The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-12-16
PUBLIC TRIBUTE.
CONTINUE FROM PAGE 1.)

conferred plaudit of q popular cause.
But that enthusiasm was his which Is
not for q day, but which keeps step WITH
the ordered march OF an ordered world.
That enthusiasm comes from sources
so high above the common level, where II
Is too often dried up by sudden summer
or lost In hidden sands, that II furnishes
an edge which can not be dulled and an
srdor for endesvor that must endure. Tell
me what he undertook and failed int
This man had the brooding power he
could wait and deliberate and then speak
and act only when the time was ripe and
the occasion present Such men do not
take back their words, do not revise
their judgment.
His manliness was most conspicuous.
He belonged toa profession which is
thought TO put a premium on softness
and sentiment, and given TO the utter
ance OF things that no man can ever
know. But his ministry was not OF that
sort. His hand was the hand OF the
Saviour stretched out TO the evil doer, his
pulpit was the bar OF judgment aga inst
evil doing. The sinner was dear TO him
and he held the law OF God still dtarer
He had genius Tor friendship and be-
lieved that the finest thing in life Is the
tie between two men that holos them to-
gether In their absolute, unsul,ied, and
dispassionate truth In each other. lie
drew about him a Gordon OF manly hearts
and In his old age hearts still trusted
him that had learned TO trust him years
before. He did not Judge men by their
actions, but considered mems souls as the
Interpreter OF their behavior. He was
just to the last degree, but there was no
rancour in his disposition. When once he
refused TO sit al the Ia ble with man he
distrusted and whose methods he de-
nounced IL was not because he hated that
man, but because he refused 10 confuse
ethics and TO make the sacrament OF
N m m n
honesty. His was sweet soul IN hard
husk, but the nut was always sweet.
In the church that he served he held
that civic virtues were the elimination
of moral life. He understood the inherent
fallacy OF the theory that man may have
sll private virtues ana practice all public
vices. He believed that what a man owes
to everybody he owes to anybody. He
believed in the ssnctity OF society.
Is there anything more sacred than the
social compact? Is the churcby The
church is but a segment.
Society is the register OF the progress
OF civilization through the ages. The
hope OF heaven was TO make a man. The
| struggle of the ages has been TO bring the
moral sense TO the front. This man un-
derstood civic virtue TO tie the crown OF
life, and thar everyone coming from
honest ancestry into a land where no mau
can tie driven into a corner should serve
the whole. For that reason his cbucrh
fronted outward and not inward Ii was
| not self-centered and could not be segre-
| gateu In its religious life.
Augustus Woodbury. claimed that there
was no higher perogative than that OF
| serving the State.
His patriotism was known to you all.
II was OF the kind that made him
perpetual chaplaia among yon from the
time that he went out to the front when
Burnside was in command TO the laying
Gown OF his life, and in your he irts he is
enshrined as the chaplain still
He did not refuse 10 serve the Legisla-
| ture and he did IL so earnestly and
simply 1t il was clear that he was not
| familiar with the nice conventionalities
of politics and he did il so naturally and
so well that II was difficult TO remem b r
| that he was of'the clerical professio n. lie
served on the prison commiss on and
| worked to better the condition OF the
| inmates OF our jails. He served wherever
| he was put for the common veal that hs
might make mis- parish wherever he was
| needed.
His life was interviewer with all the
affairs OF your common days, not in an
exclusive, cloistered way TO be songbt,
but In line, large, human way to seek.
He was not a priest. He was a minister
OF religion because no was seravnt OF
men. Religion is an essential part OF
human nature and can not be taken from
q man without impoverishing him, and
OF that sort OF religion Augustus Wood
bury was a minister.
For 80 years he worked with you and
fdr you and when j came TO this city it
was a siarnge thing to me and q gracious
thing that he called men and women OF
middle age by their first names. by the
same Christian names, III many Instances,
which he himself had given them at bap-
tism. HIS was a gracious vocation, ana
il was graciousy maint,ined.
There are great obligations with
minister's calling, enough TO sober him
for all his days.
The position of Unitarian clergyman
Is unique. He has great liberty AND Angus
tus Woodbury. conquered his early in life
and maintained IL by the suffrage of his
people. AT Concord and Lowell he
showed that 1t was not a wise thing TO
place an embargo on his thought and
bis utterances OF them. He hated sham
and had no belief in compromise.
In his 30 years OF work in this parish
were both his opportunity and his day of
judgment. His critics were here but his
comforts We're here also. He held the
tenure Of his liberty sacredly that he
| might not ruthlessly override the rig hts
OF any who might differ from him.
He had no cure-al for the diseaes OF
human life. You lnew in seeing him
the secret OF life, that Jesus was the best
example OF a saved man; to reproduce
MIN was the essence OF Ms teacnlng.
The soul is not to be saved. il il the soul
that saves the man. lie held that human
nature IL not ruined bur incomplete and
his mission was to work for its compile
ton. To recouceive the Christ in the
world was his life's vocation.
There was a ring in his voice when he
spoke the truth from his pulpit that
thrilled and aroused and convinced. And
when in your homes he spoke above your
dead there was a tremor in his voice
which was revelation of his tenderness
and his own sympat hotic sou.
lie was no: easily moved, but was pro-
foundly moved when the "deeps of life
were broken up" by the sorrows OF them.
There are grey haired men in this audi
ence today whose lives have been dark
ened by the shadows cast by their own
faces turned from the light who can re-