Addresses and discourses...

Preface

The death of its honored and lamented author occurred while this volume was passing through the press. It is thus left to others to say some things which he would have wished to say had he lived to write his own preface to his work. At the request of one whose wish carried with it the obligation of a command — most willingly received — I attempt to say what seems to be needful so far as I can hope to do it.

These discourses were collected at the urgent and repeated instance of friends who were anxious for their preservation in a permanent and accessible shape. They comprise a period covering many years, and deal with many topics, the details of which, however much of local interest they may possess, could hardly find a place in general history. Few, however, will question the desirableness of preserving such details for coming generations ; and these sermons and addresses may well be regarded as supplements to their author's History of the Diocese of Connecticut and his Lives of Johnson and Seabury. The collecting and editing them was his last labor of love for the diocese in which he was iv PREFACE.

born, where his entire life was passed, and to which he gave, not merely an hereditary attachment, but a love that was rooted in the depths of his very being and a loyalty that was absolutely unswerving.

In discourses like those which follow there must needs be repetitions of events and thoughts which would not occur in a connected history, and which in such a history might well be counted blemishes. Here, however, they appear under new conditions and with varied connections and surroundings ; and, at all events, could by no possibility have been avoided.

One paper presents an exception to the rule which has shaped this collection, that, namely, on Bishop Berkeley. The life, however, of the " mitred saint of Cloyne " was so intimately connected with the story of the diocese of Connecticut, in his loving sympathy, wise counsels, and benefactions to the cause of good learning, that a sketch of him can hardly be regarded as out of place among these memorials.

As I write these few lines I cannot but feel that I may well say, "Fungar inani munere ;" and yet there is a melancholy pleasure in laying even this slight offering on the grave of one to whom I was knit in the unbroken friendship of more than twice a score of years, — a friendship on which no cloud had ever cast a shadow.

J. WILLIAMS.

Berkeley Divinity School, January, 1892.

Contents

PACK

ADDRESS 1

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, October 1, 1844.