this unexpected change in his feelings and wishes. It was represented to Bishop Hobart, that Mr. Bedell's views on some important points of doctrine advocated by him, had undergone a change, and especially that he had become opposed to the Bishop's views in relation to the Bible Society. This information caused the unexpected letter alluded to from the Bishop to Mr. Bedell. But, painful and embarrassing as was this disappointment, it only furnished an occasion for the exhibition of that loveliness of temper which was so remarkably his uniform characteristic through life. On his next visit to New-York, his affectionate and friendly feeling and deportment towards the Bishop were found unchanged. He visited him without any apparent recollection of the injury which he had sustained, and without asking for any explanation or even alluding to it. Nor in his subsequent life, though they became so widely separated in opinion and conduct upon the most exciting questions of Church policy, was he ever heard to speak of the Bishop but with kindness and respect.

Mr. Bedell was thrown, by this circumstance, into a very painful situation. His little family was dependent upon himself, and his connexion with the people among whom he had ministered, and from whom he derived his support, was separated, in the expectation and promise of this new arrangement, in which he had been entirely disappointed. The Vestry of the Church at Hudson exhibited,

however, no feeling but that of affection and respect towards him. They invited him immediately to renew his connexion with them, and to resume the charge of the congregation. To this request he acceded, and was engaged in his further connexion with them for some months. But feeling that the ties which had bound him to this people were not so easily to be reunited, as they had been severed, and fearing the influence of a declension of the spirit of mutual confidence, he kept himself waiting for the opening of some other door of usefulness in the ministry. Under these circumstances, Bishop Hobart was also made the instrument of sending him out into the extensive field which he subsequently occupied.

In the summer of 1818, a member of the Vestry of the Church in Fayetteville, N. C., was in NewYork, commissioned to engage a minister for that Church. On his application to Bishop Hobart for information in the discharge of this appointment, the Bishop directed his attention to Mr. Bedell of Hudson. The result of the information which this direction elicited, was, that immediately on the return of the gentleman referred to to Fayetteville, an unanimous call from the Church was transmitted to Mr. Bedell. This unexpected demand upon him, agitated and distressed his mind. It opened to him a field entirely new, very remote, and never before considered. He must leave his native territory, which he had never left before, to dwell among

of an

entire strangers. He must withdraw the prop only son from his father bending under the weight of years. He must dwell in a southern climate, the effect of which, upon his own health, and that of his wife, he much dreaded, and amidst circumstances peculiar to that portion of our country, not congenial with his own feelings or principles. But though he hesitated much during his consideration of the call, when he came to the conclusion that it opened to him the path of duty, he delayed no longer. He gave up all his cares to God, and determined to follow at once in the way by which he was leading. He had been ordained a Presbyter in July, 1818, and in October of that year, he removed with his family to his new field of pastoral labour in Fayetteville.

In this place he was instituted as the Rector of the Church, and entered with diligence and zeal upon a field of labour entirely new. The Episcopal Church in North Carolina was at this time composed of but few and scattered members. In Fayetteville a congregation had been collected by the Rev. Bethel Judd, who had been with them for a short time previous to this, and under whose labours they had commenced the erection of a house for public worship. When Mr. Bedell removed thither, the building was still unfinished, and the public services of religion were performed in the hall of the academy. Here he preached his first sermon in October, 1818, from which we have before given

some short extracts. He was now entirely removed from early friends and associations, in a portion of country where the few ministers of his own Church were very widely separated from each other, and where he was obliged to consult and determine and to act in the concerns of his ministry entirely alone. These circumstances were made the occasion and instrument of developing his mind, and giving firmness and character to all his principles.

We have seen him in his short ministry at Hudson, undergoing a strongly marked change of views and habits. He came to Fayetteville with the full benefit of the education and experience through which he had been thus led, and entered upon a new field of duty with a new style of preaching and a new system of ministerial action. Although the change in his religious views and feelings had been gradual, as noticed in his previous course, it exhibited itself very decidedly in the commencement, and through the whole course of his ministry in Fayetteville. His great and unceasing desire now was for the spiritual conversion of his people; and for the attainment of this he did not cease to "teach and to preach Jesus Christ." He laboured and prayed for a reviving spirit of piety in the Church. Besides the stated services of the Lord's-day, he established a weekly meeting for prayer and the exposition of the Scriptures at his own house. He gave himself up to the great work he had undertaken, of leading sinful men to the Lord Jesus Christ. He

instituted here also his favourite instrument of good, and that to which his heart was peculiarly given to the very last of his ministry, Sunday schools and Bible classes; and not only engaged others thus in the labour of Christian instruction, but attended to a weekly Bible class himself for adults of every age. He was in this method literally abundant in labours, and his character and usefulness as a minister of Christ, soon became extensively known and appreciated throughout the United States.

His efforts to do good were not confined to his own congregation. He set himself, and with much success, to fulfil the precept given by the Lord to the Israelites in their captivity, "Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereof, ye shall have peace."* When he re

moved to Fayetteville, the members of the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches were much separated, and, in some cases, violently opposed to each other; so much so, that all mutual intercourse between some families had ceased on this account. He became at once the peace-maker between them; associated himself upon the most friendly terms with the minister and members of the other denomination, and thus was the instrument of restoring the dominion of harmony and concord, and of giving a new impulse to the religious character and spirit of the

Jeremiah xxix 7.