The Portland daily press., 1884-10-10

The Proceedings of the Closing Session
Graceful Tribute TO the Late Hon.
Samuel II. Spring.


and participated in by Rev. Drs Nichols
and Savory, and Mr.. ThacheI. The report Of
the nominating committee presented the names
of the following gentlemen as officers for the
ensuing year, who were elected by the confer
eDce.
President-Hon. F. NJ. Sabine, of Bangor.
vice President-Hon. Geo. F. Talbot, Portland.
Secretary and Treasurer-Rev. G.. q. Vinal, Ken
nebunk.
Executive Committee-Mark P. Emery, Esq,
rtlandi Rev J. g. 7. Nichols, saco; Hon. j. &.
Missionary Committee p s. Thacher, Au-
gusta; J. G. Deering, Saco; Rev. W. 7. Phelan,
Ways and Means-I. P. Harrington. Esq, Port
land;. Samuel Titcomb, Esq, Augusta; Noah
Woods, Esq, Bangor.
The following resolutions we're presented by
Rev. Mr.. Vinal and adopted:
Resolved, That Rev. DR.. Sheldon be employed as
missionary of the State for six months at salary
Resolved. That in the judgment of this confer.
ence 1t Is expedient to unite with the States of New
Hampshire and Vermont in the support Of q mis-
sionary for these three STATES.
RESOLVED, That the executive officers Of this con-
ference be committee to confer with the Unitarian
Association of New Hampshire in the appointment
OF such missionary and to confirm their action.
The president elect Of the conference, Hon.
F. NJ. Sabine, then took the chair and ad-
dressed the members. acknowledging the
honor conferred and expressing his thanks for
the same.
Hon. Geo. +. Talbot then read paper on the
character of Hon. Samuel E. Spring, deceased,
and paid an eloquent tribute to his memory.
or this paper we give the full text:
Since the last meeting of this conference one
of its most active members, one of its most
holr fi1l hao 1aI -
its presidency Samuel Evans Spring. has
passed from our fellowship and association into
the great mystery that hangs over the ending
of our mortal lives. A man who filed so
large place in our civic, social and business
life, can but be sadly mourned and sorely
missed in the ecclesiastical organizations, to
whose support he so largely contributed in the
efforts to disseminate a liberal faith, of which
his character was so conspicuous and exem-
plary, and In those charitable enterprises which
were the medium of his liberal giving.
This community, to which he was specially
endeared- with just pride his
active, effective and useful life, the generosity
with which he came to the support of every
public and private benefcence, the genialit y,
cheerfulness and hope,-the natural express
sion of his sanguine spirit and prevalent humol
with which he animated every gathering oi
friends to which he came,-still deplore, and
will long deplore what must ever seem his un-
timely taking away. To such a loss as his, tc
any making up of scheme of life, that leaves
out his large personality, we reconcile our
selves slowly and with many backward looking
regrets.
True, when we reckon up the years of ou
friends life, we admit with some feeling of
surprise that they slightly exceed the reason
able limit, assigned ages ago by the wise
psalmist of Israel. But then symmetrical
human life needs to be rounded out by slow
ly waning old age, period of rest, satisfaction
and reflection, pensive review of an active
career, few years of thoughtful walking
on the silent solemn shore
OF that vast ocean we must sail so soon.
And Mr.. Spring had no old age. Save by the
persistent, and gradual encroachments of thu
malady, to which he at last succumbed, i
might have been said of him, as of the ole
prophet and patriarch: "His eye was not din
nor his natural force abated" His zest of life
his capacity to enjoy and to make others enjol
survived the WEAKNESS of chronic weakness
the sharp assaults of pain. He had found ou
the satisfaction of giving and of doing good
and he would gladly for few years hav'
taken an additional span to complete cher.
ished schemes of benefcence, and to see thos,
he had begun ripen in fruits of good. Hi
was not one of those morbid natures that put
the question, SIS life worth living" With
sagacity that attested the mercantile soundnes
of his Judgment, he had taken a larae stake il
life, in the assurance of its substantial valu
and prospective appreciation. In his soun
and healthy nature every chord of feeling wa
tense and resonant, and rang in cheering musi
to the blows of affiiction before whicl
feebler and less sanguine men succumb.
After death the judgment. Whether or no
this be true, in the formal and literal sense
in which it was taught in the old faiths o
Egypt and Persia, and is still taught in tn,
popular forms of Christianity, it is true, it be-
comes more obviously true, at the recurrence
of every conspicuous death. At least the liv-
ing judge the recent dead. We sum up their
traits, as the viii and fortune have formed then
into character, we consider the value of con-
duct as motive, interest or passion has infu-
enced it and we assign in the gallery of mem
ory the rank and destiny of the person who's,
record has just been made up for our inspec-
ton. Not indiscriminate not too par tial, no
overcome by natural pity this Judgment i
strangely just. While for the persistently bat
men, whose lives have been disastrous +
human welfare, it has its inexorable reprob a
ton for good men, for all men VIII
have palpable good in them, how gracious
and generous are its findings. 1t renews ou
faith in the goodness at the deep bottom of al
things to observe that from our incompletet
characters, our broken lives everythin;
evil and unsymmetrical, falls off and W
see our friends in the grand forms, which
through some poverty of nature, some weak
ness or swerving of the will, they may hav
failed to realize. Who knows that in thi
mldness and mercy, this generous appreciation
of our human judgments of the revered an
honored dead, we may not be initiating, eve
expressing the abiding Judgment of Gods
AS to this man who has been so large a per
sonality in our public and private lives, we
not so much dismiss him from our thoughts, a
one forever gone away from us, as take hiI
up among the sanctities of our memories, alon
with the beloved and revered ones, who hav
lived with force of doing or a nobleness
being sufficient to give them a real immortality
With affectionate appreciation we judge hiI
and take from his completed life the lesson
has taught, the help and inspiration to a
goodness, which it was capable of giving.
Like all men this one is to be appraised b
what he did and by what he was-by what h
did chiefly in that it was a manifestation {
what he was.
What he did in mere material and outwar
results was, that beginning life with no fac
htlous advantages, stimulated only by courag
and poverty, through industry, patience, pri
vation and well Judged efforts he won frol
fortune the means of securing to himself th
opportunity to crafty his liberal public spiri
and the impulses Of a dominant generosit,
and for those dependent upon him the NEAR
Of continuing and perpetuating his exampl
L commercial ia hxy nn mi