his discourses were heard with that deep attention which is due to the exposition of God's word, and his suggestions received as the counsels of paternal authority. In consecrating churches he came to mingle his congratulations with the joy of the people upon the crowning of their labours, their efforts, and ardent prayers, and to raise their thoughts from the house of the Lord on earth, which was so dear to their hearts, to the beauty and glory of the Church triumphant in heaven. And when new labourers were sent forth into the vineyard of the Lord, both he and others indulged in the delightful anticipation of a more abundant and joyful harvest. Besides, there was something in the social character of the Bishop which heightened the interest of his official intercourse with his people. His sympathies were always with the company in which he chanced to be, and his heart in the business in which he was engaged. With persons of education and refinement he was at his ease, and he accommodated himself without any effort to those of low degree. Frank, courteous, and accessible, no one was embarrassed either by the dignity of his station or the superiority of his talents. Even his peculiarities, which were somewhat remarkable, his abruptness in conversation, his absence of mind, the quickness of his movements, the playfulness of his remarks, and his occasional neglect of the ordinary forms of society, did not materially lessen the reverence for his character, while, at the same time, they increased the affection for his person. Without a spirit of adulation, he had a singular faculty of making men pleased with themselves, by directing the conversation to the subjects in which they were interested, or to the pursuits or studies in which they excelled. From the keenness of his discernment, a slight acquaintance was sufficient for him to gain an accurate knowledge of the character of those into whose company he was thrown; and from the importance of this knowledge in the station which he occupied, wherever he had any doubts, he was very careful to correct, or confirm his own observations by the information which he could procure from others. Seldom, therefore, forming an erroneous estimate of men, he mingled among them on an easy footing, with great gratification to them and advantage to himself. From the Rev. John Skinner to Bishop Hobart. "REV. SIR, "Forfar, North-Britain, Feb. 26, 1816. "I have for a long season meditated the making my acknowledgments to you for the Armour Invincible' which you put into my hands, when called upon, as a son, to defend the character of a revered father; and as a sound Churchman, to repel one of the most malignant attacks ever made upon the truth as it is in Jesus,' and the divinely instituted 'pillar of truth,' the Catholic Church-her ministry and discipline. Having observed, at last, a ship destined to proceed direct from Dundee, in my vicinity, to NewYork, I gladly embrace the opportunity afforded me of testifying my humble admiration of your invaluable Apology for Apostolic Order and its Advocates.'* "In circumstances and situation almost precisely the same, the Episcopal Church of America and Scotland ought ever to feel a lively interest in each other's prosperity. It gives me heartfelt pleasure to inform you, as an approved friend of Primitive Truth and Order,' that the venerable portion of the mystical body of Christ to which I belong, after having been subjected to a whole century of ignominy, contempt, and scorn, is hourly advancing in respectability at home, and in esteem abroad. The exertions of her friends, not more distinguished by their rank in the state than by their own personal worth, have procured for the Episcopal Church in Scotland even royal patronage. An Episcopal fund has been established, to which the whole bench of Bishops in England, as also the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, have liberally subscribed. This produces already £100 per annum to the Bishop of Edinburgh, with £50 to four other Bishops, and £60 to my venerable father, as Primus, who would receive no more, besides an allowance to the poorer clergy. Two new chapels are about to be erected in Edinburgh, which will cost £30,000. The son of the late estimable Bishop Horsley offi * It was a curious circumstance, that the character of the attack made on Bishop Skinner, in Scotland, was so much like that which was made by Dr. Mason on the advocates of Episcopacy in this country, that his son literally used what he terms the unanswerable reasonings of the Apology for Apostolic Order, in putting to silence a champion of Presbytery, more bitter in his invectives than the editor of the Christian's Magazine at New-York. ciates in a chapel in Dundee, which cost, about five years ago, £7000; and my father and brother are about to erect one in Aberdeen, at nearly an equal expense. In fact, no town in Scotland, of any respectability, is without a handsome Episcopal chapel, and a clergyman of talents and acquirements; so that, contrasted with those troublous times, when three or four Episcopalians were not permitted to meet together, the change in our situation is great. To God alone the praise is due. "Your hearty well wisher, "And truly faithful servant in Christ, "J. SKINNER." From Dr. Samuel S. Smith, formerly President of Princeton College, to Bishop Hobart. "It should be no subject of surprise, that I remember you and other gentlemen who were associated with you at any period during your residence at this place. It has not been my fortune to meet with those who were more amiable, nor have others. more estimable in literature or religion fallen in my way. Some of those, especially, with whom I am at present surrounded, are far from effacing the agreeable recollections of those remote moments. I too often see austerity, gloom, and harsh suspicion, where candour, taste, and benevolent sentiment had prevailed. ***. "I have been thinking seriously, since I received your letter, of your plausible demonstrations of a secondary heaven. I am inclined to believe that the pious mind cannot enjoy here complete felicity till the resurrection of the body re-unites the whole man. The human soul appears to be of that order, that it receives all its ideas, sentiments, and emotions through the medium of the body. The unembodied mind may think on the stock of ideas acquired in life, and disposed by the fancy in beautiful images; but to derive information in a new state of being, and to enjoy its peculiar felicities, seems to require our whole nature, endowed with proportionably new and peculiar powers of perception and combination. But it is in vain for us, in this state, to philosophize on a condition of being of which we have no means afforded us to judge. The inferences which you and your excellent authors have drawn from the Scriptures, have proceeded as far, and perhaps as justly, as they can be pursued. "I have the pleasure to be, with the utmost cordiality, "Your most obedient, "And most humble servant, In his address to the Convention this year, Bishop Hobart notices, with great satisfaction, "the increase of the numbers and the piety of several congregations, which had been effected by assiduity in parochial labours, and by the frequent performance of the service of the Church, without a departure from her prescriptions, or the introduction of modes of |