In Memoriam: James Lyons Chesnut, D.D.

JAMES LYONS CHESNUT, D. D. Foreword. When a great man is called away from us we are stunned by a sense of our loss, and in the passing of the subject of this memorial booklet, we have sustained an immeasurable loss. True, and yet is it loss after all? We miss him; we need his fine spirit, his serv– ices, his wisdom, his love ; but is it not true that his absence, the pain of parting, has fixed our thought, attention, affection, more defi– nitely on him? Are we not growing more and more into his stature as he is more the subject of our loving thought? His body was laid tenderly to rest in yonder cemetery, but if his spirit buds forth afresh in our hearts, if his life's aims are taken up with holy purpose by those of us who were blessed by his min– istration, are we not gaining rather than losing him? "To live in hearts we leave behind us is not to die." We cannot hope to do justice to Dr. Ches– nut in these few pages. It would require rare genius to make the printed page present him. Words are weak things with which to present so fine a spirit as his; but we would not be content unless we brought our heart's tribute and laid it upon memory's casket. His own life work is his memorial ; this booklet is an effort on our part to give attention, so that we, too, may grow, and like him, be a blessing. REV. L.A. BENSON.