On Tuesday last it was announced that the Queen had
been graciously pleased to nominate the Rev. Joseph Barber Light- foot, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's, and Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, to fill the See of Dur- ham, vacant by the resignation of Dr. Baring. Observers of coincidences will be amused to note that this nomination of the first Joseph since the time of the great Bishop Butler to fill the See of Durham, was made 'mown on the morning in which the lesson for the day contains the following passage :—" And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whonithe Spirit of Goa is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God bath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art ; thou shalt be over my houge." Joseph, however, was promoted from a dungeon to be Pharaoh's Minister, while the Bishop Designate of Durham is prompted from a very different position,—that of the head of the divinity school in Cambridge, where he exercises a very powerful influence of a very high kind, to preside over the Diocese of Durham. We can but indulge the hope that the place which will know him no longer will not lose more by the change than even the See of Durham will gain,—a hope which, on our part at least, is sincere, but not sanguine.
Previous page
