The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1932. THE LATE DR WADDELL

Evening Star, Issue 21080, 18 April 1932, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1932. THE LATE DR WADDELL

The least thing, however typical, in ,the life of the late Dr Waddell was that as a younger man, when great courage was required for the task, he opened the eyes of this country to the evils of sweating, causing its factory legislation to be passed. By his mere being, and being himself, he dispersed a light which made life brighter, fuller, and more worth living for those who came within i his influence, and as preacher, writer, and friend he influenced many. It was an effort of will, not seldom, that made him a tonic to others, because he could have his own moods of dejection. He knew the Irishman’s quick transitions between joy and sorrow. The sun did nbt always shine on him, and the affliction was a heavy one which he bore in his later years. To revive and succour was his work, however, in which he was aided by his gifts alike of intellect and character, his faith, his brave-hearted cheerfulness ; all the graces that were his. It might be said of him, as of Dr Arnold, If, in the paths of the world, Stones might have wounded thy feet, Toil or dejection have tried Thy spirit, of that we saw Nothing—to us thou wast still Cheerful, and helpful, and firm! Therefore to thee it was given Many to save with thy self, And, at the end of the day, Oh, faithful shepherd 1 to come, Bringing thy sheep in thy hand. The rareness of his character was in the completeness and the just proportions of it. His refinement was the complement of his strength, which could be inspiring in the pulpit, mien and gesture superbly seconding the vigour of the appeal or argument.. All his reading was a part of him, which he could draw on at any moment for felicitous illustration, and his reading was wide. Especially was he steeped in and his mind enriched by the English poets; one wonders whether anyone will be nourished by the new poets in the same degree. With an almost extreme modesty and an inexhaustible charity ho had keen powers for the judgment of men and things, though, where his affections were involved, ho could bo misled; his geese then too easily became swans. His humour was part of his essence and unfailing, and, as one always at home there, he could even be

humorous, without, any tincture of irreverence, in dealing with sacred things. The Doorkeepers of Zion, They do not always stand Ih helmet and whole armour, With halberds in their hand; But, being sure of Zion, And all her mysteries, They rest awhile in Zion, Sit down and smile in Zion; Ay, even jest in Zion; In Zion, at their ease. For twenty-seven years he contributed a weekly column to this paper more prized by thousands of readers here and throughout the world than any other column it has contained. He was a prince of essayists, pregnant, discursive, allusive, for whom everything ho saw and everything he read, assisted by his humour, helped to point a moral or adorn a tale. Into those writings, so far as words could convey, went the whole of his personality? his death, which makes a loss for this community, must, therefore, be felt specially by us. But we hope that that loss may be lessened. Of a frail constitution, even in his younger years, the days when the grasshopper would be a burden were never, for all his courage, far distant from his thoughts. Against those days and the mischances of health he had prepared a stock of reserve articles, which will enable him still to speak in our columns, at least for some months longer. But his presence will be missed, and the worth of any new age, its systems of education and its improvement or declension as compared with the past, will be tested to no small extent by its capacity for producing men like Rutherford Waddell.