Part 4 (2/2)
In this whimsical way Frank Nelson spoke of himself one day in conversation with a friend on some point of ritual It is abundantly evident that he was in no way a bigoted churchman, and with all his fine, broad sympathies he stood forth as a Protestant He represented that aspect of the Catholic-Protestant structure of the Episcopal Church, he conducted the services in Christ Church fro reflected it, and the absence of the clerical collar emphasized it There is a measure of truth in his droll description of himself
In the first decades of this century Mr Nelson was one of a group of broad-church to be felt
Theologically he was a liberal with reservations, and stood in what is now called ”Central Anglicanism” in the sense of ”essential orthodoxy, continuity, and breadth and liberality within limits, checked by the principle of discipline, and an outlook, above all, theocentric; fidelity to Christianity as the religion of the Incarnation, and of the Church viewed as Christ's mystical body”[13]
The truth is that he was different from certain brands of so-called liberals Like many of them he was an individualist but not, as in the popular conception of that word, an eccentric His individualis personality, whole and complete rather than partial He had an immense scorn of the petty narrow-minded points of view He said, ”There is no one so narrow as the broad-minded liberal! Look out! Be sure that you do not develop a closed mind toward the other man's point of view!” Frank Nelson stood in the strealicanis of reverence for the Altar and the appointments for the celebration of the Holy Coht that service very close to the most sensitive of worshi+pers On the first Sunday of each ht and at eleven AM, and he er members of the parish into the Church Usually Christ Church was crowded for the first as well as the later service, and it was iation that caht o'clock from all parts of the city and from distant suburbs There is comical service, but that feeling-tone is dependent on theit Mr Nelson was a medium for the communication of the very spirit of Christ in that service The ancient, faiven a fresh beauty by his manner and his natural, virile voice His methods reflected certain qualities of his character
It was his custoh the Sanctus fro to the center for the remainder, and at the moment of the consecration of the Bread and Wine to turn halfway around so that the congregation could see the blessing of the Elements
It was in part an observance of the Apostolic custo the congregation, and one which he had learned froe's under Dr Rainsford
In a tiement, Frank Nelson and his parish upheld the fair reputation of the Church Bishop Hobson says, ”Many a e because of his ministry”
Because he was unafraid to experiment and venture on fresh approaches to old proble and criticisnity of his office, and all orked on the staff of Christ Church were aware that he was the rector, a czar if you will, but one with a gloved hand He ran the parish, but not for his own sake nor froht in power As a matter of fact, he distrusted power, particularly ielded by small men in the office of Bishop, and because of that distrust, and because of the deovernment of the Episcopal Church, he held the leadershi+p of rectors to be equal in value to that of the Episcopate
In the ement of the parish, he was ”a man set under authority” He expected hard work of those to whoh he occasionally interfered, he invariably backed up his leaders even when they were in the wrong He did not hesitate to criticize: a retiring choir-master said to his successor, ”He is a tyrant, and you won't last three hteen years, he is still there! There were those who sometimes found Mr Nelson abrupt, but as they came to understand his tes should be run decently and in order, they were the very ones ould have stood on their heads for him because his nature inspired endless devotion It is easy to lose sight of hue institution, but he was the kind of person as quick to apologize for any rudeness, and if the instance had to do with sorin and say, ”But I was right!”--and he was A unique thing about his rectorshi+p was his willingness to take the bla He felt he was at fault for not having given his subordinates the right training The conception he held of his office of rector iive each year a co with an audited financial accounting of all monies that he had handled personally
In the services of Christ Church, Frank Nelson's individuality found complete expression The Prayer Book offices were marked by an absence of ceremonial, but filled with a profound si from other parishes and accustomed to considerable ritual and better architecture (Christ Church has been likened to a Moorish mosque!) learned that such externals occupy in reality a subordinate position in the Christian life, as the rector'slifted them to the plane of spirit-filled worshi+p He was concerned not with the creation of an ats about God but with the living e of the Gospel One ca because there the spirit was fed, the htened, and the will impelled to action
People caht sense of the glory of religious faith; they felt how precious is the least of the human vessels into which God pours His Spirit The man in hirace of the Lord Jesus that his hearers were stirred to action, which result ste can onlyGod's work”[14] Frank Nelson did God's work He stirred people to do God's work The atenerated by the preacher is due to his whole personality rather than to his words; hence the i is never conveyed through the printed page Its influence, however, continues in their lives, and measured by this standard Frank Nelson was a powerful and effective preacher The gift of swift, netic, eloquent speech was his Words with the quality and vigor of intuitive i was never easy for him, and as it was dominated by his characteristic intensity and fervor, he was nervous beforehand and exhausted afterward His ee sometimes led him off the main thread of a discourse; at times he ranted; and more than once preached an entirely different ser was ”feeling warh hi; there were few services in Christ Church at which he did not preach,[15] but he was not a so-called popular preacher; crowds did not constantly fill the pews To so, and even some of his admirers would exclaim, ”Oh, I do wish Mr Nelson would not tear his throat so when he preaches” But his very force of delivery, and his vehemence were a part of the man, and he no ed his stature
But these characteristics had co factors
After Mr Nelson's exchange with the rector of St Paul's Church, Roer commented, ”Mr Lowrie's sermons made me feel comfortable, but Mr Nelson makes me feel a miserable sinner!” A newcomer, on his first Sunday in Cincinnati, went to Christ Church intending to ”sa his lot with one
The choir cay the serled hiave the ie that he was a part of it, stole and all! The newcomer was Frederick C Hicks, later the President of the University of Cincinnati He did not go elsewhere but continued at Christ Church and eventually became a vestryman
Mr Nelson did not talk in an amiable sort of way about the Christian virtues; his sermons, thank God, were not colorless essays on the doctrine of God, and the Church He preached with abandon, and there issued forth a fiery stream of conviction that stabbed his hearers into life Within those in whoer for righteousness, his integrity of character
What we heard from the pulpit of Christ Church was the product of hard-won battles, the forthrightness of a le to live as a follower of Jesus Christ He was no respecter of persons but of personality, saying ”We don't dare to be Christians” Some said Frank Nelson did not preach doctrinal sermons, but if not, then church doctrine needs another na it forth in great bucketfuls If after hearing hi about the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, then there is no such thing as doctrine
The rector was sensitive about his failure to attract larger congregations, and deprecated his ability as a speaker He was forever saying that he could not preach, and that he preached too long, but jested that he was too old to change! Once in the midst of an after-dinner speech, he paused to make an aside to his friend, J
Hollister Lynch, ”A?” ”Yes,” whispered Dr Lynch, but he kept right on! Cincinnati is not a church-going city like Pittsburgh, for instance, but, as one witty observer has rements on this point, one should take into consideration the fact that there was a large Roman Catholic constituency, and that the predoe nu the ious Christ Church, reater number of the coranted as was inevitable over a forty-year period, but e recall his multiple civic associations, and the fact that whenever he spoke there was a religious foundation to his address and in his presence, we perceive that Mr Nelson's preaching reached far beyond the bounds of Christ Church
The sermons of Frank Nelson were pervaded with a fine ethical perception He was in the succession of the ancient Hebrew prophets in their profound love of justice and concern for hu for spiritual values, and succeeded in relating the Beyond his piercing eloquence, captivating as itfact that in his interpretation of the religious significance of hu above scraggly growth No one can ever forget that tall, dynaure in the spacious pulpit of Christ Church preaching the Word of God with gripping power It was not rasp, of comprehension, the ability to communicate truth and make it come alive, and cry out for expression in the hearts and lives of his hearers We felt the majesty of the hus and blerass, as showers that water the earth,” Frank Nelson poured out his soul, and revealed the grand proportions of human destiny
In his beautiful address at the Helen S Trounstine Memorial Service, a portion of which folloe find one of the best examples of Mr
Nelson's ability to interpret hu of another's travail of soul:
And then her courage There are the lesser courages and the greater There are er and undertake hard tasks, and face ridicule and failure It is a fine and a true courage and I do not underrate it Helen Trounstine had it and had it to the full She tackled hard tasks; she faced sohts against all coo into the court or into the saloon or dance hall, the places of coht with all, for what she believed to be right; and she wonto see that delicate woman unafraid before the problems and evils of the world
Yet that was not the finest courage she had That other finer courage is the one that I would eiven her to reconcile a spirit filled with high ideals and great desires, with a body weak, often bent and torn with pain, unsuited to the tasks she longed to do, until at last she was stricken with utter helplessness waiting for the end For only a few brief years was her body adequate, even a little, to her will And instead of bending before that li because of it, instead of growing bitter with resentrappled with it the e of heart and ht and won the victory of cheer and energy and peace With no excuse and no co of her will before the lith, she lived and loved and served as if she had the health she longed for The li up of many dear desires, of hopes that would have made life sweet and joyous, of work she yearned to undertake
Any of you who have had much to do with one stricken with a sore disease, who knows he never can be well again, know that it is not the sickness, the physical weakness and pain thatof the will to surrender life's hopes and the readjustot to be, that nothing can change That was Helen Trounstine's probleht that fight and won it Itand bitter questioning and struggle But of such hours she gave us no outward sign At least I saw none in the years I knew her, except that finest one of all, the victory of her soul in the glad and joyous doing of what re that his addresses on Good Friday and his serreat days than is commonly the case He cared for these days tres that crowded the old church, filled up the chancel, and stood in the vestibule through the Three Hours on Good Friday It seemed as if the whole city was aroused as people fro districts ca rectorshi+p It stirs the i, the rich and the poor, the highly-cultivated, and the irls and clerks, the faithful and those groping for faith, all drawn by the mysterious fire kindled by this man of God There was a concentrated intensity to his preaching on these occasions, for he saw clearly and felt deeply the tragedies of life In that vibrant voice and in his passionate concern for the soul of e to God, and a faith and love that spoke to each one's condition Out of his long brooding over the darkly colored strearess of Christianity of which his daily contact with the city's life as well as his study gave hireat out-bursts of unshakable certainty which stand up like Alpine peaks in the spiritual landscape of hu with the power and dramatic quality of his speech was unveiled for all the world to see One recalls in this particular a certain Good Friday after World War I when he took up Sarah Bernhardt's ghastly reversal of the First Word froive them for they _knohat they do,” and with terrific intensity literally shouted, ”That is a lie straight fro always illue, and those who heard him over the span of the years were conscious that in his Good Friday addresses he e words that lent a cumulative effect to his speech Because of his modesty he never consented to the publication of any of his Good Friday addresses, which is la A full, stenographic report, however, was raphs from the Third Word may well be quoted This Word from the Cross, ”When Jesus therefore saw hisby whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy ave to it an interpretation that was entirely original: