New-York tribune., 1900-05-25
BROOKLYN NEWS.
FUNERAL OF DIR. BEHRENDS
IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS WISHES THE
SERVICE WAS EXTREMELY SIMPLE.

In accordance with his last wishes the funeral
Of the Rev. DR.. A. ]. F. Behrends at the Central
Congregational Church yesterday afternoon was
one Of extreme simplicity. There were no euogtes
or speeches. and the church not draped.
Grouped about the pulpit rail- just above the place
where the coffin rested were white and lilies,
intertwined with fern and palm branches. So far
have the friends of DR.. Behrends carried out his
wish that the work Of the church should continue
uninterrupted that the Sunday school of the church
Will join the Hancock-st. division in the anniver-
sary parade this afternoon.
The service at the church preceded by a
briefer at Dr. Behrends's home No ss Brook
lyn-ave., where the Rev. Charles Herald. pastor
of the Bethesda Congregational Church. offered
prayer AT o'clock, the hour set for the funeral,
every available seat in the church taken. and
many were compelled to stand. The forward part
of the church reserved for the intimate friends
or DR.. Behrends's family, the members of the Man
hattan-Brooklyn Conference and Sunday school
teachers. Many clergymen of Brooklyn pres
ent in the church.
The church service was opened by the quartet
singing Thy VIII Be Done" The Rev. William P.
Harmon. the assistant pastor told of DR.. Behrends .
last wishes; how he desired only the simplest cere
mony. Scriptural reading prayer and singing. He
said that DR.. Behrends had declared that his death
was not calamity but a victory, and had also ex-
pressed the desire that his family should change
their mode of living account of his death.
The remainder of the service consisted of a
prayer by the Rev. DR.. r. r. Meredith. of the
loinpkinS Avenue congregational Church; Script
ure reading by the Rev. Thomas B. Mcleod, of the
Clinton Avenue Congregational Church; a solo,
Jerusalem the Golden" by Charles Stuart Phillips;
hymn by the congregation, and the benediction by
Mr.. Harmon.
At the close of the service a last view of the
body was granted to the congregation. The officers
of the church. who acted pallbearers. then bore
the coffin from the church. Carriages in
waiting for the members of the family and the
committee appointed to accompany the body to
Providence I prha fba hi1rt will TAX pIa
The committee consisted of r. D. Benedict, T. c.
Trebout, E. H Compton. H. W. Brickerhoff. DR..
George w Brush and A. H. Gilbert. The family
and the committee went by train and the body by
boat AT Providence former Mayor Haywood will
take charge Of the burial to-day.
At a special meeting of the Manhattan Associa-
ton of Congregational Ministers held in the chapel
of the Central Congregational Church Immediately
before the funeral OF DR.. Behrends, minute was
read by the Rev. DT. A. J. Lyman and adopted by
the association 1t follows in part:
An intense student, a scholar of wide and ac-
also pre-ennent as preacher. His pulpit was his
home and his throne Both in the pulpit and out
or 1t ne was the embodiment of intellectual and
moral sincerity, brave to audaciy in defence
of what he believed be the truth and the right
Right and Right Truth. He added the fervor
of moral passion to the cearness of intellectual
conviction.
Fearless In maintaining individual opinion he
was yet the more devoted to the common faith
ment upon the integrity of that faith. He stands
before our minds for a manhood and ministry. OF
sources of virile intellect We're consecrated With
consuming earnestness to the causes of truth and
justice and to the advance Of the Kingdom OF
and the very last months and weeks of his public
work were hroadened and illumined by even
increasing emphasis upon this as the master note OF
life.