CHAPTER XX.

A. D. 1819-Et. 44.

Letter from Rev. H. H. Norris-Mant and D'Oyley's Family BibleDefects-Bishop Hobart's Labors in it-General Views of a Bible Commentary-Bishop Hobart in Retirement-Visit to the Short Hills -His Occupations-Second Visit to the Oneidas-Address to the Convention-Influence of a Gift of a Prayer-book-Charge to the Clergy The Churchman '-Extracts on the 'Liberality of the Age' -Resignation of the Charge of the Diocese of Connecticut-Consecration of Bishop Brownell,

THE following year, 1819, brought with it, not only its usual burthen of labor, but a large increase, in the republication and enlargement of Mant and D'Oyley's great Family Bible. This is alluded to in the following letter, from Rev. H. H. Norris, of Hackney, London.

FROM REV. H. H. NORRIS.

'Grove-street, Hackney, April 18th, 1820. Right Rev. and dear Sir,

The books with which you have favored me, in some measure conveyed the information which I looked for from your own pen, and they may be pleaded with unanswerable evidence as an excuse for your not using it more punctually to your correspondents. I rejoice to see the Church of CHRIST, with no other aid but its own spiritual energies, so efficiently answering all those great purposes for which it was constituted by its

divine Founder. I survey, with especial delight the American edition of our family Bible, and your own, by the additional notes interspersed among those of the English edition.

I hope you will be more copious in your additional notes, when you come to the gospels; as there, I think, we are particularly scanty and superficial. Some of the old English divines might well be exchanged for the modern. I rejoice to see, also, that you have bodies of young men incorporated in your religious societies, and that in these societies the genuine Christian principles are so well defined and supported; that your Church is spreading together with the spread of your population ; and that so much zeal is called forth in the prosecution of all these important objects; but above all, I rejoice in your Convention, and in the wisdom which governs all its deliberations.

You will expect to hear from me what our present circumstances and exertions are. Alas! our great grievance is, that we have not, like you, a convention. Our convocation is only the pageantry of what formerly so materially contributed to the purity and consolidation of the Church. It is probably true that infidelity has been most extensively propagated, and with too abundant success, among the lower orders, especially in our thickly-peopled manufacturing districts; and that they have been bereft of all hopes and fears of an hereafter, that they might be let loose from all moral restraint, and be prepared for those desperate acts of violence which their seducers must find hands to perpetrate. But there is amongst us what has been very happily deseribed as the quiet good sense of Englishmen, which, without showing itself, still retains a mighty influence, and diffuses its correctives in streams as copious and as

diffusive in their currents as those in which the poison flows. Our Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has been gradually advancing itself in power and influence, as the sons of confusion have been spreading their seductions; and when I tell you that we put in circulation, in the year ending at our last audit, upward of one million four hundred thousand Bibles, Prayer-books, and religious tracts, by much the larger portion dispersed at home, you will at once see how powerful an antidote is in regular diurnal application against all the evil working among us.

It is true, that during the tremendous convulsions occasioned by the French Revolution, the attention of government was engrossed by the dangers menacing us from without, and had no leisure to exercise domestic vigilance. It is true, that a sort of generalized religion has been diffused very extensively, but sound Churchmanship, as well in faith as discipline, has had a stimulus given to it by these defections. The battle between faith and indifference, and unity and amalgamation, has been well fought; and as far as rational conviction goes, the former, in both instances, have triumphed over their assailants; and most certainly the present and the rising generation have been stimulated by the conflict, to acquire the ability to give a much more satisfactory reason for the faith that is in them, than the generation to which they succeeded.

Our universities, Oxford especially, have been repairing the decays of discipline and of the requisite knowledge for their degrees; and a competent knowledge of the evidences and principles of Christianity is made indispensable to every one. There is a great deal of lost ground to recover, and a great deal of mischief to

be warded off and neutralized; but this conviction is both forcibly and extensively awakened. Our only solid foundation is the making it appear that we are what we profess to be, the genuine Church of CHRIST; that we hold forth the true light, and walk worthy of our vocation. This conviction is operating widely amongst us, and there is a growing interest taken in the study of theology, and workmen that need not be ashamed are multiplying.

But after all, amidst the fluctuations of hope and fear for the political ascendency of the Church, which cannot fail to agitate every reflecting man, as he surveys alternately what is doing to strengthen the Establishment, and what to undermine it; still, as a spiritual body, the prospect most certainly is progressively brightening; and if called to suffer, my confidence is, that grace will be given her to witness a good confession, and that to those who have eyes to see it, she will be more glorious under persecution than with the honors which now constitute her earthly splendor.

I remain,

With great respect and affection,

Very truly yours,

H. H. NORRIS.'

The republication above referred to was a labor of no ordinary magnitude, and gave employment to the Bishop's pen and leisure moments for near five years, being begun in 1818, and completed, in sickness and sorrow, at the moment of his embarkation to Europe, in 1823. Of this voluminous work, 'more than a third

part of its very copious notes,' say the publishers, ' are the result of his untiring labor.'

It would, perhaps, have been better could the whole have been recast by him. The original was a work, not only too hastily done to be critically well done, in what it proposed to do, but also wanting somewhat of unity and spirituality, from the very principle on which it went, of being a selection from the thoughts of many. Bishop Hobart saw and felt these deficiencies; for the correction of the first, supposing he had the scholarship, he certainly had not the time, neither did he regard it as its most serious defect; it was one that touched the scholar rather than the Christian. But, to the supply of the latter want, he sedulously devoted himself, and was thus enabled to give to the commentary, what before it could scarcely be said to have, a practical character; such as alone could fit it to be what it claims to be, ‘a Family Bible.'

Like all other services, which involve only industry and sound judgment, this labor of Bishop Hobart has never received its due meed of praise. It is not to be denied, however, that the field is yet open to improvement. Such a commentary as is needed, for the daily use of private Christians, is still among the 'desiderata' of practical theology. Would it