Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire: His Life and Work

by Lawrence Foushee London

CHAPTER II
Deacon and Priest

Ever since he left college Cheshire had been conscious of a growing desire to become a candidate for Holy Orders. Not long after his marriage he spoke to his wife of this aspiration, and told her he had now decided to present himself to the Bishop. He had not come to this decision earlier because he was determined not to go into the ministry until he had made a success of what he was doing at that time. He would not enter the ministry as a failure from another field of work. By the middle of 1876 he decided that he was making a respectable living for his wife and himself. He thereupon told his father of his decision and sent Bishop Atkinson his application. Shortly afterwards the Bishop accepted him as a candidate for Holy Orders, and Cheshire began preparing himself for his new work.

It was Cheshire's original plan to attend the General Theological Seminary in New York for a year or two, but Bishop Atkinson and his father dissuaded him from this course because they objected to the Dean of the Seminary and because they felt that its ritualistic influences were too strong. Bishop Atkinson thought that, since Cheshire had had a good classical education, had pursued intellectual interests, and had been reared in a clergyman's family, he could quite adequately do his preparatory work at home. Cheshire accepted the Bishop's advice, and at once began a well laid-out course of reading. He had already read a good many ecclesiastical works, since he had been contemplating this step for some time.

At the end of 1877 he gave up his connection with the Pamlico Insurance and Banking Company, and soon afterwards concluded his legal affairs. In September, 1877, he went to Raleigh to stand his examinations for the diaconate before Rev. Dr. Matthias M. Marshall and Rev. John E. C. Smedes. Having passed his examinations acceptably, Cheshire was ordained deacon by Bishop Atkinson on April 21, 1878, in Calvary Church, Tarboro. His father presented him for ordination. The following Sunday he assisted his father in the morning service and preached his first sermon. Thus he was launched upon a new career in which he was to rise to heights far beyond his modest dreams.

When Dr. Kemp Plummer Battle, President of the University of North Carolina, heard that Cheshire was studying for the ministry, he asked Bishop Atkinson to send him to Chapel Hill. Dr. Battle was a native of Edgecombe County and had known Cheshire and his family for many years. Since the revival of the University in 1875, Rev. Robert B. Sutton, of Pittsboro, had from time to time held services in the Chapel of the Cross. The Chapel Hill churchmen, however, felt that the parish needed a regular and resident minister. The Bishop complied with Dr. Battle's request and informed Cheshire that he was to serve his diaconate in Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Sutton. This was a disappointment to Cheshire, for he had hoped he would be able to remain in Edgecombe County and strengthen the church's position there. The Bishop also directed him to hold a regular appointment in the rapidly growing town of Durham, where as yet there was not even an established mission. This was a difficult assignment for a young deacon just beginning his ministry. In Chapel Hill he had to revive an old parish which had fallen somewhat into decay during the hard years of the reconstruction period, while in Durham he had to build from the ground up, commencing with only a handful of church people.

Cheshire came to Chapel Hill in May, and on the nineteenth of that month held his first service in the Chapel of the Cross. President Battle invited him to make his home at his house until he could find a suitable place. Cheshire accepted this generous offer and spent several weeks with the Battles. In consequence of a long illness, contracted soon after his arrival, he did not hold another service in Chapel Hill until the last Sunday in June. The next Sunday he was able to keep his first appointment in Durham, but following this service, he had a serious relapse and was unable to continue his work until early fall.

For a few weeks that fall Cheshire boarded at the hotel, while his wife visited her family in Hillsboro. This gave him an excellent opportunity to come into close contact with the students, many of whom took their meals at the hotel. In this way he came to know a number of students who were not members of his church. Throughout his rectorship in Chapel Hill he made it a point to know all the students who were in any way connected with the Episcopal Church. In a comparatively short time he was on friendly terms with most of the small student body.

Cheshire frankly confessed that in the first exercise of his ministerial duties among the students he felt "great embarrassment" and even some "timidity." He explained: "I had not been accustomed to speak much of my own religious feelings; and I was at a loss how to make a proper approach to the subject of another person's religious duties and convictions."[8] He visited the boys in their rooms when he thought they liked it, but never sought to force himself upon them. Cheshire later declared he did not remember ever approaching a student on the subject of religion without receiving a serious and courteous hearing. Many students seemed to appreciate the interest he took in their religious life. Cheshire himself was only a few years older than many of the undergraduates and, therefore, could understand their point of view and enter sympathetically into their problems. The effectiveness of his first year's work in Chapel Hill was demonstrated when Bishop Lyman made his visitation to the Chapel of the Cross in May, 1879. Cheshire presented to the Bishop for confirmation nine students and two girls of the village. In later years he remarked that this was "one of the most interesting and satisfactory classes I ever presented."

When he first began preaching, Cheshire took great pains in the preparation of his sermons, writing them out in full. He freely admitted he had "no special gifts or talents as a speaker." In discussing the problem of preaching with Cheshire just after his ordination, Bishop Atkinson said he would give him the same advice which Bishop Johns, of Virginia, used to give his young deacons: "Choose a pretty long text, so that if they persecute you in one city, you may flee to another." Cheshire began, in time, to memorize his sermons and then to attempt to preach extemporaneously, but he always felt that his written sermons were better. Concerning the reception of his sermons in Chapel Hill, he stated: "My Chapel Hill congregation seemed to me most considerate and appreciative of my attempts at preaching, even the students of the University, so far as I could judge."[9]