The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-05
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Joseph Parker.


 To the Editor of the Age-Heraid:
 The paragraph under the above head ing, which appeared in your Tuesdays issue. awakened many memories in my mind. some of which, with your kind permission, will present to the readers of the Age-Herald.
 For many years I sat at Joseph Park CTS feet. I was a regular attendant at his world-renowned City Temple, in the heart of Englands great metropolis. at the formative period of my life.
 Dr. Parker was a unique genius, in- comparable. Physically. if the saying be true that intellect begins where beauty ends" he was the most intellectual of men. for he was positively ugly. His wife, who died several years ago. was the most lovely of women. Upon one oc- casion he and she were walking down the Strand, when a newsboy exclaimed 'beauty and the beast" to which he made the grim reply, giving the boy box on the ears, "You may call me beauty, but l won't have my wife called a beast.
 pr. Parker was always getting off something of this kind, in public and pri- vate, and his sermons were full of anti climates and curious turns. Some years before I left the old country had brother to come to the United States. He and I had an interview with the doctor before he left. Dr. Parker had just returned from tour of the states, and we were mutually interested in the new country In parting, the doctor arose and pronounced the benedictfon upon my brothers head, adding, Young man you do not need to take God with you to America, you will find him there" This oracular announcement was deliv- cred with a pedantry and pomposity which to the American mind would be unbearable and intolerable and which even to our English minds was quite amusing,
 Punch" once published cartoon of the doctor. under which was written, 'I am Joseph, besides me there is none othern And there was only one Dr. Joseph Parker, and can never be another It is useless to compare him to or con- trast him with Beecher or any one else If woman Is the heart of humanity and man the head" Dr. Parker certainly preached to the head, as his audiences were composed largely of men and a few 'blue stocking ladies. He was a per- feet actor, his church was dubbed "The Christians Theatre" by those not too friendly to him.
 I once saw a woman fly to the door during one of his tragic flights, screaming that she had intended to come to church and not to a play, and she fainted at the door. would rather hear Dr. Pork CT than Sir Henry Irving it didn't cost as much and the morals were just as good.
 Theologically, Parker and Beecher were much on a par. They were strong per sonal friends Parker came to Brook lyn to pronounce Beecher's eulogy. It Is one of the most beautiful things in the English language. Politically, Parker was as great a power in old England as Beecher was in New. Parker's whitening and blistering attacks on King Edwards gambling propensities are still new in the ears of the reading public and his inter- est in everything human was intense. l have seen hundreds, almost thousands, or men, stand right up in meeting and ap- plaud his burning utterances on some national or international event. In fact one needed a strong nerve to attend on his ministry regularly, it was so "stren- uous." With all this, Parker was the most pathetic of speakers and hard must have been the heart that was not touch- ed by the simplicity and sublimiry of his prayers When his sermons shall no longer be read, (and there are probably thirty volumes of them) his prayers which appear with them, will continue to soothe and stir the souls of men.
 In the death of Jospeh Parker, England has lost powerful preacher, the United States a true friend, the world a great mind and a tender heart. Peace be to his ashes. CLAR1S fhOEA@
 Collnsville, Ala, December 3, l9O2