McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-03-27
The Late Bishop clarkson.

The Late Bishop Clarkson.
Omaha Herald
Eighteen years ago the general con-
yention of his church elected him mis-
sionary bishop. of Nebraska and Dako-
ia. On the 18th of November, 1865, he
was consecrated in his own church.
The services of that occasion are
memory still. The Rt. Rev. John
Henry Hopkins, the presiding bishop
of the Oh lrch, was consecrator, assisted
by Bishops Kemper, McCoskey, Lee,
Whipple and Talbot. In 1870 Nebras-
ka was erected into diocese and he
was unanimously elected its first bishop.
He retained jurisdiction in Dakota for
some years, when the western part of
that territory was detached and made
O separate district with bishop of its
own. Last fall he was, at his request,
relieved of his missionary jurisdiction,
the work having outgrown his strength.
And now he looked forward 10 years of
labor to be gwen wholly to Nebraska.
He repeated in his higher office of
bishop his work as priest. He came to
a new, raw land, whose prairies
stretched out vast waste, with few
little towns where little churches had
been built. and a sparse and poor popu-
lation. 1t was as untoward a prospect
as d Christian bishop ever looked upon.
But he was no more dismayed than
when he first left the home of his faith
ers. With what heedlessness of self;
with what buoyancy of spirit; with
what resolute patience, despite great
discouragements; with what abundant,
trying, exhausting labors he has
gone on and carried on the work
none know, or ever will, who were
not admitted to his inmost heart!
He has built fifty churches. He has
carried to good success his two
schools. He has been the head and
moving spirit, and source Of strength,
to all the work of his church. He has
not kept himself to the places of ease,
nor even to his own home, but has
gone up aid down the whole country,
preaching in school houses as we'll as
churches to few disciples wherever
they could be gathered. No journey
has been too long or too hard for him
to travel in all seasons, so that he could
reach and help and encourage any SER
want of the Lord. He has preached
such sermons that men who care little
for such things have said they never
heard him but they longed to be better,
and he has taught multitudes the very
rudiments of divine religion.
His work has been before our eyes,
although we have not seen it all. The
poor missionary has cried to him in his
utter poverty; the young man has
craved his aid; the afflicted and sorely
SHINING have sought his counsel and
comfort. An so it is that his true work,
his great work, has been abundant
and distressing where men could have
no thought of it. And its fruits have
been on every hand. They are that
love that now make so many, many
men and women he has helped to
better life, rise up and call him blessed.
His last great works are IN our midst.
Child's hospital was his child, and he
loved it with a'father's love. That is
one. But the joy of his last days was
the cathedral. He toiled and was full
of anxious fears for it. There was no
detail of the work that he did not know
and follow and care for. And when
the work was completed, and he looked
upon its fair beauty, and he came to
consecrate it on that lovely November
day with his brethren of the Episcopate
about HIM, and his clergy around him,
and his people of the goodly company,
he rejo1ced with great joy. His last
act there he entered into with his best
delight-the marriage of the daughter
of one he dearly loved. And now,
after that, comes the end in the holy
precincts. While yet in health he
spoke again and again of his wish to
be laid beneath the shadow of his ca
thedral, and even pointed out the spot.
And when he saw the time was COM
ing fast, he repeated the request that
there he should be laid. The solemn
promise was then given him and he
rested on it.
And so it is to be that two days hence
he is to be carried from his home, (which
he filed full with the affection of his
great heart, and the light of his happy
spirit, by the hands of his own clergy
to his cathedral, amidst a whole
weeping and mourning, and then, his
dearest friends and the prelates coming
from afar to honor him, he is to be
laid in the place he had chosen for him.
SELF And it shall be from generation
to generation a holy shrine for men to
come and pay homage to a sainted