DEATH OF RIGHT REV'D BISHOP MEADE, OF VIRGINIA; OF HON. THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, OF NEW JERSEY, AND OF REV. DR. WHEELER, OF VERMONT.

WHEN great and good men die, we feel that what this world loses a better gains; and those who leave this cloudy region have entered those mansions fitted up by the Son of God himself for the immortality of the just. The first two of the three above named, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN and Bishop MEADE, were among the earliest and most active advocates of this Society, and Vice Presidents from its early days; the last, Dr. WHEELER, was for a long period earnest and able in support of its cause-President of the Vermont State Society, and recently one of the Vice Presidents of the National Society.

They have, as Christian men, filled high and honorable positions in society, and given a large influence to the cause of true religion. We well remember the arduous and enterprizing labors of these eminent friends, in the early and dark days of the Society, when its funds were small, and its friends few, and with what remarkable confidence and liberality they stood forth in many parts of the country to show the wisdom and patriotism, the benevolence and philanthropy, of the scheme of this Society.

In the dawn of the Institution, Bishop MEADE travelled as its agent from Maine to Georgia, and with great force of reason and eloquence enforced the cause of African Colonization upon the public mind and heart, while he led the citizens of the Valley of his native

State to subscribe liberally for the support of the cause. Bred under the influence of a most pious mother, and ever encouraged and stimulated by the words and virtues of devout sisters, he early began to exhibit an apostolic spirit, and to show it forth as in the best days of the Church, in all the conduct of his life.

We copy the following notice from the Philadelphia Episcopal Recorder of April 6th:

A brief notice in our paper last week announced the death of Bishop MEADE. It took place about three weeks since, at his residence of Mountain View, near Millwood, in Clark county, Virginia. What was his disease, or how long he had been affected by it, or under what circumstances his death took place, these sad times do not permit us to hear: All that we can know is, that as his birth was amid the echoes of the Revolutionary War, so the boom of the American cannon, as they lately approached Winchester, must have been heard near his dying bed. It was amid storms he was ushered into life, and amid storms he departed. What a blessing to those who so much love him, that now he is resting amid the eternal joys and friendships of heaven!

WILLIAM MEADE was born in Frederick county, Virginia, on the eleventh of November, 1789. He was the second son of Colonel Richard K. Meade, distinguished for his bravery and devotion as an Aid-de-Camp to WASHINGTON. Colonel Meade lost almost everything in the Revolutionary War, and died about 1809, leaving his family with a homestead in Clark county, and some titles to bounty lands in Ohio. His son William soon afterwards found himself the guardian of the infant children of a deceased brother, and of two sisters,* one afterwards known and revered as Mrs. Anne Page, of holy and blessed memory; and the other of whom, Miss Mary Meade, still survives.

men.

66

What to do with a trust so heavy would have troubled many older But WILLIAM MEADE showed, at the outset, that brave and true heart which distinguished his after life. Lucky Hit," which was the name of the Clark county farm, must be retained as a homestead, and the Ohio titles preserved until their worth could be proved. So he sat to work, for the benefit of those thus left to his charge; and refusing to avail himself of his own interest in his father's estate, commenced the improvement as a head laborer of the Clark county farm. It was a position then almost unprecedented in Virginia. Young men belonging to Mr. Meade's social position, considered manual labor as in some way degrading; and would sacrifice their patrimony rather than engage in it. In Mr. Meade's case the task was not necessary, for he had abundant means, by selling the estate, for his immediate education. But if he did so, the means of his sisters and of his brother's children would be scattered, and the home broken up. He determined that this should not be; and the manly energy with which he threw himself into field labors almost prevented his ordination. He was thoroughly educated, having graduated at Bishop Meade had two other sisters, who died about 1821 or 1822.

Princeton College, and had pursued a distinct theological course. But he had engaged in what was then called "servile labor," which, by a canon in Virginia, was made incompatible with a candidacy for the ministry. It was not until after some correspondence with Bishop Madison that the objection was overlooked, and Mr. Meade ordained. When Mr. Meade's ministry began, the Episcopal Church in Virginia was at its lowest ebb. Before the Revolution, there had been as many as a hundred resident ministers in the Diocese. Most of these, however, were unworthy men, and became secularized, or removed when their endowments were seized. Towards 1800 the Church became almost deserted. For several years no convention was held. Bishop Madison retired within the walls of William and Mary, of which he was President, and ceased to exercise Episcopal functions, if not to preach. The churches were often used as stables; and the few religious men who avowed their principles, connected themselves with other communions. It seemed as if the Church was dead beyond resuscitation, when Mr. Meade's voice was heard from those pulpits which had been so long abandoned.

In the then dearth of ministers, Mr. Meade's early services partook very much of the nature of an itinerancy. He officiated, it is true, in his native parish at Millwood, where he remained till his Episcopal consecration, with the exception of two short temporary charges accepted by him, the one in Alexandria, and the other at Norfolk. But his labors were not to be confined within these fields. The then necessities of Virginia required him to take an active part in reviving the dormant Church spirit. Though then scarcely twenty-five years of age, he was prominently connected in the election of Bishop Moore as Assistant to Bishop Madison; and after Bishop Moore's consecration, he was called upon to represent the Bishop in a large part of the vast labor of visiting the depressed and broken parishes throughout the State. He was not only an evangelist in the widest sense of the word, but he was the most efficient agent in the restoration of the Virginia Church.

What he was in these days, we have from one who knew him when first he passed through Philadelphia, about the year 1816. Mr. Meade had been induced by Mr. John Randolph, Mr. Wirt, and Mr. Francis Key, to undertake a journey through the Northern States on behalf of the colonization movement, then about to be instituted. His family position-his father's revolutionary services, which had been mostly in the Northern States-his own singularly winning eloquence-made him peculiarly qualified for such a mission. He came to Philadelphia with a letter to Bishop White, who had been a friend of his father, and with whom he was himself connected by marriage. He stayed at Bishop White's house, and when he appeared there was dressed, according to the custom of the Virginia gentlemen of his day, in a gray home-spun cloth, which was scarcely in unison with clerical costume in the Eastern cities. There were other points about him which seemed equally quaint. He was the first clergyman of his day to adopt the rule of refusing wine, a rule to which he came from the ruin which he saw produced about him by intoxica

tion; and it was well known that he sympathized with what were then called Methodist practices, which it had been the uniform fashion of the social circle to which he belonged to ridicule.

But whatever might be the difficulty of determining his position from his appearance, all doubts were solved when he was in the pulpit. His face, which, in later years, was so much seamed with care, was distinguished, in early life, by a tender beauty which is commemorated in a picture taken by him in those days, which still hangs at Mountain View. His voice, which few men living remember otherwise than broken, was so remarkable for its melody that, as was afterward said by the hymn committee, it was enough to insure the passing of any hymn for him to read it. His sermons were based on the model which Mr. Fletcher had made so attractive in England, and Mr. Devereux Jarrett in Virginia-solemn, tender, pathetic, full of the Cross in its beauty and its power. Before then, unless occasionally at St. Paul's, the Philadelphia style of preaching had been that of Tillotson and Secker, and the manner formal. But here the most awful, and at the same time the most touching, themes were dwelt upon with a simplicity and tenderness which no one could hear without melting. No wonder that whenever the new Virginia preacher as he was then called-was announced to preach, the churches were filled with a crowd whose emotions seemed in strange contrast with the general decorousness of Philadelphia congregations. That Bishop White was much attached to Mr. Meade we think there is no doubt; and there are letters, which may soon be published, which will prove how sincere this attachment was. But Bishop White was very undemonstrative, and though a Low Churchman in polity, greatly dreaded any deviations from the rubric, and any display of religious enthusiasm. Himself of a quiet and chastened piety, he could not comprehend those deep views of sin, and that passionate religious experience by which men such as Augustine, or Luther, or Newton, can alone reach peace. He was, therefore, much disturbed at Mr. Meade's preaching; and though he said, with much affection, that he did not hold it unsound, and though it seemed to enhance his attachment to Mr. Meade personally, yet he did not conceal his agitation and anxiety when he found that a large portion of the Diocese had united on Mr. Meade for Assistant Bishop."

Of the Pennsylvania Episcopal election of 1826-27, we cannot now pause to speak. We believe that the meaning which independent judges would now attach to our canons is, that Mr. Meade was regularly nominated by the clergy on the first ballot; and it was well known that a large majority of the laity were ready to confirm. That Mr. Meade was nominated, Bishop White announced from the chair; and it was not until after an urgent appeal from his legal advisers that he reversed his decision, and declared that a gentleman present, but not voting, must be considered as a voter, and hence that there was no election. How great, we may pause to notice, would have been the changes, if the election had been sustained, and the great evangelical chieftain, who restored the Church in Virginia, had been transferred to Pennsylvania; and how widely different would have

2

been the sounds which would have been heard about the dying bed of our father, who is now gone to his rest!

But the Convention adjourned without an election, and Mr. Meade positively refused to permit his name to be further used. Had he been elected at the first ballot, he afterwards said, he would have considered the case differently; but now he could only take his seat on the Episcopal bench after a heated contest, and with the avowed opposition of the Bishop whom he was to assist, and whom he so much revered. He came to Philadelphia for the purpose of effecting a compromise between the contending parties, by which no election was to take place in Bishop White's life; and this failing, he stated that his own name could no longer be used. The consequence was, as is well known, the election of Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, in May, 1827.

The next year the same question came up before the Virginia Convention. Bishop Moore was then in his sixty-seventh year, and was heavily pressed by the infirmities of age. An assistant, he declared, was indispensable to the full discharge of the Episcopal duties. An obstacle, however, arose in the Constitution of Virginia, which contained an express clause that there should be but "one Bishop" in the Diocese. Another difficulty existed from the conviction, by a large majority of the Convention, that the polity of the Church did not permit the election of an Assistant Bishop, whose term of office should last longer than the Bishop whom he was chosen to assist. The first difficulty was removed by an amendment to the Constitution. The second took the shape of a restricting resolution, which was afterwards repealed. The result was the election, in 1829, of Mr. Meade as Assistant Bishop, by a vote really unanimous, for no person except himself was named or voted for.

Bishop Meade's episcopate lasted thirty-three years. We have heard much of the increase of other Dioceses during this period. That of Virginia has increased to an extent at least equal to the most vigorous. While the proportion of population has decreased, so that from being the first State in the Union, she has fallen to the fifth or sixth, the number of her clergy has risen from twenty-seven to one hundred and thirty, and that of her active parishes has increased almost in the same ratio. She has educated, in the same period, nearly five hundred ministers, who have served in the Church at large. Her seminary has supplied more than half of our foreign missionaries. And in the great religious movements which have restored to our Church so much of our reformation energy, she has taken the indubitable lead. Humanly speaking, had it not been for Bishop Meade, and the devoted and united diocesan power which he wielded, the tide of establishmentarian moderatism, which set in upon us from England, under the three first Georges, would have drowned out of us all true life. There would have been no alternative between the torpor of the moderate school and the false vigor of the altitudinarian.

Of Bishop Meade's episcopal history we have not space now to speak in detail. One or two features which distinguished it, and