Yet if, as holiest men have deemed, there be To hear each voice we feared to hear no more Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight, The Bactrian, Samian Sage, and all who taught the right. Well, I will dream that we shall meet again, And woo the vision to my vacant breast. Poor Byron! To thee it was a dream, a vision, but delectable, desirable. To our Agnostics it is not even a dream-it is unthinkable, undesirable. Man has a brutal origin and a brutal destiny. At death he perishes utterly and forever! O how our deceased Bishop detested and denounced the pseudo science of the age, which relegates man's spirit to the air, and his body To lie in cold obstruction and to rot, never again to rise! He believed, like Paul, in "the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." He believed, with the apostle, that at death the spirits of the just enter into "joy and felicity," with Christ, in paradise, while their bodies rest in hope, till "the great rising day.” He had clearer views of personal identity and future recognition than the laureate who says, Eternal form shall still divide Th' eternal soul from all beside, And I shall know him when we meet. How spirits are distinguished and recognized, how they "converse;" whether, as the schoolmen taught, Like angels, with the eye discourse; what is their ubi, their relation to space, it were vain to inquire. It is not so vain to suppose that out of the fourteen elements of which our present body is constituted a “spiritual” (uartzó, pneumatic) body will be constructed-so far retaining its identity as that the soul that shall resume the body shall stamp stamp itself its form and features, thus preserving upon the personality and individuality of every one among the glo. rified millions of the blest! But angels and disembodied saints know each other without any material "vehicle." And so our glorified friend "knows as also he is known" by his old associates who have welcomed him into their everlasting habitations. How often he spoke of Russel and Hull, Olin and Pierce, Capers and Andrew, and others of his own faith and order, and many of other Communions as well-Bachman and Smyth, Manly and Leland, Forest and Post-and others who truly belonged to "the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints"! What a greeting they gave him when he passed through the pearly gates! But has he forgotten his brethren below? No, indeed! Follow after, he cries, As he mounts to the skies; To the blissful enjoyments that never shall end! And follow we will, and that with rapid steps! And haste to better company That wait for us above. We see them through the telescope of faith, as glorious orbs moving around the Central Sun! O if some celestial "expert"-saint or angel-or, rather, the Lord of saints and angels-would so adjust the lens, and steady our vision, that we might see The saints above, how great their joys, How bright their glories be! Yes, they are there! Faith lends its realizing light. There they are! Look steadily; shut off all straggling rays. There all the heavenly hosts are seen, In shining ranks they move, O may my humble spirit stand ODE ON THE DEATH OF BISHOP WIGHTMAN, SUNG AT THE MEMORial Service. Which cheered us below, and will cheer us more there! THE APPROACHING GENERAL CONFERENCE. TIME AND PLACE OF MEETING. THE General Conference, by appointment of the last session, is to meet in Nashville, Tenn., at nine o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, May 3, 1882. ELECTION OF BISHOPS. One of the most important duties of the General Conference is the election of Bishops. The Conference decides upon the number needed, and selects the men. There are good reasons for an election at an early period of the session. From the beginning to the present it has been considered expedient to elect as few as possible, for these reasons: First, it has been thought easier to support a few than many; then, if they were multiplied, the office would be too common, and would lose prestige; moreover, it is not easy to find suitable men for so peculiar an office. We do not now think of any other reason for the paucity of Bishops. On the other hand, there are some who think the number should be increased; some say there should be a Bishop for every Conference- that is, some forty for our Connection. Others say a Bishop for an average of two Conferences; others vary in regard to number. But all who wish a "House of Bishops," respectable in number, say that the multiplication would not diminish, but increase, the prestige of the Episcopacy. They say that there is danger of losing the prestige, because the number is so few that thousands of our people "never see a live Bishop." They go a long way to see and hear a Bishop. Those who advocate the multiplication of Bishops say that if this were done the Bishops could circulate largely in their respective districts (dioceses, or parishes, which formerly meant the same); and so the number of presiding elders might be decreased, and their districts be enlarged. The people would willingly forego the pleasure of ' a presiding elder's visitation, if they could get one from a Bishop. They say that almost any man may accompany a Bishop, and preach ever so well, and yet he is not much noticed, while the Bishop is the cynosure of all eyes; and so we should avail ourselves of this, and turn the Episcopacy to greater account. "A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn." Smile as much as you please, it is so. As to "Bishop-timber," it may not be so scarce as some suppose. One not unversed in the woods marked out a score of good trees that would answer well-just as well as the four that some say are all the Conference should elect. In the Church of England there are two Archbishops, twenty-nine Bishops, a thirtieth, for a new See-that of Newcastle is just proposed, three suffragan Bishops, thirty Deans, eighty-one Archdeacons, six hundred and ten Rural Deans. In the little Irish Episcopal Church there are two Archbishops and ten Bishops. In the Episcopal Church of Scotland ("a little sister") there are seven Bishops. In the British Colonies, Dependencies, and Missions, there are seventy-one. The Romish Church in England, so lately revived, has seventeen Bishops; and in Scotland, still more recently, six Bishops. In popish countries Bishops are as plentiful as blackberries; indeed, so they are in the United States, numbering about seventy! The highly respectable but comparatively small sect, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, has about the same number, counting missionary Bishops. They consider the Episcopate an arm of power. Some of their prelates are rather weak men-as a gentleman remarked of one of them whom he heard the Sunday before the present writing. But he can get a large congregation wherever he officiates. It is also urged that a House of Bishops, respectable in numbers, would feel better satisfied with its decisions, and would inspire more confidence throughout the Connection, than is the case at present. We have heard no one say that this policy is likely to be adopted at the next General Conference, but we have heard |