VOL. I.

THE EVERGREEN.

APRIL, 1844.

NO. IV.

For the Evergreen.

MEMOIR OF BISHOP WHITE.

BY THE REV. HENRY W. DUCACHET, D. D.,
Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Philadelphia.

could not recollect any portion of his life during which he was 66 regardless of the obligations of religion, or neglected prayer." His earliest religious impressions were the fruit of his mother's instructions, furnishing another striking instance among the many who have gratefully traced their first religious views to maternal THE father of Bishop White, Col. Thomas White, influence. But the circumstance which more particuof London, came to this country in early life, and set-larly directed his attention to this important subject, tled on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, there practis-was the sudden death of a young lady whom he greating law. His second wife, the Bishop's mother, a Mrs. ly esteemed as a friend of his sister's. About the Newman, was a native of New Jersey. They had same time the Rev. George Whitefield arrived in this only two children, the eldest of whom became the wife country. That strange but wonderfully gifted man, of the eminent financier and statesman, Robert Mor- perhaps beyond every other uninspired preacher that ris. The younger was the late Bishop. He was born ever lived, had the power of riveting attention and on the 24th of March, (old style,) of the year 1748. exciting interest; and seems to have been acquainted The change of style, which took place in England in with avenues to the human conscience, and modes of 1752, and according to the Gregorian calendar estab-reaching the heart, which other preachers had never lished in 1582, (the time between the 2d and 14th of September being dropped,) created a difference of 11 days, makes his birth-day the 4th of April. The place of his birth was a house in Philadelphia, on the north side of Market street, a few doors above Fourth street-the same afterwards occupied by Mr. Kuhn, the auctioneer. At seven years of age, he was placed in the English department of the preparatory school of the then recently established "College of Philadel-powerful declamation of the statesmen who have elecphia," afterwards the University. Here he was under trified and swayed the British parliament, or wielded the pupilage of a Mr. Kinnersley, a popular teacher of at will the decisions of our own Senate; comes up to those days; and at ten years of age, he was placed at the accounts we have of the silver-tongued and trumthe grammar school of the same institution, under the pet-voiced Whitefield. I must be permitted to remark, care of a Mr. Jackson, the head of the Latin school. in passing, that perhaps Whitefield, strange as he was, At fourteen he entered the College itself, and matricu- and censurable as certainly was his erratic and schislated as an undergraduate. And at that seat of learn-matical course of proceeding, did much to excite and ing, which remains yet to boast that that distinguished man was reared by her, and to adorn and bless our city, he finished his collegiate education in the year

1765.

before discovered, and few have ever found out since. The interest and excitement produced by his coming and his discourses, and the power of his simple but highly finished oratory, were wonderful indeed. Nothing that history has told us of the effect produced by the ancient orators of Greece and Rome; or by the splendid eloquence of the preachers of the age of Louis XIV. upon the polished court of Versailles; or by the

perpetuate in this country an interest in religion; and more, perhaps, than any other individual, to raise the tone and character of pulpit oratory.

It is often remarked that American preachers are generally among the very best of all preachers; and I believe the statement to be true. A variety of reasons

The Bishop had a pious mother. Indeed, she is represented as a woman of great worth every way; and of piety of the most strict and exemplary character.may be given for this generally conceded superiority; Accordingly, the truths of religion were early impressed upon his mind by that excellent woman. And we have reason to believe that, like Samuel, he was called to the knowledge and experience of Divine grace in the very morning of his life; and indeed at a period so early that he could not distinguish the call of God from the voice of his mother. He seems to have been one of the very rare cases of those sanctified from childhood. He records it of himself that he

and a variety of causes have no doubt contributed to produce it. Among the principal may be placed the nature of our free institutions. "Tis true, eloquence is not of any age or country, but has spoken with every tongue and in every clime. It is the inspiration of nature, and may be given anywhere. Even the untutored savage feels the lofty sentiment, when he tells of the spirit which he has heard in the roar of the cataract, and the god he has seen in the painted cloud

Mr. Duché and Mr. Coombe having espoused the cause of the mother country, and gone to England., and the rest of the clergy having followed their exam

clergyman in Pennsylvania. He was soon after, (April 15th, 1779,) elected Rector of the United Churches in which he had been an assistant, now become vacant by abandonment; and continued in that office till the day of his death. In 1753, he received the Doctorate of Divinity from the University,-being the first person upon whom that honor was conferred by that institution.

and the lightning's flash; and when he calls his listen-ton; and that the Hon. Bushrod Washington, the dising brethren of the forest to the war-dance and the tinguished Justice of the Supreme Court, used to probattle, or speaks to them of peace in the council of {nounce him the most profitable one he had ever heard. his chiefs. It is not indeed the eloquence of art-its characteristic is force-main strength-like the tempest swelling and rising with the roar of the chafed elements. It gives the bold outline, but no minute fin-ple, he remained, for some time, the only Episcopal ish; and flings the brush at the picture, and calls forth life from the glowing canvas. Yet our institutions tend to elicit and to foster eloquence-nay, to create it. And, though I may be singular in the opinion, I cannot but say, that I verily believe that Whitefield's preaching did more than any thing else to raise the standard of eloquence, and particularly in the pulpit, in this country. Bishop White was but 17 years of age at that time; but was very much captivated by the manner of the new preacher. He represents him as surpassing every thing that he had ever witnessed in any other person. Although he did not become one of Mr. Whitefield's converts, (how could he?) he was greatly impressed under his discourses; and was led more particularly and diligently to examine, and attend to, the great question of his salvation. He turned his attention to the study of theology, with a view to the priesthood; and in the year 1770, five years after his graduation in the arts, he embarked for London in October, and presented himself as a candidate for Holy Orders to Dr. Terrick, the Bishop of that diocese, he being the Diocesan of the Church in the Colonies. Under letters dimissory from the Bishop of London, he was ordained a Deacon by Dr. Young, the Bishop of Norwich, in the Royal Chapel, on the 23d of December, of the same year; and on the 25th of April, 1772, eighteen months afterwards, he was made a Priest by Dr. Terrick. In June he left England for home; and after a very long passage, arrived in September at his native city. He was immediately set-termined that the Rev. Dr. Provoost of New York, tled, (Nov. 30th, 1772,) as an Assistant Minister in the Parish of Christ Church and St. Peter's, of which the eloquent Duché was the Rector, and the Rev. Thomas Coombe the Senior Assistant.

After the acknowledgment of our independence, in the fall of 1783, measures were taken by him for the organization of the Church in the United States; and in November of that year, at a meeting of the three vestries of the city, (the original minutes of whose meetings are in my possession,) the first steps were taken for that purpose in his study-the room which has witnessed so many important consultations, and immediately adjoining the apartment in which he finished his labors, and laid down his mitre and his life in the sleep of peace.

The clergy of Connecticut had selected Dr. Samuel Seabury as their Bishop, in the year 1784; and he, finding difficulties existing to his consecration in England, had obtained the Episcopate from the Non-juring Bishops of the Scotch Church. But, as we were a branch of the English Church, it was highly desirable to procure the succession there, although the Church of Denmark had offered to confer it, and the Scottish Bishops would no doubt have done the same. Accordingly, in the fall of 1786, it was de

Dr. White of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Griffiths of Virginia, should proceed to England for consecration. Dr. Griffiths was unable to go with his brethren. But Dr. Provoost and Dr. White, early in the autumn, He continued in the peaceful and acceptable dis- embarked for Europe. After a passage of eighteen charge of his pastoral functions, until the war of the days, (then and for many years after, the shortest Revolution, when he sided with his countrymen in the ever known across the ocean, as if God himself forstruggle for independence. Like an honest man, a warded the enterprise,) they arrived at Falmouth, and loyal subject, and a good Churchman, he continued were presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the prayers for the king and royal family, until the Mr. Adams, then American Ambassador at that Sunday immediately before the Declaration of Inde- Court, and afterwards President of the United States. pendence. After that he ceased to do so; and then All impediments and objections being removed by an took the oath of allegiance to the United States. But act of Parliament authorizing the measure, Dr. White firm as he was in his political principles, and although and Dr. Provoost were consecrated in the chapel of early elected Chaplain to Congress, and although hold- the Archiepiscopal palace at Lambeth, by the Most ing that office until the removal of the seat of Gov- Rev. John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted ernment to the District of Columbia, he would never by the Most Rev. Dr. Markham, Archbishop of York, introduce politics into the pulpit; considering that the Right Rev. Charles Moss, of Bath and Wells, and with them he had, as a preacher, nothing to do. And the Right Rev. Dr. Hinchliff, of Peterborough. Dr. what kind of a preacher he was, may be inferred from White being the senior Doctor, received the imposition the fact that he was the favorite of General Washing-of hands first, and thus became the first American

Bishop of the English line. This important act took sometimes showing a strength that promised a recoveplace on the 4th of February, 1787. These Reverend ry, and then a weakness that made us fear that all men immediately prepared to return; and, taking ship was over. It was my privilege to be with him, to at Falmouth, they reached the United States on Easter watch at the bed-side of my venerated father, and to Sunday, April 7th, 1787; and brought to our land the do something (it was but little, for he required little) to Priesthood of our fathers. They landed at New York, testify my affectionate attachment to one of the best of and entered at once upon their Episcopal duties. men. He said but few words; but remained serene, and calm, and self-possessed, to a degree that surprised me. But the Almighty in mercy spared him the pain of bodily suffering, and gave him the peace that makes the spirit tranquil. His mind occasionally wandered; but in his temporary aberrations he was the same as ever. There was calmness even in delirium; and the ruling passion was the only one that could be seen. He spoke and inquired often about the approaching consecration; seemed to think, at times, he was engaged in that high solemnity; and he would stretch out his venerable hands, in his peculiar, graceful manner, as if to consecrate and to bless the engaging young man whose elevation to the Episcopate he had so earnestly desired, but whom, as a Bishop, he was never permitted to see but once.

It would make this sketch too long, to go into the details of Bishop White's long Episcopate of nearly fifty years. His life is the history of the American Church. It must suffice to say, that his first confir- { mation was held in Christ Church, his last but one in St. Stephen's, and his last in St. Andrew's. The first person ordained by him was the Rev. Dr. Bend, afterwards of St. Paul's, Baltimore; and the last was the Rev. Augustine P. Prevost, the excellent Rector of St. John's, Canandaigua, N. Y., recently deceased. He attended every General Convention, up to the very last, and every Convention of his own Diocese until the one in May, only two months before he died.

hymn-"Thou art the way, to Thee alone," &c. He pronounced them both "charming," and then said that he wished he had the strength to express his sen

those hymns. He said, too, that "Jesus Christ was the Saviour upon whom only he depended ;" and then, like Jacob blessing his children before he went, he said, "I leave behind my best wishes for the prosperity of the Church after my decease." No change came

After the return of Bishop White, Dr. Madison was chosen Bishop of Virginia, Dr. Griffiths having declined the office and died; and, that the canonical A few days before he died, he received from the number of three might be obtained from the English hands of the then Assistant Bishop, the sacrament of Church, proceeded to England for consecration there. the Lord's body and blood, with his usual devotion; This event took place in September, 1790, the Arch- and several times engaged with his clergy in prayer. bishop of Canterbury being consecrator, assisted by On one of these occasions, after prayers were finished, Dr. Porteus of London, and Dr. Thomas of Roches-he desired that there might be read to him the beautiter. The first person elected to the Episcopate after ful hymn of Addison's, which is the 10th in our selecthis, was Dr. Thomas John Claggett, for Maryland; tion-" When all thy mercies," &c., and the 209th and, Bishop White modestly yielding the prerogative of seniority to the courtesy of rotation, Dr. Claggett was consecrated by Bishop Provoost, Bishops White, Seabury, and Madison being present and assisting.timents and feelings, but that they were contained in The next Bishop elected was Dr. Robert Smith, for South Carolina; and he was consecrated by Bishop White in Christ Church, Philadelphia. After that time, every American Bishop, twenty-seven in number, had received consecration at his hands, Bishop Smith of South Carolina being the first, and Bishopover him till the last. His eye was not dim-scarcely Kemper of the Western Mission, the last. Arrangements had been made for the consecration of the recently appointed Bishop of Michigan by his hands; and the discourse he was to have delivered on that occasion, was prepared. He had continued in his usual health, until a few days before. On the last Sunday of June, he preached for the last time in the pulpit of St. Peter's, and up to Saturday seemed much the same as he had been. On Sunday, the 3d of July, (1836,) he rose very early, before daylight; but, as he told me himself, by some accident, fell upon the floor of his chamber at the side of his bed. No immediate danger was apprehended, as, with the exception of a few trifling bruises, he seemed to have received no hurt. But the powers of life, hitherto so vigorous, received a shock from which he never rallied. He remained confined to his bed during the whole time, exhibiting no symptom of disease,

was his natural force abated. But he seemed, like good old Simeon, only to be waiting meekly and calm to see "the salvation of God," and then to depart in peace.

The morning of the day of rest had dawned upon the world, and awakened nature to cheerfulness and man to prayer. The consecrated hour had arrived when the tribes are accustomed to go up to the house of God, "to testify unto Israel and to give thanks unto the Lord." The touching prayer which the Church has provided for the sick had everywhere in our city been offered up for him, and had ascended from our altars and our hearts to the courts on high, with the sighs and the amens of the people; and his sons, upon whom he had laid his anointed hands, and all of whom had received the priesthood of Melchisedec through him, and some of whom had received it from him, were proclaiming that Gospel which he had com

172211

missioned them, in Christ's name, to preach; and He who holds the stars in His right hand was "walking amid the candlesticks," and fulfilling his promise to be in the midst of those assembled in his name; when the messenger came to the venerable " Angel of the Church of Philadelphia," and called his spirit away to the services of a purer worship and a purer temple. And on the day of rest,* he entered into rest.

"How calm his exit

Night-dews fall not more gently to the ground,
Nor worn-out winds expire so soft."

He went away softly like the spirit of a babe breathing
out its life upon its mother's bosom; and, like an an-
gel, fled on noiseless wing to Heaven!

With love and reverence for HIM whose word
Gave light and being. Oh! how many a thought—
Which else had been forgotten-find we there
Written on high among the silvery stars!
Even now while softly daylight fades away,
And the tall elms, waked by the passing breeze
To new activity, are sending forth,
Like fairy harps, their gentle murmurings,
Thoughts come thick-gathering of the loved and lost,
Sweet in their sadness-thoughts of the shadowy past.

Oh! there are places in this world of ours So fair and beautiful that they would seem The bright abodes of angels. And I lov'd When youth was mine, and youth's enrapturing joys, I saw him lying in death. There was no shroud-To steal away from earth's vain nothingness, no winding-sheet, to disfigure his noble form, and make it look repulsive. He lay in dignified and appropriate gracefulness in the robes of his office, and the lawn which he had honored;-the same in which he had been consecrated fifty years before, and in which he had performed every service of his exalted function ;-the same in which we have scen him, when he has come among us to bless us and our chil-Passed have they now from this vain world away; dren. And his venerable locks arranged as if by his own hands, appeared the same as ever-as pure and

unsullied as the mitre which he wore.t

Of his character there remains no space to speak. All that I shall say is, that he was a GOOD MAN,— "we ne'er shall see his like again."

"Egregium ecclesiæ decus! tuum nomen mecum semper durabit; et laudes et honores tui in æternum manebunt."

For the Evergreen.
LES PENSÉES.

WHEN twilight throws her witching drapery round,
And the tir'd earth seems seeking calm repose,
I love to sit alone, and watch the stars,
As one by one they come-bright angels' eyes-
To watch above our far inferior world.
Guarding the portals of the sky they seem
To whisper tidings of futurity;
And by an unseen mystic influence

They lead our silent thoughts still heaven-ward.

Bright shine they now as when in years long past They charmed my youthful gaze, and filled my heart

Sunday, July 17th, 1836.

Bishop White was interred on Thursday, 21st of July, in his family vault in the cemetery attached to Christ Church. The burial office was read over his remains by his Assistant, the Rev. John W. James. The officiating minister himself died in one month from that day, and was laid in the same yard near by.

And gaze upon fair Nature's open face-
To hold communion, through works visible,
With th' unseen almighty, great First Cause.
And often in my lonely wanderings
Around my loved and lovely village home,
Friends have I seen whose memories ever dear
Shall cluster round this unforgetting heart.

But I will love them still, and see them oft
At twilight hour, and in the silent dream.

I.

There stood a lovely cottage on the side
Of an enchanting, gently-rising lawn,
Whose base received the kisses of a stream
Of crystal purity, which, as it flowed,
Sang low its love-song to the flowery banks
In whose embrace it lay. The setting sun
Was tinging gorgeously with living light
The tall green trees which stood, like sentinels,
To guard the blissful quiet of a scene
So very Eden-like. For stillness lay
Like an enchantress' mantle o'er the vale-
Silence unbroken-save the wild birds' song,
Breathed softly from their emerald palaces-
The low-voiced murmurs of the gentle stream
Which ever passed with "many twinkling smiles."
And now another sound! A child's free laugh
Was borne exulting on the evening breeze:
Oh! how it speaks of yet untainted joys,
Of careless bliss, of sinless purity,
That gladsome joyousness of life's first years!
A beautiful boy was playing sportively
Before the cottage porch-now straining hard
His youthful energies in vain, to reach
The lovely flowers which bloom'd securely high
Upon the snowy pillar there-now urging on
His steps elastic in the swift pursuit

Of bright-winged butterflies, whose devious flight
Eluded oft his almost certain grasp:

As what the world calls pleasure, phantom-like,