Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire: His Life and Work

by Lawrence Foushee London

Your affectionate father,

Joseph Blount Cheshire"

Bishop Cheshire had an enviable reputation throughout the state as a raconteur of rare charm. Some of his best stories came from his fishing and hunting experiences, but they covered many other subjects as well. Most of his best anecdotes of personalities and events in North Carolina history are found in his book Nonnulla. It was not always the content of his stories which caught and held the interest of his listeners, but quite as often the manner in which the Bishop told them. For this reason they sometimes lose their color and charm when read or repeated by someone else. When he told an amusing story, which he often did, one of its best features was his own enjoyment in the telling and his hearty, contagious laughter. Another characteristic of the Bishop's stories was the natural way they appeared in his conversation, usually graphically illustrating or emphasizing a point. He never dragged a story into his conversation merely for the pleasure of telling it.

As a conversationalist, however, he did not depend upon his ability to tell a good story. He could talk interestingly to persons from any walk of life, seeming always to know just the right thing to say to each. He never flattered, but gave freely his candid opinion whenever requested. Although he talked a great deal himself, the Bishop made his listener feel that he was interested in his ideas and wanted to hear them.

In his role as a preacher of sermons Bishop Cheshire did not resemble his modern prototype, who quite often is more of a brilliant lecturer than a preacher. The Bishop employed no oratory in his sermons, but preached very much as if he were talking to a group of friends. He took a text from the Bible, most frequently from the New Testament, and proceeded to expound and interpret it, seldom using stories or anecdotes to illustrate his ideas. They were unadorned, straightforward expositions of religious truth. Of his sermons, the Bishop remarked to one of his clergymen, "Because a man is not converted to Christ through my teaching and preaching, I do not on that account conclude that he has rejected Christ; he has only rejected my representation of Christ."

Dr. Robert B. Drane, for more than fifty years rector of St. Paul's Church, Edenton, once wrote of a rather typical reaction to the Bishop's sermons. He invited a man, who scarcely ever came to church, to come to St. Paul's to hear Bishop Cheshire. The man said he would be glad to, that he had heard the Bishop preach several times, and that he "always talked sense." Dr. Drane remarked that if the thousands of persons who belonged to no church could be made to realize that "preachers did really talk sense," the membership of the churches would increase and religion would be more respected.

While not meaning to belittle the value of sermons, Bishop Cheshire sincerely felt that the prayers, responses, chants, and hymns of the church's service, climaxed by the supreme act of Christian worship, the celebration of the Holy Communion, held a greater significance for mankind and better satisfied spiritual needs.

Bishop Cheshire's interest and activities extended to all phases of the church's life in his Diocese. There was scarcely any work or endeavor of his people too small to attract his attention. He often remarked that it is "the little things that count." It was his capacity to understand and sympathize with the everyday problems of his people that so greatly endeared him to them. Although the Bishop never in any way permitted himself or his clergy to become involved in controversial political affairs, he displayed at all times a vital interest in the social problems of his state. When he felt it to be the duty of the church to take a positive stand on a social question, he did not hesitate to make clear her position and to take what action he believed best suited to the occasion.

The increasing number of divorces in North Carolina and the growing laxity of the laws on that subject was a problem which gave the Bishop much concern. In 1904 he called the matter to the attention of his diocesan convention and suggested a remedy for the situation. The Bishop asserted that there had been sufficient talk and theorizing upon the divorce question and that now was the time for positive action. The apathy of the public conscience, which had permitted the divorce law to be greatly modified, was, in his opinion, the cause of the divorce evil. Bishop Cheshire believed there was only one true reason for divorce: adultery. For many years it had been the only cause recognized by the state law, but in recent years frequent changes in the law to meet individual cases had created an unjustifiable condition. Not one of these modifications of the law had been adopted upon "any general principle of morals or of social science."

The Bishop called upon the convention to express its condemnation of the present legislation on the divorce question, and to issue an address to the people of the state urging the necessity of reforming the divorce laws. He also suggested that the convention appoint a committee to communicate with the other Christian bodies of the state in order to secure united action on the subject. After serious deliberation, the convention indorsed the Bishop's position. It authorized him to appoint a committee, of which he should be chairman, to publish an address to the people of the state expressing the sentiment of the Episcopal Church on the divorce question; and to prepare a memorial to the General Assembly requesting that the divorce laws be restored to the status of the code of 1883. The convention sent a request to the Diocese of East Carolina, the Jurisdiction of Asheville, and all the other denominations of the state to join in this memorial.