The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-12-07
ALONZO AMES MINER.
NON
MEMORIAL ADDRESS,
500
BY JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, d. d.
500
BY JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, D. I

OF this occasion. great meeting IN
this church; gathering representa-
tive of the Universalist clergy and
laity; an assembly which stands for
the citizens of greater Boston;-and
DIR. Miner not herel We are not to
see that tall figure rise before us,
nor hear the rich accents of his hexi-
BILE voice. OF all that superb person
atty as it was clothed in the flesh
Nothing now is left
But majestic memory"
Yet to those who have SO long been
used to look on him as the central
figure of every great gathering, the
over-shadowing presence in every
meeting for counsel, the leader in
every column moving out to action,
that memory will long be more vivid
than any present reality, and he,
being dead, will yet speak with more
power than many who still live in the
flesh. We have hardly begun to I'M
derstand how great character he
was. No man ever is rated at his
true value while he is still in this
body. The glare of many common
places hides his virtues or exagger-
ates his foibles; and seen through the
tears of fresh sorrow, his faults are
yelled and he becomes for the hour a
paragon of excellencies. But as the
days and the months pass away, pre-
JUDGE and prepossession alike are
weakened, the illusions of love and
hate disappear, and the soul of the
really great nature, clearing itself of
all that was merely accidental, stands
revealed more and more, defining
itself in its true proportions, those
which are destined to stand and to
endure as characteristic of the man.
There is revelation which comes to
us when this mortal puts on immor-
tality, without which we scarcely can
see our friends as they are. There
was deep meaning in the words of
Jesus to his friends: "It is expedient
for you that I go away"
So, as the hand of time begins to
divest the name of him we are met to
honor of its merely earthly belong
ings and touch it with glory not
destined to fade, it is fitting that we
should meet to speak Of him to one
another, and seek to realize, if we
may, how much he will stand for
now, to ourselves and to our church
and to the world.
We have been so used to look to
him to do for the cause he loved that
we cannot readily bring ourselves to
think of what he was in personality
and in character. Yet here is where
his service will grow larger and larg-
er to all who were moved by his life.
Not in what he did, but in what he
was lay his pre-eminence. Much as
we prize the work that he wrought
for the church and for the world, we
find ourselves setting never grow
ing value upon the character he gave
us. For men are greater than their
acts. Personal force is the final ex
preston of an individuals contribu-
ton to life. In this respect how vast
is our debt to him. His personality
pervaded and vitalized whatever he
touched so that his deeds seemed an
emanation from himself. In every
word he uttered, in every act of the
man, we felt the pulse of his soul
putting itself thus into expression.
He was a man of deep and genuine
sincerities. He never kept two sets
of beliefs-one for pulpit or platform
use, the other for private life. The
man who preached the doctrines of
the Divine Love and Fatherhood was
the man whose private thought
glowed with the radiance of those
mighty truths. The voice that rung
so clear in denunciation of wrong was
attuned, in every accent, to the con-
victions of heart which abhorred
evil. His calm counsel, or his vehe-
ment advocacy of policies or plans of
church administration were the off
spring of loyalty to that church and
an absorbing desire for its prosperity
and usefulness. His sincerity was
more than outspoken; it WAS in
grained. 1t was this identity of the
thought and the word, of the inward
and the outward man, which first of
all made DIR. Miners life SO conspic-
uous.
In him, moreover, we saw the
effect of heredity and environment
combining Gods providence to pro-
duce man. Heaven gave him ma
ture in which the firm virtues of a
New England ancestry re-appeared
without diminution or loss. The
strict integrity, the passion for right