CHAPTER XIV.

1815.-Et. 40.

Convention-Missionary Cause-Outery against Bishop Hobart as an Enemy to Foreign Missions-Explanation--Oneida Indians-Mr. Williams-History-Bible and Common Prayer-book Societies— 'Pastoral Charge' on the subject-Letter to Episcopalians-Charges against Bishop Hobart-Explanation.

THE Convention of this year continued to evince the fruits of the Bishop's well-ordered zeal. The number of clergy in the Diocese had already doubled during the four years of his episcopate, while the number of missionaries in it had more than quadrupled. Still, however, his zeal outran his success; and 'the wants of the wilderness' was a theme still uppermost in his heart and on his tongue.

The missionaries,' says he, continue, as usual, faithful and diligent in their important work. It is impossible to appreciate too highly the importance of their exertions.' Nor were the laity wanting on their part.

There have been instances of individuals, possessing only moderate wealth, who have given the tenth, and the eighth part of their property to the building of churches, besides liberal contributions in the same proportion, to the support of the clergy. The congrega

tions of our Church, it should be recollected, in the new settlements particularly, are not large; and, therefore, the erection of buildings, and the support of public worship, fall heavily upon them. But for the aid that they received from other quarters, and particularly as it respects the support of clergymen from the Missionary Fund, the scattered Episcopalians in many parts of the State would have been unable to establish congregations, and to obtain, permanently, the worship of our Church. I mention these facts, in order to excite their more wealthy and favored brethren, particularly in the cities, from the example of their liberality, to contribute, in generous proportion to the means with which Providence has blessed them, to the diffusion and support of that Gospel which is the only security for man's happiness in this life, and his only pledge of felicity in the life which is to come.' *

It was one of the popular outcries raised against Bishop Hobart, that he was an enemy to foreign missions; as if between foreign and domestic there were any other question than that of simple distance. The missionary spirit is the spirit of the Gospel, it is one and the same wherever it labor. As our Church hath now well said, 'the missionary field is one—THE WORLD -and foreign and domestic are but terms of locality.' Now, that Bishop Hobart possessed the missionary spirit none will deny, for who pleaded it more eloquently, or labored in it more

* Journal of Convention, 1815, p. 14.

faithfully, to extend, within the limits where he wrought, the Redeemer's kingdom. The charge, therefore, amounts but to this, that he preferred, for the time, to labor nearer home than some others, no doubt equally sincere, and equally zealous. And yet, who will now undertake to say that he was wrong? Who will undertake to deny that the present vigorous flight of our distant missions is not the result of that condemned policy which began by first strengthening at home its infant and unfledged pinions? At any rate, all must admit it to be a mere question of time and distance, involving no point of principle, and justifying, on neither side, censure or condemnation.

Among the changes in the Diocese he was called upon to notice, was the decease of its first Bishop, September 6, 1815.

· The Right Reverend Bishop Provoost has very recently departed this life. To the benevolence and urbanity that marked all his intercourse with his clergy, and, indeed, every social relation, there is strong and universal testimony; and with respect to the manner that marked his official intercourse, there can be no testimony more interesting than that of the venerable Bishop of our Church in Pennsylvania, who, on a public occasion,* several years since, referring to the inti

*Bishop White, in his sermon at the Consecration of Bishop Moore.

mate relation between himself and Bishop Provoost, introduced the sentiment, that "delegation to the same civil office is a ground on which benevolence and friendly offices may be expected;" and then remarked, "How much more sacred is a relation between two persons, who, under the appointment of a Christian Church, had been successfully engaged together in obtaining for it the succession to the apostolic office of the Episcopacy; who, in the subsequent exercise of that Episcopacy, had jointly labored in all the ecclesiastical business which has occurred among us; and who, through the whole of it, never knew a word, or even a sensation, tending to personal dissatisfaction or disunion.” *

A few words of minuter information may not be unacceptable touching the life of our earliest diocesan. The ancestors of Bishop Provoost were from Holland, though originally of France; being among the refugees from that country during the religious wars of the latter part of the sixteenth century. They emigrated to America about the middle of the seventeenth.

His parents being attached to the Church of Holland, he was baptized and brought up in that communion. His early education was in his native city, New-York, a graduate of King's College. At the age of nineteen he went over to England for its completion, entering himself a fellow-commoner at Peter House, Cambridge. His studies, or his associates there, brought him * Journal, 1815, p. 12. Dd

over, first to the Church, and eventually to the ministry, which he embraced as his profession. He was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of London, at Westminster, February, 1766, and Priest a few weeks after, at Whitehall, by the Bishop of Chester. Marrying at Cambridge, about this time, he returned to New-York; was elected Assistant Minister in Trinity Church, the Rev. Dr. Auchmuty being Rector. In this situation he continued until the year 1770, when he retired to his farm, as already stated; returning only upon the final evacuation of the city by the British in 1783. His subsequent course has been already given.

A new point of interesting labor was this year opened to the Bishop in the condition of one of the Indian tribes, or rather that portion of one of them known as the Oneidas, residing on their reserved lands in Oneida county, to the amount of about four thousand souls. In afteryears his feelings in their favor were still more highly excited by personal intercourse: his care at present was confined to sending among them, as a catechist and schoolmaster, one of their own blood and lineage, being an Iroquois, who had been fortunate enough to receive in his youth not only a Christian but a liberal education. Among the duties prescribed to this teacher, was that of preparing a translation of portions