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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

REV. E. CLOWES CHORLEY

SERMON

BY

BISHOP WHIPPLE:

SERMON
preached at the consecration of
Rev. Elisha Smith Thomas, >
As Assistant Bishop of Kansas,
in
st. paul's church,.
ST. PAUL,
May 4, 1887,
By Rt. Rev. A. B. WHIPPLE,
lit
BISHOP OF MINNESOTA.

W. W. PRICE & CO., PRINTERS, 346 SIBLEY ST., ST. PAUL,

ST. ,TOHN 15: 16.
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you
and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. That what
soever ye shall ask the Father in my name He may
give it to you."
Our holy religion rests upon the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ. For more than eighteen-hundred years
the Church has fearlessly declared, that the sinful who
have been led to a holier life, the sorrowful who have
been comforted, the broken ties which have been re
united, the works of charity which have been founded
are the Divine proofs, that Jesus Christ rose from the
dead and is an ever living, ever present, Almighty
Christ and Saviour.
If He has not come back from the grave, there is
no key to the problems of human life, there is no light
over the darkness of death, there is no certain hope of
a life beyond the grave. Jesus Christ has conquered
death, and the work which He did in Galilee and Jeru
salem, He has through all the ages been doing through
His Church.
The miracles wrought by the hand of His Apostles
were His witness to their authority. When the minis
try was established the miracles ceased.
The ministry is from Christ. No less authority can
declare the terms of Salvation, receive men into a cov
enant with God, and dispense the sacraments of a king-

dom of which Jesus Christ is the King. The voice of
Christ declares, "I have chosen you and ordained you."
The office is from God. It must come to men imme
diately by a call from heaven, and they have the power
to verify their authority by miracles, as in
the case of the prophets, or it must come mediately
through a chosen line who have been authorized to com
mit unto faithful men, also. The world saw in the men
who went out from Christ's presence no more than
some unnoticable men who had given up their fisher's
boat and kindred, but wherever they went the kingdom
of God went also. They were the seal of Christ's author
ity. "As my father sent me so send I you " "Who
soever receiveth you receiveth me." The charter of the
Church was perpetual. Men may change governments
and social orgnizations. But the ministry, the faith and
the sacrament appointed by Christ must be the same
forever. The Church was visible as the net let down
into the sea which gathered good and bad, as the field
where tares grew with the wheat until the harvest, as
the body which had many members, as the building
fitly framed together, as the kingdom with its citizens
dwelling in loyal obedience to its king. It is almost
2,000 years since the Risen Saviour said unto His
Apostles, "Lo, I am with you always to the end of the
world." It was 2,000 years to the flood. It was 2,000
years to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the wisest
and holiest of Christian scholars have never looked be
yond the full week of 6,000 years for the second com
ing of the Son of Man— the first, the second and the
third watch of the night— each period hedged in with
its awful sins and its certain doom. Has Christ's
promise failed? Has the Ministry no warrant but the
will of the people? If this Christian ministry was ap
pointed by the Son of God, no lapse of ages can weak
en it, no time can change it; as He gave it, it will be
until He comes to rescue it, the Judge of the quick and

5
the dead. It matters not whether bishops became the
successors of the Apostles by His. Divine command or
were made overseers of the flock" of Christ, When the
Church was guided by the Holy Ghost. The fact remains
this office is and always has been a part of the ministry
of a historical Church. It is by the perpetual authority
of the ministry of Christ that we have met here to-day.
As St. Paul gave this office to Timothy an* to Titus,
and as they handed it on to others, so we have come to
set apart and consecrate our brother, a bishop of the
Church of God.
Bear with me if out of the depths of my own heart
and the memories of more than a quarter of. a century
I speak of a bishop's work.
First of the field. A few years ago the country
west of the Mississippi was almost an unknown wilder
ness. The wildest dream has never compassed the
realty of its development. The power which is to
mould this nation and influence the world is in the
West. Kansas is no whit behind the fairest portion
of our goodly heritage. It will be the home of millions.
If the entire population of the, Eastern and, Middle
States was placed within its borders it would not be
as densely populated as England is to-day. In the life
of our brother the fortunes of the Church will be settled
for more than one hundred years. I gladly remember
the labors of my venerated brother who has grown old
in his Master's Service. I rejoice at the blessing which
God has given for his toil. He knows better than we,
that the Church in Kansas has only entered upon its
work. The work is everywhere. Missions to plant.
Churches to build. Homes of mercy to found. Schools
to endow. Work to make the stoutest hands weary
and the strongest heart faint.
Second. The bishop who enters on such a field
must not be a son of Ishmael with his hand against

every man and every man's hand against him. He
can not build for God .by tearing down any Christian
work. He must represent "the Church of the Recon
ciliation". He must love all whom Christ loves. He must
with St. Paul say "Grace be with all; who love our
Lord Jesus Christ insincerity." He has no right to
apologize for error. He must not surrender the truth
for which the Church is a trustee. He must not enter
into any entangling alliances which will hinder his
Master's work..— Some truths stand out so plain that
he who runneth may read:
a. Every branch of Christ's Church recognizes the
validity of all Christian baptism in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. As baptised unto
Jesus Christ we are brothers.
b. The condition of fellowship in the kingdom of
Christ is faith in the Incarnate Son of God, as contain*
ed in the Catholic creeds. The hedges builded in the
Lord's garden are not made up of things necessary to
salvation. The truths in which Christians agree are
truths of the Catholic faith. We are living in separa
tion because "the fathers have eaten sour grapes and
the children's teeth are set on edge." The sin of
schism does not lie at any one door. Christians the
world over are ceasing to apologize for division and a
power above our weak will is kindling a desire for
Christian unity. No human eirenicon can heal our di=
visions, no human hand can remove these walls of
separation. Where we can see no way God can make
away. When the Son of peace fills all of our hearts
we shall be one.
e. The bishop who would do God's work must be
a man of hearty sympathy. He must know these , men
who sin and suffer. He must feel the pulse beat of the
people. Never in this world has there been more un
rest than to-day. In this land where the people are the

rulers, where the nation offers a home to all who
claim it, where education is the birth right of every
child, there is alienation and strife between class and
class. In other lands institutions and governments
hoary with age are assailed. Men's hearts are failing
for fear of the things which are coming on the earth.
None can tell whether out of all this turmoil there
is to come a truer brotherhood or whether it is the
forerunning token of the strife of the last days. I
believe that these clubs and brotherhoods and orders
are the unconscious prophecies of the only real
brotherhood of men as children of one God and Father.
They are the voice of humanity asking for its inherit
ance. These human expedients which end in failure
are the outcome of our denial of truths which lie at the
foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The reason
men sneer at Christianity as an effete superstition is
because the Church is not living in the spirit and power
of our Lord's words in the synagogue at Nazareth.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has
anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them who are bruised."
We have brought our caste unto the very pres
ence of Christ, we have forgotten that the condition of
our fellowship with Christ is that we become the poor
man's brother. These men who have filled our cities
with creatures of beauty, do not feel as they pass by
the Church's door "this is the house of my Father;"
The wildest dream of men has never compassed a
brotherhood so great as that by the appointment of
God. The poorest child of toil and the greatest king
shall become members of Christ, children of God and
inheritors of the kingdom of heaven . That which men
need to-day is not alms, not missions, not free
Churches. Thfy need in us Christian folk a love which

8, will be to them the hand, the* voice and the heart of
Christ. It is not machinery, necessary, as it is to do
Christ's work, but this, the love of Christ, which is the
motive power of all Christian work: The bishop must
in his own life show this love and teach by word and
by example that our time, our talent and our wealth
is a sacred trust for which we shall give an account to
God. Thoughtful men are starting back with affright
from the yawning gulf of atheism and chaos. They
are beginning to see that brotherhood men will have,
and it will either be a brotherhood as the children of
our God and Father, or the brotherhood of the Com
mune. 1 believe that' a better day is dawning, the sad
warnings of men whose lives were spent in hoarding
wealth which at death left them too poor for any man
to reverence. The blessed examples of those like Miss
Catherine L. Wolfe and Mrs. Augusta M. Huntington,
who sent their wealth before them to the other home
where they have gone to enjoy it, is teaching us all
th^t no man can preserve his good name for his
children or inherit the blessing of God unless he use
his wealth for the good of others.
Third. The bishop of the church must be a man
among men, an intensely human man. He must be a
man of the people, not by fawning upon and flattering
their sins, not by apologizing for error, not by giving •
up manhood^ He must be a man of God who dare
withstand the people, a man who can plant his, feet on
the truth and work and bide his time and die. So the
seed falls into the ground and so, God giveth the
harvest. Fourth, The bishop must be the leader, the
shepherd and the father of his flock. If he is negligent
where shall we look for vigilance? If his heart burn
not who will seek for Christ's lost sheep? If he bind not
up the heart-broken who will plead for the wretched? If

9
his heart is cold, who will go into the wilderness
to bring the torn lambs to his Master's bosom? The
best bishop is the best father. The bishop will always
gather men of like faith and devotion with himself. If
he is the foremost missionary, the humblest deacon
will be braver for his example. The age demands the
ripest scholarship, the truest devotion and the deepest
faith, and the men he sends forth should be men who
in the spirit of Christ can preach deliverance to the
captives and the opening of the prison doors to men
who are bound.
Brethern of the clergy and laity need I tell you
how highly you ought to esteem this office for Christ's
sake. If the greatest of Apostles turned to his converts
in the infant Church and said "Pray for us", howmueh
more may we ask your love, your sympathy and prayers.
I wish my voice could reach every member of the
church in Kansas. With me and with my venerable
brother "it is towards evening and the day is far spent. ' '
These younger brothers whom the voice of the Church
and the Providence of God have called to be our
helpers and to whom we shall soon surrender our
bishop's staff have the right to your love, your prayers
and your alms. As I look back on the early years of
my episcopate when our hearts beat as one and the
missionary work of Minnesota had a name throughout
the Church, there comes up in memory names to whom
under God I owe the success of every venture of faith.
1 laid corner stones and they builded thereon. I
planned missions to the heathen and their prayers and
alms sent out men to do the work. May God reward
them in that day and may the same love be the inherit
ance of our brother.
Brother Beloved, for almost a quarter of a
century you have been my own son in the
Gospel. Few men have ever shared so deeply in a
bishops love. You came to me young in the ministry

10and I have watched with a fathers love your develope-
ment into the ripeness of Christian manhood. You
who was the junior are now one of the senior Priest's
canonically resident in the Diocese. Our fellow labor
ers Gear, Manney, Breck, Wilcoxson, Paterson, Mc-
Master, Van Ingen, Livermore and many more have
entered into rest. Our brothers Kinckerbacker and
Wells are bishops in other fields. As missionary,
teacher, pastor, and parish priest I have not
one memory I would recall. You have always given
me the love of a loyal heart. I remember one day
when clouds were thick around us and the future of
our work looked dark as midnight. I sat in my study
with my hand on my aching head. You entered the
door. I read in your sad face that you had come to
tell me we must give up our efforts to found these
Christian schools. I sprang to my feet and said: "Do
not tell me brother, let us pray." We knelt and pour
ed out our hearts to God and rose and kissed each
other. You left without one word of the burden on
your heart and mine. That was the nearest we ever
came to failure in Faribault. As we have shared each
others love, so we have shared the fruition of our hopes.
If it had been the will of God, I would have kept you
here until I surrendered my bishop's staff unto other
hands. God was wiser than we. He chose another to
take the place of Timothy to your aged bishop and he
called you to be the strong staff on whom another care
worn bishop is to lean. My heart goes out to you as
it never did before. None but God knows what it is
to give up the tender ties of a pastor's life to bear
everybody's burdens, and to bear yours alone. A
bishop's life is no way of roses. You will feel like a
man who has drifted out on an unknown sea where
there is no help but to cry to God our Father. From
this day you give up home to be a wanderer. You will
miss these hearts on whom you have so long leaned

11
and there will be times when if it was the will of God
you would exchange your lot with the humblest parish
priest, and yet we have no regrets to-day. Your Sav
iour's voice has called you, "I have chosen you" 1
know not what trials await you. Whether clergy and
people will give you as mine have given me, an un
clouded love. Whether you will have as I have had in
ventures faith the help of loving hearts. I do know
that He who calls you will go with you and that in His
strength you will bear fruit and that fruit will remain
unto life eternal, and whenever the way is dark you
may claim His own blessed promise, that whatsoever
ye shall ask the Father in his name He may give unto
you. Few men have been called to leave a parish
which has so many memories to bind your hearts as
one. The Diocese loves you for your work, for the
warm heart and "the generous hand which has been
given to every missionary, and for a magnanimity which
knew no differences in brothers of the Church of God.
You have that which St. Paul prized "a good report of
those without. '.' No pastor has ever left this city who
will be followed with more love. Men love you for
the Christian sympathy which was always ready to help
others bear their woes. Christians of every name
honor you for your Christian scholarship, your Christ
ian charity, and your ripe knowledge of the Sacred
Scriptures. They have a kindlier feeling for the
Church for your work's sake. We shall miss you every
where save in our hearts. If we could we would not
hold you back. Every heart in this vast congregation
answers to my own. Go dear brother and may God
go with you. Whether your Episcopate is longer or
shorter we will all pray that yours may be the reward
"they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever."

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