Project Canterbury

From The Works of the Rt. Rev. Charles C. Grafton (Volume 7),
edited by B. Talbot Rogers, New York: Longmans, Green, 1914, pp.

134-164

EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS TO A LAYMAN

November 15, 1895

"I hope to make this a Catholic Diocese and am doing so very fast. Nearly all my Altars have lights on them and it is only the poverty of the clergy that keeps some of them from colored vestments and having crucifixes on the Altar. Pardon all this. Let us take heart. By God's grace we will make this Church Catholic in spite of Pastorals."

September 3, 1898

"I am very busy developing the Catholic work in my diocese. If God spares my life a few years, the Church will be surprised at what quietly has been established.

The Cathedral (186 feet long) is the most devotional building, with its four Altars and the Statues of the Saints, in the United States. It was empty and destitute of all Church furniture save an Altar when I came. The great school building next to it of stone is two-thirds built and is in successful operation. It is a young ladies' school and we are sending out the heads of future families all over the State full of the Catholic Faith and Practice. I have a fine large confessional in the Cathedral and one Altar for the Masses for the dead. Some day you must come and see it."

Moscow, October 14, 1903

MY DEAR FRIEND:

I think you will be pleased to get a letter from this city and learn a little about our journey. When I arrived in England I was invited to Mr. Birkbeck's (pronounced Berbeck) country house at Stratton Strawlers, near Norwich. He is a country gentleman, being the Esquire of the place, and having a number of tenants on his property, and is the church warden, so it was a delightful Christian home in which was a chapel. Mr. B. says for the family morning prayer, the young people singing an antiphon to the Benedictus, Mr. B. playing on the organ, and I celebrated daily. Mr. B. gave a truly magnificent Cope and Mitre to the Bishop of Norwich to wear at the coronation. The Archbishop as you know ruled out Mitres. While there I preached before the local branch of the English Church Union and Mr. B. entertained the whole gathering on his grounds. But the chief delight there was that I secured Mr. B.'s company on my expedition. I had said to myself if I could do this, then surely God had sent me.

For he would be like the Angel that led out St. Peter till he came to the straight way that led to the City.

Mr. Birkbeck is an expert on all the Russian church questions. He has studied the people by traveling and living with them, speaks the language, and is a remarkably acute and able man and a trained theologian. You may have seen some of his writings. He is about forty-five. Moreover, he is well known to the English King and to the Russian Emperor. The latter gave him a place at his Coronation, and I think he must have been the only untitled person present. He knows, as we say, all the ins and outs of church politics in England and here, so it was everything for me to have him go with us and act as my pilot. From the moment we reached the Russian frontier every door has been opened to us. It was a small thing, but when we came to the first station, and custom house, everything was ready, a special room and an excellent repast well served, with officials bowing right and left. At St. Petersburg we took an apartment in the Hotel d'Europe. There we were called on by the Exarch of Seogia, who was the principal Ecclesiastic in Petersburg, the Metropolitan Antonius being absent. He subsequently entertained us at the Lavra or Monastery. The celebrated Father John also came. The servants flocked about him in hall and passageway so that he had a struggle to get to his carriage, so anxious were they to touch him and get his blessing. We saw General Kireeff, who came often, being much interested in our matter and having written about it; also Mr. Sabler, the Assistant Procurator of the Holy Synod did us much service. Then we went to the Monastery (near Moscow). The Troitsa (Holy Trinity), where the Metropolitan of Moscow had invited us. This is one of the most famous places in Russia. We were put up at the Guest House. The Metropolitan sent his carriage for me. We attended many services here. It was the feast day of their founder, St. Alexis. I was told there were about five or six thousand pilgrims in the place. It was quite a medieval sight when from a high terrace, some forty feet above them, the Metropolitan came with his priests and blessed the pilgrims, and the food prepared on long tables for them in the court below. Here I visited the Academy; there are'four in Russia. These are for the best students preparing for orders. Also drove out to the Ecclesiastical Seminary and assisted the- Metropolitan in giving the prizes away to the Students. At the Academy dinner, in a hall larger than that of the General Theological Seminary, there were some five hundred students and monks at table. The dinner at the Seminary was more select, prosperous, etc. Here toasts were given, and wine, and I made a speech. Vladimir the Metropolitan seems taken with me. He drove me back to the Troitsa in his own carriage, four horses and postilion. I was told this was the richest see in Russia and that his income is estimated at $150,000, about twice that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He took us back to Moscow in his private car. Here at Moscow we have the honor of being in the Monastery of St. Michael, in the Kremlin. No Anglican has ever been invited here. We have the grand suite of rooms belonging to the Metropolitan. You see he is ex-officio Abbot of this Monastery as well as of the Troitsa. He has his own residence elsewhere. I was present Sunday at the great church of St. Savior's. It holds twelve thousand or more, standing full. The Metropolitan celebrated. He gave me his throne in the space. Afterwards, when I went up to kiss the hand cross which he held, he did not let me kiss his hand, but saluted me with three kisses. This is the ordinary way of greeting a brother bishop. Afterwards we went to his palace, dined, and I would rather tell you than write of our mode of proceeding in re in regard to a better uniting of the churches. Mr. B. has been an invaluable guide. I have drawn up a letter or paper for Antonius (which B. has put in Russian), who is the chief power in the Synod, and whom B. knows and will see first. We go now to Petersburg to meet him. Much Love and all Blessings to you.

Ever gratefully, yours,

C. C. FOND DU LAC.

BISHOP'S HOUSE,
FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN, December 24, 1903

MY DEAR FRIEND:

I was a few days in Chicago on church duty and found your telegram with its good news on my return. What a strange Christmas for you and yours on the Pacific Coast. I keep thinking what you will do for services. It is a great comfort that the Holy Eucharist is the same everywhere. Perhaps the more humble the surroundings, if only reverent, the more like Bethlehem.

Have you ever thought how all creation was represented to do honor to the Nativity of Him by whom all things were made? Born at night, the stars were there visibly present, like candles on a Christmas tree, placed there by a loving Father. If for nothing else created, doing high service in giving dignity to their Maker's new entrance into His creation and one a torch bearer to the King of Kings. The Angels were present to announce this long-expected development, by which all things in heaven and earth were to be joined into one. Angels and men were there, of men both Jew and Gentile, Jewish shepherds and Gentile kings, of humanity both sexes, Mary and Joseph, and of all degrees, the high born and the lowly, the poor and the rich. The animal kingdom found its representative in the ox and the ass and the shepherd's flock, and earth's products in the gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And there too about the Holy One, God Incarnate, are the veiled types of His three great offices as the Anointed Priest, Prophet, and King; this kingship is typified by the kings who come to do Him homage. His prophetical office by the shepherd's who guide and watch over their flocks. His priestly office by St. Joseph, who guards, by the offering of himself, her who is the type of the church. The ass is the beast on which the King rides, the ox denotes the whole burnt offering which He is, the sheep tell also of Himself as the Lamb without spot and of the flock He guides.

The more we look into this divine and loving Mystery the more we see it is a birth that becomes a God. He whom the apostles testify had so supernatural an exit rising from the dead and visibly ascending had fittingly a like supernatural entrance. It was an entrance to which He himself bore witness when He declared His preexistence "before Abraham was I am" and declared that He had "come down from heaven" and to which St. Joseph bore witness in that he was not his father. It was an event no more marvelous than many of the mysteries of nature and in accord with that progressive development of creation to which evolutionary science bears witness. To me its greatest proof is its meeting as nothing else does the needs of humanity, lightening its darkness, replacing speculations of the future with centuries, bringing forgiveness and reconstruction to man's nature, and opening a vista of usefulness here and progress hereafter that makes life worth living for.

And so I might, under the impulse of the great feast, go on. Pardon the sermon or sermonette. Remember me to all. Tell your dear son I pray that he may in kingly fashion serve this Lord and King in honorable service for the good of Him and in grateful worship to the giver back of his life.

With all Christmas blessings. Ever Yours in the Catholic faith and oneness in Christ. Yours faithfully,

C. C. FOND DU LAC.

FOND DU LAC, February 19, 1904

"Good gentle Bishop Tikhon has written me an affectionate letter asking me to make them all glad by coming on and being present at the consecration of the Archimandrite Raphael to the Episcopate, which will take place on Sunday the i4th March. Bishop Tikhon's Coadjutor Bishop Innocent will arrive the 8th March. He was my host as Prior of the Chudoff Monastery in the Kremlin. If nothing prevents, I shall come on, and am moved to do this more especially that I may enjoy seeing you."

FOND DU LAC, 12th April, 1904

MY DEAR FRIEND:

This is my birthday and I shall enter my seventy-fifth year. Solomon says wisdom is not always with gray hairs, and Mr. Lecky gave me matter for meditation as I lately read his statement that "the follies of age are perhaps more to be feared than the follies of youth!" "Often," he says; "while the faculties diminish, self-confidence increases. Obstinacy and prejudice strengthen while the reasoning force diminishes. The old lose the power of realizing new conditions, discoveries, etc." It is a rather trenchant arraignment. It leads me to say I shall vote for a change in the Church Constitution that makes the oldest bishop our Primus, and quote Solomon and Lecky for my contention.

I have been made happy to-day by a telegram just received saying that on the first ballot and almost unanimously Dr. F. was chosen to be the Coadjutor of the Bishop of Springfield. He is a thorough Catholic and will be a great gain to us in the House of Bishops. I was greatly interested in this election for it makes our proposed Province of these Central Western Dioceses solidly Catholic. I do not doubt but that he will accept.

Then to-day, the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity, I founded, has voted to build its Mother House out here in Fond du Lac. It is a community founded twenty-two years ago, not for taking charge of schools or institutes, but for aiding the parochial clergy to do their mission and parish work. To prepare candidates for baptism, confirmation, confession, to keep up intercessory prayer, to forward the Catholic Faith. It will strengthen the community very much at last to have its own convent, and greatly aid the work of this Diocese and the West.

FOND DU LAC, Easter Even, 1904

"This will bring you my Easter greeting. May it be freighted with health to body and peace of soul. My Warden brought back word that you were in the Doctor's hands. I fear I have been setting a bad example in this respect. But with rest and careful diet I am at my daily work again. So soon as my last Tract gets out of the printer's hands, I will send you some copies. The subject is 'Absolution in God's Word.' The clergy I hope will profit by it, for I shall send a large number 'with the author's regards.' Our clergy need to be taught and to be taught how to teach.

You will be glad to know the Diocese is steadily making progress. There is little doubt but that we shall go up to the General Convention with a record roll call of fifty clergy or over. A good advance from the eighteen I found here on coming. Our opponents may say what they will, the Catholic faith appeals to people, especially to the men."

PROVIDENCE, Saturday, July 10, 1904

"Yesterday the Rev. F. Van Allen of the Church of the Advent came hither to see me and we had a long conference about arrangements at the General Convention.

The Catholic clergy have asked a number of others to join them in having frequent or daily celebrations at the Advent and I will try if at other places every Sunday there will be a solemn celebration. At the Advent a different Mass will be sung on the Sundays, giving examples of the different styles of Church music, Gregorian, Anglican, and Modern like the St. Cecilia.

We are going to have a large number of Church Tracts placed in the Churches for free distribution.

On Sunday afternoons at four, at the Advent, there will be a special conference, just a hymn and collects and then one or more addresses on some important or burning Church topic. On the first Sunday afternoon Bishop Doane has agreed to preside and speak on the marriage and divorce question. He is sound on that. On the next Sunday Bishop Potter has agreed to speak on Social and Industrial Problems. We have not settled for the third. Perhaps I may be asked to take the chair and speak on the Religious Organizations and their Work and Usefulness."

FOND DU LAC, January 24, 1905

"I have received the beautiful framed picture of St. Edward's choir and sanctuary. Its symbolism and color arrangement continue to grow on one. It is all so perfect and so hallowed.

How few persons realize that our Anglican division of the chancel into choir and sanctuary bears witness to the double mode of ordained worship by act and word which goes back to Eden. By act I mean sacrifice as found there in the two trees, and by word Adam's communion with God. So the two forms were preserved in the synagogue and temple service. So in the Christian we have as their continuation the divine office and the Altar sacrifice.

In the sectarian meeting houses we find the synagogue service, but no Altar for sacrifice. In the Roman, the Altar, but for the people very little of the Divine Office.

St. Edward's, by her marked coloring and decorations, brings out the distinction between the two and their combination."

As TO "CHRISTIAN AND CATHOLIC "

HOTEL NETHERLAND, NEW YORK,

Monday Noon, February 27, 1905

MY DEAR FRIEND:

My stay with you has been a delightful one and I go on my journey with a glad heart. Thanks for all your loving kindnesses.

Order has been given Longmans to send the fifty copies to the Rector of St. Edward's.

The backbone of the first part is the Resurrection of Christ which is the great credential. And if one had so unique an exit, he must have had as unique an entrance into this world. This helps men to become Christians.

The backbone of the second part is the chapter on Sacrifice. Sacrifice is a reciprocal action between God and man. Man's gift to God and God's returning gift to man. This complete view of Sacrifice makes it an essential of all religion. There is no complete presentation of religion without it.

Being so, it follows, that a priesthood to offer the sacrifice is a necessity of the true religion. This demolishes the sectarians.

This is the reason why I put sacrifice first and then followed it with the chapter on the ministry.

The backbone of the third part is found in the chapters on the Papal claim — St. Peter at Rome. Conclusion, "Stay where you are."

I can but believe the book is going to be an instructor of our people and clergy in the Catholic faith. But it is likely to be fired into by the theological trailers of the polemic sea.

With all good wishes and blessing,
C. C. FOND DU LAC.

FOND DU LAC, April 4, 1905

"Nearly all the Bishops sent letters of acknowledgment. Bishop Gailor said: 'I have read it with care and find it strong, able, and helpful. I congratulate you upon being permitted to make this distinctly valuable contribution to the literature of the Church.' Bishop of Los Angeles: 'I have had a hard struggle with myself to lay it by. It is charming as a book and as easy to read as a novel.' Bishop of Duluth wrote: 'I have been strongly impressed by the grace, breadth, and charity of the writer and the strength and wisdom of his counsels. I want to thank you for that comparison of Henry VIII. to Pontius Pilate. It is both felicitous and accurate.'

Bishop Potter wrote: 'Your book has great value in its conception, etc., the purpose and plan of it is designed to be helpful to perplexed minds, and in its temper it is a lesson to all of us! In a great many cases it will be found, I venture to think, a most helpful manual for priests who want to put into their people's hands something which stands for a reverent, scholarly, and candid faith to-day. I congratulate you on being able to give to beclouded minds so helpful a volume!'

Bishop Scarborough: 'The name of your book is well chosen, for it is both. While your statements of the Church's position is clear, strong, its spirit is admirable. The preface is the key to all that follows. Your chapters on the ministry and Anglican orders seem to me unanswerable and convincing. Indeed the entire book is bound to give those who read it a fair view and clear understanding of the position and teaching of our Church. I congratulate you on the spirit of broad charity, which is a most pleasing feature of the whole volume. It will do great good by correcting wrong impressions as well as by teaching plain truths, etc.'

I have secured kind notes of acknowledgment from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. I enclose a review from the Boston Transcript. There was also a most favorable one written by F. van Allen in the Churchman.

A slight criticism was made on my saying that in the Anglican Church it was by laying on of the Bishop's hand. It was not a mistake. The English book always has had the singular form. There was an interesting explanation given by experts on the use of the plural, hands, in the American book which has been thought to be originally a printer's error.

Dr. Fulton, in the Church Standard in an otherwise very favorable notice, thought there was a contradiction between two statements. In one I said our Lord was a priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. v. 6). In another that if on earth He should not be a priest, see Heb. viii. 4. In this I was simply following Holy Scripture and gave the explanation of the seeming contradiction.

The professors of the Cambridge, Philadelphia, Sewanee, Nashotah, and Alexandria seminaries have received the book, and the Dean of the latter has expressed the hope that I might visit that school of the prophets, another small sign from the South."

FOND DU LAC, May 10, 1905

MY DEAR FRIEND:

The enclosed cutting is from the Scottish Chronicle, a sectarian paper, published in Scotland. The reviewer does not like his medicine.

"In the Bishop's treatment of the Gospel history we could willingly have spared the introduction of the notion of the cattle 'kneeling' in the stable at Bethlehem; as also the over-bold speculation involved in the following passage relating to the boyhood of our Blessed Lord; 'He obeys S. Joseph in the carpenter's shop, though assured that the directions he gives are far from the most scientific and correct.' Why should the carpentering of S. Joseph be thus made light of? We suppose it is to give expression to the Bishop's rejection of recent kenotic theories as to the knowledge of our Lord in His state of humiliation. But the documents of the Gospel present a history which is not improved by the colouring of fancy.

"The opening words of Bishop Grafton's work are: 'This book is not controversial.' But this is true only in the sense in which the attitude of Mrs. Squeers was not controversial towards the young gentlemen in the establishment of Dotheboys Hall. If they would patiently open their mouths and swallow her treacle and brimstone, there was no controversy between her and them. We have seldom read a more audacious statement than that the book 'Christian and Catholic' is 'not controversial.'"

FOND DU LAC, July 18, 1905

"I hear of the result of the book in various directions. A Roman Catholic Priest, of clean life and obvious ability, has put himself in correspondence with me, and desires to enter my Diocese. He wants, as he says, to be a Catholic but not a Roman. I believe there are many such, and if our Church was only what St. Edward's is, or our Cathedral here, we should have more applications than we should know what to do with.

Bishop Potter and some others are really awakened to the Polish Catholic movement in this country. For several years I addressed the House of Bishops on the subject and gained but little hearing. Now they want me, with some others, to see what can be done in the way of establishing intercommunion.

I cannot begin to tell you of the enthusiasm and love and unity manifested amongst the clergy in my diocese. The influence of it is extending in various directions. I cannot be too thankful to God for the love of my clergy and their cooperation."

FOND DU LAC, September 23, 1905

"On the 8th September I dedicated the new convent here. It was an epoch. The building is strictly conventual. It cost about $60,000 and is paid for. The Chapel is very devotional and was the gift of Miss C., of Boston, in memory of her mother. We had thirty-two Sisters and Postulants in line."

FOND DU LAC, November 4, 1905

"I have been very busy this last week in the endeavor to stop Bishop Tikhon from ordaining Dr. Irvine to the priesthood on Sunday the 5th November. He is a good, gentle, pious Christian Bishop who has been imposed upon. For the sake of the Russian Church I am sorry it should take up with a man who rightly or wrongly has been deposed from the priesthood. There was no necessity for it, for Dr. Irvine could have appealed to the Court of Review lately established, or to the House of Bishops sitting, as they do, in Council. The action of Archbishop Tikhon can only be based on the view that we are no part of the Catholic Church and so all relations between us must terminate, or on the ground that he has received authority from the Holy Synod to receive appeals from our courts. In the latter case I said that we had received no notice of such authority being delegated, and if we had, and had accepted it according to the Canon of the Universal Church which he was bound to respect, he could only hear appeals from bishops and not from priests who were confined to appeals within their own nationality or province.

My telegrams will be published in next week's Living Church; our presiding Bishop has protested. The Archbishop has made a big, bad blunder.

I asked the Russian Ambassador to interfere with his influence. But I fear Tikhon will steer his craft on the rocks. My hope is that God will in some way overrule this to good, for it is Satan's work."

FOND DU LAC, January 16, 1906

"On the 2Ist-24th of January there is to be a meeting of the Bishops of the fifth department of our Province. I send you the list or plan of the Divisions we got at the last General Convention. The meeting takes place at Indianapolis. I want to urge the Bishops, about twelve, to take the first steps in organizing themselves properly into a Province.

The ancient Provincial system was in ancient times a great bulwark against the centralized power of the Papacy. We have a syndicate Papacy in our Church at New York, and the only proper and Catholic protection against its increasing power is our organization into Provinces.

The Provincial system will also be a means of increasing the Missionary Spirit by its yearly meetings, but give a stimulus to the Church system of Education, etc."

FOND DU LAC, February I, 1906

"In the slip from the Sun it is stated that Archbishop Tikhon 'does not believe in the validity of Anglican Orders.' He does. The context shows this. But some one slipped in the word 'not.'

I think it possible that good may come out of the Irvine case and lead the Russian Synod to acknowledge our orders. The Emperor has granted the church the privilege of holding a Council. It will meet sometime this year. I think the ancient Patriarchate of Moscow will be revived."

FOND DU LAC, July 26, 1906

"How little our people realize the gospel value of giving. It is with prayer and fasting one of the three great virtues commanded by our Lord. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, which we read for instruction, it is stated that as water quencheth fire, alms resisteth sins. I suppose it means by the grace with which God responds to it. And our Lord says, 'Give alms and all things are clean unto you.' They sanctify our actions and our enjoyments."

BALTIMORE, MD., October 16, 1907

"Those of our party gave me warm congratulations on the effect of my action in respect to the assault of the Bishop of —— on the continued reservation of the Blessed Sacrament. I feared so strong was his denunciation of the practices of benediction and processions, that the House would be carried off its feet and make what he desired them to do, a formal and official declaration of doctrine. I moved and carried a reference of the whole matter to a Committee. The Bishop had based his argument upon a statement that the declaration of the Bishops in 1895 in their Pastoral letter had been misconstrued and misused. It had only allowed reservation for the sick in cases of emergency with permission of the Ordinary. This, it had been claimed, allowed of continuous reservation. Of course, if the parish priest was to be prepared for cases of emergency, the Sacrament had to be reserved continuously. But I very boldly put myself on the ground that the rubric in the prayer book did not prohibit reservation in the American Church, as the American rubric had been altered from that in the English. I do not think this argument took with the majority of the House of Bishops, to whom it was all novel, and they are not accustomed to a legal investigation of rubrics and canons; but my appeal to them for union amongst ourselves and preserving the peace of the Church did tell quite effectively; and the Committee reported that it was not advisable to make any formal declaration, but that the statement in the Pastoral of 1895 was not ambiguous and did not allow of any other interpretation which had been put upon it, etc. The report was simply received without vote, as a matter of course, and that was the end of it, no vote being taken. The Committee was discharged. Bishop —— in our House and Dr. —— of the other, are the two great opponents of the Catholic faith, however much in several accounts they may differ. My delegation which I took there did nobly."

PALM BEACH, FLA., February 17, 1910

"Your reference to Canon—— in your last letter made me think over the conversation lately had with him on the growth of our diocese and the sources of its external influence. As you had so much to do with them, I think you might like to have them stated in logical order.

First, there is the remarkable growth in the diocese, in some thirty or forty new churches or rectories, in the development of the Young Ladies' Academy, Grafton Hall, in the value of the church property, which has increased from $250,000 to $700,000.

Secondly, there has been a remarkable increase of working clergy and communicants. The communicants have increased from twenty-five hundred to over five thousand; the latter number under our new Canon representing only actual communicants, all those who have made their communions within a year. The clergy have increased from eighteen to now fifty. There are also a large number of twenty-six candidates for holy orders. I suppose this is a larger number than is to be found in any diocese except New York. I was enabled to obtain a legacy for Nashotah House of $350,000, which, together with $60,000 which they before had, puts the institution on a good financial basis and supplies the means for the support of those candidates which we have there.

Again, as you know, we have raised the endowment for the support of the episcopate from $9000, which was all we had at the commencement of my office, to now $70,000. Thanks to God and your good help! The Cathedral, which was some $16,000 in debt when I came, has had that removed, and though we are $2600 in debt for repairs, we have an endowment of $14,000. The cathedral congregation, though, is a poor one and finds it difficult to raise the $4500 needed for its annual support.

The Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity has its motherhouse at Fond du Lac; the convent is an admirable one; it cost about $60,000 or $70,000, and is paid for. The sisterhood has six houses altogether; a branch among the Oneida Indians here in Fond du Lac diocese, a house at Milwaukee in connection with the cathedral there, and in the East, houses at Portland, Me., Providence, and one in connection with St. Mary's Church, New York.

We cannot speak too highly of Grafton Hall! It has developed remarkably under the supervision of Canon ——. He is my alter ego; during his twenty years some hundreds of alumnae have been sent forth. They have turned out to be educated, refined, Christian churchwomen, and their influence is to be found throughout the West.

Then our church literature has been a source of external influence. My Tract No. I upon 'The Church in the New Testament' reached a circulation of over forty thousand; my other works, Christian and Catholic, Catholic Atlas and the Autobiography just out, are doing good service, here and in England.

It was under my assistance and counsel that the Fond du Lac Church Furnishing Company was established. It began in the smallest way; there are now one hundred men on payroll; we are sending church furniture to all parts of the country. In my own diocese there is always a tabernacle on the altar and we introduce them wherever we can. We are building the Catholic faith into the minds and imagination of the people.

Again, the Provincial system has been inaugurated and the twelve bishops of the fifth department are, with perhaps one exception, working in harmony. R—— has the hope that some one might be led to endow a Ladies' Church college here in the West; he would be a grand man to head such a work. In the East there are a number of such colleges, but we have none in the West. We should have the support of all the Bishops of our province and of the schools in them.

Then too, as Superior General of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, we are associated with three hundred and fifty clerical members, who more or less look to us for guidance.

I have not stated this in any way of praise, for the work has been of God and through the aid of a body of able coworkers. There are some things I would like to see accomplished before the time of my passing comes, but I am already more than thankful for what the good God has let me do and for the loving and generous support you have given me. We are working together for a great cause, the catholicization of our American Church, unseen in many places; the work is growing and there are more signs of hopefulness than we appreciate. With my sincere love and all bright blessings."

FOND DU LAC, November 22, 1910

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND:

I know that you are so much interested in all my doings, and follow me with such loving prayers, that I write to tell you what the doctor says of me. You know I have been troubled for many months with this pain in my right knee and leg, and nothing seems to relieve it. Dr. Wiley gave me an examination yesterday, and gave this disorder some technical name. He says nothing will relieve it except absolute rest, and has put me in bed for a couple of weeks, so I shall keep my Thanksgiving Day in bed, but hope to be up before Christmas surely.

It has been a spiritual benefit to me to think how our dear Lord fell in carrying His Cross to Calvary, and so bruised His knees, and I may humbly hope that this dispensation of His providence may be like a little stigmata of the Passion. I am all unworthy to be united to Him in any way, but it may thus be for my own sanctification and the good of the Church.

I am trying to arrange a meeting between our Committee and the Polish Old Catholic Bishop, and also with the Syrian Bishop Raphael. I am glad I can help somewhat by direction and prayer.

You must take care of yourself, my very dearest friend, for God has given us a work to do together for His church.

With my loving regards and blessing.

FOND DU LAC, February 21, 1911

As to Dr. M——'s article. I have written to the 'Young Churchman Company' about it, and asked the editor to see that it was properly replied to. As several correspondents had taken up the matter, I did not care to write, but I may do so by and by.

Dr. M—— quibbles. His two errors are these. He thinks the Caroline Divines do not hold the same belief as we do, because they do not use the same language. For example, they unquestionably hold the doctrine of the Real Presence, as occasioned by the Consecration, but do not use the words objective, and subjective, because they are modern philosophical terms. They hold the doctrine of confession with priestly absolution, but don't call it sacramental confession, which is a mere matter of terminology. They believe in the Real Presence, but denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, as then understood, which involved the destruction of the elements as a necessary condition of our Lord's true body and blood. They regarded the holy Eucharist as a sacrifice, but denied, as we do, that it was a repetition of Calvary, or added anything to its redemptive action. They taught the Adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, but would carefully discriminate this from adoration of the elements.

I do not think that Dr. M—— will succeed in stirring up strife, for the tendency now is for Churchmen of all schools to draw together."

FOND DU LAC, March 8, 1911

"I look to Nashotah along with some of the other Seminaries as the hope of the coming Catholicity of the Church. The talk that candidates for Orders are scarce, I do not agree with. There is no scarcity of candidates where the Catholic Faith is presented to them. We have sixty-six at Nashotah, part of whom are in the Preparatory Department. We intend to develop this from a two years' course to a three, and so give an excellent collegiate training to the young men."

SERMON ON THE RICH, IN A LETTER TO A LAYMAN

BISHOP'S HOUSE, FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN, June 21, 1912

MY DEARLY BELOVED FRIEND:

I often turn in mind to our many serious conversations. They were days of much peace and joy, with the honor of Christ's presence. We must not let the influence of those days die out, and I take the loving liberty of my office and friendship to send you a word of Gospel cheer.

If we have wealth our first duty is to thank God for it, and to pray we may use it wisely.

Our life does not free us from care and responsibility, as many think. It imposes duties, but it brings great blessings. We are so much more our own masters, masters of our time and opportunities of worship, masters of the opportunities of doing good, and the rich man has his secret with his own dear Lord. Our Lord indeed says, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God." An interpretation which has found favor with me has been that, in Jerusalem, beside the larger city gate, there was a smaller one for foot passengers and single travelers, called the "eye of a needle." It would be with difficulty that the heavily laden camel could pass through that smaller aperture. It would be necessary for his owner to relieve him of some of his burden, in order that he might pass. It is this act of sacrifice that is pointed out by our Lord's parables, riches as demanding sacrifice, as a means of sanctification. And the joy of giving to our Lord is a secret between the soul and Himself, which has its own deep hidden sense of joy.

The instances in Holy Scripture of wealthy, yet holy men, reveal the great truth that wealth does not hinder us from walking with God. The pious soul holds it as a gift from Him. It is only a foretaste of the greater riches that are to come. The pious soul trusts Him for all, uses all for His sake, has His interests first at heart. God loves His children to be happy and enjoy the wealth He gives. He enjoys it with them, He blesses it to their good and happiness. He would make all beautiful as representative of Himself. God is often represented to us as the Ancient of Days. He is also to be known as eternal youth. All the eternal freshness that perpetual youth implies, is His, and His gift of eternal blessedness can never be exhausted, because He is ever young. We have a right thus to be optimists and walk in the bright, glad sunshine of His protecting Love.

God is a wealthy God. All things are His. He distributes His wealth most bountifully. The rich man is a particular participant. There are three great acts of our good God which I love to dwell on. I. His wonderful and all glorious act of creation. He spake the word and Creation arose in all its beauty before Him. 2. Next, He became incarnate, He entered creation heralded by choirs of angels, the word was made flesh. Heaven and earth rang with the blessed anthem, we fall prostrate before His magnificent Advent. 3. His third great act in logical sequence is His further entry into creation and man. He said, "This is My body and this is My blood"—wonderful and all glorious trinal mystery. It completes the mighty sequence of His action. We may reverently believe that the blessed mystery of the Eucharist lives on in some divine splendor in the divine life.

What a blessed privilege it is to be able to found a daily Eucharist; it is a privilege which angels may aspire to, but cannot enjoy. I hope some day that our Cathedral with its daily Mass may be put upon a permanent foundation.

With what tender familiarity and comforting support is our dear Jesus with us in this sacrament. He gathers us up into His own heart of love, He reveals the secrets of His providences to us, He is our Saviour, our Jesus, our All in all, the bright joy of our hope, the door through which we pass into the Father's Love.

In my illness and pain I have been moved thus to write you, dearest friend. May our Lord join us together in His Love and work.

With my most affectionate greetings,
C. C. FOND DU LAC.

FOND DU LAC, March 12, 1909

"I send you a copy of the letter which my good Indians wrote me, of their own accord, and without external aid. It is far from true that the only good Indian is a dead one. Give them the Catholic Faith, and they become good Christians. The whole Reservation is changed since I have been there. We have an improved Mission House, a fine barn connected with it, a Sisters' house with three Sisters at work, and a splendid stone Guild house for School work, entertainments, lectures, etc., also an excellent band, a small hospital with an Indian doctor, whom we educated, a creamery to teach the men farming, and a large stone church. It is all paid for. We have regular congregations of from four to five hundred. The Romans have been pushing in, and are trying to get the Government School buildings. It is said that the Government is going to give up the schools, wherein now we have much influence through the cooperation of the Government agent. The Romans either want to buy them, or get them given to them by the Government, if they are abandoned. It is said they have influence at Washington, and have been promised political aid.

"'To the Rt. Rev. Father in God, C. C. Grafton:

We, the members of the Oneida Church, desire to acknowledge in a few words the great and wonderful lesson which the good God has inspired you to teach us; we also desire to thank you and Him most sincerely for undertaking this great goodness towards us, your loving people of Oneida. We know that it is the great love you feel towards us that led you to write this wonderful letter to us; the words I am sure were most gratefully received, they were words most needed by your people here, words so lasting and full of meaning to us.

It seems impossible for us to find words to express the warm feeling in our hearts for the great goodness you have done for us, and we earnestly hope that we will all take heed the great and good lesson you have so kindly set before us. We remain ever your children in the Lord.

J. Q. ADAMS, Senior Warden
SIMEON HILL, Junior Warden
BRIGMAN CORNELIUS, Clerk
NICHOLAS ELM
THOMAS CORNELIUS
SAMPSON J. CORNELIUS
HENRY F. SMITH.'"

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