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Pastoral Letter of July 19, 1865.

To the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Dio-
cese of Mississippi.

Dear Brethren: --In a Pastoral Letter addressed to you
some time since, I requested you, in your public services, to
use a certain Prayer "for all in authority," in place of that
of like chracater contained in the Prayer Book.

It is known tht in several of the Dioceses where force
of arms had prevailed, some of our Churches had been closed
and their ministers banished, because a certain Prayer was
omitted in the daily service, notwithstanding its omission
had been ordered by the highest ecclesiastical authority known
to these Dioceses. Fearing lest, upon the late change in
our political conditions, a like inference might be attempt-
ed in this Diocese, I felt it my duty to set forth in advance
the course of action which in such case it was proper for you
to pursue. I accordingly reminded you that in all maters
of worship you are amenable to no authority but that of your
ecclesiastical superiors, and that it was your duty to resist,
in every becoming manner, the least inference with you re-
ligious duties, from whatever quarter it might come. At the
same time, in order to show that, as good Churchmen, we ac-
knowledged the rule of those whom Providence had placed over
us, I proposed for your use a Prayer embracing in its inter-