/ 
 
 9 
 
 Vol. VII, 
 
 JUNE, 1 8 5 0, 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 No. 6, 
 
 Of the Right Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft, D. D., First Bishop of the 
 Diocese of North Carolina. 
 
 |E cannot do better, in 
 presenting to our read- 
 ers a biograpliical sketcli 
 of the subject of this me- 
 moir, than to give it in 
 the language in which he has 
 himself prepared it. At the earnest 
 request of many of his friends, who 
 thought that great good might be 
 thus accomplished, Bishop Ravens- 
 croft' prepared a sketch of his life, which, 
 without further comment, we give to our 
 readers. 
 
 " Though a native of Virginia, being born in the 
 county of Prince George, in the year 1772, of which ( 
 State my progenitors, as far back as I have been ) 
 able to trace them, vrith the exception of my ma- ? 
 
 ' ternal gi-andfather, were also natives — my first ) 
 recollections are of Scotland, my parents having / 
 removed from Virginia the same year in which I j 
 was born ; and, after an interval of about two years J 
 spent in the north of England, purchased and set- ( 
 tied finally in the south of Scotland, where my mo- ! 
 ther and two sisters still reside. Here I received } 
 
 I the rudiments of my education ; and I feel bound to ' 
 record, that T owe much to the custom there estab- 
 lished of making the Scriptures a school book — a 
 custom, I am gi-ioved to say it, not only abandoned 
 in the schools and academies among us, but de- 
 nounced as improper, if not injurious. Although I 
 
 was unconscious, at the time, of any power or influ- 
 ence over my thoughts or actions thence derived, 
 yet what mere memory retained of their life-giving 
 ti-uths, proved of unspeakable advantage, when I 
 became awakened on the subject of religion ; and I 
 am constrained to believe, that what was thus un- 
 consciously sown in my heart, though smothered 
 and choked by the levity of j'outh, and abused and 
 perverted by the negligence and sinfulness of my 
 riper years, was nevertheless a preparation of 
 Heaven's foresight and mercy, for grace to quicken 
 me — a mighty help to my amazed and confounded 
 soul, when brought to a just view of my actual con- 
 dition as a sinner, both by nature and by practice. 
 Witbout this help, I might, like thousands of others, 
 have wandered in a bewildered state, the prey of 
 many delusions — engendered by the anxieties of a 
 disturbed and ignorant mind, or by the fanaticism 
 of those many well meaning, perhaps, but certainly 
 most ignorant men, who yet venture to become 
 teachers of religion. For this reason it is that I 
 have been earnest, during my ministry, in pressing 
 upon parents, and upon those who have the care of 
 youth, the great duty of furnishing their tender and 
 pliant minds with the treasures of divine know- 
 ledge and saving truth, contained in God's revealed 
 word. No matter what specious ai-guments may 
 be brought against the practice, we can reply, that 
 it is a means of grace of God's own appointment, 
 and one too which he has [promised to bless and 
 make effectaal. No matter though it be objected, 
 as it often is objected by the vain disputers of 
 this world — that the minds of children can not com- 
 prehend such deep and unsearchable wonders — 
 
162 Biographical Sketch of Right Rev. John Stake Ravenscroft. 
 
 God, we know, is able to open theiv understand- 
 ings, and out of the mouths of babes and svclcHngs 
 to perfect praise. No matter, though it be argued, 
 that it is in vafn, if not actually wrong, to force their 
 minds to religion, and thus give them a distaste, and 
 even an antipathy against it. Alas! what a flimsy 
 subterfuge of unbelief and opposition to God ; and 
 yet what numbers ai-e swayed by it ! For, is it 
 thought wrong, or even improper, to force their 
 minds, if we must use the words, to any other 
 branch of learning? and yet the danger of distaste, 
 and even of antipathy, to human sciences, must be 
 equally great. Besides, is not this distaste, and 
 even antipathy, to divine things, the natural state 
 of fallen creatures: and religion, the love of God, 
 and goodness, a forced, that is, an unnatural state, 
 to us spiritually dead and undone creatures, and 
 therefore to be counteracted by every possible 
 means ? Let no parent, then, be led away by this 
 infidel sophistry, to withhold religious instruction 
 from the earliest years of his children, or to trust 
 them in a school where the Bible is excluded as a 
 class book. 
 
 " Having lost my father in my ninth year, it be- 
 came necessary to return to Virginia, to look after 
 the wreck of his propert3^ In my seventeenth 
 year, accordingly, I was separated from all I had 
 ever known, and that was dear to me, and landed 
 in Virginia on New Year's day, 1789 — a stranger to 
 all around me, and in great part my own master — 
 at least without any control I had been accustomed 
 to respect. That under such circumstances I should 
 quickly overcome those habits which the restraints 
 of education had imposed, and wander after the 
 lusts of my sinful heart, and the desires of my dark- 
 ened eyes, is hardly to be wondered at. Wander 
 indeed I did, not even waiting for temptation, but 
 madly seeking it, and soon lost every early good 
 impression, and even those fears and misgivings 
 about futurity, of which all men are conscious occa- 
 sionally 
 
 " In looking back upon this period of my life, I 
 think it may be profitable to advert to a circum- 
 stance which had great influence in confirming me 
 in the sinful course I was pursuing. It being de- 
 termined by my friends that I should turn my atten- 
 tion to the profession of the law, as presenting the 
 fairest prospects ofhonor and emolument, I entered 
 the college of William and Mary, that I might at- 
 tend the law lectures of the celebrated Mr. Wythe, 
 together with the other courses of scientific ac- 
 quirement there taught. The plan was doubtless 
 good, and might have been of the greatest advan- 
 tage to my prospects in life , but by throwing me 
 still more upon my own guidance, and increasing 
 my means of self indvilgence, by the liberal allow- 
 ance for my expenses, it increased in an equal de- 
 gree the power of temptation, and I have to look 
 back on the time spent in college as more marked 
 by proficiency in extravagance, and juvenile vice, 
 than in scientific attainment. Yet the means of 
 
 improvement were fully within my reach, and that 
 I did not profit more, is wholly my own fault. The 
 professors in the different departments were able 
 men, and the regulations of the institution good in 
 themselves, but they were not enforced with the 
 vigilance and precision necessary to make them 
 eiEcient, in that moral discipline so supremely im- 
 portant at this period of life. Except at the hours 
 appropriated to the lectures, my time was at my 
 own disposal ; and though expected to attend pray- 
 ers every morning in the college chapel, absence 
 was not strictly noticed, and very slight excuses 
 were admitted. Attendance at Church, on Sunday, 
 was entirely optional, and the great subject of re- 
 ligion wholly unattended to. The students were 
 required to board in college ; but from the small 
 number — not exceeding fifteen — from the low price 
 of board, aud the constant altercations with the 
 steward— the public table was given up, and the 
 students permitted to board in taverns, or else- 
 where, as suited them. This every way injurious, 
 and most unwise permission, presented facilities 
 for dissipation which would not otherwise have 
 been found ; and encouraged as they were by the 
 readiness with which credit was obtained from per- 
 sons whose calculations were formed on the heed- 
 lessness and improvidence of youth, temptation was 
 divested of all present impediment to its power. 
 This last is an evil which I believe attends all sem-: 
 inaries of learning, and forms one of the greatest' 
 obstacles to their real usefulness, and one of the 
 most fruitful nurseries of vice. As such, it ought 
 to be met and resisted by the whole power of the 
 community, and by the arm of the law inflicting 
 severe pecuniary penalty, independent of the loss 
 of the debt contracted — and even imprisonment of 
 the person convicted of giving credit to a student at 
 any college, or other public seminary of learning. 
 Some such provision, it appears to me, is essential 
 to the public usefulness of such institutioas ; and if 
 enforced with due vigilance by the professors, in 
 whose name, and at whose instance, the prosecu- 
 tion should be carried on, svould go far to counteract 
 this increasing mischief. And when it is consid- 
 ered that the practice of giving credit to minors 
 under such circumstances, is a stab at the very 
 vitals of society, hardly any penalty can be cousid-^ 
 ered too sevei'e. 
 
 "While I thus walked according to the coxirse of 
 this world, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of 
 the mind, the customs and manners of genteel soci- 
 ety imposed some degree of restraint upon my out- 
 ward deportment; and the respect I really enter- 
 tained for some excellent persons, who favored me 
 with their notice and regard, preserved me froni 
 open debauchery. Strange creatures ! we can sub,- 
 mit to some restraint, and command ourselves to 
 some self-denial, for the praise of man that is a 
 n'orm, while we madly defy the omnipotent God ! 
 We can be influenced by the fear of a fellow-crea- 
 ture, while there is no fear of God before our eyes. 
 
Biographical Sketch of Right Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft. 163 
 
 {) What other proof do we need to convince ns that I So true is the expression of the Psalmist that ike 
 !] we are fallen creatures, spiritually dead, and must wicked hatli no bands in death. So great was my 
 5 continue such, unless quickened into life by God ) neglect, in fact disrespect, of even the outward 
 |i the Holy Ghost ? ' forms of religion, that from the year 17S2 to the year 
 
 |l " These restraints, however, could not have con- { 1810, I was not present at any place of public wor- 
 |L tinned to operate for any length of time against the ) ship more than six or seven times, and then not 
 I natural tendency of vice to wax worse and worse ; / from choice, but from some accidental accommoda- 
 ' and that I became not totally and irrecoverably sunk J tion to propriety, in surrendering to the opinions of 
 I in its ruinous deiJths, I owe, under Goo, to a most / others. 
 
 I excellent woman, who consented to become my I " Indeed the kind of preaching I had it in my pow- 
 l' wife in my 2l6t year. This event gave a new di- \ er to hear, was not of a description to engage the 
 j rection to the course of my life. I abandoned the ) attention of any informed mind. I soonfound that I 
 j study of law and embraced a country life, devoting j knew more of the Scriptures from memory than the 
 If myself to agricultural pursuits. Thus removed preachers, and was vain enough to think that I un- 
 I from the temptations and facilities to vice, which } derstood them better and coald apply them more 
 [? our cities and towns present so readily, with regu- \ correctly, than the well-meaning pei'haps, but cer- 
 lar and pleasant occupation on my farm, and my ^ tainly most ignorant, unqualified, and of course in- 
 domestic happiness studied and promoted by the r jurious men, who appeared around in the character 
 affectionate partner of my life — my years rolled on | of ministers of religion. But as I had ng spiritual 
 as happily — were the present life alone to be pro- / senses as yet quickened in me, the preaching of the 
 vided for — as could reasonably be desired. The ( cross, even from an angel, would have been to me 
 pei'sonal regard I entertained for my wife, increased | as to the Greeks of old — foolishness. Oh what a 
 to the highest esteem, and even veneration, as the / miracle of long safFering, that in all this time God 
 virtues of her character opened upon me, while the ' was not provoked to cut me off! What a miracle 
 prudence and discretion of her conduct won me ; of grace, that I am permitted to think and speak of 
 gradually from my previous dissipated habits. She \ it, and to adore the riches of his mercy, in bringing 
 was a woman of high principle and of a very inde- ( me to a better mind ! 
 
 pendent character: what she did not approve of, ) " It was in the year 1810 that it pleased God to 
 she would not smile upon ; yet she never gave ( set my mind at work, and gradually to bring me to 
 me a cross word, or an illnatured look in her life, ^ doubt the dark security of my unawakened state, 
 andin the twenty-three years it pleased God to But I am not conscious of any peculiar incident or 
 spare her to me, such was her discretion, that i circumstance, that first led me to considerations of 
 though I often acted otherwise than she could have J the kind. 
 
 wished me to do, and though she was faithful to ) "As I was the manager of my own estate, which 
 reprove me, there never was a quarrel or temporary ( comprised a set of mills, as well as a plantation, 
 estrangement between us She opejied her mouth j about two miles distant from each other, I was of 
 with wisdom, and in her tongve was the law of kind '! course much alone, at least in that kind of solitude 
 71CSS. So that when she left me for a better world, { which gives the mind opportunity to commune with 
 it was an exceeding comfort to me that I could look J itself. It was in my rides from one to the other, 
 back upon so little to reproach myself with, res- I and while superintending the labors of my people, 
 pecting her; only this, that but for the last five \ that a train of thought, to which I was previously 
 years of our union, had I any sense of her real ) altogether unaccustomed, began to occupy my at- 
 value, or of God's goodness in giving her to me, or ( tention, and though dismissed once and again would 
 any communion with her in the love of that Saviour, j still return, and with every return would interest 
 who had been her hope and trust through life, ) me more and more. That the train of thought thus 
 (though she was not formally a professor^ — the { suggested, concerned my condition as an accounta- 
 Church in which she was baptised having been cast |) able creature, willbe readily imagined, as also, that 
 down before she came to yeai's of discretion) — and / on the review I found it bad enough. This it was 
 who was her stay and support in the hour of death. ( no difficult thing for me to feel and to admit, nor as 
 ' O how good it is,' would she say to me as I ) yet did there appear much difficulty in reforming 
 watched by her dying bed, ' to have a Saviour, and ( what I could not justify. 
 
 s«c7t a Saviour?' ( "An impatient and passionate temper, with a 
 
 " But though my marriage certainly produced a ) most sinful and hateful habit of profane swearing, 
 great change in my outward conduct, I was never- ( in which I was a great proficient, were my most 
 theless as far from God as ever ; without even a { open and besetting sins. These, however, I con- 
 thought of religion, or once opening the Bible for ) sidered as within my own control, and as such, set 
 eighteen years, to learn what God the Lord should ( forthwith about amending them, but without any re- 
 say, or once bending my knees in prayer to him, on \ liauce upon God for help, or without much if any im- 
 whom my all depended; and though twice in this ( pression that it was at all needful. In this endeavor 
 time brought to the gates of death by sickness, yet s at reformation, which it pleased God thus to permit 
 no uneasy thought of hereafter disturbed my mind. ( me to make, I went on prosperously for a season. 
 
Biographical Sketch or Right Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft 
 
 and began to pride myself in that self-command I ^ Then was I enabled in another strength to commit 
 seemed to possess. But my own weakness was ^ myself unto his way. From that moment my be- 
 yet to be showed me, and when temptation again ^ setting sin of profane swearing was overcome, and 
 assailed me, all my boasted self command was but ) to this moment has troubled me no more. But much 
 as a rush against the wall, I surrandered to pas- ^ was yet to be done, which the same gracious friend 
 sion, and from passion to blasphemy. When I v of poor sinners continued to supply ; and to lead me 
 came to reflect upon this, then it was that, for the J step by step, to proclaim his saving name, and de- 
 first time in my life, I was sensible of something / clare his mighty power openly to the world, 
 like concern— some consciousness of wrong beyond " lu making an outward profession of religion, I 
 what was apparent. But without waiting to ex- ) acted as multitudes, alas, do, without consideriag 
 amine farther, I hastily concluded to exert myself : that any thing depended on my being a member of 
 more heartily, and yet to eommaud myself tho- ' 
 roughly. 
 
 the Church of Christ, or that any diflBoulty existed 
 as to what was and what was not truly such. In 
 
 " During these my endeavors, however, the Scrip- ' choosing between the different denominations into 
 tures were more and more the object of my atten- which the Christian world is split up, I considered 
 tiou, and from them I began gradually to discover ( nothing more to be necessary than agreement in 
 (what I was very loth to admit) the true state and ) points of faith and practical religion, with such a 
 condition of human nature. What little I had lately |j system of discipline as was calculated to promote 
 come to know of myself, however, and all that I / the peace and edification of the society. This I 
 knew of the world, seemed to rise up as strong i thought I found in a body of Christians called Re- 
 proofs that the doctrine of natural depravity vcas i publiean Methodists ; and influenced in no small de- 
 true Willing, however, to escape from it, I resorted ■ gree by personal friendship for one of their preach- 
 to the subterfuge of too many among us — that what ers, Mr. John Robinson, of Charlotte county, my 
 we find in the Scriptures is Jiguratively expressed, I wife and myself took membership with them. At 
 and is, therefore, not to be taken in the strictness J this time, however, they had no church organized 
 of the letter. But my own experience was to be ( within reach of my dwelling, only a monthly ap- 
 the expositor of the word. Again and again were S pointment for preaching at one of the old Churches, 
 my self righteous endeavors foiled and defeated, ) eight miles distant. 
 
 much as at the first ; and humbled and confounded, \ " It was not very long, however, before this want 
 I became alarmed at what must be the issue — if I ' was supplied in the gathering together of a sulB- 
 was thus to remain the sport of passions I could ( cient number to constitute a Church according to 
 not command, the prey of sin I could not conquer. their rule, in which I was appointed a lay elder, and 
 Something like prayer would flow from my lips, but ' labored for the benefit of the members by meeting 
 it was the prayer of a heart that yet knew not | them on the vacant Sundays, and reading to them 
 aright its own plague. One more eflbrt was to be ( such printed discourses as I thought calculated to 
 made, and with great circumspection did I watch ^ instruct and impress them; and these meetings 
 over myself for some weeks. Still did I continue, i' were well attended, considering the prevalent delu- 
 however, my search in and meditation upon the ^ sion on the subject of preaching, and the wide and 
 Scriptures: and here it was that I Ibuud the benefit I deep objection to prepared sermons, 
 my early acquaintance with them. I had not to ^ "When I had been engaged in this way about 
 look afar ofl' for their doctrines, they were familiar ( three years, inci-easing in knowledge myself, as I 
 
 to my memory from a child ; I had known them thus 
 far, though now it was that their living pi-oof was 
 to be experienced. The whole, I believe, was to 
 be made to depend on my acquiescence in the turn- 
 ing point of all religion — that we are lost and un- 
 done, spiritually dead and helpless in ourselves — 
 and so I found it. 
 
 "Again and dreadfully did I fall from my own 
 steadfastness — temptation like a mighty man thai 
 sho2oteth by reason of wine, swept my strength be- 
 fore it, carried away my resolutions as Sampson did 
 the gates of Gaza. I retui-ned to tlie house con- 
 vinced of my own helplessness, of my native de- 
 pravity, and that to spiritual things I was incompe- 
 tent. I now found of a truth that in me dwelt no 
 '. thing. I threw myself upon my bed in my 
 private room — I wept — I prayed. Then was show- 
 
 endeavored to impart it to others, I gradually began 
 to be exercised on the subjectof the ministiy, and 
 to entertain the frequently returning thought, that 
 I might be more useful to the souls of my fellow- 
 sinners than as I then was, and that I owed it to 
 God To this step, however, there appeared objec- 
 ticms insurmountable, from my worldly condition, 
 and from my want of public qualifications. Yet I 
 could not conceal from myself, that if the men with 
 whom I occasionally associated, and those of whom 
 T had obtained any acquaintance as ministers of re- 
 ligion, were qualified to fill the station, I was be- 
 hind none, and superior to most of them, in acquired 
 knowledge, if not in Christian attainment. My ob- 
 jections were, therefore, chiefly from my personal 
 interests, and personal accommodation, cloaked un- 
 der the want of the necessary qualifications for a 
 
 ed unto me my folly in trusting to an arm of flesh. ) public speakei', and some obscure views of the great 'j 
 Then did it please the Lord to point my bewildered ( responsibility of the ofHce. I felt that I dreaded it, 
 view to him who is the Lord ojo- righteousness. I and, therefore, did not encourage either the private 
 
Biographical Sketch of Right Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft. 165 
 
 exercises of my own miud, or the open intimations 
 of my brethren. Yet I could not escape from the 
 often returning meditation of the spiritual wants of , 
 all around me, of the never to be paid obligation I 
 was under to the divine mercy, and of the duty I 
 owed to give myself in any and in every way to 
 , God's disposal. 
 
 " Of this I entertained no dispute ; yet the toils 
 and privations, the sacrifices of worldly interest, and 
 the contempt for the calling itself manifested by the 
 wealthier and better informed classes of society, 
 which I once felt myself, and now witnessed in 
 others, were a severe stumbling-block ; and I was 
 willing to resort to any subterfuge to escape en- 
 countering it. Yet I would sometimes think, that 
 a great part of this was more owing to the men than 
 to the office." 
 
 Thus abruptly terminates this interesting narra- 
 tive, to the composition of which Mr. Ravenscroft 
 devoted the intervals of strength and leisure that 
 he enjoyed during his last illness. Among the me- 
 moranda to which he referred in the prepai-ation of 
 it, is found one written by himself, in the year 1819, 
 which is here subjoined, as a continuation of the 
 history of his motives and views in entering the 
 ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
 the causes of his dissatisfaction with the commu- 
 nion to which he had first attached himself. 
 
 " In the year 1815, being much exercised on the 
 subject of the ministry, and believing myself called 
 to a public station in the Church, as well as pressed 
 by the solicitations ofmy brethren, I began to revolve 
 the question of orders in my mind, and to seek for 
 information on a subject which I felt was of the last 
 consequence to my comfort, and I may say useful- 
 ness as a minister of Christ, viz. the authority by 
 which I should be. commissioned to perform the du- 
 ties of the ministry. To rest it upon the assurance 
 I felt, that I was called of God to the work, was 
 personal to myself, but could not weigh with others 
 beyond my own opinion ; and something more than 
 that was essential to prevent me from feeling my- 
 self an intruder into the sacred office. 
 
 " On mentioning my difficulty to the pastor of the 
 congregation to which I belonged, an able and sen- 
 sible, though not a learned man, I found that it was 
 a question he could not entertain, being, like Dis- 
 senters in general, little if at all impressed with 
 the importance (not to themselves alone, but to 
 those under their charge,) of valid and authorized 
 ministrations in the Church. Being thus left to my 
 own resources, and the word of God, I became fully 
 convinced that the awful deposit of the Word, by 
 which we shall all be judged, could never be thrown 
 out into the world to be scrambled for, and picked 
 up by whosoever pleased to take hold of it ; and 
 though this objection might in some sort be met by 
 
 the manifestation of an internal call, yet as that in- 
 ternal call could not now be demonstrated to others, 
 something more was needed, which could only be 
 found in the outward delegation of authority, from 
 that source to which it was originally committed. 
 Of the necessity of this verifiable authority to the 
 comfort and assurance of Christians in the present 
 day, the Sacrament of Baptism presented itself to 
 me as demonstrative truth. Being the only possi- 
 ble mode by which fallen creatures can become in- 
 terested in the covenant of grace, and entitled to 
 the benefit of Chri»t's gracious undertaking for the 
 salvation of sinners, it must be of the last import- 
 ance to parents and children to be satisfied and 
 assured that such unspeakable blessings should be 
 authoritatively conveyed. And as the authority of ] 
 Christ is the very essence of Baptism, in the as- « 
 surance of its pledges to those to whom it is admin- 
 istered, and as this assurance can only be such by 
 the verification of the requisite power rnd authority 
 to administer the rite, it appeared clear to me, that 
 no assumption of that power by any man, or body 
 of men, neither any consequent delegation of it, 
 could by any possibility answer the intention and 
 purpose of the Author and Finisher of our faith, in 
 making Baptism the door of admission into bis 
 Charch, 
 
 " In this view of the subject, I was compelled to 
 lay before the district meeting of the Republican 
 Methodist Church, so called, my reasons for requir- 
 ing an authority to minister in the Church of Christ, 
 which they had not to give, and to request a letter 
 of dismission from their communion. This was 
 granted me by the congregation of which I was a 
 member, in the most friendly and affectionate man- 
 ner. The other dissenting denominations among us 
 I found in the same situation ; all of them, accord- 
 ing to my view, acting upon usurped authority ; 
 thoucrh I paused a while on the Presbyterian claim 
 to apostolic succession — but as that claim could 
 date no farther back than the era of the Reforma- 
 tion, and in its first lines labors under the dispute 
 whether it has actually the authority which mere 
 Presbyters can bestow, (for it does not appear satis- 
 factorily that Calvin ever had orders of any kind,) 
 I had to tui-n my attention to the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Charch for that deposit of apostolical sxrcces- 
 sion, in which alone verifiable power to minister in 
 sacred things was to be found in these United 
 States. • , .J " • 
 
 " I presented myself accordingly to Bishop Moore, 
 in the city of Richmond, together with my creden- 
 tials, and was by him received as a candidate for 
 holy orders. The canons of the Church requiring 
 that persons applying for orders shall have their 
 names inscribed in the books, as candidates for one 
 year previous to their oi'dination, I was furnished 
 by Bishop Moore with letters of licence as a lay- 
 reader in the Church, which are dated the 17th of 
 Febraary, 1816. Having labored during the year in 
 the parishes of Cumberland, in Lunenburg county, 
 
and of St. James, in the county of Mecklenburg, 
 with acceptance, and, by the blessing of God, with 
 effect, particularly in St. James' parish, I was most 
 earnestly invited to take charge of the latter con- 
 gi-egation, as their minister. This invitation I ac 
 cepted ; and having received the uecessaiy testi- 
 monials from the Standing Committee of the Dio- 
 cese, and passed the requisite trials, I was admitted 
 to the office of Deacon in the Church, on Friday, 
 the 25th day of April, 1817, in the Monumental 
 Church, in the city of Richmond ; and for reasons 
 satisfactory to the Bishop and Standing Committee 
 of the Diocese, by virtue of the canon in such case 
 made and provided, I was admitted to the order of 
 Priest ; and ordained thereto in the Church in the 
 town of Fredericksburg, on Tuesday, the 6th day 
 of May following, during the session of the Conven- 
 tion in that place. On returning to my parish, 
 deeply impressed with the awful commission in- 
 trusted to me, and with the laborious task of rescu- 
 ing from inveterate prejudice the docti-ines, disci- 
 pline, and worship of the Church, and of reviving 
 among the people that regard for it, to which it is 
 truly entitled, I commenced my ministerial labors, 
 as the only real business I now had in life, relying 
 on God's mercy and goodness, through the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, for fruit to his praise." 
 
 Mr. Ravenscroft's character as a Christian was ; 
 fully appreciated by the little flock over which he I 
 was now the overseer, and his labors as a minister | 
 were attended with very gratifying success. At ^ 
 the time that he first connected himself as a lay- i 
 reader with it, the Liturgy of the Church was en- ^ 
 ) tirely unknown, except in one family ; and in fifteen / 
 months afterwards he had a large congregation of 
 "attentive hearers and devout worshippers," who i 
 erected for their use a commodious place of public , 
 
 worship. To some, however, his preaching was 
 
 very offensive, and brought upon him that reproach 
 to which the faithful minister of Christ has been ,' 
 liable in every period of the world. To the rich \ 
 and worldly-mitided, especially, to whom he had ' 
 been so long allied in feeling and in practice, he }^ 
 now addressed his most heart-searching appeals, ^ 
 and familiar as he was with all their shifts and eva- ) 
 sions, he exposed them to themselves with a fidel- I 
 ity and truth of coloring wliich they could not tole- ; 
 rate. Preaching of this kind, which they knew not ) 
 ' how to resist, they afl'ected to despise, and this ( 
 faithful minister, though never deteiTed for a mo- ) 
 ment from revealing the whole of God's will, was ^ 
 much and often grieved at the deadness and cold- { 
 ness of this class of his hearers. To those, too, ^ 
 from whom he differed in opinion respecting the ( 
 constitution of the Church, he often gave serious ( 
 offence ; and in one of the congregations which he ) 
 
 and decision of character, he 'pursued the tenor of 
 his way, alike undismayed by the reproaches of his 
 adversaries, and unchanged by the admiration of 
 his friends. He seems to have been actuated by 
 an unbounded sense of God's mercy towards him- 
 self, and to have thought the dedication to his ser- 
 vice of all the energies of his body and mind, far 
 from being an adequate acknowledgement of the 
 divine bounty : doubtless the recollection of the 
 many years, during which his talent had been 
 buried, added to his diligence in preparing for the 
 coming of his Lord. 
 
 Having lost his first wife in the year 1814, Mr. 
 Ravenscroft was married to his second wife in the 
 year 1818. This lady, to whom he was ever a most 
 affectionate husband, and whose consistent Chris- 
 tian character was at once a comfort and an aid to 
 him during their union, was Miss Buford, of Lunen- 
 burg county, the daughter of one of his oldest friends. 
 In the ensuing winter he sustained a severe loss 
 by fire, having had his dwelling house, and all it 
 contained, bui-nt during his absence from home. 
 This loss, joined to his profuse generosity, and pro- 
 bably his diminished attention to his secular affairs Jj 
 after he entered the ministry, reduced considerably 
 the value of his estate, and after this period he was, 
 in part, dependent upon the support which he de- 
 rived from his connection with his parish. 
 
 His attention to the duties of his calling, which < 
 he suffered nothing to divert, was indeed remark- 
 able. His punctuality as a minister, for instance, 
 was so exact, that during the whole time he offici- 
 ated as deacon and priest, he was never known to 
 fail in keeping an appointment. Relying, with a 
 confidence which ultimately became fatal, upon the 
 vigor and stability of his constitution, he set at 
 naught all kinds of weather, while engaged in du- 
 ties that called him from home. Even when the 
 weather was so inclement that he would not permit 
 his servant, who acted as the sexton to his churches, 
 to accompany him, he would himself take the keys 
 and ride off alone five or ten miles to the regular 
 place of worship, without, perhaps, the slightest 
 expectation of meeting an individual, and some- 
 times, as he used to express himself, " would ride 
 around the Church when the snow was afoot deep, 
 and leave his track as a testimony against his peo- 
 ple." This seemingly supererogatoiy exposure of 
 himself he found necessary for some members of his 
 congregation. " If," said he, " they could say with 
 any sort of plausibility — the weather is bad to-day, 
 and Mr. Ravenscroft will not turn out, the conse- 
 quence would be that the slightest inclemency 
 would avail them as an excuse for staying at home ; 
 but I put a stop to all such evasions, by being al- 
 ways at Church, let the weather be what it may, 
 and they can always calculate with certainty upon 
 meeting me if they choose to turn out themselves." 
 
 served he met from this source with many painful j In the year 1823, Mr. Ravenscroft received an 
 > impediments. But with a remarkable self devotion invitation to take charge of the large and flourish- 
 
Biographical Sketch of Right Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft. 167 
 
 f 
 
 ing congregation at Norfolk. Not conceiving that 
 any call of duty accompanied this invitation, he 
 promptly declined it, " as nothing in the shape of 
 emolument could move .him from where he was, and 
 induce him to sacrifice his predilections and attach- 
 ment to his own little flock " Shortly afterwards, 
 however, he received a call from the vestry of the 
 Monumental Church, in Richmond, to be the assist- 
 ant to the venerable Bishop Moore, who had charge 
 of that congregation. Regarding the services of 
 the Bishop, which were seriously interrupted and 
 hindered by his large parochial charge, as too vala- 
 
 ^ ^ble to the diocese to be lost tlirough any impedi- 
 ment opposed by his private inclinations, Mr. Rav- 
 enscroft was prepai-iug to yield to what he consid- 
 ered as an imperative call of duty, and to accept 
 this invitation — when a call of a yet more impera- 
 tive nature reached him from another quarter, which ) 
 his conscience, that great master-sijring to all his ( 
 actions, at once forbade him to reject. ) 
 
 The Church in North Carolina had shared the ( 
 same fate, during the Revolutionary war, that had ) 
 involved all other portions of it in this country in so } 
 much gloom and depression. The violent preju- \ 
 dices — to the injustice of which it is hardly neces- ) 
 sary now to recur — which had brought odium and ( 
 persecution upon its ministers elsewhere, existed i 
 
 ' here in their full vigor. The effect, indeed, of these / 
 prejudices seems to have been more remarkable J 
 in Nortli Carolina than any where else. The cry of 
 "Down with it, down with it even to the ground," 
 accomplished the wishes of the enemies of the 
 Church ; and long after Zion had arisen from the 
 dust, and put on her beautiful garments, in other 
 portions of her borders, her children here had still 
 to weep when they remembered her. 
 
 It was not until the year 1817, that the three cler- 
 gymen who had but recently been called to the 
 towns of Fayetteville, Wilmington, and Newbern, 
 encouraged by some influential laymen in the two |J 
 first mentioned towns, proposed a convention for the ) 
 purpose of organizing the Church in this State. A ( 
 Convention was accordingly held in Newbern, in ) 
 the month of June of that year, attended by three 
 clergymen and six or eight lay delegates ; when a J 
 constitution was adopted, and an address made to/ 
 the friends of the Church throughout the State, pro- ( 
 posing a second convention in the ensuing year. 
 Tbis second Convention was more numerously at- 
 tended than the former, and the Church from that 
 time continued rapidly to increase— or, to speak , 
 more properly, perhaps — to revive from her iong and ( 
 deadly torpoi-. ( 
 Under the patriarchal supervision of the venera- ( 
 ble Bishop of Virginia, who was invited by the Con- 
 vention to take episcopal charge of the diocese, this I 
 increase assumed a stable and progressive charac- ( 
 ter, and within six years from the time of the first' 
 Convention, there were twenty-five congregations i 
 attached to the Church. This numerical force, how- ^ 
 ever, exhibits rather an exaggerated view of the t 
 
 real condition of the diocese. Some well-meaning 
 but injudicious missionaries, under the influence of 
 that fervor of feeling usually attendant upon a state 
 of prosperity, had formed nominal congregations 
 where there were in fact very few or no Episcopa- 
 lians. Bishop Moore's engagements in Virginia, 
 both to the diocese and to his parish, never allowed 
 him time to visit these congregations, and discover 
 their actual condition ; and after remaining some 
 time unfruitful branches of the main stock, and ap- 
 pearing from a distance to add to its strength, they 
 at length withered and fell off, from the want of that 
 vital principle which they had never possessed. 
 And even in the more established and better in- 
 formed congregations, there were many individuals 
 who had attached themselves to the Church from 
 motives entirely distinct from a discerning and ra- 
 tional preference for her peculiar character. Hered- 
 itary predilections, convenience, and accidental cir- 
 cumstauces, afforded a suiBeient motive with many ; 
 while comparatively few had been led to a candid 
 examination, and a consequent acknowledgement 
 of her distinctive claims. 
 
 The number of clergymen was small, in propor- 
 tion to the extent of country over which the friends 
 of the Church were scattered ; and even of that 
 small number, there were some who, acting under 
 that notion of charity which teaches us to shrink 
 from the search of truth, lest, when found, it should 
 show our neighbor to be in error, avoided the urging 
 of claims which were unpalatable to so many. 
 
 These spots of unsoundness in a body otherwise 
 healthy and vigorous, evidently required excision ; 
 and the more intelligent friends of the Church began 
 to look around for some more skilful and steady « 
 hand to whicli the operation should be intrusted. 
 The peculiar state of feeling engendered by the ex. 
 istcnce of these loose opinions, both in the members 
 of the Church themselves, and in others, obviously 
 demanded that the agent of reform should possess < 
 nerve, as well as skill, and not be deterred from his 
 duty, either by the i-eproaches of the looker-on, or 
 by the timidity and alarms of the patient. The 
 character of Mr. Ravenscroft, (for he was at this 
 time personally known to but one clergyman in the ' 
 diocese,) as exemplified by the manner and success 
 of his preaching, appeared to be happily adapted to 
 this emergency. Ardent iu his personal piety, 
 zealous in preaching the Gospel in its utmost purity, 
 disinterested in all his aims, and possessing in no 
 ordinary degree talents for pulpit and pastoral use- 
 fulness, it was believed that the uncompromising 
 firmness with which he held and preached the whole 
 of God's revealed will, would at least receive the 
 meed of praise for sincerity and single-heartedness, 
 even from his opponents ; while the sheep of his 
 own fold would be reclaimed from those mazes of 
 error and ignorance into which other shepherds 
 might not have had the hardihood to follow them. 
 This view of Mr. Ravenscroft's fitness for the sta 
 tion operating upon the leading members of the 
 
168 Biographical Sketch or Right Ret. John Stark Ravenscroft. 
 
 Convention of 1823, and a high respect for his char- 
 acter as a Christian and a minister, influencing 
 others, he vi^as unanimously elected Bishop of the 
 diocese of North Carolina, at a Convention held in 
 Salisbury, and attended by all the clergy and an 
 unusually full delegation of laymen. He did not 
 hesitate in accepting a call which he regarded as 
 being in a peculiar manner a providential one. 
 Personally known to scarcely an individual of the 
 Convention which had unanimously elected him 
 Bishop, it seemed to him " as if the hand of Provi- 
 dence was in it ;" and though the same distrust of 
 himself, that had awakened in him so many doubts 
 respecting his fitness for the ministry at all, yet 
 operated in making him lay aside all self-reliance, 
 the same submission to the leadings of his great 
 Master, and the same confiding ti'ust in his sustain- 
 ing grace, made him determine at once to follow 
 the difficult path now opened to him. His election 
 having preceded the sitting of the General Conven- 
 tion but a few weeks, he was furnished with the 
 requisite testimonial to be laid before that body 
 preparatory to his consecration, and accordingly re- 
 ceived his high commission, in the city of Philadel- 
 phia, on the 22d day of April, 1823, at the hands of 
 of the venerable Bishop White, Bishops Griswold, 
 Kemp, Croes, Bowen, and Brownell, being also 
 present, and assisting. 
 
 The pecuniary ability of the Church in North Ca- 
 rolina being but limited, the Convention in ofifering 
 what they were able to give, allowed Mr. Ravens- 
 croft the privilege of devoting one-half of his time 
 to the service of a parish, so that the conjoined 
 means of the Diocese and the parish might afford a 
 decent and adequate income. The neglect of his 
 private affairs, which has already been hinted at, 
 proceeding from Mr. Ravenscroft's engrossing at- 
 tention to his ministerial duties, added to some 
 losses sustained by him as surety for others, had 
 now reduced his once ample means so much, that 
 he was obliged to avail himself of this privilege ; 
 and the congregation at Raleigh inviting him to 
 take the pastoral charge of them, he consented to 
 do so, and immediately upon his return from Phila- 
 delphia, began his preparations for removal. Know - 
 ing, however, how urgent the wants of the Church 
 were, he did not wait for the completion of his pre- 
 parations, but set out on his first Episcopal tour in 
 June, within one month after his consecration. It 
 would extend this memoir to an undue length to 
 enter into a minute narration of Bishop Ravens- 
 croft's movem.ents in this, or indeed, in any of his 
 subsequent visitations ; it is designed only to give 
 such occasional extracts from his private journal 
 and correspondence, as are either instructive in 
 point of doctrine, or more than ordinarily interest- 
 ing in point of fact. 
 
 One of Bishop Ravenscroft's earliest endeavors 
 after assuming the care of his Diocese, was to im- 
 press upon both his clergy and the people of their 
 
 S charge, a proper estimation of the sacrament of 
 ) Baptism and its corisequent, the apostolic rite of 
 ( confirmation. These he regarded as the threshold 
 j of the Church, and when duly administered and 
 I worthily received, would guard the body of the 
 Church from the intrusion of the unprepared. " I 
 consider,'' says he, in a letter to one of his clergy, 
 " in general terms, Confirmation equivalent to a 
 profession of religion on conviction and experience." 
 And to another he says, " from the nature of things, 
 it is impossible that I can have any knowledge of 
 the qualifications of the persons who off'er them- 
 selves for Confirmation. I must therefore depend 
 entirely upon your diligence in preparing, and faith- 
 fulness in presenting those only of your charge who 
 have a just view of the rite, and are properly im- 
 pressed with the obligations growing out of it, and 
 the benefits to be derived from it. Much obloquy 
 has heretofore grown out of the easiness with which 
 candidates far confirmation have been presented and 
 received by the Church, and occasion has thence 
 been taken against us by our opponents. This I 
 feel extremely anxious to avoid, and as no lax 
 habits in this i-espect have yet obtained in the 
 Diocese, so to commence and continne by the bles- 
 sing of God, that they may be prevented from 
 creeping in." His views on Baptism have been 
 ah-eady given at lai'ge, and need not be here re- 
 peated. 
 
 During his first visitation, and in the interval 
 occurring between it and the ensuing Convention, 
 the Bishop discovered in its full extent the actual 
 condition of the Church, as it has already been 
 described. He saw, that as a faithful overseer, it 
 was his duty, however painful it might be to him- 
 self, and however offensive to others, to correct the 
 mistakes iisto which so many of his flock had fallen 
 — to apprise them of the duties resulting from their 
 connection with a Church which was founded upon 
 the primitive model, and to open their eyes to that 
 delusive notion of chanty, which, in its natural 
 consequences, must eventually lead to the ackuow 
 lodgment of all error. He accordingly opened the 
 deliberations of the first Convention after his con- 
 seeration with a sermon containing his views and 
 opinions regarding the Church, and the most efficient 
 means of promoting its increase and prosperity, and 
 unreservedly communicating the details of the 
 course which he, as its guardian and Bishop, meaiit 
 to pursue. 
 
 The fatigue and exposure incident to the situation 
 in which the Bishop was now placed, added to the 
 anxiety of mind necessarily attending it, began 
 very soon to make an impression upon his once 
 robust frame and vigorous constitution, and during 
 the whole of the second winter after his removal to 
 North Carolina, he was confined by illness. Be- 
 sides " the care of all the Churches," which, to a 
 mind so solicitous as his, respecting every thing 
 that concerned their well being, was a source of 
 
Biographical Sketch of Right Rev. John Stark Ravenscroft. 
 
 169 
 
 constant and con'oding anxiety, the mere physical 
 labor of his annual visitations was very great. The 
 farthest westera congregation vs^as more than three 
 hundred miles distant from the most eastern one, 
 
 1828, to give up the pastoral charge of the congre- 
 gation at Raleigh, which, under his fostering care 
 had grown into an importance w.hich required more 
 active and uninterrupted service than his declining 
 health and engagements to the diocese permitted 
 empire in his enfeebled frame, he punctually and ( him to bestow. The large congregations of Newborn 
 resolutely made his yearly visits to both, and it was j and Wilmington were both desirous of procuring 
 not until he became utterly incapable of travelling, ) his valuable pastoral services, iuteiTupted and' 
 a short time previously to his death, that he discon- \ hindered as they were ; and accordingly at this 
 
 and yet, long after disease had established its 
 
 tinned them. United to these labors were his 
 laborious and zealous services to his congregation 
 at Raleigh as a parish priest, occupying the whole 
 of his time not devoted to his active Episcopal ' 
 duties. 
 
 But even his hours of sickness and confinement 
 were not hours of idleness. Just before his first 
 illness he had been invited to preach before the 
 Bible Society at its annual meeting, in December, 
 at the city of Raleigh, although he had openly 
 expressed his disapprobation of one feature in the 
 constitution of the society. Availing himself of the | 
 occasion, he explained his objections, and gave in , 
 general his views of the proper principle upon 
 which Bible Societies shonld be founded to be most ' 
 efficient in their operations. This sermon having , 
 been published, elicited very severe animadversions 
 from various quarters, and eventually attracted the 
 
 time he received from each of those congregations 
 an invitation to become its pastor, but he ultimately 
 selected the village of Williamsborough, to which 
 he had been also invited, as his future residence. 
 The congregation there was small, and having never 
 •had the benefit of regular services, he thought it 
 better able to withstand the injurious effects of 
 interrupted ministrations. 
 
 It pleased God about this time to deprive Bishop 
 Ravenscroft of the whole of his worldly substance, 
 by that means which had become so general in this 
 country. The same benevolent disposition which 
 prompted him to dedicate his life so zealously to 
 the service of his fellow creatures, had induced him 
 at various times to become the security for others 
 in pecuniary transactions, and the issue was his 
 utter rain. The details of this unfortunate business 
 it is not necessaiy to relate. Suffice it to say, that 
 
 notice of a celebrated professor of theology in | he met with kind friends, and in his own bosom 
 Virginia. That gentleman in his strictures upon ( found a source of comfort which made him rise 
 the sermon, and the publications arising out. of it, ) superior to his misfortunes, and, like the courser 
 having assailed the Church of which Bishop / that has shaken off his encumbrances, to run his 
 Ravenscroft was a member and a minister, the ( race with renovated speed and vigor. 
 
 Bishop felt himself imperiously called upon to 
 stand forth to vindicate it from his aspersions. 
 Though worn by a severe and protracted illness, 
 the result of his labors was a masterly and trium- 
 phant vindication of the doctrines of the Church. 
 This able controversial tract will be found alike 
 valuable to the learned churchman and to the un- 
 learned Christian; to the former, as a clear and 
 
 One earthly tie yet i-emained to bim, besides his 
 connection with and attachment to the Church, and 
 that also it pleased God to sever. Soon after his 
 removal to Williamsborough, thehealth ofhis wife, 
 which had been for some time feeble, began rapidly 
 to decline, and in January, 1829, her sickness and 
 suiferings terminated in death. A life spent in the 
 diligent discharge of the various duties belonging 
 
 comprehensive summary of the learned labors of ) to her station, was closed by a death full of the hope 
 
 the fathers, and the brightest luminaries of the 
 Church; to the latter, as a plain and irrefragable 
 argument, establishing the divine authenticity of 
 those ministrations upon which he relies as means 
 for his spiritual sustenance. 
 
 The Bishop's health was never perfectly reno- 
 vated after this first severe attack, but his consti- 
 
 of immortality, and it was a source of great comfort 
 to her husband, that daring the last stages of her 
 illness, not one cloud of doubt obscured the bright- 
 ness of her heavenly prospect, and that (to use his 
 own language) " there was not even a distorted 
 feature in the agonies of death, to betray any 
 quailing before the king of terrors." The severance 
 
 tution, originally hardy and vigorous, frequently ( of this last earthly bond was to the Bishop a severe 
 rallied and restored him to his usual activity ; the ) trial. Besides losing an affectionate friend and a 
 dedication of which intervals to his Episcopal ) faithful counsellor in his wife, the precarious and 
 labors would in turn reduce him for a time to sick- ( delicate state of his own health made him pecu- 
 ness and confinement. The last three or four years j liarly sensitive to the loss of a gentle and tender 
 
 of his life consisted almost wholly of these alterna- 
 j tions of sufl'ering sickness at home and active 
 > industry abroad. 
 
 companion and nurse. But even this severe chas- 
 tisement was not to him without its mitigations. 
 The poverty to which he wr.s reduced in his old age, 
 ) (had only affected him as it rendered it probable that 
 
 his early death, to which he already began to look 
 forward, would leave Mrs. Ravenscroft in want. 
 The increasing infirmities of the Bishop made it \ The removal of this apprehension by the death of 
 necessary for him, m the beginning of the year ( his wife, though it might render the evening of his 
 
days lonely and irksome, at once released him 
 from all earthly anxieties ; and in speaking of his 
 loss, this thought, next to the consolations of relig- 
 ion, seemed to have been uppermost. 
 
 The convention of 1829, sensible of the increas- 
 ing infirmities of Bishop Ravenscroft, and of the 
 great necessity of relieving him of a portion of his 
 laborious duties, determined to release him from 
 all parochial charge- Notwithstanding his declin- 
 ing health and strength, his devotion to both his 
 diocese and parish had continued unremitted. Often 
 during his visitations he would spend one day on a 
 sick bed, and the succeeding in preaching with his 
 usual force and zeal, or in travelling from the place 
 of one appointment to that of another; and while, 
 at home, he never permitted a Sunday to pass with- 
 out occupying his pulpit. This double labor was 
 obviously too much for his reduced strength and 
 health, and the convention, notwithstanding the 
 slender means of the diocese, increased his salary 
 so as to make it adequate to his support independ- 
 ently of any pai'ochial contribution. But the relief 
 came too late. The visitation immediately preced- 
 ing this convention, was the last he was ever per- 
 mitted to make to the diocese, which owed so much 
 to his zealous and faithful labors. After the ad- 
 journment of the convention, he visited the newly 
 formed dioceses of Tennessee and Kentucky, and 
 from thence went to Philadelphia to attend the sit- 
 ting of the general convention in that city. This 
 long journey, which he was induced to take at the 
 urgent solicitations of the Tennessee clergy, and 
 perhaps by the expectation that it might benefit his 
 health, he performed in the public stages and steam- 
 boats, travelling more than a thousand miles over a 
 rough and mountainous counti'y in the former mode 
 of conveyance. When the general convention had 
 finished its session, he remained for more than a 
 month in Philadelphia, under the care of the most 
 eminent jAiysicians of that city. Their skill restored 
 him to a degree of comfort and health which he had 
 not known for years, and they gave him reason to 
 hope that, with proper care, his health might be 
 completely re-established. But the expectation 
 which they entertained was vain. Though the 
 Bishop, previously to this period, was noted for the 
 recklessness with which he exposed his health and 
 life in the labors of his vocation, he seems to have 
 been impressed by the opinion of these eminent 
 medical advisers with the absolute necessity of 
 more prudence, and thenceforward to have yielded 
 to their injunctions ; but a sudden and violent change 
 of weather exposing him to severe cold on an un- 
 avoidable journey to Fayetteville, (whither he was 
 preparing to remove,) brought back all the worst 
 symptoms of his disease in an aggravated form. 
 Having disposed of his effects in Williamsborough, 
 preparatory to his contemplated removal to Fay- 
 etteville, he reached Raleigh in December, where 
 he designed remaining during the session of the le- 
 gislatui-e. His health was now, once more, evident- 
 
 ly rapidly declining. He was, however, enabled to 
 write a sermon for the consecration of Christ Church, 
 in Raleigh, and to perform that service. After that 
 he daily gi-ew weaker, and his former disease, chro- 
 nic diarrhcEa, returning with renewed violence, and 
 being conjoined with the double quartan, soon pros- 
 trated him. In a letter written on the last of Jan- 
 uary, he says, " I am weakening daily, and now can 
 just sit up long enough at a time to scribble a letter 
 occasionally." "But," he adds, "as respects the 
 result, I am, thank G-OD, free from apprehension. I 
 am ready, I humbly trust, through the grace of my 
 divine Saviour, to meet the will of God, whether 
 that shall be for life or for death ; and I humbly 
 thank Chkist Jesus, my Lord, who sustains me in 
 patience and cheerfulness through the valley and 
 shadow of death." 
 
 For many weeks previous to his dissolution, he 
 was fully persuaded that his sickness was unto 
 death, and spoke of his decease as certain, and at 
 no great distance; but manifested the utmost calm- 
 ness in the contemplation of it. " Why should I 
 desire to live ?" said he. " There is nothing to bind 
 me to this world. The last earthly tie has been 
 broken. Nevertheless, I am perfectly resigned to 
 the will of God, either to go or stay. I feel no 
 anxiety about the issue." During the whole of his 
 illness, his conduct was such as to satisfy every 
 one, that he felt no apprehensions at the thought of 
 death. He retained the peculiarities of liis charac- 
 ter to the last; the same ardent love and zeal for \ 
 the truth, the same fearless rebuke and condemna- 
 tion of error, marked his character on a sick and 
 dying bed, which had so eminently distinguished | 
 him through life ; and he let slip no opportunity of ^| 
 bearing testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus, aud 
 as it is held and taught by the Church of which he 
 was a Bishop. " On one occasion," writes the Rev. 
 Mr. Freeman, (who attended him in his last mo- 
 ments,) " several persons being present, I turned to 
 the book of Proverbs, and read to those who were 
 sitting by me the following passage, (chap. 20. v. 
 21.) An inheritance may he gotten hastily at the 
 beginning, but the end thereof shall not be llessed, 
 and proceeded to observe, how little encouragement 
 was afforded by this passage for a man to make 
 haste to be rich, &c. When I ceased speaking, the 
 Bishop, who I thought was not attending to what 
 passed, exclaimed, 'There is another lesson to be 
 learned from it. /It may be applied to those who 
 have hastily obtained a religious inheritance — who 
 place their dependence on those sudden aud eva- 
 nescent fervors which they have experienced in 
 some moment of excitement.' ] With respect to his , 
 own pi'ospects, he appeared to entertain no appre- 
 hensions. I asked him, a few days before his de- 
 cease, if he had never during his illness been trou- 
 bled with doubts and misgivings? 'Never,' said 
 he. ' So free have I been from any suggestions of 
 the enemy, that I have never doubted for a moment, 
 except that the thought has sometimes come over 
 
Biographical Sketch of Right E.ev. John Stark Ravenscroft. 
 
 171 ^1 
 
 me that my tranquillity is possibly an evidence that 
 Satan thinks himself sure of me, and therefore lets 
 me alone.' On my answering, that as he had been 
 laboring to pull down Satan's kingdom— had been 
 constantly engaged in fighting, not in his ranks, but 
 in opposition to him, it was not reasonable to sup- 
 pose that he had any claims upon him. ' True,' said 
 he, 'but then I have had such a body of sin to 
 struggle against, and seem now to have been so 
 much engaged in preaching myself rather than 
 God, that I feel humbled to the dust. My only 
 ground of consolation is that as Christ suffered in 
 weakness for our redemption, much more may we 
 hope to be saved by the power of his resurrection.' 
 Speaking of his enfeebled state, and what he called 
 the wandering of his thoughts, he remarked on the 
 folly of delaying i-epentance to a sick bed, and ex- 
 pressed, as he had often done before, his desire to 
 warn every one of the hopelessness of being able 
 to settle on a dying bed so vast a concern as that of 
 making one's peace with God. ' If I had my work 
 now all to do, what would become of me ? If I had 
 put off this matter to this time, it must have been 
 entirely neglected.' 
 
 " He received the Holy Communion once while 
 on his sick bed, and had appointed to receive it 
 again a few days before his death. But when the 
 time came, he was so much exhausted by the pre- 
 parations which he bad made, and which he would 
 not omit, in order that he might come, as he ex- 
 pressed himself, 'literally clean to the heavenly 
 feast.' that he was obliged to forego the opportunity. 
 'I am not in a condition,' said he, 'to partake dis- 
 cerningly, and I have no superstitious notions res- 
 pecting the Eucharist — I do not regard it as a via- 
 ticum, necessary to the safety of the departing soul. 
 I believe that in my case the will will be accepted 
 for the deed ; and tell my brethren (who were as- 
 sembled in the next room to partake with him) that 
 though I am denied the privilege of shouting the 
 praises of redeeming love once more with them, 
 around the table of our common Lord, yet I will 
 commune with them in spirit.' ' 
 
 " The evening before his death, I had left him for 
 a few moments. Soon after, receiving intelligence 
 that he was dying, I hastened to him, and found him 
 nearly speechless, and sinking to all appearance 
 very fast. I asked him if I should pray. ' I cannot 
 follow yon,' was his reply, uttered with great difiS- 
 culty. I then kneeled down by him, and prayed 
 silently. After some moments, he seemed to revive. 
 
 and motioned to us to retire from his bed-side, and 
 leave him undisturbed. I sat and watchedhim from 
 that time till he expired, which he did about one « 
 o'clock the following morning, (March 5th, 1830,) 1 
 without having spoken for five or six hours. He 
 appeared, however, to be in the entire possession 
 of his mind to the last, and expired without a 
 struggle." 
 
 The remains of Bishop Ravenscroft were depos- 
 ited within a small vault, which had been prepared 
 under his directions some weeks before his death, 
 beneath the chance! of Christ Clmrch, in the city of 
 Raleigh. The following instructions respecting his 
 burial, were found in his will, and punctually per- 
 formed. "My will and desire is, that the coffin to 
 contain my mortal remains be of plain pine wood, 
 stained black, and without ornament of any kind — 
 that my body be carried to the grave by my old 
 horse Pleasant, led by my old servant Johnson — that 
 the service for the burial of the dead, as set forth in 
 the Book of Common Prayer, and none other, be 
 used at my interment, with the 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 
 and 11th verses of the 16th Psalm, to be used in- 
 stead of the hymn commonly sung ; and that the 
 Rev. George W. Freeman, Rector of Christ Church, 
 Raleigh, do perform the said funeral rites." 
 
 The following further extract from the Bishop's 
 will exhibits an amiable ti'ait of his character. — " I 
 give to A. M'Harg Hepburn and E. M. Hepburn, 
 whom I have brought up as my children, my servant 
 Johnson, and my favorite old horse Pleasant, be- 
 lieving that they will be kind to Johnson for my sake, 
 keeping him from idleness and vice, but suiting his 
 labor to his infirm condition; and that they will not 
 suffer Pleasant to be exposed to any hardship or 
 want in his old age, but will allow Johnson to attend 
 him, as he has been accustomed to do." 
 
 His entire collection of books and pamphlets, 
 which were valuable, he bequeathed to the diocese «j 
 of North Carolina, " to form the commencement of a 
 library for the use and benefit of the clergy and 
 laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in North 
 Carolina." 
 
 To the " EpiscopalBible, Prayer Book, Tract, and 
 Missionary Society," of the diocese, in the forma- 
 tion of which he had taken a very warm interest, 
 he left the copy-right of such publications of his 
 works as his friends might think it expedient to ji 
 make, which are now collected in the volumes to || 
 which this Memoir is prefixed. 
 
172 
 
 The Early Persecutions of Christians. 
 
 THE EARLY PERSECUTIONS OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 FIRST CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 N arranging a sketch of the 
 early persecutions it be- 
 comes necessary to deter- 
 mine whether to consider 
 them under the titles first, 
 second, third, and so on to the tenth) 
 according to a very generally re- 
 ceived method, or adopt some other 
 plan more strictlyin accordance with 
 the tenor and truth of history. 
 The number is greater than ten, if we in- 
 clude the provincial and more limited perse- 
 cutions. But if we reckon only the general 
 , and severer ones, the number is fewer. The 
 prevailing computation seems to have taken 
 its rise in the fifth century ; and with some pro- 
 bably well-disposed individuals, who reached 
 \ their conclusions more through an arbitrary 
 interpretation of prophecy than by historical 
 evidence. Lactantius, in the fourth century, 
 makes mention of only six persecutions. Eu- 
 sebius, though he enters into no formal enu- 
 meration, appears to mention nine. The same 
 number is adopted by Sulpicius Severn^, in 
 the fifth century: he prepares his readers, 
 however, for the infliction of the tenth and 
 last by Antichrist at the end of the world. 
 From that time, ten embraced the popular 
 idea. 
 
 The truth seems to be that not more than 
 l! four or five of the emperors were guilty of i 
 the deliberate and unrelenting persecutions 
 which are so freely set down to the disgrace 
 of as many more. It is allowed that there 
 were numerous other instances in which 
 Christians suffered because of their belief in \ 
 their divine Master and devotion to his cause ; 
 but it is more than doubted whether theyi 
 should be included in the list of the generally , 
 severe and f)revai]ing afflictions which stand ' 
 
 out on the pages of ancient records as the pe- 
 culiarly bloody and striking evidences of the 
 hatred of Heathenism to the Gospel. 
 
 Under the convictions thus expressed, and 
 because we would not appear to slight any 
 trial or form of adversity endured by the 
 early followers of our Lord, it is deemed 
 best to arrange our details and comments with 
 reference to the centuries in which the perse- 
 tions were encountered, rather than with re- 
 spect to their relative place or rank in any 
 numerical classification. 
 
 The first persecution suffered by the Chris- 
 tians at the hands of the Gentiles, began 
 about the middle of November, A. D. 64. 
 It continued until the death of its imperial 
 instigator, in A. D. 68. Its duration was, 
 therefore, about four years. As Nero is, on 
 all hands, conceded to have occasioned it, a 
 preliminary consideration of his character and 
 some parts of his life is deemed an important 
 if not necessary portion of these inquiries and 
 discussions : and though to some it may as- 
 sume the appearance of an episode, our no- 
 tions of duty impel us to enter upon it. 
 
 When Nero succeeded Claudius on the 
 throne of the Roman empire, he gave promise 
 of being the blessing and delight of his peo- 
 ple. He was but seventeen years old when 
 he began to reign ; and yet he had already 
 established a reputation worthy of the pupil 
 of the philosophic Seneca. For nearly five 
 years he administered the government in a 
 way deemed fit to be held up as a pattern for 
 all princes. Had he continued to govern with 
 the same virtue to the end of his days, but few 
 names in the annals of mankind Would have 
 been brighter than his. The famous emperor 
 Trajan used to say, " That for the first five 
 years of this prince, all other governments 
 
E-WCE^/ED TilEL THE E\-ERimErN" 
 
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