xt76hd7npg2s https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt76hd7npg2s/data/mets.xml Lee, Alfred, 1807-1887. 1884  books b92-55-27062834 English J.P. Morton, : Louisville, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Smith, Benjamin Bosworth, 1794-1884. Christian biography Kentucky. Life and ministry of Benjamin Bosworth Smith, first bishop of Kentucky  : a memorial discourse delivered before the fifty-sixth annual Council of the Diocese of Kentucky, on the 24th day of September, A.D., 1884, in Christ Church, Louisville /e / Alfred Lee ; published by request of the Council. text Life and ministry of Benjamin Bosworth Smith, first bishop of Kentucky  : a memorial discourse delivered before the fifty-sixth annual Council of the Diocese of Kentucky, on the 24th day of September, A.D., 1884, in Christ Church, Louisville /e / Alfred Lee ; published by request of the Council. 1884 2002 true xt76hd7npg2s section xt76hd7npg2s 

TRINITY CHURCH.s

    THE LIFE AND MINISTRY







BENJAMIN BOSWORTH SMITH



          FIRST BISHOP OF KENTUCKY.



      Rt Memorial Miscourse

              l)SLIVERED BEFORE THE


  FIFTV-SIXTH ANNUAL COUNCIL OF THE DIOCESE OF KEN-
     T UCKY, ON THE 24TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, A. D.
        1884, IN CHRIST CHURCH, LOUISVILLE.

                   By


        ALFRED LEE, D.D., S.T.D.,
               BISHOTP OF DELAWARE.



I bY rtlet of tta: Ucatanil.




    LOUISVILLE:
JOHN P. M1oYON  CO., PRINTERS.
       1884.



-. ................. -'----.-


 








LIFE AND MINISTRY



                               OF


BENJAMIN BOSWORTH SMITH,


          FIRST BISHOP OF KENTUCKY.



             By THE RT. REV. ALFRED LEE, D.D., S.T.D.,
                        Bishoel of Deelaware.



   PETER, SEEING HIM, SAITH TO JESUS, LORD, AND WHAT SHALL THIS MAN
DO  JESUS SAITH UNTO HIM, IF I WILL THAT HE TARRY TILL I COME, WHAT
IS THAT TO THEE  "-John xxi, 21, 22.

   The Apostle John, in his great age, must have remarkably attract-
ed the interest and veneration of his fellow Christians. After all his
brother Apostles had finished their course, and, so far as we can
ascertain, sealed their devotion to their Master with their blood; after
all, with scarce an exception, who had seen Jesus in the flesh, had
gone to the grave; nay, after the city of Jerusalem had been visited
with that fearful desolation, and of the once glorious Temple not one
stone was left upon another, St. John still lingered. What sacred
and heart-stirring associations must have gathered around this inti-
mate companion, this favored Apostle, this bosom friend, this Disci-
ple whom Jesus loved, this sole representative of the age in which
the Incarnate Son of God tabernacled upon the earth. As he con-
tinued with the Church year after year, there seemed to be confirma-
tion given to the traditional interpretation of the words spoken by
the risen Saviour in that remarkable manifestation on the shore of the
lake of Galilee: " Then went this saying abroad among the brethren
that that Disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, He
shall not die; but, ' If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to
thee"' Tradition, even though it can be traced to Apostolic days,

 



Life and Ministry of



is not to be relied upon for the transmission of truth, and therefore
the Lord has taken care that the great things pertaining to His life
and work and kingdom should be preserved in written records, and
the aged John was among those selected for this.important duty. He
is careful to inform his readers that he did not himself so understand
his Saviour. He might have thought that his days would be prolonged
until the advent of the Lord Jesus in His Glory, as Judge and King.
That event seemed to Christians of his day to be impending. Or he
might have applied our Saviour's words to His preliminary coming in
the great judgment which swept away Judaism with all its institutions,
polity, priesthood, temple, city, altar, and sacrifice, in order that the
new kingdom of grace and world-wide salvation might be set up.
"Tarry till I come." The distinguished commentator, Dr. Westcott,
writes, " The exact force of the original is rather, ' While I am
coming."' The coming is not regarded as a definite point in future
time, but rather as a fact which is in slow and continuous realization.
The prominent idea is of the interval to be passed over rather than of
the end to be reached. " Tarrying " is the correlative to " following,"
and according to the manifold significance of this word it expresses
the calm waiting for further light, the patient resting in a fixed position,
the continuance in life. The coming of the Lord is primarily the
second coming (parousia), but at the same time the idea of Christ's
coming includes thoughts of His personal coming in death to each
believer. And, yet further, the coming of Christ to the Society is not
absolutely one. He came in the destruction of Jerusalem. Thus St.
John did tarry till the great coming; nor is there any thing fanciful
in seeing an allusion to the course of the history of the Church under
the image of the history of the Apostles. The type of doctrine and
character represented by St. John is the last in the order of develop-
ment. In this sense he tarries still.
   This certainly, we conceive, was within the scope of the pro-
phetic utterance.  While other Apostles should press on rapidly
in the blood-stained path, labor with great energy and effect dur-
ing a brief, busy day, to St. John would be allotted years of
patient waiting and holy contemplation.  While they were con-
tending in the heat and rush of the battle, he would be with
the Lord on the Mount, beholding the glory of the Only-begotten.
Active following would be Peter's task until other hands should seize
him and carry him whither he would not. Calm and trustful tarrying
would be John's duty, while the Lord was developing his great pur-
poses and preparing for His reign of righteousness. The manifold



2

 


Benjamin Bosworth Smith.



wisdom. of God is shown in the allotment to His servants of their
various positions and duties. To the burning zeal and unwearied
energy of Paul and Peter is owing the rapid extension of Christianity
and planting of the Church in many lands. To the tranquil flow of
John's lengthened years the Church of all climes and ages owes that
precious Gospel, radiant with the splendor of Heaven. The like
manner of administration still continues. The eye of the Master is
upon the whole field. To each servant his appointed place and work.
It is a source of unspeakable satisfaction to the servant, especially in
trial times, to know that the choice of the position and of the task
was not left to himself. That man labors cheerfully and hopefully
who believes that a wisdom superior to that of earth hath marked out
his course, and that a mighty unseen Hand is his constant support.
And as the sphere of duty so the duration, longer or shorter, some
called to follow with hurried steps, others bidden to wait and watch.
The life-work of one crowded into a brief space, that of another pro-
tracted beyond expectation. It is not, for the most part, according to
our calculations. The strong runner drops on the race-course, the
standard-bearer fainteth in the rush of the battle, while many who
appeared frail and incapable of bearing the burden and heat of the
day are still at their post when evening shadows are falling.
   The beloved and venerated man whose memory this Diocese grate-
fully cherishes-her first Bishop-was an illustration of some of the
thoughts suggested by the text. He was appointed by the Lord to
tarry while His great plans are advancing toward their consumma-
tion. Like the blessed Apostle, he outlived his generation. He con-
tinued among us, the representative of a former age, connecting the
Church of his own day with that of the beginning of this century.
For years he was the only living Bishop upon whose head were laid
the trembling hands of White. He was the pupil of the meek and
holy Griswold. He acted his part in early pioneer. work with godly
men, of whom none remain unto this day. He was Bishop of the
Church in Kentucky when it was a frontier Diocese, just being
reclaimed from the wilderness.. He was one of the founders and the
first secretary of our General Missionary Board. And as, like St.
John, he was the surviving representative of a by-gone age, so, I think
I am warranted in saying that he was not unlike that Apostle in the
temper and disposition of his mind. Faith working by love was his
governing principle-the ground-work of his character In him the
charity which is the bond of peace and of all virtues shone brightly.
He accomplished his work by the loving heart and the persuasive



3

 



Life and Ministry of



tongue rather than by the strong arm.  He stood forth pleading with
men in the spirit of Christ. He was not one to seek his own and
push his way by main strength. But his teacher was One meek and
lowly of heart, and in his case before honor was humility. I am not
presuming, therefore, too much when I find a parallel between his
benignant, affectionate longevity, in which his name stood for so
many years at the head of our Episcopate, and that of the Beloved
Apostle, around whom clustered the reverent sympathies of the earli-
est times of Christianity.
    Benjamin Bosworth Smith, son of Stephen Smith and Ruth Bos.
 worth, was born in Bristol, R. I., June 13, I794, in the house built by
 his ancestor, Richard Smith. The vestiges of his childhood and
 youth are scanty, and the principal source from whence can be gath-
 ered the early development of his Christian life, to which I have had
 access, is a brief autobiographical sketch, penned by himself in his
 eighty-seventh year, for the gratification of his nephew, Bishop Howe,
 of Central Pennsylvania. This revival, after four score years, of
 early impressions and memories-this heart-voice summoning up the
 past-is of vastly more interest than a formal record of dates, settle-
 ments, removals and noticeable events, and the latter are left mainly
 for an appendix. Let the Lord's servant present in his own unstudied,
 simple style, the influences that affected his youth and tended to form
 his character. The sketch is headed:

                      etqf:labe plan.

                MATTHEW III, 9; LUKE III, 8.

   "He was the child of parents descended from a long line of pious
ancestors, of whom records exist since the year 1672.' His father
dying when he was obly five years old, no impression was derived
from him but that which mtst always come from the example, pre-
cepts, and prayers of such ancestors as his, however remote. In his
mother shone a few of their sterner virtues, perfect honesty and truth,
exemplary patience, self sacrifice, and perseverance; but what most
distinguished her was her depth of piety, warm affections, and the
sweet influence she exerted, not only over her children, but over all
who knew her. When eight years old, his mother put him upon a
course of reading of English literature and history. Thus he became
acquainted with Addison and authors of that type, and dragged
through many volumes of Gibbon-dull reading for that time of life.

 


Benjamin Bosworth Smnith.



The volumes were drawn from the town library, of which his uncle
was librarian. Some years later he was drawn by his eldest sister
into the green fields of lighter reading and poetry. He soon became
enamored with Shakespeare, Milton, and especially Cowper, who be-
came his bosom companion for many years. Before he was eighteen
he had picked up here and there some scraps of Greek and Latin,
by the help of which, in the year 1813, he was able to enter Sopho-
more in Brown University, Providence, from which he graduated
with far less classical and mathematical lore than can be found
among the average students in Eton or Rugby. We would not say
that that man was a self-made man who was altogether the creature
of circumstances.  He must at least have some little control over
them. Still it must be admitted that circumstances have a very great
influence over us all. About the age of eighteen the subject of this
paper experienced a transforming influence from on high, constrain-
ing him to be right and to desire to do good. As soon as he entered
college he assisted in establishing around the chancel of St. John's
Church the first Sunday-school in Providence, and one of the first
in the country. Soon he was drawn into attendance at evening
meetings, and by degrees to take a leading part, trying to guide in-
quirers (and they were many) into the right way of getting good, and
being good, and then of doing good. Shortly, he very naturally deter-
mined to become an Episcopal Clergyman. The lack of Clergy was
so great that, by the advice of his Bishop and his Rector, he began
the then usual course of theological studies, and at odd hours, dur-
ing his last two years in college, had advanced so far that with eight
months' hard study, after graduating in September, i8I6, he was pre-
pared for an over-indulgent examination, and was admitted to Dea-
con's orders. The next year was broken into many fragments, but
still was a somewhat studious year, and the next June he was ordained
a Presbyter. Almost immediately thereafter he received an unex
pected and sad summons to Southern Virginia, which changed the
whole current of his ministerial life. There, and in Upper Virginia,
he endured hardships and gained experience for four years as a
country Clergyman which were of incalculable service to him in
after years. Returning to New England, in 1823, he was settled for
five years in Middlebury, Vermont, the best years for study he ever
enjoyed. During his last year in college he obtained a Hebrew dic-
tionary and a Hebrew Bible without points. By these poor means
he obtained a very scanty knowledge of Hebrew, sufficient, however,
to enable him to appreciate criticisms based upon Hebrew idioms.



5

 



.Life and Ministry of



He undertook .some little critical study of the Greek New Testament
by the help of Rosenmniller and other German critics. His time,
however, was chiefly directed to Church history. He devoured
Hooker, Mosheim, and Milner, and all books of the kind accessible,
but he was far more indebted to a copy of Bingham, which about
this time fell into his possession, and was for many years after con-
sulted upon every point of Ecclesiastical history which from time to
time would come up.
    About this time the question was agitated of separating Vermont
from the Eastern Diocese and making it an independent Diocese.
For the purpose of advocating this, he started a small paper, The
Episcopal Register. It was so far acceptable, there and elsewhere,
that he was invited to become the editor of The Philadelphia Recorder,
the only large central Church paper at that time. To escape the
severity of the climate in Vermont, which was becoming dangerous to
him, he gladly accepted it, and this changed the whole current of his
after life.
    He had been editor only two years when, in 1830, he was invited
to become Rector of Christ Church, Lexington, Kentucky, and this
led to his being consecrated, in 1832, the first Bishop of Kentucky.
   The first years of his ministry in Lexington in this double capacity
were remarkably harmonious and successful.
    Thus far he speaks of himself.  He does not mention that
during this period the city was visited with that fearful scourge,
the Asiatic cholera.  During its prevalence he remained stead-
fast at his post, and the faithfulness and Christian heroism
which he displayed were admirable., With characteristic humil-
ity he omits all reference in his own sketch to his bearing in
this exigency. He not only suffered in sympathy with his stricken
parishioners and fellow citizens, but he was called to endure the
heaviest private sorrow which had ever fallen upon him, in the
death of his beloved wife, who was one of the victims of the pesti-
lence, and expired in his arms. This heart-rending event had so
deeply pierced him that he seems unwilling to dwell upon it in the
sketch referred to. I therefore interrupt his own memorial to intro-
duce a brief account of these trial times from the hand of a member
of his family. "Every one," it is stated, "who knows any thing of
his history, will recall that episode of it, embalmed in the memories
of those who knew him best, the part he took in alleviating the hor-
rors of the cholera summer in Lexington. With the Roman Catholic
priest, Gen. Leslie Coombs, and one or two physicians, he bore the

 

Benjamin Bosworth Smith.



brunt of the storm, and day after day he went forth, leaving anxious
wife and little children, to nurse the sick, shroud and carry out the
dead and bury them in hastily prepared graves. I well remember that
a young theological student, who was buried at the same time with
our mother, was carried to the grave in a common cart, the hearses
being otherwise engaged and not to be had, so dread was the mortal-
ity. A set of silver engraved with the text, "I was sick, and y e
visited me," was the token of the appreciation of his services by the
citizens of Lexington."
   From this touching reference to his pastoral fidelity, I go back to
an earlier period. While in the brief autobiography he makes men-
tion of his struggles to prooure an education, and to the crisis in his
spiritual life when the great truths of redemption by Jesus Christ burst
upon his soul with living reality, he omits to mention the steps by
which he was led into the communion of the Episcopal Church. This
was a departure from the principles of his ancestors, of whose godli-
ness he ever spoke with reverence and gratitude. Such a change
commonly involves more or less of mental trial. To what extent he
may have felt this, and in what particular aspect the Church com-
mended herself to his preference, we have no means of knowing.
That his convictions were decided and his affection strong for the
Church in which he labored so long and faithfully, he gave abundant
evidence. A devoted, earnest ministry of sixty- seven years. with no
small share of toils and trials, conflicts and crosses, is a proof seldom
given of self-sacrificing adherence.
   The period at which Bishop Smith took this step was one of the
Church's lowest depression. To one judging by-outward appearance,
she must have presented at that time comparatively small attractions.
The great upheaval of the Revolution had immediate disastrous effects
upon the Church, from which it took more than a generation to re-
cover. The feelings of a large number of the Colonial Clergy were
not unnaturally in favor of the Mother Country, so identified in their
minds with their Mother Church.  Nearly one half of them were
Missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and
were mainly dependent upon its aid for the support of their fami-
lies. In consequence, a large number left their homes and Parishes,
and of those who remained a considerable portion were not allowed
to officiate in public. Without going into the motives that determined
their course, it suffices to notice the historical fact that churches were
closed, ministers were silenced or emigrated, and flocks were scat-
tered.  Prejudices previously existing were aggravated, and proved



7

 



8Lif and MAinistry of



formidable obstructions to the revival of the Church. The remnant
who continued attached to her principles, among whom were some
leading patriots, took measures, soon after the establishment of Amer-
ican independence, to rebuild the shattered edifice. Deputies from
seven States organized a General Convention, and a branch of the
Episcopate was planted on American soil. But it required long years
of labor. and patience ere the declension was arrested and symptoms
of resuscitation became apparent.  In 176i, according to reports
made to the Bishop of London, there were some two hundred and
fifty Clergymen officiating in those Colonies which afterward became
the United States, about ninety of whom were Missionaries. In the
Journal of General Convention of i804, the nvmber on the roll is
two hundred and eighteen; in that of i8ii there are but one hun-
dred and eighty, although no returns were then made from Virginia
and Delaware. The tone of most of the Diocesan Reports in the
early Journals is far from cheering. When, therefore, your first Bishop
joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, it was with a feeble and
apparently declining body that he identified himself. The Church
was small in numbers, laboring under popular distrust and dislike,
and not very attractive in ceremonial, according to the taste of the
present day. Zeal was languid, the spiritual life feeble, and the prev-
alent style of preaching controversial or ethical, with scanty unction,
fervor, or power.
   To this repelling aspect of the Church there were, however, excep-
tions. There were oases in the arid desert. And, in the providence
of God, the lot of the man of whom I am speaking was cast near one
of these green places. In i804 the Rev. Alexander V. Griswold be-
came Rector of the Church in, Bristol, and in the year x8i i he was
elected Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, comprising the whole of New
England except the State of Connecticut. He presented the great
truths of the Gospel with a directness and fervor then little known,
and magnified Christ by his life as well as by his teaching. Under
his ministration the little flock which called him to be their pastor be-
came a strong and flourishing Church. The town was blessed with a
remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit, if we may judge of the
fountain by the stream; very many were awakened to righteousness,
and not a few of those who began a- new life attached themselves to
the Church of which Bishop Griswold was Rector. As this season of
general interest in spiritual things and great enlargement of the Epis-
copal Church in his native town borders on the period of which
Bishop Smith speaks, in alluding to the beginning of his religious his-



8

 




Benjamin Bosworth Smith.



tory, there can be little doubt that he was greatly indebted to Bishop
Griswold's ministry, both for his decision to become a servant of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his choice of the Episcopal Church as his spir-
itual home, and of her ministry as his calling. From the example
and influence of that apostolic man he learned, as did hundreds of
others, to love and venerate the Church which he represented. Under
the same wise and faithful guidance he pursued his theological, studies,
and was trained in early evangelistic work, Bishop Griswold's students
being employed by him as helpers in pastoral duties. The character
and spirit of the instructor were naturally the model of the pupil, and
in his subsequent protracted ministry the scholar was the master's
epistle. Among the fellow-students of Bishop Smith, during his pre-
paratory course, were the Rev. J. J. Robertson, afterward our Mis-
sionary in Greece; Stephen H. Tyng, so eminent as a preacher; and
James Wallis Eastburn, elder brother of the late Bishop Eastburn, of
Massachusetts, and author of the Trinity hymn,

                "O holy, holy, holy Lord,
                Bright in Thy deeds and in Thy name."

It was in connection with the latter intimate friend that Bishop Smith
speaks of " an unexpected and sad call to Virginia." This was occa-
sioned by the failure of Mr. Eastbnrn's health, leading him to resign
his Parish and to have recourse to a sea voyage, from which he never
returned. Mr. Smith took charge of his Church at Onancock, Vir-
ginia, and afterward of Charlestown, in the same Diocese.
   Proceeding to the elevation of Mr. Smith to the Episcopate, we
observe that this order of the ministry had not been exempt from the
unfavorable influences that had been felt in the Church at large.
Three Bishops had been consecrated in England and one in Scotland,
and yet Bishop White says that " in i8i i the Convention met under
very serious and well-founded apprehensions that the American
Church would be again subjected to the necessity of having recourse
to the Mother Church for the Episcopacy, or else of continuing it
without the canonical number, which might be productive of great
disorder in the future." In I8o8 two only were present in the House
of Bishops-White and Claggett, the latter of whom had well-nigh
been prevented from attending by severe indisposition.  In x8rI
Bishop Claggett was arrested by illness on his way to the Convention
and was compelled to return. Bishop Moore, of New York, had been
visited with a paralytic stroke, and was confined to his chamber.
Bishop Provost was unable to journey, but promised, if possible, to



9

 




Life and Ministry of



assist if the consecration were held in the city of New York. With
this expectation, Bishops White and Jarvis, who composed the House,
after the rising of the Convention came to that city, as did the two
Bishops elect-Hobart and Griswold. To the last hour there was
danger of disappointment. Bishop Provost had suffered a relapse;
but finally he found himself strong enough to attend, and thus the
business was happily accomplished."
    This consecration was not only memorable inasmuch as it obvi-
 ated the necessity of a renewed application to the Church abroad,
 but also on account of the character of the men who were then
 invested with the Episcopal Office. Bishops Hobart and Griswold,
 both men of mark, while strongly contrasted in many respects, were
 alike in zealous and energetic devotion to their work, and in the de-
 cided impression which was made by their lives and labors. From
 that period, partly we may suppose through their efforts, though other
 influences and other men were at work to produce a favorable change,
 the Protestant Episcopal Church began to revive. The ebb tide had
 run out and the current began to flow in an opposite direction. From
 many of her pulpits there came no uncertain sound, and a new spirit
 of hope and courage dawned upon the long depressed Zion. But
 this reanimation was limited in its extent, spreading very slowly and
 not far beyond the old Dioceses on the Atlantic border. The coun-
 try beyond the Alleghany Mountains was terra incognita, associated
 in the Eastern mind with vast forests, mighty rivers, and roaming
 savages. Little was attempted in the way of Missionary exploration.
 The Church had been more engaged in strengthening the things that
 remained that were ready to die, than in pushing her conquests into
 new fields. Timid and hesitating were the first movements West-
 ward. In i8ii Bishop White writes, "On the Journal of the last
 Triennial Convention, the providing for an Episcopacy in the West-
 ern States was held out as a desirable object. Circumstances having
 prevented the acting on this business, it was again held out as a mat-
 ter to be kept in view.  " The hindrances to the carrying into effect
 the design were the difficulty of selecting a suitable person and that
 of supporting him." And these difficulties continued to be so formid-
 able that if the Eastern Church kept the matter in view it did noth-
 ing more for twenty years. Philander Chase, in the spirit of a true
 Missionary, threw himself into the wilderness, and became Bishop
 of Ohio and the Pioneer of Western Episcopacy. But his bold ven-
ture, so stimulating and productive of subsequent fruit, was individ-
ual and spontaneous. With the General Convention of i832 a new



IO0

 




Benjamin Bosworth Smith.



era dawned. The unprecedented event of the consecration of four
Bishops took place in the city of New York. Two of these were for
Western Dioceses, and one of them was the subject of this memorial
discourse. On the 31st day of October, 1832, in St. Paul's Chapel,
in the city of New York, Benjamin Bosworth Smith was consecrated
Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky by Bishop White, assisted by
Bishops Brownell, of Connecticut, and H. U. Onderdonk, Assistant
Bishop of Pennsylvania. Of the removal of Mr. Smith to Kentucky
and his early ministry at Lexington I have already spoken. In this
transfer, as well as in his acceptance of the Episcopal office, he was
undoubtedly governed by the principles which he afterward incul-
cated upon young men preparing for the ministry. " My instructions
to the theological students under my care were never to bring about
a change by their own action-to labor to fill their office in the sta-
tion God had assigned them-to fill it to overflowing, and a blessing
would surely follow either there or in a larger field." In such advice
he evidently spoke his own deep conviction, and it must have been
in consequence of his belief in a Divine call which he dared not re-
fuse, that he assumed the burdens of an overseer of the flock. In
truth there was then not much to attract a self seeking or ambitious
mind in the office to which he was elected. The dignity was of little
account to a worldly judgment, while the toils, self-denials, anxieties,
and discouragements were obvious. Hard work, slender compensa-
tion, few helpers, scanty means, inveterate prejudice opposing every
step and thwarting his best endeavors, and often darkening transient
gleams of success, were bound up with the charge. Indifference,
ungodliness, and vice were of course to be encountered, and to the
great majority of the religiously disposed the aspect of Christianity
presented by his Church was unacceptable.  In his own words,
" Patient of results and persevering through all difficulties, he was in
some measure prepared for the arduous and exposing duties of a
Missionary Bishop. In a State almost wholly unsupplied with good
roads or public conveyances, and in parts very wild and rough, and
among inhabitants more entirely alienated from our Mother than the
people of any other State in the Union, he entered upon them and
persevered in them for forty years, through many difficulties and dis-
couragements, but not wholly without some little success, thank God."
   At the time of Bishop Smith's election there were in the Diocese
seven officiating Presbyters, six Candidates for Orders, seven organ-
ized Parishes, three buildings for public worship, three more in pros-
pect-communicants, a little over two hundred. For the many years



I I

 



Life and Ministry of



following, until infirmities precluded active services, Bishop Smith was
"in labors more abundant."  He made many of his journeys on
horseback, not unfrequently on foot, penetrating into the remotest
parts of the State in the discharge of Episcopal duties, and of those
of Superintendent of Common Schools, to which office he had been
appointed. This mode of itinerancy involved, of course, much hard-
ship and fatigue, but these toils and travels conduced to the improve-
ment of his health and strength, and no doubt contributed to his length
of days. His duties in connection with public education were ren-
dered with conscientious fidelity, and much of his time was subse-
quently given to the work of instruction in large female schools, ad-
mirably conducted by his wife and daughters.
    In Episcopal visitations the Bishop's affectionate disposition, genial
manners, and interest in children, a noted trait of character, made him
a welcome guest in the house, while his services in the Church were
solemn and impressive. He presented the word of life as one who
had himself felt its power, and realized the weight of the message with
which he was intrusted. In all that he did in his ministrations, pub-
lic and private, his heart was thoroughly engaged. He was a man in
earnest, working under the Master's eye, and watching for souls as
one that was to give account. Gentle and unassuming in his deport-
ment, he was resolute in the performance of duty, and was bold in
rebuke as well as affectionate in exhortation. He spake the truth in
love, but at any cost or risk of offending spake the truth. The fruits
of a godly ministry, continued for more than a generation, are not to
be measured by immediate and apparent results. Whatever he was
himself permitted to see with his own eyes of good accomplished was
but a small part of the ultimate results. The seed is committed to
the furrow. What immediate harvest the sower may find is but the
first fruits, an earnest of the final ingathering. They who follow him
will certainly reap many a full ear, and in the great day " he that went
forth weeping, sowing the precious seed, shall doubtless return with
joy, bringing his sheaves with him." Not the least part of the good
effected by such a man is that wrought by holy example, the living
sermon,