582 



MOREIS, THOMAS A. 



MUSIC BY TELEGRAPH. 



women teachers had been established at Gra- 

 dau. The Diaspora work of the German Prov- 

 ince had been prosecuted without the occur- 

 rence of any events to call for especial remark. 

 The mission-work had been prosecuted with 

 encouragement at some points, in the face of 

 difficulties at others. The congregation at 

 Lichtenau, in Greenland, celebrated its centen- 

 nial anniversary in July, and that at Fried- 

 richsthal its semi-centennial in the same month. 

 Disturbances had interrupted the peace of the 

 congregation at Okak, in Labrador, but they 

 had been quieted after much difficulty. A new 

 church of the Indian congregation, in the 

 Cherokee Nation, was dedicated on the 14th 

 of June. The people in the West Indian con- 

 gregations had been impoverished by drought, 

 and the work of the missions had suffered in 

 consequence. A new church was dedicated 

 at Bethel, St. Kitts. The congregation at 

 Gracehill, Antigua, celebrated its centennial 

 anniversary on the 2d of August. The mission 

 at Surinam had substantially passed through 

 the difficulties incident upon the completion 

 of the emancipation of the negroes, and had so 

 far escaped material harm. A new church 

 was dedicated at Maripastoon, September 13th. 

 The mission of the Mosquito coast had suf- 

 fered by the destruction of two mission-ships. 

 The congregation of Elim, in the South-African 

 Mission, celebrated its semi-centennial anniver- 

 sary in August. The work in the South-Afri- 

 can field had been increased by the establish- 

 ment of an additional station, and one out- 

 station. The mission in Australia had been 

 blessed with spiritual prosperity and progress 

 in the schools, but reported no great increase 

 in numbers. The missionaries in the Himalaya 

 Mountains were laboring hopefully. Two of 

 them had made extensive journeys through the 

 country, distributing the Scriptures and con- 

 versing with the natives when opportunity 

 offered. It was observed that the work in this 

 field is one which requires time and great pa- 

 tience. 



MORRIS, Right Rev. THOMAS A., D. D., Sen- 

 ior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 born near Charleston, Kanawha County, West 

 Va., April 28, 1794; died at his residence, 

 Springfield, Ohio, September 2, 1874. When 

 he was about ten years old, his family removed 

 to Cabell County, West Va., then a compara- 

 tively wild and uninhabited region, where, 

 however, he had the advantage of an excellent 

 school established at the county-seat ; and when 

 he was about seventeen years of age he became 

 deputy-clerk under an older brother, who was 

 the clerk of the county. His health in youth 

 was very delicate and precarious, but the hard- 

 ships of a pioneer life, and of agricultural pur- 

 suits in a new country, inured him to toils and 

 perils, and gave his constitution greater vigor. 

 His family were members of the Baptist Church, 

 and he had imbibed some prejudices against 

 the Methodists, which, however, were removed 

 by attendance at their meetings during a great 



revival in 1873, and by his personal acquaint- 

 ance with Rev. David Young, one of the pio- 

 neer Methodist preachers of that region, and 

 soon after presiding elder of the Muskingum 

 District, which included North western Virginia. 

 He had been greatly impressed by Mr. Young's 

 sermons, and in August, 1813, was baptized by 

 him, and received as a probationer in the Meth- 

 odist Church. He was soon requested to lead 

 a class, to hold prayer-meetings, and on the 

 2d of April, 1814, was licensed to preach by 

 his friend Young, and assigned a place as junior 

 preacher in a circuit. At the age of twenty- 

 two Mr. Young's junior preacher was admitted 

 on trial by the Ohio Conference, and his itin- 

 erant ministry in the West, which was very ex- 

 tensive and successful, lasted until 1834. Dur- 

 ing the first seven years of his regular minis- 

 try he suffered greatly from ill-health, being 

 afflicted with a complication of diseases, and 

 finally suffering from paralysis of the left hand, 

 foot, and eye. The life which he so largely 

 led in the open air, and the constant exercise 

 on horseback, at length restored his health. 

 He was ordained a deacon by Bishop George, 

 and afterward as an elder by Bishop Roberts, 

 and he preached with power and effect in the 

 three States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 

 In 1834 he was appointed the first editor of 

 the Western Christian Advocate, which was 

 started at Cincinnati on the 2d of May in that 

 year. He filled the position with credit until 

 1836, when he was chosen a bishop by the Gen- 

 eral Conference. In 1841 the degree of D. D. 

 was conferred upon him by McKendree College, 

 Illinois. He discharged the duties of his bish- 

 opric with laborious fidelity, with singular abil- 

 ity, and marked success. In the antislavery 

 controversy, and those concerning the questions 

 of secession and the War for the Union, he did 

 much to mould opinion in the Church. His 

 rare gifts as a singer helped to sustain the zeal 

 of the meetings in which he took part. In, 

 person, Bishop Morris was short and rotund," 

 with a ruddy complexion, and a lofty and in- 

 tellectual brow. He had only published a 

 volume of essays, biographical and historical 

 sketches, and notes of travel, about 1851 ; a 

 volume of sermons of exceptional popularity, 

 and several single biographical discourses and 

 essays. 



MUSIC BY TELEGRAPH. Mr. Elisha 

 Gray, of Chicago, a gentleman well known in 

 the electric-telegraph world as a maker and 

 inventor, has succeeded in perfecting an instru- 

 ment which will convey sound by electricity 

 over an unbroken current of extraordinary 

 length, that is, without the aid of automatic 

 repeaters. In the ordinary transmission of 

 messages over the telegraph-wires to points 

 at long distances, a message is generally re- 

 peated by automatic working instruments about 

 every 500 miles, in order to renew the current 

 of electricity. Mr. Gray has already transmit- 

 ted sounds which are distinctly audible at the 

 receiving-point, over an unbroken circuit of 



