Reminiscences of a Missionary Bishop. By Daniel S. Tuttle, D.D.
(Thomas Whittaker, Now York. 8s. net.)—Dr. Tuttle had the honour of being selected for the office of Missionary Bishop of Montana before he had reached the canonical age,—we have an example of the same distinction in the present Metropolitan of India. It was no enviable office, for ho was positively the first minister of his Communion to enter the territory, a region more than twice as big as England with a population of thirty thousand scattered in a number of mining towns. A mining town is little more than a camp, and one of the difficulties of the work was to provide for these fluctuating populations. To build a church in a place which might revert to desert in six months was manifestly absurd. But Montana was not the whole of the field in which Bishop Tuttle's activities were exercised. He had "jurisdiction in Utah and Idaho." Not the least interesting of his chapters relate his experiences in Salt Lake City. This, indeed, was his headquarters, for it was the largest town in his diocese. He had at first to hire a house,—it had been built, he says, for a polygamist, for it had throe front doors, and it cost him £150 a year. Here ho remained, with occasional vacations, for seventeen years. One advantage he had,—Utah was divided between the Mormons and himself, as far as religion was concerned. And here we may say that nothing could be more pleasing than the kindness and sympathy which come out in the relations between the Bishop and Christians who were not of his way of thinking. He does not fail to do justice even to the Mormons. This is one of the many reasons which make the book well worth reading. Bishop Tuttle has been since 1880 Bishop of Missouri. His original diocese in 1867 was 340,000 square miles in extent. This was lessened, by cutting off Montana, in 1880 to 195,000. The move to Missouri brought it down to 76,000. Missouri has since been divided, and 32,000 square miles remain ; more than twice as big as the Province of York.
Previous page
