Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-10-12
The Late Dean Stanley.

the slightest association with him. In
: deed If ems, as We have intimated, to
have been felt even by those who neyel
saw him, and who knew him only
through his books and by the public
record of his life. 1t was the charm OF
E simple truthfulness, of perfect manliness,
of a true sympathy with all forms OF
healthy human action, and of a per-
pe,ual picturesqueness, which was en-
l HANGED by The interesting positions
which he held, but was Independent Of
them, and had its real being in his per-
sonality itself. If he had been the
humblest country parson instead of be-
ing dean of Westminster, he would have
carried about the same cham in his
smaller world. It was associated with
his physical frame, his small stature
his keen eye, his rapid movement, his
expressive voice. The very absence of
bodily visor made the spiritual presence
more distinct And the perfect unity
of the outer and the inner, the public
and the private life, at once preciuded
any chance of disappointment in those
who, having been attracted by his work,
came by and by to know him personally,
and at the same time gave to those
whose only knowledge of him was from
his writings and his public services the
right to feel that they did really know
him as he was.
His preaching was tie natural express
sion of his nature and his mind. 1t
was full of sympathy and of historical
imagination. Apart from the beautiful
simplicity of his style, and the richness
of illustrative alIusion, the charm of his
sernons was very apt to lie in certain
way which he had of treating the events
of the day as parts of the history of the
world. and making his hearers feel that
they and what they were doing belong
ed as truly to the history of their race,
and shared as truly in the care and
government of God, as David and his
wars, or Socrates and his teachings. As
his lectures made all time live with the
familiarity of our own day, so his
sermons made our own day, with is
petty interests, grow sacred and inspired
by its identification with the great !
principles of all the ages. With the |
procession of heroism, and faith, and |
bravery, and holiness, always marching |
before his eyes, he summoned his con-
gregation In the abbey or in the village |
church to join the host. And it was his /
power of historical imagination that
made them for an instant see the pro-
cession which he saw, and long to Join
it at his summons.
There is the specialness of the method
of all Dean SANKEY'S work, the way in
which he approached all truth through
history. 1t has often been said of him
that ne was no metaphysician and that
he had no turn for abstract thought. |
Nobody saw this, and nobody has said
1t more clearly than himself. When he
was asked to write an introduction to
Bunsen's God in History he replied,
4 hesitated, among other reasons, be-
cause it relates so largely to philosopbi-
cal and abstract questions, on which
do not feel myself competent to enter.
Truth has many doors, and he would
enter it through that to which his feet
most naturally turned. This recogni-
ton of the specialness, or, if we please,
the limitation of his power, had much
to do with the effectiveness and also
with the perennial freshness of his life.
On the steamer at New York when he
was leaving America he was asked if he
was not weary with his most laborious
journey. But he answered, NO! haye
declined to see anything in which 1 was
not interested. Kind friends have asked
me to go to see sactories and other in
teresting things for which L do not care
but have confined myself to things
which 1 did care for, and so 1 am not
tired So it was all his life. He work
ed as he was made to work, and so the
last page that he wrote was as fresh and
as the first. He is every
where and always the historian. If he s
wants to define doctrine, he traces its
history. If he makes page glow like a
picture with some description of natural
scenery, it is always as the theatre of
human action, or as metaphor of |
human life, that he describes it. OF &
pure love for nature for its own sake he
shows but little. In his volume of
Addresses in America there are three :
beautiful pictures from nature, but it is
noticeable that in each case the picture
is drawn with reference to human life. L
He described Niagara; but it was be-
cause he saw in its mist and majesty an
image of the future of American destiny.
He told of a maple and an oak which he
saw growing together from the same :
stem on the beautiful shores of Lake
George; tut it was because there seem
ed tc him to be in it a likeness of the
unbroken union OF the brilliant, fiery
maple of America and the gnarled and j
twisted oak of England. He pictured
the effects of sunrise ON the Alps; but it
was the rise of true and rational religion
among men that he wanted his hearers
to see in his majestic words. Every ,
where his eye is upon man. He is
always the historian, because in the
and most literal sense he is
always the philanthropist, the lover of
man."
1t is estimated that the cotton crop
of 1881 will yield 1000, 900 bales
The value of the taxable property of
Iowa increased SIG, ,000, 900 in 1880.
The population of Alsace-Lorraine
has increased over "a. 900 in five years.
Mr.. John Bright's daughter has just
haa,, ~, n vr1a1 o. Toruuov