"And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto Erratum.-On page twelve it is stated, on the authority of Mr. Nor- MEMOIR. CHAPTER I. 1762 TO 1787. Introduction. The Bishop's Birth-Ancestry-Beneficial influence of maternal instruction and example. Indications of piety in his early childhood, and presentiments of future occupation in the sacred ministry. His classical education. Visit to West Point-anecdote of the Moore family during the Revolutionary War. Brief trial of sea-life. Devotes himself to the study of medicine-and enters into practice. His first marriage. His early religious impressions in a great measure lost, and he conforms to the gayeties of the world. His conversion. To give a biographical sketch of an eminent servant of God, who for more than half a century had occupied a distinguished station in the ranks of the Christian ministry, and at least for a moiety of that period had been loved and venerated as a Right Reverend Father in God, is a task which one can hardly hope to execute so successfully as not to disappoint the expectations of those to whom the character and life of the subject of his memoir were familiarly known. Those who have often felt the magic power of action and the witchery of voice by which the living teacher of the Gospel sways the understanding and leads captive the affections of his hearers, and have been actual observers of that life in which his doctrines were so sweetly confirmed by the beautiful illustrations of a holy and virtuous conversation, will find any written account tame and unsatisfactory in comparison with the vivid impressions left A on their minds by the knowledge of the original. To this class of readers the memoir of a beloved and distinguished individual would be like a pencil sketch of the Parthenon, or any other beautiful temple to one who had spent his life within view of its walls, or an oral description of Niagara to one who had for years listened to the roaring of the cataract. Pictures of natural scenery and objects seldom afford satisfaction to those who are familiar with the originals, and a man's own family most readily discover blemishes in a likeness of himself. No power of art can impart to an image the beauty, or vividness, or interest of the living subject: all that can be attempted is a true outline, and a faithful representation; which, while it may serve to convey to strangers some true idea of one they had never known, may, at the same time, serve to awaken pleasing recollections in the minds of others. The aged disciple, whose life is now to pass under our review, was extensively known to the religious community in the United States, and in the Church had long been esteemed a Patriarch of the family. In this biography we shall attempt to give a faithful portraiture of the prominent features in his character, and the most eventful incidents in his history. If any who have known him long and intimately, will complain that some points which they most admired in him are not brought prominently into view, it is to be hoped that there will be enough of fidelity in the sketch to awaken in the minds of junior readers, and of posterity (should any of them peruse these pages) an admiration of the principles and practices of one they never had the privilege of knowing; so that the memory of a Christian Bishop, who largely possessed the love and confidence of this generation, may be embalmed in the veneration of the next. RICHARD CHANNING MOORE was born in the city of NewYork, on the 21st of August, A. D. 1762. He was the worthy scion of a good stock; and so far as the history of his family is known to us, extending back through a period of more than two centuries, some respectable and honourable names are found enrolled in the list of his progenitors. The first of these concerning whom we have any information, SIR JOHN MOORE, had for his family seat Frawley, in Berkshire, England. This gentleman was raised to the order of knighthood by Charles I., king of England, on the 21st of May, 1627: probably as a reward for some important services rendered to the country and the crown. The motto on his coat of arms was; Nihil utile quod non honestum. He was, doubtless, a monarchist in politics, and a churchman in religion; as he lost both his fortune and life in those revolutionary excitements-produced more by a blind and ignorant religious bigotry than by a love of rational liberty-which deprived the unfortunate monarch of his crown, and brought him to an ignominious end upon the scaffold. It was a sacrifice professedly made to establish the rights of subjects, and freedom of conscience in religion. But the light which succeeding events have thrown upon the character of the agents, and of the sufferer, in that tragedy, has led many to contemplate it as a case of martyrdom in the cause of God and his Church. Of the descendants of Sir John Moore little is known until we come to John Moore, the grandfather of the lamented Bishop, three of whose brothers, no less than himself, were distinguished for their stations and virtues. One of them was the REV. DR. THOMAS MOORE, chaplain to Dr. Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, one of the most eminent scholars and celebrated preachers of his age. The wellknown eloquent sermons of that admired prelate were Another of the bro- edited and published under the direction of Dr. Moore. He died rector of Little Britain in London, leaving a highly respectable family, among whom was Thomas Moore, D. D., rector of North Bray, in Kent. Another of the brothers of John Moore, was DANIEL MOORE, a gentleman of large estate, who was a member of Parliament for many years, and whose daughter married the celebrated Lord Chancellor Erskine. thers was WILLIAM MOORE, of Moore who left a highly respectable family. ters of this gentleman became the wife of the Rev. Dr. William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia; a preacher of great celebrity, and well known, in our ecclesiastical annals, by his able and zealous co-operation with Bishop White and others in organizing the government and settling the doctrines, and discipline, and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country. Dr. Smith was chairman of the Committee for revising and altering the Liturgy, in the first General Convention, in 1785, continued a most active and useful member of that body for several successive sessions, and was the first President of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, after the Bishops constituted a separate house in 1789. JOHN MOORE, a brother of William, and grandfather of the Bishop, was a wealthy and respectable merchant of New York. He was, at one time, an Alderman of the city, for many years a member of the colonial Legislature, and at the time of his death colonel of one of the New York regiments, and a member of the King's Council for the Province. Dying in 1749 at the age of 63, he is said to have been the first person buried in Trinity Church-yard, where so many thousands have since found their last repose. The family vault still remains, and the title to this |