Bishop Hopkins As A Mason.

Law , hut soon relinquishing his purpose in this respect , he entered a countinghouse in Philadelphia , where he remained about a year , and while there assisted Wilson , the ornithologist , in the preparation of the plates of the first

four volumes of his great work . In 1817 he resumed his professional studies , and was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , taking a high stand hi his profession . In 1823 , he again gave up his law pursuits , entered

the ministry , and in the following year was ordained Eector of Trinity Church in that city . A new Church edifice being soon required for the accommodation of his increasing society , he became its architect , studying Gothic architecture for the purpose . His labors here were attended -with so much

success , and his popularity as a preacher had become so well established and widely known , that in 1831 he received and accepted a call to Trinity Church , Boston , as assistant minister . A theological seminary was at the same

time established in the diocese of Massachusetts , in which , he was appointed to the professorship of systematic divinity . In October , 1832 , having resigned his place in the seminary for the purpose , he was

consecrated the first Bishop of Vermont , and at the same time accepted the Rectorship of St . Paul's . Church , Burlington . He , however , resigned this latter appointment in 185 G , that he might devote himself more

unreservedly to the work of his Diocese , and the building up at Burlington , of the " Vermont Episcopal Institute . "

He was distinguished for his great versatility of talent , learning and extensive reading , and contributed largely by his pen to the literature of the Church . Besides pamphlets , sermons and addresses , lie published a series of

essays and works of more comprehensive interest , among which were " Christianity Vindicated ; " " The Primitive Church compared with the Protestant Episcopal Church of the present clay ; " " Essay on Gothic

Architecture ; " " The Church of Rome in her Primitive Purity , compared with the Church of the ' present day , ( 1837 );" " Twelve Canzonets , " words and music ; " Causes , Principles and Eesults of the British Reformation ; " " The American

Citizen—his Rights and Duties ;" " Churchllistory in verse ( 1867 ); " which we think was the last he published . He took a prominent part in the famous Pan-Anglican synod at Lambeth , and received from the Oxford University

one of its highest honorary degrees , —a compliment paid to but few American scholars . He entered Freemasonry in the first year of his residence at Pittsburgh

, and the first public act was at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Episcopal Church there , on which occasion he delivered the address . It

was the first time that so much pomp and ceremony had marked the laying of any comer-stone in Western . Pennsylvania ; and the Address opened with a keen and unanswerable vindication of the use of a gorgeous ceremonial in

the worship of God . Its being "uncommon" and "of no use to the building itself , " he proved to be no objection . In regard to any such ceremony , lie says : " Before Ave object to its introduction amongst ourselveslet us first

, ask , Can it do any harm ? and if , to say the least of it , it is innocent , it may be as well , and certainly as charitable , to let it pass without any unfriendly observations . " The real use of it all is , he saj r s"to show the interest which

, we feel in the subject of it , or , in other words , to express the emotions which ought to attend the establishment of everything connected with religion . "

His son , the Rev . J . H . Hopkins , of Plattsburgh , N . Y ., who has recently written an interesting biography of the Bishop , tells us that he ever cherished a sincere regard for Masonry , and could not see , as some others pretend to de ,

" that it was in any way opposed to Christianity . " By its recognition of the Bible , and by reason of the many