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meeting closes, the shouts of converts that will ring through all this congregation and fill all this space; and God will be honored by it. If any are so precise in their religious character as that they cannot enjoy it, let them go to their closets, and in answer to prayer, get power, and when they get the taste, they will relish it as much as we do, and as much as angels do, and as much as God does.

In the summer and autumn the Bishop met the Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, and Central Illinois Conferences, concluding his official work on Sept. 28.

Among the earthly havens into which the Bishop loved to put, if he could find a leisure day to furl his sails and lie at anchor, was Wildercliffe, the residence of Miss Mary Garrettson, near Rhinebeck, N. Y. This beautiful home, bequeathed to Miss. Garrettson by her venerable parents, overlooking the Hudson, and commanding a distant view of the Catskill Mountains as well, was ever open to Methodist ministers, and none were more welcome guests there than Bishop and Mrs. Janes. The peaceful rural surroundings, the play of light and shadow upon water, valley, and mountain, to say nothing of the high and holy thinking and converse within doors, constituted it a thoroughly attractive and restful spot to the weary sojourner. Yet it was seldom the Bishop could indulge himself in its luxurious rest.

To Miss M. Garrettson, August 20:

May grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied unto you abundantly. I received your letter very kindly inviting me to visit

you at the time of the dedication at Rondout.. It was in my heart to do so, but official obligations did not permit. My public duties become more and more engrossing every year. Every advance of the Church increases the care and labors of the General Superintendents. It is sweet to work for Jesus. It is deeply interesting to labor for humanity, especially for the spiritual welfare of the race. To be workers together with God in saving souls is a sublime and blessed privilege. I am sorry I have not appreciated it more highly. My sun has passed its meridian. I am in the afternoon of life. I am resolved that my evening time shall bring good to man and glory to God. I trust you are in comfortable health. I doubt not you enjoy as keenly as ever the remarkable and almost redundant natural beauties with which your heavenly Father has surrounded you. Though your eye may become dim,* they will never fade from your mind. In childhood you looked upon them when your father and mother enjoyed them with you. To you they are sacred. O how your heart must cherish them! But there are sublimer, sweeter, and more sacred visions for us to behold. To see the King in his beauty, to see Jesus as he is, to see those beloved parents in their beatitude, and to be with them and like them-O what ravished visions heaven will afford! What a blessed hope is ours while here on earth we stay! We will not be concerned if our bodies fail, if time flits by. Death is gain. To depart and be with Christ, when life's work is all done, is far better. Glory be to God for the assurance! I intend to visit you just as soon as God will permit. Mrs. Janes loves you very much.

Among the burdens which pressed upon the heart of the Bishop this autumn was the work in the South Carolina Conference, solicitude for a new church building in Richmond, Va., and also the

* An allusion to the fact that at this time Miss Garrettson was threatened with blindness.

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urgent growing demands of the City Sunday-School and Church Extension Society in New York city. The Rev. T. Willard Lewis writes him from Charleston, S. C.:

Baker Institute opened Monday last with eighteen promising young men, but how I am to get through the year without more aid I know not, and I feel sad at the condition of our missionary treasury, but trust God may open some way for our relief. If Grant is elected I think we shall have passable protection, and can push forward our work if we can only have the men and the means.

And the Rev. Dr. J. A. Webster, of Charleston, further says:

We shall greatly need an increase in our appropriation here. Think of one presiding elder district with nearly, or quite, 20,000 members.

Mrs. General Canby writes to the Bishop from Richmond, Va.:

I am glad to hear you favor the idea of keeping up a Northern Methodist Episcopal Church here in this very heart of rebeldom. The need of a good Union Church in this city is far greater than even you imagine-a Church where loyal people can feel they are among friends.

The above reference to the election of General Grant may appropriately introduce a letter of the Bishop making mention of a visit to the General at Washington. The great captain had just been elected to the Presidency, and was, if possible, more than ever the center of all eyes. The Bishops had united in a congratulatory address to the General

on his election, and Bishops Janes and Ames were deputed to bear it:

General Grant received us very courteously. Bishop Ames briefly stated our object in seeking the interview, and I read to him the official letter of the Bishops. He seemed considerably affected by it; thanked the Bishops very earnestly for their consideration of him. After the official transaction was ended we entered into a free conversation. He was very easy and unreserved in the expression of his views of his position and of public affairs. The leave-taking was expressive of reciprocal regards.

How like the rich, sublime beauties of an autumnal day the portraiture here of growing old' These beauties, alas! the harbingers of approaching winter; but with him even winter shall be gladdened with the fruits of holy living.

To Mrs. Janes:

It is true the autumn of life is on us, but its frosts will only purify our spiritual atmosphere, and its cool days only invigorate our souls. The winter of life with us, you know, is to be very pleasant. Even

"On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb."

Religion makes flowers bloom every-where, and its ripe and luscious fruits are always plenteous and within reach.

The fiftieth anniversary of the parent Missionary Society was held in Washington, D. C., on January 10 and 11, 1869, at which the Bishop was one of the preachers and speakers. Standing in the cap

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ital of the nation, surrounded by scholars and statesmen, and looking back upon the half century's work of the society, he says:

to.

Who sympathizes with the heathen world to-night? Where is there any interest on this question except with God and his Church? Who are laying plans, forming schemes, devising measures, and giving money to meet these circumstances and to relieve these wants? The governments of the earth are not directly doing it. England and the United States are the two most enlightened and most powerful Protestant nations in the world; and yet this question has never come up in the cabinets of either of these governments. I do not say that it ought It may not be the legitimate function of government; at any rate, perhaps the minds of neither nation are prepared to sustain the government in doing this. Well, infidels do not do it. There never has been, and is not to-night, an infidel missionary society for sending the light of God's truth and the institutions of God's grace to the benighted, perishing heathen nations. Infidels do not send help; on the contrary, they seek to rob us of our God, of our Saviour, and of our heaven. losophers do not do it. We have scientific associations-historical, geological, astronomical. These philosophers are interested in the study of the stars, and in the discovery of those which have not before been observed; but who of them ever talks to the world about the Star of Bethlehem? These philosophers are most deeply and proudly interested in the triumphs of science, and are engaged heartily and earnestly in forming electric currents of thought through the ocean, from continent to continent and kingdom to kingdom, but which of them ever thought of sending a current of God's love to any one of those distant and barbarous climes? Commerce is not doing it. Commerce has aided in providing facilities of international communication—and they are advantageous to our Christian enterprise; but commerce does not seek to evangelize the nations: on the contrary, many of its agencies are the

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