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Private Institution For The Education Of Feeble-Minded Youth. Barre, Massachusetts. Twenty-Fifth Biennial Report

Creator: n/a
Date: 1898
Publisher: Charles E. Rogers, Barre, Mass.
Source: Barre Historical Society
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8

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Page 7:

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Rev. J. F. Gaylord, his pastor, says:

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In the rare combination of high personal qualities which belonged to Dr. Brown, we find the secret of the universal love and esteem with which he was regarded by those who knew him. He was, in the highest sense of the term, a gentleman, -- a true Christian gentleman. Naturally genial, courteous, urbane, his religious experience and his peculiar work helped to bring these characteristics to unusual perfection. Here also is doubtless found one factor which has helped to make the Institution, which bears his name, so prosperous. Its patrons could not converse with him five minutes without feeling that this kindly, sympathetic man was one to whom the care of their unfortunate children might safely be entrusted. These virtues fitted him to be, in an eminent degree, a peace-maker. He studied "the things which make for peace." He was a man of decided and positive convictions, and instinctively hostile to everything which is base and wrong; but he was deferential to the opinions of others, and in his church and ecclesiastical society, in the various associations to which he belonged, and in the community, his pacific influence was constantly felt. His was a very sensitive nature, and I am told that, under provocation, he could at times speak or act hastily; but, if ever he went beyond due limits in this direction, he was quick to retract and make amends.

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Among his fine qualities was a marked modesty of bearing. His early educational advantages and requirements were excellent; he was a man of wide reading, and of much study; he had traveled extensively; he had moved much among men in high educational and social spheres, but among all classes he bore himself as if utterly unconscious of any superiority. Indeed, he was modest almost to a fault. Had there been more of self-assertion, he might, at times, have carried his own plans against opposing influence, when, instead, he yielded to the judgment of others. Perhaps, however, his very hesitation to do so endeared him the more to those associated with him, and, on the whole, did not detract from his great usefulness. Had he desired them, and been less modest in matters of personal advancement, I have no doubt but that high political honors in the County and in the State, would have been given him. Dr. Brown always impressed one as wholly sincere; there was no guile or hypocrisy in him. Nothing was done merely for the sake of appearances. He was true, true to himself, to God and to his fellow-men. He was, to an eminent degree, large-hearted, taking into his interest and sympathy, not only the prosperity of this community, but also the great interests of progress and reform in the state and nation, and the advancement of Christ's kingdom throughout the world. His relations to his church and pastor were warm and lender. It was one of his great regrets, during his long illness, that he could not be present at the Sabbath services of the church; especially did he miss the privileges of the communion service. At our annual meetings he was wont to express to the brethren and sisters the love which he had for them and for the church. His religious faith seemed to be strong, as well as clear and simple; I have never heard him speak of doubts. His religious character ripened rapidly toward the close. It was good to talk with him. In the midst of great pain and suffering his trust in God was unfaltering and the Divine strength sustained him. The ordeal of sickness was evidently made to him a means of spiritual profit. I quote his own words written last February: "The past year has been to me one of vicissitudes and much pain of the deteriorating body at all times, yet I have had the comfort of many blessings and privileges from religious trust, and, far more than at any former period of my life, I have enjoyed the calm confidence of faith in Christ as my Saviour and Redeemer." Precious as his relation to Christ then was, he is now living in one which is nearer and more blessed; and while he lives in heaven a sainted soul in the presence of God, he lives on earth in the work he has done and in the hearts of us ail.

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Another is selected from a sermon delivered by Rev. A. F. Bailey, at the Unitarian Church, last Sunday:

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Often, in these days, it is the privilege of the dwellers in humble and small communities to walk in the company of those to whom it is divinely given to accomplish great things with small means, and to devise new ways by which the weak can be strengthened and the weary and feeble nourished, sustained and gladdened. Even so have we, of the town of Barre, been privileged, and beyond measure blessed, by the presence, and work among us for so many years, of a worthy companion of that saintly and apostolic multitude who, from the beginning of Time, have been eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, comfort to the distressed, joy to the sorrowful, bearing gently in their arms the tender little ones of God. He has gone out from among us now, into the higher life, well-fitted, as we fully trust, for great usefulness in the higher sphere of life and thought; but not without leaving the imprint of a worthy and helpful life behind him: a good and useful past that is well secured. It was his high and holy privilege, when here, to discover and unveil the image of God, in those of a class which the world, in all ages, has scorned, despised, revolted at, or, at best, but helplessly pitied: a class whom the great Plato would have had pitilessly slain by the citizens of his ideal Republic; their cases so seemingly hopeless that the most sanguine might well despair of their improvement and uplifting. It has been given to our brother, by tender care, profound study, unremitting toil, and patient waiting during the years that he has been among us, to bring to view manifestations of the Eternal Mind in those who seemed scarce lifted, in the scale of being, above the beasts that perish. Even as the sculptor, by his skill, brings beautiful statues out of unshapen blocks of marble, so he, by his toil and care, and God's good grace, has revealed mind and soul, where all seemed sensuous and brutal. He has brought hope into countless homes where, but for him, the shadow of despair must have brooded for long years. He has cared tenderly for many a helpless waif, whose fate would have been a bitter thing, had it not found anchorage and safe harbor in the borne of help and healing which his loving heart, true mind and willing hands prepared and maintained. There is grief to-day in many homes which his life and thought and love have blessed, even as there is grief in the hearts of us, who have found him, amidst all the cares of his professional and philanthropic work, never too busy or too occupied to assume and bear even more than his fair share of the burdens of the public good; but it is a grief which has great compensations. He leaves with us the record and the memories of a life well-spent, a life pregnant with uses, and filled with those "Actions of the just," which "Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust." He has gone, but his work abides; earth pronounces it good, and we believe that heaven will do no less. He has been able to teach the darkened mind how to find its way on earth, and to look toward the skies, confessing "God's kind control." He has brought dull eyes to see the beauty of the world, and stammering lips to sing praises to the Most High, and, when naught else could be done, he has brought comfort and peace to souls that must wait for God's fair revelation until for them the fashion of this world shall have passed away. It has passed away for him: surely it must be in order that the fashion of a grander world and the work of a nobler life may be revealed to him.

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