Evening star., 1925-07-31
EARTH CAN I'LL SPARE BRYAN.
PASTOR SAYS in FINAL TRIBUTE
DIR. SizOo, in Personal Note, Tells of HOrv He Vas
Led Into Ministry by Speech of Man for
Whom He Spoke.

needs Of his fellow men. He kept many
| a weary vigil on the hilltop of the
| world, wondering what might be done
| to help, never resting till the crown
/ of thorns had been lifted and the
! golden crown of happiness and peace
| put in its place. 1t may take decades
! to measure the urge and hope for
| peace which he provided for the Ma
| ton in his day and generation.
Praises Capacity for Faith.
iii. He had a rich capacity for
faith. Any summary of the heritage
of his life, however brief. would be
utterly unworthy if it did not bear
witness to his unfaltering faith in
! God. You will never know this man
until you know him there. He was
| essentially a religious man.
"He was not disillusoned about the
world He knew its ills and its fail
! ureS. He was acquainted with ITS
| griefs and its heart-burninGs. He
saw its anguish and wan hopelessness.
| He saw all this, but he also saw thal
the way out was not by some strange
hysterical solution. How often he said
that happiness will he restored, pros
perity will beat again with its angel
wings and peace will come, with its
eternal abiding, when men come back
to the simple elemental forces OF life,
like honesty. reverence and faith IN
God. Not by the pronunciamentos
of plenipotentiaries, not by legislative
enactment alone, but only as men
climb the storm -swathed sides OF Sinai
and hear again the voice, Thus saith
the Lord God will prosperity be pro
NOTED and peace dawn at last.
Nothing else explains the great
ness of the man like the greatness of
his faith That was uncRallenGable,
Irresistible and burned with quench-
less fire His life was shot through
and through with it, and in every
utterance of his there welled up this
constant assurance. His life seemed
to be a long, unbrolIen prayer. Like
his Christ, who, with scarlet camp
mantle flung Contemptuously across
his shoulder, crowned with crown
of thorns carrying His cross TO an
outlaws grave. held constantly to the
assurance of His Fathers presence,
so this noble man unto the very END
of the day, in success and defeat,
lived with an unfaltering faith in
G i who never disappointed him.
Bryan's Hope Eternal
His hope was eternal and his faith
was serene. 1t was a faith that knew
no disappointments. because it has no
ultimate defeats. I was a faith that
success could not cloud and that de-
feat did not dim. He had no misglv-
ings. he feared no investigations, he
compromised with no error, because
an interchangeable surety of God
crossed every frontier of diSappolnt-
ment and leaped over every chaSm OF
misgiVings. For him faces changed
and conditions altered, but the eternal
presence of Christ was with him the
same yesterday today and forever.
He was sure that they that put their
trust in God shall never be put TO
shame Some day, perhaps, We may
see that that was his great con
tribution to life and the final heritage
that he has come to leave. He has re-
built the altar of faith in God and
covered that altar with his very life.
Ii was faith that gave such sweep to
his helpful service. such depth to his
character. In the last analysis an
unsullied life and an interchangeable
faith in God is life's final argument
and has no answer. In a day full of
intellectual bewilderment, when many
Christians are growing uncertain or
their convictions. when multitudeS
have misgivings lest the things they
have believed may prove false; in
day when many become obsessed with
despair like that of a man who has
Bryan grew more sure and his faith
more profound God be praised for
the tonic of this mans trust in God.
Would that the cloak of his simple
faith might fall upon us. He was
never disturbed by criticism; he was
never distracted by praise, because
with the faith of a great prophet he
held his course close to God. Say
what you will about him, he has re-
thought and restated for multitudes
the meaning of life in terms of God.
For all the saints who from their labor rest
who Thee, by faith. before the world con
Thy name, o Jesus. be forever blest.
Halelujah
What challenge is such a life to
all who falter; what a comfort to all
who believe; what an indictment upon
all who reject it; what a prophecy of
power to all who make it real.
Sees Future Meeting.
We shall see him again, for such
a life cannot die. I like to believe
that somewhere in that better coun-
try, where the sun goes not down;
where twilight breaks into eternal
dawn; where God wipes away all tears
from our eyes; where there is no pain,
and where flowers fade not away, he
is still carrying on, with the same
sweet faith and same noble spirit, into
an evergrowing fullness and likeness
of his God and our God.
The supreme glory of the Chris
tian faith is in the new meaning it
gives to life and the new hope it gives
TO death. The greatness of life and
the hope of death, which the religion
of Jesus Christ brings to mankind,
will ever stand as the unmatched mir
acle of the ages. To ancient peoples
death was tragedy, a closing of the
book, a sealing of the story. Now and
then, to be sure, some one came who
tried to lift the veil: here and there
one expressed vague supposition
Yet men were afraid. The shroud
seemed to end everything. Death was
the last chapter and the eternal fare
well, the night that has no daybreak.
Men buried their dead with their faces
toward the west for the last sunset
had gone over them. On the tombs of
the dead they carved the skull and
cross-bones. Even among the ancient
Hebrews old age was a sign of a par
ticular benevolence, foS it meant that
postponement of the last dread day.
Cites Nazarenes Message.
Then came Jesus Of Nazareth. He
gave the world new hope and greet
ed night with new song, saying that
dusk will bring daybreak and that
at eventide there will be light When a
broken heart sobbed out its woe to
Him He only replied, Thy brother is
not dead, he will arise again When
He arose again from the dead and as
Cended He called back over the bat
Elements of Heaven to all His follow
ers: Because | live, ye, too, shall
live dlso.' Somewhere beyond life
still runs on without the imperfections
and impediments of this life. We
bury our dead with their faces to the
East, for sunrise eternal has broken
tl,ai.. s,L.,,ls. M