St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-07-12
Horace Fairbanks.
A SABBATH MEMORIAL SERVICE

1t is my desire to express, interpret
and make useful the sorrow of this
church that God has taken from us one
who for so many years walked with US
as he walked with Him. Nearly four
months have passed since che was
mott and the grief we then felt as a
darkness, a swift pain, has become a
growing fact in us,-like ripening
fruit, that without demonstration in
creases in weight and also in beauty
and power to nourish our souls. AS
the church is adjusting itself to the
conditions placed upon it at his de-
parture, it feels as a dear and sacred
duty the privilege and obligation of
fixing within it's life the quality and
direction of his influence, the power
which he received and impaired and
the meaning of his high hope. 1t is a
proof of divine affection that men can
not retain the keenness or the burden
of a great sorrow only those in the
home can remain for life mourners the
world must forget or it would have no
power for present love and present du
ty, but a vivid sorrow should never de-
~ =
tude for service and that sacred memo
~ that points steadily forward toward
spirit of truth and love of duty.
For generation at least it should be
part of our religion to remember and
make useful those truths that were
"dear to the man who was dear to God"
The quality and usefulness of every
life is determined by it's companion
ship. When the questions have been
answered, with what spirit does a
man live with what spirit does a man
find his joy or wisdom or authority 2
you have knowledge of his character
that is just and serviceable. 1t has
been blessed thing for us that he who
lived with us and for us took his life
from the higher fountains. The supe-
rior things of the world were his
friends, you saw in his face a soul that
had an upward look, he could not grow
ell, he never insulted the heavenly
guests that made their home in his
heart, by introducing to them the vul
garities that so often amuse and afford
a relief to the strain of a refined life ;
to him there was no WEAKNESS in the
companionship of pure thoughts, you
felt his creed, 81 believe in the holy
spirit" i'm that other creed that is al
ways it's attendant 81 believe in the
holy spirits" that comfort, chasten and
defy life. There are many CANCELS of
His presence" in the world, sympathies,
strong and we'll rObed thoughts, rever
ence, the unselfish temper. In walk
ing with these he walked with God.
This subtle yet powerful delight in the
higher things influenced and guided
him. 1t was felt in the silence of his
thought, the strain of his business, the
weight of his sorrow, in the tirmness of
purpose revealed in the gentleness of
his courtesy. When some months ago
in our social worship he said, "Finally
my brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good
repOrt,-if there be any virtue and if
there be any praise, think on these
things we felt that this was Scrip
ture out of his own heart. This teach
ing becomes our commandment, ''let
the intercourse of your soul, your con-
versatiOn be in heaven"
In the common habit of haste and
anxiety it is blessed thing for a
church to have before its eyes a pure
soul in whom relig ion is Il deep and
restful calm. He walked with God.
There was no exhibitOry painful haste,
no unnatural running. There was In
him no breezy, tuneful, self-conscious
sense that he was a special messenger
of God to convert and change the
world, he never rudely assaulted the
sacredness of a human soul, but 1T was
a truthful evangel to feel his deep ev-
erence for the lives of which God
would make a diving temple" When
friends go to the woods or fields
together, they do not race, the gentle
ness of their motion is joined with the
sweetness and vitality of their inter
course. HIS spirit seemed to walk
with the Great Spirit as of old the
young student walked with his teach
er, taking into his soul with the rhythm
of motion the union of love and wis
dom. He felt with Moses, the support
of "the everlasting ARM" with the
Psalmist he could say, "God is my
refuge and strength 2" and could listen
to the words of the Lord, "my peace L
give unto YOU" The equable courtesy,
the sympathetic dignity, the quiet of
speech and action, were the outer signs
of an inner life, where the truth of God
moved like a deep river, on which his
faith and power rested strongly and
were borne strongly on. Can one, he
seemed to say to US, believe in the
eternal love, and the great gospel
promise, III will be with YOU" and not
be endowed with a power to do things
TRANQUILITY and see things TRANQUILITY
One who believes in God not as One
living only in the church or Scriptures,
or in the faiths put away in the store
house of his soul, but as living God,
whose DIV cling place is the human
heart, must have rest in the Lord. He
did not lead life of ease, his soul was
not like that of the lily that by its con-
stitution closes itself in the darkness
and opens its golden heart when the
sun shines, he knew the power of OppO-
sition and the bitterness of partial
judgments, he carried heavy burdens
and felt the natural anxieties of the
dependence of many interests upon
his wisdom, duty placed many prob
lens before his thought, but in all
these his mood was consistent with the
great truth that the deep currents of
the ocean were moving in the storm
and would move when the winds had
spent their power; SO his eyes and
words made diffusive the fact that God
is forever "within the silence keeping
watch above his own"
This church was his spiritual home.
He mostly truly lived in it. "That is
it," he said when l used the words,
Spiritual hOme," ''here we feel our
selves at home and it shall be our work
to make others feel at home.n He for
mally entered this church through con-