A BISHOP.

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON REV. E. S. JANES, D.D., LL.D.,

LATE SENIOR BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

THE

REV. C. H. FOWLER, D.D., LL.D.

IE first Napoleon, when crossing the Alps, saw an old peasant woman hastening through the mountains, and he asked her, "Whither are you hastening this sharp morning?" She said, "To yonder pass to see the emperor." He asked, "What have you gained in him more than in the Bourbons? Have you not simply exchanged one despot for another ?" The old peasant woman stopped, thought a moment, and then answered, "The Bourbons were the rulers of the rich and great; Napoleon is our ruler." We are here to-day, to pay a tribute of greatful remembrance to the cherished and honored dead, because Bishop Janes was the bishop of the common people. With a scholarship that made him at home in the company of the learned and philosophical, with tastes that could revel in the refinements of a select few, with every social circle welcoming his approach, and with resources sufficient to make these varied advantages a delight and not a burden, he still remained, in his convictions, in his habits, in his home, in his sympathies, and in his affections, the brother of the laborer and the friend of the poor; and the very last business act of his open right hand was to answer to a cry for help. As a Missionary Society we have lost a mighty friend, who labored and planned and lived for us, who cared for our souls, and who sought the society of the wealthy only for our sakes. He is our dead, therefore, are we here. . .

The elements out of which Bishop Janes' greatness was constructed were simple and easily apprehended.

They are on the surface of his transparent character. They are open to the gaze of the common observer. It is difficult to grasp a sphere. It slips from the grasp. We must encompass it to hold it. This is the problem before us. Thus it happens that a man is comprehended only by his peers. We need not add that Bishop Janes must wait for a biographer. Let us catalogue the component parts of this character.

Let us place reason at the head of the list, next his Common sense . . . . his Conscience ... his Ambition . . . his Courage . . . his Affection

So rounded and complete was his character that, approached from almost any side, it seemed to be greatest. At first sight he seemed not so great; but as we worked up into his abilities they grew to the limit of our comprehension. His powers were like groups of mountain peaks towering up side by side, and so close together as to reduce each other's apparent height. Only the accurate tests of science show their great elevation above the sea. The group of the exalted peaks in this wonderful man I would call his common sense, his conscience, his will, his concentration, his ambition, his industry, and his economy of power. Other peculiarities, seen in themselves, would have made him a marked man; but I think these are the peaks with which he held up the crown of his greatness.

The elements were so evenly mixed in him, and the powers so nicely poised, that he seemed able to do his best on all occasions and under any circumstances.

As a preacher, he had few superiors. As a platform speaker, he could come in any part of any programme, and be heard, enjoyed, and remembered.

As a pastor, he was methodical, exact, easy, and without a blemish.

He was an orator, of superior parts. "He was elɔquent.

He was a thinker, able to trace and reveal the hidden relations of truths.

He was a writer of great ability.

He was a statesman, measured by his papers and by the wisdom of his administration.

He was an organizer, handling with case and ability the system of superintendencies that constitute Methodist polity.

He was a leader, not rushing into revolution, but steadily moving up toward the advance line as rapidly as it became reform instead of schism.

He was an administrator, when it became necessary for him to assume responsibility he did it so gently that all felt relieved to have it finally determined.

As a bishop he was a model.

Bishop Janes must be ranked among the great men of the Christian Church, and his greatness must endure. We hardly call the ephemeral great; we want our greatness to abide. Meteors that flash out upon the darkness only long enough to reveal the gloom and oblivion into which they rush are not types of greatness. Suns that shine on forever rather impress us thus. Bishop Janes will stand this test.

The only man who could give any exhaustive catalogue of the duties and work of Bishop Janes is now voiceless in the grave. We can figure the weight of the atmosphere on a square inch, or on the surface of the city, or on the earth itself; but no man has found the outside spot on which to correctly measure the weight of "the care of all the Churches." Gethsemane is the type of that outside spot. We can go with this little man of great achievements through the ceaseless round of his duties, watch him on the wing, like the bec gathering

honey for the marriage-supper from every field on earth; yesterday seeking to steady some wavering brother in the streets of Boston, to-day journeying on foot among the camps of the miners near the Golden Gate, to-morrow searching in the crowded cities of heathenism for the picket line of Christianity, crossing oceans, scaling mountains, traversing continents, till the surface of the world seemed more familiar to him than the retreats of his home, and the faces and wants of the great army of workers in all lands were more definitely fixed in his memory than the faces of the neighbors of his family. We can watch him working right on, year in and year out, knowing no vacations except the quiet of the lightning express, or the repose of midnight jerky of the frontier, and asking no rest but hard work.

The life of Bishop Janes had but one purpose, and his death could leave but one testimony. The light that is brighter than the noonday sun, that had been shining into his life for nearly fifty years, could not fail him in the dark valley. He has walked with God so many years, and so often pointed the dying and sorrowing to the city with gates of pearl, and streets of gold, and palaces of fire, and thones of light, that all these things are familiar to the eye of his faith. He enters heaven, from the harvest-field of the world, with the quietness of perfect repose. I know of nothing grander in the history of the race. In thought I have gone out through the Gate of the Martyrs in Rome with Paul as he went forth to kiss the headsman's ax. "I am now ready to be offered. . . . I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." Only such a soul as Paul could use such an experience. I have walked yonder with Elijah, and caught the rapture of his soul as he neared the Jordan; I have

watched this grand old prophet of the mountains, who had lived in the solitude of nature's grandest scones, who had gazed with eye undimmed on the clouds of fire that wrapped the mountain summit, and stood with courage unabated, with his foot on the heaving bosom of the earthquake; I have seen this man step into the chariot of Israel, and ascend in a whirlwind of fire, and I have been awed, as in the presence of God. But to my mind there is something unlike these, indeed, but in its kind not inferior in calm sublimity, in the dying of Bishop Janes. At the end of his worldly journey he pauses a moment in the bed of the Jordan, and, looking straight up into the face of God, he says, "I am not disappointed."

Brothers, the substantial part of this life we may repeat. Most of its greatness lies within the reach of a holy ambition and consecrated will. Average gifts, concentrated into power, exercised into greatness, purified into strength, glorified into beauty, vitalized by the divine Spirit, and driven by an absolute, despotic, resistless, omnipotent will, can repeat the wonders of this character as often as the world needs such leaders. May the mantle of this man fall upon the young men entering the ministry till every ear on earth hears the good news, and every seat in heaven by the side of Paul is occupied!

"WHEN I get to Heaven, I shall see three wonders there. The first wonder will be to see people there that I did not expect; the second wonder will be to miss many persons whom I did expect to see; and the third and greatest wonder of all will be to find myself there."-John Newton.

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