1885.] ^*^<^ [Agnew. 



and in 1865 he was called to the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadel - 

 phia, then situated on Seventh street, between Market and Arch. In con- 

 sequence of the drift of population westward, and the encroachment of 

 trade, a process of disintegration had been going on for years in this old 

 historic church, which rendered a change imperative, and when the few re- 

 maining worshipers turned their backs on the spot hallowed by so many 

 tender and sacred memories, it was with feelings somewhat akin to those 

 experienced by the sons of the captivity, when required to sing a song of 

 Zion by the willows of Babel. After leading a kind of nomadic life for 

 some time, this body at length selected the site at Twenty-first and 

 Walnut street, and there erected the present imposing edifice, where the 

 last and not the least prosperous years of Dr. Beadle's singularly success- 

 ful ministry were spent, and where, like a heroic soldier he held aloft the 

 Gospel banner, until the victory was won. 



On Sabbath morning, the 5th of January, 1879, Dr. Beadle preached 

 with his usual earnestness and power, and at the close of the service, 

 touchingly announced the consummation of a long cherished hope, 

 namely, that he might live to see canceled the onerous debt which had 

 hung like a pall over the beautiful temple in which he and his people had 

 worshiped, at the same time saying, "that his work was now done." 

 Whether any projected shadow had announced the coming event, I know 

 not, but the words were prophetic, it was his last Gospel message ; his 

 work was done. One hour later I was hastily summoned to his aid. On 

 his way to the residence of his brother-in-law, Mr. Horace Pitkin, the day 

 being cold and windy, he had been seized with the agony of cardiac an- 

 gina, requiring to be assisted into the house. On entering the room I 

 found the poor sufferer seated on a sofa ; but alas ! how changed. The 

 face an hour before beaming with exultant joy was now shrunken, 

 pinched, pallid and cadaveric ; the wrist pulseless, and with a desperate 

 clutching of the fingers there was heard a low plaintive half-suppressed 

 moan, like one in hopeless trouble. I felt how vain was the help of man. 

 A few hours later, or shortly after midnight, the gentle spirit of Beadle 

 was released from its mortal environment, and passed from the Chui'ch 

 Militant to the Church Triumphant. 



But this sketch would be far from being complete if we failed to study, 

 from a much nearer point of view, those qualities which constituted the in- 

 dividuality of this remarkable man, and which revealed the secret of hie 

 successful and distinguished career. My intimacy with Dr. Beadle com- 

 menced immediately after his removal to Philadelphia, and for years, un- 

 less interrupted by absence from the city, our companionship was almost 

 daily; consequently I came to know the man through and through. 



Beadle was a many-sided man. Like a precious brilliant, every facet 

 showed with soft and luminous rays. His temperament was what a medi- 

 cal man would designate as nervo-sanguine. Though patient, prudent 

 and self-controlled, he possessed, nevertheless, an immense momentum or 

 active force of brain and heart, which kept him ever in motion, and in- 



PROC. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XXII. 120. 2d. PRINTED APRIL 9, 1885, 



