The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-03-17
DIR. OANTWELL'S ADDRESS.

ue, it is hard to realize, impossible to
measure the full significance of our loss.
This "friend of ours who lives in God"
was SO lately with us-so recently near to
us in the personal and sacred fellowship
of this church,-s dear to family and
so useful as citizen and OF such far
reaching influence in the councils of
his brethren, an eminent and beloved
man-that we cannot at once make him
dead-cannot fully understand that he
is no longer with us and is henceforth
to be only memory in our hearts. We
shall need to grow accustomed to the
thought-to become acquainted with the
full measure of our grief. Only as the
days lengthen into weeks and the weeks
into months and years,shsll we be able to
estimate the event which we mourn, and
understand the large vacancy which Dr.
Ryder's death makes in many familiar
circles throughout our land. We can
only to-day exclaim in the words that
voice the ancient sorrow: "The Lord of
hosts doth take away from Jerusalem the
stay and the staff" "All ye that are
about him bemoan him; and all ye that
know his name say, how is the strong
staff broken and the beautiful rod"
A prince in our Israel has indeed fall
en-. The mourners are not alone with
us here, nor in this great city, but wher-
ever our church is known from the re-
hottest point in the East to the most dis
tant city in the West, from the ocean
washed shores of his native Massachusetts
to the churches on the Pacific slope and
all along the pathways of the West where
our believers congregate, in country and
city alike there is sorrow to-day that DR..
Ryder is no more. He was the most
widely known of all our pastors in the
West and was as widely esteemed and
honored for faithful service.
To us who know not the times and
seasons, it appears too soon for him to
leave us. 1t is always SO when good
man dies. There was need-O how much
neeil-for him here, but there is a call
for him there. "The Lords appointment
is the servants hour" We can only
bend in lowly resignation and seek the
comfort of that faith which assures us
that death is but the call to go up higher
to engage in new service in the Masters
field.
We think of DR.. Ryder to-day as the
friend and the helper Of this people, the
wise counselor, the sagacious leader,
the eloquent and impressive preacher,
the earnest defender of his faith, the
busy citizen and friend of good causes,
but here and now we are impelled to
consider the full fruition of faith which
he now enjoys-he who long taught the
bright lessons of immortal hope and COM
forted SO many mourners, by the COM
fort whereby he himself was comforted
of God. The change of death has passed
upon him and made him wiser than any
of those he has left behind wise in that
great mystery which has oppressed the
ages! We could only follow him to the
edge of the river; we could go with him
amid our tears to the moment OF his exit
but beyond he went from us alone into
the presence of the great mystery =
sailing out upon that sea on which we
are all to be one day mariners-only
himself to know the haven and the har-
Dor in the end.
Can we ever forget that last solemn
and pathetic prayer, here in this new
place, where the great soul rose in COM
munion with its maker, and he chose that
same image of the sea and the voyager
to describe the condition of this uncer-
tain life-a prayer that seems now pro-
phetic of his own death and the voyage
in which holy memories of the dead of
st. Paul's church were made sc distinct
that some could almost feel the rustling of
unseen wings. That prayer was breathed
out of rich and ripe religious expert
ence, and told of communion of his
soul with God, and the childlike depend
ence in faith on the word of the Father.
1t was the last service of a Christians
ministry-s fitting and beautiful ending
of DR.. Ryder's noble career. He bore
our hearts forward to God in that hour
in the pastors farewell benediction.
Let us, then, not think of him to-day as
dead. 1t is only the poor, frail tenement
of clay that is that. He is risen-risen
into the wider knowledge and blessed
ness of the heavenly world-oLe moment
with us here-then struck with the
" amazement of DEATH" and next in the
presence of God, with the glorified Saw
Jour whom he served, and immortal for
sver He who walked with God here,
and served his Lord in lowliness OF spirit
from early youth to three score years and
six, had not far to go to meet his God
and enjoy the blessed reward.
1t was DIR. Ryder's chief distinction in
he ministry to embody in himself the
deal Christian pastor. How faithful he
was in that relation is one OF the sacred |
OF the hour. To you these
will always remain sacred He
held before you "Life, duty
and destiny, the cross of Christ, the per-
ION of Christ, the church of Christ" in
he reflected light Of his own experience.
He had tested them and knew their value
md power. He seals these lessons now