The Story of My Life; Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada Part 78

Shortly before three o'clock the room was left to the members of the family, after which the coffin was borne to the hea.r.s.e by the following pall-bearers, preceded by the Rev. Dr. Potts:--Dr. Hodgins, Rev. Dr.

Nelles, Dr. Aikins, Rev. Dr. Rose, Rev. R. Jones, Mr. J. Paterson.

Previous to the arrival of the hea.r.s.e at the church, His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, the Speaker of the House, members of the Legislature, which had adjourned for the occasion, and the Ministerial a.s.sociation, were in the places a.s.signed to them. The members of the City Council and Board of Education were also present in a body. The pupils of Ryerson and Dufferin Schools marched into the church in a body, wearing mourning badges on their arms. There were representatives of all conditions in society, and it might be said of all ages. The lisping schoolboy who was free from the restraint imposed by the presence of his master; and the aged man and woman tottering unsteadily on the verge of the grave--all were hushed in the presence of death.

Everywhere within the building were the evidences of a great sorrow.

c.r.a.pe was seen wherever the eye turned--surrounding the galleries, fronting the platform, encircling the choir. But there was one spot thrown into _alto relievo_ by the sombre drapery of woe. In front of the pulpit, on a small table, were the exquisitely beautiful floral tributes of friends.h.i.+p and affection, whispering of the beauty and glory of that spring-time of the human race, when this "mortal shall have put on immortality."

Cobourg and Victoria College were well represented; the Rev. T. W.

Jeffery and Wm. Kerr, Q.C., and others, being present; also the following professors and students from Victoria College:--Rev. Dr.

Nelles, Prof. Burwash, Prof. Reynard, Prof. Bain, Mr. McHenry (Collegiate Inst.i.tute), and Dr. Jones. The students from the College--one from each cla.s.s--were Messrs. Stacey, Horning, Eldridge, Brewster, and Crews. The Senate of Victoria University walked in a body immediately after the carriages containing the mourners. Upon entering the west aisle of the church, Rev. Dr. Potts commenced reading the burial service, the vast audience standing. The pall-bearers having deposited their charge in front of the pulpit, Rev. Mr. Cochran gave out the 733rd hymn,

"Come, let us join our friends above, Who have obtained the prize."

Rev. Dr. Rose offered prayer, after which Rev. Wm. Scott, of Montreal Conference, read a portion of the 1st Cor. xv., commencing at the 20th verse. The choir of fifty voices, led by the organist, Mr. Torrington, sang an anthem--

"Brother, thou art gone before us"

Rev. Mr. Telfer, from England, gave out the 42nd hymn, which was fervently sung by the congregation. The Rev. Dr. Potts then delivered the following funeral address:--

My place of choice on this deeply sorrowful occasion would be in the ranks of the mourners, for I feel like a son bereft of his father.

Gladly would I sit at the feet of aged ministers before me, and listen to them speak of one they knew and loved so well. I venture to address a few words to you, in fulfilment of the dying request of my reverend and honoured father in the Gospel.

Regarding the well-known wishes of the departed, my words must be few and simple. To-day, Methodism, in her laity and ministry mourns over the death of her most ill.u.s.trious minister and Church leader. To-day, many in this house, and far beyond Toronto, lament the loss of an ardent and true friend. To-day, Canada mourns the decease of one of her n.o.blest sons. This is not the time nor the place for mere eulogy; in the presence of death and of G.o.d eulogy is unbecoming. We would glorify G.o.d in the character and in the endowments of his servant and child.

We cannot, we should not, forget the greatness of the departed. His was a many-sided greatness. Dr. Ryerson would have been great in any walk in life. In law he would have been a Chief Justice. In statesmans.h.i.+p he would have been a Prime Minister. He was a born leader of his fellows.

He was kingly in carriage and in character. The stamp of royal manhood was impressed upon him physically, mentally, morally. We cannot forget the distinguished positions occupied so worthily and so long by our departed friend. He lived for his country, spending and being spent in the educational and moral advancement of the people.

As a servant of Methodism, he was a missionary to the Indians of this Province, an evangelist to the scattered settlers, and a pastor in this city long, long ago. He was President of Victoria College, and never ceased to love and support that inst.i.tution of learning. For it he solicited money in England and in this country, and to it he gave the intellectual energy of his early manhood, as well as ranking in the front place as a personal subscriber to its funds. He was the first Editor of the _Christian Guardian_, the connexional organ of our branch of Methodism.

As a servant of Canada, he was for over thirty years Chief Superintendent of Education in this Province. His monument--more enduring than bra.s.s--is the Public School system of Ontario. When the history of this country comes to be written, the name, the imperishable name of Egerton Ryerson shall s.h.i.+ne in radiant l.u.s.tre as one of the greatest men produced in this land.

But it is not of these things Dr. Ryerson would have me speak if he could direct my thoughts to-day. Rather would have me speak of him as a sinner saved by grace, as a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. I knew him well in his religious life. His experience was marked by scriptural simplicity, and his conversation was eminently spiritual. Of all the ministers of my acquaintance, none spoke with me so freely and so frequently on purely religious subjects as the venerable Dr. Ryerson. He gloried in the cross of Christ. He never wearied speaking of the precious blood of the Lamb. He was one of the most helpful and sympathetic hearers in the Metropolitan Church congregation. Rarely, in my almost six years' pastorate, did he leave the church without entering the vestry and saying a kindly, encouraging word.

The doctor belonged to a cla.s.s of men rapidly pa.s.sing away. Most of his companions pa.s.sed on before him. But few linger behind. Grand men they were in Church and State. Canada owes them a debt of grat.i.tude that she can hardly ever pay. Let us revere the memory of those gone to their rest and reward, and let us treat with loving reverence the few pioneers who still linger to bless the land for which they have done so much. We may have a higher average in these times, but we lack the heroic men who stood out so conspicuously in the early history of Canada.

Dr. Ryerson was a Methodist, but not a narrow sectarian. He knew the struggles of our Church in this country, and shared them; he witnessed, with grat.i.tude to G.o.d, the extension of Methodism from feeble beginnings to its present influential position. He desired above all things that our Church should retain the primitive simplicity of the olden time, and yet march abreast of the age in the elements of a Christian civilization.

At the first General Conference which met in this church, after the Union, and after that eminently providential event, the introduction of laymen into the highest Court of the Church--at that time, when the representatives of both ministry and members.h.i.+p desired a man to preside over the Methodist Church of Canada, to whom did they look? To the man whom Methodism delighted to honour--Egerton Ryerson.

Dr. Ryerson was regarded by the congregation belonging to this church with peculiar respect and affection. While he belonged to all Canada, we, of the Metropolitan Church, claimed him as our own especial possession. He was a trustee of the Church, and one of its most liberal supporters; for its prosperity he ever prayed, and in its success he ever rejoiced. It is hard to realize that we shall no longer see that venerable form--that genial and intellectual countenance.

The life of Dr. Ryerson was long, whether you measure it by years or by service--service to his G.o.d, to his fellow-men, and to his native land.

He was a shock of corn ripe for the heavenly garner. He was an heir, having reached his majority, and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, has gone to take possession of it. He was a pilgrim, who after a lengthened pilgrimage has reached home. He was a Christian, who with Paul could say, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." In such an hour as this, what comfort could all the honours of man give to the sorrowing family as compared with the thought that the one they loved so dearly was a man in Christ and is now a glorified spirit before the throne. Henceforth we must think of him and speak of him as the late Dr. Ryerson, and to many of us this shall be difficult and painful. We have been so accustomed to see and hear him, we have so long looked up to him as one specially gifted to lead, that a sad feeling comes over us, left as we are without the guidance of our beloved leader and father in the Church. The memory of the just is blessed, and our memory of Dr.

Ryerson shall be precious, until we overtake him in the better country, that is the heavenly. Until then let us not be slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Could he speak to us to-day from the heights of the heavenly glory to which he has just been admitted, he would say to this vast concourse of friends, "Follow Christ; seek first the kingdom of G.o.d; serve your generation; build up in your Dominion a nationality based on righteousness and truth; be strict in your judgment upon yourselves, but be charitable in your judgment of others; live that your end may be peace, and your immortality eternal blessedness."

Dr. Potts concluded by reading the following extract from a letter written by Dr. Ormiston, of New York, to Dr. Hodgins:--

Dear Dr. Ryerson, I mourn thee as a son for a father. Thou wert very dear to me. I owe thee much. I loved as I esteemed thee. I have no one left now to fill thy place in my heart and life. Through riches of Divine grace I hope soon to meet thee again. My dear Brother Hodgins--You and I knew our n.o.ble-hearted friend better than most, and to know him was to love him. You have been longer and more intimately a.s.sociated with him in social life and earnest work than I was. But I scarcely think that even you loved him more, and I feel as if I was hardly even second to you in his regards. Let our tears fall together to-day, and in each of our hearts let his memory live ever fresh and fondly cherished.

Hymn 624, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me," was then sung, after which prayer was offered and the benediction was p.r.o.nounced by the Rev. J. G.

Laird, President of the Toronto Conference. A musical voluntary and the "Dead March" concluded the impressive service.

The remains were then borne to Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where they were afterwards interred.[150] The concluding portion of the burial service was read by the Rev. Dr. Nelles.

On the following Sunday the funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Dr.

Nelles. The _Guardian_ said:--

The discourse of Dr. Nelles was a masterly and eloquent review of the salient points in Dr. Ryerson's life and character. We have rarely listened to a sermon with greater satisfaction, and never to a funeral sermon so discriminating in its statements and characterization. It was distinguished by a broad mental grasp of the great lessons and facts of history, in the light of which all personal and local events must be viewed, to be seen truly and impartially. His appreciative recognition of the privileges of religious equality which we possess in Canada, and of the prominent part taken by Dr. Ryerson in obtaining them, was very suggestive and felicitous. We rarely follow to the grave so eminent a man as Dr. Ryerson; and we seldom have heard a discourse so fully equal to a great occasion.

Tributes to Dr. Ryerson's Memory.

After Dr. Ryerson's death kind telegrams and letters of condolence were received by the family from many sympathizing friends, among which was one from the Marquis of Lorne, Governor-General. The following letter was also received by Mrs. Ryerson from the Rev. William Arthur, M.A., dated London, England, April 10th, 1882:--

The news of your great bereavement, a bereavement which, though yours in a special sense, is not yours alone, but is felt by mult.i.tudes as their own, came at a moment when a return of an old affection of the eyes made writing difficult, and I did not like to give you a mere line. From my heart I do condole with you on the removal from your side of one who was pleasant to look upon, even for strangers, and whose presence was not only a natural delight, but a stay, and an honour. Not many women are called to sustain the loss of such a husband. But on the other hand, not many women in the day of their great loss have the legacy left to them of such a memory, such a career, and such appreciation of whole communities of the merits of that career. Very few have such a combination of true religious consolation, of full hope and unclouded faith, with the sense of comfort derived from general sympathy and universal public respect. Dr. Ryerson was the servant of G.o.d, and the Lord blessed him. He was the servant of the Church, and the Church loved and revered him. He was the servant of his country, and his country delighted to honour him, and will hold him in permanent and honourable remembrance. To many friends on this side of the Atlantic, as well as on his own, he was a rarely honoured and prized representative of long and n.o.ble services to the cause of G.o.d, and to general society, services rendered with commanding abilities and unflinching vigour. To you and to the children the loss is far different to what it is to others. To you and to them have the hearts of others turned with unaffected sympathy.

You have had many praying for you; many hoping that blessings will rest upon the name of Ryerson, and that it will long be represented in every Christian work, and every branch of public usefulness. With truly affectionate regards, and condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Charles, believe me, dear Mrs. Ryerson, yours with heartfelt sympathy,

Wm. Arthur.

The Lord Bishop of Manchester, who was in Canada as one of the Royal Commissioners on Education, in concluding his report on our Canadian Schools, said: "Such, in all its main features, is the school system of Upper Canada. A system not perfect, but yet far in advance, as a system of national education, of anything we can show at home. It is indeed very remarkable to me that in a country, occupied in the greater part of its area by a spa.r.s.e and anything but wealthy population, whose predominant characteristic is as far as possible removed from the spirit of enterprise, an educational system so complete in its theory and so capable of adaptation in practice should have been originally organized, and have maintained in what, with all allowances, must still be called successful operation for so long a period as twenty-five years. It shows what can be accomplished by the energy, determination, and devotion of a single earnest man. What national education in England owes to Sir J.

K. Shuttleworth, what education in New England owes to Horace Mann, that debt education in Canada owes to Egerton Ryerson. He has been the object of bitter abuse, of not a little misrepresentation; but he has not swerved from his policy or from his fixed ideas. Through evil report and good report he has found others to support him in the resolution, that free education shall be placed within the reach of every Canadian parent for every Canadian child."

In a letter addressed to Dr. Ryerson in 1875, the Bishop says:--I take it very kindly in you that you remember an old acquaintance, and I have read with interest your last report. I am glad to observe progress in the old lines almost everywhere. I was flattered also to find that some words of mine, written in 1865, are thought worthy of being quoted....

It is pleasant to find a public servant now in the thirty-second year of his inc.u.mbency, still so hopeful and so vigorous. Few men have lived a more useful or active life than you, and your highest reward must be to look back upon what you have been permitted to achieve.

The Very Reverend Dean Grasett, in a letter to Dr. Hodgins, dated 9th November, 1875, said:

I thank you very much for your kindness in presenting me with a complete set of the _Journal of Education_ from the date of its commencement in 1848 to the present time.

You could not have given me a token of parting remembrance more acceptable to me on various accounts; but chiefly shall I value it as a memorial of the confidence and kindness I have so invariably experienced from the Rev. Dr. Ryerson from the day I first took my seat with him at a Council Board in 1846 to the time that I was released from further attendance there this year. Similar acknowledgments I owe to yourself, his coadjutor, in the great work of his life, and the editor of the record of his labours, contained in these volumes.

I shall carry with me to the end of life the liveliest feelings of respect for the public character and regard for the private worth of one who has rendered to his country services which ent.i.tle him to her lasting grat.i.tude. My venerable friend has had from time to time many cheering recognitions of his valuable public services from the Heads of our Government, who were capable of appreciating them, as well as from other quarters; but I think that in his case, as in others that are familiar to us, it must be left to future generations adequately to appreciate their value when they shall be reaping the full benefit of them.

I esteem it an honour that I should have been a.s.sociated with him in his Council for so many years (30), and a privilege if I have been of the least a.s.sistance in upholding his hands in performing a work, the credit of which is exclusively his own.

The Rev. Dr. Withrow, in his "Memorials of Dr. Ryerson," (_Canadian Methodist Magazine_, April, 1882,) said: No man ever pa.s.sed away from among us in Canada whose true greatness was so universally recognized as that of Dr. Ryerson. He lived in the hearts of his countrymen, and

"Read his history in a nation's eyes."

Even envy and detraction could not lessen his grandeur nor tarnish the l.u.s.tre of his name.... Scarce an organ of public opinion in the country, no matter what party or what interest it represented, has not laid its wreath of praise on the tomb of this great Canadian. And far beyond his own country his character was revered and his loss deplored.... From the Roman Catholic Archbishop; from the Anglican Bishop, from many members of the Church of England and other religious bodies, as well as of his own Church; resolutions of the Board of the Bible Society, the Tract Society, School Boards and Conventions, and Collegiate Inst.i.tutes, all bore witness to the fact that the sorrow for his death was not confined to any party or denominational lines, but was keenly felt in other churches as well as in that of which he was the most distinguished minister.... Almost every Methodist journal in the United States has also paid its tribute to his memory. We quote from the _North Western Christian Advocate_, of Chicago, but one such tribute of loving respect:--"We believe that Canada owes more to him than to any other man, living or dead. In all his official relations to the public he was true to his Church. Men like Wellington and Was.h.i.+ngton 'save their countries,' but men like Ryerson make their countries worth saving. The mean little soul flinches when its brethren rise in reputation and power in the Church. The more exalted soul rejoices when the Church grows rich in competent workers. The death of such a servant as Ryerson is a loss to the world greater than when the average president or king pa.s.ses away. Thank G.o.d, the great Ruler lives, and He will continue the line of prophets in modern Israel!"

Dr. Ryerson possessed in a marked degree the faculty of commanding the confidence and winning the friends.h.i.+p of distinguished men of every rank, of every political party and religious denomination. He possessed the confidence and esteem of every Governor of Canada, from Lord Sydenham to the Marquis of Lorne. No native Canadian ever had the _entree_ to such distinguished society in Great Britain and in Europe as he. He had personal relations with several of the leading British statesmen. He enjoyed the personal friends.h.i.+p of the Bishop of Manchester, the Dean of Westminster, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other distinguished divines of the Anglican and Dissenting Churches. He was one of the very few Methodist preachers who have ever shared the hospitalities of Lambeth Palace, for six hundred years the seat of the Primates of England; and when Dean Stanley pa.s.sed through Toronto, he and Dean Grasett called together on Dr. Ryerson. When making his educational tour in Europe....

Speaking of his personal worth, Dr. Withrow says:--A very good criterion of a man's character is: How does he get on with his colleagues? Does the familiarity of daily intercourse, year after year, increase or lessen their esteem? Few men will bear this test as well as Dr. Ryerson.

The more one saw of him the more one loved him. Those who knew him best loved him most. Dr. Hodgins, the Deputy Minister of Education, for thirty-two years the intimate a.s.sociate in educational work of Dr.

Ryerson, knowing more fully than any living man the whole scope of his labours, sharing his anxieties and toils, tells us that in all those years there never was an hour's interruption of perfect mutual trust and sympathy. No son could have a stronger filial love for an honoured father than had Dr. Hodgins for his late venerated Chief. It was his privilege to minister to the latest hours of his revered friend, and it is to him a labour of love to prepare for the press the posthumous story of his life.

With all his catholicity of sentiment and charity of spirit, Dr. Ryerson was a man of strong convictions, and he always had the courage of his convictions as well. When it came to a question of principle he was as rigid as iron. Then he planted himself on the solid ground of what he believed to be right, and said, like Fitz James: