We can scarcely now imagine to ourselves the mingled joy and doubt, hopes and fears, thankfulness and uncertainty, that filled the minds and agitated the hearts of those who came together here a hundred years ago. The great point, no doubt, was gained; but what was to follow? Would the consecration of Seabury be everywhere accepted? or would there be those who would reject it because an Act of Parliament had established Presbyterianism in Scotland, and other Acts of Parliament had proscribed the Scotch Episcopate? Would all churchmen in all the thirteen States of the Confederation be united in one body? Or were there such discordant elements, that they who held to the Apostolic Faith and Order would be thrust out? Was there vitality enough in the Church in Connecticut to live and grow? Or, when they who composed it then were gone, would it dwindle and die out? No man could have answered those questions then; God has answered them since. And as we run back along the story of the years that have written out the answer which we read _this_ day, we come at last to _that_ day, so truly memorable, and to the bishop, the clergy, the candidates, who then assembled to take their several parts in the first Episcopal Ordination in America. In the library of Trinity College is preserved--many of us must have seen it--Bishop Seabury's Mitre. I am sure I cannot better express what may be called our culminating thought today, than by quoting some lines written by the Bishop of Western New York on that venerable relic: "The rod that from Jerusalem Went forth so strong of yore, That rod of David's royal stem, Whose hand the farthest bore? St. Paul to seek the setting sun, They say, to Britain prest; St. Andrew to old Calidon, But who still farther West? "Go ask! a thousand tongues shall tell His name and dear renown, Where altar, font, and holy bell Are gifts he handed down; A thousand hearts keep warm the name, Which share those gifts so blest; Yet even this may tell the same, First mitre of the West! "Aye! keep it for this mighty West Till truth shall glorious be, And good old Samuel's is confest Columbia's primal see. 'Tis better than a diadem, The crown that Bishop wore, Whose hand the rod of Jesse's stem The farthest westward bore!" The Rev. Dr. Beardsley then read the following biographical account of the four candidates admitted to the diaconate by Bishop Seabury at his first ordination: