St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-05-03

scripture luC duuISSS was given Oy
Rev. DR.. Lamson. Here is the ad-
dress in full
Because live ye shall live also. John xiv:
1t is required in stewards that man be
found faithful 1 Cor. iv: 2.
1t is hard to think Col. Fairbanks is
dead, and we need not think it, for it is
not true. For such sorrow as ours Christ
uttered the words, strong with the So
lidity of reason and full of the consola-
ton of hope, "God is the God of the
living" He whom We cali dead" now
lives in that life into which he entered
with the trust of child and the courage
OF soldier. And he lives in us who now
hold fast to him in the sacred memory of
love. 1t has never been so true as it is
today that he is alive. Such is the power
of death to increase the vitality of the
good man. You have never known him
so we'll as you know him today You
have never loved him so much as you
now love him, and the power of his soul
to guide and elevate you has never been
so great as it is in this hour. Sorrow
for such as he makes memory active,
kindles hope and sets the resolution tow
ard the accomplishment of the best things.
In the world to which we haste he is
more than ever alive in the world through
which we haste he now works and lives.
When we ask ourselves what made
him so vital so determining, so useful,
or when we ask each other why do you
mourn, why is every childs heart, ev-
cry workman's heart-why is the heart
of everyone, whatever his place or du-
ties, sad, the answer comes in one word,
the word often on his lips, always in his
heart the Scripture word =" steward" i"
He loved and served us all. 81 am, he
said "a steward of the Lord Christ. All
my gifts, my opportunities and property
are mine in trust" So he served the
King and served us because these two
kinds of service must be united in one
in the Christian stewardship. Have you
not read the deep meaning of this mans
heart the holy purpose of service that
was always there, warm and strong
Property came to him on it's way from
God to men. He felt that all his powers
were given him to become means of dis
tributlng and bestowing and making
wealth blessed thing. Wealth is divin-
lied when thus it becomes through the
wise devotion of love true common.
wealth "A man owes all he owns" is
the Christians thought of property So
he assumed that he was in debt to this
community and to everyone whom he
could touch with his thought or love.
Having freely received he freely gave,
So natural and unreserved and intense
was this sense of stewardship that we,
blessed by his service, forgot that the
true charity, the payment of Gods debts
to men, is always costly. 1t requires
more brain and soul to use property for
the best service of human life than to
make it possession. 1t demands more
wisdom to give than to get, to use than
to acquire, to distribute than to collect.
The genius of charity is greater, costs
more time, more thought and soul than
the genius of selfshness. We took it for
granted that Christian giving was
part of his nature, inherited, constitu-
tonal, and sometimes forgot to be CRATE
full as it appeared in him so natural.
Wise charityis never natural as the foun-
tain's flow; it requires energy, knowl-