once realizing their practical use to the assurance of faith. To this course I was prompted also by having no periodical publication through which to awaken attention to the subject and direct the judgment. I was therefore obliged to construct my more official discourses in such wise as to call forth discussion; but I did not anticipate that the wily Presbyterians would have swallowed the bait so readily. * * *. Their opposition has done more for the cause in a year, than without it could have been done in ten. It is now, however, too late for them to retrieve their error, attention is awakened, feeling is roused, and investigation will for ever be in our favour.

"Our progress nevertheless is comparatively slow in organizing new congregations. * * *. We want missionaries, and have funds to employ two, but cannot obtain them; yet my hope is strong-it is not my cause but the Lord's, and his providence is so distinct in his overruling direction of events for the furtherance of that cause, that both my clergy and myself are greatly encouraged. That we should be of one mind and of one heart, is an unspeakable blessing; and that with this they should be zealous, evangelical in the just sense of that word, and the majority, men of more than respectable literary attainments, and other qualifications for the pulpit, renders my station pleasant amid the severe labour I have to encounter.

O

* * *.

"I feel much indebted to Mr. C and to Mr. for the help and countenance they have given me. I need it all. The habits and occupations of my best years were not favourable to the retaining,

far less to the improvement of a good education. Every hour I have cause to regret that improvidence which abandoned the continuation of mental improvement, and in a good degree threw away the fruits of care, and pains, and expense in my early education. But I foresaw not the use the Lord had for me. Wonderful it is that he should have sought me out, and what is left of me I wish to be all his. Remember me in your prayers-help me with your counsel-reprove me where I am in error or wrong-and believe me,

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Very truly and affectionately,

"Your friend and brother in the Lord,

"JOHN S. RAVENSCROFT."

In the General Convention of 1826 a proposition was made by the House of Bishops for sundry alterations in the Liturgy. The measure was adopted by the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, but, according to the constitution, it was to be communicated in the recess of the sittings of that body to the conventions of all the dioceses, and then to be acted upon at the following meeting of the General Convention. It was understood to have been brought forward by Bishop Hobart, and it is therefore necessary to explain by what motives he was influenced in the suggestion of a plan which was much more likely to open a boundless field for discussion than to lead to any satisfactory results. It was entirely contrary to all his predilections and habits. His love of the Liturgy was a passion. His admiration of it in every part was so great, that it had even been the occasion of charging him with a want of due

veneration for the word of God. He had at all times enforced the observance of it among his clergy with the utmost earnestness, solicitude, and zeal. I do not remember an instance under any circumstances in our parish, of his omitting even those parts which are left to the discretion of the minister, nor do I believe that if the alterations which he proposed, and which were also to have been discretionary had been adopted, that he would have changed his own practice.

But in certain sections of the Church it had been alleged that the service was too long, and in accommodation to this opinion, many of the clergy, in disregard of their solemn obligations and vows, had substituted their private will for the public law. This appeared to Bishop Hobart to be such a subversion of principle as would eventually bring all authority and all order into utter contempt. If, therefore, the pretext of the undue length of the service could be removed, and whatever was doubtful in the construction of a certain rubrick,* by which a very common irregularity was justified, were made clear and indisputable, then every violation of the order of the Church would be without excuse; and he not only believed that it would be without excuse, but he was even disposed to indulge the hope, that it would in a great measure be without temptation.

The modifications proposed were such as would make no striking alteration in the daily service of the Church. In its general form it was to remain

* The rubrick relative to the Ante-Communion Service.

the same as it had ever been. The change was to be entirely confined to the Lessons and the Psalms. These were either to be reduced in length to a certain extent, or retained in the way originally prescribed, at the discretion of the minister. The Preface also in the Confirmation Service was to be slightly altered, and the Rubrick in relation to the Ante-Communion Service to be made so explicit as to render the observance of it a matter of the clearest and strictest obligation.

No change could have been made with less violence to the devout feelings and endearing associations of our people. It would have been so slight in appearance as scarcely to be noticed, and yet the abridgment of the Lessons and the Psalms would have been so material as to bring the service within reasonable bounds, to secure greater uniformity in its observance, or to expose its violators to the severest censure and reproach.

The measure was brought forward by Bishop Hobart, with the view of promoting universal harmony and order, and in a spirit of the utmost conciliation and kindness; which was met with great cordiality by some who differed widely from him in his general views. It was, however, with singular frowardness and perversity strongly opposed by many of those who were in the constant habit of mutilating the Liturgy, as well as by others who sacredly observed it, and who dreaded the effects of innovation and change. From this double opposition, therefore, it was finally rejected.

The following letter to Bishop Hobart from Bishop Ravenscroft, is exceedingly characteristic VOL I.

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both of the style and temper of the writer. There was something remarkable and striking in the history of his life, in the character of his mind, and in the boldness and loftiness of his spirit, which nothing could daunt. He was nearly of middle age when he entered upon the ministry. The early part of his life had been spent in guilty pleasures, his later years in mere worldly pursuits, and the whole in such a forgetfulness of God, that when he was awakened to a sense of his condition, he regarded himself as the chief of sinners. There was, therefore, such a profound abasement at the recollection of his offences, such a broken and contrite heart, such a

deep sense of the divine mercy and grace in reclaiming him so late from the error of his ways, that his soul broke out with the most fervent love to God, and the short remnant of his days was entirely employed in redeeming the time which he had hitherto mispent. A monument of mercy himself, he preached the unsearchable riches of Christ with the utmost ardour, fidelity, and zeal, holding him up continually in all his gracious offices, and through the divine blessing winning many souls to him, which are now the crowns of his rejoicing. But though his sanguine temperament was enkindled with all the glow of pious feeling, he was not hurried on into the extravagances of enthusiasm. He loved and he preached the Gospel of Christ as the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, but he also loved the Church which the Son of God had purchased with his blood. He looked upon these things as essentially and vitally connected with each other, and thought that no man had a right to put