The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-22
SATURDAY, JUNE %.
EDITORIAL.
DEATH OF DIR. MINER.

The telegraph and the news
columns of the daily press have al
ready apprised many of the readers
of The UNIvERsALIsT of the sudden
death, on Friday, June IA, at Boston,
of DIR. A. A. Miner. The veteran and
distinguished preacher, the successor
of Hosea Ballou, ends his varied and
eminent career, in the 81st year of
his age. He passed away, as we think
he would have desired, with no lin
gering illness, and in his own home,
his beloved companion receiving his
last words, and in the possession of
his faculties almost to the last.
Death came to him after a busy day
spent in the service of the denomina-
ton of which he had been minister
for nearly sixty years. This was also,
as we believe, what DIR. Miner would
have chosen. We can count him
happy, therefore, in his death. At
ripe old age, his great career fully
rounded out and crowned with the
reyerent affection of host of friends,
the veteran only pauses amid his
customary activities, to hear the call
that summons him away. He now
rests from his labors, the grave hold
ing his mortal form in the final en-
brace. The funeral was on Tuesday
afternoon of the present week at l
o'clock.
Such is the transition of single
week, and such the change which it
brings to our Church in the removal
of this great leader. We can hardly
realize that death has come to DR..
Miner. 1t will require time to make
us acquainted with the full measure
of the loss which has suddenly come
upon us; to accustom us to his alb
sence from these scenes of earth. But
the fact remains that he has gone
from us forever-that DR.. Miner is
henceforth to be numbered among
the assembled spirits of our church,
and his name associated with the
blessed memories of the sainted dead.
While even now we recognize that a
Prince in our Universalist Israel and
a great man has fallen, our loss will
be more acutely felt when we miss his
revered and majestic presence on the
platform and in the pulpit, and when
we find ourselves without his wise
counsel and always ready help in de-
nominational emergencies and in our
public gatherings. For half a CEN
tury DIR. Miner has been regular at
tendant upon the various meetings of
our denomination and a conspicuous
figure in our history The removal
of no other man could cause such a
large vacancy among us.
We write in the first flush of the
sorrow which has come upon our
church in the death of this eminent
man. We cannot compose the pen to
a calm and measured estimate of his
splendid career as minister of our
church, or of his great services to the
Universalist denomination. Still less
are we able at present to speak of his
mental gifts; his strong logical intel
lect, his marvellous faculty of ready
extemporaneous speech and power
of statement, which made him the
peer of the most famous orators of
the age; nor again can we write of
his educational labors, or his cham
pionship of reform, especially in the
cause of Temperance. We simply
note what is a part of worldwide
knowledge, that DR.. Miner was ia
nous as an orator, educator and re-
former; that he was easily the fore
most citizen of Boston and it's Oldest
pastor; that he was eminent in all di-
rections and widely known through
out this country and in influential
circles of Europe as the powerful
platform advocate of Education,
Peace and Temperance. His extend
ed public career was filed to the brim
with earnest and unremitting labor
for the good of humanity. He was
the leader of leaders in all reform
matters in Boston and was a large
factor in the civic life of the com
munity; and from that centre his in
iuence spread onward to the State
and even to the Nation.