The Story of My Life; Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada Part 79

"Come one, come all! this rock shall fly, From its firm base, as soon as I."

Dr. Ryerson's controversies were for great principles, not for personal interests. Hence no rancour, no bitterness disturbed his relations with his antagonists. Even his old and st.u.r.dy foe, Bishop Strachan, after his controversy was over, became his personal friend....

Such benefactors of his kind and of his country, as Dr. Ryerson, deserve to be held in lasting and grateful remembrance. His imperishable monument, it is true, is the school system which he devised.

To future generations of Canadian youth the career of Dr. Ryerson shall be an inspiration and encouragement. With early educational advantages far inferior to those which he has brought within the reach of every boy and girl in the land, what a n.o.ble life he lived, what grand results he achieved! One grand secret of his success was his tireless industry. As a boy he learned to work--to work hard--the best lesson any boy can learn--and he worked to the end of his life. He could not spend an idle hour. The rule of his life was "no day without a line," without something attempted--something done.... Over a score of times he crossed the Atlantic on official duties. He often turned night into day for purposes of work and study; and on the night before making his famous three-hours' speech on University Administration before the Committee of the Legislature in 1860, he spent the whole night long in the study of the doc.u.ments and papers on the subject--to most men a poor preparation for such a task.

But again we remark his moral greatness was his n.o.blest trait--his earnest piety, his child-like simplicity, his Christ-like charity, his fidelity to duty, his unfaltering faith. Not his intellectual greatness, not his lofty statesmans.h.i.+p, not his n.o.ble achievements are his truest claim upon our love and veneration--but this--

"The _Christian_ is the highest style of man."

The Rev. Dr. Dewart, in the _Christian Guardian_, of February 22nd, 1882, says:--The simple announcement that Dr. Egerton Ryerson is dead, will awaken sorrow and regret in many Canadian homes.... For several years of his early life he faithfully bore all the hards.h.i.+ps and privations of the pioneer work of that day, being for a time missionary to the Indians of the Credit Mission--a circ.u.mstance to which he often referred with peculiar satisfaction. His keen and vigorous refutation of the misrepresentations of the Methodists and other bodies by the then dominant Church party, led by the late Bishop Strachan, revealed to his own, and other Churches, his rare gifts as a powerful controversial writer. From that time forward for many years, his pen was used with powerful effect, in defence of equal religious rights and privileges for all Churches.... Dr. Ryerson was longer and more prominently a.s.sociated with the interests of Methodism in Canada than any other minister of our Church. His life covers and embraces all but the earliest portion of the history of our Church in this country.

But it is his work as an educationist that has made him most widely known, and upon which his fame most securely rests.... The office of Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada was not a new one; but the vigorous personality of Dr. Ryerson lifted it into a prominence and importance in public estimation that had never belonged to it before. For thirty-two years he continued to discharge the duties of this high office with a broad intelligence and rare executive ability, which have for all time stamped his name and influence on the educational system of his country. He was not a mere administrator, acting under the orders of the Government of the day. He was the leader of a great educational reform.... Changes of Government made no change in his department. Such was the estimate which the Ontario Government took of his public services that on his resignation, in 1876, his full salary was continued till the time of his death, and after his death the Legislature made a grant of $10,000 to his widow. It is not too much to say that among the gifted men whom Canada delights to honour, not one has left a more permanent impression for good on the future of our country than Egerton Ryerson.

He was large-minded and liberal in his views on all subjects. Though strong in his attachment to Methodism he was no sectarian, but cherished the most liberal and kindly feeling toward all sincere Christians. He was an able controvertialist, and in the heat of conflict dealt heavy blows at his opponents; but when the battle was over he retained no petty spite toward his late antagonists. His controversial pamphlets are numerous, and mostly relate to current events with which he was in some way a.s.sociated. Though a man of war, from his youth engaging in many conflicts, religious and political, Dr. Ryerson's last years were eminently tranquil. He had outlived the bitterness of former times, and in a sincere and honoured old age possessed in a high degree the respect and good feeling of men of all parties. During these later years he produced his most important contributions to literature, viz., his "Loyalists of America," and "Chapters on the History of Canadian Methodism." His Educational Reports are also valuable treasuries of facts relating to public education.

During all the years of his public life he co-operated heartily with every enterprise of his Church, and was always ready to preach at the shortest notice for any of his brethren who required his help. In his later years there was an increasing spirituality and unction observable in his ministrations.

Though not exempt from the faults and failings of humanity--yet his wide range of information--his broad and statesmanlike views--his intense devotion to a great work--his patriotic interest in all public questions--his wonderful personal energy and force of character--and his long and intimate connection with Canadian Methodism--warrant us in saying:

"He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again."

Rev. Dr. Douglas, in a letter to the _Guardian_, says: A great man and a prince has fallen in our Israel! The last of the ill.u.s.trious three who bore the name of Ryerson has gone to enrich the heavens. Henceforth that honoured name will be enshrined in the history of our land.

Egerton Ryerson's patriotic service to the State, in resisting the introduction of feudal distinctions and ecclesiastical monopolies will ensure to him enduring recognition, as one of Canada's n.o.blest benefactors. No statues of marble or of bronze need be raised to perpetuate his memory. The academies and schools which his organizing genius brought into existence, lifting up successive generations to the dignity which education ever confers, will make that name immortal. For nearly six decades he laid his great powers of intellect and heart on the altar of service for Canadian Methodism--winning for her ministry equality before the law, and for her people a status which allowed no coign of vantage to a favoured cla.s.s--vindicating her polity and proclaiming her distinctive truth....

Now, when the sepulchre has received him, will not a grateful Church arise and give a permanence to his name more lasting than marble, by the founding of a Ryerson Chair of Philosophy with whatever is required to augment the usefulness of the inst.i.tution which his great manhood loved, and for which he toiled with a life-lasting endeavour? Would that every minister, who bows his head in sorrow for a fallen chieftain, might in every circuit gather the piety, intelligence, and financial strength of the Church together, and in this supreme hour of the Church's grief, decree that before the spring-time shall come with its emerald robe enamelled with flowers, adorning the resting-place of our honoured dead, the name of Egerton Ryerson will be inwrought with our University, as an abiding inspiration to the student-life that shall throng her halls along the coming years.

The Methodist Ministers of Toronto, in a sketch of Dr. Ryerson's life and character, written by Rev. W. S. Blackstock, say: To most of us, from our early childhood, the name of Egerton Ryerson has been a household word, and we learned to esteem and love him even before we were capable of estimating his character, or the greatness of the service which he was rendering to his own and coming generations; and the knowledge of him which we have been permitted to acquire in our riper years, has only tended to deepen the impressions of him which we received in early days.

As the fearless and powerful champion of civil and religious liberty, and of the equal rights of all cla.s.ses of his countrymen, he is a.s.sociated in our memory with the patriotic and Christian struggles of a past generation, which have resulted in securing to our beloved land as large a measure of liberty as is enjoyed by any country under the sun.

In respect to the incomparable system of Public Instruction, to the perfecting of which he devoted so many years of his active and laborious life, and with which his name must ever be a.s.sociated, we feel that he has laboured and we have entered into his labours. We can hardly conceive how either our country or our Church could have been what they are to-day, but for his fidelity and the work which he accomplished.

The lively interest which he took in every patriotic, Christian, and philanthropic movement, especially those which tended to increase the influence and usefulness of his own Church--the zeal with which he laboured for them, and the large-hearted, generous liberality with which he contributed of his means for their support--awaken our grat.i.tude and thankfulness, and will be a perpetual inspiration in our efforts to promote those objects which lay so near his heart, and to further the interests of that cause which he served so well.

But standing, as we are to day, with bowed heads and stricken hearts, beside the grave which has just closed upon the mortal remains of our venerable departed brother, though we would not forget what he had done for us, we prefer to think of what, by the grace of G.o.d, he was, than of what by G.o.d's good Providence he was permitted to accomplish. We delight to cherish the memory of his penitent and childlike faith in Christ--the sinner's only Saviour and hope--and of those graces of the Holy Spirit which gave so much beauty and sweetness to his character, and which were more and more conspicuous in his declining years.

Though Dr. Ryerson was a man of positive views and devotedly attached to his own Church, he was distinguished for his comprehensive charity, and his genuine appreciation of great and good men from whom he differed widely in opinion. His goodness no less than his greatness will serve to keep his memory fresh among us, and the recollections of his virtue is to us a powerful incentive to a fuller consecration to the service of G.o.d.

The General Conference at its Session of 1882, pa.s.sed the following resolution:--

Whereas it has pleased Almighty G.o.d, in His divine wisdom, to call from a life of faithful service in the Church of Christ on earth to his everlasting reward in heaven our reverend and honoured father in the Gospel, the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, D.D., LL.D., the first President of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Canada, this General Conference desires to place upon record its deep feelings of grat.i.tude to G.o.d for His gift to the Methodist Church and to the people of this land for so many years of a man so richly endowed with native gifts and so largely adorned with the Christian graces and its profound sense of the great loss the Church and country have sustained in his death. As the devoted Christian missionary and pastor; as the faithful defender of the rights and liberties of the people of this land against ecclesiastical a.s.sumptions and civil disabilities; as the Editor for many years of the _Christian Guardian_, the official organ of our Church and the first religious journal in Canada; as the President of the University of Victoria College, the oldest inst.i.tution of higher learning of Canadian Methodism; as the trusted representative of his Church in the religious councils of Methodism in the old world and the new; as the Superintendent for over thirty years of the education of his native Province--a system which he almost created, and which he developed to a state of proficiency unsurpa.s.sed by that of any country in the world; as the wise counsellor in the union movement which led to the organization of the Methodist Church of Canada; and as the President-Administrator of its highest office during the first quadrennium of its history, Dr. Ryerson has an imperishable claim upon the love and grat.i.tude especially of his own church, and also of the entire community. We magnify the grace of G.o.d as manifested in him; we revere his memory as that of a true patriot and devoted Christian; we rejoice in his labours for the glory of G.o.d and the welfare of man; and we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family, and pray that the consolations of G.o.d may more and more abound in their souls to the end.

FOOTNOTES:

[150] This interment took place in May. The ceremony was a private one, attended only by immediate relatives and intimate personal friends.

Among the former were the venerable doctor's aged eldest brother, Rev.

George Ryerson (91 years old) and Mrs. George Ryerson; the bereaved widow, Mrs. Ryerson, Mr. Charles E. Ryerson, his two sons, and Mrs.

George Duggan. Among the latter were the Rev. Dr. Potts, Mrs. Potts, Dr.

Hodgins, and Mr. H. M. Wilkinson (son of Rev. H. Wilkinson), of the Education Department, and two or three others. After lowering the coffin into the grave, the Rev. Dr. Potts read a portion of the burial service, committing the body to the earth in hope of a joyful resurrection at the last day.

THE END.