The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-11-16
TALMAGE
Pays Tribute to the. Distin-
guished Dead.
Sermon by the Rev. T. Dewitt TaImage,
Preached in Brooklyn Tabernacle,
Sunday, Oct 20, 1882.
Opening hymn:
"WhO are these In bright array,
This innumerable thrOng,
Round the altar night and day,
Hymning one triumphant sOng?''

| Round the altar night and day,
| Hymnng one triumphant sOng2"
Immediately after the service the or
ganist played the Dead March in Saul"
Thomas Guard, the distinguished
preacher.
TExT-II, Samuel, l., %: "How are
the mighty fallen in the midst of the
battlep
An outburst of grief and eulOgium
from David because of the death of his
| dearly beloved friend Jonathan at the
battle of GilbOal An exclamation Just
as appropriate for those who heard that
two Sabbaths ago, at six minutes before
one o'clock in the morning, Rev. Thomas
Guard, the pastor, Of Mount Vernon
| Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore,
breathed his last. Mighty for eloquencel
Mighty for sympathy! Mighty for in
tluencel Mighty for gOOdl Mighty for
the Church, Mighty for the worlds
betterment! "HOw are the mighty fallen
in the midst of the battleP" His de-
parture impressed me personally all the
more because of the salulatiOn he sent
me, warmer and more genial than any
ever received from Christian minister,
bat salutatiOn which reached me a
week after his death, together with a
proposition early i'll November to eX-
change pulpits, he to come here and l
to go there. How l would like to have
had him face this audience and on this
platform unfurl the banner of Christ!
Who was this Thomas GuardP / an
Swer, in the first place, specimen of
what religion can do for a man. His
whole life, whether in Ireland or South
Africa, or on the Atlantic Coast or on
the Pacific Coast, or in The cities be-
tween, busy in trying to make others
nOO1 and hannu / phalInO uOn onOn Cr
all the ranks of those who have despised
Christianity in all the ages to show me
one as self.sacrifcing, and | give you
from now till we meet at the bar of God
in the day of judgment to fetch up your
first specimen.
Who was he? He was contribution
of MethOdism to hTistianity. He came
in that line Of apOstleship of which
| John Wesley was the chief and Alfred
Goodman the modern exponent. war
rant that at the shining gate, as he
went through out of the early Sabbath
morning air of the earth into the un-
shadOwed Sabbath morning in heaven,
he was met by many of the chieftains
of that heroic sect. How it makes one
feel for his sWeTd and helmet to give
reverential salute as call the names of
Coke, and Asbury, and Emory, and Wat
son, and Whitfield, and File cher, and
Bishops Jones and ScOttl But you could
no more fence Thomas Guard within
sec: arian bounds than you could fence
in the fragrance of a grove of magnOlias
in full bloom. He was one of US in an
attempt to annihilate sectarianism. The
work is already so thoroughly done that,
while here and there in our churches
you find small-sOuled bigOt running
around with rail and post and shovel
trying to rebuild the unbrOtherly separa-
ton, the distinctions will all be gone
in the overwhelming answer of Christ's
prayer: Father, that they all may be
OneP'
Who was this man? He was a contri-
button of foreign nationality to America.
Born in Galway, Ireland, 1881. Died in
Maryland, United States, 1882. Take
out the history of the American forum,
the American laboratory, the American
pulpit, the foreign talent, and you OBJ
liteTate more than half of them. Scot
land grows great metaphysicians, Eng
land grows great philosophers, Germany
grows great dTeamers, Italy grows great
painters, Ireland grows great orators.
My friend Thomas Guard came from the
land of Edmund Burke and Robert
Emmett and Daniel O'COnnell, and he
showed it. The fire of elOquence was in
his hand, in his eye, in his foot, and
gesture, and every attitude, and every
intonatiOn. He defied all the laws of
books on rhetoric and made his own
laws. Unlike all others. only like him
self. thomas Guard, electric, thunder |
bOltl Irish elOquence sanctified /! |
Well may America, for the last half CEN |
tury having received such donation of |
great souls from Ireland, make return |
of sympathy bread when there is famine, |
WI |
there is political oppression.
Who was hep A preacher of the gos-
pei, natural and untrammeled by the |
way other men did their work. His !
church always thronged, a building that |
would hold perhaps 1000 people, and no |
vacancies. He had none of what is |
called the pulpit tone. He spoke right |
out of sympathetic heart to the hearts |
of others. There is great deal of com |
plaint in our day about the decadence of |
church attendance. Do you know why |
people do not go to church, They can |
not stand the humdrum of ministers |
who feel they must do just as all other |
ministers do. Many of the theological |
seminaries take all the fire out of a man,
and send him into the pulpit cowed |
down. He is told how many heads he |
must have in his discourse, and how |
long the introduction must be, and how |
Gu0 hppllChJlOu uuSL D6 lhSL0u 6u Oh al L
the end, how he must plant his feet, in |
which way throw his arms, and there |
are thousands of churches, Methodist, |
Presbyterian, Baptist, COngregatiOnalist |
Churches, dying out of intOlerable hum |
drum. Thomas Guard threw himself, |
body, mind and soul, against the frigid |
of the Church, and |
they cracked and gave way to his vehem-
ence and holy impetuOsity. Eloquence
is not gesture, is not voice, is not atti-
tude; is the being fully possessed with
an important thought, and the capacity |
to make others feel it, too. 1 wish all
the young men of our theological semi
naries could have heard Thomas Guard
preach. The truth is that in many of
our theological seminaIies our young
men are being taught TO preach by Pro
fessors who themselves never could
preach. What farce is often enacted
IN our citiesl A church able to hold
t,Oco people, with $50 folks scattered |
about in great lonesomeness, they CO.. |
tspuing to come only because it W
Q u.