nineteen hundred and forty-six - Amazon Web Services

PROCEEDINGS 147
gentle with the firm, the self-respecting with the humble, and the prudent with
the progressive.
Having the comrade spirit, he loved his fellowmen in general; but in particular
he was devoted to his friends, and delighted in their society. Towards
them he was warm in his attachments, gracous in his attitudes, generous in his
appraisals, and ready with his service. He freely gave and so freely received
that neither time nor distance withered or staled his friendships, which, not
being of the opportunist type, remained unimpaired when all local or incidental
reasons for them were dissolved. In Bristol, where he lived eleven years, his
memory is fragrant in many hearts today.
Modesty, or humility,
that low, sweet root
From which all heavenly virtues shoot,
clothed him as a garment. He did not think more highly of himself than he
ought to think. He could say with the Psalmist, "Lord, my heart is not haughty,
nor mine eyes lofty." "He blew no trumpet in the market-place," but left it
to others to sound what praises they thought he deserved. He was magnanimous
in spirit. He did not return evil for evil. When others threw brickbats,
he did not retaliate in kind. He overcame evil with good by heaping coals of
fire upon his enemy's head.
He was a model in his Christian life and service. If I were required to
say who, among those I have known, came nearest to my ideal of a Christian
layman, I would pass the palm to J. T. Henderson. He certified his faith by
his works. He was not one of those who seem to think that because of official
position they are absolved from the duties of ordinary church life, but so walked
as to make himself an example. He loved the habitation of God's house. In
his heart were the highways of Zion, and his feet were in the paths that led
where God's honor dwelleth. He was glad to go unto the house of God, and
share the fellowship of the saints in worship.
Oh, sweeter than the marriage-feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company.
To walk together to the kirk,
And all together to pray,
While each to the great Father bends,
Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens.
His attitude towards the pastor was exemplary to the last degree. He knew
the pastor's place and rights in the economy of church life, and respected him
as God's and the church's chosen leader. His policy was to do God's prophets
not harm; but to count them worthy of double honor, and to esteem them highly
in love for their work's sake. No pastor ever had a truer friend or a better
member than J. T. Henderson was. He was ready for every practical service
which his church membership demanded:
Loathing pretense, he did with cheerful will
What others talked of while their hands were still.
He honored the Lord liberally with the first fruits of his increase. He
adopted what he believed to be the Scriptural standard of giving, and loyally
lived out his conviction. He brought his tithe into the storehouse of God. Was
he present? His envelope went into the plate. Was he absent? He mailed his
contribution in time for it to arrive at the church on Sunday; and what he
practiced he unceasingly urged upon others wherever his voice was raised.
In every notable career one feature stands out above all others, as a mountain
pine above the.shrubs of the foothills, and the interest for which J. T.
Henderson is best known and will be longest remembered in his work among
the laymen. He saw in our Baptist men a potentiality that might become a
reality, resources that might become realizations, possibilities that might become
actualities, passive forces which, if mobilized, would become active powers in
the tasks of the kingdom; and he saw in the Laymen's Missionary Movement,