USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > History of St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, N.Y. : 1817 to 1888 > Part 19
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The bishop's body was laid to rest by the side of the graves of three of his children, in the plot of ground set apart in the quiet church- yard of Trinity, by act of the vestry and permission of the local authorities, as the private burial place for Bishop Coxe and the mem- bers of his family.
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In his youth, in his "Christian Ballads," he had sung :
"I would sleep where the church-bells aye ring out,
I would rise by the house of prayer. . . . .
O let me rest in the churchyard then, And hard by the church's gate ; 'Tis there I pray to my Saviour Christ, And I will, till mine eye is dim,
That, sleep as I may in this fevered life, I may rest, at last, in Him."
Mrs. Coxe did not long survive her husband, but died February 16, 1898, and was buried at his side in Trinity churchyard, Geneva, N. Y.
The passing away of Bishop Coxe called forth a great number of tributes from men of other faiths and from men of no faith, as well as from those of his own communion. With his most remarkable gifts as a scholar, poet, and citizen of the world, with his cultured manners of a school which is unfortunately fast passing away, all of which would have brought him distinction in any secular walk of life he might have chosen, he bent, instead, all his abilities and energies and gifts to the up-building of Christ's Church, with a faith as simple, as beautiful and as unshaken as that of a little child, but illuminated by a learning and a capacity for depth of thought and reasoning which few possess.
In his poems, and especially in his "Christian Ballads," first pub- lished in 1840, the offices and accessories of the services of the Church seem to burst forth into bloom like Aaron's rod. At a time in this country when much in the services and appointments of the Church seemed lacking in a due sense of beauty, the text applied to these poems seemed particularly appropriate :
"He appointed singers before the Lord, that should praise the Beauty of Holiness."
This sense of the sacred beauty underlying and vivifying the serv- ices and ideas of the Church, going hand in hand with his priestly consecration, was to some extent the natural outcome of his deeply
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poetical nature, which saw beauty in all the works of God; but his expression of that feeling, an expression at once manly and most devotional, was unique at the time, and has been a potent factor in bringing many into the Church, and in reanimating the loyalty of churchmen.
The beauty and dignity of his face and bearing typified most truly the beauty of his mind and heart, and the clear flame of his soul. It has been well said of him that "by his example he speaks to every layman, calling him to wear upon his breast 'the white flower of a blameless life.' "
A solemn memorial service for the late Bishop Coxe was held in St. Paul's Church, Buffalo, on the evening of Monday, October 5, 1896. The church was filled to its utmost capacity by a large con- gregation, many of whom stood during the entire service.
The procession as it entered the church was most impres- sive. The combined choirs of St. Paul's and the Church of the Ascension came first, singing the hymn, " Hark ! Hark ! my Soul," preceded by the crucifer and acolytes. About one hundred clergy of the diocese followed, accompanied by numbers of clergymen from other dioceses. Last in the procession was the Rt. Rev. William Cros- well Doane, Bishop of Albany. After the Evening Service had been sung, the Rev. Arthur C. Powell, rector of Grace Church, Baltimore, who came to Buffalo especially to represent that church, read a memo- rial prepared by the vestry of his parish, in which they expressed their sympathy with the Diocese of Western New York. He then gave an eloquent account of the good work done by Bishop Coxe during his rectorate at Grace Church from 1854 to 1863, and of the love and veneration in which his memory is held there.
The chancel of St. Paul's was filled with the white-vested clergy, and many ministers of the different denominations in the city occupied the front pews reserved for them, and took this opportunity of showing their respect to the memory of one who had wielded so strong an influence on all thinking men about him. Bishop Doane made the
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memorial address, which was a masterly one, a most eloquent and moving tribute to the memory of the beloved bishop who for over thirty years had been the Diocesan of Western New York, and one of the strong men of the Church.
It is only possible to give here a few passages from the address of Bishop Doane, but these are so characteristic and so appreciative of him who so often ministered to the people of what he took pleasure in calling his Cathedral Church, that it seems most fitting to preserve them here. Bishop Doane took for his text the words from I. Corinthians :
" I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ : That in everything ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge."
He said in part :
"Sad-hearted in the present, . . . . there is neither sadness nor anxious- ness as we look back, for we are looking back upon the path of the righteous, the path of the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. We thank our God on this and on every remembrance of him with joy, for the Grace of God that was given him by Jesus Christ.
"I need hardly say that the words of this passage, descriptive of that Church, which, more than any other, was endowed with a real coruscation of extraordinary splendor in its gifts, lie out before us in three lines of thought - richness, utterance, knowledge - and apply themselves in three salient features of the dead bishop's char- acter - who, being dead, yet speaketh - in the wealth of his spiritual and natural endowments, in the wide range and accuracy of his learning, and in the force and felicity of his speech. . . . . .
" You do not care to hear me deal to-night with the dates and details of his life. That must be left for the larger and fuller record which some careful and skillful hand will make, I trust, ere long. .
. But so far as this preaching is concerned, I have to deal with general effects and not with the sidelights or the shadows that fill in the finished outline. A man who walks along a lovely road, bordered with beauty at every step, and tracing its way on and up to even fairer scenes, is not concerned with, and does not notice, the mere mile stones which mark a distance that he does not feel, and measure intervals over which he is in no haste to pass. . . .
"You will forgive me if I speak of your late bishop more in this larger relation to the whole Church than in his relation as to your diocese. His estimate of his office was, in my judgment, the rightful one. He was consecrated 'a bishop in the Church
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of God.' The field of his personal and immediate duty was, of course, in the diocese which he first shared with the great DeLancey, and then succeeded him in its full care. But the diocesan bishop is, first of all, a bishop in the Church of God. No detail of visitation, of administration, of travel, may be neglected therefor; but he had no sympathy -and I have none- with the measurement of Episcopal service by the number of miles traveled, or the number of parishes visited, or the number of persons confirmed. Like the mint and anise and cummin of the Pharisees, all these things are to be done, and he did them patiently, faithfully, and most acceptably.
"And so the great heart of your bishop reached out to the struggling little church in Hayti, whose cradling days he nursed and tended ; beat with a far higher and truer than Byronic enthusiasm for the ancient Church of Greece ; honored and loved and longed for closer communion with the mother Church of England ; did valiant battle more than once at Lambeth and in the councils of our own Church by speech and by letter for the rights of the Old Catholics in Germany and Switzerland ; prayed and labored and contended for the restoration of the liberties and loyalties to primitive truth and order of the old Gallican Church ; stood with unquenchable zeal, even when some of the idols were rudely shattered, for the movement in Mexico for interior reform ; and labored and longed to break the barriers down which part us from our brothers in other Christian bodies. .
"Enriched ! Is not this first a thought of soils ; not those which years of cost and toil have reclaimed into a partial fertileness from dryness of sand, or hardness of rock, or shallowness of earth ; but just a natural bit of ground, a virgin soil of inex- haustible depth, which answers instantly to every seed that falls from the wing of passing breeze or flying bird, or from the careless flinging of the sower's hand ; and answers to every drop of rain and every beam of sunshine, and every pearl of dew, with the quick response of instant greenness, which grows faster even than the sea- sons fly, into the golden glory of an early harvest. . He had that rare respon- siveness in his nature which kept his eye and ear awake, and opened every pore of his whole being to receive the influence of the place, the moment, the surrounding. Sen- sitive as a strung harp to every breath of wind, to every lightest finger touch, and catching as the mirror of a still woodland lake, every tree leaf, every folding of the mountains, every fleeciest cloud, to reproduce it in reflectiou ; and ready to move in instant ripples with the least breath of wind that ruffled its surface. It was this that made his pastoral power so great, by his quick sympathy, his ability to enter into and share in whatever interested the person with whom he dealt. .
"Knowledge ! First among the natural and the spiritual endowments of your bishop wherewith he was most enriched in knowledge, I should count, speaking not of physical and external characteristics, which were abundantly bestowed upon him, the unusual eagerness of acquisition, the accurate thoroughness of retaining, and the
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instantaneous readiness of recalling, which marked the operation of his mind. His knowledge of the Holy Scriptures was deep and devout. His spirit, so in accord with the Holy Spirit of God, caught their inner meaning with a quickness which opened new revelations to his soul ; and his own poetic gifts were perpetually flashing sparks of light from some new kindling of a passage of God's Word. 'Mighty in the Scriptures,' he certainly was one of the class of minds, with whom, when as they walk sad, oftentimes, in twilight meditations, the Master joins himself, as to the two at Emmaus, and opens the Scripture to their eyes, and their eyes to the Scripture, till they see Him. As a student of Patristic Theology, he had few equals in America, and his familiarity with the Fathers not only made him a difficult and dangerous antagonist in theological controversy, but enabled him to do great service to English students by his work in connection with the editing of the Anti-Nicene Fathers. And what he did not know about the Petrine claims and the Roman assumptions in Scrip- ture, Council and History was not worth knowing. His knowledge in liturgics was very thorough and full, and his ear was quick to catch the perfect rhythm of praise and word, which so absolutely marks off, plainly as poetry is marked off from prose, the language of a liturgy from the pompous verbosity of most modern prayers.
" He was an expert in the domain of ecclesiastical history. The story of the Church from the beginning, and the story of the Churches, whether in France, or Spain, or England, or in the older East, he knew, as an intelligent patriot knows the story of his own country - and for the same reason, namely, the patriotism and intelligence of his citizenship of the Civitas Dei.
" And outside of all this he had the most perfect familiarity with English history and English literature, which lent great beauty to his own choice language, gave charm and variety to his conversation, and the power of illustration and quotation ready and apt, which flavored his speech with treasures of fact and expression. And all these things, which he had easily acquired and accurately remembered, were at his instant command. Whatever may be said or thought of his prepared sermons, his unprepared, unexpected, sudden and spontaneous speeches sparkled with a brilliancy that caught every color of the rainbow, and bristled with an array of facts and refer- ences which commanded the attention and admiration of all who heard him. I have never heard from any man such an array of precedents and authorities of Scriptural quotations, references to Canon Law, old and new, of judicial decisions, of historical instances, all uttered in words that burned and glowed with tenderness and intensity, as the bishops will remember, in a speech of his which had not a moment for prepara- tion, in council at Minneapolis last October, during the session of the general conven- tion, at which meeting he seemed to me fresher and brighter and clearer than he had for several years before, as though his very sorrows had sublimated his spiritual pow- ers, and the lamp was leaping to a brighter flame before it flickered to its fading spark.
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" Utterance ! The current that set most strongly through the natural temperament of the bishop was the poetic current, in the best sense of that word, and it had its spring and rise neither in Arathusa or Castaly, but in 'Siloa's brook, which flows fast by the oracle of God.' Now the poetic nature is not only creative and not chiefly imaginative. It is intensely the gift of the seer. . . And when the seer speaks, he not only reveals but prophesies. Eminently Bishop Coxe had this gift, for he was a true poet. And when he wrote 'Dreamland,' fifty years ago, he was seeing and prophesying. Whatever dreams he dreamed were, like Jacob's in a sleep that was pillowed upon stone, in much hardness and loneliness, in the sense of Divine presence, and with the full realization of the old Homeric thought, 'the dream is from God.' We forget, who have fallen into the easy heritage of religious truths accepted, of ecclesiastical privileges assured, of the glory of Catholic theology acknowledged, and of Catholic worship adopted, we forget the farsight and foresight, the clearness of wisdom and the courage of utterance, which belonged to the leaders of fifty years ago. A thousand familiar and undisputed things to-day were not only disputed but denied then ; and in that line of men, of whom Seabury and Hobart were the first, and my father and Bishop Whittingham their successors in the older generation, Bishop Wil- liams and Bishop Coxe were easily leaders in the next. Suspected, discredited, counted disloyal to the Church, denounced as Romans in disguise, these men were in the advance guard ; they were of the hope that seemed at times forlorn. They were pioneers, who found and cleared the way; and we, who come after them along a smooth and open path, forget the risk and pain and labor with which they won our liberties. . .
" The priest who wrote 'Dreamland,' the priest who was filled with the beauty of holiness of the worship and reverence due to God's house (into whose sanctuary I believe he never entered, when he could avoid it, without taking the shoes of outdoor use from off his feet); the priest who helped to restore the disused matins and even- song, who was among the first to recognize the Holy Eucharist as the chief act of worship, to be used at least on every Lord's Day, who as bishop said in his last charge to his clergy : 'The New Testament tells us clearly to hallow the Lord's Day by the Lord's Supper. This is our law and our rubric, and to this reformation I call you all in God's name'; the priest who was by nature strict in the observance of all the niceties and proprieties and dignities of divine service, and all this not recently, but fifty years ago, was a man whom we ought to honor for his prophetic power of insight and utterance, for the courage of his maintained positions in the far advance of the first rank to which the host has since come up. . ..
"He not only rejoiced, but took no little part in the first enlargement of our hymnology, from which, with most positive determination, he absolutely excluded every hymn of his own. I am quite clear that the last committee has been wiser than
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he in this behalf, in that we have given to the Church for use in its treasures of sacred song many hymns of his composing. One of them, at least, 'Saviour, Sprinkle Many Nations," is among the first of our Christian lyrics and among the most stirring of our missionary hymns. One turns over page after page of his collection of Chris- tian ballads, struck by the true, prophetic insight of his inspiration, as well as by the sonorous metre and rhythm of his verse. He certainly was enriched in all utterance, both of the eloquence which means outspeaking and the brilliant powers of an orator, and enriched in the utterance of true poetic gifts.
" What he himself described in his dedication to Dr. Hobart of the 'Christian Ballads' as 'The glistening dews of a Christian boyhood' never dried upon his brow. The freshness of his spirit was perennial. Within an hour of his death he was so absorbed in what his companion called ' an illuminating conversation' on the resurrec- tion of the dead that he lost all sense of time and trains and of the needed nourish- ment of food. And to the very end, what he called the 'glow of his early vow' rested upon him like a halo in all its warmth and brightness."
September 1I, 1896, at a meeting of the vestry, Messrs. W. H. Walker, A. Porter Thompson and E. H. Hutchinson were elected del- egates from St. Paul's "to the Special Council to meet in this city on the 6th day of October next, for the election of a bishop to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Bishop Coxe." Messrs. James Swee- ney and Hobart Weed were also " elected special delegates to fill any vacancy that might be caused by inability of any of the delegates to attend the council."
At the Special Council of the Diocese of Western New York, summoned by the Standing Committee for the election of a bishop, to fill the vacancy caused by the lamented death of the beloved Chief Pastor, Arthur Cleveland Coxe, D. D., LL. D., convened in Trinity Church, in the City of Buffalo, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 6th and 7th days of October, 1896, the Right Reverend William D. Walker, D. D., LL. D., Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, was chosen to be the Diocesan.
Bishop Walker had been for many years a missionary bishop in the West, where he carried on a successful, energetic work. He was born in New York City, June 29, 1839. In 1859, he was graduated
THE RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM DAVID WALKER, D. D., LL. D., D. C. L. Third Bishop of Western New York, 1896. Consecrated Missionary Bishop of North Dakota, 1883 ; became Bishop of Western New York, 1896.
Photograph, copyright by Bliss Brothers, 1897.
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from Columbia College, and in 1862 from the General Theological Seminary. In June, 1862, he was admitted to deacon's orders in the Church of the Transfiguration, New York, by Bishop Horatio Potter, who, the next year, in Calvary Church, New York, admitted him to the priesthood. He was a priest at Calvary Church until 1883, when the House of Bishops nominated him for the Missionary Episcopate of North Dakota. December 20, 1883, he was consecrated bishop in Calvary Church. "For many years Bishop Walker has served as one of the government commissioners to whom is entrusted the charge of the Indians. His cathedral car, which was the first of the kind, has attracted much attention. The car is fitted up like a chapel, and by means of this car Bishop Walker has been able to preach in hundreds of small places which would otherwise have been inaccessible." In 1884 Bishop Walker received his degree of doctor of divinity from Racine, and in 1894 from the University of Oxford, England. In 1886 the degree of LL. D. was given him by Griswold College and in 1894 Trinity College, Dublin, conferred upon him a similar degree. He has also received the degree of D. C. L. from the University of King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia.
November 30, 1896, the meeting for the annual election of church- wardens and vestrymen for the parish was held in St. Paul's Church, being Monday in the week beginning with the First Sunday in Advent, due notice of such meeting having been given as provided by law. The rector, the Rev. Dr. J. A. Regester, presided. The fol- lowing persons were elected: William H. Walker, churchwarden for one year, A. Porter Thompson, churchwarden for two years ; Ed- mund Hayes, James Sweeney and Hobart Weed, vestrymen for three years ; Albert J. Barnard, Dr. M. D. Mann and Charles R. Wilson, vestrymen for two years ; James R. Smith, Sheldon T. Viele and John Pease, vestrymen for one year. (First election under the new rule.)
December 11, 1896, at a meeting of the vestry, Charles R. Wilson was elected clerk of the vestry and William A. Joyce treasurer of the parish, for the ensuing year.
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The thanks of the vestry were extended to Philip Joyce for the val- uable aid and assistance rendered by him to the treasurer of the parish in the preparation of his annual report.
The rector called attention to the formal action of the vestry, taken March 27, 1866, inviting the late Bishop Coxe to make St. Paul's church the cathedral of the diocese, and the bishop's acceptance of the invitation ; and that a committee had been appointed on April 25, 1866, to formulate the proposed plan of making St. Paul's Church at the same time a parish church and the cathedral church of the dio- cese. This committee never having reported, it was thought that Bishop Walker might wish some further action in the matter. A committee was, therefore, appointed at this meeting of December II, 1896, consisting of the rector and the two wardens, to confer with Bishop Walker on the subject, if he should so desire.
On Sunday, December 20, 1896, Bishop Walker preached his first sermon as Bishop of Western New York, in St. Paul's Church, Buffalo. Just before the sermon, the Rev. Dr. Regester, the rector, announced the Enthronization of Bishop Walker, to take place in St. Paul's Church on Wednesday morning ; then, turning to the people, Dr. Regester said : " The congregation will rise and join with me in a welcome to our bishop." The great congregation arose, Bishop Walker also arose, and Dr. Regester, in a few well-chosen words, welcomed him to the Cathedral church.
On Wednesday morning, December 23, 1896, a large congregation filled St. Paul's to take part in the ceremony of the Enthronization of Bishop Walker as Bishop of Western New York. Almost every clergy- man of the diocese was present at the impressive service, which is of English origin, and was the first of the kind ever held in Buffalo.
The procession entered the church in the following order : The vested choirs of St. Paul's and Ascension churches, singing the hymn, " The Church's One Foundation"; they were followed by the Lay Officers of the Diocese and the Lay Members of the Standing Com- mittee ; the Master of Ceremonies, the Clergy of the Diocese, the
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Arch-Deacons, the Registrar, the Secretaries, Clerical Members of the Standing Committee, the Bishop's Chaplains, one of whom carried the pastoral staff, and lastly the Bishop.
On reaching the chancel, the Testimonial of Election and con- formity to the Canonical requirements, prepared by the chancellor, the Hon. James M. Smith, was read by the Hon. John E. Pound of Lock- port. Judge Smith was prevented by illness from being present. Then the bishop, kneeling, with a chaplain on either side, commended himself to God in prayer. The officiant, the Rev. Dr. Walter North, then led the congregation in a special prayer for the bishop, after which the officiant conducted the new diocesan to the Episcopal Chair, and said :
"In the Name of God, Amen : I, Walter North, do, by the authority committed to me for that purpose, install and enthrone you, Rt. Rev. Father, into the Episcopal Chair of this diocese. The Lord preserve thy coming in and thy going out from this time forth, forevermore."
The Te Deum was then sung, followed by special versicles and a prayer for the bishop. The address of welcome was then delivered by the Rev. Dr. Henry Anstice of Rochester, during which the bishop stood in the front of the chancel with a chaplain on either side.
Dr. Anstice said, in part :
"Rt. Rev. Father in God : On this auspicious occasion, in behalf of the clergy and laity of Western New York, I am commissioned to express to you, in your now officially and fully recognized position as our Diocesan, our most cordial, deep-felt welcome.
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