and subtle forms of unbelief and the consolidated forces of Romanism bearing against the Protestant faith; to the utter ignorance of the Gospel among the lower classes of our population (making a heathen world in our very midst), the memorial proceeded to inquire" whether the Protestant Episcopal Church with only her fixed and invariable modes of public worship, and her traditional customs and usages, is competent to the work of preaching and dispensing the Gospel to all sorts and conditions of men?"

This memorial was referred to a committee of five, Bishops Otey, Potter, Burgess, Williams and Wainwright, to report at the next General Convention.

In 1856 final action was taken upon the memorial and the result was that, whereas heretofore it had been mandatory that full Morning Prayer, Litany and the AnteCommunion Service be said each Sunday preceding the sermon; and that the entire form of Evening Prayer be said each Lord's Day; permission was given to use the three offices separately, and that on special occasions ministers might, in their discretion, use such parts of the Prayer Book and read such lessons from Holy Scripture as, in their judgment, should tend most to edification.

This action of the House of Bishops may be regarded as the initiatory step towards flexibility in the use of the Book of Common Prayer, now prevalent; and was doubtless the beginning of that final enrichment of the Church's services, so ably advocated, and finally secured, through the efforts of the late Dr. William R. Huntington.

The Rev. Dr. William G. Andrews, writing of Dr. Harwood says: "By throwing all his own strength into

the effort (namely the preparation of the memorial) Edwin Harwood, who was the last survivor of the memorialists of 1853, had thrown himself unreservedly into the great Catholic movement of the nineteenth century." The Rev. Dr. Means says of Mr. Harwood: "He was not only a singularly handsome man with peculiarly dignified and polished manners, but the intense intellectual ardor added attractiveness to a face of remarkable interest. It was during these few years in New York that he became intimately associated with the Rev. Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg. Of all the great and good men of our communion I believe it would be acknowledged by those who know, that the greatest presbyter we ever had was Dr. Muhlenberg. This was the man who chose Edwin Harwood as his friend. Nearly thirty years his senior, he was yet so won by the high enthusiasm, the pure character and the splendid intellect of the young man that he entered upon the most intimate relations of friendship with him. He made him share in all his thoughts, aspirations and dreams. He laid burden upon his scholarship, and asked his co-operation in the preparation of his paper, the 'Evangelical Catholic.' So close was the tie between them that Mr. Harwood was regarded as knowing more of the mind and heart of Dr. Muhlenberg than any other man.”

In closing a sermon preached in Grace Church, Sunday, January 19th, 1902, the Rev. Dr. Huntington paid this worthy tribute to the first rector of the Incarnation:

A week ago today, at his home in New Haven, there fell on sleep in his eightieth year, Edwin Harwood, Doctor in Divinity;-one of this Church's best. I name him here and now, not only because he was once connected with this parish as the first minister

of Grace Chapel, not only because he was known and
loved by some who are here present, but also because
his public teachings, through half a century, were in
accord with that view of matters ecclesiastical and
religious which I have today been trying to set forth.
Learned, sagacious, far-seeing, brave, this man in the
days of his activity, was to many of his younger
brethren a tower of strength. His learning-no one
questioned; his sagacity-how clearly was it illus-
trated in what he wrote and said; his courage-
who that ever noted his bearing under the stress of
cruel sorrows, or who was befriended by him in the
high places of the field, when the battle of debate
waxed hot, could have entertained towards him any
other feelings than those of gratitude and admiration?
He was not merely a scholar; he was a scholar with a
conscience, unwilling to teach or preach any doctrine
which he was not also willing to examine, or, if need
were, to re-examine. As founder of the Church Con-
gress he showed his constructive power; as the repre-
sentative of Connecticut for many terms in the
General Convention, he showed that there was in
him not a little of the genius of the statesman and
the ecclesiastic.

When his New Haven parishioners built him a rec-
tory, Harwood caused to be inscribed, on the walls of
the study, two Latin mottoes, one from a classic
author, the other from Augustine, Doctor of the
Church, and Saint. The purport of the one sentence
was this: "When men agree, little things grow into
greatness; when they quarrel the greatest things fall
to ruin." The purport of the other was this: "When
the authority of truth is weakened, even though ever
so little, all things lapse into uncertainty."

Of the intimate friends and associates of Edwin Harwood during the few years he lived in New York, there were two men of noble character, leaders of the religious

thought of the hour, both older by many years than the young rector, who made him their personal friend, by the closest of ties. It is safe to say that to the scholarly Washburn and the saintly Muhlenberg young Harwood was most deeply indebted for the development of those characteristics of head and heart which made him in his maturer years the scholar, the theologian and the Godly pastor. He was between thirty and thirty-five years of age when he was rector of the Incarnation. He died at the age of eighty, a leader among men, the originator of the Church Congress, the rector of New Haven's oldest Episcopal Church, the warm and much-loved friend of Bishop Williams and Phillips Brooks.

Such was the character of the first rector of the Incarnation, a man strong in intellect, a scholar and a theologian. Upon another occasion Dr. Huntington said of him, "Truth is the foundation of every thing, and Edwin Harwood loved the truth. His distinguishing mental characteristic was courage. Thank God, men of the Incarnation, that at the head of your roll of clergy stands the name of one so true, so laborious, so brave!"

TH

CHAPTER III

THE MONTGOMERY PERIOD

1855-1874

HE invitation of the vestry of the Incarnation to
the Rev. Mr.

Montgomery
Montgomery was promptly

acknowledged, by the following letter:

Gentlemen:

Philada. Monday, Jany. 22d, 1855.

I received on Saturday, your kind favor of the 17th inst., announcing to me that I had been elected Rector of the Church of the Incarnation, N. Y.

I accept the invitation as frankly as it is tendered; --and I beg you to receive the assurance of my appreciation of the compliment you have extended to me.

I confess, that from what I know of city expenses,
I doubt whether it will be practicable for me to keep
house on the salary proposed.-But I will come in
faith-not permitting myself, for a moment, to doubt,
that the friends who have called me to minister unto
them in spiritual things, will take care that all the rea-
sonable temporal wants of my family shall be supplied.

If convenient to your parish, I should desire in
consideration of parochial and domestic duties here,
to begin my pastoral connection with you on March
the 11th ensuing, the second Sunday of the month.
I am, gentlemen,

Respectfully your friend and brother,

The Vestry of the Church

of the Incarnation, New

York, through

Murray Hoffman Esq. Warden
Chas. H. Smith Esq. Clerk

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