The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-02-03
BIsHnp PHILLIPs BROOKS.

The death of Bishop Brooks will pro-
duce painful shock wherever his name
is known. And he was known nearly as
well i'm England as in America. No Amer.
lean PrelaIe, and few English Divines,
ever drew such crowds as he drew at old
st. Pauls, when he was last abroad. Not
only in his own church, but among all
bodies of Christian people, will this loss
be felt For it is true of all great men,
poets, preachers, philanthropists, who by
their thoughts and acts have inspired
others, and who, by their light, have en-
lightened the darkness of the wOrld,-
that men everywhere feel that they have
part and an interest in them. As a
preacher. no man, perhaps, in this age,
if we except Mr.. Beecher aud Canon Lid
don, has ever taken such hold upon the
public mind This fact was largely due,
on the one hand, to his distinct individ-
uality. Truth, clear cut and sparkling
with diamond lustre, was shaped into eA-
preston in the glowing heat of his own
intellect and intense 1t personality.
Truth, as he himself has said, "the
most authoritative statement of Gods
will, communicated any other way than
TIN ough the personality of brother man
to men, is not preached truth" Here, to
a large extent, was the secret of his great
success as preacher 1t was not that
he was more gifted, or more eloquent, or
more original than other men, but he
was fearfully in earnest; his whole ma
ture see ned absorbed in the truth which
he spake. He took plain texts, he il
Illustrated plain principles, he used plain
language, and, as the words rolled from
his tongue, men saw here "the painting
.,Es ,k..,4 -, flsa
painting of great frescoes,' and they felt
the message of Christ was personiaed in
the man. On the other hand, he had
within him that power or inspiration
which is essential everywhere, and with
out which no true preacher ever can be
made-tha value of the human soul in its
mystery and wonderfulness, forwhich
Christ died. IN
Bishop Brooks was man of large and
generous sympathies. He was too w de
to be ever whitfield into a partisan. He
stood upon the broad foundation of Cath
Ollie magnanimity. What Terrence felt
as "a heather, he felt more supremelyas a
Christian-" Homo sum; nal hunGni alien
nm a me putO." am q man; no human
being to me is foreign. III his brethren
ever questioned his position on the more
radical points of churchmanship, they
never questioned his sincerity. Resting
on the heights of religious charity and
to1eration, he stretched forth his hand
to every man in whom he found Christ's
likeness, mindful only of the Brotherhood
of Faith, and of misguided world that
must be won, if won at all, by kindness,
gentleness, and truth spoken in loYe.
No man was ever less spoiled by the
1inpitxr 80 s,ff mr. fhnt1nhf lnSo f.f the
power of riches or of social elevation.
Whether as parish minister or as the
Bishop of large diocese, he gave himself
with the same earnestness and humility
of character to his appointed work. None
ever brought against him the charge of
sparing himself All that he had, his
time, his talents, his thought, his per-
sonal ease, he freely surrendered to the
call of any duty, to further any public
good, to break down personal feelings
and prejudices among brethren, to hold
forth the Word of Life to the crowded
congregation, or to solve in private the
doubt that distressed the individual con-
sci6 nee.
And now he is dead. Dead to this
world, but supremely alive to the next.
AS. a representative man, his death cannot
be regarded as other than public loss.
Few who have won their place in life's
great battle, to the highest position in
the general estimation, by the might and
grandeur that is in them, will be more
sadly missed. Few, it will be said, that
might not better have been spared. His
diocese will mourn for its head, who gave
it such promise of prosperity; the COM
munity will mourn for him, as one whose
influence for good has been felt far and
wide; the church will mourn for him, as
a great man fallen in Israel, in the height
of his usefulness and the prime of his
manhood.-R a. B. Flanders, in st.
Adams Messenger.