hich I have been and am
sustained by many of the best friends of the Church then and ever
since, that nothing could have been more injurious to the cause of true
religion in the Episcopal Church, or to its growth in any way, than the
continuance of either stipend or glebes. Many clergymen of the most
unworthy character would have been continued among us, and such a
revival as we have seen have never taken place.... Not merely have the
pious members of the Church taken this view of the subject, since the
revival of it under other auspices, but many of those who preferred the
Church at that day, for other reasons than her evangelical doctrine and
worship, saw that It was best that she should be thrown upon her own
resources. I had a conversation with Mr. Madison, soon after he ceased
to be President of the United States, in which I became assured of this.
He himself took an active part in promoting the act for the putting down
the establishment of the Episcopal Church, while his relative was Bishop
of it, and all his family connection attached to it....

It may be well here to state, what will more fully appear when we come
to speak of the old glebes and churches in a subsequent number, that
the character of the laymen of Virginia for morals and religion was in
general greatly in advance of that of the clergy. The latter, for the
most part, were the refuse or more indifferent of the English, Irish,
and Scotch Episcopal churches, who could not find promotion and
employment at home. The former were natives of the soil, and descendants
of respectable ancestors, who migrated at an early period.... Some of
the vestries, as their records painfully show, did what they could to
displace unworthy ministers, though they often failed through defect of
law. In order to avoid the danger of having evil ministers fastened upon
them, as well as from the scarcity of ministers, they made much use of
lay-readers as substitutes.... The reading of the service and sermons in
private families, which contributed so much to the preservation of an
attachment to the Church in the same, was doubtless promoted by this
practice of lay-reading. Those whom Providence raised up to resuscitate
the fallen Church of Virginia can testify to the fact that the families
who descended from the above mentioned, have been their most effective
supports.... And when, in the providence of God. they are called on to
leave their ancient homes, and form new settlements i