IN MEMORIAM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3099, 6 August 1913, Page 69

IN MEMORIAM.

GRAVEL, D.L.F. (Alexander Robert Urquhart.)

Contributed by Boy.

On Thursday morning, July 24, at the hospital, Invercargill, our beloved comrade Gravel passed peacefully away, after n brief illness. All D.L.F. will join me in tendering to his bereaved relatives (he leaves two sisters to mourn their loss) our full and heartfelt sympathy. From his earliest childhood Gravel had been “acquainted with grief’’; life ever presented to him a hard and thorny road; and he must have reached the end of his weary journey with a sigh of relief. Years ago he penned in my autograph book lines which 1 feel he sings now; — Oh, the peace mv Saviour gives; Peace 1 never knew "before.

This life of cheerful courage amid trial and uncommon sorrow was ever sucii an inspiration—ah ! and reproach ng well —to us who knew him best, and who were ever so much more blessed, yet so unworthy, that I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of telling its story in brief outline for the sake of the many sad and suffering ones to whom its silent message of noble courage and sympathy will speak to bless. Over 30 years ago (1 know not the exact date, and have no immediate means of ascertaining it), Gravel was born on the sunny slopes that overlook the sparkling waters of i ako Hayes. His rose-bowerod home, a pleasant little cottage set in a grove of weeping willows, looking down on the sun-lit lake by day and tracing the moon’s silvery path by night, was as sweet a home us ever Labe could wish. But, alas! dear Gravel might never tread its pleasant paths nor play along the shell-strewn shore of the ever-inviting lake, for, at a very early date, misfortune met him and laid "a heavy hand upon his tender body so that his spirit, which could not be crushed, might not use it except as a temporary place wherein to dwell? while yet the Master through him a message of patience and cheer to life's many weary ones. He was paralysed. He spent over a quarter of a century in his prison chair with scarce a word of complaint. Nay, as I remember him then, his smile was ever the bravest and the brightest of the whole day: his constant word was. “I have so much to bo thankful for.’’ Nor was he ever really idle. When his eyes tired of reading, his poor, cramped hand took up the pen, and with infinite patience he set' himself to pen a cheery message to one or other of his many distant, friends. Again, 1 would drop in to find him quietly working with needle and coloured thread, tracing the most delicate design for .a pincushion, or table centre, or handkerchief satchel. Often I have marvelled as much at his ingenuity as at his unspeakable patience: with him difficulties wore created but. to be surmounted. Now a great shadow fell on his already troubled life when death claimed the mother who had long tended him with the tcndcrest solicitude, yet he still smiled bravely, and entered with even greater sympathy into Ids many little tasks of love. About this time ho became an active member of our band and formed many .pleasant acquaintanceships that were to be a blessing to him to the end.

Ere long bis father, too, died, and hie pleasant home was broken up. What; the breaking from its many ties and associations meant to him we can only guess, as he sadly reflected that the happy days in that quiet, sunny refuge had passed away for ever. But he faced the uncertain futnro with all the fortitude and cheerfulness ho could command, still proclaiming with earnest sincerity, “Blessed he the Lord, Who daily loadeth us with benefits.” The last two years of his earthly pilgrimage were spent at Lome Farm, Invercargill; and • these last days were much brightened for h ; m bv the kindly administrations of his D.L.F. friends, who now mourn their loss. Yet we reliaso that our loss is his eternal gain. Wo thank God for his courageous example, and pray that a like spirit nwv ho ours. “The I-iord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”