In sympathy with the Oxford movement in the Church of England, he was a leader in that movement as it affected the Church in America, and so was called a "High Churchman," at a time when that term was of somewhat different application from what it is now. And he was then called a "Ritualist," and was regarded as an extremist though at the present day he would be considered a very moderate ritualist.
He was always a welcome visitor in all parts of the country and people not only delighted to hear him preach but especially enjoyed social intercourse with him. His conversation was extremely entertaining, partly because of the breadth of his experiences in times of war and in times of peace;--as a traveller in England and as the hard-working Bishop of a Southern Diocese, but also because his talk scintillated with wit and quick repartee.
When some one in New York asked him why he had named a Church at Sewanee, "St. Paul's-on-the-Mountain," he answered: "Sewanee is Cherokee Indian for 'Mother Mountain,' and you know St. Paul preached on _Mars_ Hill." On another occasion a man was attempting to argue with him in regard to what he chose to call "the use of forms" in the Church. "Well," said the Bishop, "you know that when the earth was without form, it was void; and that is the way with many Christians."
The Bishop enjoyed a reputation as a pulpit orator that became wider than national. His voice was "as musical as the lute and resonant as a bugle." The Southern newspapers between 1868 and 1875 praised his eloquence and noted the fact that, in spite of his belonging to a school of thought not altogether popular in the South at that time, people of all shades of opinion thronged the churches to hear him preach. He was a ready extemporaneous speaker, yet his sermons were for the most part carefully prepared and written out and delivered from the manuscript. Some of them became widely known through many repetitions, and not a few became famous. One of these had a history the Bishop was as fond of telling as he was of repeating the sermon.
It was known as the "Bishop's Samson Sermon," and was from the text, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself." (Judges xvi, 20.) When first delivered in one of the parishes of Tennessee, the Bishop was informed by a disgusted hearer that it was "positively indecent," and not fit to be preached before any congregation. Consequently the sermon was "retired" until it was almost forgotten. Some time afterward, however, it was by accident included among sermons provided for use on one of the Bishop's series of visitations; and when discovered with his homiletic ammunition, the Bishop read it over carefully but without finding anything in it that could be characterized as indecent. So he determined to "try it again." It made a deep and wholesome impression upon the minds of those who then heard it.