A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia, Part 34

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Mughlenburg, occasionally officiated. He was the minister of the adjoining parish in Shenandoah county, and lived at Woodstock. He also exchanged the clerical for the military profession and rose to the rank of General. Tradition says that his last sermon was preached in military dress, a gown being thrown over it, and that he either chose for his text or introduced into his sermon the words of Ecclesiastes, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,"-"a time of war and a time of peace," and that, the sermon being over, he laid aside the gown and walked forth the soldier in dress and office. He was es- teemed a very upright and patriotic man. I have often in my younger days, and indeed after my entrance upon the min- istry, seen a poor old lady at the chapel in Frederick, who sat under his minstry and still lived near his log church. Being twenty miles off from the chapel, she would come on horseback either to Winchester or to the house of my elder sister over night. Her visits were generally on communion- days, and she always partook of it fasting. She spoke well of her minister as one who was faithful to his duty, for he rode twenty miles to preach to a few poor people in one of the poorest parts of the country. My next recollections of the Church are in the person of my teacher, who was educated in General Washington's Free School in Alexandria, and afterward on account of his promising talents sent to Wil- liam and Mary College. At the end of his literary course he was admitted to Deacons' orders by Bishop Madison. A year or two after this he became teacher to the children of those few families who composed almost the whole of the chapel congregation. He was faithful as a classical teacher, heard us our catechism once a week, and for some time open- ed the school with prayer. He officiated also for a period at the chapel on those Sundays which Mr. Balmaine gave to Winchester; but, his habits becoming bad, he ceased ever after to exercise the ministerial office, being fully conscious that he had mistaken his calling. He left no posterity to be

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wounded by this statement, or I should have forborne to make it."

During this period of my life I had no other means of gain- ing a knowledge of the Church and her clergy than from my parents at home. When there was no service at the chapel or we were prevented from going, my father read the ser- vices and a sermon; and whenever a death occurred among the servants he performed the burial service himself, and read Blair's Sermon on Death the following Sunday .. Of the character and conduct of the old clergy generally I have often heard them speak in terms of strong condemnation. My father, when a young man, was a vestryman in Prince George county, Virginia, but resigned his place rather than consent to retain an unworthy clergyman in the parish. Of two clergymen, however, in King George county,-the Stew- arts,-I have heard my mother, who lived for some time un- der the ministry of one of them, speak in terms of high com- mendation, as exceptions to the general rule. At the age of seventeen I was sent to Princeton College, where, of course, I had no opportunities of acquiring any knowledge of the Church, as it had no existence there at that time. though it was while there that I formed the determination, at the instance of my mother and elder sister, to enter the

*Although there was no such thing as family prayers at that day, yet was the Catechism taught in many families of the Church; pincushions to the girls and trap-balls to the boys were sometimes given, in the parish of Fred- erick, by the wife of the old parish clerk, as a reward for accuracy in say- ing it to the minister. My mother also (as was the case with many others) made her children get and repeat some of the hymns of the Prayer Book, especially Bishop Ken's, for morning and evening,. and repeat some short prayers at her bedside. In my father-in-law's family (Mr. Philip Nelson, who has often been seen in our State and General Conventions) the practice of reading the Psalms, as arranged in the Prayer Book, was regularly practiced each day by the females, so that my wife, at our marriage, could repeat nearly the whole book of Psalms. Her father used to hear his children the Cate- chism every Sunday morning before breakfast; and on the one after our mar- riage she took her accustomed place at the head of six or eight children, and performed her part. She was then eighteen years of age. It was doubtless the practice of repeating the Catechism, reading the Psalms and other Scrip- tures daily, and using the morning service on Sundays when there was no public worship, which kept alive the knowledge of, and attachment to. the Church in many families which might otherwise have been lost to it. Such families were found to be most effective auxiliaries in its resuscitation.

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Episcopal ministry, as they perceived from my letters the serious turn of my mind. I ought to have stated above that my confirmation took place at a very early period, during the first and only visit of Bishop Madison to this part of Virginia. I have but an indistinct recollection of his hav- ing heard some of us the Catechism at church, and, as I suppose, laying his hands upon us in confirmation after- ward, perceiving that we said our Catechism well. But as to both of them, especially the latter, I have relied more on the testimony of older persons than on my own certain remembrance. At the age of nineteen or a few months sooner my college course was over. Through my beloved relative and faithful friend, Mrs. Custis of Arlington, I heard of the great worth of the Rev. Walter Addison, of Maryland, and determined to prepare for the ministry at his house and under his direction. In him I became acquainted with one of the best men and saw one of the purest specimens of the ministerial character. Mr. Addison was of English par- entage, and born to large landed possessions on the Mary- land side of the Potomac opposite to Alexandria. He also inherited a number of servants, whom he emancipated. Through mismanagement his other property wasted away. But the God whom he served never permitted him to want, though he was allowed to end his days in poverty. It re- quired but little to serve him, for he was a man of content and self-denial. At a time when wine, whiskey, rum, and brandy were so commonly and freely drunken by all, espec- ially by many of the clergy of Virginia and Maryland, he made a rule never to drink more than one small glass of very weak toddy at dinner, but this was equal to total ab- stinence now. Wine he had none. He was faithful and bold in reproving vice from the pulpit and elsewhere, though one · of the meekest of men. He told me of some mistakes into which he ran in his earlier days. He was probably one of the first of the Episcopal clergy in the United States who denounced what are called fashionable amusements. Some years before my acquaintance with him he published a small

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volume against balls, theaters, gambling, and horse-racing, adducing some high authorities from the Church of England. His opposition to duelling and the means he adopted to pre- vent it made him for a number of years very notorious among the members of our American Congress. Being pas- tor of the church in Georgetown, though still living in the country at the time, he had the opportunity of exerting him- self in the prevention of duels on several occasions. He has often detailed to me the circumstances attending those ef- forts,-namely, his clothing himself with a civil office, in order the more effectually to arrest the duellists in their attempts to find some favorable place for the combat, his interview with Mr. Jefferson, when he had reason to believe that one of the parties was in the President's house, his pursuit after them on horseback, his overtaking them just as the seconds were measuring the ground, their threaten- ing to bind him to a tree in the Arlington forest if he did not desist from pursuit. These and such like things have I heard from his truthful lips. At the time of the threaten- ed encounter between Mr. John Randolph and Mr. Eppes, he was fully prepared to prevent it, and if necessary deposit one or both of them in a place of confinement. Mr. Ran- dolph was then an attendant at his church in Georgetown, Eleven o'clock on Sunday morning was selected for the com- bat, in order, as was believed, to evade Mr. Addison's vig- ilance, as it was supposed he would then be at his post of duty in the house of God. But he believed that his post of duty on that day was elsewhere, and did not hesitate about disappointing the congregation. For some time preceding the appointed hour he was secreted near the hotel where Mr. Randolph boarded, ready to arrest him should he leave the house. But an adjustment of the difference took place about that time. Mr. Stanford, a worthy member from North Carolina, the steady and judicious friend of Randolph, was doubtless engaged in the adjustment. At any rate, he knew what was going on and when the pacification was effected. He knew also where Mr. Addison was and what

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he was prepared to do. He it was who informed Mr. Addi- son that he might go with a quiet conscience to his Sabbath duties, as the difficulty was settled. This I had from the lips of Mr. Stanford himself, with whom I had the pleasure to be intimately acquainted for many years. Mr. Addison was equally opposed to strife in the Christian Church. Al- though he was a true lover of our own and most passionately devoted to her services, yet he was no bigot, but embraced all Christians and Churches in the arms of his wide-extend- ed charity. The unchurching doctrine he utterly rejected. Just before I lived with him an Episcopal paper was com- menced in the North in which that position was taken. He either subscribed to it, or it was sent to him; but, on find- ing that it declared all other minstries invalid and all other churches out of the covenant, he returned the paper or de- clined to receive it any longer. He loved to see sinners con- verted, by whatsoever instruments God might employ. There was a certain place in the corner of his large country par- ish where neither he nor any other Episcopal minister had been able to make any impression. Some Methodists being there and desiring to build a church, he bid them God-speed and furnished some pecuniary or other assistance, hoping that they might do what he had not been able to do. Such was the man'of God with whom it was my privilege to spend some happy and I hope not unprofitable months, the period of my stay being abridged by a weakness in the eyes, which altogether prevented study. He lived to a good old age, loving all men and beloved by all who knew him. Many of his last years were spent in darkness, but not of the soul. His eyes became dim, until at length all was night to him. But while only a glimmering of light remained, he rejoiced and thanked God for it far more than those do who enjoy a perfect vision. And when all was gone, he was still the happiest and most grateful of all the happy and grateful ones whom I have ever seen or known. In my visits to the district afterwards, I ever felt it to be my sacred duty, as it was my high happiness, to enter his humble dwelling. But

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this was never done without bursts of feelings and of tears on both sides.

As I am engaged in presenting my recollections of the state of things in the Church of Virginia, I think this a proper time for some notice of the character of the sermons which were preached and the books which were read among the Episcopalians of Virginia. This was the period when the poet Cowper upbraided the clergy of the English Church with substituting morality for religion, saying,-

"How oft, when Paul had served us with a text, Has Plato, Tully, Epictetus preached!"

In the Church of Virginia, with the exception of Mr. Jar- rett and perhaps a few others, I fear the preaching had for a long time been almost entirely of the moral kind. The books most in use were Blair's Sermons, Sterne's Works, The Spectator, The Whole Duty of Man, sometimes Tillot- son's Sermons, which last were of the highest grade of worth then in use. But Blair's sermons, on account of their ele- gant style and great moderation in all things, were most popular. I remember that when either of my sisters would be at all rude or noisy, my mother would threaten them with Blair's Sermon on Gentleness.

It is no wonder that the churches were deserted and the meeting-houses filled. But the time had come, both in the English and American Church, for a blessed change. There is something interesting in the history of one of the ways in which it was introduced into the Church of Virginia. The family of Bishop Porteus was Virginian-of Gloucester coun- ty-opposite old Yorktown, the residence of General Nelson. It is not certain but that Bishop Porteus himself was born in Virginia and carried over when a child to England with his emigrating parents. Porteus became a tutor in the Eton school, and when General Nelson was sent to England for his education his father placed him under the care of Mr. Porteus. When Porteus was elevated to the rank of a Bishop he did not forget his former pupil and family, but sent them

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his first work, a volume of sermons, which were a great im- provement on the sermons of that day. When Mr. Wilber- force, with whom he was intimate, published his celebrated evangelical work, "Practical View of Christianity," this was also sent, and afterward I believe the Bishop's Lectures on the Gospel of St. Matthew, which were an improvement on his sermons. A beginning of more evangelical views of Christian doctrine was thus made in one of the best and most influential families of Virginia.

I am now brought to the period of my ordination, which introduced me to some things, in relation to the Church of Virginia, not without a painful interest to the lovers of true religion. But, before speaking of some circumstances at- tendant on my ordination, it may be well to allude to a cor- respondence between Bishop Madison and myself, some months before that event. It is the more proper so to do as it will serve to correct some misunderstandings which have gone abroad with respect to us both, and which have had a bearing on the reputation of the Virginia Churchman- ship of that day. Passing through Philadelphia a year or more before my ordination, and staying at the house of an Episcopal clergyman, I heard some severe strictures on one or more of the ministers of our Church, in some other dio- cese or dioceses, for violating the rubrics of the Prayer Book by abridging the service. It was designated by no slighter term than perjury, in the violation of solemn ordination vows. I learned afterward that such charges were made elsewhere. In examining the Canons of the Church I also found one which seemed positively to forbid, under any cir- cumstances, the admission into an Episcopal pulpit of any minister not Episcopally ordained. I was aware that it was impossible to use the whole service in very many of the places where I might be called to officiate, and well knew that ministers of other denominations preached in many of our old Episcopal churches, and, indeed, that it was question-

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ed whether under the law our ministers had the exclusive right to them. I also saw that there was a canon forbidding servile labor to the clergy, while from necessity-for the support of a young family-I was then taking part in the labors of the field, which in Virginia was emphatically servile labour. Wishing to enter the ministry with a good conscience and correct understanding of my ordination vows, I wrote a letter of inquiry to Bishop Madison on these several points. To this I received a very sensible reply, nearly all of which, I think, the House of Bishops and the Church generally would now endorse, though there would have been some de- murring in former times. On the occasion of my consecra- tion to the office of Bishop it was objected by some that Bishop Madison had ordained me with a dispensation from canonical obedience. Having his letter with me,-which the reader may see-the objection was not urged."

*Dear Sir :- 1 received your letter by Mr. Bracken, and approve of your conscientious inquiries respecting certain obligations imposed by the Canons. You know that every society must have general rules, as the guides of con- duct for its members; but I believe the Episcopal Church is as liberal in that respect as any other religions society, whatever. The subscription re- quired of the candidate is, that he will conform to the discipline and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. At the time of or- dination he promises to conform to the Canons. With respect to the Book of Common Prayer, an adherence is required, wherever the situation of the Church will permit; it happens, however, too often that the minister must be left to his own discretion, particularly on occasions when it may be nec- essary to abridge the services, or when there may be no Clerk, &c. No oath is administered or required, and that adherence to the book only is expected which may tend to further religion and good order in a religious society; for there can be no doubt of the superiority of forms of prayer for public worship. Before sermon many ministers, I believe, prefer a prayer of their own, and if it be well conceived 1 suppose no objection would be made. His private prayer, may certainly be determined by himself. With respect to the use of our Church by other Societies, the general rule is often dispensed with, espec- ially if the party wishing the use will assist in the preservation of the build- ing. or if the preacher be of known respectable character. Too often, in- decd, our Churches are now used entirely by other sects. The Canon could uever Intend that a minister should be prevented from following any occu- pation which was creditable. Hence the practice of physic, &c., is not deemed inconsistent with the ministerial profession, nor, I conceive, any other business which is free from a kind of public odinm. It would be unfit for a minister to keep a tavern or grogshop, &c., but certainly not to follow any occupa- tion where good may result both to the community and to the individual. The honest discharge of clerical duties, with a life preaching by example, are, in reality, the principal requisites; when these are manifested, and the piety

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In the month of February, 1811, I proceeded on horseback to Williamsburg, about two hundred miles, and on Sunday, the 24th,-a clear, cold morning,-was ordained. My exam- ination took place at the Bishop's, before breakfast,-Dr. Bracken and himself conducting it. It was very brief.

On our way to the old church the Bishop and myself met a number of students with guns on their shoulders and dogs at their sides, attracted by the frosty morning, which was favourable to the chase; and at the same time one of the citizens was filling bis ice-house. On arriving at the church we found it in a wretched condition, with broken windows and a gloomy, comfortless aspect. The congregation which assembled consisted of two ladies and about fifteen gentle- men, nearly all of whom were relatives or acquaintances. The morning service being over, the ordination and commun- ion were administered, and then I was put into the pulpit to preach, there being no ordination sermon. The religious condition of the College and of the place may easily and just- ly be inferred from the above. I was informed that not long before this two questions were discussed in a literary society of the College :- First, Whether there be a God? Secondly, Whether the Christian religion had been injurious or bene- ficial to mankind? Infidelity, indeed, was then rife in the State, and the College of William and Mary was regarded as the hotbed of French politics and religion. I can truly say, that then, and for some years after, in every educated young man of Virginia whom: I niet, I expected to find a skep-

and good behavior of the minister cannot be questioned, he need not appre- hend the rigor of Canons, or any other spiritual authority.

I am, sir, yours very respectfully.

October 10. 1810.

J. MADISON.

Remarks. Some years after my entrance on the ministry, I was convers- ing on the subject of dispensing with the regular service in preaching to the servants in their quarters, with one of our most eminent ministers, when he maintained, and I doubt not, most conscientiously, that I had no right to open my lips in preaching to them, without first using the service accord- ing to the rubric. A very great change has recently come over the minds of many of our clergy on this subject, judging from some things seen in our religions papers, in which more latitudinarian views are taken than I ever remember to have heard of formerly.

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tic. if not an avowed unbeliever. I left Williamsburg, as may well be imagined, with sad feelings of discouragement. My next Sabbath was spent in Richmond, where the condition of things was little better. Although there was a church in the older part of the town, it was never used but on com- munion-days. The place of worship was an apartment in the Capitol, which held a few hundred persons at most, and as the Presbyterians had no church at all in Richmond at that time, the use of the room was divided between them and the Episcopalians, each having service every other Sabbath morning, and no oftener. Even two years after this, being in Richmond on a communion-Sunday, I assisted the Rector, Dr. Buchanan, in the old Church, when only two gentlemen and a few ladies communed. One of these gentlemen, the elder son of Judge Marshall, was a resident in the upper country.

Before proceeding further in the narrative of such circum- stances as may tend to throw light on the condition of the Church in Virginia, I will, at the risk of being charged with even more of egotism than has already been displayed, make a few remarks, which, I think, are necessary to a right under- standing of the whole subject I have taken in hand. So low and hopeless was the state of the Church at this time-the time of my ordination-but a few of the old clergy even at- tempting to carry on the work-only one person for a long time having been ordained by Bishop Madison, and he from a distance, and a most unworthy one-it created surprise, and was a matter of much conversation, when it was under- stood that a young Virginian had entered the ministry of the Episcopal Church. Even some years after this, when I applied to Judge Marshall for a subscription to our The- ological Seminary, though he gave with his accustomed lib- erality, he could not refrain from saving, that it was a hope- less undertaking, and that it was almost unkind to induce young Virginians to enter the Episcopal ministry, the Church being too far gone ever to be revived. Such was the general impression among friends and foes. I had, however,

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throughout the State many most respectable and influential relatives, some still rich, others of fallen fortunes, both on my father's and mother's side, who were still attached to the Church. My parents, too, were very popular persons, and had many friends and acquaintances throughout Vir- ginia, who still lingered around the old Church. These things caused my ordination to excite a greater interest, and created a partiality in behalf of my future ministry. But still there were many who thought it so strange a proceed- ing, that they were ready to accept, as a probable mode of accounting for it, an opinion expressed by one or more and soon put in circulation, that there was something unsound in mind or eccentric in character, at any rate a want of good common sense, or I could not make such a mistake as to at- tach myself to the fallen and desperate fortunes of the old Church. Some strange speeches of this kind were made. Nor were they or their effects confined to Virginia, or to that time. I am not sure that their influence has ceased to the present day. One good, however, resulted from them, namely, that certain views of religion and certain modes of life adopted by me and contrary to what were supposed to be the doctrines of the Episcopal Church-certainly, con- trary to the sentiments and practice of the people-were as- cribed to this natural defect, and kindly dealt with, instead of awakening hostility which, under other circumstances, might have been exhibited. Certain it is that my ministry, from the first, was received with favour which neither my imperfect theological education nor my most unfinished ser- mons nor any thing else about me were entitled to. Under such favour, I commenced my ministry in the spring of 1811, in Frederick county, as assistant to Mr. Balmaine, in the two congregations belonging to his charge, while living and labouring on a small farm, and having no design or wish to go elsewhere. But in the fall of that year, I consented to the very urgent solicitations of the vestry of old Christ

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A history and record of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of West Virginia, Part 34

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