THE BISHOP'S REPLY.
Bishop Williams replied:
I cannot express to you, my dear brother and my dear brethren, the thankfulness—and I think I may speak for my brethren of the delegation to Scotland—with which your kind words fill my heart. I can truly say that I saw no brighter day than that on which I returned to my own diocese, my clergy, and my people. And I say this with a full recognition of the great joy and gladness of those days in Aberdeen, the memory of which must abide while life shall last.
The memories of the past, the blessings of the present, the hopes of the future, all centred there, roused all souls, sank into all hearts. It was a great sight to behold the Churches in Scotland, England, Ireland, and America, together with those of the dependencies of Great Britain, and from the islands of the sea, lands that no one knew of a hundred years ago. It told its own story, made its own impression of unity and brotherly love, "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
No description can tell you sufficiently of the warmth of our welcome and the abounding hospitality which met us. You must have heard the kindly word, and looked into the beaming eye, and felt the hearty hand-grasp, to make those things real. And far down underneath all, giving life to all, was the deep sense of that communion in which by the fourfold Apostolic bond we were bound together in Christ Jesus.
I have asked the brethren whom you so kindly sent with me to say something to you, one of the past as contrasted with the present, another of the first day, and another still of the second day of the commemoration at Aberdeen.
DR. BEARDSLEY'S ADDRESS.
The Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., rector of St. Thomas's
Church, New Haven, historian of the diocese and biographer of
Bishop Seabury, then made the following address:
So much has been written and spoken about the consecration of Bishop Seabury, that it must be well understood by all intelligent Connecticut churchmen, if not by all American churchmen. It is quite unnecessary to take you over the familiar ground; but I have been sometimes asked; "What was the Scottish Episcopal Church, that her bishops a century ago should venture an act which the bishops of the Church of England declined to undertake?" The question involves an answer which goes back a century farther, even to the time when Episcopacy was established in Scotland as a state religion under the reign of the Stuart kings. The revolution of 1688 caused the fall of James II., king of Great Britain and second son of Charles I., and with him fell the Episcopal Church in Scotland, as an establishment William, the Prince of Orange, had married his daughter Mary, and fitting out an expedition when the people were ripe for a change, he invaded England, and seizing the throne, was crowned with his wife to the sovereignty of the realm. The Church of England took a prominent part in forwarding this revolution, which was a religious one in its origin, and in transferring the crown, on the abdication of James II., to the heads of William and Mary. The Anglo-Saxon mind combines with love of liberty a veneration for national institutions and traditions. It resisted in this instance the determination of the king to render himself absolute and restore the Roman Catholic religion in England. Hence the English Church as a whole felt herself bound to cast off allegiance to him, for, in addition to the various oppressions which he had heaped upon her, he had sought in the character of supreme governor to force upon her the adoption of doctrines and ceremonies contrary to those which she was under the most sacred obligations to hold and defend.
But it was not so with the Scottish Church. James had never tyrannized over her or harassed her with oppressions, and therefore she continued to assert her allegiance to him, and, of course, to recognize the claims of his descendants. The Scottish bishops were in the English line of succession from leel-with orders as valid as those of the Archbishop of Canterbury—but, because they cast in their lot with the house of Stuart and refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new sovereign or to pray for him in their liturgy, they and their flocks were put under disabilities and subjected to the severest penalties, without producing the effect, however, of changing in the slightest degree their religious or political sentiments. Three times within the next half century a part of the Scottish people rose in arms against the king of England in favor of the exiled Stuart family, the last formidable rising being in 1745, under Charles Edward, the Pretender, who was disastrously defeated at the battle of Culloden; and then the worst horrors of civil war followed; parsonages and places of worship were destroyed, more stringent laws were enacted against the sympathizers with the Stuart dynasty, and the Episcopal clergy were forbidden to officiate except in private houses, and then only for four persons besides those of the household, or if in an uninhabited building for a number not exceeding four. For a first offense they were subject to imprisonment for six months, and for a second to transportation for life to the American plantations. Laymen attending a prohibited meeting were liable to a fine of five pounds for the first offense and an imprisonment of two years for the second.