Dr. Hall made the address at the funeral. Very tenderly he said of the
dead preacher, "On his last Sunday evening in this place, two weeks ago,
after the congregation had retired from it, the organist and one or two
others were practising the hymn,--
"'I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest.'
"Mr. Beecher, doubtless with that tire that follows a pastor's Sunday
work, remained and listened. Two street urchins were prompted to wander
into the building; and one of them was standing in the position of the
boy whom Raphael has immortalized, gazing up at the organ. The old man,
laying his hands on the boy's head, turned his face upward and kissed
him; and with his arms about the two, left the scene of his triumphs,
his trials, and his successes forever.
"It was a fitting close to a grand life, the old man of genius and fame
shielding the little wanderers, great in breasting traditional ways and
prejudices, great also in the gesture, so like him, that recognized, as
did the Master, that the humblest and poorest were his brethren, the
great preacher led out into the night by the little nameless waifs."
After the services the doors were opened, and one hundred thousand
people passed through the church by the coffin.
On Saturday, March 12, the body was taken to Greenwood Cemetery, and
temporarily placed in a receiving vault filled with abundant flowers.
Later it was buried on Dawn Path, near Hillside Avenue, on the
south-easterly slope of Ocean Hill, with a simple headstone.
"When I fall," said the great preacher, "and am buried in Greenwood, let
no man dare to stand over the turf and say, 'Here lies Henry Ward
Beecher;' for God knows that I will not lie there. Look up! if you love
me, and if you feel that I have helped you on your way home, stand with
your feet on my turf and look up; for I will not hear anybody that does
not speak with his mouth toward heaven."
[Illustration: CHARLES KINGSLEY.]
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
On a white marble cross in Eversley churchyard, England, under a spray
of the passion-flower, are the Latin words, "_Amavimus, Amamus,
Amabimus_" (we have loved, we love, we shall love); and above them,
around the cross, "God is love." Those were the words chosen by the
famous preacher and author; and they were the key-note of the life of
one who lived for his people.
Charles Kingsley, the son of a minister, was born at Holne Vicarage,
Devonshire, England, June 12, 1819. Of his father, he wrote in 1865, "He
was a magnificent man in body and mind, and was said to possess every
talent except that of using his talents. My mother, on the contrary, had
a quite extraordinary practical and administrative power; and she
combines with it, even at her advanced age (seventy-nine), my father's
passion for knowledge, and the sentiment and fancy of a young girl."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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