Robert Carter: His Life and Work. 1807-1889/Obituary Notice
OBITUARY NOTICE.
THE secular and religious press all over the country, and even across the seas, contained appreciative notices of Mr. Carter’s life and character. None of these gave a truer idea of him than the following, copied from the Independent.
Knowing that others who have had a far longer acquaintance with him than I have will give some account of the long Christian life just ended, I would like to add only a few personal reminiscences, not telling of the things he did, except as showing what manner of man he was.
Becoming acquainted with him only as he was nearing his threescore years and ten, I remember being attracted first by his positive, crisp conversation, with the strong Scotch utterance. But I am sure that my love first went out toward him when noticing his loyal, almost lover-like thoughtfulness for the sweet-faced, gray-haired wife who was always with him, in doors or out. How well I recollect one morning when we were awaiting news from an old lady friend who was very ill. One of Mr. Carter’s grandchildren had started for the post-office the minute the mail was due, and the dear old couple sat hand in hand by the window, eagerly awaiting his return. When the letter came, and was read aloud, announcing the friend's convalescence, the two gray heads bent toward each other with a kiss of thanksgiving, and an earnest “Thank God.” It was characteristic not only of their oneness of sympathy with each other, but their deep affection for absent friends. Months afterward a friend across the water alluded to this incident as “an object lesson in the art of growing old gracefully.” So habitual was it for the old couple to need each other's presence at all times, to refer to each other, even to wait for each other in coming in to their meals, that the night after his wife had suddenly but gently passed into glory he went up-stairs when the family were summoned to tea, and came down again alone, saying sadly, “I almost forgot; I was going for your mother.”
Friends will mention concerning Robert Carter that he was for fifty years a member of the Foreign Mission Board; for nearly as many a director of the Bible Society; seventeen times a delegate to the General Assembly; for sixty-eight years an active member of the church, most of that time, indeed, a teacher, Sunday school superintendent, and elder in the church; but the mere statements do not carry the story of the deep religious life, and the steady good judgment in church matters, which was the reason for his occupying such positions. To “make sure he was right, and then go ahead,” was his habit. He was not afraid of responsibility, neither was he afraid of the hard work which justified his claim to be trusted with it. The same set of principles were in steady use in business, in church, and in home life. He never knew any antagonism between business and Christian living. His business success gave weight to his opinions in benevolent enterprises, and his connection with mission and Bible work gave character to his business; and if in his home life there was more of the affectionate and tender solicitude of the husband, the father, and the grandfather, he was still the same man that he was in the store,—alert, straight-forward, and kindly.
Most emphatically was he the “head of the family” up to the last year of his long life. Not often is a man of eighty-two looked up to for advice, depended upon for counsel by the whole family connection, as he was. The grandchildren, as they chose their life-work, or settled in homes of their own, were guided by his good judgment. One grandson, just entering on his first pastorate, another practising law, another lately married, each felt unwilling to make important decisions until sure of Grandfather’s approval; and to say “Grandfather thinks it best” was an argument not to be gainsaid. Through many temptations at school and at college, Grandfather’s strongly expressed convictions formed a barrier of safety to the young people. His strict integrity was a stronghold of power. One of his sons, in some business transaction involving the transfer of some considerable sum, expressed surprise at no security being required by the banker who was party to the transaction. “Ah!” said the banker, “if I could not give you ten thousand dollars on the simple word of your father, I would go out of business!” Well it is for us that there are men in our community whose steadfast uprightness is a lesson to a younger generation, Let us thank God for such names,—names which are synonymous with unflinching integrity. Happy all children and grandchildren who bear the heritage of such a name! In the parishes of his sons and son-in-law he had many warm friends. Long will the people remember, in a prayer meeting in Boonton, New Jersey, (the home of his eldest son,) the reading by Mr. Carter of the first chapter of John’s Gospel in a Scotch version. It was published in the “Sunday School Times” of February 4, 1888, and Mr. Carter had cut it out and carried it in his pocket-book. Never before had the chapter seemed so full of tender and marvellous sweetness as when our Scotch friend read it in the accents of his childhood. I never think of Nathanael but I seem to hear him called the “leal heartit Israelite wi’ nae guile in him,” and the verse, “But as mony as took him till them, to them gied he richt to be God’s bairns,” holds a sweeter meaning than ever before.
It was in this church that his voice was last heard in public. The occasion was one of a series of praise services, when pastor and choir united in giving expression to the life and singing the hymns of certain hymn writers. Bonar and McCheyne were under consideration that evening, and Robert Carter gave some account of Horatius Bonar from personal reminiscences. His closing words, referring to his friend, were, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of glory.” Both have entered into rest since that Sabbath in June, and it is theirs to wear to-day the crown of glory that fadeth not away, and they praise Him forevermore.
THE END.