Thi". World Pays Its Tribute. 



489 



remarkable memory and unfail- 

 ing store of apt illustration gave 

 point and glow to his talk, and. 

 fanatic as people counted him to 

 be, he was absolutely free from 

 any rancour about anybody's 

 opinions. His open-mindedness 

 was almost perversity. There 

 was no opinion, however fantastic 

 or remote from probability, to 

 whi<;h he would not give a cliari- 

 table hearing, and which mighi 

 not, in certain circumstances, 

 effect a lodgment in his own 

 mind. Where his " spooks " were 

 concerned he would believe any- 

 thing, and no disproof of any re- 

 ported fact or failure of any 

 prediction made by his familiar 

 spirits to come true seemed to 

 ha\e the slightest effect on the 

 confidence that he reposed in 

 therh. 



Take him for all in all, I believe him to have been one 

 of the most remarkable brains of our time. But I am 

 thinking of him at this moment as a friend, warm- 

 hearted, affectionate, helpful, who never let friendship 

 rust, and gave of his best when least could be demanded 



Mr. Stead in South Africa. 



of him. To him. as 1 have often heard him say, death 

 was but as the passing from one room to another, and 

 I pray that he found the passage easy. No one who 

 knew him will doubt that he was brave and helpful to 

 the end. 



DR. CLIFFORD 



Al a Memorial Service. Wesliiiiiisler Chapel, on April 25//;. 1Q13. 



In this hour of mourning one strong consolation 

 sustains us. We are sure that our beloved friend. 

 William Thoma.s Stead, was faithful even unto death, 

 and that he has received the crown of life. Though he 

 has fallen a \ictim to the tragic disaster of last Sunday 

 night but one, we are absolutely certain that he met 

 his end as a victor. We sorrow, and sorrow dcepl_\-, but 

 a.s those who are firmly convinced that he was wholly 

 true to his ideals ; that he unselfishly gave the last 

 ounce of his power to the service of the need\' and 

 di-solate, and then committed his spirit to the keeping 

 of that Gorl in Whom he had trusted from his youth. 

 Mad we been on the Titanic, we should not have been 

 more sure that there " was no languor in his heart." 

 " no weakness in his word," and '" no weariness on 

 his brow." To the ht^t he " succoured the faint " and 

 " praised and reinspired the brave." 



As one who has known W. T. Stead for more than a 

 quarter of a century, and has shared his confidences 

 and hLs social and political ideals, who stood near him 

 when he was in the dock as a criminal, heard his defence, 

 and visited him in gaol, I wish to say that I never had 

 a friend so strong and sunny, so radiant and inspiring. 

 He was a gallant enemy of dejection and sadness, an 

 undespairing tighter against every kinfl of pessimism, 

 and a messenger of hope to those who were ready to 

 perish. In a tlark and cloudy day a chat with him Wius 

 like a breeze from the ^ea. When a cause was at its 

 worst his faith mounted to the oci ,i^ioii ;ind his virili' 



speech rallied the timorous back to the standards. 

 Fellowship with him was a tonic. His faith in God and 

 in great human causes was magnetic. " The Progress 

 of the World." about which he wrote from month to 

 month, was so real to him that he made the Hstener 

 feel that, in spite of all. the world is moving upward and 

 onward in the wake of " God's Xew Messiah," anointed 

 by Him for the triumph of some great cause. It was 

 when he was in Hollowa\- Gaol that he wrote me, sa\ing, 

 '' I am full of joy as to the present, and of hope and 

 confidence as to the future." and it was when he had 

 l)ecn there two months or so. and knew what it meant, 

 that he sent me a Christmas-card, and wrote on it the 

 words, " 'I'hou hast anointed me with the oil of gladness 

 above my fellows." Few hearts have felt more acuteh' 

 the sins and sorrows of the world, and still fewer have 

 been more fruitfully blessed with gladness and rejoicing 

 inGodandin His redeeming and righteous work on earth. 

 For this joy of his was joy in God. William T. Stead 

 was at the centre of him a believer in God. That was 

 the secret of his life. I cannot call to mind a man with 

 a stronger confidence. His trust in the Eternal Father 

 was as simple as that of a child in its mother. It was 

 direct, unciuestioning, and unhesitating. For him God 

 and the soul were the two great realities. Though like 

 the rest of us he had battles with doubt and misf;ivings 

 — " spasms of scepticism," ;ls he once called them to 

 me— yet he could say and did, " I have never lost faith 

 in (iod." 



