The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-04-24

| ing in his dressing room, where he could
but see them every morning, were these
words: "a worthy Quaker thus wrote
l expect to pass through this world but
once; if, therefore, there be any kindness
l can show, or any thing l can do to any
| fellow human being let me do it now. Let
me not defer or neglect it, for l shall not
| pass this way again. To the divine SEN
| timent of those words he was evermore
faithful. We know that such was the
| fact; but we shall never know about the
thousand unrecorded deeds of kindness
and of love-for he needed with absolute
faithfulness that word of Scripture which
forbids us to let our left hand know what
our right hand doeth.
And so our friend was both Oak and
Vine. Rugged in integrity, a stalwart
of stalwarts in all Righteousness, deep
rooted and unyielding in moral principle,
he was moved by the faintest breath of
human sorrow.
"His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that nature might stand
up
Man.
In politics Mr.. Brooks was a Republi-
can in religion Universalist. But nei-
ther in his politics nor in his religion did
he allow any spirit of bigotry to enter.
1t is safe to say that no man ever suffered
at his hands, or in his estimation, from the
fact that he was not Republican and
CT N hat AMI
views were, if they were sincere, he re-
spected them as he did his own. One
might differ from him, politically, and re-
ligiously, and otherwise, and still be a
man whom he could love. In his own
church, to whose truths he was most loyal,
and upon whose services he was con-
slant attendant, he will be missed-sor
rowfully missed-so long as that church
endures. His purse was ever open; his
hands were ever ready to assist in any
work. his voice was never wanting when
the word of wisdom or encouragement was
needed; and, above all else, there was the
silent influence of his rich and splendid
personality which lent strength and glad
ness to US all.
He will be missed by thousands of his
friends throughout the great city and else
where.
He will be missed most of all, by
But here l must draw the veil. She who
would soon have celebrated with him their
golden wedding, and those children who
would have been there to call them blessed,
and to assist them in recalling the happy
past-these l must leave alone with their
grief. In the years to come the mother
and her children will think often, and
lovingly, of him who has left them, but in
their thoughts there will be nothing of
bitterness, nothing of shame, nothing of
modification for their friend went out
from them with his honor bright and his
soul unsmirched.
There is no loss without some gain. S.
N. Brooks is dead In that fact lies our
loss. But stop! The.truth, the love, the
nobleness that was wrapped up in that
now motionless form cannot die The
splendid personality which but little
while since shone through those now
sightless eyes, and spoke through those
now silent lips, cannot be screwed down
under coffin lid or buried under the sod.
The thought were monstrous, an insult to
God, and to every God-born instinct of our
humanity. Than the death of Mr.. Brooks
nothing that l can now remember has
caused me more profoundly to believe in
immortality-and to feel with the inspired
poet that
There is no death An angel form
Walks DER the earth with silent tread,
He bears our best loved things away,
And then we call them dead.
He leaves our hearts all desolate;
He plucks our fairest, sweetest flowers;
Transplanted into bliss, they now
Adorn immortal bowers.