made the imposition of his hands' to be esteemed no barren ceremony, even by those who thought lightly of a bishop's blessing.'

The brevity imposed on these rural visits, by the extent and variety of his labors, was, certainly, no small drawback to their permanent influence, but still it was a necessary one. It was with the Church as with the luxuriant country over the face of which it was scattered; the harvest to be reaped was more plenteous than the laborers to reap it, and, in the hasty ingathering of sheaves, much was necessarily lost that a more careful husbandry might have saved but still, in countries like ours, such loss must be for a time borne, whether in the moral or the natural field; and it is the only consolation to those who, when called to labor in it, see how much is left undone that might be done, to remember that, for losses thus accruing, they will not be held responsible. While, therefore, Bishop Hobart's own feelings led him to desire more time for these visitations, and the present duty seemed likewise to demand it, he yet felt himself continually debarred from the good he saw before him, by new, and still more pressing calls.

The rapidity and extent of these journeyings, seemed to give him a kind of ubiquity. 'I meet him every where,' said a distinguished

judge of our Circuit Courts, and every where he is followed, loved, and admired.'

A country innkeeper gave his notion of speed in less polished terms. On a gentleman inquiring at his house for Bishop Hobart, a day after he had quitted it, and proposing to follow him, the observation was,- You may as well let that alone, for when the Bishop travels, it is, as the old proverb says, "The devil catch the hindmost." When we learn that he often had to travel, in these yearly visitations, to the extent of four and even five thousand miles, and that within the compass of a few months, we cease to wonder at any thing in them but his exertion and power of endurance.

Year by year, too, he found these demands enlarging. Not only did labor beget labor, and the preaching of one year build up churches for the next, but the wants of neighboring dioceses, and the opening calls of the destitute unorganized West, were continually adding to him duties not his own.

Until the year 1815, New-Jersey was without an ecclesiastical head, and the Diocese of Connecticut was destitute of one from 1816 to 1819.*

✦ Between the death of Bishop Jarvis and the election of Dr. Brownell.

That the temporary care of this latter Diocese was no nominal charge, may be judged from the details of his first visitation in it. Thirteen congregations visited; two ordinations held; two churches consecrated, and eleven hundred and fifty-three persons confirmed; this was the duty performed; while, that he had little time to spare for such labor may also be concluded, from the fact of his doing all this within the short space of twenty days.

The record of the following year was of the same character. He was within the bounds of the Diocese of Connecticut from August 6th to September 4th-twenty-eight days; during which, he preached thirty-five times; held one ordination; two consecrations; and confirmed twelve hundred and seventy-five persons,

CHAPTER XVIII.

A. D. 1817—t. 42.

Second Charge to the Clergy, 'The Corruptions of the Church of Rome' - Death of Dr. Bowden-Character -- Death of Bishop Dehon-Character-State of the College-Letter from Rufus KingAnonymous Note-Letter to Rev. Dr. Romeyn-Letters from and to Dr. Smith; to Dr. Berrian-Painful Letters from an old FriendLetter from Dr. Strachan, Norris, &c.—Theological Seminary-En. dowment Address before the Young Men's Missionary SocietyInterest in Sunday schools-Address.

AT the opening of the Convention this year, (1817) Bishop Hobart delivered a second Charge' to his clergy, bearing the title, when printed, of The Corruptions of the Church of Rome contrasted with certain Protestant Errors.' This production is, unquestionably, among the finest displays of hortatory eloquence we find among his writings. Nor only so: it bears, also, the marks of that sagacity which distinguished his mind in looking into the future; and which bodied forthcoming evils in the spirit, not of fear, but of wise precaution. But it bears, also, his stamp in another pointthe well-balanced mind, that was not to be forced from its centre by the outcries of the multitude. The cry of Popery' and 'Roman

ism,' on the one hand, could not drive him into countenancing fanaticism; nor could his fear of fanaticism, on the other, blind him to the gross corruptions and rising influence of the Church of Rome. To the Protestant Episcopal Church the path of safety was one-strict adherence to its own standards of faith and formularies of devotion, with an evangelical exhibition of both. That such was its true course, many might have seen, but not all were able to maintain. There is nothing harder to resist than the contagion of sympathy, and it is, perhaps, the nicest criterion of real strength of character. He who receives impressions may be talented, but is not great; that title belongs to him only (setting aside the moral question) who gives the impression. Such, throughout his course, was Bishop Hobart, he took not the color of the times, but on the contrary, men who came near him grew like him.

The charge opens with the duty of ministers of the Church to question these spirits of the age, to try the spirits, whether they be of GOD.'

'But it is a duty,' he adds, 'far from being inviting. Much more pleasant is it to swim with than to stem the current; to be carried along by the popular gale, than, with incessant and wearying exertion, to struggle against it; to be hailed by the applause of hosts in whose ranks, or as whose leaders, men bear to a tri