AN EVANGELICAL BISHOP.*

THE late Bishop of Ohio clung to the Evangelical school in the Church with the tenacity with which ivy clings to old walls, be- lieving that that school alone maintained in its purity what he

is rather fond of calling the plain Gospel. That some of the dogmas he loved—original sin and imputed righteousness, for example—are not so plain as he believed them to be, is evident from the fact that many of the most devout Christians have been unable to accept them. Bishop Mcllvaine wrote a work on the Evidences of Christianity, but full of human sympathy though he was, there is no sign in this biography that he could enter into the religions difficulties with which thoughtful men have to grapple. From first to last, we fail to find in these Memorials any intimation that the Bishop understood the intel- lectual and spiritual condition of the age. He writes, indeed, again and again of the growth of Romish superstitions and of " Rationalistic evil," writes of them, of course, to deplore and to condemn, but with no large sense of what these move- ments betoken. To him, they are the two Antichrists, they are signs which intimate that a great conflict is impending, and that both Papist and Infidel will have a day, although a short one, of united rejoicing. That a Roman Catholic may be truly a Christian man despite his superstitions, that an Infidel's " honest doubt " may be a proof of his intense desire to know the truth, does not seem to occur to him.

The Memorials, while containing much that is interesting, are deformed by a characteristic which the reader may have noted in many so-called Evangelical biographies. One has an unpleas- ant suspicion that one does not see the man's character all round. We do not mean to imply that in the present in- stance there is any conscious insincerity on the part of the editor. Bishop Mcllvaine was one of the most saintly of men, one of the most fearless, one of the most truth- ful. He lived, from early youth to old age, "as ever in the great Taskmaster's eye;" it was a life beautiful in its simplicity and completeness. The Memorials make this plain enough, and, so far, they do their work effectively. On the other hand, the zeal for edification which becomes a Low-Church clergyman has, apparently, led Canon Carus to present from his own point of view a picture of the Bishop without a shadow, and therefore with few signs of that robust vitality which makes, or ought to make, our human life dear and beautiful, even to the most saintly of mortals. The Bishop describes his spiritual state with much copiousness in letters and diaries ; he deplores the depraved nature which he and his children and all mankind have inherited as the consequence of Adam's fall, he dwells with "unction" on his religious experience, his ejaculations are many, his confessions comprehensive, his aspirations fervent. This kind of spiritual anatomy, in which a man dissects his motives and describes minutely the morbid state of his soul, may possibly be of service to him, though this is doubt- ful ; but these self-examinations were not intended, let us hope, for the world, and to publish them is to lay bare what ought not so to be exposed. The conventional phraseology employed to give expression to these feelings is so familiar, that it fails to create any distinct impression, and the reader wishes he could see the man, instead of the diarist and the divine. Bishop Mcllvaine, we suppose, did sometimes enjoy a good laugh, or read an amusing book, or eat a good dinner. If he would but tell us that he had done so, or had fallen asleep during a sermon, or made a ridiculous blunder, what a relief it would be ! But the Evangelical Bishop reigns supreme through- out these Memorials. If we remember rightly, there is not an allusion to the works of any distinguished man of letters or to the achievements of a man of science in these Memorials. Was the worthy Bishop of Ohio too saintly to set any store by literature or science, or does his editor consider that such sub- jects are beneath the consideration of Evangelical Churchmen P Instead of discussing such fruitless topics, the Bishop's diary

* Memorials of the Right Rev. Charles Pettit Mcllvaine, D.D., late

Bishop of Ohio, in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. Edited by the Rev. William Carus, MA., Canon of Winchester Cathedral. Loudon : Eliot Stock. 1832.

and letters contain numerous passages as nerveless, common- place, or unfit for the public eye as the following :—

" This morning I set sail for England, having left my beloved wife and those precious children, whom God has given me to bring up for him, at Gambier. Beloved flock ! How near to my heart ! How sweet, though exceedingly painful, my thoughts, when I set my mind to contemplate your faces ! A separation of six months is hard to anticipate. • And what may our Heavenly Father ordain for us during those months P Death may take me away—I may be permitted to return and find a dear son removed to eternity—a sweet daughter gone, or, hardest to support of all, my precious wife no more to be my companion and consolation in this vale of tears."

In another place, he writes :—

`• Oh ! how prone I am to feel, to plan, to anticipate, as if it were taken for granted that I have yet years to live ! Often are useful, zealous, vigorous ministers, of far greater importance to the Church on earth than I, taken away before they have reached my age—called away suddenly, by accident, or some rapid malady. And why should I not be called away this year ? I may take a cold, be smitten with pleurisy, burned up with fever, dead iu a week. It is not impro- bable."

Again, in a letter from England, he says :— " How happy I will be to resume the delightful duties of my office in Brooklyn. My sweet home, how dear it is—my sweet wife and

children—my eyes are blinded with tears And now, my most beloved, must I cease writing ? I could write a volume, if it were prudent. Take care of our children. Teach them—pray with them, and for them—tell them how I love them, and think of them, and pray for them. Keep me continually in their minds. Tell them I hope they are good to you and to one another. A thousand kisses to them and sweet E. A world for a sight of them ! Pray much for your dear husband. Remember me affectionately to all my beloved people who inquire about me, and keep, dearest, sweetest wife, the whole heart of year devoted husband'."

The Bishop writes with the utmost anxiety and freedom, not only about his own soul, but about the souls of his children and relatives. It is impossible, however, to convey an exact im- pression of the diary and letters, without giving far longer extracts than our space will justify. They express, no doubt, the honest convictions of a thoroughly sincere man, but readers who cannot altogether sympathise with Dr. Mcllvaine's method of presenting Christian truth and giving utterance to religious emotion will turn from many passages in this volume with a feeling of pain. The writer, by the way, on visiting Paris, was shocked by the mode in which Sunday is kept in that city. He calls the place horrible on this account alone, sees in it a proof of daring atheism, and observes that it is no city for a Christian to remain in. Apparently, he considers the non-observance of the day due to the creed of the Roman Catholics, or, as he terms them, pagan Romanists :—

" All the worship," he writes, "that I have seen in the churches is nothing better than baptised heathenism, and one might attend it for a month, and except for the Cross or some picture of Christ in his view, would see and hear nothing to prevent his supposing himself in a temple of ancient idolatry. How fast must such a city be ripening for the judgments of God ! He will honour his Sabbath, if men do not. He will not suffer men to bow down to idols with impunity. 0, bow great the privileges, the mercies, the happiness, the responsibility of those who dwell in our own Protestant country. How sweet the Sabbath there ! I shall get out of Paris, and of France, speedily."

McIlvaine did not seem to be aware, when he wrote this jeremiad, that there are Protestant lands in which the Sunday is treated with even less respect than in Roman Catholic France, for there the churches are at least crowded during the early hours of the day, while in too many cities of Protestant Germany the churches are often half empty.

The late Bishop of Ohio was not exempt from the frailties incident to the belief and the position of Evangelical Churchmen. His creed may be considered narrow, but his heart was large, and notwithstanding the old-fashioned style of the portrait presented by Canon Carus, it is easy to see that there is much of beauty and of nobility in the features. He had many natural gifts, apart from his attractiv e presence fitted to win affection and respect ; and no one who knew him could doubt that he was a man raised above his fellows, not so much by intellectual power, as by the divine purity of purpose that marked his every action. His influence was great, not only among men who sympathised with his religious hopes and as- pirations, but also with statesmen ; and it is a singular proof of this that in the time of the `Trent' difficulty, when an un- wise step on the part of the American Government might have led us instantly to declare war with the United States, Bishop McIlvaine was sent over to England by his Government as an unofficial, but none the less trusted, pacificator. He saw clearly that his country was in the wrong, saw, too, that a war with 'England would give the Confederates all they wanted, and there- fore advised the surrender of Mason and Slidell. His visit proved in every way a success. Writing from London, ho says :- " I am perfectly relieved from all doubt about the wisdom of my coming, especially as to what would be thought of it here. I found I was expected. Some thought I was coining on a semi-diplomatic mission ; the rest, that I was at least on a mission of peace. They instinctively interpreted my coming at suoh a time as meaning that I had some good, kind object for the two countries. They therefore neither asked nor needed any explanation, and I needed no conceal- ment. Doors of influence are opened on all sides and among the highest. In two weeks, besides private interviews, I have met three large companies of influential persons and done my work, and all thinking it was the very thing to do, and wishing I could go everywhere."

Of his many visits to England, this, perhaps, was the most important, but the letters that relate what he saw and did in the Old Country form, perhaps, the most interesting portion of the volume. It is evident that the good Bishop keenly appreciated the honour of being presented to the Queen, and the genuine friendliness with which ho was received by the Prince of Wales. From England this saintly Bishop received many tokens of high esteem, and she did not cease to remember him after his decease. He died the happiest of deaths at Florence, and the body was brought to Westminster Abbey, whore it remained four days, prior to its conveyance to New York. "A special service in the Abbey was arranged by the Dean, to express the sympathy of the Church of England with that of America in their mutual loss, and to give the many friends of the late Bishop in England the opportunity to testify their respect and sorrow ;" and in a sermon preached by the Dean, he spoke, generously and warmly of Mcllvaine, as a " beloved and noble Bishop," observing that his remains being placed in the Abbey on their way to their last home beyond the Atlantic " was a significant link in the bonds of settled union, which, in spite of ancient discords or recent rivalries, knit together the two great nations in one communion and fellowship of faith and love, which the good Bishop in his life ever so earnestly desired—so zealously promoted."