UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 STACKS
 
 
 

 
 2,85. 
 
 L 
 
 0R. NOYES died at his home in Evanston, Illinois, January 
 14, 1889, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His frame was 
 naturally stalwart. It is true that during his last year in the 
 Theological Seminary he suffered from severe hemorrhages of the 
 lungs. But in a few weeks he rallied from the weakness which 
 followed them, and, after his ministry began, his health gradually 
 became robust. He continued in strong health until a year or two 
 before the end came. In the early part of 1888, however, his long- 
 continued heavy cares and sorrows, and his years of self-forgetting 
 toil in the pastorate, on the press, and in the general missionary 
 enterprises of his denomination, led to a marked impairment of his 
 strength. Urged by his devoted church, he accepted a vacation. 
 When he returned to his work, he considered himself fully restored ; 
 but there were indications that his health was still so imperfect as to 
 render him specially susceptible to the attack of any acute disease. 
 During the last Christmas week he attended the annual " Messiah" 
 concert in Chicago, and sat in a draught throughout the evening. 
 In that way he caught cold; and when the Sabbath morning of 
 
 December 3Oth came, he was seriously ill. While playfully 
 . declining to have a physician called, he had been unable to com- 
 - plete his sermon for that morning, and it was afterwards found, 
 ' half finished, on his study table. Against the protests of his 
 r\ family he appeared in the pulpit, where Dr. Patterson assisted 
 him, and by making a painful struggle he barely succeeded in 
 ^ getting through the service. But in the evening he was compelled 
 3~ to remain at home, prostrated. After baffling his medical attendants 
 U_ for a day or two, his disease developed into pneumonia. His 
 ^-> progress seemed favorable until January loth, when the heart
 
 suddenly began to show symptoms of failure, and his condition 
 became alarming. The next three days were filled, for his family 
 and friends, with alternating hopes and fears. As three o'clock of 
 Monday was approaching, the weakness of death crept over his 
 body, but his mind continued to be clear to the last. The suffering 
 household gathered about his bed, and waited. Asked if he recog- 
 nized them, he was just able to say "Yes," and feebly to press his 
 daughter's hand. They read passages of Scripture to him, 
 bravely sang two or three of his favorite hymns, and joined in 
 repeating the Lord's prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm. Soon 
 after they had finished, he clasped his hands over his breast, to inti- 
 mate that he wanted one of them to offer prayer. His sister led in 
 the solemn act of worship, which evidently pleased him. Presently, 
 in the silence, at eight minutes past three, the moment of triumph 
 arrived. His tired, peaceful face lighted up with a strange radi- 
 ance, his eyes opened wide, and gazed straight upward with an 
 expression of ineffable joy, surprise and adoration ; and the beloved 
 father, pastor, friend, saw and entered into the glories which God 
 hath prepared for those who love Him. 
 
 The more notable events of Dr. Noyes' life, and the leading 
 qualities of his character, are stated or suggested in the various 
 tributes which follow. 
 
 S. J. McP. 
 
 <EBc Juncraf. 
 
 At eleven o'clock on Thursday, January iyth, after prayer had 
 been offered at the house, and the family, with one pathetic 
 exception, had taken a last look at the face of their beloved dead, 
 the casket was borne to the lecture-room of the church, where the 
 body lay in state. At the ends of the casket were placed twa 
 floral pillows, bearing the words " father" and " grandpa," and 
 resting upon it were a wreath of ivy and a sheaf of ripe wheat.. 
 The desk was draped in white and covered with sprigs of ivy, 
 while the wall, back of the desk, hung with black, bore the signi- 
 ficant legend: "I know that my Redeemer liveth." For two 
 hours a procession of parishioners, friends and citizens passed in 
 review above the still form, whose face wore its habitual expres- 
 sion of manly gentleness and love. 
 
 At one o'clock, the hour set for the funeral, the main audience- 
 room of the church was crowded to its utmost capacity, while 
 numbers of people were unable to enter. Most of the places of 
 business in Evanston had been closed, for the death of Dr. Noyes
 
 was regarded as a public calamity. The character, no less than 
 the size, of the audience, bore the highest testimony to the esteem 
 in which he was so widely held. His brother ministers, of several 
 Evangelical denominations, were present as sincere mourners. 
 The Chicago Literary Club's delegation consisted of all those who, 
 like himself, had occupied its chair. The Northwestern University, 
 the Lake Forest University, the McCormick Theological Sem- 
 inary, and the general community of Evanston, Chicago, and the 
 surrounding towns and cities, were largely represented. The bier, 
 the communion table, the pulpit, and the choir gallery, back of the 
 pulpit, besides being draped, were profusely, yet most tastefully, 
 decorated with smilax and ivy, with callas, lilies of the valley, car- 
 nations, hyacinths and masses of roses, sent by the infant class, the 
 Sunday School, the Session, the Trustees, the congregation, and 
 numerous other friends and associates, who witnessed spontaneously 
 to the united affection and gratitude felt by all classes for this 
 unselfish, useful and now sainted man. 
 
 The arrangements at the church were in charge of Mr. George 
 H. Quinlan, assisted by Messrs. Henry Butman, H. J. Green, F. 
 B. Carter, Edward H. Quinlan, J. W. Howell and William P. 
 Turner. The honorary pall bearers were Messrs. Thomas Lord, 
 Charles Randolph, Ambrose Foster, H. C. Hunt, A. B. Hull, W. 
 H. Lewis, Geo. E. Purington, and O. L. -Baskin; and the casket 
 was carried by Messrs. Henry J. Wallingford, W. E. Stockton, H. 
 E. C. Daniels, W. B. Topliff,J. H. Nitchie, H. B. Cragin, Jerome 
 A. Smith, and D. S. Cook. 
 
 The services began with the playing on the organ by Mr. H. 
 D. Atchinson, of Chopin's funeral march. Rev. Joseph Cum- 
 mings, D. D., President of the Northwestern University, offered 
 the invocation. The choir, consisting of Mrs. A. Weber, Miss I. 
 M. Wolfe, Mr. C. W. Clark and Mr. E. H. Eddy beautifully sang 
 "Jerusalem the Golden." After reading the following Scripture 
 passages, Job 14: 1, 2; Ps. 103: 15, 16; i Chron. 29: 15; Jas. 4: 14; 
 
 1 Thess. 4: 13; Prov. 14:32; Ps. 1 16: 15; 2 Cor. 5:1; Rev. 14: 13; 
 
 2 Cor. 5:6; 153.35:10; Rev. 21:4; Rev. 22:5; Rev. 7:14-17; 
 Num. 23:10, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Patterson delivered the 
 accompanying address on his colleague of twenty-five years. 
 
 i?r. Patterson's l&drc. 
 
 "It is appointed unto all men once to die." This is the com- 
 mon lot of all. And yet we all have hope not the hope of
 
 escaping death, but the hope that after death we shall live again. 
 And we all have at least an impression, if not a definite conviction, 
 that our present life will have an important connection with the 
 character of our future life, as more or less desirable. We ought> 
 therefore, to be especially concerned about the kind of life we are 
 now living. When a friend dies we cannot help asking, What 
 sort of life has he lived? both because we think of what he has 
 accomplished, and because we consider the final consequences of 
 his earthly life to himself. 
 
 We are called together to-day by the removal from the midst 
 of us of a man whose life it is a pleasure to contemplate, because 
 we know it was beautiful and beneficent, and because we can not 
 but regard it as a bud that has already flowered forth into the 
 higher grandeur of an immortal and glorified life. It is worth our 
 while to spend a little time to-day in reviewing the general facts in 
 this life and some traits that were conspicuous in the character of 
 our dearly beloved friend and brother. For surely we have here 
 an example and lesson which it becomes us to fix in our memories 
 and reproduce in our lives. 
 
 George Clement Noyes was born in Landaff, N. H., August 
 4, 1833. He was the son of worthy and pious parents. His father, 
 Jacob Noyes, did what he could for the education of his children, 
 and took a special interest in the promise that was early manifested 
 in the fondness of his son George for books, and for every means 
 of mental improvement within his reach. In 1844 the parents 
 removed to Perry, Pike County, 111. There the son attended the 
 public schools, and soon afforded so many evidences of talent that 
 he was encouraged to make an effort to obtain a liberal education. 
 At the age of about sixteen he became a Christian, and from that 
 time onward he was resolved to become a minister of the gospel. 
 On one occasion some of his friends urged him to turn aside to the 
 study of law, for which they thought his mental traits especially 
 adapted him. For a short time he wavered, but his former pur- 
 pose was renewed with more determination than ever, and he 
 wrote to a sister that he should feel that a woe awaited him if he 
 did not preach the gospel. When nineteen years of age he entered 
 Illinois College at Jacksonville, 111., where he devoted himself 
 faithfully to study, deported himself as an exemplary Christian > 
 and graduated with the first honor of his class in 1855. In the fall 
 of the same year he entered Union Theological Seminary, in the 
 City of New York, \vhere he maintained his accustomed position 
 as a student, and graduated in 1858, highly esteemed by his pro-
 
 fessors and fellow students. In the same year he was married to 
 Miss Ellen Smith, daughter of the Hon. David A. Smith, of 
 Jacksonville, who became the mother of his six sons and one 
 daughter. In 1858 he was ordained and was installed as the pastor 
 of the First Presbyterian Church of Laporte, Ind. 
 
 He labored most successfully in that station for ten years, at 
 the end of which time he accepted a call to the First Presbyterian 
 Church of Evanston, where he continued his work till the end of 
 his life, during a period of more than twenty years. When he 
 came to this church it consisted of about thirty-eight members. 
 The small congregation met in the church edifice that had been 
 occupied by the " Lake Avenue Church," before that organization 
 was divided by the organization of the Congregational and Pres- 
 byterian Societies. After a few years the old house of worship 
 was destroyed by fire, and the congregation was obliged to worship 
 in a hall. But Dr. Noyes encouraged the desponding hearts of his 
 people, and they proceeded at once to erect a new and better sanc- 
 tuary, which, with additions, is occupied by the congregation at 
 the present time. The church and congregation, the Sabbath 
 school and prayer meeting, steadily increased in numbers, notwith- 
 standing the organization of other churches, especially of the 
 South Evanston Presbyterian Church, three or four years since, 
 which was a colony from this church. At the present time the 
 church numbers nearly five hundred members, a great proportion 
 of whom have come from the children of the church and the Sab- 
 bath school. Dr. Xoyes has been instrumental in developing the 
 benevolence and activity of the church, especially of the younger 
 membership, in an eminent degree. Very few churches of the 
 same means can render a better account of their benevolence; and 
 the devotion of the young people to Christian work has gained in 
 volume and power from year to year, especially during the later 
 portion of this history. 
 
 The work of Dr. Noyes has been by no means confined to his 
 own church and congregation. He has done more, perhaps, within 
 the last ten years than any one of his brethren in his Presbytery 
 and Synod, in the department of Home Missions, having been* 
 during most of this period, the efficient Chairman of the Commitee 
 of Home Missions in both of these bodies. Besides his activity in 
 these relations, he has been an earnest worker and member of 
 several Educational Boards, and of important committees of the 
 General Assembly. Moreover, he has been a constant correspond- 
 ent of the religious papers of the church, thus contributing largely
 
 to the moral and spiritual influences that have told in shaping the 
 Christian sentiment and life of our times. Few ministers in the 
 West have done as much within the last score of years for the 
 Christian cause as our brother who has just laid down his armor. 
 Let us notice a few points in his admirable character: 
 First. He possessed a special aptitude for study and acquisition 
 in various directions. He was a good linguist, particularly in 
 Latin, Greek and Hebrew. His attainments in general literature 
 were widely extended, especially in poetry and miscellany. Last 
 year he was President of the Literary Society of Chicago. He 
 was well versed in natural sciences for one devoted to the minis- 
 terial and pastoral work. His historical knowledge was by no 
 means limited. As a musician he occupied a good position, and 
 was an associate member of some of the best musical societies. 
 As a philosopher he was highly respectable. As a theologian he 
 ranked among the learned and independent thinkers. And if he 
 was not distinguished as a Biblical exegete, it was more for lack of 
 time than for the want of excellent ability. Many a man bearing 
 numerous literary and scientific titles has ranked below our brother 
 as a general scholar, reader, and investigator. 
 
 Second. Dr. Noyes was broad and generous in his culture and 
 sympathies. While decided and positive in his opinions and con- 
 victions, he was tolerant of those who differed widely from him in 
 regard to important questions, so long as they appeared sincere and 
 free from narrowness and bigotry, although he was impatient of 
 assumption and pretense of moral or religious superiority. I have 
 often found him commending the honesty of purpose of those 
 from whose positions on moral questions he earnestly dissented. 
 And he was charitable towards brethren of religious denominations 
 far removed from his own chosen church. He was willing to 
 listen to overtures for Christian union from quarters that seemed 
 to some of his brethren to savor of arrogance and lordly claims, 
 deserving only of contemptuous rejection, all proceeding from the 
 goodness of his heart and from his earnest desire to see the barriers 
 to brotherly fellowship broken down at almost any cost. He 
 would hasten to the rescue of a persecuted man, even when he 
 might seem in important respects out of the way. And this he 
 did in some cases to his own personal disadvantage. But never 
 would he sacrifice what he deemed essential truth to help the cause 
 of a friend. lie was neither a bigot nor a latitudinarian neither 
 a blind supporter of tradition or stereotyped creed, nor an impul- 
 sive advocate of innovations in doctrine just because they were
 
 new. He well understood how much easier it is to pull down than 
 to build up how much less force it takes to hurl a wefght down 
 a precipice than to bring one up from below. 
 
 Third. Dr. Noyes, as a preacher, was practical, clear, instructive, 
 earnest, and impressive. In delivery he was vigorous and forcible. 
 His style was pure and varied, abounding in allusion and illustra- 
 tion. His diction was usually Saxon, and his English undefiled. 
 His themes of discourse often pertained to current events, though 
 always Biblical and Evangelical. His texts were very frequently 
 taken from the Old Testament, and from passages that afforded 
 material for continued analogy or illustration throughout the ser- 
 mon. He seldom indulged in criticisms on the original texts, but 
 often referred to the revised version of the Scripture. More of 
 Biblical exposition would have interested some of his hearers, but 
 would have been tedious to others. As a whole, few preachers 
 better hold the attention of their congregations, and few turn their 
 discourses to as good practical account. In this respect he was a 
 workman that had no need to be ashamed. 
 
 Fourth. As a pastor and organizer, Dr. Noyes was eminently 
 successful. He was industrious, active, faithful in visitation, and 
 especially kind and sympathetic in his attentions to the sick and 
 the sorrowful, while he was unremitting in his efforts to reclaim 
 the wandering and to strengthen the tempted. I have often won- 
 dered how he could find time to make so many calls, and how he 
 could keep himself so closely acquainted with the conditions and 
 wants of his people. 
 
 He was uniformly present, when at home, in the church prayer 
 meeting, and commonly in the Sabbath school also. And by his 
 warm appeals in the Conference Meetings, he was the means of 
 keeping alive the spirit of social religion among his people in an 
 unusual degree. I do not know another pastor who keeps his 
 membership better organized for Christian work, or who draws 
 the children and youth of his congregation more closely to himself. 
 Beyond the limits of his own charge, scores of families and multi- 
 tudes of young people are afflicted to-day by this unexpected 
 bereavement of our whole community. 
 
 Fifth. Dr. Noyes was deeply interested in works of general 
 philanthropy and Christian benevolence. He was a decided and 
 practical temperance man, though not in sympathy with political 
 and partisan efforts for this object, which he believed to be rather 
 hurtful than helpful to the cause. He was an ardent friend of 
 human liberty, and could not abide the spirit of caste, whether in
 
 state or church. For this reason he was resolutely opposed to 
 every movement that looked toward the drawing of the color 
 line in our ecclesiastical bodies of the South. He was an earnest 
 supporter of Christian education, while he recognized the difficul- 
 ties that surround the question in regard to the instructions in the 
 public schools. The cause of evangelization everywhere was dear 
 to his heart. No minister in the church was more zealous for the 
 elevation and conversion of all classes of men in Christian and 
 heathen lands. And on this ground he was earnestly devoted to 
 what he deemed the best political policies for this and other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Sixth. I hardly need say to any one who knew Dr. Noyes, 
 that he was a Christian gentleman. He was a gentleman by high 
 instincts and on Christian principles courteous, genial, affable, 
 "full of the milk of human kindness." He was faithful and true 
 in the domestic relations, in personal friendships, in the social con- 
 nections. I need not speak of his beautiful fidelity in duties at 
 home, of his genuineness and trustworthiness as a friend, of his 
 high social qualities, all of which are well known and so univer- 
 sally recognized among us. But I may refer to his suavity and 
 quiet humor, which made his presence agreeable, even delightful, 
 in social circles, families, and private intercourse. It was a pleasure 
 to meet him, a privilege to enjoy his company. And it was always 
 a saving clause that, while liberal in according to others their 
 rights of opinion, and passing over differences with some graceful 
 pleasantry, he never gave even implied sanction to false or demoral- 
 izing principles, 
 
 I will only add that Dr. Noyes' Christian faith was established 
 and unswerving to the end. He was a steadfast believer in the 
 truth of the gospel, and his personal trust in Christ stood him in 
 stead through sore trials that would have made many a heart per- 
 petually sad, enabled him to be courageous and cheerful through 
 all sorrows, and sustained him in persevering work and hope to 
 the final hour. He lived to see his large family well educated and 
 all in the fellowship of the church. In seasons of failing health 
 within two or three years, which gave to others if not to him, 
 premonitions of the event which has now occurred, he bravely 
 waited for his Master's will. And in his last sickness, while he 
 was enjoined to keep entirely quiet, he expressed both hope and 
 submission with a cheerful countenance. On the first Sabbath 
 after the beginning of his fatal illness he was so anxious to be in 
 his pulpit that he came to the church, and though unable to con- 
 
 8
 
 duct any of the devotional services himself, he delivered portions 
 of his sermon, after which he hastened home and took to his bed, 
 not again to rise from it. 
 
 On the second Sabbath he sent to his people, through Dr. 
 Ridgaway, who officiated in his pulpit, the following message : 
 " Tell my people that I have been deeply touched by their kind- 
 ness during this sickness. Their visits, messages, find loving 
 remembrances have never been more constant or more grateful. 
 Tell them, too, that I know they are praying for me, and that I 
 feel their prayers are heard, and that I am greatly sustained. I 
 wish, also, that you (Dr. Ridgaway) would announce the week of 
 prayer. It will go on all the same as if I could be there. Say to 
 the congregation I wish them to come out. This is the first time 
 I have ever had to miss being personally present with them at this 
 interesting season; and I hope they will attend all the same as if I 
 were with them." 
 
 Dr. Ridgaway adds: " Such, substantially, were the messages 
 sent by Dr. Noyes, by me, to his congregation January 6th last. 
 The words only faintly indicate the spirit with which he spoke 
 them. There was a tenderness and fervor in his whole expression, 
 which showed the sincere yearnings of a loving pastor's heart for 
 his people." 
 
 He was conscious till the hand of death was visibly upon him- 
 Near the close, when he was no longer able to speak, he signified 
 his wish that all about him should pray. One of the family 
 repeated the Lord's prayer, and in a short time all was over. On 
 the I4th day of January, at 3.08 o'clock, the spirit took its flight 
 to the Savior's bosom. I was summoned to be present, but not 
 having heard of the alarming change, had gone to the city where 
 the message found me only in time to enable me to reach the 
 house a few minutes after the closing scenes. Two days ago on 
 looking for the first time on the cold but still expressive remains, 
 the stanza of Charles Wesley was forcibly recalled: 
 
 " How blest is our brother, bereft of all that could burden his mind; 
 How easy the soul that has left this wearisome body behind." 
 
 " Mark the perfect man : and behold the upright, for the end of that man is 
 peace, peace." 
 
 Let us follow our brother as he followed Christ. We need 
 such examples near us now examples of those whom we have 
 known and loved, to stimulate and quicken us in our upward race. 
 Let us all try to leave a similar record behind us, not merely for our
 
 own honor, but as a legacy for the enduring profit of those that 
 remain, and of the generations that are to follow us. 
 
 A day or two after Dr. Noyes' death the following beautiful 
 little poem, cut from some paper, was found on his study table: 
 
 IF I SHOULD DIE TO-NIGHT. 
 
 If I should die to-night, 
 My friends would look upon my quiet face 
 Before they laid it in its resting place, 
 And deem that death had left it almost fair ; 
 And laying snow-white flowers against my hair, 
 Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness, 
 And fold my hands with lingering caress 
 
 Poor hands, so empty and so cold to-night ! 
 
 If I should die to-night, 
 
 My friends would call to mind with loving thought 
 Some kindly deeds the icy hands had wrought, 
 Some gentle word the frozen lips had said, 
 Errands on which the willing feet had sped ; 
 The memory of my selfishness and pride, 
 My hasty words would all be put aside ; 
 
 And so I should be loved and mourned to-night ! 
 
 If I should die to-night, 
 
 E'en hearts estranged would turn once more to me, 
 Recalling other days remorsefully ; 
 The eyes that chill me with averted glance 
 Would look upon me as of yore perchance, 
 And soften in the old familiar way 
 (For who could war with dumb, unconscious clay ?) 
 So I might rest forgiven of all to-night ! 
 
 O friends, I pray to-night 
 Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow ; 
 The way is lonely, let me feel them now. 
 Think gently of me ; I am travel-worn ; 
 My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn. 
 Forgive, O hearts estranged, forgive, I plead ! 
 When dreamless rest is mine, I shall not need 
 The tenderness for which I long to-night ! 
 
 At the conclusion of Dr. Patterson's address, the choir sang 
 " Lead, Kindly Light." Thereupon the Moderator of the Presby- 
 tery, the Rev. M. Woolsey Stryker, pastor of the Fourth Presby- 
 terian Church of Chicago, expressed the deep sympathy of a 
 congregation, to many of whom individually, and to all of whom 
 collectively, Dr. Noyes had been greatly endeared. As the 
 Moderator for the current year of the Presbytery of Chicago, he 
 
 10
 
 voiced what all his fellow ministers had in their hearts that 
 among that body of strong men, none was stronger, none gentler, 
 none more winning and more wise than he who had gone 
 from his painstaking and manifold labors to his assured reward. 
 In all matters of action or of deliberation his personal weight of 
 judgment and his readiness to bear full part had been constant and 
 eminent. For twenty years Dr. Noyes had gone on his steadfast 
 way, a leader in counsels and activities, which had gone into the 
 Christian history of this immediate region, and of the whole 
 Northwest. 
 
 He had wrought to the last, and fallen in the very traces. With 
 his own great trials it was still his joy to fulfill the law of Christ 
 in bearing others' burdens, and widely he did it. The flowers scat- 
 tered about were not more fragrant nor more penetratingly beau- 
 tiful than had been his admonitions of hopefulness and fidelity. 
 To those who had listened and worshipped in that church the 
 very walls would seem to have imperishable tongues. Those 
 whom he had so often sought to lead to Christ were urged, by this 
 last mute appeal of a life finished in the ways of God, to remember 
 all Dr. Noyes had urged, and to follow him as he had followed 
 the Only Redeemer. His blessed example is his abiding and 
 infrustable legacy. His frank eyes and kindly look almost a 
 benediction; we who have seen and felt them will never lose. He 
 had not far to go ! He is not gone from us for very long. Soon 
 then, will be " raptured greetings, and knitting severed friendships, 
 up where partings are no more." Courage, and on ! Mr. Stryker 
 concluded with these lines: 
 
 A voice is heard on Earth of kinsfolk weeping 
 
 The loss of one they love ; 
 But he is gone where the redeemed are keeping 
 
 Their festival above. 
 
 The mourners throng the way, and from the steeple 
 
 The funeral bell tolls slow ; 
 But on the golden streets the holy people 
 
 Are passing to and fro. 
 
 And saying as they meet, " Rejoice ! another, 
 
 Long waited for, is come." 
 The Saviour's heart is glad ; a younger brother 
 
 Hath reached the Father's home. 
 
 As he finished his remarks Mr. Stryker led the congregation 
 in repeating the Twenty-third Psalm. " In Heavenly Love 
 Abiding" was sung by the choir. The Rev. Simon J. McPherson, 
 
 1 1
 
 D. D., pastor of the Second Church, Chicago, led in prayer, clos- 
 ing with the Lord's prayer, in which the congregation joined 
 aloud. After the choir had chanted the Twenty-third Psalm, the 
 affecting service closed with the benediction, pronounced by the 
 Rev. William Smith, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of South 
 Evanston. 
 
 The burial, witnessed only by the family and immediate friends 
 was at Rosehill cemetery. With the brief service at the grave 
 conducted by Dr. Patterson, the sad ceremonies of the day ended 
 
 Pinion fficmoria? et&k& 
 
 On Sabbath afternoon, January 27th, a union service in memory 
 of Dr. Noyes was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 Evanston. Fully one thousand people, from all the churches of 
 the place, gathered in honor of the Christian gentleman and min- 
 ister, who had been everybody's friend and counselor. On the 
 platform were the Rev. Dr. Patterson, who conducted the services, 
 the Rev. S. F. Jones, D. D., pastor of the Methodist Church, the 
 Rev. N. H. Whittlesey, pastor of the Congregational Church, the 
 Rev. William Smith, pastor of the South Evanston Presbyterian 
 Church, and the Rev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., pastor of the 
 First Presbyterian Church, Chicago. In the body of the church 
 were many other clergymen and the professors of the University. 
 
 The services began with the singing of " Rock of Ages" by 
 the choir of the Presbyterian Church, which Dr. Noyes had 
 served. The Rev. William Smith offered prayer. Dr. Patterson 
 read the Ninetieth Psalm. Mrs. W. C. Wyman sang, "Forever 
 with the Lord." Then came the principal 
 
 ^Iddrcss Bp Dr. Barrows. 
 
 The wreath of eulogy and love which has been placed on the 
 grave of cur departed friend is richer with flowers and more 
 fragrant with affection than that which is often laid on the sep- 
 ulchre of the dead. I have listened to the just and admirable 
 words that have been spoken. I have read in the secular and 
 Christian journals the true and affectionate tributes which have 
 come from the hearts of those who called him friend, and believed 
 him to be the friend of humanity. After the death of Mr. Lincoln 
 it was said that mankind felt that it had lost in him a brother. 
 Such was the feeling of all those whose lives had been touched by 
 the gracious Christian manhood whose virtues we commemorate 
 
 12
 
 to-day. I know how large a place he had in the hearts of this 
 community, of which he was so justly proud. I have likewise 
 read the numerous resolutions of respect and sympathy that 
 have come from such varied sources, which indeed show that 
 our brother, as one has said, approximated to that ideal American 
 clergyman for whom we are waiting. So many admirable tributes 
 have been spoken, so many just words have been written, and so 
 significant and beautiful is this scene to-day, a whole community 
 gathered in the church of a sister denomination to testify *heir 
 appreciation of a Christian character which transcended all denom- 
 inational lines and flowed out in blessings over the world, that it 
 would seem sufficient, if, at this memorial service, I should simply 
 say: "I loved him and trusted him as a friend; I revered him as a 
 Christian; the earthly life is lonelier without him, and the heavenly 
 life is brighter since he entered into it." 
 
 Many of you have known him for twenty years. I have known 
 him for only seven, and my intimacy with him dates from that 
 happy summer of 1885, when I made a temporary home in your 
 beautiful village, now doubly dear to me as the scene of such a life 
 as his. 
 
 " The path by which we twain did go, 
 Which led by tracts that pleased us well, 
 Through four sweet years arose and fell ; 
 From flower to flower, from snow to snow, 
 But where the path we walked began 
 To slant the fifth autumnal slope, 
 As we descended, following hope 
 There sat the shadow, feared of man, 
 Who broke our fair companionship, 
 And spread his mantle dark and cold, 
 And wrapped thee, formless, in the fold, 
 And dulled the murmur on thy lip 
 And bore thee where I could not see, 
 Nor follow, though I walk in haste, 
 And think that somewhere in the waste 
 The shadow sits and waits for me." 
 
 Sometimes men bearing the name of Christian are taken from 
 our sight, and we are glad that the great transformation in their 
 characters, which may be needed in order that they may enjoy the 
 fellowship of heaven, is sure to be wrought through the mercy and 
 might of that Savior in whom they have trusted. We dwell 
 pensively on the words " the spirits of just men made perfect." 
 But when our brother was taken from us it seemed that no change 
 was required in order that he might be fitted for the fellowship of 
 
 '3
 
 immortality. His heart had long been in heaven. He had much 
 treasure laid up there. There was the Divine Friend whose word 
 he had preached for thirty yenrs, and by whose sustaining grace, 
 adequate to every need, his sorrow had been comforted. There, 
 too, were many whom he had known and loved on earth, and the 
 great throng of God's saints with whose toils and triumphs he had 
 been familiar. 
 
 I have known men of large business and political prominence, 
 who have been laid in their graves with much ceremonial honor^ 
 whose death was no loss to the community. Some of them had 
 been possessed of fortunes which make Dr. Noyes seem a poor 
 man. But he was so rich in friendship and in service that beside 
 him these other men often appear as paupers. As I looked with 
 you upon that scene, never to be forgotten in the church of which 
 he was pastor, where such a throng of sincere mourners gathered 
 on his funeral day, including so many men distinguished in many 
 paths of life, I said to myself, " If this had been an emperor, 
 the flowers could not have been more beautiful ; if this had been a 
 statesman, the tributes could not have been more reverent ; if this 
 had been a millionaire, the falling tears might not have been half 
 so abundant." 
 
 But it appears almost ungracious to say anything more of him 
 than that we loved him. Why study and analyze his qualities ? 
 We knew him; that was enough. W T e have felt the touch of that 
 kindly hand. We have been blessed by that gracious smile, and 
 joined with him in hearty merriment. We have felt, if we could 
 not analyze, the beauty of that symmetrical and balanced character, 
 where .wisdom was married to affection, and gentleness walked 
 hand in hand with sagacity, and service glorified all. He is so 
 near to us still, that we should scarcely be surprised to see him 
 entering our houses once more and frolicking with our children in 
 the old beautiful fashion. Why come together again to-day in 
 such a great throng ? 
 
 " On all our future laurels he looks down, himself our bravest crown." 
 
 It is because we feel that the treasure of his manhood was so 
 rich and precious that in order to do justice to our convictions we 
 must tell each other, and tell all men wherein true greatness lies. 
 I think that most of us have had a new sense of Dr. Noyes' worth 
 since we have felt how sore is his loss. Landor puts into the 
 mouth of Pericles these words : " We become greater by leaving 
 the world, as the sun appears to be on descending below the 
 
 "4
 
 horizon." But more significant are the words attributed to Soph- 
 ocles: " It is folly to say Death levels the whole human race, for it 
 is only when he has stripped men of everything external that their 
 deformities can be clearly discovered, or their worth correctly 
 ascertained." When our sorrowing meditations have shown that 
 a man is equal to the highest standards, then we measure him 
 aright. We well know what Dr. Noyes did in the world, how 
 faithfully and laboriously he toiled along many lines of effort as 
 preacher, writer, counselor, and builder of churches ; what large 
 knowledge he acquired, what success he achieved during the thirty 
 years in which he preached the gospel of Christ. And yet it was 
 true of him, as was said of Professor Albert Hopkins, of Williams 
 College, revered by so many graduates of that institution as the 
 saintliest man they ever knew: "He was more remarkable for 
 what he was than for what he did." If to be one hour in the 
 company of Agassiz, were, as a friend wrote of him, " to gain the 
 strongest argument for the immortality of the soul," it was true of 
 Dr. Noyes, that to be one hour in his company was to gain a new 
 and assured evidence of Christianity. Among those with whom 
 our friend associated might be found more learned theologians, 
 more popular orators, and equally efficient organizers. But it is 
 the general judgment that in no one else was found a higher 
 Christian character or a general excellence that will be missed in 
 so many spheres. When we heard of his death the feeling was, 
 not that so much learning or ability had passed away from us, as 
 that so much goodness had gone out of the earth. The race does 
 not seem rich enough to spare such souls as his, a man in whom 
 such different kinds of men with varying beliefs equally found a 
 brother. Dr. Schaff has written " that a Christ-like theology and 
 ministry is the first and last necessity of the church and the world." 
 Such a ministry has for twenty years thrown its blessings over this 
 community, and you are grateful to God that your children have 
 seen his form, like that of Elisha, " as a holy man of God passing 
 by continually." Dr. Noyes' loving heart made him see deeply 
 into the soul of the gospel, and he had that wisdom which John 
 Wesley learned from an Archbishop of Canterbury, who taught 
 him that "to be eminently useful a Christian must not waste his 
 strength in fighting for or against things disputable or secondary, 
 but must use it in testifying against notorious vice and promoting 
 essential holiness." You know better than I that this successful 
 ministry which built up so strong a church, which won the respect 
 of strong men, and which carried blessings to old and young, and 
 
 '5
 
 grew more fruitful with the years, was centered in a gospel which 
 was always practical and helpful, which did not waste its strength 
 in magnifying unessentials, but which glowed with the love of 
 God in Christ Jesus, and was urgent that men should turn from 
 all known sin, accept the offers of redeeming love, and be faithful 
 and fruitful in good works. 
 
 Dr. Noyes did not bow down as an idolater before any system 
 of theology. He was a careful and reverent student of the past, 
 but his face was turned toward the future. He always expected 
 better things in life and doctrine. And yet he was the farthest 
 possible from being a rash innovator. A judicious friend has 
 written that it is hard to decide " whether he was a radical or a 
 conservative." In a letter sent shortly after his inaugural address 
 before the Chicago Literary Club, he wrote: " I believe strongly 
 in progress, but when some doctrine has been put forth which has 
 been tried a thousand times under somewhat changed conditions, 
 or when some theory is broached which stamps as utter folly or 
 wrong all the world's wisdom and all established methods of deal- 
 ing, then I am sure that progress does not lie in the direction in 
 which that doctrine or theory points." We surely know that his 
 heart was profoundly loyal to Jesus Christ as a divine savior, and 
 that his mind was profoundly convinced that the Bible is a divine 
 revelation, that he felt that men need first of all the regenerating 
 power of the Holy Ghost working through the truth, and that the 
 hope of the world is the knowledge and acceptance of the Christian 
 gospel. He had a great affection for the churches. He looked 
 upon all of them as belonging to him because he belonged in spirit 
 to them. He was widely loved by ministers and laymen of all 
 denominations. I have been greatly struck by words spoken to 
 me by men far removed from Dr. Noyes in theological belief. An 
 able lawyer in Chicago, himself a Unitarian, said: "I always 
 admired him because he was so fair minded." Another lawyer of 
 the same belief said of him : " I never could discover in him any 
 particle of cant. He seemed utterly sincere and unpretentious." 
 With Dr. Noyes orthodoxy was never different from the truth, 
 and by heresy he meant nothing but error. 
 
 But why was he so beloved ? I think because there was so 
 much of human nature in him. I mean human nature at its best, 
 when renewed by the Spirit of God. This same tribute was paid 
 to Dean Stanley, and is just in both cases. Think of the things 
 which this man loved, and thus see what I mean. He loved praise, 
 and he loved to give it in a quiet, indirect, and modest way. It 
 
 16
 
 was very pleasant for his friends to -cheer this man's heart, which 
 carried such a crushing load of sorrow, hy telling him through 
 looks, and words, and kindly deeds how dearto-them he was. He 
 loved his friends, and had a genius for friendship. He certainly 
 was the magnetic center of this Presbytery to which all his breth- 
 ren, young and old, from the venerable Dr. Patterson to the newest 
 comer among us, were strongly attracted. He loved books, and a 
 great variety of books. He loved music, he loved poetry, especi- 
 ally that which brought him into communion with his Savior. One 
 of his latest discourses was on the hymns of Charles Wesley. He 
 loved nature, and had a keen eye for her beauty and a noble mind 
 to respond to her wonders. He loved his people, and was proud 
 of them. He loved his work, fcis brethren, his country and all 
 mankind. He loved his family with a satisfied affection,- and was 
 beloved and honored by them as few men ever are. He loved to 
 write and to preach. The amount of committee work he could do 
 was to me appalling. He had a genius for conference, for counsel. 
 On his non-Episcopal shoulders came the care of all our churches. 
 He loved to confide in his intimate friends, and shared more con- 
 fidences than almost any other man that I have ever known. He 
 loved to talk about his work, his perplexities, his successes. He 
 loved every form of wholesome humor, was quick, though never 
 resentful, in repartee. He saw the weak side of human nature 
 without cynicism. When in Mexico he bought a box of straw- 
 berries, and the basket proved to be two-thirds filled with leaves; 
 he wrote to me, doubtless with a smile on his face : u This proves 
 that human nature is much the same in Mexico and in South 
 Water Street, Chicago." And Dr. Noyes loved debate. He had 
 a great faculty for prompt and vigorous expression, and on reading 
 the other day his argument in the famous trial of Professor Swing, 
 I felt that he would have made a successful and eminent lawyer. 
 But few men who have such profound convictions and such faculty 
 for facile and vigorous utterance have been so uniformly kindly in 
 tone. Since Dr. Noyes' death some of us have read a characteristic 
 article which he wrote for the Advance, on " The Sunday News- 
 paper ; An Expostulation." I know of no fairer argument, nor 
 one more conclusive against the taking and reading by Christians 
 of the Sunday journal. It is a dispassionate appeal, which, if 
 heeded, would add immensely to the spiritual life of America. 
 And though his heart is evidently boiling hot, how carefully, how 
 judiciously, how tolerantly, and hence how strongly the argument 
 is carried on. He never turned an opponent into an enemy. 
 
 '7
 
 I should do injustice to his memory if I did not at least mention 
 that his childlike heart made him the great friend of children. In 
 looking over his letters I notice that he remembered my children's 
 birthdays. One of my little boys, learning that Rev. Dr. Blank 
 had called, and mistaking the name, went in to see him, but he 
 came out, and going to his mother said, bursting into tears, " I 
 thought it was Dr. Noyes." I have not been surprised to learn 
 that one of the children of his flock has expressed her sorrow that 
 she did not unite with the church while Dr. Noyes was yet living, 
 nor that another, a child of five years, was heard to offer this 
 prayer: " Grant, O Lord, that when I die and go to heaven I may 
 meet Dr. Noyes very soon." Surely we may learn that a great 
 heart is the chief jewel of characfer. This man, with his large and 
 penetrating intelligence, with his strong convictions and his keen 
 sensibility to the defects of others, would allow nothing to over- 
 come his love. Writing of a somewhat disagreeable good man, 
 Dr. Noyes said: " With all his faults, I love him still." That love 
 seemed invincible. It was fed by the love of God. 
 
 I would not have you think his great qualities were all natural. 
 With his generous native endowments there was superadded what 
 only God could give through his grace and spirit, patience, cheer- 
 fulness under suffering, serenity after deferred hope, continued 
 loving-kindness, wide toleration. These are not natural graces to 
 a strong and earnest man, but these Dr. Noyes had abundantly, 
 and none that knew him doubted whence they came. In the midst 
 of sorrow he would not forget God's former mercies. In a birth- 
 day letter he once wrote: "It is well to send the thoughts back 
 over the past so as distinctly to mark the points at which heaven's 
 gifts were most abundant and rich." His symmetrical and ripened 
 Christian character, with so much of usefulness, with so much of 
 faith, and so much of joy, even though it seems strange to speak 
 of joy in one who bore for nearly ten years an aching heart were 
 the victories of divine grace. This man knew Jesus Christ, and 
 no one doubted who ever heard his public prayers that he was a 
 man of faithful private devotion, that his liturgical culture was 
 large. The nearer one lived to him, the better he loved him, and 
 Dr. Noyes was never more deeply moved than by the testimony of 
 a neighbor, who, at a recent anniversary, spoke out of a grateful 
 heart his appreciation of Dr. Noyes' goodness. Surely I have said 
 enough to show, even to strangers, that this man commended the 
 religion of Jesus Christ by what he wrought and by what he was, 
 as well as by what he said. He was one of the best types of 
 
 18
 
 the modern Christian. He seemed to be equally at home in a 
 prayer meeting and a political gathering, at a dinner party, and in 
 a literary society. He was able wherever he went, and whatever 
 he did, and however much he suffered, to find admission "into the 
 king's chambers." He walked with God and dignified and 
 ennobled the life work of the Christian minister and Christian 
 scholar. 
 
 It was my privilege to know something of his inner self; to 
 hear him speak in the freedom of friendly confidence, and he was 
 one of the few men who could carry on earnest and prolonged 
 debate, and yet appear to think as much of you after he had failed 
 for example, to convince you that prohibition was wrong as he 
 did before. He loved to commend his brethren when they struck 
 a brave blow for righteousness. Listen to these words which he 
 sent me when I was in Germany : " Last Sunday morning Blank 
 (naming a well known clergyman), gave an exhibition of genuine 
 Scotch grit and grace. He condemned, in strong and burning 
 words, the Washington Park horse races, which are patronized by 
 not a few influential church members, and at which pool selling on 
 the grounds is openly and shamelessly carried on. I hope his 
 words will prove as good a moral tonic in their way as did the 
 explosion of the bomb. And if they kill, I hope it will only be to 
 make alive." 
 
 I was interested to discover who were his favorite characters or 
 favorite authors. It was no surprise to learn how much his mind 
 dwelt on the career of one, Abraham Lincoln, who was almost a 
 neighbor to him in his young manhood, and who was certainly 
 kindred to him in spirit in the kindly, earnest, judicious temper of 
 his mind. He had a great admiration, as was essential, for his 
 theological teachers, Prof. Henry B. Smith and Dr. Roswell D. 
 Hitchcock. There was that in his heart which drew him to the 
 hymns of Charles Wesley, and I need not say that much that was 
 finest and most humane in him was moved by the poetry of 
 Shakespeare. I have heard him repeat, in a voice trembling with 
 emotion, what he deemed the matchless words describing the 
 atonement: 
 
 " Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once, 
 And He that might the vantage best have took 
 Found out the remedy." 
 
 Few men that I have known have had a wider acquaintance 
 with the history of our own country. He was a thorough student 
 of America, and had traveled extensively through our own land, 
 
 J 9
 
 '< the goodliest land of the earth," as his patriotic heart called it; 
 had observed accurately, and reported carefully what he had seen, 
 and he was aglow in sympathy with every effort to build up on 
 Christian foundations the huge fabric of our Western civilization. 
 But he also knew Africa quite as well as his own land. He had 
 read more books describing the dark continent than any other 
 person of my acquaintance, and he kindled into the hearts of his 
 beloved people a zeal for world-wide evangelization. He appar- 
 ently took as profound an interest in the affairs of England as in 
 those of Chicago. After Gladstone's defeat in 1886, he wrote: 
 *' Well, Ireland's day is not yet, and the Grand Old Man must 
 wait. But he made a good fight, and the victory will yet be his. 
 For right is right, since God is God, and right is sure to win." 
 In one of the last interviews I ever had with him, I spoke of two 
 Congregational ministers of Massachusetts who have recently 
 returned from a tour of missionary observations around the world. 
 I said to Dr. Noyes, " I have been thinking that we, in this Pres- 
 bytery, ought to send you around the world on a journey of the 
 same sort;" and I shall never forget the happy smile with which 
 he said, " I should like to 4^0." 
 
 'He has no need now of our poor tributes and feeble services; 
 he has been admitted into auguster fellowships and diviner privi- 
 leges than any earth affords. I can but think that he has found 
 " other nobler work to do," and that those benevolent energies 
 which blessed the world, have not been numbed, but are trans- 
 figured in loftier service. His mind had an affinity with great 
 things, with America, with the Yellowstone, with the prairies, 
 with the stars. He loved to contemplate the wondrous handiwork 
 of God in earth, and sea, and sky. He had a large acquaintance 
 with the marvels of divine power and wisdom, and some of you 
 will remember with what thorough knowledge and comprehensive 
 understanding and powerful expression he described the glory, the 
 magnificence, and the might of the sun which gives life to the 
 world, but which is only one in the midst of even greater marvels 
 of Omnipotence, " a dewdrop sparkling on the finger of Almighty 
 God." Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into 
 the heart of men the things which God hath prepared for them 
 that love him. Into this measureless glory our brother has entered, 
 and he beckons us to follow. We rejoice for him. A year ago, 
 just after the death of Rev. Dr. Brainerd Kent, Dr. Noyes wrote 
 to me: "It is a comfort to think that our dear old Father Kent 
 is at rest. How wonderful it must have been to him to come forth 
 
 20
 
 from his low despair, and to find how unspeakably better to him 
 the Lord has been than his distressing fear had led him to expect." 
 We are glad for what he was and what he did, and are joyful in 
 remembering how he made us better for the life he lived among 
 ns, and we also thank God that our brother had so many things, 
 even on earth, to fill his soul with peace, and to gladden it with 
 heavenly cheer. After hearing the " Messiah" sung for the next 
 to the last time, Dr. Noyes wrote me, on the 3oth of December, 
 1887 : " Wasn't it heavenly last night to rest beside the weary road 
 and hear the angels sing? What should a suffering man do in this 
 world were it not for the fact that unto Kim 'a child is born?' and 
 and if he could not daily sing ' Hallelujah' to Him who * shall lead 
 His flock like a shepherd,' and who Himself, a * man of sorrows 
 and acquainted with grief,' knows how to succor them who are 
 afflicted. On the strength of last night's uplifting and * hearing 
 of unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter,' I 
 can go forty days and more." A year passed by, fruitful in work, 
 for in it he conducted nearly one hundred preaching services, 
 another Christmas time came, he heard the "Messiah" once more, 
 and I received from him as a holiday token of love a little book in 
 which the opening poem tells, in simple lines, the story of his 
 beautiful suffering, triumphant life: 
 
 " Onward and up, still onward, , 
 
 Though feet fail and eyes grow dim, 
 And the path be steep and stony, 
 For it leads at the last to Him. 
 
 " I said, ' Lord, thy cross is heavy, 
 Too heavy alas ! for me ; 
 It weighs me down on my journey, 
 And I cannot climb to Thee.' 
 
 " He said, ' Thou art beloved, 
 The way is weary and long, 
 Yet the race is not aye to the swift, 
 Nor the battle to the strong. 
 
 " Take up thy cross for I gave it, 
 Sore, though it burdeneth thee ; 
 Time was when I too, was laden, 
 Bear it, beloved, for me." 
 
 " So I carry the cross on my shoulder, 
 And its weight is heavy to bear, 
 But I hold it dear, for he gave it, 
 And I know I shall leave it there. 
 
 21
 
 " And when I have toiled to the summit, 
 I shall-Jay my burden down ; 
 I shall leave the cross on the hill-top, 
 And bow my head for the crown." 
 
 Surely if Dr. Noyes regards with interest this scene to-day, it 
 is his hope that the words spoken here may direct your thoughts, 
 not so much to him, as to the Christ whom he served, and who, I 
 believe, came to him in the moment of death when his eye bright- 
 ened and his lips smiled, came in fulfillment of that promise, " I 
 will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am 
 there ye may be also." In a sermon preached to his people, five 
 years ago, Dr. Noyes wrote: " Godly souls in their dying moments 
 often see these things clearly, for the inner eye opens as the eye of 
 sense grows dim." He once wrote to me: "It will be all well 
 with her sometime, and it will be all well with me." What inspired 
 this faith we know. Do we possess it? I have seen the last ser- 
 mon which Dr. Noyes began to write; he never finished it; you 
 never heard it. It was on the " Use and Neglect of Opportunity." 
 It was to have been a New Year's sermon. Ah, the New Year 
 has opened more brightly for him than he had anticipated. If we 
 could have followed his spirit as it took its flight heavenward, we 
 might have seen something that would have reminded us of the 
 vision which King Arthur's friend had of his passing from sight. 
 
 " Then from the dawn it seemed there came, but faint 
 As from beyond the limit of the world, 
 Like the last echo born of a great cry, 
 Sounds as if some fair city were one voice, 
 Around a king returning from his wars." 
 
 He has had a choral welcome there, and there he hopes to greet 
 us all, his people, friends, neighbors, wife, sons, daughter, grand- 
 children, all the fellowship which was so large, in which his heart 
 found scope for its great affection. A leader in our Israel has 
 fallen, and the old places that he loved seem to us desolate. The 
 spring time will come again and clothe the fields with grass, and 
 the flowers will blossom along the paths which he once trod. The 
 now leafless, trees with 
 
 " Boughs that shake against the old 
 Bare, ruined choirs where once the sweet birds sang," 
 
 will be vocal again with melodies that he loved. But his voice 
 will be silent in the streets, and our task must be done without 
 him. A still living master in Israel has written: " There is only 
 
 22
 
 one gathering place of the great and good which shall never be 
 left desolate; only the shade of the Tree of Life shall be always 
 refreshing; only the stream from the Fountain of Life shall flow 
 on without end." 
 
 After " O Cease, My Wandering Soul" had been sung by the 
 choir, came the second 
 
 fitowsz ftp Br. Jones. 
 
 George McDonald said: "Next to Christ himself the greatest 
 blessing to any community is a Christ-like Christian." Happy 
 Evanston ! Favored people ! to have enjoyed for more than 
 twenty years the presence and public ministry of this Christ-like 
 Christian Christ-like man. I have time to mention but two fea- 
 tures of his character in which he was this: First he was a man 
 of sorrows, yet he was anything but a sorrowful man. Because a 
 man is a man of sorrows, it does not follow that he must be a sor- 
 rowful man. Christ was a man of sorrows, yet we must not think 
 of him as a sorrowful man. He was anything but that. A man 
 who lived so close to the heart of nature and loved nature as he did 
 could not be a sorrowful man. A man who loved children as he 
 did could not be a sorrowful man. A man who spent all his life 
 doing good, giving health to the sick, comfort to the sad, hope to 
 the despairing, pardon and peace to the sinning, a man who was 
 always shedding light into darkness, and causing other hearts to 
 sing for joy, could not himself be a sorrowing man. In all this our 
 brother was the Christ-like man ; and therefore, for the same reason, 
 though a man of sorrows, he was anything but a sorrowful man. 
 He loved nature, art, poetry, music. He loved little children. He 
 had joined their parents in marriage, spoken words of congratula- 
 tion when the little ones were born, placed hands of holy baptism 
 on their heads, gathered them into Sunday school, and some of 
 them into the church. Met them often, joined their sports in 
 the home, spoke to them on the street, and called them by name. 
 These were all fountains of life within that made glad his heart, 
 and kept fresh his spirit. More than this he was Christ-like in 
 that he was always nearest to the neediest, and helpful to the help- 
 less, always shedding light and blessing wherever he went, among 
 the aged, the sick and the poor. "No man is ever allowed to 
 occupy long the position of a pure benefactor. The giver always 
 has his turn, and becomes the receiver." And so he who was 
 always making others glad was himself made glad. This remark- 
 
 23
 
 able thing was more marked in him than in any man I ever knew. 
 In the social circle he always seemed younger than his years. In 
 the Council circle, when matters of serious import were discussed, 
 then he always seemed older than his years. The other feature of 
 Ghrist-like character in him was his clearness of perception con- 
 cerning the truth, his love of truth and loyalty to conscience, com- 
 bined with broad catholicity and generous charity. He learned the 
 royal secret Christ revealed and Christ inspired, how to hate 
 sin and love the sinner. Abhor evil, yet cleave to the soul of the 
 evil doer. No man, perhaps, ever went beyond him, or was more 
 Christ-like in this. We are all in bereavement to-day. We have 
 lost our pastor. We sorrow for the afflicted family and church. 
 We also enter into their sorrow, and sorrow with them. This is a 
 loss that is universally deplored. I go nowhere where it is not 
 sadly and tenderly spoken of. God grant that, to all of us, in the 
 days that are to come, it may yield, as under his gracious hand it 
 will, " the peaceable fruits of righteousness." 
 
 Mrs. Wyman sang, " The Lord is Mindful of His Own," the 
 Rev. Mr. Whittlesey led in prayer, and the Rev. H. B. Ridgaway, 
 D. D., announced the hymn, " My Jesus, as Thou Wilt," which 
 was sung by the congregation. On behalf of the family and 
 church of Dr. Noyes, Mr. H. C. Hunt then read a brief, appre- 
 ciative letter of thanks for the sympathy and kindness which had 
 been extended to them. After a few introductory words, recalling 
 how little most men make of themselves, or allow grace to make 
 of them, he continued as follows: 
 
 " What we were a few trite sentences will quickly tell when our 
 lives shall have become history. But it was given to our friend 
 and brother and pastor to live a better and a nobler life, and in the 
 broad sweep of his affections and labors to touch many lives that 
 should feel the hurt of his loss when he was taken. It is to own 
 gratefully, on behalf of his family and sorrowing church, all the 
 expressions of sympathy and affection from such stricken hearts 
 that we stand before you now. 
 
 " For every word and act of love for every tender expression 
 of sympathy for every offer of help and errand of mercy for all 
 the ready feet and willing hands for every earnest, heart-breathed 
 petiiion for every message of condolence for all the honor 
 bestowed upon the dead and tenderness upon the living, they desire 
 to make, here and now, their heartfelt acknowledgments. 
 
 " To all in this community, or the near city, or broader State 
 who have sought to honor the memory of the dead, or to give 
 
 24
 
 expression to their solicitude for the living, even to the humble and 
 the children, whom, like his Master, the departed loved, they bring 
 their grateful thanks." 
 
 Before pronouncing the benediction, Dr. Patterson called atten- 
 tion to the appended poem, which was found on Dr. Noyes' study 
 table, and which he read, as showing that Dr. Noyes' thoughts had 
 been lately dwelling much upon the end of life and the blessedness 
 of heaven. 
 
 ONE LESS AT HOME ONE MORE IN HEAVEN. 
 
 One less at home ! 
 
 The charmed circle broken a dear face 
 Missed day by day from its accustomed place, 
 But cleansed, and saved, and perfected by grace ! 
 
 One more in Heaven ! 
 
 One less at home ! 
 
 One voice of welcome hushed and evermore 
 One farewell word spoken ; on the shore, 
 Where parting comes not, one soul landed more 
 
 One more in Heaven ! 
 
 One less at home ! 
 
 Chill as the earth-born mist the thought would rise, 
 And wrap our footsteps round, and dim our eyes, 
 But the bright sunbeam darteth from the skies 
 
 One more in Heaven ! 
 
 One more at home ! 
 
 This is not home, where, cramped in earthly mold, 
 Our sight of Christ is dim our love is cold, 
 But there, where face to face we shall behold, 
 
 Is home and Heaven ! 
 
 One less on earth ! 
 
 Its pain, its sorrow, and its toil to share ; 
 One less the pilgrim's daily cross to bear ; 
 One more the crown of ransomed souls to wear, 
 
 At home in Heaven ! 
 
 One more in Heaven ! 
 Another thought to brighten cloudy days, 
 Another theme of thankfulness and praise, 
 Another link on high our souls to raise 
 
 To home and Heaven ! 
 
 One more at home ! 
 
 That home where separation cannot be, 
 That home where none are missed eternally, 
 Lord Jesus, grant us all a place with Thee, 
 
 At home in Heaven ! 
 
 2 5
 
 ' l00ociafion. 
 
 On Monday morning, January 28th, the Presbyterian Minis- 
 ters' Association of Chicago, held a memorial meeting for Dr. 
 Noyes. The exercises opened with the reading of the following 
 minute, by Dr. Patterson: 
 
 " In the death of our dearly beloved brother, Dr. George C. 
 Noyes, this Association has lost one of its most honored and useful 
 members. 
 
 " As a man of general learning, a patron of art, literature and 
 science, an efficient helper in the cause of education, secular and 
 religious, an active supporter of philanthropic enterprises, and an 
 earnest advocate of liberty and equal rights, he stood among the 
 foremost. 
 
 " His standard of Christian morality was the highest, and his 
 support of it conscientious and resolute. 
 
 " He was genial, companionable and attractive in social relations; 
 warm and steadfast in his friendships; charitable in his judgment 
 of others, even when strongly disapproving their opinions or posi- 
 tion. 
 
 " He was the most devoted worker in forwarding the enterprizes 
 of the Presbyterian Church, and the interests of the church at 
 large. 
 
 "As a preacher he was practical, instructive, earnest and impres- 
 sive, while as a pastor he was diligent, watchful, conciliatory, and 
 untiring in his attention to the temporal and spiritual necessities of 
 his people. Accordingly, his labors were eminently fruitful in the 
 upbuilding and enlargement of his church and congregation. 
 
 " Few ministers among us have been esteemed and loved by so 
 large a circle of friends in general society and among Christian 
 people beyond his own church and denomination. 
 
 " The faith and hope of our brother were strong and unshaken 
 through the peculiar trials of his personal experience, because he 
 accepted from the heart the eternal truths of God's Holy Word, 
 and entrusted all his interests for time and eternity into the hands 
 of the Savior whom he so truly loved. We are afflicted in 
 common with his church and bereaved family by this mysterious 
 dispensation, and desire to take home to ourselves this fresh admo- 
 nition to be also watchful and ready for the coming of the Lord. 
 
 " We hereby tender our heartfelt sympathy to the church thus 
 left as sheep without an earthly shepherd, and to the family of 
 
 26
 
 our departed brother, prayerfully commending all to the care and 
 guardianship of the God of all blessing and comfort." 
 
 DR. ROBERT PATTERSON, ^ 
 
 DR. JOHN H. WORCESTER, 
 
 * 
 
 REV. EDWIN R. DAVIS, L Committee. 
 REV. DAVID HARRIES, 
 Editor W. C. GRAY, 
 
 Pending the adoption of this minute, the deep and fraternal 
 emotion of the members was manifest, and several of them made 
 earnest addresses upon Dr. Noyes' character and services. The 
 chief portions of these tributes are given below. 
 
 DR. PATTERSON. 
 
 I have, at different times, spoken of the life and character of 
 Dr. Noyes. On those occasions I have abstained from any remarks 
 respecting the personal relations between him and myself, which 
 have uniformly been of the most cordial and confidential nature. 
 I can hardly trust myself now to speak of the personal friendship 
 and even intimacy that has existed between us. I have known 
 brother Noyes much longer than any other member of this Asso- 
 ciation. We were both graduates of Illinois College, at Jackson- 
 ville, in this State. I knew his good reputation there, and in 
 Union Seminary, New York, where he studied theology. I 
 became personally acquainted with him shortly after he left the 
 Seminary, when he was settled at Laporte, Indiana. Since that 
 time we have been on terms of special friendship up to the time of 
 his death. I had something to do with his removal to Evanston, 
 more than twenty years ago. . Since his settlement at Evanston, I 
 have seen him almost every week, and during the last three years 
 and a half, almost every day. His death is therefore to me pecu- 
 liarly a personal loss. My oldest friend in all this region has gone 
 never to return. Dr. Noyes and I had different mental tendencies, 
 but we agreed closely in our views of moral and religious truth. I 
 was fond of theological and exegetical study. He was not speci- 
 ally so, but we came to the same conclusions in accepting the 
 revealed facts of the gospel, while neither of us was satisfied with 
 the old theories in theology. In regard to matters pertaining to 
 the interests of the church he very often asked my judgment, as if 
 desiring all available help to avoid mistakes in his decisions and 
 actions. 
 
 Dr. Noyes was submissive and courageous under his peculiar
 
 trials, as the brethren have said; but as he often told me, he was 
 only enabled to maintain his accustomed cheerfulness by keep- 
 ing his hands, his heart, full of Christian work, and by cultivating 
 personal nearness to Christ. In his prayer meetings he very often 
 gave out the beautiful hymn, by Mrs. Prentiss, " More Love to 
 Thee, O Christ." Sometimes he would announce this same hymn 
 at every meeting, through a whole month. Then omitting it for 
 two or three weeks, he would return to it again, as if the supreme 
 desire of his heart was to be filled with the love of Christ. He has 
 now gone to be " forever with the Lord," and I expect, when I 
 shall go up ere long to that blessed home, that he will be among 
 the first to welcome me with the warm grasp of his hand, and with 
 his ever pleasant and joyous smile. 
 
 THE REV. JOHN H. WORCESTER, JR., D. D., 
 Pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church, Chicago. 
 
 I suppose our purpose this morning is rather to give expression 
 to our sense of what Dr. Noyes was to us personally, than to dwell 
 upon his relation to the church at large, or to attempt any estimate 
 of his public services, great and varied as these were. It is some- 
 times reckoned as one of the privations of the ministry, that the 
 minister, unlike his flock, is without a pastor. We are not less 
 human than other Christians, and we stand in the same need of 
 sympathy, encouragement and counsel. Beyond any one else 
 among us Dr. Noyes took this place, and supplied this need to us 
 all. He was a pastor of pastors. No minister in this Presbytery, 
 I am sure, ever went to him in vain with his burdens, perplexities, 
 or struggles. It is this that afflicts us all to-day with such a sense 
 of personal loss. 
 
 To me the loss is greater than I can easily express. The more 
 I dwell upon it, the more I realize how much is gone out of our 
 lives, now that he is with us no more. It seems to me that he has 
 hardly been out of my thoughts since I heard that he had gone, 
 and I cannot tell when a life has preached to me so powerfully as 
 his. I loved him intensely; I think, in some degree, I appreciated 
 him. 1 seldom meet any one of whom I am so often moved to 
 say, as I did again and again after an hour in Dr. Noyes' company: 
 "What a delightful man he is! What an inexpressible charm 
 there is about him!" And yet it was not till he was taken away 
 that I fully perceived how grand a man he was. 
 
 The very simplicity, which was one of his distinguishing traits, 
 was in part the cause of this. There was such an utter absence of 
 
 28
 
 self-consciousness, he asserted himself so little, rather he effaced 
 himself so completely, that he did not challenge attention to his 
 merit, and constrain us to take the full measure of his Christian 
 manhood, as a man of different spirit might have done. 
 
 His cheerfulness, beautiful in itself, was doubly beautiful and 
 doubly impressive, when we came to know that it was a daily 
 triumph over one of the most crushing of human sorrows. I have 
 seen him honestly and outspokenly indignant at what seemed to 
 him wrong and unjust, but I do not remember that I ever saw him 
 even for a moment visibly despondent or gloomy. No one who 
 was there, I am sure, will ever forget the scene on the last morn- 
 ing of that precious devotional meeting of the ministers in his 
 church at Evanston, three years ago, when, after a day spent in 
 communion with each other and our Lord, we had come together 
 for a final meeting, and tender references were made in speech and 
 prayer to Brother Noyes' deep affliction. Then when every voice 
 was tremulous, and all eyes were ready to overflow, Dr. Noyes 
 ro?e with that same bright face and cheery voice which were his 
 always, and while thanking his brethren for their sympathy, "none 
 the less precious that it had been largely a silent sympathy," he 
 bore testimony to the sustaining grace of God, which, as he said, 
 again and again when it had seemed that he was in an extremity, 
 and could not bear his burden another hour had taken the burden 
 all away, and enabled him to go on, trustful and at peace; quoting 
 that verse from the Psalms which, as he said, though precious in 
 the old version: "Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with 
 benefits," was still more precious in the new version: "Blessed be 
 the Lord who daily beareth our burden," and adding: 
 
 " I know not where his islands lift 
 
 Their fronded palms in air, 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond his love and care." 
 
 I felt then that I was in the presence of a spiritual hero and 
 conqueror; and I cherish as a precious memory that testimony to 
 the sustaining and comforting power of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 Another thing by which Dr. Noyes endeared himself to us was 
 the perfect sweetness of his spirit. I do not think there was a drop 
 of bitterness in his nature. Hard things had been said about him 
 sometimes, and he knew it, but though I have heard him refer to 
 such things and to the pain they caused him, I never heard him 
 express the slightest feeling of resentment, nor did he allow the 
 
 a 
 29
 
 knowledge of such things to affect in any way his uniform kind- 
 ness towards those from whom they came. 
 
 This kindliness was remarkable. No man whom I have known 
 has more perfectly exemplified the precept " speaking the truth in 
 love." I once heard him read a letter of reproof which he had 
 felt it his duty to write. The reproof was searching and faithful, 
 fitted to awaken any conscience not wholly stupified, yet it was 
 one of the kindest letters that could have been written, absolutely 
 incapable, as it seemed to me, of giving offense. I have been 
 indebted to him for more than one wholesome admonition, but the 
 admonition was always so kindly expressed that I loved him the 
 better, and felt the more grateful to him for it. 
 
 Above all, Dr. Noyes' example was a lesson to ws of self-for- 
 getful devotion to that service of Christ in the ministry of the 
 gospel to which he had given his life. Doubtless he may have 
 had in youth, in his unregenerate days, like others, his plans of 
 self-advancement and worldly ambitions. But if he had ever had 
 such they had all been buried out of sight long ago. No one could 
 be with him familiarly without seeing and knowing that in his 
 heart of hearts Christ's work was the thing that he cherished, and 
 for which he lived, and that what was said or thought of him per- 
 sonally was a secondary matter, provided only the work went for- 
 ward, and Christ was magnified. 
 
 It is a cause for daily thanksgiving to God that in my work 
 here I have been brought close to such a man. It was worth 
 while coming to Chicago if only to know him and have him for a 
 friend. And it is the prayer of my heart that I may come to be in 
 some far off way, and measure as a man and a minister such as he 
 was. 
 
 REV. D. C. MARQUIS, D. D., 
 Professor in the McCormick Theological Seminary. 
 
 My acquaintance with Brother Noyes began at the time of his 
 removal to this Presbytery, or very soon after. I felt myself 
 drawn to him at first by the attraction of my wife to his. On my 
 return to the city, after an absence of nearly fifteen years, I learned 
 with great surprise and sorrow the shadow that had fallen upon 
 his home. My sympathies were all the more strong and tender on 
 account of the memory of that early attraction. And my respect 
 for, and my admiration of, and my confidence in, Dr. Noyes were 
 all the more confirmed by the noble, manly, Christian way in 
 which he bore his affliction. 
 
 30
 
 Our paths fell somewhat apart, owing to differences of opinion 
 that developed along ecclesiastical lines. But each of us felt 
 assured concerning the other that the difference was one of convic- 
 tion. And I can say for myself that I always had the utmost con- 
 fidence in the sincerity of Brother Noyes' convictions, and in the 
 purity of his motives. He was an open, manly and courteous 
 antagonist. His earnestness in controversy was zeal for a cause 
 which he believed to be right, yet no one could justly accuse him 
 of exhibiting unfriendly feeling, or unbrotherly conduct toward 
 those with whom he differed. 
 
 REV. HERRICK JOHNSON, D. D., L. L. D., 
 
 Professor in the McCormick Theological Seminary. 
 
 If I were to emphasize one thing above another, in cataloguing- 
 the qualities of Brother Noyes' character, it would be his broad and 
 deep sincerity. It is well known that he and I disagreed concern- 
 ing some important questions, both of principle and policy. On 
 some points the disagreement was radical. And the contention for 
 our respective positions was frequently sharp and vigorous. But 
 we respected each others' motives. And I am not conscious of 
 ever having had occasion, in our discussions, to challenge the full- 
 ness and thoroughness of his sincerity. Indeed, it was in the heat 
 of one of our earnest debates that we once sat down after a Mon- 
 day morning ministers' meeting, and talked the matter all over, 
 and looked into each other's hearts, he lifting the veil and inviting 
 me to some confidence that gave me deeper impression than ever 
 of the genuineness of his purpose, and that stamped his spirit with 
 a rare and tender honorableness. 
 
 Another feature that was emphasized to my thought in his later 
 years, was his keen, delicate sense of the proprieties. It was some- 
 thing deeper than the art of deft and courteous speech. It was a 
 fineness of fiber pertaining to spirit rather than to form. It gave 
 him quick perception of possible embarrassment to others, and 
 made him generously sensitive of intrusion, where his word or 
 presence might by any one be counted an infelicity. 
 
 He was varied and broad, too. He touched many interests, 
 He was actively identified with much that was best in the life of 
 our city and our church. We shall miss him everywhere. May 
 we be better men for his life and death. 
 
 REV. EDWIN R. DAVIS, 
 Presbyterian Missionary. 
 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Noyes began soon after he became 
 
 3 1
 
 a member of the Presbytery of Chicago, over twenty years ago. 
 Closely associated with him in its mission work for several years. 
 I knew him intimately, loved him as a true friend, and admired 
 him for his many noble and beautiful traits of character. He was 
 ever what he appeared to be. There was no pretense about him. 
 He was sincere and earnest in his convictions of truth and duty, 
 charitable towards those who differed from him, kindly, fraternal 
 with his brethren, courteous to all. While his heart bore the 
 burden of a great sorrow, yet he was cheerful and genial as a 
 companion, wisely and tenderly ministering the consolations of the 
 gospel to those in affliction. As a Presbyter, he served our church 
 with rare fidelity, intelligence and a breadth of judgment not 
 excelled, if equalled, by others. While he was, in a remarkable 
 degree, a manly man, exhibiting great force and strength of char- 
 acter, yet his sensibilities were as tender and refined as those of a 
 woman, leading him to a careful regard for the feelings of others. 
 His visits to my home were always a comfort to my invalid wife. 
 By grace prepared, our brother was ready for the Master's use and 
 presence. Our comfort is, by that same grace we may continue to 
 serve, and then, at His bidding, come to greet our brother in the 
 Master's presence. 
 
 REV. W. W. TOTHEROH, D. D., 
 
 Pastor of the Hyde 1'ark Presbyterian Clinrch. 
 
 As a recent comer, it may be that it would be more appropriate 
 were I to retain my seat and remain silent, thus affording more 
 opportunity to others who have been longer and more intimately 
 associated with Dr. Noyes, to bear testimony touching their high 
 appreciation of his many grand and noble qualities. And, yet, 
 perhaps, in the very fact that I have but recently removed to this 
 locality, there may be a reason why I should speak, and, for 
 myself and others, who have within a short time come into the 
 Chicago Presbytery, bear witness to our brother's ready and cor- 
 dial welcome for the new comer. It was a rare privilege to form 
 the acquaintance of such an one as he. His courtesy was not of 
 that kind that is so often put on for a time or a purpose; it was 
 not perfunctory; it belonged to his very nature. In the grasp of 
 his hand, the look of his eye, and the tone of his voice, his soul 
 revealed itself. 
 
 A picture of Dr. Noyes, that I have long treasured, is of an 
 incident of years ago. It was soon after I had entered the ministry. 
 I was in this city for a visit, and with a ministerial friend I came 
 
 3 2
 
 to this minister's meeting. I was presented to one after another 
 of the brethren, but that was all there was of it. No one seemed 
 to take any special interest in me, nor in the locality in which I 
 was settled. I was among my brethren, but, I confess that I felt 
 somewhat lonesome. Presently I was introduced to Brother 
 Noyes, at that time ( 1874) one of the busiest members of the Pres- 
 bytery. Many were waiting to consult him how natural it was 
 for us to consult him! but he paused to make inquiries as to myself 
 and my work, and to bid me God-speed. Somehow I felt at once 
 as though I was encircled by his friendship. The interview, 
 brief as it was, seemed to me a blessed means of grace. 
 
 Within a few months we have met frequently, and the interest 
 he has shown towards me has been in harmony with his conduct 
 of years ago. But my experience has only been in keeping with 
 that of all others. 
 
 Many things in our brother's character and disposition have 
 been mentioned this hour as being worthy of our emulation; but to 
 my mind no quality commends itself more impressively than his 
 beautiful and uniform grace of Christian courtesy. 
 
 REV. W. T. MELOY, D. D.. 
 
 Pastor of the United Presbyterian Chtirch, Chicago. 
 
 " He that dwelleih in the secret place of the Most High shall 
 abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Do you know what it 
 is to have communion with God to be taken into the Divine con- 
 fidence to know " the secret of the Lord" which is with those 
 who fear Him? 
 
 This, I believe, was the delightful experience of our recently 
 departed brother. To this source we must trace the calmness 
 and peace, the composure and resignation, that pervaded his whole 
 life. Who has failed to be charmed with the writings of Charles 
 Lamb? What a sweet spirit he breathes. But it is only when we 
 know how deeply he suffered himself while cheering the outer 
 world that we are able to appreciate the true nobility of his char- 
 acter. He willingly made the greatest sacrifice, and preferred to 
 take his dear sister's hand and walk with her through the gloomiest 
 shadows of life. We wonder that he could minister to the world's 
 pleasure while his own heart was bleeding. But Dr. Noyes experi- 
 enced a deeper trial. No one would ever have guessed that his 
 genial spirit had been touched with grief as he gave himself, with 
 Christ-like devotion, to dispel the clouds that brooded over others. 
 And yet we ought to know that the hands that have been pierced 
 
 33
 
 are the ones that may be lifted up in richest benedictions, and that 
 the High Priest of true consolation has been made perfect through 
 suffering. 
 
 There are some men of real worth with whom you must long- 
 be acquainted, before you will understand the nobility of their 
 souls. But one could not be long with Dr. Xoyes without know- 
 ing him. His look was sympathetic; his hand-grasp was free, and 
 his bearing eminently that of a Christian gentleman. There 
 seemed to be nothing to hide from you, and you knew him the 
 moment you met him. That he had faults I do not doubt, for the 
 perfection of Christian manhood has never been exhibited but once 
 on earth. But of his faults, I can truly say I never saw them, and 
 could not even guess what they were. But he is gone from us > 
 and this world will be less our home because he is not in it, and in 
 these meetings there will be a feeling of loneliness because our 
 brother cannot be with us. 
 
 REV. SIMON J. MCPHERSON, D. D., 
 Pastor of t lie Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago. 
 
 I have been thinking, as I sat here, that Dr. Noyes would have 
 been at once abashed and happy if he could have heard these 
 glowing tributes of his brethren. He was a singularly modest 
 man, yet, like all affectionate natures, he loved to know that he 
 was loved. He had a remarkable capacity for friendship. We 
 all know, I may say, in passing, what a rich fund of humor, and 
 what a gift for innocent mirth, he possessed. We all loved him; 
 that is plain to-day. But I wonder whether we gave him his due 
 by letting him know that fact while he was here among us. 
 
 I have been recalling, too, like the rest of you, his untiring 
 industry. I warned him last fall that he was working too hard, 
 that his countenance betrayed him. But he had so little self-con- 
 sciousness, so little selfishness, that my words made small impres- 
 sion upon him. Besides his sense of duty and his appreciation of 
 the world's great need, he had two special promptings to constant 
 toil: his care of all the churches, and the danger of brooding over 
 his constant sorrow. Any one of us, it would seem, could have 
 been better spared than he, so generous and devoted was he to all 
 needy churches so steadily did he acknowledge the debt which 
 strength owes to weakness. As to his affliction, we often ignored 
 it, I fear, because he bore it so cheerfully and bravely, and because 
 he kept himself occupied for others. But one that loved as he 
 did one that had so refined and noble a companion to love could 
 
 34
 
 not help feeling the burden of her long illness and separation from 
 him most poignantly. Yet he never felt hopeless, as we have 
 heard. Nor did he ever feel the least bitterness, even after he had 
 become convinced that if different counsels had been followed, 
 much of the long agony might have been spared them. 
 
 Another thing that I greatly admired in him was the unobtru- 
 sive strength and energy of his character. Every one noticed his 
 rich sympathy, even with the degraded ; but he possessed also 
 great capability for indignation against meanness and malicious 
 evil. Tolerant and charitable towards all men, his own convictions 
 were intense. He had an unwavering belief in the revealed word 
 of God and in prayer, and a chivalrous loyalty towards Jesus 
 Christ. His gentleness tempered the expression of his beliefs, but 
 it never interfered with his strict adherence to evangelical truth; 
 nor did it abate an iota from his judgment of measures proposed 
 by either friends or opponents. For that reason he was one of the 
 most trusted counselors of my life. He was also a brave man. 
 His inaugural address as President of the Literary Club, while it 
 offended no one, was a distinct testimony on behalf of his Divine 
 Master. 
 
 Perhaps the best summary of his qualities can be given by say- 
 ing that his life was an unartificial and uniform exhibition of the 
 spirit of the Savior. That certainly was to me his most exalted 
 and conspicuous characteristic. I think that in this moving hour, 
 as in every hour since he left us, we should acknowledge alike the 
 rebuke and the inspiration of his almost faultless career. 
 
 REV. JAS. H. MALCOLM, 
 Pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, Chicago. 
 
 Although the time for adjournment has come, I cannot get the 
 consent of my heart to let this service close without saying a word. 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Noyes is limited to the short time I 
 have been in this city, but that short time has been so much 
 enriched by the blessed touch of our departed brother. Coming 
 into this Presbytery comparatively a stranger, he greeted me as a 
 friend, and so cordial was his greeting, that at once he won my 
 heart and confidence I loved him. I loved him because he first 
 loved me. I loved him because he fed and strengthened my love. 
 As I have sat here and listened to the tributes you have severally 
 brought and laid at his feet, you who have known him for years, 
 I am impressed with what a compliment this man's life is to his 
 Master, whose he was and is, and whom he served. Human great- 
 
 35
 
 ness is distributed among men. It is seldom we see a man who is 
 great in more than one direction, but it seems as though greatness 
 in every direction meets in our brother, Dr. Noyes. But summing 
 up what has been said this hour, and adding to this my personal 
 knowledge of the man, it seems as though this man embodied 
 every element of that greatness which characterizes a noble, faith- 
 ful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Since his death I have read 
 and re-read his sermon preached on the twentieth anniversarv of 
 his pastorate, if, perchance, I might catch something of his spirit. 
 As Dr. Worcester has already said, since I heard of his death, his 
 life has been a daily sermon to me. And in this solemn hour I long 
 to be filled with his spirit, that I may have the grace and the sweet 
 temper that he evinced as a servant of Jesus Christ, and as a min- 
 ister of the blessed gospel of the Son of God, that the love of 
 Christ that was pulsing and throbbing in him, making itself felt 
 wherever he went, may, in some measure, appear in my life. 
 Remembering that this is a memorial service, my judgment is, that 
 the greatest honor we can show to the dead is to honor the living. 
 Let the life we so much honor to-day by our words be the life we 
 shall seek to reproduce. Let us take up his fallen mantle, and love 
 one another as he loved us. I look upon this as one of the lessons 
 to be learned from this hour, and that this may be impressed upon 
 us, let us spend a short season in prayer that his spirit may more 
 and more be manifest in us. 
 
 of Various 
 
 I. - THE VILLAGE OF EVANSTON. 
 
 EVANSTON, February 4th, 1889. 
 To the President and Members of the Village Council, Evanston, Illinois : 
 
 Your Special Committee, to whom was referred the minutes of 
 the President, calling attention to the death of Dr. Geo. C. Noyes, 
 for so long a period one of Evanston's most prominent and honored 
 citizens, would report: 
 
 That although Dr. Noyes was rot an officer of the Village or 
 directly connected with the administration of its government, yet 
 he was so thoroughly identified with its life and history, and was, 
 to so large an extent, connected with all of our public and philan- 
 thropic enterprises, that it is especially fitting that this Council 
 record its appreciation of him as a man pure and upright in char- 
 acter, earnest and patriotic as a citizen, generous and sympathiz- 
 ing as a friend. 
 
 36
 
 While his loss to our community is incalculable, we remember 
 that he has bequeathed to us a rich heritage in the influence of a 
 virtuous and Godly life. Everywhere men will be the better for 
 having known him; every good influence was quickened by his 
 teaching and by his example; every good work received encour- 
 agement and aid from him. 
 
 To the family and friends who have been so especially bereaved, 
 we tender our earnest and heartfelt sympathy, and while we com- 
 mend them to the tender care of Him from whom alone true con- 
 solation can be received, we would assure them that their sorrow 
 is shared by an entire community, each member of which feels 
 that he has been afflicted and bereaved. 
 
 We would recommend that this report be entered at length 
 upon the journal, and that the action of the Council be officially 
 communicated to Dr. Noyes' family. 
 
 FRANK P. CRANDON, } 
 
 CHAS. T. GILBERT, > Committee. 
 
 \ 
 JOHN R. LINDGREN. ) 
 
 Unanimously adopted. 
 
 II. THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, OF EVANSTON. 
 
 Read at the prayer-meeting at the Presbyterian Church, Wed- 
 nesday evening, February 6th. 
 Dear Friends of the First Presbyterian Church, of Evans ton : 
 
 The death of your beloved and honored pastor will call forth 
 many affectionate tributes from individuals, outside of his own con- 
 gregation, who have been helped and cheered by his words of 
 counsel and consolation. But aside from these individual testi- 
 monials, it seemed appropriate that we, as a church, should lay 
 upon his bier our tribute of respect and affection. 
 
 Twice in our history we have been the sharers of your hospi- 
 tality. \Vhen it was decided twenty years ago to disband the Lake 
 Avenue Church, that union enterprise from which both of our 
 churches sprung, we accepted your invitation to worship with you, 
 while our church was building. When four years ago our church 
 building was destroyed by fire, your hospitable doors were again 
 open to us. On the first occasion we shared with you the pastoral 
 care of Dr. Noyes; and although on the last occasion we were 
 ministered to by our own pastor, we felt that we were brooded 
 over by the loving sympathy of our great-hearted friend. 
 
 It will be for others to delineate those traits of character which 
 
 37
 
 made him so beloved and honored. But there were two rare and 
 beautiful qualities which we have always greatly admired in him. 
 He was always loyal to his convictions of duty, and he fearlessly 
 expressed them; but he expressed them in such a generous, toler- 
 ant way, that he never forfeited the good will of his opponents. 
 He was also a man of never-failing cheerfulness. It was this that 
 drew all hearts towards him. His cheery, sunshiny presence was 
 a benediction in every home that he entered ; and yet what a 
 weight of sorrow rested on that manly heart. 
 
 Your loss is very great, but what a wealth of memory is yours! 
 What a privilege to have enjoyed twenty years of such a ministry 
 as his! Oh, for another such. That is our prayer for you. 
 
 On behalf of the First Congregational Church, of Evanston, 
 
 L. H. BOUTELL, 
 FRANCIS BRADLEY, 
 H. B. HILL. 
 
 III. THE EVANSTON CLUB. 
 
 At the meeting of the Evanston Club, held Monday evening, 
 February 4th, the following resolutions were adopted: 
 
 WHEREAS, We learn with deep regret of the death of our 
 revered and well-beloved friend and fellow-townsman, the Rev. 
 George C. Noyes, D. D. 
 
 Resolved, That as individual members of the Evanston Club 
 we cherish his memory as a Christian gentleman and leader of 
 men, showing dignity in his profession and generous fellowship to 
 all. And appreciating that such characteristics lie at the heart of 
 all human associations we will hold our departed friend in revered 
 recollection, and herewith convey our respectful condolence to his 
 family. 
 
 IV. THE FRESHMAN CLASS, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 WHEREAS, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from our 
 midst by death one honored and beloved, in the person of Dr. 
 George C. Noyes. 
 
 AND WHEREAS, We, the members of the Freshman Class of 
 Northwestern University, mourn his loss, both to his family and 
 to the community at large. 
 
 Resolved^ That we do hereby extend to our honored member, 
 Mr. Marshall P. Noyes, our heartfelt sorrow and tenderest sym- 
 pathy in his bereavement; 
 
 33
 
 And Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to him, 
 and also a copy be published in the ensuing numbers of the North- 
 western and The Index. 
 
 V. THE PRESBYTERIAN SOCIAL UNION, OF CHICAGO. 
 
 We put upon record our sense of deep bereavement in the 
 death of our beloved brother, the Rev. George C. Noyes. And yet 
 in the midst of our grief, we recogni/e the hand which doeth all 
 things well. We know that it could be truly said of our brother, 
 that to depart and be with Christ was for him far better. 
 
 Our departed friend was eminent in all the qualities of Chris- 
 tian manhood. His mind was strong, clear and thoroughly furn- 
 ished. He was a faithful and devoted pastor, an able preacher of 
 the gospel, a wise counselor, and a true, constant and loving 
 friend. We extend our sympathies to his family, to his people, to 
 all who were permitted to know him, in this our common loss. 
 We may say of him: "Let me die the death of the righteous: 
 may my last end be like his." 
 
 DR. WM. C. GRAY, \ 
 
 REV. J. H. BARROWS, D. D., I Committee. 
 
 HENRY B. CRAGIN, ESQ. ) 
 
 VI. THE CHICAGO LITERARY CLUB. 
 
 This Club has met with a severe bereavement in the death of 
 one of its most esteemed members, who, but a few months ago, 
 filled the highest official position. 
 
 George Clement Noyes was born at Landaff, New Hampshire, 
 August 4th, 1833. When he was twelve years of age, his parents 
 removed to Perry, in Pike County, Illinois. 
 
 He early gave evidence of scholarly tastes, and, at the age of 
 nineteen, entered Illinois College at Jacksonville. He was gradu- 
 ated in 1855, and entered the Union Theological Seminary in New 
 York City. In 1858, he assumed his first pastoral relation at 
 Laporte, Indiana, where he remained ten years. He was then 
 called to the First Presbyterian Church in Evanston, where he 
 completed his twenty years of pastoral service in November last. 
 
 Dr. Noyes was elected a member of this Club in 1882; and, 
 perhaps, no member ever more keenly enjoyed the privilege of 
 social intercourse with its members and of contributing to its liter- 
 ary exercises. He never missed a meeting when it was possible 
 for him to be present. His broad, catholic spirit, his genial man- 
 ners, and joyous, warm sensibilities, made him a universal favorite 
 
 39
 
 in the Club. In whatever circle he was, there were happy faces, 
 animated conversation, the humorous assault, the sharp repartee, 
 and much sportive laughter. Every one felt that in him was a- 
 true friend and safe counselor. He enjoyed humor; he loved 
 music, painting and sculpture; he loved his friends, and would go 
 far out of his way to serve them. Such domestic affliction as his 
 would have crushed an ordinary man; but in his case it refined his 
 spirit, and prepared him to sympathize with the woes of others. 
 
 The character, which was so attractive to the members of this 
 Club, impressed every one within the wide range of his influence 
 the church of which he was the pastor, the inhabitants of the town 
 where he resided, and of the great city of which it is a suburb. 
 When he entered a car on a suburban train every eye was upon 
 him, seeking for his cheerful look of recognition. Persons of no 
 religious faith loved him, and came to him for counsel and sym- 
 pathy in their afflictions. The term " Bishop of Evanston and the 
 surrounding country" would define his pastoral relations. 
 
 Dr. Noyes was a scholar. He kept up his study of the ancient 
 classics; and his investigations covered a much wider range thaiy 
 was required for his own pulpit. Every great moral, political and 
 social question of the day he studied carefully, and was a frequent 
 contributor concerning them to the religious and secular press. 
 
 For many years he was an editorial writer on, and the weekly 
 correspondent of, the Neiv Tork Evangelist, over the signature of 
 " Clement." In furnishing these letters he required of the editors 
 this condition that they would not change or omit anything he 
 should write. 
 
 It was not possible for him to limit his range of vision to the 
 field immediately around him. His interest and sympathies 
 extended over the whole country, and even the whole continent. 
 Hende" he developed a strong taste for travel. He loved to make 
 excursions to the South, that he might inspect the condition of the 
 freedmen and the process of reconstruction. He made a journey 
 to Puget's Sound, Oregon, and California, and another to Mexico, 
 and wrote out his thoughtful observations on both journeys when 
 he returned. 
 
 As a Christian minister he was distinguished by a rare combi- 
 nation of earnestness and charity, of sound, practical judgment and 
 unselfish activity in good works, of strict fidelity to his own care- 
 fully formed and firm convictions, and respect for the sincere con- 
 victions of others. He was a notable exception to the rule which 
 Mrs. Browning announced, in saying that " Faith and toleration 
 
 40
 
 are found in our age, but they are found apart; we tolerate every- 
 body because we believe nothing, or else we tolerate nobody 
 because we believe something." He was a Christian of the nobler 
 type of character, and multitudes, whose lives have been touched 
 and blessed by his gracious manhood, feel that they have lost in 
 him a friend, who beautifully exemplified what is best in the Chri?- 
 tian faith. His work as a minister was marked by large and con- 
 tinued success; he was widely known and sincerely esteemed by 
 those in his own denomination, and by many others. He was par- 
 ticularly interested in the moral and spiritual enlightenment of the 
 growing populations in the newer regions of our own country- 
 His study and extended personal observation had given him a 
 thorough acquaintance with the imperial Western domain, which 
 is to be a controlling factor in the future life of America, and his 
 mind was deeply concerned with efforts for its educational and 
 moral improvement. The ideal of the Christian minister which 
 he presents to us is that of one who, while diligent in self-culture, 
 faithful to his special work and earnest in delivering his message to 
 his own people, fully realized that he had large and vital connec- 
 tions with his country and with the world, and who, with all 
 modesty, might have repeated the line of the Roman dramatist: 
 "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto." 
 
 WILLIAM F. POOLE, 
 
 JOHN H. BARROWS, 
 CLINTON LOCKE. 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Mormon by frof. 
 
 On January 2oth, Prof. Swing preached to his congregation in 
 Chicago, a sermon on "The Coming Ideal Clergyman." Extracts 
 from it, referring more directly to Dr. Xoyes, are here given: 
 He preached the word unto them. Mark ii. : 2. . 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Noyes, of this city, who, since last Sunday, has 
 passed from the earth, was so well known to many of you, and 
 was so highly esteemed, that his name may well bring you a theme 
 for the hour. Of course he was not a president or a king or a 
 genius, but he was great enough to justify the memories and reflec- 
 tions of a sacred morning in a sacred place ........ 
 
 There is no demand for a funeral discourse; no call for your 
 tears; but it seems a good morning for marking how well this 
 absent clergyman may illustrate for our generations what is meant 
 or should be meant by the broad American clergyman. For a 
 
 4 1
 
 generation this type of preacher has been alluded to as to come 
 or coming; alluded to with ridicule by some, by some with hope. 
 
 In our land to which the broad American clergyman has not 
 yet come, and in whose future that kind of preacher stands in 
 misty outline, this Dr. Noyes seemed a kind of good substitute for 
 the something better, but long delayed. Society does not sit down 
 and wait for its ideals to come. " Life is short, but art is long," 
 and, therefore, we all, with our short life, must decline to wait for 
 the motions of a long art. We must rally around something unfin- 
 ished, because we are all about to pass away. Therefore, precious 
 to us are these present living substitutes for the ideal, for they are 
 here with us each morning and evening of a life that cannot be 
 stopped, and can be lived only once 
 
 There was much in his own personal nature, and much in the 
 new era, that invited him to live the life he lived. His ministry 
 opened in his youth with the same practical, ethical and missionary 
 qualities that marked his final years. He did not quarrel with his 
 creed; he selected from it that which could be applied at once to< 
 human conduct; he did not contradict the catechism ; he transcended 
 it. . . . 
 
 Thus the uprising of these broad men within a score of very 
 different sects compels us to perceive that they are issuing from the 
 inborn characters of persons, and . . . from the contact of this 
 century with the person and teachings of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Toleration will form a large quality in the coming clergymen 
 of most usefulness, not only because hundreds of varying opinions 
 may be looked upon as equally honorable to the holder, but also 
 because toleration is only another name for kindness between men. 
 What is called benevolence toward the poor, or humanity toward 
 the brutes, or gentleness toward the sick, or pity toward the suffer- 
 ing. This kindness, extended to persons of many religious faiths, 
 is called toleration. It once existed only in law, but it has become 
 a virtue of the heart. It is now a personal ornament. It is a ten- 
 derness of the mind. Fenelon possessed it among the Catholics. 
 So did Blaise Pascal. Neither of these men could have caused a 
 Protestant to shed a tear. We all think the opinions of other 
 people less true than our own, but when the heart rises up and 
 says: "Oh, Catholic, or oh, Protestant, with all thy faults I love 
 thee still," this is toleration. In this shape of modern kindness 
 Dr. Noyes went beyond manv of his own denomination. To his 
 
 42
 
 Sunday evening lectures some highly educated and loyal Roman 
 Catholics went, week after week, because it was well known to 
 them that the religious truth that would come to their ears would 
 be the truth universal, would be that Christianity of deed and 
 character they had heard from the earliest days of childhood. 
 
 The real "word" of Christ fits itself to all persons alike, for it 
 was framed not for any sect, but for human beings. The ideas of 
 faith, penitence, righteousness, reward, punishment, and immortal 
 life, concern all alike, Protestants and Catholics, and so the reforms 
 and the appeals of humanity ask that the audience that hears them 
 shall have only an elevated human nature. When a mind pos- 
 sesses the power to select this " word" from the less noble notions 
 of the many denominations, and when there comes a heart that 
 can love such choice doctrines of the human race, there comes a 
 leader whom all can hear gladly 
 
 Thus did Dr. Noyes preach the "word," and whoever sat 
 before the pulpit felt that the truth was falling around, and not a 
 truth for a Presbyterian alone, but a truth for him. Whether the 
 rainfall was of fire or of manna, the awful or sweet shower was for 
 all. Some Presbyterians can thus preach once a year, but that was a 
 great mind that could thus preach for a lifetime. When a clergy- 
 man is so benevolent that the children on the street run toward 
 him, and not away from him, then toward that man will run also 
 all those older children that may belong to the fireside of Wesley 
 or Luther or Rome for the face of benevolence is one and the 
 same for all the years man lives. 
 
 This unpretending clergyman comes up before memory to-day 
 to illustrate the proposition that the ideal preacher of the continent 
 need not be a genius, nor a poet, nor a brilliant essayist, nor a 
 skillful rhetorician. It should be a great relief of the heart to 
 know this; for what would the ten thousand towns and cities do if 
 their religious leaders had to come in the nature of a Fenelon, a 
 Bossuet, a Robert Hall, a Thomas Chalmers or a Channing? 
 Those types of mind are so few, and in their coming so uncertain, 
 that they are useful only as inspirations to the real creators of 
 Christendom and civilization. The supply of sensational preachers 
 in both a good and a bad sense is so small that the Nation can not 
 expect much from those two types of brain and soul. The Nation 
 demands ten thousand of good pulpit toilers, and therefore it must 
 expect them in that kind of merit that is more abundant than 
 genius or brilliancy. The crop of genius is too small to meet the 
 public demand. 
 
 43
 
 To meet the crisis, nature intervenes with that which is next 
 akin; with that most satisfactory substitute found in solidity of 
 thought, in breath of knowledge and of taste, in earnestness, con- 
 scientiousness and piety. Power is much more abundant than 
 brilliancy. It is many shaped, and can equip an army of working 
 minds each with different armor. The men of poetry and creative 
 talents are few, the men of power, many 
 
 Taking this wide and truthful survey of eloquence or spoken 
 power, it is at once seen that the ideal clergyman will come in 
 some one of the shapes of this force of mind upon mind. Sincerity, 
 wisdom, piety, learning, sympathy, and goodness will so meet in 
 this laborer that people will hear him gladly, without asking 
 whence comes the persuasion that fills their intellects. Thus was 
 Dr. Noyes a form of eloquence, for, if for twenty years the old 
 and the young followed his argument whither it went; if the 
 church became more and more full; if the young professed their 
 faith under the influence of that kind and yet compact logic; if 
 men changed their course of life for the better under the motives 
 which those lips expressed; then there is no need for a definition 
 of eloquence, the definition being made untimely by the life-long 
 fact. This is that simple fact of eloquence in which can come a 
 band of gospel brothers who shall be able to lead the cities, towns, 
 and villages whither the people should all go. It is not a cheap 
 eloquence. It corpes by labor, by literature, by art, by taste, by 
 wide reading, by warmth of heart, and by faith in God; but, while 
 not easily found, it is not so far away and so hopeless as that kind 
 of speech which has been ascribed to only a few names in the wide 
 reach of history. 
 
 In this man, Dr. Noyes, as now recalled, was there such a fore- 
 shadowing of the kind of Christian preacher and pastor our coun- 
 try needs, and the type it is making in its silent laboratory. The 
 cons ruction of this desirable laborer is going on in all the denom- 
 inations, and no one can tell from what church will issue the most 
 and the best of these true evangelists. The age is using each sect 
 for its shop and as the source of its material. It will require all 
 the denominations to supply enough of these men to meet the 
 need of the future. The levy will be laid equally, for all the sects 
 are about equally rich and equally poor. The riches and the pov- 
 erty exist without respect of creeds. 
 
 This forerunner of the ideal pastor reached out toward the 
 world of literature, as well as toward the department oF faith and 
 piety. He was active in the realm of books. He inclined his ear 
 
 44
 
 toward music with full zeal. The books and the arts informed his 
 mind, awakened, inspired and enriched it, and gave his heart the 
 joy and the vivacity of children in May and June. He went away 
 from earth too soon, if we consult human feelings; but he was such 
 a servant of God, so faithful and so full of worship, that his death 
 must be looked upon as coming to pass in the full presence of One 
 who does not permit His children to meet with any event that 
 comes too soon or too late. To us all the far future seems the 
 better time for the death of self, or of one beloved, but the best 
 time for a going from this world is known only to Him, who alone 
 knows what is life and what is death, and what the home beyond. 
 
 from ff)C 
 
 I. - THE EVANSTON INDEX, JANUARY 24TH. 
 
 Such facts as these go 1o make up the merest outline of a bio- 
 graphical sketch. They are, however, hard, dry and cold, and 
 give but the slightest intimation of the richness and nobility of the 
 life which it has seemed best to an all-wise Providence to cut short. 
 His life was a grand triumph. He so lived that he was as ready 
 as mortal man could be to stand confidently in the awful piesence 
 of his Maker. He so lived that there stand to his credit many 
 lives made better by his influence and example. He so lived that 
 his memory is a blessing to the people. He so lived that when he 
 died he was mourned not only by those who had striven to follow 
 his noble example, but was sorrowed for by the careless and indif- 
 ferent, to whom his purity was a reproach. 
 
 Dr. Noyes will live long in the history of Evanston. He had 
 that peculiar kindliness and that wonderful genial disposition which 
 endeared him to the masses manly as a man should be, tender 
 and loving as women are. He was no mere theorist or theoretical 
 theologian. He was interested in the welfare of the community ; 
 was bold and pronounced in his political opinions, and wielded a 
 practised and vigorous pen. His was no idle, dreamy Christianity. 
 It was practical, simple, honest. He knew the world, sympathized 
 with mortal failings, and yet in his own life and character was an 
 incentive to goodness. His sermons were like the man, plain, 
 simple, often blunt, abounding in love for his fellows, and yet 
 abating not a particle from the doctrine of love and mercy preached 
 from the cross itself. 
 
 Men pass away and the world forgets their names. Some few 
 are preserved in the pages of earthly histories, and of these few 
 
 45
 
 quite as many are noted for failings as for virtues. This man, 
 whose memory is now fresh and green among us, may have no 
 page in the ephemeral histories of men, but his name is written in 
 letters of gold on the eternal tablets of the omnipotent God. 
 
 II. THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, JANUARY I5TH. 
 
 There was, perhaps, no clergyman in Northern Illinois more 
 highly respected by all with whom he came in contact than Dr. 
 Noyes. Especially was this true in Evanston, where he labored 
 as a minister for twenty years. He went there a young man, and 
 by his efforts largely helped to build up a prosperous and inde- 
 pendent church. . . . . . . While he was a strong believer 
 
 in the Presbyterian faith, his sermons were seldom confined to 
 doctrinal points. For his texts, living issues were chosen. For 
 hypocrisy he had an utter contempt, and was fearless in denouncing 
 all forms of it. Sin he hated, but for the sinner he had charity 
 and forbearance. For the higher types of Christian manhood and 
 womanhood, for morality and human kindness, he had natural and 
 profound sympathy. An old friend speaking of Dr. Noyes yester- 
 day, said: "He was a good father and husband, an upright man, 
 a charitable teacher, and an honest citizen. What more could be 
 said of any man?" Dr. Noyes was a Christian gentleman of sin- 
 cere and deep convictions, but broad in his views and tolerant of 
 the opinions of others, even when they differed widely from his 
 own. He had a peculiar charm and grace of manner which 
 endeared him to all who knew him, and among laymen he was one 
 of the most popular clergymen ever known in Chicago. Yet he 
 never made any sacrifice of his principles to gain popularity, nor 
 abated anything from his dignity as a man or a clergyman. 
 
 There is not a man, woman or child in Evanston or South 
 Evanston but sincerelv mourns the death of this good man. Tele- 
 grams and letters poured into the bereaved household all day long, 
 with messages of respect and inquiry, and later, of condolence. 
 Dr. Noyes was as well known among the lowly as among the 
 higher classes. 
 
 Dr. Noyes, even at the beginning of his clerical career, when a 
 pastor was expected to confine himself mainly to creed and the 
 elucidation of knotty doctrinal questions, refused to be held down 
 from the discussion of live questions. At first this created nd little 
 dissatisfaction, but finally the honesty of his purpose and the 
 
 46
 
 bravery with which he combatted old-time prejudices showed to 
 the good people of Laporte that they had a teacher among them 
 of more than ordinary ability and far-sightedness. 
 
 EDITORIAL PARAGRAPH. 
 
 The death of the Rev. George C. Noyes deprives this city 
 for, though he lived in Evanston, he was a Chicagoan of one 
 of its bravest and truest citizens, and the Presbyterian Church of 
 one of its ablest and hardest working ministers. He was one of 
 the best gifts of New England to the West. He had the morality 
 and energy of the Puritan, but none of his fanaticism. He had a 
 breadth of mind and width of culture which emancipated him from 
 the narrowing influences of sect, and thus added a hundredfold to 
 his influence among men. A sincere friend of temperance, he 
 preferred practical rather than impracticable methods of promoting 
 it, and hence was an early and constant friend of high license, and 
 an opponent of political prohibition, the uselessness of which 
 offended the practical side of his nature. A man of great executive 
 ability, he found his place among the workers of the church rather 
 than among its orators, and for that reason will be missed far more 
 than one whose name was more familiar to the public. He died 
 too soon for the community and the church, but he died with no 
 enemies and with many friends, with a record without a blot, and 
 with a serene confidence that his future life would be as happy as 
 his blameless past. 
 
 III. THE INTERIOR, CHICAGO, JANUARY 24TH. 
 
 TO GEORGE C. NOYES. 
 
 Great heart ! what change of place, 
 
 Of state and circumstance, 
 What added gifts and grace, 
 
 By which the soul to enhance, 
 The touch of death may show 
 
 I cannot tell but this 
 Beyond all doubt I know : 
 
 Where'er thy dwelling is, 
 Within what pearly gates, 
 
 Beside what jasper sea, 
 Upon what golden streets 
 
 Thou art the same to me. 
 
 Amid the flash of wings, 
 
 Beside the seraph throng, 
 Unawed among the kings 
 
 Of saintly thought or song, 
 
 47
 
 Not changed by any glow 
 
 That falleth from thy crown, 
 Thy rugged features show 
 
 The man that I have known 
 Unchanged though feet trod 
 
 The dimness here below, 
 Along bright ways of God 
 
 Flash upward, joyful now. 
 
 i 
 Some souls there are whom death 
 
 May change in form or face, 
 Upon whom heaven may wreathe 
 
 A strange and distant grace. 
 But thou so straight hast gone 
 
 The way of heaven's will, 
 I see thee walking on 
 
 The same strong spirit still. 
 The saint shall not hide so 
 
 The human soul I knew 
 'Mid heaven's blaze I'll know, 
 
 And greet thee fellow true. 
 NEW YORK. C. L. THOMPSON. 
 
 EDITORIAL, BY DR. WM. C. GRAY, 
 
 Our most familiar friend has gone to the other side. Dr. 
 Noyes came very frequently to The Interior office, and the greet- 
 ing was always as familiar as it could be between brothers, and 
 nearly always there was some pleasant chaffing. As I write this, 
 a line comes in from Dr. C. L. Thompson, with the poem printed 
 above, which is so apt to what I was about to write that I will 
 quote from it. After speaking of the distress which the death of 
 his beloved friend has brought upon him, Dr. Thompson recalls 
 the last interview with him: ' I think the last time I saw him was 
 at the Assembly. You remember his sally. When he said to 
 you: 'You are not a minister;' you replied, 'Thank heaven for 
 that.' He retorted, ' We do.'" 
 
 He liked to unbend, and enjoyed very greatly the freedom of 
 perfect friendship, and yet, in near a score of years of intimacy, I 
 do not remember ever to have talked with him when the by-play 
 of humor did not deepen into serious talk. There were depths of 
 feeling and of wisdom below the sparkle of the foam, which were 
 always apparent. He was profoundly serious and in earnest. He 
 bore upon his heart the heaviest burden that can befall a loving 
 heart, the long continued invalidism of his wife, who was a beau- 
 tiful and charming woman. He was a burden-bearer for others, 
 
 48
 
 and his warm and widely extended sympathies drew upon him a 
 great task of toil and care. He was as candid as the cloudless sky. 
 He did not hesitate to reprove, and yet his reproofs never left a 
 sting or sediment of bitterness. This candor and faithfulness made 
 him of the highest value as a friend. No one has so freely and 
 unhesitatingly spoken to us of our faults as he did and we there- 
 fore held him as the most genuine and the most useful of friends. 
 This candor, tempered with wise discretion, and revealing a very 
 sensible and experienced mind, gave him influence over men which 
 they felt to be preponderating. He never trimmed, never dodged, 
 never took an unfair advantage in controversy, nor in anything 
 else. He was a profound Christian; had absolute confidence in 
 the power of the gospel to do all for man that can be done for him 
 in this world ; and had no patience with any superficial substitutes 
 for the gospel in reforms. His abounding charity made him very 
 tolerant, and his sympathies were quick and intense with those who 
 were wronged. No minister was so well known and so univer- 
 sally beloved, in and out of his denomination, in the city and in the 
 country round about. He was the home missionary bishop of the 
 West working arduously year after year at the head of the Home 
 Mission Committees of the Presbyteiy and Synod. It was the 
 judgment of the men of widest intelligence, both ministers and lay- 
 men, in the West and Northwest, that no man had such qualifica- 
 tions for the Secretaryship of our Board of Home Missions that 
 no one among us could render such distinguished service to the 
 church. This was the opinion of so conservative and large a man 
 as the late Hon. Samuel M. Moore, and he often expressed sur- 
 prise that Dr. Noyes was not called to that work. The Synod of 
 Illinois gave formal expression to it, and our ministers in Dakota, 
 Montana, Washington and Idaho were very desirous that his ser- 
 vices should be secured. Dr. Noyes was greatly comforted in his 
 wife's affliction by the beautiful fidelity to him of his daughter and 
 his six sons. He many times alluded to this in his conversations 
 with us, and said that they had never given him an hour of solici- 
 tude or distrust they were a perpetual joy to him. The 
 bereaved ones have the right to take consolation from the fact that 
 they were all to their father that children could be, while he lived. 
 The funeral was conducted in the church to which he has so long 
 ministered. Distinguished men in all departments of business went 
 to Evanston to pay their respects to his memory. The church was 
 banked with costly flowers, which yet were arranged with the 
 most exquisite taste. Drs. Patterson, Stryker and McPherson 
 
 49
 
 conducted the services with a modesty of eulogium which was 
 most impressive the very forbearance at one point producing an 
 effect that went far beyond what the highest reach of oratory could 
 have done. There was too much grief and tenderness in the 
 hearts of the speakers to permit any thing rhetorical. 
 
 LETTER FROM D*R. DINSMORE. 
 
 BLOOM INGTON, January 15, 1889. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND: I was greatly pained to read in this morn- 
 ing's paper a notice of the death of Dr. Noyes. I became 
 acquainted with him a number of years ago. I soon found that I 
 had for him a very sincere respect, which quickly grew into a 
 warm attachment. He was a very manly man, of strong person- 
 ality, such as could not fail to impress any one who came close to 
 him. Calm and self-contained, he had great influence among his 
 brethren. His death is a great loss, not only to his congregation 
 and the region about Chicago, but to the whole church, and espe- 
 cially to the Synod of Illinois. He had a statesman-like conception 
 of the needs of the work in this Synod, and how to meet them. 
 He had a profound sense of the urgent importance of pushing the 
 work vigorously, and at once, and was unresting in his efforts to- 
 get it done. He had stalwart convictions on many subjects, and 
 was perfectly fearless in maintaining them, yet he was so fair in 
 his methods and so suave in manner, that he made few, if any, 
 personal enemies. He could differ and warmly debate with you,, 
 without quarrelling. He had much practical sagacity and shrewd- 
 ness, without the slightest taint of low cunning, or tricKy manage- 
 ment. He was a strong man, large-minded and loyal-hearted, a 
 sincere and humble disciple of Jesus Christ, and a faithful servant 
 of his Master to the end. I loved and honored him much, and am 
 very, very sorry that we shall see his face no more. I wish to 
 bring this little tribute to his memory. Sincerely yours, 
 
 JOHN W. DINSMORE. 
 
 IV. THE EVANGELIST, NEW YORK, JANUARY 2^TH. EXTRACTS 
 FROM EDITORIAL. 
 
 The death of Dr. Noyes has been followed by unusual tokens 
 of sorrow, respect, and love, such as only a genuine life, devoted 
 to the highest calling known among men, could have called forth. 
 The ties between pastor and people were peculiarly strong, minis- 
 tering as he did to the intellect and the affections. He touched the 
 
 5
 
 entire community at many points. ...... 
 
 Did space suffice we might here properly add our own impres- 
 sions of Dr. Noyes' excellence as a writer, as displayed in these 
 columns on a great variety of topics. Few or none excelled him 
 in information, in clearness of statement, and that transparent sin- 
 cerity which holds the respect of even the unconvinced reader. 
 But, better than anything we can say of our friend and corre- 
 spondent are the several spontaneous tributes to him, which have 
 been sent us, and which we here append in the order in which 
 they come to hand. 
 
 tetieeg. 
 
 FROM KEV. J. A. WIGHT, D. D. 
 
 A telegram warned me of the death of this beloved brother, 
 who departed this life on Monday afternoon, at Evanston, 111., 
 where his funeral occurs to-day, Jan. iyth, attended by ministers of 
 all denominations, Rev. Dr. R. W. Patterson conducting the 
 services. 
 
 The readers of The Evangelist will surely miss " Clement," 
 whose letters have been frequent of late years in its columns. Dr. 
 Noyes and myself were neighbors years ago, commencing our 
 ministerial life very nearly together, though his years were much 
 the fewer. His age at death is but fifty -five. His first charge 
 was at Laporte, Ind., where he was pastor ten years. Thence he 
 removed to Evanston, 111., and recently completed twenty years of 
 pastoral work there. The church numbered about thirty-five 
 members at his beginning, but has grown to nearly 500 at present, 
 and has become two churches in place of one. 
 
 Few men are more widely and favorably known in the inte- 
 rior region than Dr. Noyes. He was, I believe, the oldest mem- 
 ber in continuous pastoral work, of the Presbytery of Chicago. 
 He moved among the strong men of the Church anywhere, was 
 entirely independent in his opinions, and had always the courage 
 of his convictions. He moved in no narrow sphere, and his intel- 
 ligence in all directions was ample and accurate. His mastery of 
 facts in any direction where his interest carried him, was conspicu- 
 ous. His position on the subject of temperance is well known to 
 readers of The Evangelist. His interest in music, in literature, 
 and in politics, and in all that the Church and the world together 
 regards as progress, was manifest. He was eminently a social 
 man, and was everywhere welcome. His friends were confined to 
 
 U. OF ILL LIB.
 
 no denomination. Evanston is mainly a Methodist town, being 
 the seat of their University, but he was a welcome friend with 
 them. Being but twelve miles from Chicago, he was weekly in 
 the city, and took interest in all that concerned the well-being of 
 the Church there. He had traveled somewhat widely in this coun- 
 try, and once visited Mexico, whence he wrote letters of value 
 which many must remember. His interest in missions, especially 
 home missions, was decided and unflagging. 
 
 As a preacher he excelled in felicitous statement of common 
 truths, and in bringing recondite truths into familiar and practical 
 aspects, and his audiences were always large and interested. He was 
 a graduate of Illinois College, and of Union Theological Seminary. 
 
 Dr. Noyes was a man of no isms. He hated shams, and what- 
 ever savored of hypocrisy. He was possessed of a decided moral 
 earnestness, though he made no show of it; nor was his exhibition 
 of it one of emotional emphasis and clatter, which often passes for 
 earnestness. 
 
 Thus pass away the correspondents of The Evangelist 
 Gillett, Smythe, Page, Moore, Noyes. The old stock of them 
 grows fewer. But the future is full of men. 
 
 Dr. Noyes married the daughter of Hon. David A. Smith, of 
 Jacksonville, 111. She is the mother of six sons and one daughter, 
 all living, the youngest fifteen years of age. 
 
 AMBROSE. 
 
 FROM PROF. E. D. MORRIS. 
 
 The telegraph has flashed across the continent the tidings of 
 the decease of Dr. Noyes, the accomplished and admirable 1 
 " Clement" of The Evangelist, which occurred at his home, in 
 Evanston, after a brief week of illness from pneumonia, on last 
 Monday. To thousands of hearts the story will carry grief, real 
 and profound. To his bereaved family and church, the event 
 brings a sorrow far deeper than all speech. Dr. Noyes was in his 
 fifty-sixth year, and in the prime of his powers and usefulness a 
 man of large ability to help and bless others, and of broad and 
 genial sympathies; widely conversant with affairs in both Church 
 and State, and ever ready to throw his influence into the scale on 
 the side of right, of truth, of liberty. He will be greatly missed 
 by his ministerial associates in Chicago and the Northwest, and by 
 none more than by the honored father of the Church, Rev. Dr. 
 Patterson, his neighbor and intimate friend, upon whom, as The 
 Tribune reports, the painful responsibility of the funeral services 
 
 52
 
 are to be devolved. From the happy circle of collaboratcurs in 
 '/'//< ErtiH^clist, Dr. Noyes will be no less missed; for his grace- 
 ful and vigorous pen was always wielded in these columns in a 
 manner as attractive as it was commanding. Proper tributes will 
 doubtless be paid him in many formal ways and in many places. 
 Let me hasten now, even while my eyes are full of tears, to 
 express the personal grief with which I have just read the story of 
 his death. It is but two short months since I spent a vivid and 
 happy hour with him, full of friendly talk on many themes, in his 
 own pleasant home at Evanston. How laughingly we parted ! 
 And how little either dreamed that he was grasping the hand of a 
 brother for the last time on earth ! 
 
 E. D. MORRIS. 
 LANE SEMINARY, Jan. 16. 
 
 FROM REV. DR. JAMES MCLEOD. 
 
 Dear Mr. Editor: Your brief reference to Dr. Noyes has 
 touched my heart. I have known him for eighteen years, and I 
 never knew a nobler, truer, manlier man. In one notable case I 
 stoutly opposed him, but he defended his cause with great ability, 
 and this, coupled with his uniform Christian courtesy, won for him 
 the respect of his brethren who differed with him. He was as true 
 to his convictions as a needle to the pole, and he hated duplicity. 
 
 He was a man of peace, but when the occasion demanded it he 
 could fight, and he could strike hard, but he took care never to 
 deal a foul blow. He would neither play false, nor falsely win. 
 His was a generous and magnanimous spirit. More than once I 
 have heard him speak in the highest terms of his chief opponent 
 in the controversy to which I have referred. He differed with 
 him, but he differed with him like a Christian gentleman, and I 
 am sure Prof. Patton respected him both for his integrity and his 
 ability. 
 
 There never was a more devoted husband and father; and the 
 church of which he was long the faithful pastor, has good reason 
 to mourn his loss. As pastor, counselor, and friend, he was 
 beloved by his flock, and that love was cordially reciprocated. But 
 he is gone. He has fallen asleep. He loved the Sayior, and 
 thank God for the good hope that he is now with the Savior whom 
 he loved. Absent from the body, he is at home with the Lord; 
 yes, at home, and that forever. 
 
 53
 
 " Forever with the Lord ; 
 
 Amen, so let it be, 
 Life from the dead is in that word, 
 'Tis immortality." 
 
 The New York Evangelist will seem lonely to me without a 
 letter now and then from " Clement," but we will meet again. 
 
 " Eternal power shall still divide 
 The eternal soul from all beside ; 
 And I shall know him when we meet." 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 JAMES McLEoo. 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 16, 1889. 
 
 FROM REV. JAMES H. TAYLOR, D. D. 
 
 I have just picked up and laid down the last Evangelist. Dr. 
 Noyes gone! Are those black lines indeed for him? Strange, 
 strange it seems to so think ! I glance at other paragraphs, but my 
 eyes wander back to those lines. They are indeed around the 
 name of my co-worker. As I look, they seem to be around my 
 heart, and drawing tighter. I have lost a friend. I am in the 
 same front line of battle. He has fallen at my side. And yet I 
 can hardly stop long enough to look fairly into his paled face. 
 The battle goes right on. Here are the pastoral calls commanding 
 me this afternoon, and the sermons for the Sabbath. He was as 
 busy as the busiest, yet he is at rest. His work is done. We all 
 thought it done once in the Seminary, as he was suddenly pros- 
 trated with pulmonary hemorrhage ; but he revived, and has 
 labored uninterruptedly for thirty years now. His last seed is 
 planted. Will he look back to see it sprout and fruit? He sowed 
 no tares of mere speculation. 
 
 He and I studied side by side in Union Theological Seminary, 
 New York; then worked together in Chicago Presbytery eight 
 years. Even in temper, sound in judgment, cheerful in spirit, 
 faithful to trust, patient in tribulation, steady in his faith, he was a 
 friend and a pastor, to be found right where you would have 
 expected to find him. He lived no tangential life. Christ was his 
 center of attraction, and he was content to revolve about Him. He 
 sent up no skyrockets to provoke a popular stare. But if not bril- 
 liant, neither was he tame or foolish. Refined to a rare degree in 
 literary taste, he was also thoughtful, wise, and strong. 
 
 The intimacy of our acquaintance prompts me to write more of 
 
 54
 
 dear brother Noyes. But I refrain, Anticipating that Dr. R. W. 
 Patterson, his loving friend, long-time co-Presbyter, and late 
 parishioner, will cover the whole ground. I will hasten to my 
 work lest my time be short. 
 
 JAMES H. TAYLOR. 
 ROME, NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 1889. 
 
 FROM PRESIDENT E. L. KURD. 
 
 Can it be that our beloved brother " Clement" is gone? The 
 telegram stirred most tender chords at the same time of affection 
 and sorrow, as it told me that George C. Noyes is gone. 
 
 Thirty-two years ago a class were about leaving Union Theo- 
 logical Seminary. Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, led us in 
 prayer. We went through the appointed closing exercises, and 
 bade good-bye to revered professors, including the now sainted 
 Drs. Ed. Robinson, T. H. Skinner, Henry B. Smith, and Roswell 
 D. Hitchcock. In the class were Jackson G. Coffing, soon after- 
 ward murdered on his mission field ; Dr. J. B. Bonar, now of Mar- 
 quette, Mich.; Dr. C. S. Armstrong, now of Jackson, Mich.; Dr. 
 Alexander McLean, now Secretary of the American Bible Society; 
 Hermon C. Riggs, and others, among whom was the writer. In 
 leaving the Seminary to go to our respective home and foreign 
 fields, we parted with one fellow-student, whom we left in the 
 middle class, with special warmth of affection. He had a great 
 heart, was as tender as a child, yet with as strong a spirit as a giant, 
 with a well-poised intellect, and one which even then marked him 
 for a leading mind. 
 
 When he graduated from College, a leading man who heard 
 his oration, said " There is a young man who will be a leading 
 pastor in some strong, conservative church." Even during our 
 short Seminary course we could see marks of the fulfilment of this, 
 while the main impression made upon us doubtless was that of his 
 most lovable and companionable qualities. 
 
 Keeping these constantly through his life, how his whole career 
 has justified the prediction! In his pastoral charge at Laporte, 
 Ind., and then in his pastorate of nearly a quarter of a century of 
 the large church at Evanston, 111., from which his death now takes 
 him, he has shown himself an able, successful, and leading pastor. 
 In the strength and clearness of intellect, and yet with the greatest 
 tenderness, poise, and magnanimity, he has met the great questions 
 which have arisen in the Church at large, while he has taken hold 
 with such strong hands of the great work of home missions in the 
 
 55
 
 large territory of Illinois, without diminishing aught from his 
 indefatigable work as pastor, and this often amid great sorrow, as 
 to show that he was truly " Great Heart"; and we can but say 
 a beloved brother and a leader has fallen in Israel. God grant 
 that his mantle has fallen upon another like him. 
 
 E. L. KURD. 
 BLACKBURN UNIVERSITY, Jan. 19, 1889. 
 
 V. THE ADVANCE, CHICAGO, JANUARY 24TH. 
 
 Dr. George C. Noyes, who has been pastor of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Evanston, Chicago, for the past twenty years, and who, 
 amid universal love and sorrow, was borne to his burial Thursday 
 of last week, was a man who will be missed. In many aspects of 
 his nature and character a grand man, and with remarkable capacity 
 for friendships, he had endeared himself exceedingly to a great 
 number of persons. Of stalwart frame, open countenance, kindly 
 and manly bearing, into whatever company he came he brought 
 good cheer, and when he left made one feel that his very pi'esence 
 there had been a power and a blessing. 
 
 The church, which, at his coming, had thirty-six members, now 
 has nearly five hundred, and is sorely bereaved. In the pulpit, the 
 prayer-meeting, the home, in social gatherings or in high circles of 
 art and literary culture, among ministers or laymen, at home or 
 abroad, he was always as one at home and in his element. 
 
 A farmer's son, born in New Hampshire, he came, while still 
 a boy, with his parents to Illinois. The same traits which distin- 
 guished him as a man began to shine in his boyhood. He w-as 
 educated in Illinois College and in Union Theological Seminary; 
 but his real education went on continuously to the last. He never 
 outgrew his great hunger for knowledge; it rather grew upon 
 him. And yet the depth and accuracy of his scholarship, and the 
 range of his information were always greater than he at any time 
 made manifest. His modesty was only equaled by his manliness. 
 
 A person more completely free from the power of mere preju- 
 dice one rarely sees. While he knew well his own mind and the 
 reasons for his own definite convictions, he was in spirit and manner 
 as courteous towards those who might happen to be at variance, as 
 toward those in agreement, with his views. Nor was this due to 
 any spirit of indifference; for he was apt to hold his opinions with 
 an intensive sense of their importance. Utterly loyal to his own 
 church and the faith and polity and best spirit of his own denomi- 
 nation, he was at the same time, and none the less, full of the 
 
 56
 
 heartiest sense of interest in all other Christians of whatever name. 
 There were no artificial limits to the scope of his Christian sym- 
 pathies. His indignation at meanness or wrong and fraud was as 
 vigorous and wholesome as was the exuberance of his appreciation 
 and rejoicing in things that are good. Whether he was most a 
 "radical" or a " conservative'' no one could tell, for he was, in the 
 best sense of these much abused terms, both. No one would have 
 rejoiced more heartily than he in the re-union of the Presbyterian 
 Church, North and South; but if such union were to be secured 
 by any implied endorsement of another schism in the house of 
 God on the line of race or color, he would have sooner plucked out 
 his right eye than give it his personal sanction. 
 
 His brethren in the Chicago Presbytery say that no other 
 member could be so missed as he. And it is certain that among 
 our Congregational ministers, all who had the good fortune to 
 know him, feel that it is a brother who has passed away. The 
 article which we print this week on another page of The Advance 
 indicates well the spirit of the man. 
 
 Such men as Dr. Noyes help this world of ours not less by 
 what they are than by what they do. The happy consequences, 
 near and remote, still goon; and so does the sweet helpfulness 
 that springs from the memory of what they were, continue. God's 
 " inheritance in the saints" grows from year to year; and so, in 
 fact, does ours. The great apostle charges his " own son," Titus, 
 to be a " lover of good men." Dr. Noyes was that; and he has 
 wonderfully helped others to be the same. 
 
 A sweeter spirit ne'er drew breath; 
 
 Strange grew the chill upon the air, 
 But as he murmured, " This is death;" 
 
 Lo! life itself did meet him there. 
 
 jfracte fron? f ri&ate dfcr<5, 
 
 WHICH SUGGEST ESTIMATES OF CHARACTER; GIVEN IN THE 
 ORDER OF THEIR RECEPTION. 
 
 Mrs. Z. M. Humphrey, Lake Forest, III. 
 
 " Nothing since the death of my husband has touched me just 
 as this touches me. Your father and he were more than contem- 
 poraries they were brothers -friends, in the highest, truest sense. 
 When many were endeavoring to say, for the church at large, in 
 what high regard my husband was held, it was your father who 
 
 57
 
 ' touched the quick' and satisfied me. It was to your father that I 
 turned for the encouraging, as well as the comforting, word, when 
 I came back to Chicago, Naomi-like,' saying, 'Call me Marah.' 
 Again and again I have gone to him for advice for the lift of a 
 strong, friendly hand over some hard spot, and never have I been 
 turned away with the feeling that he was annoyed by my frequent 
 coming." 
 
 Rev. E. F. Williams, Pastor of South Congregational Church, 
 Chicago. 
 
 " To meet him was always a joy, to counsel with him a privi- 
 lege, to be intimate with him a blessing. In no one in Chicago 
 did I have more confidence, and for no man did I entertain more 
 respect. He was an ideal man, as nearly faultless in his character 
 as any man whom I have ever known. For us he has gone all too 
 soon, but not a moment too soon for himself." 
 
 Mrs. E. W. Blatchford, Chicago. 
 
 "Just as our friends were gathering, his friends, most of 
 them, too, the news of his departure came to my husband, who 
 took me aside to share in his deep feeling, and to help him recover 
 his composure for the duties before us. How solemn was the 
 thought that one of our bidden guests had been summoned to the 
 Home above! You were very kind to give us that message from 
 his lips, and how like himself, how thoughtful of others, in the 
 midst of his weariness and exhaustion, to think of it even." 
 
 Mrs. Henry W. King, Chicago. 
 
 " Your dear father was beloved by every member of this house- 
 hold, and, particularly of late, he had been a wise and sweet com- 
 forter. . . . We looked eagerly for his visits, and shall miss 
 him more than you can believe. How mysterious are God's provi- 
 dences, and how hard it is to see that it was best to take such a 
 valuable life out of a world that needs the ministrations of such 
 goodness and such a lofty example!" 
 
 Rev. J. E. Chapin, Neenah, Wis. 
 
 " Your father was an important influence in nearly the whole 
 of my ministerial life. He was ever the sympathetic friend, the 
 animated companion, the wise counselor, the able champion. The 
 pleasant home of the early times in Indiana was a delightful resort. 
 
 58
 
 The companionship of later years was a strength and a joy. How 
 often has he, in his kindly suggestions, let a flood of light upon 
 my way! What cheer and helpfulness his presence always 
 brought into our household! . . . You children have, indeed, 
 a great loss, a far greater one than any friend. But you have, too, 
 a precious inheritance in your father's character, eminent useful- 
 ness, wise counsel, noble example. He was a marvel to me in the 
 bearing of affliction." 
 
 Mr. Julius Barnes, Laportc, Ind. 
 
 . . . " One of the best friends I ever had has just entered 
 into the joy of his Lord ; and as with me, so with hundreds of 
 people, his friendship was cherished with great pleasure; his life 
 was a benediction and a joy forever to a great multitude. We 
 cannot wish him back, nor can we see just ivhy he should be taken, 
 who was so helpful, so sympathizing, so devoted and loyal to his 
 Master. . . . I fancy he has merited the welcome, ' Well done, 
 good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord,' and with 
 what zest will he enter into this joy, who was so ready to rejoice 
 with them who rejoice, and to weep with them that weep here." 
 
 Rev. J. M. Linn, Pastor Presbyterian Church, Gencseo t III. 
 
 " His name and influence will fill a great place in the history of 
 the Church, in this State especially. He was never weary of, or 
 in, well doing. His mind took in the measure of every great prac- 
 tical question, and his ear was alert to every call of duty. He was 
 as aggressive as he was prudent. He was a leader who always 
 had a following. His great genial heart always controlled the 
 humor and wit of his tongue; and in the midst of the excitement 
 of great assemblies, his words always called up those cairn moments 
 of deliberation when the passions of men subside to the level of 
 serious thought." 
 
 Rev. E. D. Morris, D. D., Lane Seminary. 
 
 " Dr. Noyes commanded the respect and confidence of men by 
 reason of his own manifest manliness: a manliness evidently 
 framed after the one perfect Mode), and suffused very largely with 
 the gracious as well as the positive and faithful temper of his 
 Master. He will be long remembered, not only for what he was 
 as a Christian, but also for his many labors and his fresh and vig- 
 orous discussions of living questions. The Church he loved and 
 served so well, will not soon forget him." 
 
 59
 
 Mrs. SalUc Andrew Shafer, Frederick, Md. 
 
 ' I can remember nothing further back than his kind face and 
 voice, and it has always been a pleasure for me to know that I was 
 one of the first group of little children who were brought to him 
 to be made children of the Master he served. Although it has 
 been a long time since I heard him preach, some of the good seed 
 he sowed is still precious to me ; especially, as of late I have been 
 watching by the death-bed of a dear friend, one sermon of his has 
 come to me over and over: ' I would not have you ignorant con- 
 cerning them which sleep'. . . . The Church Militant has lost 
 a noble general, and the Church Triumphant has another saint." 
 
 Mrs. K. S. Mann, St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 " I esteemed your dear father as a personal friend, and in the 
 hours of mourning, his sympathizing words consoled our aching 
 hearts. So we mourn with you and your family in your great loss. 
 We should rejoice in that, thus soon, he has gained the crown of 
 rejoicing, which, for him, is so richly gemmed with the souls he 
 has won to Christ." 
 
 Mrs. y. H. Trowbridge, Chicago. 
 
 " I have a great longing to speak some word of comfort to you 
 to-night, and I do not know how I can do it more effectually than 
 by sending you a letter which I cherish among my choicest treas- 
 ures (see page 66). . . My heart gave assent to all the true and 
 tender words which were spoken of him to-day (at his funeral), 
 but I felt that the half was not told, nor could it be put into 
 words, nor will it be known, until 'the day shall declare it!' . . . 
 Those beautiful visions of which he spoke were the prophecy of 
 the glory of heaven. That look of wonder and rapture, which 
 came into his dying eyes, was the vision of things unseen and 
 eternal. Shall we not thank God for every remembrance of him?' 
 
 J. A. Wyeth, M. D., New Tork City. 
 
 " Too good a man to let go, and a big honor to have such a 
 father. Broad-brained and generous-hearted a Christian and not 
 narrow! That's saying a great deal, and Dr. Noyes was one of 
 the very few I could say that much for." 
 
 Rev. H. Kendall, D. D., Board of Home Missions, New Tork 
 
 City. 
 " He was a stalwart man, and never sick before that I know of, 
 
 60
 
 and not one that I should expect to see sicken and die, only that 
 we all of us are liable to drop off any day. Have known the Doctor 
 many years, and seen $*ood work that he has done. 1 have come 
 to know him and love him all the better from working with him 
 in the matter of Home Missions in the Presbytery of Chicago, and 
 in the whole Synod of Illinois. I had a facetious letter from him 
 with regard to my picture in the January number of The Church 
 at Home and Abroad. It was written the yth inst. (January, 1889), 
 and, as he said, when he was bolstered up in bed, and saying that 
 he had a severe and painful attack of pneumonia, but the disease 
 was then broken, and he expected to be out and at work again in 
 ten days. Yesterday completed the ten days, and it was the day 
 
 of his funeral That letter was probably the last one he 
 
 ever wrote. ... I had a feeling when I read the letter that he 
 was not in a condition to write." 
 
 Rev. H. D. Jenkins, D. D., Frceport, 111. 
 
 " Dr. Noyes and I were fellow guests during the Centennial 
 Assembly in Philadelphia, and our intercourse there only deepened 
 the affection and reverence in which I held him. He was my ideal 
 of a minister in this, that he was at once sound in the faith and 
 liberal in the spirit of his ministry. The beauty of his conversa- 
 tion was that he found so much to praise and so little to condemn 
 in his brethren. His gifts were those that I most admire in the 
 pulpit, accurate information, clear statement, evident sincerity and 
 tender sympathy. His loss to the Presbytery must be almost as 
 great as to the church at Evanston, for few gave so much of their 
 time to the discharge of those duties which, neglected, involve in 
 loss the common interests of the Church. I do not know where 
 the Presbytery or Synod will turn to find one equally faithful and 
 efficient in these important trusts." 
 
 Rev. W. A. Bart let t, Pasadena, Cal. 
 
 " The exceedingly pleasant recollections I have of him 
 in his thorough and hearty friendliness and loving sympathy. In 
 her weak condition, the news of your father's death was a special 
 blow to Mrs. Bartlett, who has for years regarded Dr. Noyes as 
 one of her warmest, truest friends. She . . . learned to love and 
 revere him both from what he was to her as a friend, and from 
 the help she derived from his teachings. . . . We remember, 
 with peculiar pleasure, his hearty good will on that occasion (of 
 their wedding). He was the most merry and boyish one after the 
 
 61
 
 ceremony, with all his grace and dignity. He came to the. train in 
 Evanston to see us off, and insisted on throwing rice after us, and 
 filling our bags with it. We often laugh about it, now. When 
 Mrs. Bartlett was taken ill, he wrote one of the most tender and 
 hopeful letters I have ever read a letter that is treasured, I assure 
 you. ... In talking about your father yesterday, we spoke 
 of the beauty of such a life, so full of fragrance. It hardly seems 
 as if he could have left a sweeter memory, had he lived longer. 
 In God's sight his work was done, his sheaf full of ripe grain- 
 The remembrance of what he was and did not only in that remark- 
 able pastorate in Evanston, but everywhere he was known, cannot 
 help bearing fruit for good that cannot be estimated." 
 
 Rev. D. S. Johnson, D. D., Pastor Second Presbyterian Church, 
 Springfield, III. 
 
 " I feel more keenly, as the days go on, the loss of one of the 
 
 best of friends, a brother to me for twenty years I 
 
 count it among the choicest treasures of my life to have known 
 him, and enjoyed his friendship so long." 
 
 Miss Harriet A. Farrand, oj The Advance, Chicago. 
 
 " I had known your brother for many years, and for many 
 years was proud and happy to be numbered among his friends. 
 His calls at The Advance office were like sunshine to us all. They 
 made the day brighter and life cheerier every time. . . . What 
 a man he was! So true, so noble, so brave, so strong, and yet so 
 tender and considerate! He was my ideal man. There was no 
 other like him. His unchanging friendship has been a blessing to 
 me all these years." 
 
 Rev. W. W. Adams, D. D., Fall River, Mass. 
 
 " We roomed together in the Seminary for two years, and I 
 well remember the attack of hemorrhage which we both feared 
 might be ' the beginning of the end,' with him, near the close of 
 his Senior year. His physician forbade his speaking, and he com- 
 municated with me by writing In six months he was 
 
 almost entirely well. . . . Your father was spared to see his 
 children ail well started in life, with Christian character and good 
 prospects. He had seen many results of his life-work, and knew 
 that he had not labored in vain. He rests blessedly, and his 
 works do follow him." 
 
 62
 
 Geo. L. Andrew, Jf. D., Laporte, Ind, 
 
 " The twenty years which have elapsed since your father's 
 removal from Laporte, have in no way lessened the high estima- 
 tion in which he was held during the ten years of his pastorate 
 here. We have watched his rise with a family pride, rejoiced in 
 all his successes, and mourned over his afflictions, and now, that 
 we can see his dear, kindly face no more, feel that much of the 
 
 light has gone out of our lives He had almost decided, 
 
 before coming here, to devote himself to teaching as a profession. 
 Various considerations had pointed toward such a conclusion, a 
 sense of the awful responsibility of the pastoral relation, a depreca- 
 tory view of his own abilities, and the fear that his lungs could not 
 stand the demands which must be made upon them," 
 
 Mr. E. S. Wells, Lake Forest, III. 
 
 " I learned long ago to love and honor your brother, and to 
 have great confidence in his wisdom and judgment. Upon any 
 questions in which we may have differed, there was none whose 
 conflicting opinion caused me to halt and consider more than his. 
 No man, who knew his ripe, mature, honest Christian judgment, 
 could afford to differ from him without many sober, second 
 thoughts." 
 
 Mrs. C. L. Ra-juson, Mandarin, Fla. 
 
 " He was to me and mine the dearest, most valued friend we 
 had on earth. . . . There are few left like him, so true to all, 
 so faithful in the discharge of every duty, so unostentatious, so 
 humane. To know him was to trust and love him. His great 
 heart . . bore the burdens of many." 
 
 Mrs. J. B. Lamkiu. 
 
 " I would that I could tell you the help, the comfort, the 
 strength, he was to me during the long years of invalidism. He 
 kne-w and understood my inner life. . . . He had a wonderful 
 nature, a wonderful power to enter into the heart and guide and 
 help by wise and tender words. ... In his dear letter of 
 Christmas day, he ... spoke fully of his life, his home, his 
 'ever beloved wife,' his grand children, his church, and of all so 
 fondly and tenderly." 
 
 Mrs. Annie Van Hoff, Springfield, III. 
 
 " Although so many years have passed since I have seen Dr. 
 
 63
 
 Noyes, you know with what loving and respectful admiration I 
 have always remembered him. I have never forgotten the happy 
 years spent under his ministry, nor the kindly interest he showed 
 in me personally, though I was merely a school girl. . . . Any 
 article from his pen has always possessed a peculiar interest for 
 me, and I have felt a sort of personal pride in the many tributes of 
 praise paid to his character." 
 
 Mrs. Lydia R. Clark, Northficld, Minn. 
 
 "Having been for six precious years under the pastoral care of 
 your dear lamented father, my husband, daughter and self endorse 
 all the tender and beautiful thoughts sorrowing hearts have 
 
 breathed about his bier I still, after nearly four years' 
 
 absence, miss the consolation of his Sabbath morning prayers, and 
 
 the stimulus of his brave, unfaltering courage Your 
 
 father was .... a veritable Great Heart, ever imparting to 
 his fellow pilgrims, of the feeble-mind and ready-to-halt character, 
 of his own cheerful sympathy, faith and confidence." 
 
 Mrs. A. L. O shorn, Laporte, Ind. 
 
 " In a letter from your father, written Dec. 25th. he says, 'Last 
 Sunday morning, in church, I baptized my second grandson, giving 
 him the name, George Noyes. He is a splendid little fellow. I 
 hope he will grow up to be a better and an abler minister than his 
 grandpa has been.' In the same letter he tells me of his constant 
 joy in the love and dutifulness of his children. What comforting 
 words for his beloved family! These, being among his last words, 
 
 must be an incentive to be like him I cannot find 
 
 words to tell you how much both my husband and myself loved 
 
 your dear father We shall never forget his words of 
 
 cheer and sympathy, and how bright and good he looked. 
 How you all must miss him, his home life, of such warm and lov- 
 ing affection, and so much enjoyment!" 
 
 From a Friend. 
 
 " Nothing since the loss of my precious child has affected me as 
 
 has the death of your father My coming back to life 
 
 dated from the day that I sat broken and crushed by the grave of 
 my dead hopes, when your father came to me, and with words of 
 courage, consolation and admonition, awakened in me a new life, 
 and I reconsecrated myself to the work of the blessed Master." 
 
 64
 
 fron? 9r. Moves' {M&afc Hclfcrs. 
 
 The first, addressed to a bereaved parishioner, and the second, 
 addressed to the widow of Rev. Dr. J. H. Trowbridge, evince his 
 notable wisdom, sympathy and sincerity as a " son of consolation." 
 The others were written to his daughter, and illustrate some of his 
 qualities as a father. 
 
 " MY DEAR MRS. ANGLE: 
 
 I thank you for your sorrowful letter It must 
 
 have done you good to write it. It certainly has done me good to 
 read it; for I have not only read it at my leisure, but I at once 
 found leisure to read it. ........ 
 
 I would not have you concerned to spend the communion 
 Sabbaths without tears. Let the tears flow! Are they not blessed 
 tears? Do they not witness to a peace greater than your sorrow, 
 great as I know that to be? And do they not purge the vision, 
 thus making the disclosure of spiritual glories more clear? Let 
 me quote for you Mrs. Browning's lines: 
 
 ' Thank God for grace, 
 Ye who weep only ! If, as some have done, 
 Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place, 
 And touch but tombs, look up ! Those tears will run 
 Soon in long rivers down the lifted face, 
 And leave the vision clear for stars and sun !' 
 
 ' I know it is selfish to dwell on my loss,' you say. Not 
 necessarily so, by any means. Dwelling on your loss may be I 
 am inclined to think it is sometimes, at least in your case one of 
 your most unselfish and hallowed exercises. 
 
 There may, of course, be bitter repining and complaining, and 
 if so, that is selfish and very sinful. But to dwell upon your loss, 
 keenly and very painfully to feel it, and yet, at the same time, to 
 know the love and peace of God, and to know them all the more 
 because of the very agony of sorrow through which you have 
 come into their enjoyment this is the farthest possible from 
 being selfish. I do think I know what that experience is. 
 
 Do not borrow trouble. Do not doubt that the anniversary 
 days, which are so near, .... will be more full of peace 
 than they will be of comfortless sorrow. 
 
 I thank you sincerely*for your assurance of sympathy. I do, 
 indeed, walk in a very sorrowful way. Not a day, nor a waking 
 hour, passes that I do not feel the pang. It is all a mystery to me 
 
 65
 
 why one so good and gentle and faithful, should be left in such 
 dreadful darkness. But when, as often happens, I faint and fall 
 under my great burden, and my heart breaks, then, blessed ever- 
 more be His name, ' He healeth the broken-hearted? He will 
 ever do so for you. Trust Him, and do not fear. As one who 
 knows what sorrow is, I remember you always in your sorrow, 
 and I am ever sincerely, 
 
 Your friend and pastor, 
 
 GEORGE C. NOYES. 
 SABBATH NIGHT, April i, 1883." 
 
 " EVANSTON, ILL., January n, 1887. 
 MY DEAR MRS. TROWBRIDGE: 
 
 It is all over! I am here in my study, feeling deeply that the 
 world is colder since that heart was stilled, which ever beat true 
 and warm for all his friends, of whom I know that I was one. I 
 cannot make him dead! He is not dead! He is alive forevermore. 
 
 'Jesus, thou Prince of life ! 
 Thy chosen cannot die ; 
 Like thee, they conquer in the strife, 
 To reign with Thee on high.' 
 
 I have kept up all day [the day of the funeral], only by the 
 hardest efforts at repression, and when I got home this evening 
 there came the blessed relief of tears to eyes unused to weeping, 
 * Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaint- 
 ance into darkness!' No, not into darkness, since for him the 
 darkness is now forever past. 
 
 The loss, which to me is great, since it removes from me one 
 of my dearest friends, is to you, as I can well understand, almost 
 insupportable. But calmer days will come. A brighter pathway 
 will open before you. A blessed necessity will be upon you of 
 caring and living for your children, in doing which you will have 
 an added joy in remembering often that they were and are also his 
 children. The double duty of keeping the little flock for him, and 
 of presenting them 'faultless before the presence of His glory with 
 exceeding joy,' will bring you, oftentimes, a double measure of 
 peace. 
 
 You will, I am sure, not allow yourself to brood over your 
 sorrow. In cheering the hearts and brightening the days of your 
 children, watching that their young lives be not blighted, but 
 rather purified, by their sorrow and in doing good to others as 
 
 66
 
 opportunity and your own strength may permit you will be daily 
 comforted, and because comforted, therefore a comforter. This is 
 the Divine law. May the dear Lord enable you ito say, with Mrs. 
 Browning : 
 
 ' For us whatever's undergone, 
 Thou knowest, wiliest what is done. 
 Grief may be joy misunderstood : 
 Only the Good discerns the good, 
 I trust Thee, while my days go on. 
 
 Whatever's lost, it first was won ! 
 
 We will not struggle, nor impugn. 
 
 Perhaps the cup was broken here, 
 
 That heaven's new wine might show more clear. 
 
 I praise Thee, while my days go on.' 
 
 And may He also enable you constantly to realize the pres- 
 ence and tender sympathy of Him who is * touched with the feel- 
 ing of all our infirmities !' of whose wonderful ministry to the 
 sorrowing that singularly gifted poet and artist, William Blake, 
 thus wrote: 
 
 'Oh ! He gives to us His joy 
 That our grief He may destroy ; 
 Till our grief is fled and gone, 
 He doth sit by us and moan.' 
 
 As I could not follow the habit of my life by calling and 
 sitting for awhile with the bereaved in the evening following the 
 dark day on which they bury their dead, I send you these poor 
 words of sympathy." 
 
 "EvANSTON, ILL., February 28, 1882. 
 
 Care and you are strangers, or, at any rate, just 
 
 now alienated from each other, and I will not attempt to make 
 you acquainted or reconciled with each other. . . . You have 
 been now, lacking a few hours, two weeks a bride, and while it 
 would be vain to expect, and therefore unwise to wish, that your 
 whole life may be as full of continuous joy, on whose strong tide 
 you shall be borne along to the end, as you have been borne on it 
 these two weeks, yet it is reasonable to hope that you will accept 
 all life's joys in such a spirit as that they shall not intoxicate, and 
 thus be a snare to you, and all life's sorrows in such a religious 
 trust that they shall become to you fountains of deeper joy. If 
 you do not become a much better woman than your father is a 
 man, caring less for self and more for others, considerate of their 
 
 67
 
 welfare, promoting by what you do and what you do not do their 
 ease and quietude of mind, cultivating simple tastes, avoiding fash- 
 ionable follies, ' loving thyself last' I shall have reason to feel 
 that my manifold shortcomings, in counsel and example, have 
 wrought more to the formation of your character than my sincere 
 purposes and constant efforts to be faithful as a father and true as 
 a man. I have an unspeakable longing that all my children 
 should, above all things else, seek the enduring riches of right 
 
 character I have been slower to write than I meant 
 
 to be, but I am overwhelmed with work writing sixty hours a 
 week, besides other work." 
 
 "NEW TACOMA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, 
 
 October 2, 1883. 
 
 Here I am safe and sound at the Ultima Thule 
 
 Twenty-five hundred miles from home! I never wandered half 
 so far away before. But still the heart, untravelled, abides at 
 home, and with those my ever beloved, though long suffering 
 wife, my children, very dear to me, and my friends whom I love. 
 But for serving them, and serving my day and generation, I should 
 not be here, for I love travel, not for its own sake, but for the 
 rich stores of information, the treasures of memory, which I 
 thereby gather." 
 
 "September 19, 1884. 
 
 My greatest earthly joy is the love of my children, and I wish 
 to live for them, for their own sake, for their ever dear mother's 
 
 sake and for the dear Lord's sake. No earthly 
 
 good is so earnestly desired by me as their best welfare." 
 
 " EVANSTON, ILL., April i, 1886. 
 
 We reached home [from a trip to Mexico], safe and well. 
 
 . . . . My welcome home from everybody whom I have 
 
 seen, both old and young, has been extremely cordial and hearty, 
 
 leaving me no room to doubt the confidence and love of my 
 
 people." 
 
 " EVANSTON, ILL., May 12, 1887. 
 MY BELOVED DAUGHTER: 
 
 Upon this, your birthday, I am moved to give you, as a birth- 
 day present words, but words which have my heart in them. 
 
 May your life be one of far less sorrow than mine has been. 
 And yet if I were to wish that your life might be one of as great 
 
 68
 
 joy as mine has been and no greater I should invoke in your 
 behalf a large measure of joy, for such measure has been mine. 
 Chief among my joys are those which I have had and have in my 
 children, and in you, my eldest born and only daughter. They 
 have been good children, comforting me much in the sorrow I 
 
 daily have My life has, indeed, been much clouded, 
 
 but then all the glory of it has come of the clouds, irradiated, as 
 
 these have always been, by Divine grace May your 
 
 children give you as much comfort in their growing up, and in 
 their maturity, as mine have given me. May they always be as 
 good to you as they are noiv dear to me. 
 
 With a great deal of love to you and to your husband, and 
 invoking upon you both and all, every rich blessing, both temporal 
 and spiritual, 
 
 I am, your devoted father, 
 
 GEORGE C. NOYES." 
 
 3 fecnfp gears' Pastorate. 
 
 Sermon by Rev. Geo. C. Noyes, D. D., preached in the First Presbyterian Church, of 
 Evanston, 111., November 18, iSSS. 
 
 " This twenty years have I been with thee." Genesis xxxi: j8. 
 These words which Jacob addressed to Laban, in reminding 
 him of the length of time that he had served him, 1 may fitly use 
 to-day with reference to this greatly beloved church. This Sab- 
 bath will complete the twentieth year that I have been with you. 
 And even as the seven years that Jacob served for Rachel "seemed 
 unto him but a few days for the love he had to her," so the twenty 
 years of my service I have spent here, I may truly say, have 
 seemed to me to pass very swiftly for the love I have had for the 
 people for whom I have labored. 
 
 Swifter than the flight of the most swiftly flying bird is the 
 lapse of time. Its flight is set forth in the Scriptures under various 
 comparisons. It is a vapor, a dream, a watch in the night, a flower 
 that no sooner blooms than it withers, a tale that is told. Here it 
 is as a weaver's shuttle, passing quickly to and fro; there it is a 
 web, speedily and perhaps suddenly finished from want of thread. 
 Time was represented by the ancients with wings, as not running, 
 but flying. Jacob speaks of his days as still ' few,' when he was 
 at the age of one hundred and thirty, so quickly have his years 
 passed away. Much more quickly, then, might a period of time 
 not one-sixth as long, seem to " glide swiftly by," like a cloud- 
 shadow on the sea, like a wind-wave on the field of bending grain, 
 
 69
 
 or like a meteor in the sky. So quickly have the twenty years of 
 my life here passed by, that it seems but a little while since, one 
 chilly, rainy Saturday afternoon, November 21, 1868, 1 arrived here 
 a stranger to begin my work all unknowing what these years 
 had in store for me of joy and of sorrow. When I came, it was 
 to a little church standing on this lot. The building was of wood, 
 and capable of seating about 250 persons. It had no lecture-room 
 or Sabbath-school room. The church, which had been organized 
 four months before by Dr. Patterson and the Rev. James T. 
 Matthews the former little thinking then, I am sure, that it 
 would afterwards become the welcome and happy home of himself 
 and his family numbering thirty-eight members. 
 
 Since the organization of the Congregational church in 1869, 
 there have been seven other churches organized in the village. 
 Twenty years ago there were five, and I believe only five, churches 
 in the whole town, and not the village alone, of Evanston. Now 
 there are twenty-one, of which eight are Methodist, so that this 
 denomination still maintains, though not in such degree as form- 
 erly, its ascendancy. 
 
 In 1870 we enlarged our own church edifice, adding a hundred 
 sittings to the main audience-room, and a pleasant lecture-room. 
 This building, with all its contents, was destroyed by fire in the 
 early Sabbath morning of May 2, 1875. The work of rebuilding 
 on the same site began almost immediately, so that we were able 
 to hold our first service in the lecture-room a Christmas service 
 on Sabbath, December 26th, of the same year. Upon July 23, 
 1876 the nation's centennial year this house was dedicated to 
 the worship of Almighty God. The cost of the edifice was about 
 $25,000, including all its appointments, but not including the lot. 
 In the interval between the destruction of the old, and our entering 
 the new, house of worship, the homeless flock though generously 
 offered hospitality by all our sister churches yet found it best 
 suited to their committee to meet in Lyon's Hall. 
 
 Those were days of trial, and days, too, of peril. At the time 
 the necessity was laid upon us to build, the whole community was 
 suffering and our people not less than others from severe and 
 protracted financial depression. The prevailing tone in business 
 circles was one of despondency. The devastating Chicago fire, by 
 which some of our people were financially ruined, and all of them 
 crippled, had occurred only three and a half years before, and none 
 of them had recovered from that fearful blow. But harmony in 
 counsel, unity in effort, brave hearts and self-sacrificing spirits, 
 
 70
 
 with the rich blessing of God crowning all, brought us safely 
 through. We were obliged, for a time, to carry the burden of a 
 debt, which, however, was entirely cancelled in 1883. 
 
 The measure of our spiritual prosperity, though never so great 
 as we might all well desire, has yet been gratifyingly large. The 
 instances are very few comparatively, in all this period, when we 
 have sat down to the Lord's table without having some new ones 
 to join us, either by letter, or on confession of their faith in Christ. 
 During these twenty years it has been my privilege to welcome to 
 the communion of this church 618 persons by letter and 345 on 
 confession, making a total of 963. If we had suffered no losses by 
 death and by removal in all these years, our membership would 
 now amount to 1,001. The average annual addition has been a little 
 more than forty-eight, while the average yearly addition on con- 
 fession has been seventeen and one-fourth. 
 
 The great joy has been mine to place the sacramental sign and 
 seal of the covenant upon the brows of 145 children. And here 
 let me say that there is no office which I perform as a minister 
 which impresses and moves me so profoundly as the service of the 
 baptism of children. The thought of the future of these little 
 children whether the now puny, undeveloped wills shall early 
 become fixed and strong in the service of God or in the choice of 
 evil takes powerful hold upon me, and binds me to a life of inter- 
 cession in their behalf which I can never forget nor neglect. 
 However parents who bring their children thus to God, may after- 
 wards fulfil or violate their sacred vows, for myself I must ever 
 afterwards pray that these dear lambs may always be kept safe by 
 the loving Shepherd, and never be permitted to wander off and 
 perish. Of these children whom I have baptized, it is within my 
 knowledge that seventeen of them have been taken by the good 
 Shepherd to his own bosom, leaving each father and mother miss- 
 ing and mourning one of these lambs, to say in comfort and in 
 hope, 
 
 " And the baby in his cradle in the churchyard 
 Sleeps sound till the bell brings me." 
 
 Twenty-seven have come into the church, seventy-eight are 
 still too young to come, leaving twenty-two, whose parents have 
 moved elsewhere with them, unaccounted for. With deep and 
 continuous interest and prayer, I follow them all, and trust the 
 dear Lord, "who beareth the lambs in his bosom," to suffer them 
 never to perish nor to wander into the far country. Their names 
 are often before me. 
 
 7'
 
 Not often, considering our numbers, have we been called to 
 mourn. My register shows the names of 203 persons, at whose 
 funerals I have been called to officiate or assist a little more than 
 ten annually. Of these many were not of this congregation. 
 Fifty-six of them were more than sixty years of age; thirty-two 
 were more than seventy years old; eleven were more than eighty, 
 one of these eleven being eighty-nine, and another eighty-nine and 
 a half. The united ages of these eleven octogenarians make 922 
 years. Forty-six were little children under six years of age, and 
 most of them under two years. 
 
 " Only a baby's grave ! 
 Some foot or two at the most, 
 Of star-daisied sod, yet methinks that God, 
 Knows what that little grave cost." 
 
 " Only a baby's grave ! 
 Yet often we come and sit 
 By the little stones, and thank God to own 
 We are nearer heaven for it!" 
 
 Death has thus come, with impartial visitation, to the very aged 
 and to the very young, and to all ages between, admonishing us 
 that no age is exempt from his imperious call, and that we should 
 always be ready, " having our loins girded about .... and 
 we ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." 
 
 During these years seventy-five couples have stood before me 
 to take upon themselves the sacred and inviolable vows of marri- 
 age. A group of 150 newly wedded people if they could all be 
 brought together as all alike newly wedded ought to be surely a 
 very happy company. 
 
 Passing now to speak of our contributions for benevolent 
 objects, and for the support of our own church work, I am sorry 
 that I have not the full record of what we have done. I can only 
 present the figures from 1883 when we first adopted our plan of 
 systematic giving to 1887 inclusive. During this period of five 
 years, our contributions to the boards and other benevolent objects 
 aggregate $23,113, or a yearly average of $4,622 ; and for our 
 church support an aggregate of $41,538, including the payment of 
 a debt of $7,000. All our contributions for the last five years, not 
 including the year now closing, amount to $64,651, or a yearly 
 average of $12,930. Before the adoption of the plan of system- 
 atic giving, our annual contributions were not nearly so large as 
 they have since been. Probably the aggregate of all our contribu- 
 tions for the fifteen years not included in the statement just made, 
 
 72
 
 would amount to $i 10,000, making, for the whole twenty years, a 
 grand total of $174,000, a yearly average of $8,200. How much, 
 outside of this sum, individual members of the congregation have 
 given to all good causes and objects, only he knows who ever 
 watches what is done, and all that is done, by every one in his or 
 her ministrations to the persons and causes which are needy and 
 worthy. 
 
 But after all, facts and figures, such as I have been giving, can 
 but poorly tell the story of a church's life and work. The best of 
 the story, as well as the largest part of it, must ever be that which 
 is written upon human hearts, and which no eye can read but 
 God's. What the services of this house have been, Sabbath by 
 Sabbath, and year by year, to many sinning and weary hearts, to 
 many troubled or darkened homes, and what the fellowship of 
 believers has here been to all who have had part in the work and 
 worship thereof, is known only to God. 
 
 There have been times of discouragement, of struggle, and of 
 sad spiritual dearth, during this score of years. But we have never 
 been permitted to fall out among ourselves. A delightful spirit of 
 peace and harmony has so prevailed among us that it has never 
 once been broken or interrupted. We began with thirty-eight 
 members, and we have now somewhere from 450 to 500, and have, 
 besides, a goodly, proper and prosperous child of our love in the 
 South Evanston Presbyterian Church, organized with fifty mem- 
 bers three years ago the 28th of last June, and numbering now 
 nearly, or quite, three times as many. In our Sabbath-school, 
 larger now than ever before, well officered and well equipped for 
 doing more fruitful work than at any time in the past ; in our 
 Bethel School, which offers an enlarging field for missionary work, 
 and where many of our young people are doing a faithful service 
 that is worthy of all praise ; in our Y. P. S. C. E., which is 
 stronger and more active than ever before ; in our Woman's 
 Missionary Society and Young Ladies' Society and Children's 
 Mission Band, all working by little and little to carry the blessed 
 gospel to those who have it not ; in our Ladies' Association, dili- 
 gent as Dorcas in providing garments for poor missionaries and 
 their families ; and in the kitchen garden where, yesterday fore- 
 noon, in the lecture-room below were gathered, as they will be 
 every Saturday, eighty-four poor girls, who are taught how to sew 
 and make their own garments, while, in addition, twenty-four of 
 this number are taught to do kitchen and housework in all these 
 organized, and in manifold private and unobserved, ways, we are 
 
 73
 
 trying to do the work which belongs to us as a church of Jesus 
 Christ. Though we should do a thousand-fold more than we are 
 doing, we should still be in debt to Him to whom we owe all that 
 is good in our hearts and lives and homes, and all that is bright 
 and best in our hopes of the future. 
 
 Four things we need in order to attain our greatest efficiency in 
 future service. These are: Patience, so that one worker shall never 
 be fretted at nor fretted by another worker; Courage, so that diffi- 
 culties, instead of daunting and discouraging us, we shall resolutely 
 overcome; Faith, so that we may remove the mountains of unbe- 
 lief which are in the way of our bringing men and women to the 
 Savior; and the baptism of the Spirit, to be sought and received in 
 copious effusion through earnest prayer and loving obedience. 
 
 In a review of this kind, many things press for utterance which 
 I must necessarily pass by without mention. 1 have been able to 
 present only the barest outline of the history of these twenty years, 
 in church and community. And there are many counsels which I 
 should be glad to speak of, but I must not tax your time to do so. 
 
 Of your unfailing kindness and love for me, I cannot, however, 
 forbear to make grateful acknowledgment. You have more than 
 fulfilled the injunction conveyed in the familiar couplet, 
 
 " Be to his faults a little blind; 
 Be to his virtues very kind." 
 
 Bearing continually a sorrow than which there is only one 
 greater that which comes in the form of dishonor and disgrace 
 your constant love, next to that of the Savior himself, has ever 
 been as that of a most precious cordial. In bearing your sorrows 
 I have learned to forget my own, and I have found how good it 
 is, not only " to rejoice with them that do rejoice," but most of all 
 " to weep with them that weep." 
 
 I have no greater joy than that of seeing you live blameless, 
 consistent, beautiful, fruitful Christian lives, nor any greater sor- 
 row than that of seeing any forsaking their first love. To have 
 Christ ever with you and in you by his Holy Spirit ; to walk up 
 and down in his name; to work and to rest as in his sight; to have 
 his light shining ever on the path by which you journey to the 
 heavenly city ; to have his grace working in you both to will and 
 to do of his good pleasure; to have your labor lightened, your care 
 relieved, your sorrows healed, your leisure sweetened by his love 
 this is life indeed, and the life which I earnestly covet for you all. 
 I have ever aimed to preach unto you a broad gospel as broad as 
 
 74
 
 the love of God in Christ Jesus, which is to all men. And yet 
 with not less earnestness have I endeavored to preach a narrow 
 gospel as narrow as the way which leadeth unto life. Would 
 God that those who have long heard, and who have hitherto turned 
 away unheeding, might to-day give heed " the more earnest 
 heed," without which hearing continues unprofitable and harden- 
 ing. Would it not be a loss unspeakable to this community, and 
 also to interests which are world-wide in their extent, and pro- 
 foundly important, if this church, with all its activities for good, 
 were suddenly blotted out ! Imperfect as it is, still is it not doing 
 a grand work in instructing the ignorant, comforting the sorrow- 
 ful, relieving the needy, saving the lost ! Will you take no part 
 actively in its work? Do you not need, will you not to-day seek, 
 the great salvation? 
 
 75