I must speak of his faithfulness as a worker. It has been referred to in better language than I can give, but Brother Powell was indefatigable; he knew no rest; when he toiled until the string snapped he would go down into a sickness that lasted usually just six days; then he would rise as quickly. This one instance will show how he sacrificed himself. On one Sabbath he preached two or three times; then on Monday he sank down in a six days' illness, but on the next Sabbath morning he had agreed to preach in Mr. Beecher's church in Brooklyn, and taking himself out of his bed, he did preach in that church twice, and then sank down into another six days' illness. It was in this way that the man burned out his life in the service. I often urged him to rest, I urged his dear wife to persuade him to rest, but I always had from him the assurance, "It is more wearisome to spend the day in trying to rest than to work." He always worked at a white heat or he was sick.
Brother Powell was a consecrated man, and with this I shall close. His eloquence was appreciated. He had calls to go elsewhere, to greater fields with larger salary, to apparently greater popularity, but these he always and unhesitatingly declined. He stayed with us, and I believe that it was Brother Powell's sympathy with the Lord Jesus Christ in those poor, degraded races that led him to say, I will give my life to them and let the honors and emoluments of the world go. Such was the man we loved and honored in our hearts.
EULOGY BY PRESIDENT TAYLOR.
I knew Brother Powell, of whom the friends have spoken so beautifully, touching our hearts so deeply.
I was most impressed by two things in Brother Powell—his radiant joyousness and his delightful humor, and the ease with which he could make the transition from the telling of a funny story to the uttering of a devout prayer, thus leading others with him up to the very steps of the throne of grace.
A while ago, in Scotland, there was an old Covenanter, William Guthrie by name, who had a disposition very much like Brother Powell's, full of joyousness and fun—let us call things by their right names—and on one occasion a large number of brethren gathered together in his manse, among whom was James Durham, better known as the author of a book on Revelation, who was a popular minister in Glasgow at the time. He was a very serious man, like the dog that John Brown tells about, with a life so full of seriousness that there wasn't anything of the joyous in his disposition, but on that day Guthrie was bubbling over with fun, and while they were worshiping he was called upon by a brother to pray, and he went just straight up to the Hearer of prayer, and they were all moved to tears by his devotion; and Durham said after they arose from their knees: "William, I can't understand. If I had been as merry as you were a little while ago, I could not have prayed for four and twenty hours;" and Guthrie replied: "If I hadn't laughed so much I couldn't pray."
My model is Paul. Hear what he says: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be know unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made know unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
You see how near the joy follows the serious.
The Lord knew that the Christian lives in the ray of sunshine of Jesus, and we do dishonor to our Master, because we do not let our joyousness speak for him. And I bless God that wherever James Powell went he went with joy, the man he was. He did not keep it within. The joy of his Lord was with him even on the day when men shall depart because he is with them.
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