Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-15
1eutnIr SaS Gurisisr.
october I5. Isss.
Henry Farnam.


 Memor1al Tribute by the Rev. pr. New l .s man smyth, af Center chureh-The Dts- I
 c0ursS 1n FuIl. e- sa5 ss aE1ss a5E
 At Center church yesterday morning Rev | pr. Newman Smyth delivered a memorial tribute in honor of the late Henry Fafnam. It was heard throughout with wrapt atten- ton by large and brilliant andisnces despite the threatening indications of rain. We give the discourse in full as follows:
 HESRx FARNAM--M 1rEAroRIAM. T Hl Jesus how he himself said IL is more blessed to give than to receive & 1e 1z1s7 4 a
 In this sacred place, where human success must own it's nothingness before Almighty God, and our human virtue confesses 1ts ! need of forgiveness from the charity of the Lord, do not propose to pronounce the eulogy of a man; but from life of good
 will, finished in benevolence and peace, may properly take upon this Sabbath day text. a There Is a handwriting of God for us to read for our profit in the lives of all good men. St. Paul found an epfstle of Christ dna the characters of his Christian friends in Corinth, not indeed an infalIible scripture, for there were many blots upon those frst fair pages of the new Christian life in the world; but, nevertheless, an epistle of Christ which the large-hearted apostle loved to read as he saw 1t written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of Aeshss If the spirit of truth and love still writes fresh scriptures in the lives of good men, let us not dwell with centented criticism upon their human frailties and faults, but sincere ly desire rather to discover the finer writing of the spirit written for our example in the lives of our friends. It is one of the pleas7s ant duties of the pulpit not only to hold up for admiration lofty Christian ideals oS life, but also to keep In honorable renem- brance examples of integrity and usefulnes | in the world. This obligation of commend |. ing worthy ambition and honorable success g among men becomes more imperative whenwe consider how easily in this land un principlsd snnartness grasps golden prizes; how strong is the tendency to ingulf naturally noble men in the maelstrom of hopeless materialism;; and how sometimes even Christian communt- ties may conveniently forget to keep in per petual contempt the success of wealth or of- flee gained at the price of honor. Should l begin, however, to preach sermon in eulogy of our friend, Mr. Henry Farnsm, or even to give complete sketch of his long and usefuI life, those who knew him best in bis genial simplicity and nlodesty might grow conscious of an unpleasant discord between such pub- lie speech of him and the unostentatious spirit of his life. What an old English writer said of completed day of his life might better ex- press all that a man of MT. Farnam's mould would wish pastor to say of him after he should be gone: 'My desires commit to the imitation of the weak; my actions to the cen 1 sures of the wise and the holy; and my faults to the judgment I and redress of merciful God" Not so much 1 of him, therefore, let me speak; but rather l from his life let me draw some lessons which we can hardly learn too much by heart
 wish among other objects to avail myself ] of this opportunity to remind you again of { our indebtedness to the godly mothers and 7 the stalwart sons of a generation of men who are now almost all gone from us l Trained in his youth by @ devout mother, whom he never ceased to revere, MT. Far ] nam was one of class of men who went l forth with good consciences and good health, \ and purpose nsrved by good principles, to develop the resources of this country, to
 clear the way through many difficulties for the flow of our industries, and to lay broad foundations upon which other men should l build. rode last Wednesday swiftly and in comfort up one of our fertile valleys, past pleasant villages and prosperous farms, to l the inland town of Northampton. The gen i tleman who sat with me told me of the young l man who years ago had often ridden in his buggy over every foot of that country, care- l less of sleep or food, sparing not himself in the attempt to keep an open channel of communication through that valley to l the seq, and who afterwards with others pushed the railroad through over which dare say the descendants of those earlier farmers may now pass up and down as we travel minimizing east and west taking the railways which antedate our memory for granted as though with the stone fences and the old roads they had always been there, the natural adjuncts of the soil. But this coun- try has had makers and builders to whom we owe our ease and opportunity. and another one of these has just gone from our midst
 Honest work by honest men and the sons of AASA4SOe AAASA1 their might whatsoever their hands found to do, has rendered it possible for us with half their effort or their sacrifice to make still larger gains in every department of industry, art or science. It was the same power of honest purpose working for the future, whether in the study of man like Moses Stuart, as he pushed through an unknown language determined in spite of suspicion and oppositions to bring to his lecture room the spoils of another literature; or out in the world in the indefatigable pioneers of the civ ilization which now sits rejoicing on the hill- sides and casting it's lines far and wide over the prairies which they made habitable. We need not only at times to check our ten dency to boastfulness by the memory of our indebtedness to those self made men whose sagacious enterprise has rendered our recent rapid progress possible; but we need also, more than this, to re-baptize the specu- Iative spirit of our times in the sober virtue which gave to those men their best strength. I have heard Mir. Farnam relate with the happy unconsciousness of an old mans recol- lection of a triumph of his earlier life, the surprise of the city of Chicago when the loco motive entered it over his finished road ahead of time, and the East sent it's mail for the first time all the way by steam to the up-springing metropolis of the West. have heard him recount with the freshness of still present pleasure the story of that large excursion planned by his generosity, when his railroad had reached the banks of the Mississippi, and he wished to give the East a chance to feel the West. This chapter of his life belongs to the history of the remarkable development of our railway system, whose end is not yet; and it was, so far as he acted his part in if, a chapter of honesty. This is the lesson which would bring from that portion of his life-work-the means which first brought New York and Chicago together were the reward of trusted integrity. Capital first reached Chicago over q through railroad in charge of an honest man. Honesty ran the first through loco motive into Chicago. Sound business in tegrity, and the confidence Of capital in proved integrity, united the Mississippi and the seaboard. Mir. Farnam never wrecked his own railroad, or became receiver of his own trust. There are men who succeed in
 making themselves rich by leaving all with whom they do business poor. This man helped others while he helped himself. He
 had saeacity to seize his opportunity; but his
 methods of business never descendtd to
 small shrewdness. He was trusted by others 1o kI,a