Frank H. Nelson of CincinnatiHerrick, Warren Crocker
Religion
Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati
Herrick, Warren Crocker
Nelson, Frank Howard, 1869-1939
It is not surprising that his addresses on Good Friday and his sermons
on Easter Day were more nearly adequate to those great days than is
commonly the case. He cared for these days tremendously, and never
ceased to be heartened by the throngs that crowded the old church,
filled up the chancel, and stood in the vestibule through the Three
Hours on Good Friday. It seemed as if the whole city was aroused as
people from offices and factories, and from the outlying districts came
to these special services year after year during his long rectorship. It
stirs the imagination to think of that gathering, the rich and the poor,
the highly-cultivated, and the meekly endowed, shop girls and clerks,
the faithful and those groping for faith, all drawn by the mysterious
fire kindled by this man of God. There was a concentrated intensity to
his preaching on these occasions, for he saw clearly and felt deeply the
tragedies of life. In that vibrant voice and in his passionate concern
for the soul of men, there burned a white-souled homage to God, and a
faith and love that spoke to each one's condition. Out of his long
brooding over the darkly colored stream of history, and the chequered
progress of Christianity of which his daily contact with the city's life
as well as his study gave him profound knowledge, there came forth
"great out-bursts of unshakable certainty which stand up like Alpine
peaks in the spiritual landscape of humanity." The integrity of the man
along with the power and dramatic quality of his speech was unveiled for
all the world to see. One recalls in this particular a certain Good
Friday after World War I when he took up Sarah Bernhardt's ghastly
reversal of the First Word from the Cross, "Father, do _not_ forgive
them for they _know_ what they do," and with terrific intensity
literally shouted, "That is a lie straight from hell."
His preaching always illumined a fine feeling for the mastery of
language, and those who heard him over the span of the years were
conscious that in his Good Friday addresses he employed plain,
Anglo-Saxon words, fundamental, strong words that lent a cumulative
effect to his speech. Because of his modesty he never consented to the
publication of any of his Good Friday addresses, which is lamentable for
without a doubt they represent his best preaching. A full, stenographic
report, however, was made of his last addresses in 1939, and certain
paragraphs from the Third Word may well be quoted. This Word from the
Cross, "When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by
whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then
saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!", was greatly loved by his
people because he gave to it an interpretation that was entirely
original:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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