| Gleanings From The Rostrum Dedication page Almon Bruce French |
If I except our own dear mother, among all women you to me have been the most wise counselor and devoted
friend. When a mere boy, an unknown power came upon me, which separated me from home, school
classmates, and friends. I could not divine its meaning, and my young heart was stung by the poisoned arrow of
intolerance. But you believe in me, and gave me the wealth of a sister’s love and devotion. In later years, when
worn by care and public work, my spirit found rest in your cozy home, sitting in loving confidence by your side.
In an unlooked – for hour death touched you, and took from me the strength I so much needed to complete my
work. With trembling voice, and heart broken, I tried to say the last kind word at the head of your casket, and
helped to lay you to rest by the side of our mother and the dear ones who have gone. Since then an unhappy fate
has brooded over me, and unlooked – for clouds gathered heavy and dark. I could not have endured their cold
and gloom had not the light of your spirit drawn over them a rain-bow of hope.
A hundred times have you importuned me to publish my lectures in some enduring form, and as often have I
promised you to do so. As the clouds in my life -sky are now breaking, and the sunset looks more luminous, I
hereby fulfill my promise to you and give this book to the public as a kindly tribute to your memory.
Go, sister mine, I pray you, with it to the homes it shall visit, and inspire in those who peruse its pages some
small degree of the interest you have felt in my lectures. And as I journey toward the twilight, behind the thick
folds of which lies the land of sunlight where thou dost dwell, be thou to me the same loving and faithful
guardian thou hast been both in life and in death.
Affectionately inscribed by the author.
| TO MY ARISEN SISTER, SARAH FRENCH FARR |