The Press., 1890-05-01
Issued Every Thursday Evening.


 work of his best years. We know him for
 our leader.
 His intellectual resources we never fully
 fathomed. We were impressed that, back
 of what he said and did, there stood re-
 serve power, and that power won our ad-
 miration and respect. Yet much of his in- tellectual ability was potent to us. We
 knew him, for years, as member of our school board. He gave to our school sys-
 tenn the most thorough consideration. His
 recommendations were of that specific character that could have come only from
 careful generalization of our needs. As man of general culture he was con-
 yersant with the affairs of his day, and conversant with history, secular and re- | lgious. His writings were rich in histor-' ical thought.
 To remarkable extent he was rhetor- ician. think that sometimes we failed to see, under the exuberance, if we may term it that, of his figures, the modest, clear,
 progressive, elegant style of his compost tion. His writings were sound in thought,
 harmonious in arrangement, and in char
 acter were those of a poet attempting to speak in prose. If men desire less po- etic style, still let us remember that there | is vein of poetry in each of us. The earth is beautiful when it is clothed in white; it is beautiful when it has put on
 its robe of green. There is beauty in hu- man nature, when 8 man of ordinary de- | gree shows an aspiration above his station,
 or depth of affection that belongs to the
 noblest of souls. There is beauty in the hope that looks for the time when our hu-
 man society shall be ameliorated, when
 heaven shall be peopled with all the in-
 habitants of earth, and every one, touched
 in conscience, purified in heart, with face
 steadfastly turned toward God, shall re- joice to grow wiser and better unto that perfect day when we all shall be one with Christ and one with God. No man, who
 loves the symmetry of the natural world,
 the beauty of human life, the hope of "im-
 mortal endeavor," can be disposed to deny
 the existence. in his own being, of a po-
 etic temper. It is, therefore, natural or
 derine that there shall be some minds
 with poetic insight exceptionally fine, with
 poetic powers exceptionally fruitful and
 helpful.
 | But MT. Maxham was a scholar and a
 man of genius in larger sense than have indicated. We should not forget
 that he looked upon men with compre-
 hensive view. He did not speak to us
 specifically of the sources of poverty, the
 abuses of competition, the principles of
 Taxation, ,-all these questions, SO much
 dwelt upon by many preachers, he left to l our own consideration and judgment. Nevertheless, we knew that he stood un- equivocally upon the universal foundation ithat individual privilege should be in pro- Iportion with individual responsibility. He was not a partisan except in so far as his party incorporated the principles he deemed right. But, beyond his large views of society,
 he was our leader in theology, not thai 4 which consists of subtle differentiations
 but that which, among Universalists, is
 basal. MT. Maxham began his work among
 us when Universalists were divided be- tween the two opinions first, that the death of the body ushers the soul immedi ately into an ecstaey of heavenly bliss, and
 second, that death is but transition, aftel
 which we begin our heavenly careers al the point where we leave our earthly. He
 held and taught the second view, ever
 when many of the fathers of the church
 were teaching that there was but one stel
 from death to holiness. I never shall for get our friends often repeated expression
 that the life beyond this, and quote hi
 words, must be life of s'immortal en
 deavor." And then his views of the atone ment, and of the trinity, and of the person , iication of evil, his views of the creation
 and the nature of man, his views of tn, , indwelling of the Divine Spirit in man, a affected or not affected by the fall of tho , typical Adam-on all these questions hs
 taught us sound theology, that whicl stands as the accepted theology of oul , church.
 And so we remember our pastor for tn, : intellectual gifts and requirements whicl were undeniably his, and for the efficac. with which he impressed his conclusion upon our minds.
 l But Mr. rMaxham was pre-eminently man of heart Like his great Master, h. spent his days in doing good. No one O. us who was pupil in the public schoo
 when our friend was acting visitor cal |, ever forget the cheer his coming brough into the school-room. He came not alto gether as an official, but as one who love, ? children, who sympathized with thei needs, who encouraged them in their tasks r whose hand rested upon their heads as il benediction, who left them with an i'm precision deep in their hearts of the happy l loving disposition of one who was goo man.
 l And here among the people of tn l church how much our friend did to nul f ture in us the truth of Divine love and tn g power of christian faith Within year e have heard young man say: "Mr Max 9 ham was the noblest man I ever knew. . have forgotten much that he used 9 preach to us, hut he taught me the Gold g en Rule, and I have tried to live by it, fo g he impressed it upon me by his own life.
 Each of us could offer some similar test mony. A man forgets what particula s teacher taught him this or that fact of his f tory or of mathematics, but we can neve 8 forget who taught us our faith and ou 0 hope. Our lives may not blossom wit s great deeds, but they may blossom iu ric b tenderness, in proper regard for our ow ] characters and prop 1T recognition of tn e rights of our fellow-men. And how muc ,, of our belief in this fact is due to the rt o hgious training we received here unde [, him who is now gone He has impresse ), truths upon us. the statement of which W 8 may have forgotten, the reality, as exper n enced in our lives, we can never forge
 We may not be able to say ''lo. here l" ( $ t'lo, there l" but, as we were children her 1t ltogether, as we sat under the same preacl t ling, as we learned from the same good e1 Il ample, or as you came to your prime ( T passed the allotted bound of life unde o. this same good man and teacher, so " v lean all unite to-day in honoring him wh n took so deep an interest in us, and, pc