The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-07-24
GEORGE TRUESDALE FLANDERS,

the sudden severe illness of Rev. DR.. G.
I. Flanders, which befel in Boston while
on his way to friends house; of his
conveyance to the Homeopathic hoepi
tai; and of his removal to Tryon. N. c.,
where his family-wife and daughter
have present abode. The event which
from the first seemed near, was kept at
bay by a remarkably tenacious vitality
which, however, finally yielded to several
complicated ailments, any one of which
was declared to be fatal by several ply
sicians in consultation. DIR. Flanders
closed his earthly career on Wednesday.
June Both, at the hour of two in the
afternoon.
We have known DIR. Flanders for the
years of half century, yet we never
knew his exact age. We know, however,
that he was preaching in GAINESVILLE,
Ohio, not far from the year 1886 His
career as preacher certainly exceeded
fifty years. When we first heard of him
he was holding a discussion with A.
MILFORD Hall, a disciple minister, we
think, in GAINESVILLE. He came from Yer
mont, his native State. and we think we
have heard him speak of Rev. John Greg
DRY as having been a controlling influ-
ence in leading him into the ministry.
In 1848 he settled in Dayton, Ohio-the
writer of this being his immediate pre-
decessor. He had subsequent pastorates
again in GAINESVILLE, in Baltimore, New
York, Chicago, Nashua, Lowell, New
Bedford. Rockport and Pigeon Cove. In
the number Of years in which he has
been an incumbent of the pulpit, he has
few peers. For good half century he
has been in almost constant service as
Universalist minister.
DIR. Flanders entered the ministry in
the controversial epoch, and for contro-
versy he had the passion, the ability.
the attainment and an almost continu-
GUS opportunity. Heknew every point"
habitually insisted upon by the ortho-
doxy of the earlier day-the orthodoxy
of Andover as it was in the era of Moses
Stuart. He knew not alone their hostile
arguments, but also the sophistries of
the smaller yet adroit men; and no
sooner did an Oliver show its head than
the Roland went whizzing to hit it-and
it always hit. Doing an immense amount
of itinerant labor, he fought the battles
of the faith in Ohio. Kentucky and
Maryland, and the armor he never
wholly took off. The statistics of such
labor can never be tabulated. Presum-
ably there are, at least there were. many
Universalists in the West that date, or
dated, their conversion to Universalist
doctrine with the hearing of polemical
sermon from G. T. Flanders; to less
degree the same may be said of Univer-
salists in New York and New England.
DIR. Flanders was an omnivorous
reader. He was fond Of books, and his
tenacious memory was the hopper into
which the treasures of knowledge poured
almost continually. But he was not
mentality with that of the authors he
read, and what he heard he made his
own by intellectual assimilation. To
the much that he gained from books he
added from what he saw. He was a
constant traveller. Twice he made the
tour of Europe, and to him London,
Paris and even Algiers we're volumes
open to his eye. OF the many inter-
esting stereopticon lectures we have
heard upon Spain, no one surpassed the
one by which DIR. Flanders made the
cities, palaces and sports of the decayed
kingdom appear upon the screen and in
the text
DR.. Flanders had the poetic "afflatus,"
and not a few of his poems have had
welcome place in the higher newspapers
and periodicals, and some of them have
been set to original music. In saying
this we also say that he had the literary
gift. His ear was sensitive to the ca
dences of we'll balanced sentences, and
tropes flying to his aid helped to make
the climaxes that delight the mind they
instruct. Always a good speaker he
was at times the genuine orator, and
his we'll rounded periods were sent with
the accent that enter hearers soul.
We are accustomed to think and say
that. both as a literary composition
and an Grafton, in the service of
high thought, his Occasional Sermon
preached before the General Conven-
ton at Akron a decade ago, was the
GROWING effort of his life.
A vehement and controversial manner
naturally made for DR.. Flanders severe
critics. and also made him an advocate
rather than Judge. With not few of
his brethren he was at times in sharp
contention. But he was easily placated
and when the contention was over he
had the wisdom to pass it by as if it had
not been. His social qualities were very
strong, and he made devoted friends.
He will be remembered by not few in
affection and sorrow.
Ia later years DR.. Flanders had been
unfortunate, and sickness came when
he was lily prepared to meet the exact
ing contingencies. But he found friends,
and in his last days and dying moments
he had the attendance and solicitude OF
his wife and daughter.