Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-07-27

TdLIO1 VI LHe Idtely ueCedSeu OuAS IiOANH'
Esq, who was one of his pariahioners, and
a deacon in the church. He selected for his
text Acts So: And devout men carried
Stephen to his tomb, and made great la
mentation over him"
He introduced his subject by saying de-
monstrations of respect and sorrow for the
worthy dead were becoming, and had the
endorsement Of Holy Writ. That SO earnes.
q witness as Stephen the Bold should have
been borne to his burial BY devout men
was proper. But We may query-Why
make great la~mentation over him Be-
cause in his violent taking-away a rising
light was suddenly q~uenched. Stephen
was a man of extraordinary courage and
faith, full of the Holy Ghost, a great worker
Of wonders, a mighty speaker, a chosen
champion of the cross. We may presume
also that he possessed personal graces which
endeared him to his brethren and secured
for him : warm place in many hearts.
There was therefore a sense of private loss,
added 10 The sense Of public loss Hence
Stephen was lamented IS 4 brother beloved,
as when our late Chief Magistrate was no
more. each American bosom bled for a muir
dered father. When such men die they
are doubly mourned, for their public worth
and for their personal loyeliness. Their
death makes vacancies not only in the STA
tons they filled, but in the hearts that
cherished them.
The Pastor then addressing the church
said:
God has called us, dear brethren, since
We last gathered here, TO suffer a great be
reayement. He has taken from our COM
munion an esteemed brother. He has re-
moved from the church an honored office
bearer-a deaeon-fram whose hands you
have been long used 10 receiving the sym
bOls OF the sacrifice. He has closed forever
the anoiDted lips from which you have
heard words Of instruction and encourage
ment.
We have Just carried to his burial our
brother, Deacon French, kindred III office, in
power, in spirit, to Stephen, and now raised
TO the same heavenly pre-eminence. The
church has made ~lameutation over him.
We all share in a general grief, and each
feels q personal sorrow. We lament the fall
Of an office-bearer in the church We la
ment the death of a dear friend. We are
st no loss to account for this general and
also this particular lamentation over our
departed brother. In him appeared that
happy combination of strong parts and
lovely traits which never fails to secure a
place in public confidence, and in the pyi-
vileges Of personal friendship.
Ia this time Of our mourning let US recall
those qualities which exemplify the chris
tian lie from lamented brothers; and in so
doing let US render the glory of all he was
to that divine grace he mag1lied.
For the last thirteen years Mr.. French
has bean 8 resident in this city, and a com
muuieant in our church. During this time
be has been "a living epistle read and
kuOwn OF all men" Of his religious life
before he came among US I VIII speak
briefly: He was q native Of Massachusetts,.
He was converted at the age of nineteen,
and very decidedly converted. lie had
been a friend of the world he gave up all
FOR Christ he gave his all 10 Christ. To
that early and unreserved conservation has
been due the completeness of his character.
He was soon a student in Phillips Ac-
ademy, AndOver, Mass. But he was not ex-
clasively g student. He became Of the same
same profoundly interested in the Anti
AAAeA ~ AE-Ag IL NAlA b@EALAALk ~ aEAN4At
the country. From tina time to the day Of
his death he was = firm friend Of the op-
pressed. After a few years he married, and
removed TO Missouri but he carried to that
slageholding State his anti-slsyery prin-
ciples, and maintained them there. Though
a C0ngregationalist from training and con-
~yieti0n, he joined tho only church of the
place. a Methodist church. At q subse-
quent date he became associated with the
Cumberland Preshyterians, among whom
he was ordained as a preacher, and for two
or three years he labored in the Gospel, I'M
til compelled to desist by a disease of the
throat. He seems never 20 nave forgot the
laying on of hands, and in secular life he
bore the air of a man of God. About twenty
years ago he removed to Michigan, and, unit
ing with a Congregational church, was soon
called TO the place of Superintendent of
Sabbath school, and 10 the office of Deacon.
He began also an experience Of domestic
aiiliction such SIS few men have suffered.
Both as a husband and father he has been
repeatedly bereaved. He has followed to
the grave two companions and five child
rem in these severe trials the strength and
tenderness of his nature have been remark
ably displayed. Those who nave seen him
only in his business dealings do not know
what a heart Of vomanly tenderness he
had. They should have been near him, as
his pastor has, when he bore on his breast
the heai of a dying %cousort, while his tears
fell on her pallid check. and vet his firm
faith brought up her spirit and his own, or
when he encireled in his arms the frail form
Of his daughter, and gently as 4 mother
spoke to her trembling spirit of its flight to
Or when he shared, with the alice
Tomato wife, who survives him, the pro-
tracted anKist;es of the sickness of their
labor, and wePt with her when it died,
speaking, through his tears, the language of
Christian comfort, at once mourner and
There was no weakness in his
tenderness. there was no stOieism il his
strength. II he had q granite make and
mould, he had gracious moods and name
For the thirteen years ofhis residence here.
which he has been passing through
the deep waters aud the dark v~allies, he
seldom been absent from the sanctuary,
voice has still been heard in the PRAYER
meeting and in the Bible class. His atteu-
ton has been given with regularity to his
He has responded to the calls of
social ifa, 70 the demands of hospitality,
and especially to neighborhOOd claims in
and trouble. The widows and the
nave beenfvisited Ia their atHic-
ton. His Bible class has been the chief
monument of his Christian labors. As c
Bible class teacher he was pre-eminently
able. In the Conference meeting he was a
strong, earnest end instructive speaker. In
he sanctuary he vas . profoundly thought
'ul and often fearful bearer.
In essaying q delineation of the mental
md moral traits Of cur departed brother,
must give prominence to the combinations
# balancing qualities. which composed his
are excellence. I nave spoken Of his ten
and strength, aud in like manner I
mention his courage and his caution,
Is forming a balance, and making him at
nee energetic and safe. He also had q Sc |
7ere business, tempered by a soft amenity Of
ipirit. He had q conscience %Ecrupuious to
iota, yet his emotional nature guiyered
It the sight Of s tear. lie was close in bust |
less from principles ne was generous in the
Of charity he vas powerful in
.rgumeRt, but he was ehildlike in doeility. |
sage in wisdom, he sat at the feet OF G
'outh q learner. With a will of iron he
.oujoiEea a heart of flesh. Possessed with
sobriety that wore the aspect of ~sternness,
ie had an oTeTiowipg good nature abound
ne in s~allies, reparties and a.irth. Aeon
iderate man, who measured his words 9Th
he e~xac.ness with which he measured his
,oards, get ne was seldom withou.a humor-
anecdote, FeGolent Of frontier life. With
igid economy he associated Christian NUM-
Though he was rich he lived as
he poor, that he might befriend the poor.
Ie was Ct 10 cOnsort with the elite of socie-
Y, he chose 10 companion with common
In this respect he was 4 model
hsistian, and & model deasSp He stood by
he poor this was his way, il pert,oC Etend-
ag up for Jesus. He stood by the down
negro race. Whether in &azsaehu-
a.tz or in Missouri in Nichirau or Ohio