St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-04-15


and faith of a child he rested. The
everlasting arms were underneath. He
had over him the shadow of a great
rock in weary land. Like King Da-
vid, "after he had served his own gen.
Grafton by the will of God, he fell on
sleep and was laid unto his fathers"
would be understood, | pronounce
no eulogy beyond what is involved in
the necessities of the occasion 1 at
tempt no analysis of his unique and ex-
allied character /; | say nothing of his
inventive genius, the dignity he has
impaired to labor, or the range of his
beneficence. Much can be said in these
directions but this is not the hour for
1T. Our hearts are too full for such
survey we are mainly concerned now
with God and his gift. This is an hour
of worship; we are in sanctuary.
The place is holy. We bow before
God In reverence, in submission, in
gratitude, in praise. We tell him what he
gave; we tell him what he has taken.
We see how his Lords prayer was
answered. "Father, | will that he
whom thou hast given me be with me
where l am that he may behold my
glory" He has entered in through the
gates. His eyes scan the architecture
of the celestial city higher attractions
draw him better friends engage him /;
brighter scenes entrance him he has
seen the King in his beauty. AS we
see him thus withdrawn and shut away
| from us, what better words can we
find for our reverent surprise than
those that have been taught us, my
Father, my Father, the chariot of Isra-
ell, and the hOrsemen thereof" But
the sainted prophet has left his mantle,
may we be grateful for that ; we know
on whose shoulders it rests; and may
it descend from generation to genera
ton.
But let us return to our central
thought, which is God in the life and
service of your revered tOwnsman, the
patriarch of your village and the found
er of an empire in the institution to
stand as monument to his memory.
1t was God who made him what he
was and who enabled him to do what
he did. He accounted himself not his
own he felt the force of the fact that
he had been bought with a price.
'EWho maketh thee to differ from
anOtherq and what hast thou that
thou didst not receive? Now if thou
didst receive it, why dOst thou glory,
as if thou hadst not received it p No
man could raise this question with a
more tender and broken hearted en-
phasis than Thaddeus Fairbanks. And
this spirit so meek, so just, so sympa-
thetic, so magnanimOus, was what won
the people to him-all the people. 1t
forbade jealousy, it disarmed enmity,
it awakened respect; the men in his
employ so loved him that they could
have crowned him and made him King.
Say not that these qualities of mind
and heart were his by natural inheri-
tance they were the products of Gods
grace in Jesus Christ.
And now what other lesson shall
seek to enforce, as | stand to day in this
sacred presence, than that taught us
by this enhancing example 7 Let the
mute lips of our deceased father rec
Ommend to us the service of his God,
the atOning worth of his Saviour and
the sanctifying power of that spirit
who has made him meet to become a
partaker of the inheritance of the
saints in light. 1t is delightful to no
tice the sanction which the Bible pre-
nOunces upon our expressions of re-
spect for our illustrious dead. When
we read of one of IsraeGs sOvereigns
who had waxed old when he died, that
they buried him in the city of David
among the kings because he had done
good in Israel both toward God and
toward his house, we feel that we too
have one whose due is royal burial
and for the identical reason that he hath
done good in Israel both toward God
and toward his house.
| "Alike are life and death
| When life in death survives,
| And the uninterrupted breath
| Inspires a thousand lives.
Were star quenehed high,
For ages would its light
| Still travelling downward from the sky
| Shine on our mortal sight.
| So when a good man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men,"
During his sermon Mr.. Hubert
read the following lines written by Sir
Thaddeus. They serve so well to il
lustrate the simplicity of his character
that they are given place. Says he:
The first thing that can remember
is when my mother put me to bed, and
heard me say my prayers, "NOw lay
me down to sleep, etc" She would
bend over me, and in pathetic tones
tell me of the love of Jesus. The man
ner and the story she told, impressed
my mind, and drew out my affections
for that lovely Saviour, which has ever
remained, so that if l ever loved the
Saviour, it was at that early period.
How great then is my Indebtedness to
my mother. who instilled into my in
FAINT mind the love of Christ and all
that is good. / have no evidence of
any other conversion. The love of
Jesus and of all Christians, and the
dislike of all wicked and profane per-
sons, is my evidence and hope that
am Il subject of saving grace, and now
| would render thanksgiving unto Him
that is willing and able to save.
The body was borne from the house
by Ex-GOv. Horace Fairbanks, Col.
Franklin Fairbanks, Col. William P.
Fairbanks, Albert Hagar, Esq, all
nephews of the deceased, and Prof.
Henry Fairbanks, his only surviving
son. Escorted by over 300 of the fac
tory employees the procession moved
through the village to the cemetery
where the burial service was performed
by Rev. Mr.. Hubert and Rev. E. T.
Fairbanks, the quartette singing "Our
days are as the Shadow" The bearers
who officiated at the grave were
Chauncey Walker, Frank Walker, L.
G. Spencer, Asa Livingston, Silas Mas
ten and Haviland Paddock, the six
men who have been longest in the en-
ploy of the Fairbanks company. All