Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-10-05
DAILY KENNEBEG JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3 1873
A FORMER AUGUSTA PASTOR.
Appreciative Words From Colorado About
Rev. Or. Ecob.

Augusta people will be interested in
the following appreciative words from
the Rocky Mountain News, Denver
Colorado, regarding DR.. Ecob, who re-
Gently resigned his passionate in Den
yer that he might return to New York:
The resignation of DR.. Ecob came as
painful surprise ito everybody. If his
reasons for severing his relations with
the First Congregational church are
not of such a nature that they cannot
be overcome, then every legitimate ef-
fort should be put forth that might
possibly influence him to reconsider his
action.
To say nothing of his own church
and congregation, this great, plastic
central West canilly affordto lose such
representative man and preacher.
His ideals in art, literature, philosophy
and life are just such as are needed IN
this growing, formative country Few
have "a wider horizon than he, and
therefore few have broader and more
sympathetic outlook upon the world or
greater desire and ability to help on
its forward movements.
Dr.. Ecob has conquered his possess
sions of truth and holds them with a
firm hand dn princely manner He
Speaks as one having authority for he
knows whereof he speaks.
There is nothing tentative in his ut
terances. He never fumbles with the
great problems of the times. His words
pierce to the heart of things like iignt
irradrating every subject he discusses.
Seldom are the poetic and analytic fac
ulties so happily blended as they are
in him. This is characteristic only of
the highest types of mind. In this re-
speot Dr.. Ecob reminds one of the
great English divine, Fred'k w.
Robertson Of Brighton.
Some one has said there are many
echoes in the world but few voices.
When one listens to DR.. Ecob, he is con-
scious of being guided by voice, not
bewildered by an echo. This voice is
as tender as mothers soothing the
pain of her child, or as stern as that
crying in the wilderness, Repent We,
for the kingdom of Heaven is at
hand!" as occasion demands. Its
sound has gone out over all this state
and adjacent territories, rallying men
to the new order of Things, and is
echoed from hundreds of pulpits and
homes every time it is heard. From
here where Things are in the saddle
it has won us to an appreciation Of
eternal value 1t has made us know
that not the lion, not the eagle, not
teeth and claws, are the true symbo,s
of power, but the lamb on the throne
1t has compelled us to realize that the
heast of the universe is love; that God
is the eternal father of. all men; that
God is the eternal Christ: that men are
the children of God and brothers and
therefore under obligation to live as
such in all the relations of life. 1t has
made known to us the eternal Gospel
of God. But ifnDr. Ecob had uttered
no other words than those contained
in his mastery addresses on municipal
and economic interests and in his ex-
qusitely fine lectures, on Tennyson and
Shelley, ne would have placed us under
everlasting obligations.
DR.. Ecob. because of his peculiar
genius as a thinker and preacher. has
a message for the people, differing
from all others. a message that has al
ready leavened and broadened the re-
ligious thought and life of our new
West, lifting men into larger and truer
conceptions of God and man and their
mutual relations and obligations.
The writer is not a member of the
doctors church or congregation. He
simply voices the sentiment of multi
tudes in other religious communions
who feel that it would be a calamity
to have DR.. Ecob leave Denver, ard
who will hold the First Congregational
church responsible if it allows for
other than absolutely necessary rea-
sons, the loss to this commonwealth of
one of the few really great preachers
of America.