Fifty Years of Church Life in North Carolina 
 iddress hy Rt. Rev. J. 3. Cheshire 
 
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 Onitoeitfitg of JQortf) Carolina 
 
 Collection ot &ott§ Catolinfana 
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Fifty Years 
 
 of 
 
 Church Life in North Carolina 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Jos. Blount Cheshire, D.D. 
 
 Bishop of North Carolina 
 
 ON 
 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF 
 
 The Rev. Robt. B. Drane, D.D, 
 
 As Rector of St. Paul's Church, Edenton, N. C. 
 
 All Saints' Day 
 1926 
 
 EDENTON, N. C. 
 
 *s 
 
Fifty Years 
 
 of 
 
 Church Life in North Carolina 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 BY 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Jos. Blount Cheshire, D.D. 
 
 Bishop of North Carolina 
 
 ON 
 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 OF 
 
 The Rev. Robt. B. Drane, D.D. 
 As Rector of St. Paul's Church, Edenton, N. C. 
 
 All Saints' Day 
 1926 
 
 EDENTON, N. C. 
 

 o 
 
 And these all, having obtained a good re- 
 port through faith, received not the promise: 
 God having provided some better thing for us, 
 that they without us should not be made 
 perfect. 
 
 Hebrews xiii:39-40. 
 
 I have not chosen this passage as a text to be expounded. 
 Nor shall I endeavor to extract some forced meaning from it, 
 in order to fit it to myi subject. I take it out of one of the lessons 
 for this All Saints Day, because it does refer to God's purpose 
 and method, in Nature as in Grace, of linking generation to gen- 
 eration, in a merciful and loving dependence, and because it 
 does also suggest the progressive development of God's goodness 
 and love, and His increasing revelation of Himself, as age suc- 
 ceeds age, in His dealings with His people. We look back over 
 fifty years. At that distance the figures of those whom we loved 
 and revered loom large through the mist of memory and tradi- 
 tion. "There were giants in those days." How small and puny 
 we seem to ourselves, in comparison with the great men of our 
 youth! Yet they without us shall not be made perfect. Their 
 work and their characters must be fulfilled in us. While we pay 
 them the tribute due them, we may remember with humility and 
 gratitude that we add something to them in carrying on their 
 work. 
 
 I am to speak of the past fifty years of our Church life in 
 North Carolina, from 1876, when the Diocese was conterminous 
 with the State, to the present year, 1926. We were in 1876 just 
 emerging from the ruin of 1865. The Diocese had in a measure 
 adjusted itself to the changed conditions, and had begun to look 
 forward. It had 60 clergymen, 96 parishes and missions, and 
 4347 communicants. Among its candidates for Holy Orders, and 
 its newly ordained clergymen, were a number of men who had 
 served with distinction in the fighting line of the Confederate 
 Army: Col. Edwin A. Osborne Maj. James A. Weston, Edmund 
 N. Joivner and others. The Bishop's address to the Convention 
 of 1876 struck a note of confidence and of hope. 
 
 But though the sky above was bright, the path before them 
 was steep and difficult, and their material equipment was sadly 
 inadequate. The few clergymen and congregations were widely 
 distributed over an area of more than fifty thousand square 
 miles, with more than a million population. The clergy were 
 miserably supported. Their average salary probably did not 
 much exceed five hundred dollars, and there were few rectories. 
 The Diocese did not possess a single institution for religious, 
 charitable or educational work, except "Ravenscroft," at Ashe- 
 
ville, where Dr. Buxton had failed in his attempt to establish a 
 Boys' School; where Bishop Atkinson was then making an 
 equally unsuccessful effort to develop an Associate Mission and 
 Training School for Missionaries; and where Bishop Lyman sub- 
 sequently repeated Dr. Buxton's failure, when he renewied the 
 experiment of starting a "'Classical School for Boys," without 
 adequate equipment or financial support. St. Mary's School 
 was the personal and private enterprise of the Rev. Dr. Aldert 
 Smedes. 
 
 The Diocese was a purely missionary organization. No 
 railroad had then crossed the Blue Ridge. There were a good 
 many crurches, and a number of clergymem west of the moun- 
 tains; but only Ashe ville and Morganton could by any stretch of 
 language be said to have self-supporting parishes. And the rec- 
 tor of these two both received missionary stipends. The prob- 
 lem before the Diocese was, how to weld into compact life and 
 effectiveness the slender framework which stretched its attenu- 
 ated members over so vast a territory: "By whom shall Jacob 
 arise, for he is small''? 
 
 Bishop Atkinson was a great man. A nobler figure our Am- 
 erican church history does not present. And being great, he knew 
 his limitations. He knew that one man was not sufficient for the 
 work. As early as 1866 he had suggested the necessity of an- 
 other Diocese. It was then not practicable, but he prepared the 
 minds of his clergy and people. Year after year, in address after 
 address, he returned to this as the only effectual remedy. When 
 in 1872 the Diocesan Convention had asked to be allowed to 
 elect an assistant Bishop on account of the extent of our terri- 
 tory, it pledged the Convention to erect a new Diocese as soon 
 as it should become practicable to do so. 
 
 In 1876 a committee appointed the year before presented 
 an elaborate report, recommending the division of the Diocese 
 into two new Dioceses, the Diocese of Wilmington and the 
 Diocese of Raleigh, the latter with much the larger territory, 
 with a view to the early creation of the Diocese of Asheville; the 
 three to constitute the "Province of North Carolina," with sepa- 
 rat~ and independent Bishops and executive organizations, but 
 with a common legislative Council or Convention. And other 
 schemes were proposed from time to time of this general char- 
 acter snd purpose. 
 
 This "State Consciousness." if I may so call it, was perhans 
 the greatest ohstac'p in the nath of those favoring the erection 
 of a new Diocese. The ncculiar circumstances of our early set- 
 tlement had so divided the people of the different sections that 
 the progress and influence of North Carolina had been greatly 
 retarded and depressed by the lack of unity of feeling among the 
 
people. Such a unitv of public sentiment and interest had begun 
 to show itself by the middle of the nineteenth century. The 
 Confederate War, with its common sufferings and sacrifices., car- 
 ried it on to a sudden and intense development. Col. Wm. L. 
 Saunders, a very sagacious man, once said to me, that it was the 
 Confederate War which first made the people of North Carolina 
 really one. In 1876 this feeling was at its height, and it told 
 strongly against the movement for the new Diocese. 
 
 The real struggle came on in the Convention of 1877, in St. 
 Peter's Church, Charlotte. After a long and hard-fought con- 
 test, those who favored the scheme carried the Convention with 
 them by large majorities. But the settlement of the line of divi- 
 sion, with other details, had to be postponed to an adjourned 
 session, to be held in Raleigh in the month of September. 
 
 This adjourned session is the only session of our Diocesan 
 Convention which I have failed to attend since 1876. In the pro- 
 cess of settling details, the minority made another appeal to 
 Bishop Atkinson, who had been the father of the movement. He 
 was now old and broken in constitution, and he yielded. He said 
 that the division had better be put off until his time should be 
 out. The majority acquiesced, and the matter was dropped. 
 This is the real explanation of the action then taken. 
 
 Bishop Atkinson died in January, 1881. At the Convention 
 in May Bishop Henry C. Lay preached his noble sermon on the 
 Life and Character of Bishop Atkinson, the finest sermon of the 
 kind I have ever heard or read. 
 
 The struggle was renewed in the Convention of 1882, and 
 carried to a successful conclusion in 1883 in St. Peter's Church. 
 Charlotte. It was a great struggle. The minority made a de- 
 termined resistance. And even then the fixing of the line was 
 most difficult. Several curious arrangements were proposed. 
 More than one suggestion of an east and west line was made, 
 and urged upon the ground that each Bishop ought to have some 
 part of the mountains for summer visitations. This east and 
 west line strongly appealed to one young and ardent clergyman, 
 because, he said, that by calling the southern division the "Diocese 
 of Carolina," we should get the better of cur South Carolina 
 brethren, who are prone to claim the name Carolina as their 
 peculiar possession. 
 
 Personally. I was in favor of giving Halifax and Edgecombe 
 to the Eastern Diocese, and leaving to the east the name of 
 North Carolina, while the western part should become the new 
 Diocese. The committee appointed to report on the line of divi- 
 sion recommended the line as it now stands, except that it gave 
 Cumberland also to the western division. I had become thor- 
 
oughly satisfied that Bishop Lyman was determined to remain 
 in Raleigh, and also to retain the title, Bishop of North Carolina. 
 I had also ascertained that he would consent to no division 
 which should take Halifax and Edgecombe out of his jurisdiction. 
 I therefore moved an amendment to the report of the commit- 
 tee, leaving those counties in the west, but putting Cumberland 
 into the east. This was eventually done, and the territory east 
 of the line became the new Diocese, while the western section 
 retained the name and the traditions of the old Diocese of North 
 Carolina. There were embarrassing! and painful experiences in 
 all these struggles, but it was a necessary process in our growth 
 and development, and has, I believe, been for the welfare and 
 progress of the Church. 
 
 How the Diocese of East Carolina was organized at New 
 Bern in 1884, chose its name, and elected Dr. Alfred Augustine 
 Watson its first Bishop; and how he wisely, faithfully, unspar- 
 ingly, devoted himself to set it on its way, I will not attempt to 
 tell. I must keep to the matters of common importance. 
 
 Along with the movement for a new Diocese another agita- 
 tion had sprang up. In the Convention of 1877, General James 
 G. Martin, of Asheville, had proposed that our mountain counties 
 should be set off as a Missionary District. After him the Rev. 
 McNeely DuBose took up the cause. At the first Convention of 
 my Episcopate, in May, 1894, he introduced the subject, and in 
 1895 the Convention, by an all but unanimous vote, adopted a 
 memorial to the General Convention, asking that this should be 
 done. 
 
 I should like to say a word as to my personal feeling and 
 action on this question. I was in sentiment strongly against it. 
 I had been much interested in missionary work. Though I had 
 been a parochial minister, I had always been active in mission- 
 ary 1 work beyond the bounds of my parish. As a rule I had taken 
 no summer vacations, but had sent my wife a.nd children to the 
 home of her parents, and had spent my time doing missionary 
 work in the neighboring towns and in the country. The first 
 enterprise I undertook after becoming Bishop was the revival of 
 the old Valle Crucis Mission. I had become deeply interested in 
 the mountain section. It seemed to me a most attractive field. 
 I clo not believe that any American Bishop has ever had more 
 exciting and gratifying experiences in missionary work than I 
 had in Watauga, Mitchell and Ashe Counties, in company with 
 that strange character, but most effective missionary, the Rev. 
 Milnor Jones. I was strong] y averse to the thought of giving up 
 that work. 
 
 I knew also that my brethren of East Carolina had felt that 
 th;v had been hardly dealt with in the line of division adopted 
 
 6 
 
in 1883. I found that letters were being sent to my people in 
 Halifax and Edgecombe, sounding them as to their willingness 
 to come over to the Diocese of East Carolina. The dear brother 
 who wrote these letters was an old and valued friend. I wrote 
 him that I objected to such letters being sent to my people; but 
 I gave him my promise, in case the western counties were not 
 taken from me, to take up the question of ceding the two coun- 
 ties in the east, without personal prejudice, and to agree to 
 whatever might seem to be for the interests of the Church m 
 North Carolina as a whole. As matters then stood with us, I did 
 not feel that I could give up any territory in the east, if the 
 twenty-six counties of the proposed Missionary District should 
 r je taken from me in the west. 
 
 Another consideration had a decisive influence with m?. 
 The long- contentions and discussions which preceded the erec- 
 tion of the Diocese of East Carolina had strongly impressed me 
 with the feeling that a Bishop makes a mistake, when he op- 
 poses the well-settled convictions of his clergy and people upon 
 a matter affecting the development of the Diocese. I thought 
 that Bishop Atkinson, as great and good as he was, made a grave 
 mistake when, at th? adjourned Convention in Raleigh in Sep- 
 tember, 1877, he receded from the position he had so long main- 
 tained. I thought that Bishop Lyman made a mistake in 1882 
 and in 1883, when he strenuously opposed what he had strongly 
 favored in 1877. I thought I had observed the same mistake in 
 other great men similarly situated. Now the case was my own. 
 With practical unanimity my Convention had me moralized the 
 General Convention to erect our mountain counties into a Mis- 
 sionary District. I determined not to make the mistake which 
 I thought I had seen others make. I determined that I would 
 sustain the position taken by my Diocesan Convention. 
 
 And in the end I can say that the erection of the Missionary 
 District hung on my word. By merely remaining silent I could 
 have seen the proposition fail, after I had done everything which 
 a merely formal support of it required of me. The Committee on 
 Memorials in the House of Deputies never so much as made a 
 report on our Memorial. The Committee in the House of Bishops 
 reported unfavorably, and advised that the Memorial be not 
 complied with. I moved an amendment, that the Memorial be 
 acceded to, and that the Missionary District be erected. After a 
 debate on my amendment, it was adopted, and the proposition 
 was sent down to the House of Deputies in a message from the 
 House of Bishops. So it had to be voted on. The House of 
 Deputies concurred with the House of Bishops, and the Mission- 
 ary' District of Asheville was erected in 1895; and was assigned 
 temporarily to my Episcopal care. 
 
Next after this account of our organic Diocesan development 
 we must consider our Church institutions, the permanent agen- 
 cies for carrying on the incidental and collateral work of the 
 Church, in education, charity and the like. 
 
 I have said that in 1876 the Diocese had no really organized 
 and established institutions, "Ravenscroft," at Asheville, being 
 little more than a name, and Bishop Lyman's "Wilberforce 
 School," at Morganton, being a dream wdiich never even began 
 to materialize. The Rev. Mr. Bronson was still struggling with 
 his boys' school, "The Thompson Institute," at Charlotte, even 
 then seen to be a failure; but a failure of which I shall have 
 something further to say presently. 
 
 About 18S3 the Rev. N. Collin Hughes, D.D., the elder, 
 "clarum et venerabife nomen," began "Trinity School, Choco- 
 winty." With the devoted and self-sacrificing co-operation of 
 his son, worthily bearing his father's name, they carried on the 
 school for nearly thirty years, between them; to the untold bene- 
 fit of that section of the State, and of the Church at large. Young 
 men who under those inspiring teachers received spiritual and 
 intellectual impulse and guidance, have served the Church of 
 Christ faithfully and effectively from Alaska to Mexico, and are 
 still going on in their useful labors. My father used to say' that 
 of all the men who had served the Church in North Carolina, he 
 put Dr. Ald?rt Smedes first because of the influence of St. Mary's 
 School; and that he put the Rev. Dr. Hughes next, because of 
 the men he had trained and brought into the ministrv. And he 
 said this before the son had so closely and worthily followed in 
 the father's footsteps. Trinity School, Chocowinty, served its 
 °"enprat : ori. ^nd then >t passed away; net from any fault or 
 deficiency in father or in son, but on account of certain changing 
 social and natural conditions, no more to be controlled than the 
 shiftina sand-banks at Maes Head — which bury forests and hu- 
 man habitations impartially in their irresistible course. But n • 
 other school for bovs in North Carolina has ever done such a 
 work for the Church; and to have done that work is enough 
 glory for any two men. They wrote their names in the life of 
 the Church in this State. 
 
 It is well known that St. Mary's School, Raleiah, was found- 
 rd upon the ruins of Bishop Ives' great project. "The Episcopal 
 Academy." InlS76 St. Mary's was in the full tide of success un- 
 d°r its founder. Dr. Aldert Smedes. He died in the sprint of 1877. 
 The Rev. Dr. Bennett Smedes continued his father's work worth- 
 ily and well for twenty vears. But changing conditions soon be- 
 gan to increase his burdens and difficulties. Our developing pub- 
 lic school system and the competition of endowed and State sun- 
 ported institutions eventually' brought him to the end of his 
 
resources. In the spring of 1896 he came to me, and said he 
 could bear the burden no longer and that the Church must take 
 over St. Mary's School, pr it must be closed. I need not tell the 
 story of how the Diocese of North Carolina, in May, 1897, took 
 over the school, and succeeded in purchasing the property. And 
 then, first East Carolina and Asheville, and in 1899 South Caro- 
 lina, joined, and St. Mary's was secured to the Church, and be- 
 came the Church School for Girls of the Carolina Dioceses. Thus 
 this school, for the second time, rose like the Phoenix from its 
 ashes. May we not trust that, by God's blessing, it may, like 
 the Phoenix, have a thousand years of life and power! 
 
 I must speak of another failure. I have a great respect for 
 failures, failures of the right kind. Who does not love and honor 
 the man who <ioes down, faithful]; struggling in a noble and 
 righteous cause? Indeed a life which thus fails has not failed 
 By a spiritual conservation and persistence and transmutation 
 of force, life thus given goes on in widening and increasing 
 rower and beneficence, however it be changed in form, however 
 we fail to recognize it. The Rev. Benj. S. Bronson's "Thompson 
 Institute" failed. Mr. Bronson was but little fitted to carry on 
 any scheme of practical work. He could see what ought to be 
 done, but he soon lost himself in the complicated details of do- 
 ing it. But he had ideas. He had a creative and constructive 
 imagination. He had vision. He saw that, in the highly develop- 
 ed and involved conditions of artificial civilization, the simple 
 evangelistic and pastoral methods of earlier d^ys were not suffi- 
 cient to do the Church's work. Established institutions are 
 necessary; well organized, wiselv planned, amply endowed, they 
 become essential in meeting the demands of our developed 
 social life. He preached this, and to the measure of his abilHv 
 he endeavored to practice what he nreached. His "Thompson 
 Institute," a school for bovs, failed. But it revived, it lives again, 
 and blesses the Church todav, as the "Thomnson Orphanage." 
 And not only the material foundation was laid by Mr. Bronson: 
 but the idea of this permanent institution established and con- 
 tinuing in nower in the hands of the Church: that also came 
 from Mr. Bronson. The man through whom the vision ma- 
 terialized and became a fact was Mr. Bronson's own disciple and 
 convert. The Rev. Edwin S. Osborne w^s one of the ven 7 
 noblest and saintliest characters North Carolina has ever known: 
 and he had learned of Mr. Bronson. and he put into nractice 
 what he had learned from him! And I wish to acknowledge with 
 Gratitude my own debt to that same original and fertile mine 1 
 T have been more or less associated with the establishment and 
 the development of the Thompson Orphanage, St. Mary's School 
 and the two hospitals in Charlotte St. Peter's and the Good 
 Samaritan; and I wish to saw that the stimulating and directing 
 
 9 
 
 
influence of Mr. Bronson had a vital part in each one of those 
 enterprises. I believe we have had few such original and fruit- 
 ful-minded men anions the clergy of North Carolina. 
 
 I wish I had time to speak of another failure, whose inspir- 
 ing memories, dwelling in the hearts of our people, have re- 
 created a noble and romantic institution, after years of appar- 
 ently irretrievable ruin. I speak of Valle Crucis, which went 
 down and disappeared in the catastrophy of Bishop Ives's sad 
 defection, but which, under Bishop Horner's patronage and lead- 
 ership, has achieved a position far beyond anything I purposed 
 or anticipated for my modest revival of the work in 1894, when 
 I sent that remarkable missionary Milnor Jones, to re-open the 
 old mission, and to reclaim the Church's lost heritage in the 
 mountains of Watauga, Ashe and Mitchell. And Bishop Horner's 
 other excellent schools, Christ School, Arden, the Patterson 
 School in Caldwell County, and the Appalachian School at Pen- 
 land, must not be forgotten. Truly his experience and training 
 under his father, "the best teacher of boys who ever taught in 
 North Carolina," have proved a rich benefaction to the people 
 of his mountain Diocese. 
 
 And I cannot neglect to mention in this connection St. Paul's- 
 School, Beaufort. Its exact relation to the Diocese of East Ca- 
 rolina I do not understand, but none of us can fail to recognize 
 it as one of the potent influences for good in our Church life in 
 North Carolina; not only as a source of local enlightenment and 
 culture, but also as following closely the traditions of Trinity 
 School, Chocowinity, by influencing and developing ytoung men 
 to be able and effective pastors and missionaries of the; Church. 
 I cannot help conjecturing that its founder, Mrs. Geoffroy, must 
 somehow have caught the spirit of the Hugheses, father and son. 
 
 The Church in North Carolina during the past fifty years 
 has also a fine record in hospital work, though in the nature ot 
 the case such institutions are of a local rather than of a Diocesan 
 character. Charlotte, I believe, had the first hospital supported 
 by voluntary contributions, to be established in this State, St. 
 Peter's Hospital. The Good .Samaritan Hospital, in the same 
 city, is believed to have been the first hospital for Negroes in the 
 South. I am proud to have had some share in both these: but 
 the chief credit for both must be given to the late Mrs. John 
 Wilkes, of St. Peter's Church, and she acted under the inspira- 
 tion received in part certainly from her former pastor, the Rev. 
 Mr. Bronson. St. Asrnes Hospital, Raleigh, is a collateral de- 
 velopment of the wor\: of St. Augustine School, and is due to the 
 indefatigable labors of Mrs. A. Burtis Hunter, wife of the Prin- 
 cipal of the school from 1892 to 1915. It is believed to be the 
 larrest and best equipped hospital for Negroes south of Wash- 
 
 10 
 
ington City. This, however, is not a Diocesan, but a general, in- 
 stitution, huilt up and sustained by the Church at large, and 
 especially by the generous contributions of the Woman's Auxil- 
 iary. 
 
 I may say here that in this address I have not included the 
 Colored work in the North Carolina Dioceses, because that ha3 
 been nurtured and supported almost exclusively by appropria- 
 tions from the treasury of the National Church. I am happy to 
 know, however, that within the last few years our Dioceses have 
 been taking upon themselves a larger share of responsibility for 
 supporting our Negro work. 
 
 •I have been speaking of outward organization and develop- 
 ment; for it is only the outward that we can see, and describe in 
 words. But we are conscious of an inner life and of spiritual 
 forces and currents helow the surface, which give all their real 
 value to the things we can see and describe. This inner life and 
 devotion of our people, as I see it, I wish I could set before you. 
 In preparing for this address I made a study of the growth and 
 development in my own Diocese, as that with which I am best 
 acquainted, and as probably illustrating the growth east and 
 west as well. But I find I must omit it for lack of time and' 
 space. The interesting result of that study showed quite clearly 
 to me that the chief cause of our growth has been the voluntarv 
 and spontaneous work of the clergy and laity, reaching out into 
 the unoccupied places, and taking possession of them for Christ 
 and His Church, rather than the activity of our professedly mis- 
 sionary agencies. 
 
 Another thing I seemed to see, viz: That this spontaneous 
 expansion and missionary activity of our parochial clergy was 
 much more evident during the first half of these fifty years, than 
 in the second half. This I attribute: to the very great increase in 
 parochial work and parochial organizations, which make such 
 demands upon the time and labor of the clergy. It is hard to 
 realize that fifty years ago we had no Woman's Auxiliary, no 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew, Daughters of the King, or Girls' 
 Friendlyi Society. What these mean in the life of the Church it 
 is hard to compute. Certainly they mark an immense develop- 
 ment, whose possibilities we are but beginning to appreciate. 
 
 But in referring to the missionary work of the Church dur- 
 ing the past fifty years, there are one or two illustrations of that 
 work which I cannot omit, though I must he as bri^f as possiWe 
 in speaking of them. The first is the work of Milnor Jones, in 
 the mountains. From 1880 to 1890, he covered the counties o p 
 Polk, Rutherford and Henderson, or very great parts of them, 
 with his amazing activities. In these sections, where the Church 
 had been utterly unknown, he had nearly six hundred baptisms. 
 
 11 
 
nearly two hundred confirmations, and established so many mis- 
 sions, that no one after him was ever able to keep up the work in 
 them. Then from 1894 to 1897 he devoted himself to the work 
 in Watauga, Ashe and Mitchell counties. iHe revived the extinct 
 mission of Valle Crucis, established several missions in Ashe and 
 Mitchell counties, and made a lasting impression upon the de- 
 velopment of the Church. I count in the list of parishes and 
 missions, in the present Diocese of Western North Carolina, ten 
 or a dozen which had their origin in his efforts; and in many 
 places good beginnings which he made were neglected, and hav3 
 disappeared, because it was not possible to find men to carry on 
 the work. 
 
 I must not pass over the work of the late Dr. Murdoch in 
 Rowan and in adjoining counties. We have seven or eight 
 churches which sprang from his missionary labors. 
 
 I am sure I shall be pardoned if I take a moment to tell of 
 the good work now going on in Edgecombe, my native county, 
 under the Rev. Bertram E. Brown, Mr. Samuel Nash and their 
 associates, a work not only of importance in its immediate re- 
 sults, but also important as showing what can be done by one 
 parish, if there be mutual co-operation between rector and 
 people. This work had its origin in a country Sunday School 
 begun by a young country girl who had been baptized and con- 
 firmed at St. Mary's School, Raleigh. Aided by men and women 
 of Calvary Church, Tarboro, whom she called to her assistance, 
 the Sunday School quickly developed into St. Mary's Chapel, now 
 St. Mary's Church, Speed; and presently was added Grace Mem- 
 orial Chapel, Lawrence, and later St. Matthew's Church. Some- 
 how, by a process of evolution and natural selection, Mr. Nash 
 became the leader and the chief actor in these missionary ac- 
 tivities. And then in God's good providence the Rev. Mr. Brown 
 became rector of Calvary 'Church, Tarboro. Mr. Brown had not 
 been familiar with work of this kind. But h~ was voung enough 
 and he was wise enough to learn. "Bishop," he said to me, when 
 I spoke to him of his extraordinary work, "I learned it all right 
 here." And he extended and developed it, until I cannot under- 
 take to say how many services are held each week by him and 
 his helpers in the parish church and in the six country churches, 
 in smaller buildings in the country, and in the suburbs of Tar- 
 boro. And the work goes on. 
 
 I have referred to outward organization, to the things we 
 can see and can speak of, and also to that inner spirit of life ana 
 of power which we cannot so fully see or describe. There is one 
 denartment of our church life combining these two in a remark- 
 able decree. The Woman's Auxiliary is a spiritual power, potent 
 and pervasive beyond our ability to measure or to express; and 
 
 12 
 
also its works arte manifest at all times and everywhere. It did not 
 exist in 1876. How we in 1926 could do without it, what Bishop 
 likes to think! Can anyone, who knows of the Woman's Auxil- 
 iary, deny that the world grows ibetter? And I am told that at 
 New Orleans in 1925 our North Carolina branches stood with 
 the first. 
 
 I cannot speak at large of the Every Member Nation-wide 
 Campaign. Throughout our three Dioceses it has been the most 
 blessed experience the Church has ever known. It is our com- 
 mon joy that the North Carolina Dioceses have never failed in do- 
 ing their part in this work. But what we have thus done in the 
 general work of the Church is a small thing compared with what 
 we ourselves have gained, from the mountains to the sea, in our 
 own work and in our own life. Never before have our people 
 had their leiars so open as they are now to hear the voice calling 
 them. Never have they been so prompt and earnest in their re- 
 sponse: "Here am I. Send me." We in the South are proud to 
 think that it was in this Province, and under the extraordinary 
 leadership of our Provincial Secretary, the Rev. Robt. W. Patton, 
 that the Every Member Canvass achieved such results as caused 
 the leaders of the National Church to commission Dr. Patton to 
 inaugurate throughout the country what had been so effective 
 in the Province of Sewanee. And as St. James's Church, Wil- 
 mington, stood out one of the most striking illustrations of the 
 succ-ss accomplished in the Province, so the Diocese of East. 
 Carolina has the further honor of ibeing either the: first, or among 
 the very first, in the work of our Forward Movement. Her dis- 
 tinguished Presbyter, Dr. Milton, has toeen among the foremost 
 of thos; inspiring leaders who have been rousing our whole Na- 
 t'onal Church to a realization of the opportunity and the obliga- 
 tion set before us in this great movement. 
 
 And now the Bishop of East Carolina has become the leader 
 throughout the Church in another Nation-wide Movement, go- 
 ing deeper into the heart of things, and promising to loose the 
 floods of spiritual power, which we must believe are with us who 
 have the gift of th:: Spirit, but which lie congealed and made 
 ineffective by the coldness of our selfish and thoughtless lives. 
 
 Ar.d what should I say more; for the time would fail me. It 
 I tried to say all that I have in my mind. I have tried to point 
 out the general course of the history! and development of the 
 Church in North 'Carolina from the year 1876 to this year of 
 Grace 1926. The sixty clergymen, the 96 parishes and missions, 
 the 4,347 communicants, of 1876, have become 146 clergymen, 
 296 parishes and missions, and 20,613 communicants. I have 
 spokrn of our schools, our orphanage, our hospitals. I mi<?V 
 mention our most interesting work among our doaf rmitps. We 
 
 13 
 
have a deaf mute clergyman of our own, raised up among our- 
 selves, and supported by us, in serving this most interesting and 
 estimable class of our people. We have been also the first Dio- 
 cese to assume the support of a colored suffragan Bishop for our 
 colored churchmen. 
 
 I had hoped to speak of Bishop Atkinson, of Bishop, Lyman, 
 of Bishop Watson, and of Bishop Strange. I had thought that 
 I should say something of our dear brother whom we are here 
 to honor, and of his great father, who was truly one of the 
 noblest figures in the history of our Church in North Carolina. 
 He was my God-father; so his son and I are brothers by spiritual 
 affinity, and our mothers were sisters. From our boyhood we 
 grew up together, for a time at least, in one household, a house- 
 hold which experienced in full measure the blessing spoken of 
 byi the Psamist: "Behold how good and pleasant it is for breth- 
 ren to dwell together in unity." We stand so close together 
 that I cannot find it in my power to speak much of him; and here 
 in his presence! But there is little need that I should speak. He 
 has had but tbJs one parish, and he has lived in this parish for 
 fifty years. And at the end of these fifty years he enjoys the 
 confidence and the affection of the whole community; not be- 
 cause they have always agreed with him; but because they have 
 found him always and in all things honest, true, courageous and 
 good. They know him. They know that he is a faithful and 
 diligent pastor and priest; and they know, too, that he is a man. 
 And they, like the combination. 
 
 My father was the first cUrgyman who in North Carolina 
 served one parish for fifty years. Dr. Drane is another. 
 
 He is the only clergyman now livino; in the State of North 
 Carolina who was one of our clerey in 1876. The only lay mem- 
 ber of the Convention in 1S76, and also in 1926, is our good 
 brother, Mr. Robert R. Cotten. Mr. Samuel S. Nash was at both, 
 but not a member in 1926. X was in the Convention in both 
 vears, a layman in 1876. We fo^r connect these Conventions, 
 three of o^p family connection, and all four members of Calvary 
 Church, TRrbo^o. 
 
 As we look ^ack over these fifty years, and miss so man'' 
 of the nohle and good, and note how time deals with us who are 
 left, we are tempted to think: 
 
 "How few, all weak and withered of their force, 
 
 Wait on the verge of dark eternity 
 Like stranded wr~ck=;, the tide returning hoarse, 
 To sweep them from our sight!" 
 
 But we are not yet, I trust, quite "stranded wrecks." And 
 certainly we know that it is no "dark eternity" which confronts 
 us; but an eternitv bright with the promises and the smile of our 
 Heavenly Father! 
 
 14 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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