St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-02-11

members or MS pastoral cOngfegaClOn,
this word best describes his life-he
was a pastor.
One of them says, Che was one of us, :"
another, che gave me courage when L
was faint" another, she gave me
courage when 1 was cowardly." When
he visited the sick here, they learned
how to name the chamber of sickness,
peace. / asked little child, edo you
remember him." and the answer was q
smile. What better memory can any
of you desire than this, memory that
shall bring joyful smile to tho child
ren's faces. In this church which he
once told me was kind of home to
him, many have felt him to be pastor
and friend, evil seems more difficult
and the good more easy because we
have known him; in this pulpit his face
has been made luminous from the pre-
ciOus truth that shOne through it upon
our hearts. We too make part OF. that
great congregation to whom this pastor
ministered, we mourn the going home
of one who has taught us to love the
home into which he has entered in
peace.
Some one says, "beware of the man of
one book" If a man takes book worth
knowing and knows it thoroughly he
is educated. His mind is facile, swift
and practical. If he is an enemy one
may fear him. But if he is friend
and helper then he is for us light and
treasure. This preacher was man of
one Book, the One Book of the world,
the Holy Scriptures. His thought, his
conversation as we'll as his preaching
were always scriptural. His nature
was saturated with the sentences and
facts of the Word as GideOn's fleece
was saturated with the dew. He could
give you nothing Ofshimself without at
the same time giving you something of
the Bible For him call Scripture
given by inspiration of God was profit
able for doctrine, for reprOOf, for cor
rectiOn, for instruction in righteous
ness, that he the man of God might be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works" With him scriptures
were not learned nor quoted, nor used
with a purpose, they came forth so
spontaneously that you were made to
feel sometimes that they were the
speaker and that they used him and
his lips with a purpose. In all his min
istrations to the sad, in all his gifts of
hope, he used the Word and when he
went forth to do large heroic service in
fighting enormous wrongs, he took the
Sword of the Spirit which is the Word
of God. Last December at Chicago he
said to his Christian friends, "fOr the
conflict before us we must have all the
great truths of Revelation for our grid
ing and meet mighty errors by n
mighty faith in God and in His word"
You will not think that | mention
an inferior or unworthy quality when
say that this man had a warm and ir-
repressible humOr. HumOr means lit
orally moisture. What would the air
be without moisture /? With our friend
humor seemed to Ooze forth from the
soul giving the fresh and enriching
dew to all things that had any right to
grow. He was humorous rather than
witty. Wit is often so sharp that it
wounds. 1t is often quick and scOrn
full, it flashes forth in such Il way us to
dazzle us but at the same time, to burn.
His humor was part of his sympathy,
the natural endowment of a warm
heart. 1t laughed not at you but "with
yOu," even when it touched your own
foibles. You could laugh at yourself
with him, and feel in the laughter, the
earnestness of a great love. Without
u great affection, without an intense
hatred to wrong and a loyalty to right,
humOr becomes Il most dangerous gift.
You felt with him at times that in his
humorous mood he stood on the edge
of great peril, the danger was that
of leaving men smiling at the sins of
the heart within and the world with
out. But humor that is religious
ca L. Il, = IL ,,s.ls
ulOus into the hate of wrong and love
of right that are divine. We must al!
admit that there is something incOn-
gruOus and absurd when reasonable
man does wrong, all wrong is so evil
IDENTIFY unreasonable !; this is a view of
of sin that every man should feel
is foolish, nonsense, to be laughed at
as absurd. The true preacher, how
ever, never makes men laugh to amuse
them, it is to save them, he not only
holds the key of laughter and makes
you smile at your sin, he holds the key
to the fountain of tears, and opens it
that you may weep at your sin. The
humorous and earnest preacher cannot
leave the soul in II trifling and merry
mood so long as it is guilty of a sin
that brings tears to the eyes of an in
finite love. HumOr may, ut times,
seemed to have had too long tether,
but it never ran wild, a deep earnest
ness soon took the throne of his speech
and led the soul to sorrow and the way
towards God.
One quality in his influence, difficult
to explain or define, all have perceiv-
ed, the power of his eXuberant physi-
cal life. His blood was warm and his
vital. The thoughts of
some men, clear and pure, pass through
"a cold country before they reach the
lips. The body with him seemed to be
part of his soul so near did it lie to the
surface. Sometimes we call this pow
er magnetic-but men may be mag
netc without it. Some men charm by
the eyes and touch of the hand. If
they are evil, how great is the evil, but
if good, who shall measure the good
Such men may come close to the heart
and make the simple and familiar truth
A warm animal nature is
no small part of the preachers equip
ment, if with him the injunction is
heard, "present your bodies living
sacrifice unto the Lord"
But that which this preacher has
taught us most clearly, and is teach
ing us, for his works follow him, is the
power and reasonableness of the hope
ful soul. awe are saved by hope"
We sometimes look upon the happy
heart as one who cannot have a pro-
found knowledge of the deep things of
life. The man of the world who knew
It best, we say was "Man of sorrows"
But He, the greatest of all sufferers,
was moved by hope. For the 'joy
hat was set before him he endured the
,ross." He that looks at the world
with Christian spirit must learn that
;he glad things Outnumber the sad.