Cheshire frankly confessed that in the first exercise of his ministerial duties among the students he felt "great embarrassment" and even some "timidity." He explained: "I had not been accustomed to speak much of my own religious feelings; and I was at a loss how to make a proper approach to the subject of another person's religious duties and convictions."[8] He visited the boys in their rooms when he thought they liked it, but never sought to force himself upon them. Cheshire later declared he did not remember ever approaching a student on the subject of religion without receiving a serious and courteous hearing. Many students seemed to appreciate the interest he took in their religious life. Cheshire himself was only a few years older than many of the undergraduates and, therefore, could understand their point of view and enter sympathetically into their problems. The effectiveness of his first year's work in Chapel Hill was demonstrated when Bishop Lyman made his visitation to the Chapel of the Cross in May, 1879. Cheshire presented to the Bishop for confirmation nine students and two girls of the village. In later years he remarked that this was "one of the most interesting and satisfactory classes I ever presented." When he first began preaching, Cheshire took great pains in the preparation of his sermons, writing them out in full. He freely admitted he had "no special gifts or talents as a speaker." In discussing the problem of preaching with Cheshire just after his ordination, Bishop Atkinson said he would give him the same advice which Bishop Johns, of Virginia, used to give his young deacons: "Choose a pretty long text, so that if they persecute you in one city, you may flee to another." Cheshire began, in time, to memorize his sermons and then to attempt to preach extemporaneously, but he always felt that his written sermons were better. Concerning the reception of his sermons in Chapel Hill, he stated: "My Chapel Hill congregation seemed to me most considerate and appreciative of my attempts at preaching, even the students of the University, so far as I could judge."[9] In his congregation Cheshire had some of the most distinguished members of the University faculty. President Battle was his senior warden and sincere friend, who gave him "judicious praise" as well as sound advice as to the pitfalls which a young clergyman might expect to encounter. Dr. J. de Berniere Hooper, Professor of Greek, was in Cheshire's opinion, "the most scholarly and highly cultivated" member of his parish. Professors Ralph Graves and George T. Winston, both young men who were later to win fame, were also members of his congregation. He lived on friendly relations with these and other members of the small faculty.