II.

We have the following tributes from Clergymen of the Diocese:—

The Ven. Archdeacon Fuller, in a Sermon preached on the Sunday following his interment, gave a very complete but brief account of his life; from this we make a few extracts:

“At Cornwall the late Bishop spent nine years of his eventful life. Here, on one occasion, he told me he laboured sixteen hours every day; that, having the charge of the parish of Cornwall, he had to visit a good deal, both among the sick and well; then he had to prepare sermons for Sunday; and, he remarked, he had to study every night quite as hard as the boys; for, said he, I was not much in advance of the highest class in school. These duties demanded sixteen hours every day; and yet, he said, these nine years were the happiest years of my life.”

The following amusing incident is stated to have occurred, on his passage from Cornwall to York soon after the Declaration of War by the United States, in 1812:

“On his way up the St. Lawrence in a small vessel, which contained his family and all his worldly goods, the courage of the late Bishop was put to the test. A vessel hove in sight, which the Captain supposed to be an American armed schooner; and, it being during the war with the United States, he became alarmed, and came down to Dr. Strachan into the little cabin, and consulted with him about surrendering his craft to the enemy. The Doctor enquired of him if he had any means of defence; and, ascertaining that he had a four-pounder on board, and a few muskets, he insisted on the Captain defending his vessel,—but to no purpose, as he was entirely overcome by fear. The Doctor, finding that he could not induce the Captain to defend his vessel, told him to entrust the defence of it to him, and to stay with his family in the cabin. This proposition was gladly acceded to by the Captain; and the future Bishop mounted the companion-way, fully determined to defend the little craft to the utmost of his power; but, (as he remarked when detailing this incident to me some years ago) fortunately for me, the schooner bearing down upon us proved to be a Canadian schooner, not an American; for the four-pounder was fastened to the deck, and it pointed to the starboard, whereas the schooner came to us on the larboard bow!”

In Chapter V. of the foregoing work, there are several references to the courageous and energetic conduct of the late Bishop during the occupation of York by the Americans in 1813; but the following, introduced in the Archdeacon's Sermon, was not recorded:—

"His great firmness of character saved the town of York, in 1813, from sharing the same fate as the town of Niagara met with some months afterwards. The American General, Pike, having attacked and routed the small force defending York, was shortly after killed by the blowing-up of the magazine in the Garrison. The Commander-in-Chief, being enraged by the incident, though it was not attributable to any of the inhabitants of the town, determined to have vengeance on them, and to bum down the town. This determination coming to the knowledge of the authorities, they deputed Dr. Strachan to remonstrate with the American Commander, General Dearborn, against this intended act of barbarity. He met him in the Old Fort; and I have been told by men who witnessed the interview between these parties, that words ran high between them ; the American General declaring that he would certainly bum the town, and the future Bishop declaring that if he persisted in this atrocious act of barbarity, vengeance would be taken on the Americans for such an unheard-of outrage; and that Buffalo, Lewiston, Sacket’s Harbour, and Oswego would in course of time,—as soon as troops could be brought from England.—share its fate. The earnestness and determination of Dr. Strachan moved the General from his barbarous purpose, and York was saved from the flames.”

The following remarks touching on his educational career, are from the same :—

“The Bishop had a great faculty of not only attaching his scholars to him, but also of inducing them to apply themselves assiduously to their studies. He told me that he made it a rule, during the time he kept school, to watch closely every new boy, and at the end of a fortnight to note down in a book his estimate of his character, abilities, and any thing else about him that was noteworthy; and that he had very seldom been deceived in his estimate of the boys who had passed through his hands.

“He had a remarkable talent for interesting boys in their work; and by taking a deep interest in it himself, he led them to do the same.”

The following, in reference to his parochial ministrations, are very interesting:—

“In cases of dangerous sickness, the late Bishop was indefatigable, faithful, and successful. Many of those warm friendships, Vhich were life-long, and have descended to a second generation, were cemented in the sick room or in the house of mourning.

“His conduct during the seasons of Asiatic Cholera, in 1832 and 1834, will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. He not only discharged the functions of the Christian minister; but those also of nurse and undertaker. For when no persons, except the medical men, could be induced by love or money to enter the miserable abodes where this mighty messenger of death was slaying victim after victim, this faithful minister of Christ boldly entered them, accompanied by one of his sons (long since dead), and not only ministered to their spiritual wants, but administered the medicines left by the physicians; and, in more cases than one, when the life had left the body, and there was no one to help his son to put that dead body in the coffin, (which that son had. brought,) this aged minister performed himself this sad office for the dead; and, having helped to lift the coffin into the cart, he followed the lifeless remains to the grave, and there performed for them the last rites.”

“We learn from the public prints, that, whilst a missionary at Cornwall, he took his recreation by visiting, as a missionary, different settlements along the St. Lawrence, forty or fifty miles from his home. In the same way, he extended his ministrations in different directions around this city, for many years after he came to it. He told me that, on one Sunday afternoon, h6 had gone to York Mills, (then Hogg’s Hollow,) through a heavy rain; and, though he found only one person present, he read the whole evening service, and preached his sermon, just as if there had been an overflowing congregation. And he remarked that the people, finding so much zeal in the minister, never left him to preach to a solitary parishioner again.”

“The late Bishop was a safe and wise counsellor. Many persons, who have succeeded in this country, can look back with thankfulness to the valuable advice they received from him in early life; and many who, on falling into difficulties, consulted him, can well remember the way in which he unravelled those difficulties, and shewed them how they could get out of them.

“He was always ready to devote time to giving advice of this kind to persons who sought it at his hands; and many Roman Catholics, as well as others, availed themselves of this privilege.

“His Clergy always found him glad to advise them in any difficulties; and they never repented having followed his advice. A remarkable instance of listening to his sound advice, came to my knowledge since his death. One of the American Bishops had been persecuted by some of his brethren, and was soon to be put upon his trial. He was advised by a clerical friend of mine,—a presbyter of this Diocese,—to lay his matter before our Bishop, and to take his advice as to how to proceed. He did so. They were closeted together six hours; and, at the close of the conference, the accused Bishop thanked my friend most heartily for advising him to confer with such a Nestor, and told him that he should act upon the advice of the wise old Bishop of Toronto. He did so, and was honourably acquitted.”

The following are the concluding words of the Archdeacon's discourse:—

“The late Bishop never spared himself in the discharge of his duties; and it was but recently that he consented to accept the assistance of a Coadjutor. And this, not because he desired relief; but because the Diocese required more work from him than he was able to give it at the advanced age of eight-eight years. He took a deep interest in the concerns of every Clergyman, and promoted his interests, and those of his parish, to the utmost of his power.

"The addresses to the confirmed were particularly practical, simple, and impressive. I remember on one occasion, when an unusually large number of aged persons were confirmed, he was much affected, and spoke to them m such a manner that there was not a dry eye in the whole congregation. As he had been an efficient schoolmaster, a wise counsellor, and a most faithful parish Clergyman as far as circumstances permitted, so he made a most efficient Bishop.

“As the presiding officer in our Synods, he was dignified, kind, and conciliatoiy; yet capable, on occasion, of maintaining his position, and putting down any troublesome member. For years we never had a division in our Synods, so thoroughly did he direct our consultations. Though naturally autocratic, he adopted the Synod system as suitable for our Church in this country, and zealously promoted it.

“Lastly, he was a sincere Christian. During the latter years of his life, some of the austerer features in his character became much mellowed through Divine grace, and I trust that he died in peace with God, and in charity with all men.”

The following is an extract from a Sermon preached by The Reverend the Provost of Trinity College, in the Chapel of that College on the morning of Sunday, November 10th, 1867,—being the next Sunday after the funeral of the Bishop of Toronto :—

“It is well-known, doubtless, to almost the youngest amongst you, that the long-cherished plans of the Bishop for securing to this Province a system of public education of the highest order, under the control of the Church, and imbued with her spirit, were defeated by the alienation of a vast property from the purposes to which the piety of the British Crown had devoted it. Then it was that the Bishop, in his seventy-second year, resolved to begin anew this great labour of his life, and to exert his utmost energies to secure again, for the members of his own communion, a place of sound learning and religious education. And here we may fitly pay the tribute of our homage to that resolute conviction of duty and that indomitable courage, which recognized, in disaster and defeat, causes only for fresh hope, for renewed and redoubled exertion. We may best learn from the Bishop’s own language What were his feelings and resolves at this crisis. Here, then, are the closing words of the Pastoral Letter, which his Lordship addressed to the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese in the spring of 1850. 'I shall not rest satisfied till I have laboured to the utmost to restore the College (King’s College) under a holier and more perfect form. The result is with a higher power, and I may still be doomed to disappointment ; but it is God’s work, and I feel confident that it will be restored, although I may not be the happy instrument, or live to behold it. Having done all in my power, I shall acquiesce submissively in the result, what ever it may be; and I shall then, and not till then,consider my mission in this behalf ended.’

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“Nor can those who have been cognizant of the subsequent history of the College abstain from acknowledging, with all respect and gratitude, the unwearied interest which the Bishop discovered, from day to day, in every thing which, in any wise, affected its prosperity. Nothing kept him from his post, when, as a member of the governing body, his counsel had been invoked : I can bear witness also that, at the cost of great personal inconvenience, he ever cheerfully gave us the advantage of his revered and genial presence at our more public gatherings; and, from our first annual festive meeting until the last year, he was never absent but on one occasion, when official engagements, in a distant part of the Diocese, had rendered his presence an impossibility.

“Many will remember how kindly he bent himself, at such times, to the temper of the hour; and how generously he recognized the endeavours of any who had been attempting to give effect to the great objects which he had in view in founding the College.

“And this was only a small part of the service which he rendered us. He invited, from the very first, a constant reference to himself in every difficulty, and ever listened, with the greatest kindness and patience, to petty details, respecting which it was the desire of the officers of the College to have the benefit of his counsel or the sanction of his authority. The College, too, has had its serious difficulties and troubles, painful and wearisome enough to those who were principally concerned in them, and whose action had furnished the immediate occasion of them; but doubly wearisome to others, who were less nearly concerned, and who were called upon to defend conduct, which they had not directly advised—to cover positions, which had been occupied without their distinct knowledge or expressed approval. It is a rare virtue to yield, in such cases, a generous and cordial support: the very fact that trouble and difficulty have arisen often enfeebles the hands, and chills the sympathies, of lookers-on, irrespectively of the real merits of the case: but the Bishop was not a man of this mould; committed to general principles, he was not one to quibble respecting details ; he threw the whole weight of his cordial support into the scale in which, as he conceived, the right was poised against the wrong. To his warm heart, and to the calm judgment and unswerving rectitude of one, no less honoured than himself, the College owes a debt of gratitude, which some of us, at least, it is to be hoped, will never forget.

“But there is another point, of very great importance, which must not be over-looked by any who would truly and faithfully cherish the memory of our departed Bishop.

What were his objects in the foundation of this College? These, again, we may best learn from the Bishop’s own words. In the pastoral letter before mentioned he thus writes: "Deprived of her University, what is the Church to do? She has now no seminary at which to give a liberal education to her youth. What is enjoyed, by all the other large denominations in the Province is denied to her. Is she to sit down contented with her Theological School at Cobourg, and leave her children to perish for lack of spiritual knowledge? Or is she to extend its provisions and form it into a University capable of imparting a full course of liberal instruction, carefully founded on a religious basis, as has been the case in all seminaries of learning among Christian nations since the ascension of our Lord V These words distinctly testify to the object of the Bishop in establishing this College. It was to incorporate the Theological School, already existing, with a College or University for general instruction in literature and science.

“I know well, by personal communication with the late Bishop, the great importance which he attached to the purpose which he designed the College to subserve as a place of training for the sacred Ministry. In the last conversation of^any length which I held with him, he introduced the subject of the Theological Class, inquiring with anxiety as to its probable numbers during the ensuing Academical year, and forcibly expressing his opinion of its indispensable necessity to the welfare of the Diocese. Let not those, then, who really love and cherish his memory, be content to ‘build his sepulchre/ by mere words of vain regret or of empty adulation ; but, much rather, let them rear and enlarge for him a noble and lasting monument, by aiding in carrying out the provisions which, with wise fore-thought, he designed to make for the professional education of the Clergy of this Province. Indispensable as moral and religious qualifications undoubtedly are for the due exercise of the sacred office of the Ministry, they are yet to be regarded simply as a foundation. Without such foundation, indeed, no superstructure of learning and official aptitude can be secure; but they do not constitute that superstructure itself, they do not specially qualify their {assessor for the duties of a Minister of God’s Holy Word and Sacraments. Can it be that, in other professions, exercised for the physical or social well-being of mankind, a long course of preparatory instruction is required by law, before a man is authorized to take charge of the health or of the material interests of his neighbour, and yet that the Church of God may safely and wisely dispense with a law, requiring those who are to become Pastors of Christ's flock to prepare themselves, by at least two short years of study, for their life-long service? I have ventured thus to dwell on what I know to have been the late Bishop's purpose, lying very near his heart, in respect of the Theological Department in this College, because I wish to pay a real, rather than a verbal, tribute to his memory; and, because I trust that he, being dead, may yet speak, in this regard; and that reverence for his sound judgment, and respect for his well-known desires, may ensure the conscientious execution of his designs for the usefulness of this College, and for the benefit of the Dioceses of Upper Canada.

"I cannot now permit myself to enlarge on my personal obligations to him who has been taken from us, or on my personal appreciation of those noble and lovely features of his character which has been known and admired by multitudes. I may, however, say, with simple truth, that, in making, sixteen years ago, the great change involved in a removal from England to this country—a change which compelled the abrupt and painful severance of many of the most cherished associations of my earlier life—I felt that I had found, in the Bishop of Toronto, a second father; such was his thoughtful and kindly regard for my personal comfort and well-being: while, in respect of my official duties, the burden of a. new and difficult position was very materially lightened by his indulgent construction of my conduct; and, under many a vexation and discouragement, I was reassured by his friendly voice, which proved that, in the expressive language of Holy Writ, ‘he knew the heart of a stranger/ and was ever ready to revive that heart, by words of generous confidence and of unaffected sympathy.”

The Reverend Canon Ramsay, M.A., delivered a Funeral Sermon in St. Paul’s Church, Newmarket, on the Sunday succeeding the interment of the late Bishop. His text was from Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24,—“Search me, 0 God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The following arc amongst the concluding portions of this sermon:—

“At the approach of death, such a text is most apposite ; and this leads me to speak of the loss this Diocese has so recently sustained.

The late Bishop of Toronto was the most aged Prelate in the Church of England, and one of the oldest inhabitants of this Colony. At the commencement of his ministry there were only some two or three Clergymen in Upper Canada; and, at that period, there being not a single classical school in the Province, he opened such an establishment, and most of the persons of note in Upper Canada were educated by him. The great majority of his pupils have gone before him.

“The Bishop was greatly respected by all classes; and being possessed of considerable ability, he was selected to fill the office of Archdeacon of the western portion of Upper Canada. For many years he might have been looked upon as the sole administrator of the affairs of the Church in this Province. It was, whilst he was Archdeacon that I became acquainted with him ; and for many years the communications between the late Bishop and the venerable Society passed through my hands as their Secretary.

“On his coming to England on his being appointed the first Bishop of Toronto, I stood near to him at his consecration; and subsequently had the privilege of introducing him at my house to the members of our Committee, consisting of noblemen and others, eminent for their piety, and also distinguished in various walks of life. This took place nearly twenty-nine years ago. For ten years after his consecration, almost every mail brought a communication from Canada; consequently I was in close correspondence with his Lordship; and, with the exception of his successor, of the Very Reverend the Dean, and of such as were more immediately around him, few perhaps had better opportunities than myself of forming a correct estimate of the departed Prelate.

“As Bishop, he ever obtained the respect both of the Clergy and Laity; he had had many opponents, but no enemies. This was, to a certain extent, apparent at the funeral. Among the chief mourners were the Rev. Dr. Richardson, of the Episcopal Methodists, the Rev. Lachlan Taylor, representing the Wesleyans, the Vicar-General, in the absence of the Roman Catholic Bishop who was detained at home by sickness, and several other leading members of various Christian denominations; and, though last, not least, the St. Patricks Society attended as a body, consisting almost exclusively of Roman Catholics,

“For the twenty years I have known the late Bishop in this country, I had very frequent communications with him; and, during the whole of that period, experienced the same uniform kindness; the same judicious, parental counsel and advice; and one of the last important acts of his Episcopate, which took place only a few months since, related to a distinction conferred upon myself and others being a marked testimony of his Lordship’s approval in the selection made.

“The late Bishop was possessed of very considerable talents, and was held in high estimation by many of the distinguished men in his day,—among whom I may mention Archbishop Whateley and Dr. Chalmers. He told me only a few weeks back, that himself and Dr. Chalmers had kept up their friendship from boyhood; and that his old school-fellow and brother Collegian invariably sent him a copy of each of his literary productions, as they were issued from the press.

“In the administration of his Diocese, he was energetic and untiring; and, although not without some strong prejudices, he ever manifested a kind consideration towards those from whom he differed; and I look upon it as a fine trait in his character, that, with reference to such of his Clergy as entertained somewhat different views from himself, it never made the least difference in his bearing towards them; he was ever strictly impartial as an Overseer of the Church. The Bishop lived in trying times, when party-spirit ran high; and yet, although he ever took a decided and prominent part in public affairs, perhaps there is not one of the magnates of the land whose memory will be more generally, and more highly, esteemed, or held in greater respect, than his.

“It would afford much comfort and consolation to the dying Bishop to know and feel, that one great desire near his heart had been accomplished ere he departed hence to be no more seen; and this was, that his dear friend and brother, the object of his warmest affection, had been selected to fill his place, and would tread in his steps. It was to myself an affecting reflection, as I stood by his mortal remains, that the last time I was within those Altar rails, the late Bishop was in health and strength, officiating there. The next time of my being within those sacred precincts, I stood by the same Bishop, not alive, but dead. He has gone to his rest, and his works do follow him; and we shall all, sooner or later, find a similar resting-place; and may we, as I trust and believe is the case with our departed Bishop, sleep in Jesus, to awake to a joyful resurrection/’

We give the following extracts from a sermon preached by The Reverend Walter Stennett, M.A., in St. Peter’s Church, Cobourg, on Sunday, November 10, 1867:—

“With the early history of every country there are associated names which are destined to be perpetuated so long as that history shall endure. In fact, so intimately are the events to be recorded blended and interlaced with the lives of the individuals, that it is impossible to write or speak of one without the other. Such, my brethren, has been the life of that venerable Prelate whom the hand of death has so lately removed from among us. Coming to Canada at the very early period when the original forest grew where now flourishing towns and cities stand, it has been his good fortune to have had such opportunities of exercising those practical talents which he so largely possessed, as can never again fall to the lot of any one in this Dominion.

“Connected with the moral and social, as well as with the religious progress of our country; an earnest advocate for secular and religious education; and an early participant in plans of foresight, which have largely contributed to the material prosperity and development of Canada, it is not one city or neighbourhood, it is not one county or district, that feels the blank which his death has created; but over the length and breadth of the land, it is felt and acknowledged that a great man and a good has fallen in our midst.

“But it is not as a legislator that we desire, now and in this place, to commemorate his striking merits. His public services stand written in the archives of the Province; and the very noble tribute to his memory which has within the last few days been paid, in the public funeral accorded to him by the unanimous voice of his fellow citizens, attests the general appreciation^ them.

“We, as Churchmen, have closer, holier relations to the beloved old man than anything which mere worldly interests could call into existence. We wish especially to remember him as one of the earliest missionaries of the Church,—as the earnest and hard-working Clergyman,—as the bold and vigorous champion of the truth,—as the energetic promoter of every thing that would foster true religion, as taught by the Church of his convictions,—as the indomitable defender of her rights,—and as the watchful and kindly Chief Pastor over our portion of the fold of Christ.

“As the later and better-remembered ministerial life of the venerable departed connects him with the Church at large in this country, so does his consecration as Bishop connect him with the Church at home, and more closely still with every congregation of our communion in the land. For more than a quarter of a century has that great and good man ruled with consummate prudence, and conscientious uprightness, the Church in the chief part of Western Canada. He has lived to see his one great Diocese divided into three; and the Clergy, of whom by far the greater part have been ordained by him, largely increased in numbers; and to almost every congregation in the whole three Dioceses his memory is closely and affectionately linked by the recollection of his venerable hands placed upon the heads of many of them in. confirmation. Among those who worship here, few there are who will not now be able to recall his very form and tone of speech, as with emphatic earnestness he impressed upon the newly confirmed the solemn nature of the vows they had taken upon themselves; and none there are (I feel assured) but will join in the words of the text, as they think of that active brain and eloquent tongne, now still and silent in the tomb,—‘Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?"

“But on those who had the privilege of a more intimate acquaintance with him,—who were cheered by his fatherly counsels, encouraged by his kindly sympathy, and sustained in trial by the example of his fortitude and energy,—the sense of their loss weighs heaviest. In him the country missionary, toiling in obscurity amid many discouragements, found g, ready and congenial comforter; for he could tell of his own privations, of the oppositions which he had had to encounter, of seemingly little fruit from years of faithful sowing; and give such advice and consolation as only personal experience could enable one to give.

“There is still another way in which, as Churchmen, we may view his life, and which it would be great injustice to his memory to omit; and that is in its connection with education in its best and highest sense—education founded on religion. More than half a century ago, before those who are now the leading men in Canada were born, the subject of a grand public provision for higher education filled his* mind; and to his perseverance was mainly owing the setting apart of the large landed endowment which has raised the National University to its present eminence; and when, through unfair legislation, the Church was excluded from that noble foundation, our indomitable Bishop began that series of glorious efforts in behalf of religious education, which has created Trinity College, and placed it on so proud and so enduring a basis—a gift, let us hope, for all time to the Canadian Church—the nursery of our Clergy, the fosterer and directrix of talent, to be devoted in every required way to the better service of God and our country to the end of time. In admiration at the ways of Providence, which have thus made one man instrumental in founding two noble seats of learning, and at his sagacity in availing himself of favorable crises, and his wondrous energy and perseverance in overcoming difficulties and in scorning discouragements, we must say again,‘ Assuredly we know this day that a prince and a great man has fallen in our Israel.'

“And as there was so much that is memorable in his life, so also is the year, as well as the day of his death, remarkable and suggestive. Usage has given to the years of the life of man marked by the multiple of 7 and 9, the name of ‘ the grand climacteric and old superstition attached to this combination of the mystigal numbers a certain mysterious signification, pointing to some great supposed change in the state of the individual. It is at least interesting to note that the period of our venerable Bishop's life in the ministry of Christ's Church is precisely represented by these figures, to which there has been attached, from the days of Pythagoras, the idea of completeness. Well might he, on attaining the grand climacteric of his ministry, exclaim, with all the fervour and sincerity of St. Paul the aged, ‘ I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of glory, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.’ Looking back, with undimmed faculties, down the vista of sixty-three years,—years of active duty, years of watching in the cause of Christ his Lord, years of successful labour, too,—and seeing how many had gone before him to their rest, well may we suppose the time-worn veteran awaiting in calmness the summons of his Lord, and saying, in expectant faith, untinctured with impatience, ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word.'

“Again, when we remember the day on which his spirit departed to its rest, may we not reverently believe that, dimming every worldly retrospect, there arose bright before his mental gaze a vision of the saints in glory. On the morning of the 1st of November, that day to which the Church has given the name of the ‘Festival of All Saints' and which she has for so many hundred years set apart for the solemn contemplation of the bliss of souls in Paradise, who ‘have gone to sleep in Jesus/ our aged Bishop lay on the bed of death, ready to depart to join their holy company. Who shall say what thoughts passed through his mind,— conscious, unclouded to the last,—as the first grey streaks of morning light ushered in thus one of those solemn Church festivals, whose celebration in his own Cathedral he was never known to miss. ‘For many a year gone by/ he might reflect, ‘ have I on this day preached on the communion of saints, and meditated on that grand chapter from the Revelation of St. John, appointed for the Epistle of the day, where he speaks of the number of the sealed, and sees ‘a great multitude, which no man could number, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.' O, may that vision soon be mine! Surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so; come, Lord Jesus.

“Devoutly and reasonably may we hope that the end of his long and active life was cheered with sweet visions of rest and peace; that his listening ear may have caught the echoes of the loud voices of the redeemed, crying, ‘Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!’ and his eyes have seen in faith the glorious company of angels falling down before the throne and saying, ‘Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.'

“If the hymns and praises of the Church on earth find entrance to the courts of Heaven above, being purified and presented before the throne of the Eternal by the blessed Mediator between God and man, in what a glorious cloud of incense of praise must the spirit of the dying Bishop have ascended to God who gave it; for on the very morning of his death, from many a Parish Church and many a Cathedral in the Fatherland, must these very words have been ascending too!

“And is there not in all such thoughts, my brethren, a hallowing and a strengthening influence to help on us who remain, in the race which is set before us? Among the 'cloud of witnesses' who now look down upon us as we run, there stands (let us reverently hope), our aged Bishop, too. Mayhap he sees some amongst ourselves of those who in years past received from him the Apostolic rite of ‘laying on of hands' and who promised before God and the assembled congregation to keep their solemn vows,— and seek grace to lead a more holy, a more Christian life,— now forgetful of those promises, forgetful that they bound themselves to serve their Saviour truly, and to seek His strength, especially in the Holy Communion, to enable them so to do. O, remember our Lord’s warning to the unrepentant Jews, The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it;’ and think that the Bishop of Christ’s Church, who received your solemn promise, shall rise up in the judgment with yourselves, and may condemn you for slighting means of grace, and weakening wilfully your hope of glory.

“May God grant that all we, who have had in our venerated Bishop so lively an exemplar of what a working Christian’s life should be, may have grace to turn it to practical account in an enlarged benevolence, a more enlightened view of duty, a greater earnestness in performing it, and increased perseverance in well-doing, •knowing that our ‘labour is not in vain in the Lord.’”

A Sermon was preached on the same occasion,' by the Reverend Canon Dixon, M.A., Rector of Port Dalhousie. His text was from 2 Sam. iii. 38.: “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel.” From this discoure we make the following extracts:—

"At three o’clock on Friday morning, being All Saints Day, the Bishop of Toronto departed this life in the ninetieth year of his age. For the week previous, his strength had been gradually failing; but to the very last his intellect remained unclouded, and he was confined to his bed only one whole day. In his death the Church has lost a great man; great in his indomitable resolution and energy : great in his knowledge of human nature and discrimination of character; great in his patriotic love of his adopted country; and especially great in his earnest devotion and self-denying affection to the Church, to whose advancement and prosperity all the best faculties of his mind and body were consecrated. Through the possession of these noble qualities, and from the times and circumstances in which his lot was cast, he exercised a most extraordinary influence over both the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of Canada.”

After a review of his early life, both in Scotland and Canada, and after detailing his struggles in the cause of education, the preacher thus referred to his exertions for the physical advancement of the Province :—

"At the time the Welland Canal was under discussion, 'the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, whose labours have so vastly benefited Canada, and more especially this portion of it, declared in my hearing that he had been grievously discouraged at the little interest the public seemed to take in his grand work, until a series of letters on its vast importance appeared in one of the leading papers; letters that exhausted the whole subject. These communications, written in a terse and vigorous style, were copied into other papers, and produced a marked effect upon the public mind; and to them Mr. Merritt ascribed in a great degree the brilliant success that crowned his labours. It was not for several months that he discovered that the late Bishop was the author.

"Through the terrible visitations of the Cholera, and also when the ship-fever cut off so many valuable lives, he never forsook his post; but was unwearied in his visits to the pest-houses or sheds erected for the sufferers.

"In his Confirmation tours, he was a most welcome as well as honoured guest wherever he went. His love for the children of the family, his sympathy with the feelings of the parents, and his anxiety to avoid giving trouble, rendered him a universal favorite. His position with respect to his Clergy was that of an affectionate father with his children. He took the warmest interest in their labours, and sympathized with them in their trials. The instances are numerous where, in the most delicate and unostentatious manner, he had given relief out of his own moderate means, to those who he feared were in straitened circumstances.

"There was a singular appropriateness in the concluding words of the Sermon he preached in liis Cathedral a few weeks before his death. He ended with these solemn words of St. Paul: ‘For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.* These words he uttered in as powerful and thrilling a tone as if he had cast off the burden of half-a-century, and the whole congregation seemed as if startled by an electric shock.

"His funeral,—the most solemn and impressive ever witnessed in Western Canada,—shewed the esteem in which he was held by the whole community. From midnight the muffled bells of the Cathedral tolled forth over the city a mournful peal. All business was suspended at the time of the funeral. The streets were lined with the regular and volunteer troops, and all the different public bodies turned out to do honour to the remains of the venerated Bishop.

“O! brethren, in the words of the text,—words used by our late venerated father in God, as a text when he preached the funeral sermon of a gallant soldier and true Christian gentleman,—General Sir Isaac Brock,—‘a great man is fallen this day in Israel/ The glorious strains of faith, and hope, and consolation, fell like the dew of Hermon on the crowd of mourners, proclaiming 'from henceforth, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours.' He, our father, our friend, our beloved counsellor, rests from his labours. He loved the Church as the pillar and ground of the truth: the golden candlestick on which are placed the word, the ministry and sacraments, to difiuse light, and joy, and comfort to all within the circle of its influence, and a beacon to those without; and he laboured to render the light brilliant and glowing. Earnestly he sought her welfare, fearlessly he defended her claims, vigilantly he shielded her from assaults; a faithful watchman ever on the alert, telling the towers of Zion, marking well her bulwarks, watching and praying with undying energy that she might be presented to the Lord in 'clothing of wrought gold,” resplendent in purity, holiness, and love. He rests from his labours. The aged warrior has laid aside the shield and the bow, the sword and the spear. He has fought the good fight, henceforth there is laid up for him the glorious reward,—the crown of life. We have laid him in the silent tomb,—dust to dust,—but the spirit, the immortal spirit has returned to God who gave it, and the day is coming, the great and terrible day of the Lord, when soul and body, reunited, shall attain the perfect consummation of bliss in God's eternal and everlasting glory.

The trumpet has sounded: earth is rent with wild convulsions : multitudes, numberless as the grains of sand on the sea shore are pressing forward towards the great white throne. Earth and sea, the two vast sepulchres of the human race, have given up their dead. Then shall the aged soldier of the cross hear the thrilling words of Him for whose cause he laboured and prayed all the days of his appointed time : ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord/ In the words of an eminent Bishop of the sister Church of the United States, who has gone before, and over whose remains they might also be truthfully written: ‘He leaves on earth a record of distinction, which the purest ambition might rejoice to have inscribed upon his tomb :—

His office, a Bishopric.
His character, Fidelity.
His reward, a Crown of Life.