Bishop Gray, the Bishop of Cape Town, is dead, at
the age- of sixty-three. His death seems to have caused universal> mourning at the Cape, where he is spoken of as a man of alto- gether heroic mould. We have no doubt that very, few men. show to advantage in controversy. And when they are in a position of offended ecclesiastical authority dealing—always,. of course, "more in sorrow than in anger,"—with heretical subordinates, they can hardly help looking unamiable, and cannot- easily even keep up their reputation for scrupulous justice. We have no doubt that Bishop Gray must have had the many noble qualities now so enthusiastically ascribed to him, but we doubt- whether any really impartial observer who understood the points of the case could have read his proceedings and judgment in the Colenso case, without feeling that he was not a. very scrupulous- opponent or a very dispassionate judge. To our mind, the heretic whom he arraigned,—and we say it without any sympathy with Dr. Colenso's extravagances,—showed a far more Christian spirit in that trial than the judge who condemned him. But no. doubt it is harder to vindicate one's faith firmly and calmly against an acute attack, than to attack in siair spirit.
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