without effect. The Church flourished, temporally, to an important extent; and spiritually, in a good degree, under his ministry. His popularity as a preacher was very great, not only there, but also in New-York, which city, as the residence of his family, he frequently visited. His visits to the city were anticipated by many with great pleasure, and frequent messages of eager inquiry for the time at which they might be expected, were received by him. He became a general favourite in the Churches of the city, which were always full, and sometimes very crowded when he was expected to preach, and his popularity increased as his ministry became more decided, and he learned "to know nothing save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."

In the year 1816, on the 29th of October, he was united in marriage to Miss Penelope Thurston of Hudson. Of this lady, though she still survives him, it is but duty and justice to say, that God thus gave to him a most faithful, competent, and affectionate friend, one whose kind care and assiduous attention were successfully devoted, until the very closing of his eyes in death, to the promotion of his usefulness, the increase of his comfort, and the melioration of his great sufferings and protracted sickness; and whose duties in this connexion have been rewarded with the undoubted prolonging of his ministry, with the high estimation of his friends, and with the sure approbation of his Lord. The offspring of this marriage are a son and daugh

ter, both living, and worthy of a deep interest in the affections and prayers of the many friends who so much and so justly loved their lamented father. In connexion with his marriage, an evidence of his peculiar attachment to Bishop Hobart may be noticed, in the fact, that he postponed the ceremony of that occasion for a considerable time, in order that it might meet the convenience of the Bishop to officiate in a crisis of his life so interesting to him. This fact will add interest also, to the circumstances which now come up before our view, requiring an impartial record.

In tracing the change which was occurring in the religious views and plans of Mr. Bedell after his settlement at Hudson, some facts are present to us which are evidently marked delineations of its progress. The establishment of the American Bible Society in 1816, was one occasion on which a manifest change in his state of mind was developed. The opposition of Bishop Hobart to this Society, from the time of its formation, is well known. It is no part of our present duty to consider the abstract propriety of this opposition, or to regard it any further than as a fact, the truth of which of course will not be questioned. This opposition led to a temporary controversy of considerable interest, in which the judgments of the clergy and laymen of the Episcopal Church were found much divided. At the first occurrence of this question, the opinions of Mr. Bedell entirely accorded with those of Bishop Hobart

upon

the subject involved. A further examination of it, however, led him to question their accuracy, and furnished the first occasion which witnessed his hesitation in following out to their full extent the judgments of his diocesan. He found himself here compelled to differ from him, and it may serve to show the peculiar boldness and decision which were always united with his amiable and passive spirit, that he was prepared, on this important question, to acknowledge the change in his views, and take the opposite side to one in whose judgment he had so much confided, and whose affection he valued so highly. But to this stand he found himself, through the grace of God, to be adequate, and the circumstance so painful to his sensitive spirit at the time of its occurrence, was made the instrument of leading him to a still farther course of independent examination for himself. The result of this examination was the gradual and entire change of his views on many important questions to the standard to which they were ultimately conformed.

Another circumstance, which is remembered by his family as having produced a very strong impression upon his mind, and as having exercised a decided influence in the change of his course of ministry, and of his associations in the Church, was the mild and satisfactory correction by a brother in the ministry, already referred to, of an error into which he had fallen, and of a misrepresentation which he had received and circulated in regard to that

brother, and the development of other views and habits of thought and action to which the explanation led. In referring to this circumstance, that gentleman says, in a letter from which we have already given an extract:

"I recollect having spoken to him during a session of the General Convention many years ago, about a statement which I was informed he had made on board the steamboat in coming from New-York to Philadelphia, that I had held a prayer-meeting or some public service in the parish of another clergyman without his consent, and had especially prayed for the conversion of the Rector, as a blind leader of the blind.' He investigated the case, and found the statement which he had been made the instrument of propagating, to be an unfounded calumny. The conversation which took place between the clergymen referred to, Mr. Bedell and myself, together with the result of his inquiries into the facts of the case, might, by the blessing of God, have exerted a powerful influence in changing his views of the principles and men 'every where spoken against,' as it was not a very long time afterwards, that he fully and decidedly espoused these views as his own."

About the same time at which this incident occurred, another circumstance took place in his affairs, which is intimately connected with the change through which his mind was passing, and was made to exercise a most important influence upon the whole course of his subsequent ministry. It had been always the ardent and cherished wish of himself and his family, that he might gain an ultimate settlement in the ministry in the city of New-York, the residence of his large circle of family relatives. The prospect of

gratifying this desire seemed near and certain, at the time of which we speak : and he looked forward with much pleasure to the door that seemed to be opening before him. Bishop Hobart himself came into the family circle, and proposed that Mr. Bedell should resign the Church at Hudson, and accept the station of one of the assistant ministers in Trinity Church, New-York, which had then recently become vacant. An invitation to a station so important, and of such promising usefulness, at this period of his ministry, was in a high degree flattering to him, and showed in what estimation his talents as a preacher were held. He assented cheerfully to the proposal, as fulfilling all his desires in regard to an ultimate settlement, and soon made arrangements with the Vestry at Hudson, upon which the charge of that Church was resigned, amidst the universal regret of the congregation. But while every circumstance seemed to favour an early removal and the full accomplishment of his wishes, amidst the very packing of his goods in preparation for the change, an unexpected obstacle proclaimed, that such a step was not his will, who was ordering all his ways to ultimate usefulness in the Church. A letter was received from the Bishop, entirely inexplicable at the time, stating simply that something had occurred which rendered the change inexpedient. No explanation of the difficulty was ever made to him on the part of the Bishop, though from another quarter he subsequently discovered the reason for