The Bishop enjoyed a reputation as a pulpit orator that became wider than national. His voice was "as musical as the lute and resonant as a bugle." The Southern newspapers between 1868 and 1875 praised his eloquence and noted the fact that, in spite of his belonging to a school of thought not altogether popular in the South at that time, people of all shades of opinion thronged the churches to hear him preach. He was a ready extemporaneous speaker, yet his sermons were for the most part carefully prepared and written out and delivered from the manuscript. Some of them became widely known through many repetitions, and not a few became famous. One of these had a history the Bishop was as fond of telling as he was of repeating the sermon.
It was known as the "Bishop's Samson Sermon," and was from the text, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself." (Judges xvi, 20.) When first delivered in one of the parishes of Tennessee, the Bishop was informed by a disgusted hearer that it was "positively indecent," and not fit to be preached before any congregation. Consequently the sermon was "retired" until it was almost forgotten. Some time afterward, however, it was by accident included among sermons provided for use on one of the Bishop's series of visitations; and when discovered with his homiletic ammunition, the Bishop read it over carefully but without finding anything in it that could be characterized as indecent. So he determined to "try it again." It made a deep and wholesome impression upon the minds of those who then heard it.
He preached it one Sunday night in Christ Church, St. Louis, and after the service a gentleman said to him, "Bishop, if you will preach that sermon here tomorrow night, I will have this church full of men to hear you." The sermon was accordingly preached the following night and the gentleman kept his promise.
The sermon was preached at Trinity College, Port Hope, Canada; at West Point, before a congregation of cadets; at Sewanee, Tennessee, before successive classes of students of The University of the South;—it was preached everywhere the Bishop went,—usually at some one's request who had heard it before and who wanted the impression made on his mind at the first hearing, renewed. Numberless were the letters received by the Bishop telling him of hearing that sermon and of good resulting from it.
In his repeated visits to England, Bishop Quintard enjoyed a distinction never before, and rarely since, accorded to any member of the American Episcopate. The first of these visits was made in 1867 in order that he might be present at, and participate in, the meeting of the first Pan-Anglican or Lambeth Conference. He attended subsequent conferences up to 1897, a few months before his death. At each of these visits he was the recipient of an unusual amount of attention from English Bishops and from the English people of every rank and he revolutionized the opinions of the Englishmen of that day as to America and Americans. The English newspapers were captivated by his powers in the pulpit. One of the Liverpool daily papers said that "the Bishop of Tennessee speaks English better than an Englishman and preaches with the fire and clearness of Lacordaire."
One of the leading London papers devoted two editorial columns to a description of him and said; "The Bishop of Tennessee is the first American we ever heard whose speech did not bewray him." "His exterior is impressive." "His voice strong and searching and his enunciation deliberate." "His well-turned sentences are like solid carved mahogany." "He is a type of the highest average of the American public man." "His sermon was in every sense sufficient, strong, well-knit and balanced, and adequately emotional, while never falling short of the full dignity of the preacher's office and evident character. If the Church in America has many such Bishops it is indeed a living, efflorescent, healing branch of the great tree, which, according to Dr. Quintard, has never withered a day in England since the epoch of the Apostles."
He was a guest of the Bishop of London at Fulham Palace; was present at his ordination examinations and took part with him in the ordination of twenty-five priests and nineteen deacons in the famous Chapel Royal, Whitehall; at the invitation of the Bishop of London, he preached the first sermon at the special evening services in St. Paul's Cathedral; he officiated at the service at the laying of the corner stone of the church of St. Paul, Old Brentford,—the stone being laid by H. R. H. Mary Adelaide, Princess of Teck; he laid the foundation stone of St. Chad's Church, Haggeston, London; he was present with Bishops from the far-away South Sea Islands, from Canada, and elsewhere, at the laying of the foundation stone of Keble Memorial College, Oxford; he reopened the restored parish church of Garstag; he assisted the Archbishop of York and preached the sermon at the consecration of the Church of St. Michael, Sheffield; he assisted the Archbishop of York at the parish church, Sheffield, where a class, numbering six hundred, was confirmed; he administered the Apostolic rite for the Bishops of London and Winchester; and on the invitation of the Bishops of Oxford and Ely, took part in their Lenten Missions in 1868.
A second visit was made in 1875-6. His reception by the Most Rev. the Archbishops, the Rt. Rev. the Bishops, the clergy and the laity of the English Church was all that could be asked. On two occasions he administered the Apostolic rite of Confirmation for the Lord Bishop of London and on two occasions held confirmations at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He assisted the Archbishop of York also at the confirmation of more than 500 candidates presented in one class.
By the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he participated in the opening services of the Convocation of Canterbury and was the first Bishop of the Church, not a member of the Convocation, to be admitted to that service. The service was held in the Chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey.
He assisted at the opening service of Keble College, Oxford, the laying of the foundation stone of which he had witnessed eight years before. He united, with Bishops of the Anglican Communion from England and Africa, in the consecration, in St Paul's Cathedral, of a Bishop for Asia,—the Rt. Rev., Dr. Mylne, Bishop of Bombay.