Lord Bishop of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot, and was composed of the Bishops of London, Dr. Temple; Chester, Dr. Stubbs; Zululand, Dr. Mackenzie; The Niger, Dr. Crowther; Missouri, Dr. Tuttle; South Dakota, Dr. Hare; Exeter, Dr. Bickersteth; Guiana, Dr. Austin; Waiapu, Dr. Stuart; Meath, Dr. Reichel; Central Africa, Dr. Smythies; Travancore and Cochin, Dr. Speechly; Sierre Leone, Dr. Ingham; and Bishop Perry, late of Melbourne. To the Committee numbered Five was assigned the subject of "Divorce, and the question,"--indicating the trend of the discussion prior to the appointment of this second Committee--"whether it may be practicable for this Conference to offer any advice or suggestion which may help the Bishops and Clergy towards agreement in their actions concerning [53/54] it." Of this Committee the Lord Bishop of Chester, Dr. Stubbs, was the Convener and Chairman, and the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot, a member, together with the Bishops of Bombay, Dr. Mylne; Maryland, Dr. Paret; Mississippi, Dr. Thompson; Exeter, Dr. Bickersteth; Quincy, Dr. Burgess; Huron, Dr. Baldwin; Dover, Dr. Parry, and Singapore and Sarawak, Dr. Hose.

The discussions broke up a little before the appointed hour on this occasion, the President very gracefully calling attention to the request we had made that an opportunity should be afforded the American Bishops to pay their respects to the American Minister on this the Nation's natal day. We found, as so often before and afterwards, Mr. Phelps and his charming wife and daughter the most delightful of hosts, the most agreeable of friends.

In the evening, the dinner given by the Lord Mayor of London and the Lady Mayoress to the Archbishop and Bishops took place in the noble Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House, at which upwards of one hundred of the Bishops were present. The splendor of this pageant has been often detailed. The occasion was interesting, if for nothing more, because of its reproduction of the dress, the customs and the very speech of days long past. A year before we had been at a similar feast in this splendid hall, and had responded to the toast linking the American Church with its mother, the Church of England. On this [54/55] occasion the Bishop of Minnesota was the speaker for his American brethren, and he spoke with his accustomed power and success. It was at this festal gathering that we met for the last time the dear Bishop of Michigan, Dr. Harris. We had laid hands upon his head at his consecration to the office and administration of a Bishop in the Church of God, and we little thought as we talked with his charming daughter and himself across the long table that we should never again see him in the flesh. Stricken down by disease almost directly after, he waited in unconsciousness the final stroke, and in his departure hence the American Church mourned a leader lost,--a saint too soon translated.

On Thursday, July 5th, the Litany was sung in the Chapel by the Bishop of Salisbury, and, after the usual preliminaries, the discussion numbered "Five" on the Agenda, on "Authoritative Standards of Doctrine and Worship," was opened by the Metropolitan of Sydney, Dr. Barry, in a speech of great fluency. The Bishop of Aberdeen, Dr. Douglas, followed in a brief but succinct statement of principles underlying the whole question. The Bishop of Western New York, Dr. Cleveland Coxe, was the next speaker, and held the Conference enchained by his finished and forcible oratory, as well as by his masterly treatment of the theme. The Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. John Wordsworth, spoke thoughtfully and with full grasp of the subject, while the Bishop of Albany, Dr. Doane, who concluded the list [55/56] of appointed speakers, made the most impressive and striking speech of the occasion. Committee No. Seven, on "Authoritative Standards of Doctrine and Worship," when announced, had the Bishop of Ely, Lord Alwyne Compton, as its Convener and Chairman, find numbered among its members the Metropolitans of Rupertsland, Dr. Machray, and of Sydney, Dr. Barry; the Bishops of Western New York, Dr. Cleveland Coxe; Meath, Dr. Reichel; Arkansas, Dr. Pierce; Albany, Dr. Doane; Qu'Appelle, Dr. Anson; Grahamstown, Dr. Webb; Derry, Dr. Alexander; Nassau, Dr. Churton; Aberdeen, Dr. Douglas; Salisbury, Dr. John Wordsworth; Edinburgh, Dr. Dowden; S. David's, Dr. Basil Jones; Dover, Dr. Parry; and Bishop Bickersteth, of Japan.

There grew out of some most earnest and practical remarks made by the Archbishop of York, Dr. Thompson, the appointment of Committee No. Eight, on "The Observance of Sunday," of which the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Bickersteth, was the Convener, and the Bishops of Washington Territory, Dr. Paddock; Cashel, Dr. Day; Liverpool, Dr. Ryle; Brisbane, Dr. Webber; Indiana, Dr. Knickerbacker; Wakefield, Dr. Walsham How, and Argyle and the Isles, Dr. Chinnery-Haldane, were the members. In connection with the appointment of this Committee, few who were present could easily forget the earnest, impassioned plea for the sanctity of the Lord's Day, and the necessity of some action looking towards [56/57] the repression of its all-too-common desecration, which fell from the lips of his Grace, the Archbishop of York.

In the afternoon of Thursday the sixth subject of the Agenda was reached: the "Mutual Relations of Dioceses and Branches of the Anglican Communion." To the Bishop of Capetown, Metropolitan of South Africa, Dr. Jones, was assigned the opening of this debate, and following him the Bishop of Brechin, Dr. Jermyn, Primus of Scotland, spoke forcibly and to the point. The Bishop of Derry, Dr. Alexander, followed with the graceful eloquence for which he is distinguished, and a spirited discussion ensued, in which representatives of nearly all the branches of the Anglican Communion took part. The Committee numbered Nine, as finally constituted, represented the speakers on the various subjects naturally connected with the theme, and the composition of the Committee was such as to indicate a wise and thoughtful consideration of the subject referred to it. The Bishop of Carlisle, Dr. Goodwin, was the Convener and Chairman, and the other members of the Committee were the Metropolitans of Capetown, Dr. W. W. Jones, and Calcutta, Dr. Johnson, with the Bishops of Derry, Dr. Alexander; Colombo, Dr. Copleston; Tennessee, Dr. Quintard; Auckland, Dr. Cowie; Sierra Leone, Dr. Ingham; Manchester, Dr. Moor-house; North China, Dr. Scott; New Jersey, Dr. Scarborough; Moray and Ross, Dr. Kelly; Adelaide, Dr. Kennion; Chester, Dr. Stubbs; [57/58] Jamaica, Dr. Nuttall; and the Assistant Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, Dr. Rulison.

On Friday, July 6th, the Litany was again sung in the Chapel by the Bishop of Salisbury, and the day's discussion was occupied with the first subject on the original Agenda, reserved for convenience sake to the last. The theme was "The Church's Practical Work in Relation to (a) Intemperance, (b) Purity, (c) Care of Emigrants, (d) Socialism." These four subjects were introduced respectively (a) by the Bishops of London, Dr. Temple, and New York, Dr. Potter--the former with his usual earnestness and argumentative power, the latter with graceful manner and suggestive good sense; (b) by the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot, in an address of masterly strength and beauty, and the Metropolitan of Calcutta, Dr. Johnson, in a simple, straightforward, practical speech. "The Care of Emigrants" was considered by the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr. Ryle, the Bishop of North Queensland, Dr. Stanton, and the Bishop of Quebec, Dr. Williams, with the addition of a number of other Bishops; while the question of "Socialism," as presented by the Bishop of Manchester, Dr. Moor house, in perhaps the most eloquent and effective speech of the session, commanded the attention and absorbed the interest of each one present. The Bishop of Mississippi, Dr. Thompson, followed in a very happy manner the speech of this occasion. The Committees growing out of this day's debate were four in number, and had assigned to them respectively the subjects [58/59] of "Intemperance," "Purity," "The Practical Work of the Church in Relation to the Care of Emigrants," and "Socialism."

The Bishop of London was the Convener and Chairman of the Committee No. Ten, on "Intemperance," and with him were associated the Bishops of Rochester, Dr. Thorold; Pennsylvania, Dr. Whittaker; The Niger, Dr. Crowther; Saskatchewan, Dr. Pinkham; Zululand, Dr. Mackenzie; Sierra Leone, Dr. Ingham; Newcastle, Dr. Wilberforce; Kilmore, Dr. Shone; and Sodor and Man, Dr. Bardsley.

The Committee No. Eleven, on "Purity," had the Bishop of Wakefield, Dr. Walsham How, as its Convener, and associated with him were the Bishops of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot; Calcutta, Dr. Johnson; North Dakota, Dr. Walker; Brechin, Dr. Jermyn; Toronto, Dr. Lewis; Massachusetts, Dr. Paddock; Shrewsbury, Sir Lovelace Stamer; Marlborough, Dr. Earle; Carlise, Dr. Goodwin; and Truro, Dr. Wilkinson.

The Committee on the "Care of Emigrants" (Number Twelve), had the Bishop of Landaff, Dr. Lewis, as its Convener, and with him were the Bishops of Liverpool, Dr. Ryle; Rupert's Land, Dr. Macray; Pittsburgh, Dr. Whitehead; North Queensland, Dr. Stanton; Algoma, Dr. Sullivan; Sodor and Man, Dr. Bardsley; Quebec, Dr. Williams; Maritsburg, Dr. Macrorie; Newark, Dr. Starkey; North Dakota, Dr. Walker; Niagara, Dr. Hamilton.

The Committee on "Socialism" (Number Thirteen), had the Bishop of Manchester, Dr. [59/60] Moorhouse, as its Convener and Chairman, and associated with him were the Bishops of Mississippi, Dr. Thompson; Michigan, Dr. Harris; Derry, Dr. Alexander; Wakefield, Dr. Walsham How; Rochester, Dr. Thorold; Carlisle, Dr. Goodwin; Brisbane, Dr. Webber; Sydney, Dr. Barry; and Pittsburgh, Dr. Whitehead.

At the close of the debates the President announced the appointment of an additional Committee, Number Fourteen, to receive questions submitted in writing by members of the Conference. This Committee, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury was the Convener and Chairman, and which numbered the Archbishops of York and Armagh, and the Metropolitans of South Africa, Australia, India, and Rupert's Land, the Primus of Scotland, and several other Bishops, the Bishop of Iowa being one of the number, was practically a committee on rules of order and the conduct of debate, and constituted the advisors of the President in all matters of procedure.

It was thus that the work was laid out and assigned to the various committees, and Friday evening found the Conference adjourned over the appointed recess.

The rising of the Conference, and the remanding of the various topics placed on the Agenda to the consideration of the committees we have named, afforded to the assembled Bishops, and to the public generally, the opportunity both of estimating the importance of this gathering; and of prognosticating [60/61] the results that might be expected therefrom. "Nothing of equal importance in the history of the Church of England," if we may accept the testimony of the celebrated Dr. Döllinger, as given by Canon Liddon (The Guardian, Sept. 9, 1888,) "had taken place for, at least, more than two centuries. The spectacle of an assembly of 145 Bishops dealing with burning questions and deliberating with perfect freedom, could not but have a considerable effect throughout Europe and throughout Christendom." The seventy-six Bishops who assembled at Lambeth in 1867, to attend the first Conference, had in 1878 been succeeded by a gathering of one hundred at the second Conference; while the third decennial meeting of this august body now reached 145; but five below the number present at the second Oecumenical Council of the Undivided Church,--"the Synod of the one hundred and fifty,"--the Council of Constantinople from which we have received the Nicene Creed in what is substantially its present form.

As in the primitive days fifteen centuries ago, while the Roman Empire was yet intact, there journeyed from Lincoln, York, and London, at the bidding of the Emperor Constantine, Bishops representing the British Church to attend the Council of Arles, the sees of Lincoln, York, and London were represented in this gathering by prelates in direct succession in these historic sees from the days of old when the faith of Christ was first introduced into the [61/62] British Isles. Armagh, founded by S. Patrick a century and a half before the missionary Augustine established his seat at Canterbury, was represented by S. Patrick's successor, the Primate of Ireland. The Bishop of Rochester, in attendance at the sessions of the Conference, was the ninety-ninth incumbent of that see.

The essentially spiritual character of the Episcopate was displayed in this gathering of the rulers of "the city of God" by the fact that there was shown and felt no distinction between those who alike shared the possession of the gift of the apostolate, save that which was due to consecrated learning, personal magnetism, or self-denying labor for the spread of the faith. The spiritual peers of the English establishment, "Lords spiritual" and "Lords temporal," sometimes as well, claimed no precedence and exercised no superiority over the citizens of our own republic, wholly untitled and disassociated with temporal place or power, or the missionary Bishops from the very ends of the earth, whose flocks were savages and whose "palaces" were the log hut or the humble settler's cabin.

It was a gathering of brothers animated by one common hope, seeking one common end, even the bringing of the world into subjection to Christ. It was thus that the Conference served to separate in the popular mind that which was accidental and that which was essential, whether in the Episcopate or in the organization of the different branches of the [62/63] Church. There met at Lambeth the spiritual rulers of Churches wholly independent of one another and exhibiting marked diversity in their canons of discipline, their formularies of worship, and even in their statements of doctrine, but each and all finding a centre of unity in the Episcopate. The Conference thus became its own greatest achievement in that it afforded a demonstration of the real unity existing between Churches entirely independent and owing no earthly allegiance outside their own respective boundaries.

To attempt to depict the social side of the Conference, to which special attention was paid during the recess, would require space and time not at our command. Our hospitable entertainment, and that of the ladies of our party, at the palaces of Lambeth, Fulham, Farnham Castle, Auckland Castle, Ely, Cuddesdon, Bishopthorpe, Chester, and elsewhere, the lovely days spent at Selsdon Park, the repeated visits at the College, Worcester, the hearty welcome at Oxford and again at. Cambridge, the dinners, receptions, conversaziones, day after day and night after night, were most agreeable in passing, and are remembered with pleasure as attesting the wide hospitality with which the Conference was welcomed by all classes and conditions of men. On Sundays the American Bishops were expected to preach in the various Cathedrals and Churches, and crowds followed them wherever they went. For ourselves, in grateful recognition of the nursing care extended during the past [63/64] century to the feeble Missions of the Church in America, we preached nearly or quite a score of times in behalf of the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the oldest Missionary Society of Reformed Christendom now in existence. At various occasions on week days we were privileged to attest on platforms and in great public meetings the noble missionary work done of old by this Society in our Colonial days, and the results of these labors as seen in parishes and dioceses now flourishing on American soil. It was a busy time indeed, and it was with difficulty that we found opportunity to give that attention to the matters assigned to the various committees, which was, of course, the first duty. Convened by their respective Chairmen, generally at the Palace of the Bishop named first on the list, these very committee meetings proved the occasions of most agreeable gatherings and added fresh experiences of graceful and abundant hospitality to those which had already been so abundant and agreeable.

We were assigned to the committee appointed to consider questions relating to the Scandinavian Communions and the Old Catholic movement, to the committee on relations with Eastern Churches, and the committee of General Reference. The latter was charged with the order of business and was the body with which the President consulted as to questions of procedure and matters to be brought formally or informally before the Conference. [64/65] The two committees on the Eastern Churches and on Scandinavian Communions and the Old Catholic movement were convened on successive weeks at Farnham Castle, the residence of the Lord Bishop of Winchester, the celebrated Harold Browne.

The report of the Committee on the Eastern Churches, although drafted by the learned and distinguished Bishop of Winchester, with the aid chiefly of the Bishop of Gibraltar, Dr. Sanford, failed to receive the attention and secure the general approval that the importance of this subject would naturally command. There was no reference to instances of intercommunion of late date, notably the recognition by the Patriarch of Jerusalem of the American and Anglican Churches, shown in the permission granted, first of all, to our own Dean of Davenport, and subsequently to Canon Liddon, to celebrate again and again in one of the Chapels of the Holy Sepulchre, the Eucharist in the American and English rite. These and other interesting instances of a friendly feeling existing between the American Church and branches of the Holy Orthodox Church both in the East and in Russia, in the effecting of which the long-continued labors, both personal and by correspondence and published papers and works, of the Dean of Davenport, have elicited the commendation of the Primate of all England and the most learned and distinguished prelates, theologians and scholars of the whole Anglican Communion, were unfortunately overlooked; and [65/66] the report, dealing alone with matter at least a decade old, proved to be defective in failing to touch the existing state of things. This defect would doubtless have been remedied in a measure but for our absence when the report took definite shape. By a failure to obtain the notice of the time of meeting, we did not reach Farnham Castle until the draft-report had been adopted by the few members of the Committee present, and our efforts to incorporate later and more definite information respecting the present relations of the Eastern Churches with the Anglican Communion, failed of success. The report as presented was received without discussion in the Conference, other and burning questions crowding it quite out of sight.

In the meetings of the Committee on the Old Catholic and Scandinavian Churches, which continued through the greater part of a week and were fully attended and full of interest, the results reached were attained only after the most patient and careful consideration. In the matter of the Scandinavian succession, the guarded expressions which are found in the report were formulated after the examination of documents and the presentation of the testimony of experts which, in the minds of this great body, left ground for conviction that the Swedish Church was lamentably deficient in appreciation of the Apostolic Succession even if the claims to its possession were not vitiated by the insufficiency of its ordinal and the laxity of practice [66/67] at present prevailing, by which persons with only Presbyterian or Congregational ordination were freely and without any protest admitted to the exercise of priestly functions in vacant parishes throughout Sweden. The abrogation of the order of the Diaconate was further urged, and the resolutions drafted largely in accordance with a paper procured by us from the celebrated Dr. A. Nicholson, confessedly the most capable authority on all these points, and presented to the Committee by the Bishop of Iowa, may be regarded as the only possible result that could be reached. To awaken in Sweden a desire, on the part of its national Church, for the Apostolical Succession, with a full appreciation of the gift and a readiness to supply all possible defects now existing and to remove all obstacles that may now exist, through intercourse and the spread of information respecting the question, is to be devoutly wished.

The Bishop of Western New York brought all his stores of learning and his winning eloquence to bear upon the cause of what seemed to him the revival of Gallicanism in the movement of M. Loyson, better known as Pere Hyacinthe. But the general conviction of the Committee was, that this movement had not yet won for itself a right to recognition by influencing any number of those for whose benefit it was begun; while difficulties multiform and apparently insuperable militated against the success of this reform movement while M. Loyson occupied himself, as he has thus [67/68] far done, rather with political than with strictly religious questions.

In this connection a question was raised with reference to the feeling of the Committee respecting the proposed consecration of a Bishop by the Irish prelates for the reforming Congregations in Spain and Portugal. Our own recollections on this point are confirmed by notes taken at the time and by a careful examination of what has since been said on this subject by the Archbishop of Dublin and by his critics. No one of the Committee will for a moment question the interest shown and expressed by Lord Plunkett in these Congregations, but there was evidently a feeling of disappointment on the part of the Committee when the statistics of the movement were read by his Grace of Dublin. It was felt by all that only after careful deliberation and painstaking investigation, and with the clearest and strongest testimony to the reality and permanence of the movement, should the hazardous step of granting the Episcopate to this comparatively obscure body even be considered. Reference was again and again made to the unfortunate experience of the American Church in its consecration of a Bishop of the Valley of Mexico. But it must be conceded that the suggestion of some members of the Committee, among them Bishops distinguished for their great learning and their personal acquaintance with the reform movements on the Continent, that the Conference should, by resolution, bind itself to disallow any such [68/69] step without the consent of all the Bishops of the Anglican Communion, or at least of the Archbishops and Metropolitans, was pronounced by the American Bishops on the Committee as ultra vires, and at their strong protest, in which the Irish prelates on the Committee joined, this action was not taken. We felt strongly that, much as one might deprecate the unhappy issue of the Mexican consecration, we had neither the power to fault, nor would we be warranted by the Church at home in condemning, action which had been taken, though as it seemed to us personally irregularly, under the provisions of Article 10 of our Ecclesiastical Constitution. In no way did we deem ourselves at liberty to sacrifice even by implication the autonomy of our own or of the Irish Church, and it is in view of this discussion and the failure of the action contemplated by some declaring the question of the consecration of Bishops for foreign countries a matter alone within the purview of the Archbishops and Metropolitans or the great majority of Bishops of the whole Anglican Communion, that we feel confident that the principle was at least tacitly confessed that autonomous and independent Churches had the right of bestowing the Episcopate outside of their own borders as claimed by the Church in the United States in Article 10 of our Ecclesiastical Constitution. The lesson of the Mexican consecration is or should be sufficient to secure the greatest possible caution in the exercise of this right, but the [69/70] autonomy of Independent National Churches is too dear a possession to be surrendered even by implication. The Lambeth Conference, in summoning the Bishop of Haiti, consecrated under this very constitutional provision, to its session both in 1878 and in 1888, has certainly committed itself to a recognition of this action on the part of the American Church in one instance which has proved satisfactory.

The reassembling of the Conference for the final deliberations and decisions respecting the subjects contained in the Agenda, and committed to the various committees, was an occasion of deep interest if it were merely to note the personnel of this notable gathering. The genial, courteous, tireless primate of all England, his face like that of mi angel, his words ever ready, logical, conclusive, his manner displaying the deepest solicitude that the rights of each and all of the members of this assembly should be respected and maintained, and his charming presidency, holding ever in hand by a firm yet loving restraint the most independent and irrepressible body of men, each the other's peer, that could be conceived,--such was the central figure of us all. His Grace of York never appeared to greater advantage than at this Conference. His words were ever wise, temperate, and convincing, and the stand he took in maintaining the integrity of God's word, and in sustaining the underlying principles of the Church's organization; in defending the sanctity of the Lord's day and in asserting the mission of the Church [70/71] to the highest as well as the lowest classes, stigmatizing, as he did in unsparing words, the evil, careless living of the rich and socially prominent as making them the teachers and parents of sins among those taught to look up to those above them in rank or repute--made him a leader in this gathering of great men. The aged but most active and agreeable Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Knox, and the excellent and accomplished Lord Plunkett, Archbishop of Dublin, took their full part in the debates and were ever accorded the respect and confidence of their brethren. That saintly scholar and orator, the Bishop of Derry, Dr. Alexander, and the learned Bishop of Meath, Dr. Reichel--an American by birth--were also noted men among their fellows. The Bishops of Durham and Chester, Lightfoot and Stubbs, associated on committees and working together as brothers, were recognized by all as scholars of world-wide fame, as divines of highest repute, and as men whose lightest word would command respect. The Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. King, proved himself most spiritually minded and devout, by a speech on the sacramental system of the Church, which, coming from the heart, held every one as by a spell and seemed to each to be words and sentiments such as one would hear and feel when within the gates of the New Jerusalem. It was the utterance of a scholar and a saint, reaching the highest spiritual level of the Conference, and the effect was at once profound and lasting. The Bishop of Carlisle, [71/72] Dr. Goodwin, was a clear, incisive speaker, carrying great weight and always commanding attention. The Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Magee, was always eloquent, often paradoxical, sometimes profound, frequently persuasive. Lord Alwyne Compton, Bishop of Ely, was always sound, sensible, and closely observant of the rules of proceedure, in which, as of old Prolocutor of Convocation, he was an acknowledged authority. The Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. John Wordsworth, showed consummate scholarship such as might be anticipated from his revered father's son, and was accepted as an authority in all matters relating to the Continental reform movements, in which he, with the Bishop of Litchfield, Dr. Maclagan, had taken personal interest and a prominent part. Of the Scotch Bishops, the Bishop of Aberdeen, Dr. Douglas, impressed every one with the charm of his manner and his chivalrous support of the distinctive features of the Northern Church. A member of the noble house of Douglas, the Bishop of Aberdeen, and the Bishop of Argyle, Dr. Chinnery-Haldane, were the only natives of Scotland on the Scottish Episcopal bench. The venerable Bishop of St. Andrews, Dr. Charles Wordsworth, though present in Committees, was not able to attend the sessions of the Conference. His eirenic views were represented in the Conference by the able Metropolitan of Sidney, Dr. Barry. The Primus, Dr. Jermyn, impressed every one with his earnestness, his sound sense and his conscientious devotion to [72/73] his work. The Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Dowden, showed himself to be the scholar that he was, and a genial gentleman as well.

The tall, spare figure of the Bishop of Guiana, Dr. Austin, consecrated in 1842, as seen on the raised dais facing the general body, attracted quite as much attention as the keen eye and animated countenance of the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. Durnford, in his eighty-sixth year, or the courtly, dignified, and graceful manner of the excellent Bishop of St. Alban's, Dr. Claughton. The Bishop of London, Dr. Temple, spoke often and always with vigor and singular clearness, and though sometimes failing to carry the Conference with him, was always recognized as a power among his peers.

The young Bishop of Japan, Dr. Bickersteth, attracted general interest and won every heart by his evident devotion and entire consecration to his work. The Bishop of Bombay, Dr. Mylne; was among the most prominent of the East Indian Bishops. All deeply regretted the feebleness of body that kept from our sessions much of the time the Metropolitan of South Africa, Dr. Basil Jones, a worthy successor of Robert Gray. The young Bishop of Adelaide, Dr. Kennion, impressed every one as giving promise of a distinguished episcopate, while the Bishop of Nassau, Dr. Churton,--incumbent of perhaps the poorest see in Christendom--showed himself to be a scholar as well as one of the most self-sacrificing of men. Of the American Bishops, who certainly had their [73/74] full share of influence in the Conference, Drs. Cleveland-Coxe and Doane took the leading parts. Eloquent, thoroughly informed, and always ready in statement and debate, they deserved the recognition willingly accorded to them by their brethren of fully and fairly representing the American Church. The Bishop of Maine, though not a frequent, was a forcible, speaker, and the work he did in Committee was recognized as among the ablest offered for the consideration of the Conference. The Bishops of Minnesota and New York were universally honored and beloved, and to them as representative men, the one our Senior by consecration, and the other as occupying our largest American see, the academic honors of the University of Cambridge were given. The Bishops of Mississippi, Maryland, Newark, and South Dakota made effective speeches. For the most of us, and for much of this time, our "strength was to sit still;" we were learners, gladly sitting at the feet of our fathers and brothers.

It is not necessary to follow in detail the debates and speeches of the closing days of the Conference. Two matters of deep importance require notice. These are the attitude of the Conference in respect to the assaults made upon the Word of God and the wisest mode of meeting the same; and the action taken with reference to the proposed recognition of non-Episcopal orders as a means of promoting the great cause of Christian unity.

It cannot escape notice that the published [74/75] reports of the committees are deficient in not containing any paper from the important committee to which was assigned the subject, "On Definite Teaching of the Faith to Various Classes and the Means Thereto." The committee having charge of this matter was not derelict in duty in failing to consider the important theme committed to its consideration. A report was presented, in some respects the most able and masterly of all the reports offered; but after a discussion, the earnestness and solemnity of which could not fail to impress each member of this body, the report was recommitted by an overwhelming vote, in consequence of a few expressions which seemed to convey the impression, or at least to take the position for the sake of argument with the unbeliever, that the Church felt well assured only of the substantial truth of the New Testament; and, further, conceding, or seeming to concede, that the opening portions of the Word of God, like its close, were a vision or an allegory. The conclusions seemingly to be deduced from the few phrases we have indicated of this report, were denied by the members of the Committee, but the sense of the reverence due to the Word of God was such that no explanations were deemed sufficient to prevent the recommitment of the whole report, with a view to the elimination of its objectionable features. On its reappearance, with modifications in its language and expressions, at a later day, objection was still made to what were deemed [75/76] unwise and unnecessary admissions, and finally the report, able and excellent in all but a few words, as it certainly was, was refused a place among the printed proceedings of the Conference. This action of the assembled Bishops affirmed their reverence and respect for the Word of God, and their unwillingness, even for argument's sake, to make concessions as to its substantial verity, or admissions that might characterize portions of it as vision or allegory. It was feared that the language of the report might be misunderstood and its admissions might be used to detract from the confidence all should feel in God's Word as the revelation of His will and way.

The report of the committee on Home Reunion, as originally presented, received scant courtesy at the hands of the Conference. The original draft as read by the Metropolitan of Sidney, Dr. Barry, and understood as embodying the peculiar views of the Bishop of S. Andrews, Dr. Charles Wordsworth, contained a section which, by order of the Conference, was excised. Published in brief in the papers of the day through the connivance or carelessness of some member of the House, the portion of the report surreptitiously obtained by the press was printed in full in the charge of the Bishop of Saint Andrew's delivered August 29, 1888, and there can, therefore, be no objection to our giving what is characterized by the (English) Church Quarterly Review as this "thoroughly unhistorical statement of the doctrine of the [76/77] Church of England on non-Episcopal ordinations." The paragraphs which the Conference refused to receive are as follows:--

"As, however, it is well known that the one crucial difficulty in the way of all such action is the question of the recognition by the Anglican Communion, of the existing Ministries of non - Episcopal Communions, the committee, although they are well aware of the grave difficulty and responsibility of any utterance on the subject, cannot refuse to submit to the Conference some suggestions upon it.

"It will be seen that, as one of the elements of the proposed basis of Reunion, they here, in accordance with the principles of the Church of England--as declared in the Preface to her Ordinal,--included 'the historic Episcopate,' with such adaptations as may be in different portions of the Church required by present circumstances and conditions. But they observe that, while the Church in her XXIII. Article lays down the necessity of the Ministry as a sacred Order, commissioned by those 'who have public authority given unto them in the Congregation,' and while for herself she had defined the latter term by insisting in her own Communion on Episcopal Ordination, she has nowhere declared that all other constituted Ministry is null and void. They also note that in the troubled period following the Reformation (up to the year [77/78] 1662), Ministers not Episcopally ordained were, in certain cases, recognized as fit to hold office in the Church of England, and that some chief authorities, even of the High Church school, defended and acted upon this recognition in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

[On this subject, see the following passages from the important letter of Bishop Cosin to Mr. Cordel, 1658:-- "First, I conceive that the power of Ordination was restrained to Bishops rather by Apostolical practice and the perpetual custom and canons of the Church, than by any absolute precept that either Christ or the Apostles gave about it of mere Presbyters shall ordain and make a Priest, yet I cannot so peremptorily say that factum non valet, and pronounce the Ordination to be utterly void. "Therefore, if at any time a minister so ordained in those French Churches came to incorporate himself in ours, and to receive a public charge or cure of souls among us in the Church of England (as I have known some of them to have so done of late, and can instance in many other before my time), our Bishops did not reordain him before they admitted him to his charge, as they would have done, if his former ordination here in France had been void. Nor did our laws require more of him than to declare his public consent to the Religion received amongst us, and to subscribe the Articles established. And I love not to be herein more wise or harder than our Church is, which hath never publicly condemned and pronounced the Ordinations of the other reformed Churches to be void, as it doth not those of the unreformed Churches, neither among the Papists."-- It may be noted, also, that Archbishop Bramhall, in Ireland, after the Restoration, in the letters of Orders which he gave to Mr. Edward Parkinson (after reordination), caused the following words to be inserted:--"Non annihilantes priores ordines (si quos habuit) nec invaliditatem corundem determinantes, multem inus omnes ordines sacros, Ecclesiarum forinsecarum condemnantes, quos proprio Judici relinquimus, sed solummodo supplentes quicquid prius defuit per canones Ecclesiae Anglicanae requisitum, et providentes paci Ecclesiae, ut schismatis tollatur occasio, et conscientiis fidelium satisfiat, nec ulli dubitent de ejus ordinatione, aut actus suos presbyteriales tanquam invalidos aversentur."--(Anglo-Catholic Library, Bramhall's Works, vol. i., app. xxxyii.) The same distinguished prelate, when Bishop of Derry, had previously written:--"I know that there is a great difference between a valid and a regular Ordination, and what some choice Divines do write of case of necessity: and for my part am apt to believe that God looks upon his people in mercy with all their prejudices, and that there is a great Latitude left to particular Churches, in the constitution of their ecclesiastical Regiment according to the exigence of time and place and persons, so as Order and their own Institution be observed."--The Serpent Salve, pp. 597, folio, date 1648.)]

The question which, therefore, presents itself to them is this: 'Whether the present circumstances of Christianity among us are not such as to constitute a sufficient reason for such exceptional action now?' To this question--looking to the infinite blessings which must result from any right approach toward Reunion, both in England and still more in the American and Colonial Communities--looking still more to [78/79] the unquestioned fact, that upon some concession upon this matter depends, humanly speaking, the only hope of such an approach--they cannot but conceive that our present condition, perhaps in a higher degree than at any former time, justifies an affirmative answer. They therefore humbly submit the following Resolution to the wisdom of the Conference:--

"That, in the opinion of this committee, such Conferences are likely to be fruitful, under God's blessing, of a practical result, only if undertaken with willingness on behalf of the Anglican Communion--while holding firmly the threefold order of the Ministry as the normal rule of the Church, to be observed in the future--to recognize, in spite of what we must conceive as irregularity, the Ministerial character of those ordained in non-Episcopal Communions, through whom, as Ministers, it "has pleased God visibly to work for the salvation of souls and the advancement of His kingdom; and to provide, in such way as may be agreed upon, for [79/80] the acceptance of such Ministers as fellow-workers with us in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ."

These paragraphs in the original report appear between the divisions numbered respectively III. and IV., and refer at the outset to the "Conferences" suggested in the third resolution offered for the consideration of the Conference.

In presenting this paper, including the portion subsequently excised by the Conference and afterwards published by the Bishop of Saint Andrew's; the Metropolitan of Sidney, who, as we learn from Bishop Charles Wordsworth, drew up this specially objectionable part of the report, opened the discussion with a reference to the evil of internal divisions. These as they existed in Great Britain, he regarded as grave and serious, but in the Colonies, they were fatal. Referring to the report, he argued that the Conference would not be committed by its language but only by the resolutions, the passage of which he earnestly urged. This most brilliant debate of the session was thus begun. It was in connection with this discussion and during the most exciting moments of the debate that the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Lightfoot, showing even then by his voice and manner that the hand of death was already upon him, took occasion in his singularly clear and strong expression of unqualified opposition to this scheme, to "disclaim wholly the interpretation the Bishop of St. Andrew's" had "put [80/81] upon his words" in his essay in The Christian Ministry, as well as the interpretation given them by Presbyterian controversialists. The Bishop then proceeded to say,--and no one who was present could ever forget the impressiveness of his words,--"It is sometimes convenient to extract one sentence from a long essay, all of which is meant to hinge together, and to use that sentence for a purpose." It was a testimony to the Historic Episcopate and the threefold Ministry then and there solemnly pronounced, which this profound scholar a few days later reiterated in his address at the re-opening of the historic St. Peter's Chapel, at Auckland Castle. The Bishop of Albany in a speech of great force and eloquence, attacked the scheme advocated by Bishop Barry. The Scottish Primus, Dr. Jermyn, moved the recommitment of the report with a view to the excision of the proposed temporary recognition of non-Episcopal orders. No one present, it has been said, will forget the flashing of the brilliant eyes, the contemptuous curl of the lips, the indignant scorn of expression, and the eager gesture of dissent, with which the proposal of recognizing non-Episcopal orders "by a side wind" and the historical illustrations with which it was attempted to bolster up this plan, were listened to by the one man of vast historical learning and the one chief authority for the constitutional history of England or the English [81/82] Church, which the Conference contained. [The Bishop of Chester, Dr. Stubbs, since translated to Oxford.] The American Bishops, with but a single exception, spoke or voted against the reception of this portion of the report It is not too much to assert that this scheme of recognition, even for a time, and that too with the avowed subsequent discontinuance of all distinctively Presbyterian or non-Episcopal ordination whatever, of any other orders than those received at the hand of Bishops, would, had it been entertained by the Conference, have tended to the immediate disruption of the Church. Such is the outspoken assertion of a writer--presumably the learned Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Dowden,--in an able article on this subject in the (English) Church Quarterly Review. It is certain that it would have occasioned the immediate withdrawal from the Conference of a large number of the assembled Bishops, and those, too, among the most noted for general learning, for labors for the cause and Church of Christ, and for theological acumen and lore. Where nearly every one expressed his opinion, the testimony of the young and heroic Bickersteth, the English Missionary Bishop in Japan, as to the "fatal effects" of such action "on the work in the mission-fields;" his further warning, "if you want vigorous self-sacrifice for the Church abroad, you must not shake the [82/83] foundations of the Church at home;" and his prophetic words, "it will have no influence; it will be of no avail; the converts from heathenism claim validity and regularity;"--added to the almost unanimous verdict of the Conference against this measure. The language of the learned Dr. Von Döllinger on this episode in the proceedings of the Conference is thus expressed:--

"Even the unfortunate attempt to unsettle so fundamental a principle as the indispensableness of the Episcopate to the transmission of the ministerial character and commission, by its complete failure, supplied a useful illustration of the general temper of the Conference. It was the passing shadow which enabled us the better to do justice to the landscape."

The result of this warm debate in which the leading scholars and thinkers of the Conference arrayed themselves against the proposition of the Bishop of Saint Andrews' and the Metropolitan of Sidney, affords sufficient proof that the trend of the Anglican Episcopate is not in the direction of laxity or indifference in matters of Church order and polity; but the rather in that of an increasing estimation of the value and importance of the sacred depositum which is ours in the three-fold ministry and the unbroken succession of the Episcopate from the Apostles' times. Any scheme for the promotion of Christian [83/84] unity based on the recognition of non-Episcopal ordination by the Anglican communion was shown to be wholly out of the question, involving as it would the Church's surrender, not only of its historical position, but its hopes of final union on primitive and Catholic principles and precedents with the great communions of eastern and western Christendom. It is of interest in this connection to quote from the valuable article in the (English) Church Quarterly Review, to which we have already acknowledged our indebtedness, the following testimony to the position almost universally assumed by the American Bishops on this matter: "The combination of staunch ecclesiastical conservatism with the largest Christian liberality on the part of the principal American speakers made a memorable impression, and beyond question helped to determine the overwhelming majority when the crucial question was decided." The consultations of the American Bishops with their brethren of Scotland in considering this report, and the unanimity with which a decision was reached, are recalled by the writer with special interest. As of old by the Concordate of 1784 and the gift to us of the Episcopate in the consecration of our first American Bishop, the Apostolic Seabury, the Church in Scotland and the United States were most closely drawn together as of one mind and heart.

[85] Obedient to the will of the great body of the assembled Bishops, the draft-report was recommitted, the objectionable features excised, and on its final appearance the resolutions reaffirming the position taken by the American Bishops at Chicago were adopted and this chapter of the history of the Conference was closed. Misapprehensions with regard to what was done in this connection have subsequently required the lifting of the veil which elBe would have shrouded in secrecy this episode in our proceedings.

In addition to the question to what extent, if at all, the ministerial character of those not episcopally ordained might be recognized; and also to the momentous problems growing out of modern textual, moral and historical criticism of the Word of God, there was another grave subject with respect to which grave differences of opinion were manifested. This question was the baptism of polygamist converts from heathenism. That this problem was one difficult of solution was evident from the start. The subject, as we have already noticed, had been traversed, so far as the historical side was concerned, in exhaustive speeches, full of accurate information, and leaving no point or period of history, primitive, patristic, mediaeval, untouched. The arguments of those who would receive polygamists to baptism under certain exceptional circumstances, were presented in [85/86] the committee and in the conference by the Bishops of Exeter, Meath, and Peterborough. Since the rising of the Conference, the Bishop of Exeter has printed the minority report made in the Committee, the views of which were defeated on the final division in the Conference by a vote of nearly four to one. By a little more than a two-thirds vote the resolution was adopted that the wives of polygamists might, under certain circumstances, be admitted to baptism. The result reached was most acceptable to those who believe that the Church has no power to dispense with the requirements of the law of Christ in the case of those who seek incorporation in His Body in Holy Baptism. The conclusion, which is strictly accordant with the Word of God and the Church's practice from the first, is of a nature as expressed in the Encyclical Letter, "to maintain and protect the Christian conception of marriage."

The report from the Committee on Purity, of which our Bishops of Massachusetts and North Dakota were the American members, received the singular honor of its unanimous adoption by the Conference. It was drafted by the late Bishop of Durham, and comes to us with the added impressive-ness attaching to the work of one who, after a life of noble devotion and self-sacrifices, now rests from his labors in the Paradise of God. We give this report in full:

[87] THE REPORT ON PURITY.

In submitting the following Report, your Committee would observe that they have cast it in such a form that, if accepted, it may go forth as the utterance of the united Conference.

We speak as those who are deeply conscious of their responsibility before God for the words which they utter upon a subject of tremendous moment.

Knowing, as we do know, how sins of impurity are not only a grave public scandal, but are also festering beneath the surface, and eating into the life of multitudes in all classes and in all lands, we cannot keep silence, although we dare not utter all that we know.

We are constrained, as Bishops of the Church of God, to lift up the standard of a high and pure morality, and we call upon all, whether of our own Communion or not, in the name of God our common Father, to rally round this standard. Especially do we press upon those on whom lies the responsibility of the cure of souls, to face the question, and to ask themselves what they are doing, and can do, to protect their flocks from the deadly ravages of sensual sin.

We believe that, although the public conscience is ' in some degree awakened, and the self-sacrificing efforts of those who have laboured to this end have not been wholly in vain, yet the awful magnitude of the evil is but imperfectly realized.

We are not blind to the danger of dealing publicly with the subject of impurity. We dread the effect, especially upon the young, of any increased familiarity with the details of sin. Notwithstanding, we hold that the time has come when the Church must speak with no uncertain voice.

We solemnly declare that a life of purity is alone worthy of a being created in the image of God.

We declare that for Christians the obligation to purity rests upon the sanctity of the body, which is the "Temple of the Holy Ghost."

We declare that a life of chastity for the unmarried is not only possible, but is commanded by God.

We declare that there is no difference between man and woman in the sinfnlness of sins of unchastity.

We declare that on the man, in his God-given strength of manhood, rests the main responsibility. We declare that no one known to be living an immoral life should be received in Christian society.

[88] We solemnly protest against all lowering of the sanctity of marriage.

We would remind all whom our voioce may reach that the wrath of God, alike in holy Scripture and in the history of the world, has been revealed against the nations which have transgressed the law of purity; and we solemnly record our conviction that, wherever marriage is dishonoured and the Bins of the flesh are lightly regarded, the home-life will be destroyed, and the nation itself will, sooner or later, decay and perish.

We, on our part, as Bishops of the Church of God, satisfied as to the gravity of this matter, and feeling that nothing short of general action on the part of all Christian people will avail to arrest the evil, determine to confer with the Clergy and faithful Laity of our several Dioceses as to the wisest steps to be taken for the accomplishment of the weighty enterprise to which God is calling us.

We believe that we may profitably deliberate upon such questions as the following:--

1. How best to bring about a general reformation of manners, and to enforce a higher moral tone in the matter of purity.

2. How especially to guard the sanctity of marriage, and to create a healthier public opinion upon the subject, and, to this end, how best to make the celebration of Holy Matrimony as reverent and impressive as possible.

3. How most wisely to deal with this difficult and delicate question as regards our children, our homes, our schools, and other places of education.

4 How best to strengthen the hands of those who are striving in the Army, the Navy, and other public services, to create and maintain a high standard of purity.

5. How best to provide safeguards for those who, from inability to marry, or from other circumstances of their lives, are exposed to special temptation.

6. How best to bind together, and to encourage by the sense of union, all who desire to help, or to be helped, in the battle against impurity.

7. How best to purify art and literature, and to repress all that is immodest in language, manners, and dress.

8. How best to enforce or amend the laws framed to guard the innocent, to punish the guilty, to rescue [88/89] the fallen, to suppress the haunts of vice, and to remove temptation from our thoroughfares.

We thank God for the readiness, and even enthusiasm, with which the movement in favour of purity has been welcomed by young men of every class. There is a generosity and chivalry among the young which is seldom appealed to in vain; while large numbers are deeply thankful for every aid in the desperate battle against the sins of the flesh.

Once more, as witnesses for God, we would speak to all whom our voice may reach. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." Live pure lives. Speak pure words. Think pure thoughts. Shun and abhor all that is not of perfect modesty. Guard with all jealousy the weak and the young. Above all pray for the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit of God, "that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

The resolutions adopted by the Conference, after the presentation and discussion of the various reports brought in by the Committees respectively, embody the mature judgment of the great majority of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion. With the exception of those of a local nature, referring to matters affecting chiefly the English Colonial and Missionary Churches specially and specifically under the patriarchate of Canterbury, they are certainly well worthy of our study, and they may be found, in each case, to embody and enforce judgments and principles which should be generally accepted throughout the American Church.

The report on Temperance, chiefly from the pen of the Bishop of London, a "total abstainer," called attention to "the essential condition of permanent success in this [89/90] work," which, it claimed, was "that it should be taken up in a religious spirit, as part of Christian devotion to the Lord." It urged that "the work must be done in His Name for the sake of His children whom He has bought with His Blood." We cite with special approval the closing paragraphs of this report, all of which the Conference commended "to the consideration of the Church:"--

"A brief success may be obtained by forgetting the religious character of the task, and thinking only of the misery which intemperance causes and of the degradation inherent in it. But the religious spirit alone will maintain the conflict steadily through the obstinate resistance that will have to be encountered, and in spite of the many disappointments and failures that will have to be borne.

"It is, again, the religious spirit which can repress the fanaticism which sometimes makes the total abstainer talk of his abstinence as the one thing needful; which sometimes makes him uncharitable and presumptuous; which sometimes makes him think lightly of grievous sin, provided it be not the one sin which he condemns.

"But, taken up in a religious spirit, this work has a double blessing. It is not only blessed in the victory over sin and evil, but blessed also, and perhaps still more, in the door which it opens for the whole Gospel to enter men's souls. The conscience of the mass of the people speaks more clearly on this point than, perhaps, on any other. The minister of the Gospel who begins with this finds that a very large number are at once ready to accept his teaching, because he carries their consciences with him from the first. They have already learnt that intemperance is wrong, and they are ready to believe in the value of a ministry which visibly and systematically wages war on it. And having learnt to trust and follow the minister in this, they are far more ready to trust and follow him in all else. To be all things to all men, in order that he might save some, was S. Paul's rule. And as things now are in many [90/91] parishes and in many parts of the world, the same rule will be best kept by those ministers of the Church who make a point of showing themselves thoroughly in earnest in this great battle."

We should not fail to note the uncompromising stand taken by the Conference respecting the sanctity and inviolability of the marriage relation, and the emphatic reiteration of the Church's position that for only one possible cause can it be held lawful, under any circumstances, to dissolve a marriage once contracted, and that a person whose marital relation has been dissolved by human law or legislation for any other cause than this can never receive the Church's blessing on an attempted re-marriage.

These utterances, re-stated and re-affirmed at a time when the purchased permission from the Papal authority enabling the Duke of Aosta to marry within the prohibited degrees had occasioned a worldwide scandal and a consequent lowering of the respect hitherto paid to the sanctity of marriage and to the Church itself, is worthy of special remembrance in this land of ours, where priest and people are constantly brought face to face with the painful results of the laxity of divorce legislation, and where little regard is paid to the marriage relation as well. It is to be noted, too, that by implication at least, the Conference indicated its judgment that the civil sanction alone could be expected, even in the re-marriage of the innocent party in the case of a divorce on Scriptural grounds. [91/92] Hard though this rule may seem in its application, in a land where so many marry in haste only to repent of their indiscretion when it is too late, it is certainly a step in the right direction for the Bishops of Christ's. Church to confine the Church's blessing where we are sure that our Lord proposed to bless, while at the same time recognizing the doubt which, it is admitted, exists on this point alone, we do not refuse the Sacraments where possibly the Lord Himself did not ban.

It was in deference to the earnest, faithful, impassioned words and warnings of the Archbishop of York, Dr. Thompson, whose voice, alas! is now hushed in death, that the subject of Sunday observance received special attention. The judgment of the Committee as to the sanctity of the Lord's Day was reported in the form of resolutions which, after undergoing some slight emendations from the Conference, were adopted almost, if not quite, without opposition. The recognition of Sabbatical observance as of "primeval obligation," as affirmed in the report, was omitted in the resolution of the Conference, so as not to commit the Bishops to an affirmation of its pre-Mosaic observance, and the inaccurate statement of the report that "the first day of the week was ere long adopted by the Church as the Christian Sabbath or the Lord's Day," was more correctly expressed in the resolution, which was adopted, as follows: "It [92/93] gradually succeeded as the great weekly festival of the Christian Church to the sacred position of the Sabbath." Devoutly do we trust that the wise and temperate action of the Church on this matter of Sunday observance may tend to a more general and higher appreciation of the sanctity of the day of rest. It is in this connection that we would quote, with hearty approval, the words of Dr. Mylne, the Lord Bishop of Bombay--a dear personal friend as well as a brother beloved--on this important matter:--

"Here let me add one caution which experience has shown to be needed. Reaction from old-fashioned Sabbatarianism has led some who claim to be good Church-people into almost vaunting a laxity about Sunday which results in sad spiritual loss, in the starving of the souls of those who practice it, and in offence to many Christian people. Such laxity may be a badge of anti-Puritanism; it is certainly no mark of good Churchmanship.

"The spirit of a well-observed Sunday, of a Sunday whose chief aim is to shake off the week-day dust which gathers over the spiritual life in the midst of engrossing occupations, of a Sunday whose best hours are spent at Church and in trying in the quiet of home to gather up relaxed spiritual faculties, carries with it a wealth of blessings for which nothing else can make up. A Sunday which is but a more dissipated week-day--a day on which the engrossments of work are exchanged for the frivolities of amusement, a day which diminishes self-command instead of serving to make us supreme over ourselves--such a Sunday not only misses a blessing, it precludes the possibility of seriousness on any day and in any occupation. It turns our most steady application to the details of week-day work into a mere toil for the world or for ourselves, and deprives them of all the consecration which [93/94] accrues to the most secular of employments when carried on as 'unto the Lord.'" [Vide., "The Counsels and Principles of the Lambeth Conference of 1888. A charge delivered to the Clergy and Committee-men of the Diocese of Bombay in S. Thomas's Cathedral, on Wednesday, January 9th, 1889, by Louis George Mylne, Fourth Bishop of Bombay." Bombay: 18811, page 13.]

Wise and temperate suggestions were presented in the Report on Socialism, and statistics were furnished and rules laid down in the Report on the Care of Emigrants, enabling the Conference to grasp the magnitude of the problems involved, and to propound some hints for grappling with the same. In the discussion of this latter question, the Lord Bishop of Liverpool, Dr. Ryle, so well known in this country by the reproduction of his pungent and practical tractates, took an earnest part. The debate on this report afforded to many, from America at least, their only opportunity of seeing or hearing this noted "Evangelical" prelate, whose attendance on, or interest in, the Conference was practically limited to the time given to the consideration of this matter.

The closing days and hours of the session were spent in the consideration, paragraph by paragraph, of the "Encyclical" composed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose geniality and courtesy were conspicuous throughout the wearisome hours of his unremitting and uninterrupted attention to his duties as presiding among his brethren. There were afforded to his Grace in the careful collation of the action [94/95] taken, the valuable assistance of the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Dr. Ellicott, known to all Christendom as a profound and reverent scholar and commentator on the Word of God, and the Very Reverend, the Dean of Windsor, Dr. Randall T. Davidson, remembered by all for his courtesies rendered at the second Lambeth Conference, and, as we pen these words, designated to succeed the gracious and godly Bishop Thorold in the See of Rochester. The Encyclical, as proposed for our consideration and as adopted without a dissenting voice, has, at its very beginning, the echo of Catholic and Apostolic precedent and truth. It is addressed "To the Faithful in Christ Jesus, Greeting." It begins with solemn and significant words:

"We Archbishops, Bishops Metropolitan, and other Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, in full communion with the Church of England, one hundred and forty-five in number, all having superintendence over Dioceses, or lawfully commissioned to exercise Episcopal functions therein, assembled from divers parts of the earth, at Lambeth Palace, in the year of our Lord, 1888, under the presidency of the Most Reverend Edward, by Divine Providence Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan, after receiving in the Chapel of the said Palace the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, and uniting in prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have taken into consideration various questions which have been submitted to us affecting the welfare of God's people, and the condition of the Church in divers parts of the world."

These opening words of the Encyclical Letter, in which the faithful everywhere [95/96] were addressed, are important The assembled prelates claimed to be something more than a chance gathering of Christian men and ministers. The use of the words "Archbishops, Bishops Metropolitan, and other Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, in full communion with the Church of England" implied that we claimed for ourselves every right and every power which these words have conveyed to the mind of Christendom since they first began to be used. The language used asserted that whatever has been associated with the title of Bishop--semper, ubique, et omnibus,--was claimed as our individual right and privilege. "Into the words 'Bishop of the Anglican Communion,'" as the Lord Bishop of Bombay clearly and forcibly puts it,--"might be read some conception of the office less comprehensive than had once been attached to it. By 'Bishop of the Catholic Church in full communion with the Church of England' can be understood only that conception of the office which has obtained from the first in Christ's Church."

The Conference asserted with no uncertain sound its Catholicity. Its members were "Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church." The words following,--"in full communion with the Church of England," indicated the composition of the Conference,--embracing the English, Scottish, Irish, American, Colonial and missionary autonomous Churches in communion with [96/97] the See of Canterbury, and recognizing not a legal but a moral patriarchate. Such was the composition, such the claim of the Lambeth Conference of 1888. On Friday evening, July 27th, the reports had been acted upon, the discussions closed, the resolutions formulated, the Encyclical approved, and the Gloria Patri sung by the assembled leaders of God's Sacramental Host, and the Primate's blessing closed the private meetings of the session and left but the morrow's solemn service, sermon, and Sacrament, at S. Paul's Cathedral, with which to bring to an end the Third Lambeth Conference.

As we parted, with the shadows of night gathering around the historic pile where we had met day after day in conference, there was borne into every mind a sense not alone of the high intellectual level reached by the speakers, the variety of gifts, the breadth of experience, the profound learning, the convincing logic, the practical common sense, the intense sympathy, and the burning zeal of each and all, but a recognition of the brotherliness, the singular deference paid by each to each other, the sweetness of temper, the absence of partizanship, and the openness and love displayed by one and all.

It was a solemn parting, for those who crossed the portals of the Lambeth Library that night were never on earth to meet again. But a few weeks elapsed ere one [97/98] and another were called to enter upon the rest of Paradise; and but few, comparatively, of the one hundred and forty-five Catholic Bishops assembled in Conference in 1888 will be able to respond in the flesh to the call convening the Fourth Lambeth Conference in Anno Domino 1898. God guide His servants then as He guided us!

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