"He was a man, take him for all in all,We shall not look upon his like again."
"He was a man, take him for all in all,We shall not look upon his like again."
Rev. Dr. Douglas, in a letter to theGuardian, says: A great man and a prince has fallen in our Israel! The last of the illustrious three who bore the name of Ryerson has gone to enrich the heavens. Henceforth that honoured name will be enshrined in the history of our land.
Egerton Ryerson's patriotic service to the State, in resisting the introduction of feudal distinctions and ecclesiastical monopolies will ensure to him enduring recognition, as one of Canada's noblest benefactors. No statues of marble or of bronze need be raised to perpetuate his memory. The academies and schools which his organizing genius brought into existence, lifting up successive generations to the dignity which education ever confers, will make that name immortal. For nearly six decades he laid his great powers of intellect and heart on the altar of service for Canadian Methodism—winning for her ministry equality before the law, and for her people a status which allowed no coign of vantage to a favoured class—vindicating her polity and proclaiming her distinctive truth....
Now, when the sepulchre has received him, will not a grateful Church arise and give a permanence to his name more lasting than marble, by the founding of a Ryerson Chair of Philosophy with whatever is required to augment the usefulness of the institution which his great manhood loved, and for which he toiled with a life-lasting endeavour? Would that every minister, who bows his head in sorrow for a fallen chieftain, might in every circuit gather the piety, intelligence, and financial strength of the Church together, and in this supreme hour of the Church's grief, decree that before the spring-time shall come with its emerald robe enamelled with flowers, adorning the resting-place of our honoured dead, the name of Egerton Ryerson will be inwrought with our University, as an abiding inspiration to the student-life that shall throng her halls along the coming years.
The Methodist Ministers of Toronto, in a sketch of Dr. Ryerson's life and character, written by Rev. W. S. Blackstock, say: To most of us, from our early childhood, the name of Egerton Ryerson has been a household word, and we learned to esteem and love him even before we were capable of estimating his character, or the greatness of the service which he was rendering to his own and coming generations; and the knowledge of him which we have been permitted to acquire in our riper years, has only tended to deepen the impressions of him which we received in early days.
As the fearless and powerful champion of civil and religious liberty, and of the equal rights of all classes of his countrymen, he is associated in our memory with the patriotic and Christian struggles of a past generation, which have resulted in securing to our beloved land as large a measure of liberty as is enjoyed by any country under the sun. In respect to the incomparable system of Public Instruction, to the perfecting of which he devoted so many years of his active and laborious life, and with which his name must ever be associated, we feel that he has laboured and we have entered into his labours. We can hardly conceive how either our country or our Church could have been what they are to-day, but for his fidelity and the work which he accomplished.
The lively interest which he took in every patriotic, Christian, and philanthropic movement, especially those which tended to increase the influence and usefulness of his own Church—the zeal with which he laboured for them, and the large-hearted, generous liberality with which he contributed of his means for their support—awaken our gratitude and thankfulness, and will be a perpetual inspiration in our efforts to promote those objects which lay so near his heart, and to further the interests of that cause which he served so well.
But standing, as we are to day, with bowed heads and stricken hearts, beside the grave which has just closed upon the mortal remains of our venerable departed brother, though we would not forget what he had done for us, we prefer to think of what, by the grace of God, he was, than of what by God's good Providence he was permitted to accomplish. We delight to cherish the memory of his penitent and childlike faith in Christ—the sinner's only Saviour and hope—and of those graces of the Holy Spirit which gave so much beauty and sweetness to his character, and which were more and more conspicuous in his declining years.
Though Dr. Ryerson was a man of positive views and devotedly attached to his own Church, he was distinguished for his comprehensive charity, and his genuine appreciation of great and good men from whom he differed widely in opinion. His goodness no less than his greatness will serve to keep his memory fresh among us, and the recollections of his virtue is to us a powerful incentive to a fuller consecration to the service of God.
The General Conference at its Session of 1882, passed the following resolution:—
Whereas it has pleased Almighty God, in His divine wisdom, to call from a life of faithful service in the Church of Christ on earth to his everlasting reward in heaven our reverend andhonoured father in the Gospel, the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, D.D., LL.D., the first President of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada, this General Conference desires to place upon record its deep feelings of gratitude to God for His gift to the Methodist Church and to the people of this land for so many years of a man so richly endowed with native gifts and so largely adorned with the Christian graces and its profound sense of the great loss the Church and country have sustained in his death. As the devoted Christian missionary and pastor; as the faithful defender of the rights and liberties of the people of this land against ecclesiastical assumptions and civil disabilities; as the Editor for many years of theChristian Guardian, the official organ of our Church and the first religious journal in Canada; as the President of the University of Victoria College, the oldest institution of higher learning of Canadian Methodism; as the trusted representative of his Church in the religious councils of Methodism in the old world and the new; as the Superintendent for over thirty years of the education of his native Province—a system which he almost created, and which he developed to a state of proficiency unsurpassed by that of any country in the world; as the wise counsellor in the union movement which led to the organization of the Methodist Church of Canada; and as the President-Administrator of its highest office during the first quadrennium of its history, Dr. Ryerson has an imperishable claim upon the love and gratitude especially of his own church, and also of the entire community. We magnify the grace of God as manifested in him; we revere his memory as that of a true patriot and devoted Christian; we rejoice in his labours for the glory of God and the welfare of man; and we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family, and pray that the consolations of God may more and more abound in their souls to the end.
FOOTNOTES:[150]This interment took place in May. The ceremony was a private one, attended only by immediate relatives and intimate personal friends. Among the former were the venerable doctor's aged eldest brother, Rev. George Ryerson (91 years old) and Mrs. George Ryerson; the bereaved widow, Mrs. Ryerson, Mr. Charles E. Ryerson, his two sons, and Mrs. George Duggan. Among the latter were the Rev. Dr. Potts, Mrs. Potts, Dr. Hodgins, and Mr. H. M. Wilkinson (son of Rev. H. Wilkinson), of the Education Department, and two or three others. After lowering the coffin into the grave, the Rev. Dr. Potts read a portion of the burial service, committing the body to the earth in hope of a joyful resurrection at the last day.
[150]This interment took place in May. The ceremony was a private one, attended only by immediate relatives and intimate personal friends. Among the former were the venerable doctor's aged eldest brother, Rev. George Ryerson (91 years old) and Mrs. George Ryerson; the bereaved widow, Mrs. Ryerson, Mr. Charles E. Ryerson, his two sons, and Mrs. George Duggan. Among the latter were the Rev. Dr. Potts, Mrs. Potts, Dr. Hodgins, and Mr. H. M. Wilkinson (son of Rev. H. Wilkinson), of the Education Department, and two or three others. After lowering the coffin into the grave, the Rev. Dr. Potts read a portion of the burial service, committing the body to the earth in hope of a joyful resurrection at the last day.
[150]This interment took place in May. The ceremony was a private one, attended only by immediate relatives and intimate personal friends. Among the former were the venerable doctor's aged eldest brother, Rev. George Ryerson (91 years old) and Mrs. George Ryerson; the bereaved widow, Mrs. Ryerson, Mr. Charles E. Ryerson, his two sons, and Mrs. George Duggan. Among the latter were the Rev. Dr. Potts, Mrs. Potts, Dr. Hodgins, and Mr. H. M. Wilkinson (son of Rev. H. Wilkinson), of the Education Department, and two or three others. After lowering the coffin into the grave, the Rev. Dr. Potts read a portion of the burial service, committing the body to the earth in hope of a joyful resurrection at the last day.
THE END.
BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES.