St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-11-28
A Notable Tribute to DR.. Storrs.

~
At memorial service in BROOKLYN last
week Rev. J. A. Lyman, D. D., paid the
following tribute to the memory of Rev.
Richard 5. Storrs, for many years presi-
dent OF the American Board
THE hereditary, conservative element
was strong in DR.. Storrs, as it must al
ways be in somebody in order that civil
1ization shall be safe. He was not fitted
nor was he called to be radical, an agi.
tator, a pioneer in new movements.
Other men were fitted for that. Other
men were called to that. With them he
had no personal quarrel. He was too
large man tor personal quarrels. All
we ask OF man is that he shall do per-
fectly the work that he is fitted for and
set to do on the earth. And the exact,
noble, indispensable work for which this
great man was fitted, and which he was
set to do, he did so superbly we'll and
with such finished symmetry that the
result remains a shining and complete
orb in the sky of our American church
history. What that work was is now
known to all men. We all know it was
pacific, broad, inspiring. 1t was to rem
der back the lrenic Christian faith in
terms of a majestic modern eloquence.
1t was to set the local church in lis cen.
trail and regal place, as related to the
entire field of civic progress. 1t was to
harmonic differences. where doctrinal
controversy had half paralyzed the mis-.
sionary work OF our churches. 1t was to
broaden without lowering the scope of
the modern ministry-to step from the
pulpit to the platform without detriment
to either, but to dignity and enrich Doth.
At the bottom OF his nature was his Pu.
ritan sense OF righteousness and Justice,
his peculiar sensibility to the dignity OF
history, his reverence for the authority
oflaw, his faith in the ever present sover.
eighty of Almighty God in human affairs.
And it was precisely this that American
Congregationalism needed in its most
commanding figure through the transi-
tional decades of the last fifty years.
During all the anxious years of the great
debate in the American Board, for exam.
pie, when he was president, was as near
to DR.. Storrs perhaps as any man was,
and many were the hours when in his
own home or in his study in this church
he talked with me as with a son, in the
most unreserved way in regard to every
phase of that great and sometimes
heated discussion. can stand here and,
speaking carefully, affirm that never once
did hear from his lips disparaging or
even unappreciative word of any man
among those with whose opinions he
might not be in sympathy. ouce said
to him: DR.. Storrs, II you were dead
and could say but one word at your
grave what should it be?' He ans wered
instantly: This, that have always
contended for principles, but never hated
men, And when left that day he looked
at me level and steady for a moment,
and his eyes filled with tears. No man
ever carried so little mere lumber in his
intellectual carriage. He was not encum-
bered with his own mental debris. The
workshop was always out of sight, and
always seemed to be out of his own
sight. His memory, OF which so much
has been said, worked according to a
definite law. Said he to me once: IF
You were suddenly to ask me who was
the ruler OF Japan five hundred years ago
| COuiu no more Tell you lDdn COulu Tell
you the language OF, the planet Mars;
but il should now this moment, with
out preparation, be asked to stand in
the Academy of Music and try to tell an
audience what | could remember of the
history of Japan, why, when got down
to five hundred years ago the name Of
the then monarch would almost infalli-
bly, occur to me-, He saw things in a
large perspective, always telescope first,
then microscope aiterward, if there were
time for it. He had first to sweep the
horizon before he examined anything
near his feet, but given that horizon and
the general perspective one could hardly
help looking at the individual object in
the way he did. His eloquence was the
marvel of two generations. stately
and opulent professional it YVES, a kind
of Roman triumph in language, recall
ing, OF course, Gibbon and Macaulay,
but lighter than the ponderous page of
Gibbon and less artificial than Macau-
lay. Perhaps Burke was more nearly his
prototype"