Page:Memoir of Edward Lord Bishop of Salisbury.djvu/12

8 ecclesiastical institutions and an ecclesiastical system had grown up amongst and around them—had covered the surface and penetrated into the heart of the diocese. The face of the diocese was changed; visible fabrics of religion had appeared in every spot once neglected in the counties of Wilts and Dorset. Moreover, schools had invariably risen with the church. But still better, the visible forms of the church and school were true types of the invisible agencies which they represented. The Catholic doctrine of the undivided primitive Church, the religious and intellectual training of the child, and still more of the master—the last being the favourite and successful achievement of the late Bishop—manifested their excellent results, in the rapidly-increased education, civilisation, and comfort of the people, and offered indisputable evidence, not only of the piety and sagacity, but of the patient and enduring perseverance of their promoter.

The Bishop in his charge delivered at his second visitation, spoke as follows: "In 42 parishes a second service has been added, where, three years ago, there was but one; in 65 parishes, in the same period, a second sermon has been added; in 89 parishes the sacrament of baptism is now publicly administered, where formerly it was not; and holy communion is now administered more frequently, and the festivals of the Church (strange to say, heretofore almost universally neglected) are now in the way of being,