Births  Marriages  Deaths  &c. &c.

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1856 continued

a high day, in which the Christian passover & confirmatory admission into the Christian Church have been observed with a sincerity of purpose and a degree of devotional feeling, similar to that of the Israelite of old when he came to perform the vital and significant obligations which the God of his fathers had commanded him. There was however this vast difference between their divinely appointed and prospective ceremonies & our equally home institutions. Theirs were the shadows of good things to come, ours the soul [invigorating?] memorials of Him to whom all the prophets bore witness The Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. All yesterday and the previous evening the Bishop had been engaged in the examination of the Catechismers, formed into nine classes, and finding them competent to the wise & consistent requirements of the Church, his Lordship determined to perform the Scriptural side of confirmation this afternoon. The morning service commenced at the usual time. The Rev. Mr. Nobbs officiating, at the conclusion of the second lesson the Bishop administered the sacrament of Baptism to the infant child of John Adams the second. Just at the conclusion of this impressive rite, the Bishops Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Pattieson, who had but then landed from their vessel: entered the church, having put on his surplice outside, and walking down the aisle joined the Bishop in the Chancel. So many clericals in their appropriate vestments, present at the same time had never before been witnessed by our community & it excited in them somewhat of wonder and admiration. The Bishop concluded the Liturgy by reading the proper portions of the Communion service, Mr. Pattieson assisting. The Bishop then went into the pulpit & preached, nearly ex tempore a sermon admirably suited to the occasion, from the Epistle