1895
The following story is told in a Chicago paper about Bishop Potter:
The good bishop was attending a gathering of church dignitaries in Boston, and while in that city was entertained in the home of a wealthy lady who was an old, though not an intimate acquaintance.
In the room assigned to him Bishop Potter found a full set of silver toilet articles, which he carefully packed away in the drawers of the dresser, preferring to use his own, which he had in his portmanteau.
His visit came to a sudden conclusion, and the bishop had no time to restore the toilet articles to their proper places, and in consequence the servant reported them missing to her mistress, adding that Bishop Potter must have taken them.
Of course it was not to be for a moment thought that the articles had been maliciously purloined, but they were gone, and so was the reverend guest.
The following telegram was sent to Bishop Potter: "By mistake and in your haste you have taken toilet articles from dresser."
To this Bishop Potter made reply over the wire: "Poor, but still honest. Find property in third drawer of dresser."
Of course many and ample apologies were offered and every effort made to keep the affair quiet, but the joke was too good, and Bishop Potter was the first to relate it.
Showing posts with label bishop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bishop. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Bishop McDonnell's Trip to Rome
New York, 1895
Bishop McDonnell of this Catholic diocese has made arrangements to start for Rome on Saturday. He will be accompanied by his private secretary, Father Mitchell. It will be his first visit to the Pope since his consecration as Bishop three years ago. Each Bishop is expected to go to Rome at least once in ten years to submit a report on the condition of his diocese.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 1.
Bishop McDonnell of this Catholic diocese has made arrangements to start for Rome on Saturday. He will be accompanied by his private secretary, Father Mitchell. It will be his first visit to the Pope since his consecration as Bishop three years ago. Each Bishop is expected to go to Rome at least once in ten years to submit a report on the condition of his diocese.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1895, p. 1.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
When He Missed His Mother
1910
Bishop of Lincoln Regretted Inability to Make Frank Criticism of Poor Sermon
Cannon Scott Holland, in an appreciation of the late bishop of Lincoln, mentions that Doctor King was a bachelor, and his mother lived with him till her death. He said once, after hearing a rasping sermon that irritated him: "It is at such a time that I miss my mother." He was asked why.
"Because directly we were through the door I should have turned to her and said: 'That was a beastly sermon,' and then it would have been out, and I should have been sorry to have said it and should have begun to apologize for the sermon and to love the preacher. Now the poison is in me all the week and I can't get rid of it."
Doctor King had a delicate and subtle wit. Once, said the canon, we had all been rather swept off our feet by the vivacity of certain Hampton lectures which were laid out on rather well worn conventional lines.
The material was old, no doubt, but still it was surprising how well they went. How was it? What would King say of them? "Well, it is wonderful," he said, "how good an old pair of trousers will come out if you have laid them away for some time in a drawer."
He had hit it exactly. The trousers were green, for all their apparent sheen.
Bishop of Lincoln Regretted Inability to Make Frank Criticism of Poor Sermon
Cannon Scott Holland, in an appreciation of the late bishop of Lincoln, mentions that Doctor King was a bachelor, and his mother lived with him till her death. He said once, after hearing a rasping sermon that irritated him: "It is at such a time that I miss my mother." He was asked why.
"Because directly we were through the door I should have turned to her and said: 'That was a beastly sermon,' and then it would have been out, and I should have been sorry to have said it and should have begun to apologize for the sermon and to love the preacher. Now the poison is in me all the week and I can't get rid of it."
Doctor King had a delicate and subtle wit. Once, said the canon, we had all been rather swept off our feet by the vivacity of certain Hampton lectures which were laid out on rather well worn conventional lines.
The material was old, no doubt, but still it was surprising how well they went. How was it? What would King say of them? "Well, it is wonderful," he said, "how good an old pair of trousers will come out if you have laid them away for some time in a drawer."
He had hit it exactly. The trousers were green, for all their apparent sheen.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Bishop Anderson Preaches on God's Revelation
Nebraska, 1910
"Higher Criticism" O.K'd
Following is the account of a sermon taken from an article on an assembly in Lincoln, Nebraska, August 1910. Some of the details, as to who exactly Bishop Anderson was, his first name, etc., are not given.
"You preachers who have been ranting about higher criticism have got to quit and inform yourself of what higher criticism stands for," was the assertion with which Bishop Anderson startled some of his more orthodox hearers in the sermon of the morning. "Bishop Bashford said on Sunday that he wanted the ministers to cease denouncing the law of evolution," the speaker continued, "and I want to say the same thing to apply to higher criticism. I think it is time for those who have blazed away at higher criticism to stop and find out what higher criticism stands for. It is absolutely foolish for anyone to wax excited or get worried over Biblical scholarship. No one need be alarmed over the investigations being made which are called 'higher criticism.' If there is a preacher here who has been tearing loose in his pulpit on this I wish he would come up here and inform us what it is he has been assailing. Criticism is not unfriendly, it is constructive. It is merely a study of the Bible as a collection of books to ascertain the authorship and the date of writing. I don't want my Bible exempt from the severest intellectual investigation applied to other works. The word of God is not harmed but helped thereby. It stands forever and its value is better discovered when it is subjected to the most exacting tests."
After the assertions made by Bishop Bashford on evolution on Sunday, many who do not believe in the new true religion, severely criticized him. Bishop Anderson also did not escape the contradiction of some or his audience who talked his utterances over after the service this morning.
Recites from Hebrew Poet
The theme of the bishop's sermon was "Books Which God Writes." As a text he recited the rapturous outburst of the Hebrew poet, beginning: "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork." He took the psalm, verse by verse, and drew his applications from the individual sentences contained therein. The three books in which God has written His revelation, according to the preacher, are, first, the book of nature; second, the Bible, and third, the book of life and the spiritual consciousness of man.
"When Beethoven began to write music," Bishop Anderson continued, "he found it impossible to express all effects and meanings in the selections he composed for the piano. Later, he composed orchestra music adapted for a large variety of instruments and was able to secure the interpretation desired. So God did not confine himself in His revelation to a written work, but indelibly and unmistakably wrote in the book of nature. In former times it was thought that matter is evil and that the world belonged to the devil. I assert that this is the best possible world God could have made. It is a superb expression of His attributes.
Creator Greatest Artist
"God is not separated from the universe by law. He is law and permeates all the mechanism which we designate by the name, law. Kant said: 'I am amazed at the starry heavens above and the moral law within.' God is a great artist and has created in the universe a masterpiece.
"When Robert Louis Stevenson landed at Samoa, he saw a Scotchman standing on the shore, hat in hand evidently in the act of worship. It was an early hour of morning and the great author was curious but did not wish to disturb the devotions of the man. Later he became intimately acquainted with the man and asked him in regard to the circumstances in which he had first seen him. The Scotchman replied: 'Every morning at sunrise, I go out into he open to see the beautiful universe awake and I feel exalted and worship the magnificence of nature.' God has written a part of his truth in nature.
"Another book of God," said the bishop, "is the Bible. It is necessary to express secret and subtle thought that could not be expressed in the book of nature.
"The third book of God to which I would allude is the book of human life and the testimony of the Most High written in the hearts of men. Men can read this revelation if they make their hearts pure and thereby clarify their spiritual vision.
"Some men who can't run a two by four store," said the speaker, "find fault with the world and would like to instruct the Lord on how to run his business, Earth is crammed with heaven and good things and the gloomy pessimist who cannot discover them is to be pitied."
—Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, NE, Aug. 10, 1910, p. 8.
"Higher Criticism" O.K'd
Following is the account of a sermon taken from an article on an assembly in Lincoln, Nebraska, August 1910. Some of the details, as to who exactly Bishop Anderson was, his first name, etc., are not given.
"You preachers who have been ranting about higher criticism have got to quit and inform yourself of what higher criticism stands for," was the assertion with which Bishop Anderson startled some of his more orthodox hearers in the sermon of the morning. "Bishop Bashford said on Sunday that he wanted the ministers to cease denouncing the law of evolution," the speaker continued, "and I want to say the same thing to apply to higher criticism. I think it is time for those who have blazed away at higher criticism to stop and find out what higher criticism stands for. It is absolutely foolish for anyone to wax excited or get worried over Biblical scholarship. No one need be alarmed over the investigations being made which are called 'higher criticism.' If there is a preacher here who has been tearing loose in his pulpit on this I wish he would come up here and inform us what it is he has been assailing. Criticism is not unfriendly, it is constructive. It is merely a study of the Bible as a collection of books to ascertain the authorship and the date of writing. I don't want my Bible exempt from the severest intellectual investigation applied to other works. The word of God is not harmed but helped thereby. It stands forever and its value is better discovered when it is subjected to the most exacting tests."
After the assertions made by Bishop Bashford on evolution on Sunday, many who do not believe in the new true religion, severely criticized him. Bishop Anderson also did not escape the contradiction of some or his audience who talked his utterances over after the service this morning.
Recites from Hebrew Poet
The theme of the bishop's sermon was "Books Which God Writes." As a text he recited the rapturous outburst of the Hebrew poet, beginning: "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork." He took the psalm, verse by verse, and drew his applications from the individual sentences contained therein. The three books in which God has written His revelation, according to the preacher, are, first, the book of nature; second, the Bible, and third, the book of life and the spiritual consciousness of man.
"When Beethoven began to write music," Bishop Anderson continued, "he found it impossible to express all effects and meanings in the selections he composed for the piano. Later, he composed orchestra music adapted for a large variety of instruments and was able to secure the interpretation desired. So God did not confine himself in His revelation to a written work, but indelibly and unmistakably wrote in the book of nature. In former times it was thought that matter is evil and that the world belonged to the devil. I assert that this is the best possible world God could have made. It is a superb expression of His attributes.
Creator Greatest Artist
"God is not separated from the universe by law. He is law and permeates all the mechanism which we designate by the name, law. Kant said: 'I am amazed at the starry heavens above and the moral law within.' God is a great artist and has created in the universe a masterpiece.
"When Robert Louis Stevenson landed at Samoa, he saw a Scotchman standing on the shore, hat in hand evidently in the act of worship. It was an early hour of morning and the great author was curious but did not wish to disturb the devotions of the man. Later he became intimately acquainted with the man and asked him in regard to the circumstances in which he had first seen him. The Scotchman replied: 'Every morning at sunrise, I go out into he open to see the beautiful universe awake and I feel exalted and worship the magnificence of nature.' God has written a part of his truth in nature.
"Another book of God," said the bishop, "is the Bible. It is necessary to express secret and subtle thought that could not be expressed in the book of nature.
"The third book of God to which I would allude is the book of human life and the testimony of the Most High written in the hearts of men. Men can read this revelation if they make their hearts pure and thereby clarify their spiritual vision.
"Some men who can't run a two by four store," said the speaker, "find fault with the world and would like to instruct the Lord on how to run his business, Earth is crammed with heaven and good things and the gloomy pessimist who cannot discover them is to be pitied."
—Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, NE, Aug. 10, 1910, p. 8.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Groom Was Willing to Pay
1914
Became Impatient, However, When He Thought Officiating Bishop Was Hurrying Him
A prominent bishop of one of the largest denominations in the world tells the following story:
"A young man came to me one day and said: 'Bishop, I want you to marry me on next Wednesday.'
"'All right, young man; I'll marry you,' I assured him.
"'Well, I want the bell to ring,' he continued.
"'Very well, you can have the bell rung.'
"'Well, I want the organ to play.'
"'All right, you can have the organ played.'
"'And I want everything else that anybody ever had at a church wedding.'
"'Certainly; you shall have it.'
"Well, the night came, the bell rang, the organ played, the church was crowded, and everything went off as the young man wanted it. When the ceremony was over the young couple waited instead of leaving the chancel. So I held out my hand, shook hands with the bride and then held out my hand to the bridegroom. He had his hand deep in his trousers pocket, and as I stood with my hand out he said, somewhat impatiently, and in a tone that could be heard all over the church:
"'Now, don't be in such an all-fired hurry, bishop; I'm getting the money out just as fast as I can.'
"And everybody in the church giggled."
Became Impatient, However, When He Thought Officiating Bishop Was Hurrying Him
A prominent bishop of one of the largest denominations in the world tells the following story:
"A young man came to me one day and said: 'Bishop, I want you to marry me on next Wednesday.'
"'All right, young man; I'll marry you,' I assured him.
"'Well, I want the bell to ring,' he continued.
"'Very well, you can have the bell rung.'
"'Well, I want the organ to play.'
"'All right, you can have the organ played.'
"'And I want everything else that anybody ever had at a church wedding.'
"'Certainly; you shall have it.'
"Well, the night came, the bell rang, the organ played, the church was crowded, and everything went off as the young man wanted it. When the ceremony was over the young couple waited instead of leaving the chancel. So I held out my hand, shook hands with the bride and then held out my hand to the bridegroom. He had his hand deep in his trousers pocket, and as I stood with my hand out he said, somewhat impatiently, and in a tone that could be heard all over the church:
"'Now, don't be in such an all-fired hurry, bishop; I'm getting the money out just as fast as I can.'
"And everybody in the church giggled."
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Rev. Tom Jimison "Fired" Himself
North Carolina, 1924
Lumberton Robesonian
Rev. Tom Jimison, who is better known as an agitator and politician than as a divider of The Word, was told by Bishop Denny at the Western North Carolina Methodist Conference at Greensboro last week that his political activities made him unacceptable as a pastor; that he could not send him anywhere where he would be acceptable, so the Rev. Tom asked to be located, which means that he was not given an appointment.
Jimison issued a statement in which he said that "if religion is to be unrelated to the great questions which are agitating the world today, then I do not care to be a minister of religion. If I must sacrifice my liberties as a citizen in order to be a Methodist preacher, then I do not care to be a Methodist preacher."
Things seem to be sadly jumbled in Rev. Tom's head. He is a preacher who seems to think that the salvation of the world lies in politics rather than in religion, while politicians who have attained the heights of statesmanship concede that the salvation of the world depends upon religion rather than politics. There are hundreds of preachers in every denomination who "relate" religion to the great questions agitating the world today, but who make preaching the gospel their chief concern and who never dream that they are sacrificing their "liberties as a citizen" in order to be a preacher.
The Rev. Tom is candidate for the Senate on the LaFollette-Wheeler ticket and advised third party headquarters after his connection with the conference as an active pastor was severed that he was "free as a bird" and said he could now devote his time to canvassing the State. Wherefore it seems that he is and has been a stranger to the freedom that makes a man free indeed. He seems now to feel much like the school boy who rejoices that the hated restraints of school are ended.
Of course effort will be made to make it appear that Mr. Jimison is a victim of persecution because of his radical political views; which, of course, had nothing to do with it. No man has any business in the active pastorate who shows by his activities that he is more concerned about some other line of work than he is about the ministry.
The Rev. Jimison "fired" himself.
—The Landmark, Statesville, North Carolina, October 27, 1924, page 2.
Lumberton Robesonian
Rev. Tom Jimison, who is better known as an agitator and politician than as a divider of The Word, was told by Bishop Denny at the Western North Carolina Methodist Conference at Greensboro last week that his political activities made him unacceptable as a pastor; that he could not send him anywhere where he would be acceptable, so the Rev. Tom asked to be located, which means that he was not given an appointment.
Jimison issued a statement in which he said that "if religion is to be unrelated to the great questions which are agitating the world today, then I do not care to be a minister of religion. If I must sacrifice my liberties as a citizen in order to be a Methodist preacher, then I do not care to be a Methodist preacher."
Things seem to be sadly jumbled in Rev. Tom's head. He is a preacher who seems to think that the salvation of the world lies in politics rather than in religion, while politicians who have attained the heights of statesmanship concede that the salvation of the world depends upon religion rather than politics. There are hundreds of preachers in every denomination who "relate" religion to the great questions agitating the world today, but who make preaching the gospel their chief concern and who never dream that they are sacrificing their "liberties as a citizen" in order to be a preacher.
The Rev. Tom is candidate for the Senate on the LaFollette-Wheeler ticket and advised third party headquarters after his connection with the conference as an active pastor was severed that he was "free as a bird" and said he could now devote his time to canvassing the State. Wherefore it seems that he is and has been a stranger to the freedom that makes a man free indeed. He seems now to feel much like the school boy who rejoices that the hated restraints of school are ended.
Of course effort will be made to make it appear that Mr. Jimison is a victim of persecution because of his radical political views; which, of course, had nothing to do with it. No man has any business in the active pastorate who shows by his activities that he is more concerned about some other line of work than he is about the ministry.
The Rev. Jimison "fired" himself.
—The Landmark, Statesville, North Carolina, October 27, 1924, page 2.
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