especial and exclusive dedication of themselves, under the guidance and sanction of the Church, to works of piety and charity. I need scarcely say that in that Association there are no irrevocable vows-no engagements, which could interfere to prevent their return to ordinary positions in life, should any claim of duty from friends or relatives unexpectedly arise to require it. In the mean time, they have the aid and comfort of mutual society and counsel, they have a recognized and protected position, they have the strength and consolation that come from feeling that they are wholly dedicated to a holy work, and they are so sequestered from trivial cares and interruptions that they can give themselves with tenfold efficiency to their labors of love. Already their zeal and self-devotion are beginning to produce marked results. Their ministry is seen to be full of Christian blessing. The Institutions in which they labor are rapidly growing in interest and importance, as well as in favor with earnest Christian people; and others of a kindred spirit, touched by their example, and convinced of the blessedness of their work, are turning their thoughts to a like consecration of themselves to the service of their Lord. I am not without hope that this kind of agency will be greatly enlarged, and that the efficiency and extent of the Church's work, especially in the more desolate places of sin and misery, will be vastly augmented by the use of a class of laborers who seem peculiarly fitted to reach and soften the hearts of the degraded, as well as to lift up and console the afflicted. It is due to the venerable and beloved founder of St. Luke's Hospital, the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, so well known among us for works of piety and charity, to record the fact, that he first, in our Church in this Diocese, if not in this country, called to his aid, and organized into a permanent agency, devoted Christian women, who desired to be set apart and associated together in the manner and for the sacred purposes to which reference has been made, though, in their case, more especially for the care of the sick.

St. Luke's Hospital, and the Orphans' Home, and the Home for Aged and Destitute Women continue to be an honor and a blessing to the Church in this city; and I have no doubt that they and the other Institutions I have mentioned will, with the blessing of God, grow in favor with all earnest Christian people, and, as time goes on, become possessed of greatly enlarged means of influence for good. All such Institutions, properly conducted, will be ministries twice blessed; they will bestow inestimable benefits upon the friendless, the poor, the suffering, and the degraded; and the care they will require and the fruits they will be seen to bear will react powerfully upon the spirit of the Church, reanimating its love and zeal, and enlarging its conceptions of its great work in the world.

In the course of the past year, in my visitations in the interior of the Diocese, I have met many striking indications that there is a condition of things among the people which tends to make the ministrations of the Church more and more acceptable, when they can be properly presented. The people are disgusted with wrangling-disgusted with the continual introduction into religious services of things which have no business there, and which rather debase than exalt and sanctify the temper of the popular mind. The pure and fervid devotions of the Church, her moderation and breadth of tone, and her single-hearted love of the "truth as it is in Jesus," make her services refreshing to the weary spirits of men. We must redouble our exertions to send earnest and loving pastors into every part of our extended field.

There are thoughts connected with parochial work and with city missions, which I had much desired to present, but I must defer them to a future moment, perhaps to a circular letter after the close of our two Conventions.

The Convention has set apart a certain portion of its session for the consideration of what is termed the Provincial System. It is brought before you by one of the most venerable of

your Presbyters. I can feel no desire to anticipate your discussion. If such a system can be properly arranged, it may have important uses. If it shall follow ancient precedents, and respect the proper independence of Dioceses, it may help to preserve unity in the territory of the larger States, and assist in the solution of some such problems as we shall have to consider in this Diocese.

Beloved Brethren: In the condition of the Church in the Diocese, and, I believe, in the state of the Church in the country generally, there is much to cheer and encourage us. We are yet far behind what we ought to be; but there has been steady progress in all those elements which go to make a church strong, stable, and influential for good. Not only has there been a rapid increase in numbers, but the ministry has become, as a general thing, more fervid and evangelical, as well as more catholic in its tone, more comprehensive and far-reaching in its views of duty, more inclined to grapple with subjects sometimes too apt to be overlooked; while, as a natural consequence, the general mind of the Church has become better informed in regard to her fundamental principles, more thoroughly awake to her distinctive excellence, and more firmly grounded and settled in attachment to her ways of heavenly wisdom. Just in proportion as her children have freely used her great gifts, have they become more fully conscious of the blessedness of their inheritance. Just in proportion as the various religious tendencies of the country have been developed, has the Church stood out from and above the confusions of the time-simple, peculiar, serene, peaceful-busy with her great work, and little moved by the passions and conflicts that raged around her, little affected even by the ephemeral differences that sprang up within her. Many have been the occasions when exterior observers have seemed to make themselves absolutely sure that the Church was on the point of being convulsed and divided, as other bodies had been convulsed and divided; but within the Church no very well informed

person ever shared in the apprehension; the clouds of prejudice and passion were speedily dispersed; and she, secure in her own principles, and protected by the Divine hand, was seen standing unchanged and unharmed, stronger and more deeply rooted than ever.

More than twenty years ago, I had occasion, in the course of my parochial ministrations, to address to the people of my charge a discourse on the "Stability of the Church," which was published at the request of the congregation. It was in a period of some ecclesiastical excitement, when some ill-informed persons within the Church entertained vague fears that her principles might somehow be changed, while many ignorant persons without imagined that much that belonged to her was destined to be swept away before a popular storm. Both feelings were, of course, equally groundless. But it was worth while to contribute to the tranquillity of the simple ones within the fold. It was worth while to endeavor to re-establish their confidence, and awaken their enthusiasm by disclosing the strength and glory of the Church-her stability and unchangeableness as seen in her principles and in her history-and that was the object of the very unpretending discourse to which I have referred. The simple design was to show that while, on the one side, Rome makes every thing depend upon the voice of existing authorities, and so undergoes what the astronomers term secular variations, taking into her creed, as new articles of faith, certain ideas which spring up under the influence of her system in the course of ages; and while, on the other hand, the various religious bodies, which exalt the private judgment above all evidence and all authority, and practically cast off creeds and formularies, necessarily fluctuate, and depart in spirit from their own standards, and are domineered over by vain philosophies and popular passions'; the Church alone has her fixed principles, her unchangeable creeds and formularies, her immutable standard of truth, Holy Scripture, not as interpreted by anybody, not as inter

preted by the existing authorities of Rome, in defiance of all antecedent belief, but Holy Scripture as interpreted, so far as the fundamentals of the faith, ministry, and sacraments are concerned, by the whole primitive Church for three hundred years after Christ. That primitive witness, in clear accordance with the most obvious meaning of Holy Scripture that witness, so fatal to error on the one side, and, on the other, so conclusive in support of every essential feature of the Church, can never be ignored-can never be falsified or destroyed. It makes a part of the imperishable record of the past. The standard to which we appeal is immutable; the principles we hold as a part of our life are unalterable, because divine; and the means employed in the Church, not only to preserve those principles, but to keep them active and operative over our minds and hearts, are the best that God's Providence has ever supplied! Is that Church very likely to change? No! Not though a whole generation should prove recreant to truth and to duty! Is it likely to be much disturbed by ephemeral agencies? As well might you expect that the mountain would be shaken by the thistle-down! The English Church has been assailed by an army of sceptical sophists; and she is stronger to-day than when the first unfilial hand was raised against her.

Now, it is a comfort to know, that these great truths are more and more recognized and understood among us. In most places in this Diocese there would be little need now of such a discourse as the one just referred to. We have little need to go round about our Zion, to point out the strength of her towers, to tell of the everlasting foundations on which she rests. The assurance of her stability gives us peace, and inclines us to be patient, and gentle, and charitable, earnest in our work, and little disposed to be occupied with the thought of things which appear to-day and disappear to-morrow. In regard to all that is most vital and dear in the order and principles of the Church, we find,