ΤΟ

THE REVEREND THE CLERGY

OF THE

ARCHDEACONRY OF DERBY

The following Charge

IS

RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

A CHARGE, &c.

MY REVEREND Brethren,

If ever a visitation acquired deeper solemnity from its accompanying recollections,—if ever the mutual recognitions of the living were saddened by the remembrance of those who have passed away, such must be the character, which our common feeling of an irreparable loss imparts to the duties of this day.

"Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen in Israel?" fallen, like a warrior, not sinking under the pressure of years, or worn by length of service; but when, with a new and higher commission, he had just gone forth to win more spoils from the enemy, and more glory for his Master: fallen, like an oak, not when centuries of growth and decline had stripped it of its foliage; but, when it was yet green and vigorous, and thousands were reposing under its shade.

We rejoiced, with others, in his elevation to

the episcopate; and the bitter pang of separation was soothed by the hope of his occasional presence, and the assurance of his constant sympathy; when we felt that far heavier stroke, which, so prematurely to all but himself, has exchanged his mitre and crosier for the palm of victory and the crown of righteousness.

I speak, perhaps, to some, who witnessed the consecration of his youthful energies to the service of God; to many, who were the associates of his maturer years. You can tell with what alacrity and fervour, both publicly and from house to house, he preached the gospel of Christ; with what tenderness and assiduity he nurtured the young, consoled the aged, and visited the sick; and how the combination of qualities, which rarely meet in the same individual, rendered him so acceptable as well to the highest, as to the lowest orders of society, as to exemplify his own beautiful illustration of the Christian Ministry, as that golden clasp, in which the extremes of the great social chain meet, and by which they are united."* In that wider range of duty, in which it was not less constantly his desire to be regarded as a fellow-worker with us, than it was our privilege to listen to and profit by his counsels, there can scarcely be one in this large assembly, who has not in some way felt the inCharge for 1846, p. 10.

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fluence of a mind at once vigorous and comprehensive; a judgment correct and dispassionate; a heart sincere, stedfast, and affectionate; zeal, which,

"No dangers daunted, and no labours tir'd."

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Such were the qualities, matured and sanctified by the grace of God, which, with constant prayer for strength and guidance, he faithfully employed, during the five years of his connexion with us, for the defence, the reform, and the extension of our church and if, in briefly touching upon his public labours, I should fail, as I too certainly shall, of giving a just exhibition of their character, it will be some consolation to know that your vivid recollection of the original will go far to supply the manifold defects of the portrait.

The period, at which these labours commenced, was, as we cannot but remember, one of imminent peril to the Church; and he felt that the post which he occupied upon her battlements allowed not of silence or of hesitation. He shrank not from his duty, he sounded the alarm, and took no dubious part in the conflict. Defence, rather than aggression, was his policy; and to the attempts which were either openly or covertly made, to bring back into the Church the errors she had repudiated, he opposed the simple affir