Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-03-11
Tho Funeral 81 Joseph Fels.

the Iamlly, the Iuneral services OF
Joseph Fels were simple. Wednes-
day, February Is, 1914, will be re-
sadly hereafter by many
who loved the man because they
knew him and worked with him, and
by many in various parts of the
world to whom, though they knew
him not in the body, his untimely
death in the harness came as a shock
and disaster. The services were held
at the home of his brother, Maurice
Fels, 1905 Spruce Street, Philadel.
phia. At two o'clock in the after
noon, Rabbi Henry Berkawitz, of Ro-
def Shalom Synagogue, recited the
beautiful Ninetieth Psalm, "A Prayer
of Moses, the man of God," beginning
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling
place in all generations"
And how appropriate was the close
of that prayer when uttered over the
body of Joseph Fels, Establish thou
the work of our hands upon us; yea,
the work of our hands establish thou
it," The Rabbi said:
Face to face with the solemn real
tiles of death these sublime utter.
ances of the ancient Hebrew Psalm
list touch our hearts as they have
thrilled the souls of unnumbered gen.
erations by their searching admoni-
lions on the lessons of life.
"Silence rests like benediction up-
on him who, stricken in the meridian
Of his days and at the zenith of his
endeavors, now reposes in the soft
embrace Of painless sleep. The work
Of his hands has slipped from his
grasp; the busy mind has suddenly
halted in it's earnest planning; the
eloquent lips are hushed; the glow
ing heart has ceased it's throbbing;
and we stand in the presence of this
supreme mystery, awed, benumbed
and humbled. Thousands upon thou
sands in this and other lands are
present with us in spirit, chastened
Wy LAAO 0OA0O VI 0uUucu AOSS.
"Other lips will recount in due sea-
son and adequate words the sum of
the services he has rendered. For
us this hour is sacred to the sorrow
of the bereft. Within this intimate
circle of his dear ones and closest
friends we can but struggle to voice
the grief with which his passing
sears the bleeding heart. For these
have seen him in the home and amid
familiar associations cherishing vivid
dreams of noble achievement, like
Joseph of old, whose name he bore.
They have seen him stirred by q
mighty conviction until he was car
ried away by it, like one of the Pro.
phets of old; and on the high places
of earth he fearlessly proclaimed the
truth as he saw it, as he felt it, as
he believed it. Some of that resist.
less power entered into his soul which
moved the prophet Amos to leave the
quiet of his daily pursuits and to face
princes and potentates, declaring,
"The lion hath roared, who will not
fear?
The Lord eternal hath spoken, who
will not prophesy?"
I'm the safe shelter of his daily &C
tivities here in this quiet city, Jo
seph Fels heard the leonine roar OF
the mighty industrial system. His
heart throbbed with fear because OF
the social injustice and the economic
wrongs devouring the people every
where through poverty, misery and
vice. Unlike the thoughtless, luxury
loving and Indifferent, he would not
remain deaf to the divine call he
heard within. He. gave himself to his
cause unreservedly, body, mind and
soul-with the gifts of his time, his
money, his tireless energy and his
boundless zeal and enthusiasm
Truly he was touched by somewhat
of that same conservation which has
fired with ardor the souls of priests
prophets and heroes. The test OF
such conservation is found in
weights and values not material, MOI
even intellectual, but spiritual. The
world Of today attests his sincerity
his singleness of purpose and gener
GUS self-sacrifice, his hatred of shams
and shallow conventions. Bluntly he
exposed what he held to be false, to
search out truth. He stood for NOR.
ais, for principles, for character. And
now death has set it's seal on the su.
preme measure of self-sacriflce man
can offer in the service of humanity.
IF religion be, as it is in its high.
est conception, the passion for Right.
eousness which springs from faith in
the ultimate triumph of good; if a re.
ligious life be, as it is in it's highest
conception, one filled by deathless
hope in what is highest and best, and
inspired thereby with courage for
struggle, fortitude for trial and un.
flinching effort even unto death, then
I believe Joseph Fels was religious
man. He may have been Indifferent
to the organized forms of religion, but
he cherished the pride of his people
in that great historic heritage in
whose Scriptures he found the sourc.
es of the doctrine he proclaimed
What is excellent said Emerson, as
God lives, is permanent
"The excellencies of the life we
mourn cannot perish. The friend.
ships he made yield abiding treas.
ures to those whom he cherished
l.