The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1888-10-25
Extract from a Sermon by Rev.
Mr.. Crosbie at the Funeral Of
the Late Henry Newbury

the Late Henry Newbury
| come now to speak more directly
concerning our departed friend. He
has fought good fight He has
finished his course. He battled man
fully and courageously with the adj
versities of life as did every true pio-
neer. His was a dauntless courage.
He loved his own home and freside
with love so strong that he could
cut himself loose from those who
were dearest to him and 60 off and
work for months at his trade, that he
might the more readily pay for his
farm and secure to his family the
comforts of life.
By industry. honesty and economy
he was prospered; prospered in the
truest sense of the word. Not that
he accumulated fortune as fortunes
are reckoned in these days, but that
he lived comfortably and in self res
pect; raised his first family and sent
them forth into the world as work
men needing not to be ashamed. He
was doing for his second family SO
far as his strength would permit the
same he had done for his first.
The sterling qualities possessed by
this man are worthy of our careful
thought.
In his business relations he was
industrious and painstaking to a
fault; but he was open hearted and
open handed.
He was no miser. Money by him
was valued for the good it would do,
and not for the sake of the gold it.
self. 1t sometimes happened that
when a collection would be taken up
for benevolent object, the amount
would fall short of the sum desired.
Mr.. Newbury was one of the first to
put his hand into his pocket to make
up the deficiency.
St. Paul says: II have kept the
faith. So did our friend. He kept
it in such a noiseless, unpretentious
way that some narrow minded fanatics
wondered whether he even had any
faith. But his was a faith of deeds
rather than of words. His was a
growing, expanding faith Of some
men it can be said at their death:
They have kept the faith, meaning
thereby that they have the same faith
they had when they were boys-but
to soul full of intellectual inquiry
and spiritual desire this cannot be
true. Faith does not end where it
begins. In the spiritual as in the
natural world it is first the blade,
then the ear, then the full corn in the
ear. And St. Paul who says I have
kept the faith, also tells us "When l
was child I spoke as a child, |
thought as child, understood as a
child; but when ] became man l
put away childish things"
There were doubtless, however,
many ways in which St. Paul could
trace the connection between his
present and his past faith. The one
was the outgrowth of the other. For
man to keep the faith in any true
sense he must make it his own. 1t
must grow out of his needs and ex-
periences. A mans religious faith
thus becomes a part of himself. 1t
is bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh. In such way man comes
to have convictions that are real to
himself. His religious life has an
individuality of its own. 1t is not
something somebody has told him.
1t is not somebody's creed published
in catechism or that is made the
basis of admittance to a church.
These things are often no more re-
lated to a mans personal faith than
last years leaves are to this years
sap.
Religious opinions that are real to
a man are those he has wrought out
for himself. He studies the scrip
lures, science, history, biography.
He interrogates his own heart. He
analyses his own experiences and
out of them all he comes to conclu-
sions that are honestly his own.
We make too little allowance for
individuality in our estimate of doc
trine. We try to run everybody into
the same spiritual mould. Nature
cries out against such narrowness.
You can no more make everybody's
religious experience and religious
ideas alike than you can make their
faces alike. There are diversities of
gifts, but the same spirit. There are
diversities of operations, but the
same God that worketh all in all.
Religion is broader than your creed
or my creed, but you and l must
each for himself follow where Gods
spirit would lead. Every one must
be true to his own ideas of truth. If
it is the same as his neighbor accepts
well and good. If it is the same as
the church in his community accepts,
we'll and good. If not let him stand