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4THE ST. JOHNSIMemorial Service to Bishop E. W. Parker.Presiding Elder Sherburne’* Addrca*—The Tribute of a Fellow .lli*ftionnry.A small company gathered at Grace Methodist church Sunday afternoon to pay tribute to one of St. Johnsbury's most distinguished sons, Rev. Edwin W. Parker, D. D., missionary bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church for Southern Asia, who died at Naine Tal, India, June 4. It was particularly fitting that a memorial service should be held in St, Johnsbury for it was Bishop Parker’ home, and as one of the speakers ex pressed it, there was no place in the world so dear to the heart of this great and good man, excepting of course, bis beloveo India. A special printed program was issued. The service began with an organ prelude by Miss Maijorie Batchelder, and the male quartette of the church rendered the 23rd psalm. Rev. A. C. Hussey of the First Baptist church led in the responsive reading of the 90th psalm. Prayer was offered by Rev. E, M. Chapman of the North church. Rev. G. W. Hunt, pastor of Grace church, read a memoir of Bishop Parker in which he traced the chief events of his life from bis school days and the brief period when he was a member of the Vermont conference and pastor of the church in Lunenburg, and through the more than 40 years of distinguished work in India.The memorial addresses were delivered by Rev. Sylvester Donaldson of St, Johnsbury Center, Rev. Dr. Edward T. Fairbanks of the South church and Presiding Elder J. 0. Sherburne. Mr. Donaldson said that it was a pleasure for him to be present as representing the church with which Bishop Parker was first connected and through which he was led to become a minister of the cross. He paid a tribute to the missionary's great-heartedness and related incidents that occurred during his visits to his native land.Dr. Fairbanks spoke of Bishop Parker’s connection with St. Johnsbury and of tljg high place he occupied among the sons of the town who have gone out into various fields of activity.Rev. J. 0. Sherburne's address was a notable tribute to the noble missionary from a brother minister who knew him well, and also knows well the history of his great work in India. We give his address in full.When a steady star has sunken from our sight, and its brilliancy no longer cheers and charts us, it is only natural and perhaps wise to consider what gave our star its lustre, how came it to be reckoned as one of oursureguides. When a lile giving river has run dry, and even the trees that line its hanks wither and grow sere we are prompted to ask whence had our stream its former fullness, from what forest fountains was it fed, why such perennial profit from its flow ?When exquisite music has ceased and its thrill or its calm are vanishing, we are moved to make inquiry as to why its strains so charmed us, and what in the construction of its chords so moved our hearts.The grand luminary of our work in India has gone below our horizon. The spiritual Nile of North India ceased its flow, the cathedral harmonies of a pure, majestic lile have fainted from our ears. Bishop Parker lives on earth no longer. May it not befit us, as his friends, and in some sense his associates, to inquire for a little this quiet Sabbath afternoon into the secret of his greatness, the sources of his power. Among the many excellencies of his character I shall at this time only call attention to three prominent traits that seem to rise like symmetrical summits before the eyes of all beholders. This is by no means saying that other characteristics were not striking, or that these peaks were positively higher than any others, but rather that they stand out with such prominence as to catch and hold the gaze offield. Life had for him little meaning else. He could say in verity “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” Every item of nerve vigor, every acquisition of mind, all potencies of heart and soul were gratefullv given to his grand work Hindered the boon and the burden of family care, he could the more readily give his whole time and energy to the one calling to which everything was pledged and most perfectly was the vow performed.On a furlough or in the field, in the mountains or on the plains, rainy season or dry, the redemption of India was his sole theme, his constant task,Every man becomes great who is wholly given to a great cause, and this totality of consecration is surest proof of intrinsic greatness.Another note worthy characteristic of Bishop Parker was his marvellous industry. “I must work the work of Him that sent me” seems to have been his lile-long motto. Toil with him was not degraded to a task. He took up labor with a zest and prosecuted it with unflaggingcheerfulness. On his outbound voyage he was industriously studying as best he could the Hindostanni tongue in which he expected to preachjjesus to the men of India. And from that time on he was perpetually busy heart and hand with the books, the leaflets, the periodicals, the schools, the mission compounds, the preacher’s homes, the churches, colleges, orphanages, famine-relief offices, and all the vast enterprises of his great and growing work. Once he said in all the years since I left America from the general conference of 1896 till I re-embarked for that of 1900 I have not seen a day's vacation. And with him a day’s work meant something. Once in the writer’s home he gave a schedule of a Sunday's work in Moradabad. An early morning service, before 7 a. m., a short sermon and general class, sometimes in the suburbs of the town, regular church service in the mid-forenoon, at 2 p. m. a loflg walk to the center of the city to visit and aid in Sabbath schools, sometimes visiting three during an afternoon ; league service at 6 30 and preaching at the barracks before the English soldiers at 8 p. m.Few men in literary or professional life average to put in eight hours of real work per day, and their working weeks have many vacations interspersed. Bishop Parker knew another kind of labor, wherein scarce a day knew less than eight hours of actual toil, and these often doubled, and on occasion 18 hours or 20 hours put in with only slightall who look that way.First, Bishop Parker was a man of single purpose and of one work. From the time when, after no slight struggle, he gave up his own plan ol a teacher's career and decided to give himself to the ministry and to mission work in India, just one purpose dominated all his pow-On his charge in Lunenburg he read the call for workers in that distant field just opening. In a winter's storm he drove with bis young wife to this town to consult his presiding elder, who still lives within our borders. So disguised with wraps and snowy mantle were the couple that their elder did not recognize them as they drove to bis door. The cause of their coming was soon explained. Would the elder commend them to the missionary society of the Methodist church for work in India? There was hesitation. The matter was can vassed. They prayed together for coun sel from heaven. The elder craved a few days to deliberate. He was doubtful as to their qualifications, but the vounj* couple never wavered. They had alreadyrecess for meals. This kind of service, on and on through years, with little intermission save on ship board; for on this side of the sea he was busy as beyond with the life consuming work for his loved India. In two general conferences where it was my privilege to sit with him through the protracted sessions and in many committee meetings, I can hardly remember of his being absent a single hour from his appointed place. And a picture that will ever live in memory is that of Dr. Parker and wife arm in arm, with the smile of heaven upon their faces, walking briskly to the exposition building at Omaha or the armory at Cleveland, at just about three miuutes before nine.His labor only ended with his life. Only a few hours before his death he was in consultation with his leading colleagues on matters pertaining to the finances of the mission. With him to live was to labor, life without work was meaningless to him.It is not strange that he scarcely reached his three score and ten when we reflect that he put into fifty years of life more actual service than the ordinarv hard worker gets into seventy. To my thought it is safe to calculate that Methodism in North India is twice as large as it would have been, had Bishop Parker been only a man of average application and industry. His example of prodigious activity has proved a contagion among all his associates and native helpers, and the end is not yet. The effect of the monumental industry of John Wesley has not spent itself in these 110 years since his death. All the ranks of Methodism feel its impulse and impact still.So, I think, it will be with the infant church in India. Generations yet to come will be moulded and inspired by the scrupulous fidelity and phenomenal industry of Edwin W. Parker.A third prominent trait was his almost perlect unselfishness. Because he thought last of himself, he was ready always to serve others. And even heathen soon perceived that he came not to be understood unto, but to minister. In some sections and in earlier times the bandits of India tried to inflame the people against the missionaries on the ground that these foreigners were among them only to make a gain. But with such men as Bishop Parker laboring there for years every traducing tongue was stopped. And because ol this commendation of the gospel which the American missionaries carried to North India, that gospel can never be rooted up. Its loundation is in that love which never faileth. And with no thought of unfavorable comparison, and no desire to disparage the work ofhundredsofnoblemisfixed their plans and were determined to the future, if the way should open. From that time on to the dav of death there was no swerving in purpose the part of Bishop 1 arker or his wile. One straight course he walked. One work consumed all his energies and occupied all his time. With him there was no exploiting in mission work No three years of trial service. His life time and his life were both swallowed up in the great work to which he had absolutely given all. He was not in India a! a naturalist, to study her fauna and flora, and make interesting collections, though these things did not escape bis notice He was not there as a philosopher or a si. ci.al science expert, though he could hav given valuable hints to all these me along their special lines. He was not in in India as a politician, though well abreast of the times in his comprehension of the very grave questions of government in that country. His work was to aid in planting Christianity in that far land, to help bis King in the conquest of the world.He knew no other calling. All his powers were trained to this one line of do ng. His was Paul’s dictum. “I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Morning noon and night; in early manhood,in life smid-dav and whentheshades drew on he was ever active in his chosensionanes and native helpers who had the true sp:rit of Christian sacrifice, it isnot too much to say that this noble Christian altruism which lias so marvellously marked the career of our missionaries and churches in that plague-cursed famine-smitten region is due more to the words and works of Edwin W. Parker than to those of any other man; I might safely say any half score of men.The world knows little of the kindliness of that great New England heart that beat in the breast of this devoted follower of Him who saved others though himself he could not and would not save.And when the King Eternal shall say “come, sit at my right hand, for I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, 1 was hungry and ye fed me, naked and ye clothed me, sick and ye visited me,” uncounted thousands from teeming India will respond in Babd tongues and variant dialects, all this has Sahib Parker done for Jesus in the person of his humblest followers.at Naine Tal on the 4th of June, 1901. Bishop Thoburn and other friends and fellow-laborers of our lamented leader have no doubt given the church full and loving accounts of him whom the church so honored and loved, and who served her so faithfully and successfullyin India during the past forty-two years. Yet we, who havebeen his fellow workers here and who have been at his bedside during the long struggle which ended so peacefully yesterday, have the mournful yet pleasant privilege of adding our testimony to the worth of this good man’s life and of expressing our sorrow at his removal.Bishop Nmde died suddenly and alone in the silent night. Bishop Parker, after a severe illness which lasted more than seven months, died on a bright afternoon, surrounded by a score or more of missionaries, men and women, some of whom had faithfully, day and night, assisted Mrs. Parker in loving and skillful care of btr husband, which made it possible for him to make such a prolonged and heroic struggle for his life. Months before the end came those who were in constant attendance realized that this would be a sickness unto death; but neither the Bishop nor Mrs. Parker gave up hope of his recovery until a few days before the end came. His mind was clear during all his sickness; within two or three days of his departure he was in frequent consultation with the missionaries concerning our work, and within an hour or two of his death, though unable to speak, he gave intelligent attention to all that was passing about him. His end was peaceful and apparently painless.There are always a number of missionaries in Naine Tal in the month of June. It is the hottest month of the year, and is vacation time for most of the schools The finance committees of the North India Conference had arranged to have their mid-year meeting on the 5th of June in Naine Tal; and thus it transpired that a large number of the missionaries of the North India Conference, with their wives and the missionaries of W. F. M. S., were at Spring Grove Cottage when Bishop Parker breathed his last. Bishop Warne, just returned from Manila,reached Naine Tal some twenty hours after his colleague’s death, but was in time to lead the funeral service, at which time, with one single exception, all the families of the missionaries of the North India Conference and many native missionaries were present. Mournful representations are sometimes made of missionaries dying alone as Livingtone did in foreign lands. Bishop Parker’s translation was not under such circumstauces. If he had died at his father’s home tn St. Johnsbury, I do not think his bed would have been surrounded by such a company of brothers and sisters as those who saw him breathe his last yesterday afternoon.It is not easy for those unacquainted with the peculiar position which Edwin W. Parker filled for the past twenty-five or thirty years in North India to realize the character of the bereavement that has come to us. Among the missionaries, and in a still greater degree among the hundreds of native ministers in the two northern Conferences, the sense of personal loss is very great. “My father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof,” is in the hearts of thousands. There are two kinds of men in the world those who help, and those who do not. E. W. Parker was a man who helped; a man to whom those about him naturally looked for he'p. It is no exaggeration to say that hundreds of native ministers and other native Christians will mourn his removal because his helping hand did so much to make them what they are. He was bishop for one year only; and during most of that year he was fighting for his life and could do but little work. But he had been doing bishop’s work long years before the General Conference made him one; and there is no doubt whatever that the disease which at last removed him from among us was directly caused by the unusually heavy work carried during the twelve months preceding his election to the episcopacy. He was an enthroned episcopos in the hearts and minds of hundreds of native ministers, local preachers, and men of that sort. Methodism is not supposed to have popes or cardinals; but certainly for many years past Dr. Parker's voice in Conf rence and in committee work has been ex cathedra for the great majority of missionaries and ministers here.He was a providential man for India; man who built up interests; a man of strong hand and very tender heart. Among the Sikhs and Cbamars of Rohilkhand he perceived the wonderful providential openings of forty years, and the wise and resolute manner in which he did his work among them is abundantly declared on the statistical pages of Indian Methodism.And in all of this strongman's work, and in all his success, it was well known that he accomplished what he did because in everything he was assisted by the unique wisdom and strength of htr who, after a happy married life of nearly halt a century, now sits and weeps alone. He is where he has no need of our recognition, or sympathy, or prayers. She is with us, and 1 do not think that a bereaved wife has ever inherited a richer legacy of sympathy and confidence than is given and will be given by the church in India and America to the widow of Bishop E. W. Parker.Dinna Ye Hear Them.A Tribute to hi* Lile find Work by a I'ellow IliuMnarrThe first news of Bishop Parker’s death, aside from the cablegram in June, came to the office of Zion’s Herald last week and was printed in the last number of that paper. It is a tribute from the pen of Rev. J. H. Messtnore and will be read with interest by the late Bishop’s many St. Johnsbury frieuds. It is written from Naine Tal, under date of JuneReaders of Zion's Herald have heard by cable of the death of Bishop ParkerTELPAINTIInstall* Artist a Crii Dlu iinAn ai almost palntin; einy w man wl most e: conseqi The stretch was bet the for body, y slon on knife it dently picture, dered tr ture poi aways l had mi treasure The p ed, wile “In h(HIT.story thall.the moi body lm impulse first thl: resentin years a* Needh the outc der will of the n for lust the pah was Inc dastard] There known 1 by Mr. ] ably vei that th the mea petratlo wise ne A cert mltted i was a 1 have toi The pic watchln has so 1 take aw make a When died, I i brother as all th monia. saved hi so evlde the skill tened t: money.A well ed to pa alted cl slon of form of anxious included course, i Shortl complet' petrated lost her thief o Years p all bopi heirloon Now, who ha lady me In India In the came to to that; native t Sudde by a pi shop thi was a Where 1 sacked 1 ber.He re pened 1 sketch years a* In a r The pie the peci had bee In his p He ht and tole ed, naai ited coi the En once seThe concerts by the 48th Highlanders Regimental Band of Toronto which are to be given at Howe Opera House on the afternoon and evening of July 26 will be musical exhibitions of a high order to say nothing ol the unique features peculiar to the “Land of the Heather” that will add so much to the interest of the concerts. The Highland dress is one ol the most picturesque of costumes, and this with the piping and dancing, combined with the excellent band work for which this organization is famous, ought to afford exceptionally delightful programs. Another feature is the vocal choir of 20 voices which will render “Ye Banks and Braes, “Annie Laurie,” Scots Wha H ie,” and other Scottish favorites. The band music will not be confined entirely to the melodies of Scotlaud, however, but will include some of the best classic selections of European and American composers. Charles A. Chapman, who is local manager for the organization, is working with the same energy that ch; racterized his haudling of the arrangements for the last Sousa concert. Excursion rates have been secured from stations on the Passumpsic division as far south as White River Junction and a special train will run from Lyndonville in the evening. Special rate tickets will also be sold at stations from Hardwick to Lunenburg on the Lake road.fessed quite li which I in the ( The sti turned mous E parent!; neverth the thli so mira WeeklyPapa-caught again I Wllllt Papa-with hi Willli though’ went o why.—1The 1 mond 1 His tr lished 1 work througl work a
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Saint Johnsbury Caledonian
Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, US
Wed, Jul 17, 1901
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USA 27 Aug 2024
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