The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-21

which it was the privilege of many of
YOU 10 hear, and which it was my de-
light to listen TO in one of our private
conversations. he pictured faith in the
following language:
Faith is a mailed warrior with
helmet dinted by many a blow and
shield SCARED by many a thrust
and a sword battered in MANY a
conflict, ready everywhere and al
ways to do battle for the right.
1t is this faith which lies
at the base of our Christian religion. 1t
is to this faith that the Master makes
his supreme appeal. He comes to re-
veal the ideal which faith has inn
plicitly chosen; he comes TO reveal the
God in whom it rs the joy of the faith
TO believe. He is that for which faith
longs and toward which it reaches as
the flower reaches toward the sun. It
is this faith which gives dignity and
significance to human life; it is the
assertion of the souls royal lineage
Man is on the earth, but he is of the
stars. Righteousness is not a dream;
hope is not an allusion. The deathless
loves and limitless aspirations, the
lCngingS for immortality and the intl-
nations of the splendors of the uni
verse which lies bevond our vision are
something more than the mere over
workings of nervous force They are
the outbreaking Of light from the inner
world they are the prophecies Of the
immortal life; they are the foregleaHlls
of that glorious estate when man.
crowned and sceptered with ali the
powers of eternal youth, shall enter
upon a life of limitless and aGeless de-
veloDment.
Such is the faith that he taught, and
such the faith in which he was ground
ed. 1t is grand to preach such truths;
t. nd =
the glory of DR.. HOlman's life that
he did both. His faith in man, his
faith in God and his faith in the future
were sublime. Doomed as he WAS to
disease and disappointment, it would
not have been strange if he had grown
sceptical or rebeTlious; but the darker
the shadow gathered about him, the
more triumphant was his faith and the
more perfect his trust in God. In one
Of the letters that l received from him
after his departure for the south last
winoer. the last one, / think, that was
in his own handwriting, he said: We'll,
well, this is not the end Some day,
some day. Here is our tenting place,
and with some Of US the tent is leaky
and the pins worn loose. Never mind;
our house is building and it is rock
hewn and granite founded. 1
would gladly be with you, but for now
l must lie in the ambg.ance and hear
the troops go by to The front 1t is
best so. for so it is" The last sentence
affected me deeply: 1T is best so, for
SO it is" The spirit of my brother is
precisely reflected in this brief sentence.
He had completely learned that last
and hardest lesson OF earth-to make
Gods VIII his own.
AS a preacher. l never heard his SUI
perior: l think l never heard his peer.
IT,, n nd
for this service that God peculiarly
fitted him. 1t was the good fortune of
this city 10 taste the ripened fruit of
his eloquence and to drink with him
at the fountain head of his inspiration.
His preaching at its bloom period
found congenial soil here and ripened
into luXuriant frutage which de-
lighted and thrilled him as much as it
did his hearers. He did this city honor
to say, as ne did to me-. that no people
had ever responded to his teachings
or appreciated his efforts so enthusiasts
tically as did you. You did much to
make him what he was While he was
in your midst.
1t may not be out of place to notice
briefly some of the elements that con-
stituted him such consummate
preacher. All things seemed to con-
spire to this end. He was a man en-
rich and varied gifts Of mind and heart.
His own life of suffering. doubt and
sorrow had fitted him to enter into the
most exquisite sympathy with the,
bleeding world about him. He knew
that over every life hung some dark
shadow, and that most lives We're shot
through and through with scarlet shafts
Of grief and pain. AS has already been
intimated. ne was a man of noble faith.
+al
had conquered it with his good sword;
distrust and scepticism had aroused
incipient mutiny in his own heart, but
he had triumphantly routed these pre-
tenders, and had replaced them-not
with blind ard bigoted dogma or
creed-but with the rightful heir to the
throne-a robust, critical and rational
faith. He looked beyond the earth,
and believed in what he saw His Wis
ion was unclouded and his grip upon
truth so firm that he was able to hold
it in the white light OF reason before
the eyes of men until they, too, were
convinced. His intellectual powers
were splendid: not only did he have the
seer's vision; he had as well the phil
osopher's critical insight and the
poets love of beauty. His diction was
chaste. concise and marvelously point
ed. Polish, grace and beauty were no
less Characteristic of his style than
grip, cogency and perspicuity. The
philosophers lucid and clean-cut con-
ception was perfectly welded to the
warm and radiant expression of the
poet. And what was true of his
thought and expression was true of his
public utterance. His speech was all
but faultlcss: every word came from
his lips like coin newly minted. His
voice. whether imprisoned or unim-
passioned, was clear, musical and PEN
etrating. He leaped from exquisite
pathOs to burning and imprisoned APP
peal with as much ease and grace as a
trained rider exhibits when he vaults
from the earth to his saddle.
I believe that there is no photograph
of DR.. Holman to be found in the city,
but his picture as l last saw him in
my memory. 1 see him now as l saw
him then-fran, easy and self-possessed
"a smile wreathing the delicate, elo-
qrent lips, an indescribable flash of
humor. pathos and energy
leaping out from the expressive eye.
and the finely chiselled youthful face
crowned with its careless mass of sill
Yer hair, prematurely blossoming for
the grave.
All that was mortal of Frederick o.
Holman now moulders back to dust in
the city that he loved best, and that he
called his home; but his indestruct-
ible spirit lives on. Nor shall his in
fuence ever perish from the earth. He
being dead yet speaketh." A thousand
times his voice viii ring through the
chambers of our souls to spur the flag
ging conscience or to sooth the bleeding
heart; a thousand times his picture
will step forth from the hall of MEM
DRY to shame or to cheer US.
Fearlessly he has sailed out through