The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-30
GUNN|SON'S
FAREWELL,
Universalist PastorSays Good
bye to His Flock.
HIS WORDS OF PARTING.
Work of Many Years Retraced- Joys of
Ministry Alone Remembered Spirit
ual Blessings of Pastors Work.
Time For the Workman to
Lay Down His Tools

thoughts which have larger significance
than those which are merely personal.
1 have held a passionate thirty-one
years, That period has covered the
most eventful years in the worlds his
tory. Great national changes have ia
ken place. Industry, commerce, social
life have marvellously changed; the
world has run a swift race. While N
the world of faith, where my task has
been apportioned, marvel has succeed
ed marvel, former things have passed
away, and things have become new.
That which in the enthusiasm of
youth was only a vision, has become
an experience. l have seen the faith
which 1 espoused, come into wider and
| larger acceptance, and beyond this,
have seen that beneath all the diver
gencies of creed and sect, there is
great unity of faith, which links all
sects together in common discipleship
to a common master, with differences
of administration. but one spirit. The
great Christian church which once
j seemed to me something worthy of the
allegiance of my life, does not seem
less worthy now that l have given to
it the humble service of my life. 1t
is married by the frailties of human
weakness, but under its banners are
arrayed the hottest sacrifice, the no.
blest endeavors, the grandest lives
the world has, and from it goes an in
spring force which keeps sweet and
vital every conserving interest of civil
ization. Those who have brought lib
erty have found their light in the
RADIANCE OF THE CROSS OF
CHRIST
The foundation stone of school and asy-
lum, all the sweet charities of this age
of humanity, have been quarried from
! Calvary, and if from the church some
thing of power seems to have gone, it
/ is not lost but diffused into other
/ agencies Of benehcence, popular gov
eminent, national conscience, a thou
sand charities, ten thousand sweet and
divine humanities.
/ We cannot keep the seed and have
the harvest; we cannot keep the church
of our fathers and have the larger
| church of modern life, and the church
seems less because it has run out into
the whitened fields of hundred har-
vests
L see in human history the gracious
influence of the church of Christ,
moulding life into finer issues, hold
ing before men high ideals leading
men by faith in the darkness of rude
and barbaric life, and have seen how
the men and women who kept holy
day, in the house of God, and were
linked in discipleship to Christ, have
had the best thoughts, lived the
best lives. wrought the best work, and
been the moulding influence in making
the fair age in which we live. have
seen the world grow better in the time
that I have worked in it. Popular
rights have come. There is larger
knowledge, greater honesty, tenderer
sympathy. Vice is less rampant, and
crime less gross. No i'll without it's
alleviation-a thousand succoring hands
"a thousand kindly words-where there
was one before. All this I have seen.
The kingdom of the Christ coming
through the years, as 1 have seen the
spring come, with softer air and the
increasing beauty Of
SMILING GRASS AND FLOWERS.
Looking back over my ministry,
Continued on Page 100