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GRAMMER AND BOYDEN.

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the pious Devereux Jarratt, he spent his ministry in one cure, Antrim parish, Halifax county, where his name is still remembered and where he ministered for over forty years to different generations. His life was long and useful, and all respected and loved him. He was the trusted friend and confidant of Bishop Meade. He was simple and self-denying. He expressly asked that no "resolutions" should be passed nor eulogy spoken when he was dead. He died full of years and rich in good works for Christ. He had been destined for the bar, and his connection with such people as the Withers and Brodnax families and his own firm character and abilities promised success. When he decided to enter the ministry his friends expostulated with him, but could not dissuade him. He lived some time in the home of Rev. Dr. Wilmer in Alexandria.

The Rev. Dr. Wing was often spoken of by Dr. Sparrow, who knew him at Kenyon, and was ordained the same year. His name was striking-Marcus Tullius Cicero Wing.

The Rev. Ebenezer Boyden, born in Vermont May 25, 1803, graduated at Yale 1825, and at our Seminary in 1828, was rector of Walker's parish, Albemarle county, Virginia, for forty-two He was a spiritually minded man and most exemplary in his life and ministry. Two of his sons entered the ministry, Rev. D. Hanson Boyden, who died in the morn of great promise of usefulness, and Rev. Peter M. Boyden, now laboring faithfully and successfully in Maryland.

When he lived in Vermont, his family had been Congregationalists, but the church happened to be vacant once when a minister travelling through the State stopped for a few days in the neighborhood. Being asked to preach, he said, "I am an Episcopalian and will do so, if you will use my service, and if some will learn it." They agreed to this, and he instructed them and preached twice. They were so much pleased they asked him to stay and be their minister. He said he could not on account of other engagements, but he would send Bishop Griswold. He came and won them to the Church and the Boyden family thus became Episcopalians, he being fifteen years old. When Rector of St. Paul's, Norfolk, the hole in the church wall where the British had fired a cannon ball was seen, but no cannon ball had been found. Learning the direction of the shot, he hired a man, and digging deep found the ball and had it placed in the hole.

The site chosen for the Seminary is unsurpassed for beauty and

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extent of prospect. place? Surely the directed the choice.

SEMINARY SCENERY.

Where could there have been found a better hand of that God who founded the hills

What a glorious amphitheatre of rural scenery, of hill and dale, of great cities, and of broad river flashing in the sun! Said the early lost and long lamented Dudley Tyng: "Its location has left on my memory an impression not easily forgotten. It overlooks the undulating valley which slopes down to the broad and placid Potomac. At its foot lies the town of Alexandria and in the distance the cities of Washington and Georgetown, surmounted by the lofty dome of the capitol. On the right the woodland stretches down to the home and tomb of the Father of his country. From the cupola keen eyes may discover the three needle-points of the first mountain range, the Blue Ridge. Amid such a scene dwell the 'sons of the prophets.' Truly, you will say, if all within corresponds to all without, no wonder it should be remembered with longing and revisited with delight. Just such a picture as surrounding nature painted on my eye have its inner scenes imprinted on my heart."

Said another alumnus, Bishop Bedell, "I never again expect to rest my weariness on a spot of earth which will appear so much in the neighborhood of heaven. It always seems to me in recollection a land of Beulah, a little way to the fords of the river and the gates beyond, where angels keep their ward. From this glorious hill we readily turn to look above to the city which hath foundations."

Its beautiful grove affords place for retirement and meditation :

"Wisdom's self

Oft seeks to sweet, retired solitude

Where with her best nurse, meditation,

She plumes her feathers and lets grow her wings.”

I think our seminary could not have been placed in a better situation than just here. It was in the South, so as to enlist the sympathies of the Southern Dioceses, and to be convenient for their candidates in days when traveling was difficult. It was near Washington, the Capital of the country, and so in touch with the national life. My recollections of Washington go back now sixty-five years, and they recall a very different state of things from what may now be seen. There was then great simplicity of living, and the city had very few of its present beautiful public

ADVANTAGES OF ITS POSITION.

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buildings or private palaces. But it had what it has not now in its Senate and House-men who would make any city or State noble and distinguished. To see and hear these men was a privilege, and professors and students had this great advantage. The Roman Catholic and Methodist Churches have within the last few years realized the importance of Washington as a centre of influence and are establishing great universities there.

Bishop Meade and others chose wisely in selecting our beautiful and commanding Hill for the Seminary. If they could only have planned and executed on a larger scale, securing land when so low and proper endowments, we might have been able to do a larger work. Some have thought that if a Church college could have been established here, to complete the plan of the High School and to prepare for the Seminary, it would have filled a niche that is now empty in this middle section, with Trinity College north and Sewanee south. Our Preparatory Department would always have furnished a nucleus, and there would have been many who would have preferred a Church college to sending their sons to the universities or the denominational colleges. When Bristol College failed, if we might have taken up its work, I think good would have been done. Now we have twenty-five or more men being educated away, who, under the influence of the Seminary and the Church college, would have found more congenial and helpful influences than anywhere else. It may come yet; but started sixty years ago, its work and usefulness would have been very great.

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CHAPTER XI.

MY FIRST FRIENDS.

SHALL speak particularly of my first class in the Seminary, which entered with me in 1836. There were six members, though two more, Noblitt and Stewart, were with us awhile. Their names were James A. Buck, William H. Kinckle, William T. Leavell, Cleland K. Nelson, John J. Scott, Richard H. Wilmer. They were an unusually good class, I remember, all being men of fine abilities and excellent training. They were all ordained by Bishop Moore, and all (except Bishop Wilmer) on July 11, 1839, and went to work in different dioceses. Fifty years rolled slowly by with their mighty changes in Church and State, and five of these six graduates were still laboring faithfully in the vineyard, and I alone of their professors was still alive. At the suggestion and request of Rev. Dr. Buck, rector of St. Paul's, Rock Creek, D. C., we met on the fiftieth anniversary of ordination, July 11, 1889, to celebrate their jubilee. Only one of the class had fallen asleep, worn out by his untiring labors, Rev. W. H. Kinckle, of blessed memory. They joined together in the service and sacrament of love, which had been their occupation and joy for fifty years, Dr. Nelson making the address on this rare and memorable occasion. Afterwards they met together with many friends for a bountiful collation in the beautiful rectory grounds of Rock Creek parish, nearly two hundred years old.

Five years later, July 11, 1894, all but one of us met again at the same place, four out of six remaining, active and strong for their age, Dr. Nelson having dropped from the ranks. At this fifty-eighth anniversary of their association together, the four were present and took part in the solemn prayer and praise to God, who had granted them to labor for and with Him all through the long day. Bishop Wilmer made the address and told of the secret of peace and power in the service and following of Jesus Christ, and with the rector administered the Holy Communion to a large congregation.

I spoke of the remarkable and unparelleled case, that after fifty-eight years of work and friendship, five out of seven should be present in good health to celebrate the anniversary; and I

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dwelt on the rewards of such faithful ministry. The Rev. Dr. Elliott, of Washington, followed, with some happy and pleasant remarks, comparing the four veterans to the four winds, the four evangelists and the four creatures of Revelation; and Bishop Wilmer closed with the blessing. An offering was made, and it is intended to place in the Virginia Seminary some memorial of this wonderful event of the class of 1839. Out of the sixteen classes before them only four graduates then survived, while whole classes after them have died; only four graduates, up to 1845, now remain.

We can recall no such wonderful thing as this, that in a fleeting and changing world, after fifty-eight years of association in the same work, two-thirds of the class should meet with onethird of their teachers, and all active and in fair health; or that after fifty-three years, five-sixths of the class should survive, as was the case a few years ago. Truly they can say with the Psalmist, "I have been young and now am old, and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken."

The members of this class have been well-known and devoted ministers in the Church, apart from the wonderful length of service; the Rev. James A. Buck, D. D., had been for forty-one years rector of Rock Creek Parish, D. C., and endeared himself to all who knew him by a holy, devoted life and ministry. The parish under him has grown and flourished and is now stronger than ever, though all around new parishes have been formed. He was also chaplain of the Soldiers' Home near by, where he was much beloved, and he headed the official list of the clergy of the Diocese, having spent, I believe, nearly his whole life therein. He died in the early autumn of 1897, having been more than fifty-eight years in active ministry. He was succeeded by his cousin, Rev. Charles E. Buck, an alumnus of our Seminary, and an influential member of the Diocese.

The Rev. W. H. Kinckle, after loving, faithful service, mostly spent in Lynchburg, passed away after too brief a ministry, leaving a name and memory that still survive after more than a generation have gone.

The Rev. W. T. Leavell did faithful service in West Virginia, spending nearly all of his life in one section, where he was respected and beloved by all. Born September 11, 1814, in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, he early

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