{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26980/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26980","id":"gutenberg_26980","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26980","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Nelson, Frank Howard, 1869-1939"],"text":"Produced by Mark C. Orton, Barbara Kosker and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nFRANK NELSON _of_ CINCINNATI\n\n\n  _Writing is the offspring of thought, the lamp of\n  remembrance, the tongue of him that is far-off, and\n  the life of him whose age has been blotted out._\n\n\n  --_Anon_\n\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n  _Frank H Nelson\n  of CINCINNATI_\n\n\n  _by_\n\n\n  WARREN C. HERRICK\n  _a sometime Assistant_\n\n\n\n  _With A Foreword\n  by Charles P. Taft_\n\n\n  LOUISVILLE . THE CLOISTER PRESS . MCMXLV\n\n  COPYRIGHT, 1945, BY\n\n\n  The Cloister Press\n\n\n  _All rights reserved. No part of this\n  book may be reproduced without the\n  written permission of The Cloister Press._\n\n\n  [Illustration: _The Cloister Press_\n  VITAL BOOKS]\n\n\n  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n  _To My Wife_\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n                                                 Page\n\n  1. \"Arise, and go into the city\"                2\n\n  2. Reclaiming A Church to Meet A New Age       14\n\n  3. The Shepherd Among His Flock                30\n\n  4. The Spokesman of The City's Conscience      42\n\n  5. They Came to Be in His Presence             62\n\n  6. Beyond Cincinnati                           76\n\n  7. The Mystery of Personality                  88\n\n  8. Last Years                                 102\n\n  9. The Afterglow                              110\n\n\n\n\nACKNOWLEDGMENTS\n\n\nThis book is made possible only through the interest and contributions\nof the many friends of Frank H. Nelson. Space does not permit my\nmentioning by name all who have furnished me with material, but I do\nwish to record my gratitude to them. In addition to the years 1925-1928\nas Mr. Nelson's assistant I spent two weeks in the autumn of 1943\ninterviewing a cross-section of Cincinnati and Christ Church. Many\nbusiness men gladly gave of their time because they enjoyed recounting\nmemories of one whom they loved, and often detained me when I felt I had\nimposed myself long enough. I noticed also that Mr. Nelson's photograph\noccupied a place of honor in more than one office as well as in many\nhomes.\n\nThere are others far better qualified than I to write this story, and I\naccepted the task, though with a keen sense of my inadequacy, first,\nbecause Mrs. Nelson honored me with the request, and second because I\nhave the strong conviction that it should be done for the sake of those\nwho knew Mr. Nelson, and also for those of a succeeding generation who\nought to know how one minister more than met the requirements of an\nexacting profession. Furthermore, I have written as one who owes an\nincalculable debt, and, therefore, cannot be wholly objective. While I\nhave endeavored not to make this biography a eulogy, it is frankly his\nlife as I saw it, and depicts one whom I loved, admired, and have tried\nto follow.\n\nFor innumerable suggestions and for valuable material I am particularly\ngrateful to Mrs. Frank H. Nelson, to Mr. Nelson's sisters, Miss\nMargaret[1] and Miss Dorothea Nelson, and to Mr. Howard N. Bacon, who\nhave helped me more than perhaps they know. Then there is the pleasant\nduty of expressing my thanks to Mr. Charles P. Taft, the Junior Warden\nof Christ Church, Cincinnati, for writing the foreword; to the Vestry of\nTrinity Church, Melrose, Massachusetts for gladly granting me a leave of\nabsence in 1943, and to Mrs. E. Howard Favor, my secretary, for the\ntyping cheerfully undertaken. In the labor of preparing the final draft\nfor the publishers I shall ever remember with gratitude the careful\nthought and skillful phrasing of Miss Mary Putnam of the English\nDepartment of the Melrose High School whose corrections and amendments\nwere nothing less than creative. Finally, I wish to let stand my\nheartfelt thanks to the Right Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill, Bishop of\nMassachusetts, without whose encouragement and advice this little book\ncould not have been written.\n\n  WARREN C. HERRICK\n\n  _Trinity Church_,\n  _Melrose, Massachusetts_;\n  1945.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Deceased, July 6, 1945.\n\n\n\n\nA FOREWORD\n\n\nHow does one life affect another?\n\nI have tried to remember what Frank Nelson directly asked me to do. He\nasked me to teach in the Sunday School, and I did it. Gradually I found\nmyself studying out an intellectual foundation for faith in God. He\nnever said anything to me about that, except from the pulpit. He wrote\nme asking that I act as captain in the Nation-wide Campaign, and I\nanswered that I could not. But the next thing I remember was being a\nvisitor in the Nation-wide Campaign, and I was always in it after that.\nHe asked me to serve on the Vestry, and somehow made me feel that\nnothing except being really sick was an excuse for not being there.\n\nCertainly he never exhorted people to be civic patriots or reformers,\nand save the city. He just gave you such a human picture of the teeming\nlife of a great city that it made a tear come to your eye to think of\nwhat the city could be at its best, and it made you love it and the\npeople in it. Your own actions in civic affairs just naturally followed.\n\nHe wasn't an exhorter of virtue, but he made of clean living and noble\nservice such a fascinating objective that people went to work on their\nown problems with fresh faith.\n\nThe only time I recall he was really annoyed with me was when I had an\nemergency operation for appendicitis in the middle of the night, and\ndidn't let him know until the next day. He was my minister, and that\nmeant _minister_. After that, when I had a major choice to make, I felt\nI was risking his disappointment unless I went down to talk to him about\nit.\n\nHe didn't want me to go to a great school as headmaster. \"The city is\nthe place that needs service and talents,\" said he. To that he had given\nhis life, in the personal contact with his parish. His life stands as a\nsymbol of the way a true love of home and community is tied to a love of\nall God's children everywhere.\n\n  CHARLES P. TAFT\n\n\n\n\n  _Arise, And Go\n  Into The City_\n\n\n  \"_Arise, And Go Into The City_\"\n\n  --_Acts 9:6_\n\n\n  1\n\n\n\"Tell the rector of Christ Church that if he doesn't call off the\nWoman's Club, I'll bring the women of the streets to the polls.\" And he\nadded, \"He knows I can do it.\" The boss of old Ward Eight, in which\nChrist Episcopal Church in downtown Cincinnati is located, had become\nalarmed by a serious threat to his power. Although this incident took\nplace long before the coming of universal suffrage, Reverend Frank H.\nNelson, the young rector, had discovered that women had a legal right to\nvote in public school matters. Following his leadership, the Woman's\nClub of Christ Church was actively supporting as a candidate for the\nBoard of Education John R. Schindel, a fearless young lawyer in the\nWard. This independent action was an open challenge to the dominance of\nthe boss of Ward Eight, Mike Mullen. Though the courageous lawyer was\ndefeated, and without the aid of the women of the streets, the affair\nwas one of many which presaged the uprising that eventually wrenched the\ncontrol of Cincinnati from the hands of one of the most notorious\npolitical gangs in American democracy.\n\nA second \"passage of arms\" between the rector and Boss Mullen had its\norigin in the work of Christ Church among boys, and ultimately involved\nthe boss of the entire city and his powerful machine. The privilege of\nrunning gambling games throughout Cincinnati had been alloted to one of\nthe higher-ups in the organization. Within a block of the Parish House\nof Christ Church was a flourishing candy store, so-called, but the chief\n\"confection\" was a crap game run for the boys of the neighborhood under\nthe direction of a member of the City Council, and with the knowledge\nand acquiescence of the police department. It was inevitable that some\nmembers of Christ Church Boys' Clubs should lose their earnings, and\nwhatever of character the church was building up was thus broken down.\nTo meet this danger, Mr. Nelson organized a good citizenship club among\nhis parishioners. The members made a survey of the gambling places which\nwere catering especially to boys, and found nearly one hundred\nthroughout the city. The publication of their findings was one of many\n\"shots heard 'round the ward.\"[2] When in later years Frank Nelson spoke\nfor the City Charter or Reform Party, he knew from first-hand experience\nthe moral and spiritual influence of good government in the lives of\nboys and young men. Behind the youthful clergyman's deep concern for\ndecent government was a vital religious faith, without which he was\nconvinced social service and reform work can never attain the best\nresults.\n\nFrank H. Nelson was Rector of Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1900\nto 1939, having been the assistant minister in the year 1899. These\nforty years in the one parish constitute a career seldom paralleled for\nbreadth of vision and devoted service. He became one of the first\ncitizens of a great city, a crusader for honest municipal government,\nand the foremost Protestant clergyman. For the understanding of his\nministry and of his religious convictions, one must know something of\nhis early life and family, and the preparatory years.\n\nFrank Howard Nelson was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 6,\n1869. His father, Henry Wells Nelson, the nephew of the Reverend E. M.\nP. Wells, a pioneer in early Christian social service in Boston, was the\nRector of the Church of The Good Shepherd in Hartford. Before Frank was\nten years old, his father accepted a call to Trinity Church, Geneva, New\nYork, and there exercised a distinguished ministry for twenty-five\nyears. Geneva, an attractive college town situated on lovely Seneca\nLake, was an ideal place in which to bring up a family. There were five\nchildren: Margaret, George, Frank, Mary, and Dorothea. George now lives\nin Brookline, Massachusetts, and Mary, who married Edward L. Pierce,\nlives in Princeton, New Jersey. After the father's retirement, Margaret\nand Dorothea lived with their parents in the family home at North\nMarshfield, Massachusetts where they still reside. Frank was not a\nstrong child, but in the freedom and simplicity of the life which a\nsmall town affords, he gained strength rapidly. A sister relates that\nhe was unusually venturesome, and sometimes horrified timid ladies in\nthe parish by walking on stilts on open rafters, and by frequenting the\ncanal, where once he fell in and was pulled out by a bargee. As all boys\ndo, he roamed the environs of his home with his chums, occasionally\npilfering fruit and getting into all kinds of mischief; but though other\nboys might go unpunished because of doting parents, he was always firmly\nchastised for his pranks.\n\nThe influence of both father and mother upon these strong-minded\nchildren was vital and enduring. The father possessed that happy\ncombination of gaiety and goodness that commends religion. As he was\ndeeply and naturally spiritual himself, the expression of religion in\nhis home and parish was unusually beautiful and appealing. The last\ntwenty-five years of his life were spent in blindness, but his courage\nand his deepened understanding of the ways of God because of this\naffliction led him to a thankful acceptance of his limitation; and his\ncontinuing interest in people \"made the latter years of his ministry,\"\nto quote Bishop Lawrence, \"as fruitful as the more active ones.\" His\ndevoted wife, who was Hortense Chew Lewis of New London, Connecticut,\nguided the children through their formative years with skill and\nunderstanding. She was an intelligent mother, discriminating in taste\nand judgment. Because of her abounding love of good literature, the\nfamily passed many delightful evenings in listening to her readings from\nScott, Milton, Shakespeare and many other great writers. Her fine gifts\nof interpretation made the masterpieces of English prose and poetry come\nalive. In later years, Christ Church people were to love Frank Nelson's\nreadings at Christmas parties in the parish house and in his own home.\nThe older he grew the deeper became his appreciation of the character of\nhis parents. An intimate friend once said to him, \"You are a fortunate\nand a blessed man to have had such a father and mother.\"\n\nThe family was privileged in possessing means beyond a minister's\nsalary, and Frank, at the age of thirteen, was sent to aristocratic St.\nPaul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. The headmaster, Dr. Henry A.\nCoit, an austere and exacting teacher of the old New England type,\nstimulated the natural student, and under his influence Nelson achieved\na scholastic standing among the first five in his class. He was not\nparticularly skillful in athletics, and had even then a cough which\npersisted throughout his life. The lad was not noticeably popular, and\nhad more than the average measure of shyness peculiar to adolescence. He\nwas extremely sensitive, somewhat unhappy, and in many accomplishments\nand activities was overshadowed by his older brother who was in the same\nschool.\n\nIn the fall of 1886, upon graduation from St. Paul's School, Frank\nreturned to Geneva and entered Hobart College, a small church college of\nconsiderable standing. There he began to find himself, and became one of\nthe popular men in his class and in the Sigma Phi Fraternity. Although\nin college he took more active interest in athletics and participated in\nrowing, tennis, and track, he never excelled in sports. At his\ngraduation in 1890 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, _Magna\nCum Laude_, being valedictorian and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.\nThroughout his life he maintained relationships with his Alma Mater,\ncoming to know the successive presidents, and in 1907 was instrumental\nin securing a large gift for a new gymnasium. Still later he refused the\npresidency of the college. In 1906 Hobart bestowed upon him the honorary\ndegree of Doctor of Sacred Theology.\n\nIn the course of his undergraduate days at Hobart, Frank Nelson had\nseriously considered the profession of the ministry, but graduation\nfound him still undecided. As it turned out, the summer following the\nclose of his college years was one of critical importance to his entire\nlife. He accompanied a surveying expedition to the state of Washington.\nThe party put up for a while in Merrysville, a rough-mannered,\ntough-living town of the old West. Into this place there came one day a\ncircuit rider who fearlessly preached the Gospel in the face of\nopposition and outright hostility. This Methodist minister was utterly\nsincere, and Nelson saw what could be done by the sheer power of the\nspirit against the forces of evil. It surged over him that a man can\nhold the mastery over wrong, an inner conviction which at the same time\nwas set aflame by a Communion Service held for the surveyors in the\nout-of-doors. The circumstances and surroundings were strikingly\ndifferent from those associated in his mind with such a service.\nPossibly for the first time in his life he was intensely conscious of\nthe presence of God. As in all such experiences the vision illumined and\ndeepened his thinking and living. It has been said that in all great\nChristian leaders and reformers are found two elements: \"The imperious\ncommission from above, and the tumultuous experience within.\" Both these\nelements were present in the experiences of that eventful summer, and\nall Frank Nelson's doubts and waverings concerning the ministry were\nresolved. He returned East aware of being called to preach the Gospel.\nIn the light of this happening one is not surprised that later when a\nprofessor dogmatically stated that there could be no true Sacrament\nwithout the Apostolic Succession, Nelson walked out of the classroom\nsaying to himself, \"It is a lie.\" To those who knew him through his\nforty years' ministry in Christ Church, this experience in the far West\nsheds light upon his burning sense of mission, for in those hours of\ninward tumult he had come close to God in the breaking of bread and in\nthe society of his fellows, conditions which he preached throughout his\nlife as being always the essence of fellowship with God.\n\nOn September 18, 1890, he matriculated at the General Theological\nSeminary in New York City. The General Seminary is directly under the\ngovernment of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and while\nit has always been characterized by a conservative type of\nchurchmanship, all shades of opinion were and are to be found within its\nfaculty and student body. At this time the respectability of the\nEpiscopal Church was considered an asset and not a liability, and the\nSeminary community was in the social forefront. When an upstanding man\nlike Frank Nelson, whose background was well-known and whose\nintellectual gifts and social graces were obvious, entered this\nenvironment, it was inevitable that he should immediately take a leading\nplace in the undergraduate body. His tall, commanding figure naturally\nattracted notice, and within a few days he was elected president of his\nclass. There was magnetism in his personality, and he was soon welcomed\namong the socially distinguished in both seminary and city. His\nfellow-students at General, when speculating about the future, as\nstudents do, always considered him destined for the highest office of\nthe church; throughout those now remote years he clearly revealed the\nqualities of the born leader. His class was a notable one, and through\nthe passing years gave a good account of itself, listing four bishops\nand ten honorary degrees, Frank Nelson himself receiving the degree of\nDoctor of Sacred Theology from the General Seminary in 1934.\n\nAs a student he excelled in Pastoral Theology, Biblical Learning and\nEvidences, subjects which in their nature give some indication of his\nintensely human interest in all aspects of life. Like many theological\nstudents, he was groping and feeling his way through the multiple\nproblems that center upon man in the light of God. One of his classmates\nsays that the curriculum and the methods of instruction in that day bear\npoor comparison to modern standards, but Nelson, unlike many students,\nwas never in a state of open or even tacit rebellion. He did his work\nfaithfully and well. He was graduated in 1894, but for some reason was\nnot present at Commencement to receive the degree of Bachelor of Sacred\nTheology, which is the mark of scholastic distinction at General. On May\n19, 1894, he was made a deacon in his father's church in Geneva, New\nYork by the Right Reverend Arthur Cleveland Coxe, the Bishop of Western\nNew York. During his senior year he had assumed work on the staff of St.\nGeorge's Church, New York City, and after his ordination was quickly\nabsorbed into the work of that great parish. Because he did not feel\nready, Frank Nelson, at his own request, was not advanced to the\npriesthood until November 14, 1897, when he was so ordered in St.\nGeorge's Church by Bishop Henry Codman Potter of the Diocese of New\nYork.\n\nAnother important element in Mr. Nelson's preparation for his unique\nministry in Cincinnati was this experience on the staff of St. George's\nChurch from 1894 to 1899 under the prophetic leadership of the Reverend\nWilliam S. Rainsford. This notable rector possessed unusual gifts and\nexerted an incalculable influence upon the Episcopal Church. He gathered\nabout him a group of young men the like of whom has never been found\nelsewhere. St. George's stands as the pioneer of what was known as the\n\"institutional church,\" and in the midst of the teeming activities of\nthe parish house and a heterogeneous congregation, Dr. Rainsford set\nloose his young and enthusiastic assistants. They experienced a training\ncomparable to the clinical instruction gained by an intern in a modern\nhospital. Under his tutelage these men received a course in applied\nreligion, and their rector set a standard of preaching, parish\nadministration, and pastoral care that not one of his \"boys,\" as he\ncalled them, failed to practice in an unusual manner. Dr. Rainsford's\nimpassioned preaching of the essentials of Christianity as opposed to\nthose aspects which are merely traditional, and his forceful efforts,\nradical for those times, to democratize a conventional Episcopal parish\nwere significant contributions to church life throughout America.\n\nAlthough Dr. Rainsford exerted a lasting influence upon all his young\nassistants, he set his stamp to a marked degree upon Frank Nelson. For\nthe first time in his life this young man, the choicest flowering of a\ncultured home, lived among the underprivileged, spending his afternoons\nclimbing interminable tenement stairs, and his evenings in the parish\nhouse. He came to know poverty and squalor and the honest worth of\nstruggling humanity. If \"The Rector,\" as Dr. Rainsford's \"boys\" called\nhim, bade them preach on the street corners, he himself had done the\nsame. His example and his personal religious faith were those of a\nliving St. George touched with the heart-stirring Gospel of Love. Under\nhim young Nelson found the services and work of the church taking on a\nmeaning that was like a cool, refreshing breeze. Things concerning the\nChurch, doctrine, and ritual, which had formerly perplexed his youthful\nmind, now seemed subordinate.\n\nDr. Rainsford evoked a loyalty which held his young men long after they\nhad \"graduated,\" and when he died in 1933 at the age of eighty-three,\nmany of his former assistants were in the chancel of old St. George's\nfor the burial service. One who was present said, \"We shall not see a\nservice like that again, for we shall never see and know another\nRainsford.\" Eulogies are not customary at funerals in Episcopal\nChurches, but on this occasion the tradition was fittingly broken, and\nMr. Nelson delivered a brief address from the pulpit in a breaking\nvoice, barely audible at times. In this very moving tribute, the speaker\nreveals much of himself:\n\n  I am not here to presume to speak of the man we loved in any\n  formal way; to try to weigh the imponderable, to measure the\n  immeasurable--but only to say a word out of our hearts of\n  thanksgiving to God that the rector was our rector in the days\n  that are passed, was The Rector always and will be always, for\n  those who knew him, who loved him, to whom he gave that\n  tremendous love of his.\n\n  A book was written by a friend of his some years ago, and the\n  dedication of that book was this: \"To William Stephen Rainsford,\n  who has seen the Christ and has shown Him to men.\"\n\n  I know of no more perfect description of the rector than that.\n  For twenty years and more of his rectorship in this great parish\n  he showed Christ to men; showed Him in the incomparable words\n  that he poured forth Sunday after Sunday and year after year from\n  this pulpit--in his great concern for the men and women and\n  little children; for the strong and for the weak; for the wise\n  and the foolish; for the saints and the sinners; for those who\n  labor and were hungry and perplexed, and were strained by the\n  tasks of life. They came here week by week; they heard from him\n  the words that refreshed them and sent them back with courage and\n  with faith in God and in man, to the tasks that were breaking\n  them, to the problems that were perplexing them.\n\n  I suppose that to every one of us who knew him in his great days\n  here and have known him in the years since, the one supreme thing\n  that poured out of his life was his love of God. Not the love of\n  God that theologians speak of, that men reason about, but that\n  pure love that a man gives to his friend, to his loved\n  ones--personal, intense, vital, real.\n\n  We came here church people, professing the Christian faith,\n  thinking we believed in God and in His son, Jesus Christ, and as\n  we sat under the rector here Sunday after Sunday, we came to know\n  that our profession was a form of sound words, that in him was\n  the form of unsound words, but that he poured forth _reality_ for\n  the thing that we _professed_ to believe in, and he helped us to\n  see the real work of God, the real passionate love of God for\n  men--not for the chosen few, but the weak, the broken, the\n  struggling--those in sorrow and the hungry--the love of God that\n  drove him to lay down his life as few men had laid down their\n  lives before. He gave of himself without stint, rejoicing in the\n  chance to serve his God and his fellowmen with his whole heart\n  and soul, with such passionate devotion that at last broke\n  through his own conventional beliefs and tore them to shreds, and\n  made him the voice of the living God, to us in St. George's, to\n  New York and to America.\n\n  In the great days of his preaching, he took us who were his\n  clergy--young, inexperienced and conceited--and made us over. He\n  took us, to whom religion was a profession, and made of it a\n  passion. He was ever patient with us, giving us his best; day\n  after day walking with us around Stuyvesant Square in the\n  morning, sometimes for hours, and then pouring out to us as we\n  walked the best religious thought of his time, his judgment on\n  the questions of the day, his interpretations of religion and the\n  tremendous work of the church as a gift that God had put into the\n  souls of men for service to their fellowmen.\n\n  He told us of his thought for men and women, of the problems of\n  the time, of the problems of the church--not conventional, but\n  vital, not formal, but distinctly real--and then he would take us\n  into his study and we would kneel there. And never have I heard a\n  man pray as the rector prayed--without any of the ecclesiastical\n  technique and form of prayer, without any formal discussions of\n  the value of prayer, but pouring out the things that we had been\n  talking of; as real to God as they were real to us, bringing into\n  them God; God's companionship, God's sympathy, God's\n  understanding and patience; God's ruthless will that we should\n  love our fellowmen and serve our fellowmen--without name, without\n  a distinction.\n\n  That is the vivid life, a little of it, that we lived with, which\n  made God real to New York and to us here at St. George's, and to\n  his clergy. God has taken him home, and we meet here, every one\n  of us, because the rector--broken though he was in these later\n  years--because the rector, whose great and lovely smile we had\n  loved to see, as we had loved just to touch his hand to gain\n  strength, courage, faith and joy--because we cannot do that any\n  more. His work is done and God gives him a safe lodging and he\n  shall rest in peace to the last. Thank God who gave him to us, to\n  know and to love, that we might be lifted by him to find God and\n  Jesus through him.\n\n  He wrote a little prayer, and in closing I am going to read it\n  and ask you to join with me in making it our own. Let us pray:\n\n  Heavenly Father, I am trying to do right and be right and help\n  others to be right. Give me my daily bread. I am Thy child; Thy\n  little, weak child. Give me Thy strength; Thy patience; Thy\n  wisdom; Thy love--that with confidence and with joy I may do the\n  work Thou hast given me to do in my home and among men. Amen.[3]\n\nThe charter of Frank Nelson's future is set forth in the impression he\nmade at the General Theological Seminary, and in the zest and\nenlargement of vision which characterized his five years under Dr.\nRainsford at St. George's. When the opportunity presented itself to\ncreate in Christ Church, Cincinnati, Ohio a work similar to that of St.\nGeorge's, he displayed a characteristically wise judgment in making his\ndecision. Henceforth he was to live \"in the upper story\" of that\ndecision, conceiving of his work as a mission to the city, and pursuing\nit with a fidelity and a diligence that ranked him as an unusual servant\nof God.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[2] For these stories I am indebted to the Rev. J. Howard Melish, D.D.\nwhose forthright denunciations of political corruption in Cincinnati\nwere further \"shots heard 'round\" the city.\n\n[3] _The Churchman_, January 1st, 1934.\n\n\n\n\n  _Reclaiming A Church\n  To Meet A New Age_\n\n\n  \"_By the grace of God, and the loyalty of the\n  members of Christ Church I was enabled to\n  carry on the work when Alexis Stein had to\n  give it up._\"\n\n  --_Frank H. Nelson_\n\n\n  2\n\n\nThe surging currents of city life had left old Christ Church in a back\neddy, and certain leaders including the senior warden advocated selling\nthe property or turning it over to the Diocese for a mission. The\npopulation, as in many another American city, was shifting from the\ndowntown district, and many believed that the parish had seen its best\ndays. In those late nineties, parishioners of wealth and prominence were\nmoving to the suburbs; the older, conservative members still attended\nthe morning service, but the young people either attached themselves to\nchurches nearer their residences or were drifting away from church\naffiliations altogether.\n\nChrist Church was established in 1817 when Cincinnati was a small river\ntown of nine thousand inhabitants; looking at the present church\nbuilding which seats over one thousand people and is flanked by an\nenormous and ever busy parish house, one finds it difficult to picture\nBishop Philander Chase meeting in that year with a group of men in the\nhome of Dr. Daniel Drake to lay the foundations of what was to become\none of the largest parishes in the Middle West. The first services were\nheld in a cotton factory, and the church slowly developed into a strong\nparish, small in numbers but served by several very able rectors, one of\nwhom later became the Bishop of Virginia. As the first Episcopal Church\nto be founded in Cincinnati, it was the parent of a number of other\nparishes; but at the close of the nineteenth century it appeared that\nthe \"mother-church\" was about finished. Churches of other communions\nlocated in the downtown district were going through the same transition.\nThe slump in finances by reason of removals created something akin to\npanic in the fearful and timid vestrymen, but because of some loyal and\nfar-sighted women Christ Church was not disbanded. They wanted it to\nmean to their children what it meant to them, and they gave assurance of\nsupport in substantial ways.\n\nThese ardent supporters had a definite vision and plan. In 1897 Dr.\nWilliam S. Rainsford had come on from New York City and had packed old\nPike's Opera House for a week in Lent, and thrilled his hearers with the\nrecital of his efforts to anchor St. George's Church in the heart of\nthat great metropolis, and make it free to serve the community. When\nBishop Vincent of Southern Ohio wrote him about the difficulties of\nChrist Church, he replied with this momentous letter:\n\n  I am going to give you the greatest proof I can of my love and\n  deep interest in Cincinnati. I have a plan for Christ Church.\n  Here it is. Take two of my men--let them work and live together;\n  they could take a mighty strong hold, and do a really good work.\n  I feel sure that in the future many a position of great\n  difficulty can be much better occupied by two men, pulling\n  together, than by one alone. There are two magnificent\n  fellows--dear, dear boys after my own heart--who have been here\n  with me for years; and I shall be lost without them, if you call\n  them. Stein (Alexis) is the ablest preacher of his age (28) in\n  our Church in these United States today. Nelson (Frank) is a\n  strong, capable man, full of energy and charm and a first-class\n  organizer. This is a big idea, my friend; but I believe God may\n  be in it. It is like offering to cut off both my hands for you.\n\nThus the Reverend Alexis Stein became Rector of Christ Church in\nDecember, 1898, and within a few weeks of his arrival the people of\nCincinnati awoke to the mighty fact that a prophet was in their midst;\nthe doors of all churches were flung open to him, and everywhere he\nspoke, new interest and hope in the Church were born. Stein has been\ncalled a modern Savonarola, but, unlike the great reformer, he was\nburned within by the fire of his own consuming message. \"He was a\npreacher of most unusual power with a message he burned to give; and a\nvision of truth that made him a leader of men. He loved God and showed\nHim to men; he loved men and led them to God.\"[4] Before Stein left New\nYork, he had asked his friend, Frank Nelson, to join him in the new\nventure, but it was not until May 21, 1899 that he was free to come.\n\n  We came out to Cincinnati because Dr. Rainsford sent us; he told\n  us that we ought to come--not that we wanted to come. Stein and I\n  both had always lived in the East. It was the America that we\n  knew, and it seemed a desirable place to live, just as those of\n  you who have been born here think that Cincinnati is the most\n  desirable place to live, because it is your home. But he, with a\n  larger vision of America, and a larger vision of the calling of\n  God to a man in the ministry, sent us here to do what we\n  could.[5]\n\nIn February, 1900, the doctor ordered Alexis Stein out West, a victim of\ntuberculosis. He lived a short twelve years, but was never well enough\nto do more than a little incidental work. This tragedy was a deep,\npersonal loss to his young associate, for all through their St. George's\ndays they had been the closest of friends. They complemented one another\nand made an ideal team.\n\nInvariably on Good Friday in the course of his address on the Sixth Word\nfrom The Cross, Frank Nelson spoke of Stein's influence upon him and\nupon Christ Church: \"The work he began is witnessed to by you who are\nhere. You wouldn't have been here forty years ago or the likes of you\nwould not have been here, but he opened the door of life and the spirit\nto the people of this city, as to the members of this church. His work\ngoes on. The thing that God wanted him to do he did, and it was\nfinished.\" He expressed himself in more intimate fashion to his friend\nBishop Touret: \"The heart of all its worth (Nelson's own forty years'\nministry) has been that I was carrying on for Alexis. I've first been\nhis assistant in my own mind always, and that has made it possible for\nme to dare to undertake it.\" If Stein's work was finished, and a prophet\nneeds no great length of time, then it was brought to fruition through\nthe resolute efforts of this devoted servant who with great humility and\ngenuine searchings of heart took up the reins so tragically\nrelinquished.\n\nFrank H. Nelson was elected Rector of Christ Church on May 5, 1900. In\nthe light of subsequent events his letter of acceptance is of interest:\n\n\n  May 16, 1900\n\n  Gentlemen:\n\n  In a letter from your Secretary, I have been informed of your\n  action of last Saturday, in electing me to succeed the Rev.\n  Alexis Stein, as Rector of Christ Church. That I appreciate very\n  deeply the honor that you have conferred upon me, I do not need\n  to say. I have considered the subject very carefully, and painful\n  to us all though the circumstances are that have led to this, I\n  feel strangely that it is God's work we have undertaken, and that\n  He has led us in it all. I therefore accept the call you have\n  given me, and I believe that working together we can, with God's\n  help, do a real work for Him in this city. For the success of the\n  work I regard two things as essential: the first that the Church\n  shall remain absolutely free, and the second that the lines of\n  work represented by the Parish House shall be continued. I ask\n  your cooperation and support in them both. I am writing the Rev.\n  J. H. Melish to ask him to be my associate. I hope to have him\n  begin his work with us in June. I feel deeply the burden of\n  responsibility, and the great opportunity that your call\n  involves. I can but say that I shall do all in my power to be\n  faithful to both.\n\nFrank Nelson distrusted his own ability. Stein's preaching had packed\nthe church, and the numbers drastically declined when his eloquent voice\nwas stilled. The Bishop, conscious of the difficult problem confronting\na downtown church, advised Rev. Mr. Melish not to become associated,\nsaying \"Stein could have solved it, but Frank Nelson never will.\" The\nBishop, however, had not sufficient evidence to gauge the young rector's\ntalents, nor could he foresee the capacity of the parish to respond to\nthe man's magnetic appeal.\n\nThere was at this time not only a break in the center of population in\nthe city, but also a shifting of the center of gravity in religion.\nThere was dawning a unity of the spirit which led men to break away from\nthe orthodox emphasis on creeds, and which strove to express itself in\nmany forms; such as parish houses, Christian associations, reforms, and\neducational and missionary movements. Mr. Nelson's mind, being busy with\nthe stars, was concerned with the moral and spiritual movement which\noutlasts the stars. He said, \"To some of us it seems that Jesus was not\nso much interested in establishing an institution as in revealing a new\nquality of life.\" Likewise, Frank Nelson was not so much interested in\nbeing the rector of a large, prosperous parish as in making the church\nan agency for leavening the city's life with the spirit of Jesus Christ.\nHe caught the imagination of his people when he pointed to the\npossibility of a church becoming the community center for multitudes in\nthe downtown district. In the near neighborhood of Christ Church were\nnew offices, factories, and boarding houses, and at the distance of one\nblock began the tenement houses where lived the poor and\nunderprivileged. He said:\n\n  We owe to them the gift of Christian friendship, of spiritual\n  influence irrespective of religious affiliations. The church\n  should provide not only a place to pray, but to play; a place not\n  only for worship, but for friendship. There are no places for\n  leisure except the streets, saloons, burlesque houses,\n  pool-rooms, public dance halls, or other commercial places of\n  entertainment. The Church is not here for its own sake. It is\n  here to bear witness, and to spread a spirit. It should be the\n  center from which radiate the forces of righteousness and the\n  spirit of brotherhood and every human activity and interest in\n  the community. Therefore, it must speak not to the individual\n  only, but to the business, social, and political problems,\n  dealing with them not from the viewpoint of the economist or\n  political theorist, but from that of the preacher of\n  righteousness. If Christ Church can be a force for righteousness\n  in the city, it matters but little whether it gain in numbers.[6]\n\n\"Distinction,\" it has been said, \"is the emphasis put upon qualities by\ncircumstances.\" There were two circumstances which enabled this young\nrector to create in Christ Church, Cincinnati a far-famed chapter in the\nhistory of American churches and cities. One was his conception of the\nplace and function of the modern church in the new age, as just\noutlined. It has been the reproach of the Protestant Churches that they\nhave too largely attracted only the well-to-do and middle classes. Frank\nNelson made Christ Church a place where rich and poor met on equal\nfooting. Drawn by his personality, both responded to his vision. There\nwas something about working in his parish that gave people a peculiar\nzest and joy in living. There was, for instance, a Jewish lad in the\nSunday School, (Mr. Nelson never liked the term Church School) who after\nhis marriage came every Christmas to Christ Church with his wife and two\nchildren. He proudly introduced them to Mr. Nelson, saying, \"Though I am\na Jew, this is my church!\"\n\nOn the other hand, Mr. Nelson's special gifts as a rector were developed\nand brought into full flower in Christ Church because of the many\nremarkable people who formed the backbone of his parish. In point of\nnumbers and in ability, they were an unusual group, a group\ncharacterized by breadth of vision, and by a faith sufficient for them\nto carry through the bold projects outlined by their leader. Many were\nblessed with abundant means, and, above all, were filled with a\nconsummate loyalty and affection for their church. In this happy\npartnership of pastor and parish, each inspired the other to great\naccomplishment. The older members who were in the parish at the\nbeginning of Mr. Nelson's rectorship were vigorous, strong-minded people\naccustomed to having their own way. They hewed to the old lines,\nsuspicious of change. With his deep sense of loyalty, Mr. Nelson felt\nbound to maintain the sort of practices and low-church ceremony which\nprevailed when he took over, but such was his adroitness, skill and tact\nin leading them that he won their complete confidence and trust, and\nthey gave him an unreserved support as well as a free hand in many\nthings. This unbounded support of his early work he never forgot; nor\ndid he let his appreciation diminish with the success of later years. In\nthe course of the observances that marked his forty years as rector, he\nsaid of them:\n\n  We found here, as the days went on, a group of people that I\n  think have never been equaled. Not a very large group of people,\n  but a group of people who gave us freedom--freedom to speak the\n  thing that was in our minds: to do the things that we believed\n  the Church ought to do and to stand for in the heart of a great\n  city.\n\nA new parish house had been erected as Alexis Stein's rectorship closed,\nand Mr. Nelson's organizing abilities made it hum. With the assistance\nof the Rev. J. Howard Melish, the most competent of all his clerical\nassistants, a Men's Club was organized, and became a mecca for the young\nmen of the city. For those of small means, it was the only sort of club\navailable, and was thrown open to every race and creed. In 1901 the\nyearly attendance was 7,000, and by 1903 it had grown to 16,973. In line\nwith the policy of a community center, the Club included members of all\nfaiths, Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic. The Roman priest was always\nnotified of Catholics joining the club and informed that no proselyting\nwas intended, but rather that it was hoped these young men would become\nbetter members of their own church. Athletic grounds were secured\ntogether with a field-house, and Christ Church teams won an enviable\nreputation for high standards of sportsmanship. Their spirit may be\njudged by the story of a football player who waxed into colorful\nprofanity in the heat of a game and was bawled out by a Roman Catholic\nteammate in terse words: \"Don't you know who you represent?\" During an\ninterim when another parish house was being built, Christ Church\nbasketball teams used the Holy Cross Monastery Hall for an entire year,\nwith the full approval of the Roman authorities and the gratitude of Mr.\nNelson. At that time, the captain of the Christ Church team, John M.\nCronin, was a prefect of the St. Xavier Sodality and also the secretary\nof the Christ Church Men's Club. By 1911 it was necessary to limit the\nClub's membership to six hundred, and there was always a long waiting\nlist. The social atmosphere, the entertainments, the athletic record,\nthe camp established by the church on the Miami River made this club one\nof the most popular in the city. Mr. Nelson and Mr. Melish spent untold\nhours in the work and gained an intimate knowledge of the individual\nmembers and their views, particularly on labor questions. The men\nexpressed themselves freely, and at the close of an evening's discussion\nMr. Nelson would gather up the points of argument into a clear and\neffective summary easily understood and remembered. It was in this club\nthat a small group once earnestly discussed how they might best help a\nmember when he should be released from a prison term which he was\nserving. Nothing gratified the rector more than this sort of human\ncomradeship because it is the very essence of the Christian fellowship\nwhich he was striving to implant.\n\nAs time went on, an increasing number of girls and young women entering\nthe business world created a social problem which weighed heavily on the\nrector's mind and heart. Knowing the special conditions which these\nyoung women must meet in a large city, he applied grave thought and much\nenergy to the study of their needs and to the opportunity which Christ\nChurch had in meeting them. Finding nothing for them socially in the\ncity except the Y.W.C.A., some distance away, he sent invitations to\ndepartment stores for a meeting at the parish house. At this meeting he\nproposed to establish a branch of the Girls' Friendly Society which is\nfound throughout the Episcopal Church and which exists for social and\neducational purposes. Mr. Nelson gave himself particularly to this\norganization. He gathered a set of workers in the parish, women of\ncharacter and cultural background, who became the leaders and friends of\nthe various groups. He was a frequent visitor at meetings and often\nconducted a question box. He encouraged the members to make it one of\ntheir prime objectives to work for the city's interest. The rapid growth\nof the Society enabled it to support a bed in the Children's Hospital,\nto finance the Vacation House on the Ohio River, and to promote other\ncivic projects. The Christ Church organization became one of the largest\nand most active branches in the national society, and had a succession\nof remarkable directors, such as Deaconess Lloyd and Miss Alice Simrall.\nMr. Nelson's faith and incomparable friendship as well as his careful\nplanning made the Girls' Friendly a strong and useful force in\nCincinnati and an influence in the national body.\n\nIn those days the public schools provided nothing in the way of training\nin the practical arts, and a large work along these lines was carried on\namong the boys and girls who lived in the districts adjacent to Christ\nChurch. The Sewing School, for instance, grew in membership in three\nyears from twenty-four to over two hundred under unfavorable conditions\nin the already cramped parish house. When the College Settlement on\nThird Street closed, the church took over its kindergarten equipment and\nits list of members, and every morning gathered in the children of\npre-school age.\n\nWhen some people said it was a mistake to make a parish house a\ncommunity center, because in their minds it was being used only for\nsocial purposes, Mr. Nelson's scorn was beautiful to hear. He asserted,\n\"The Church claims to be the Body of Christ, doesn't it? How did our\nLord regard His body? He used it freely with no thought of preserving\nit, even to the final extent of hanging it upon a Cross. This is the\nonly way, His Way, that the Church will have eternal life.\"\n\nNot many years passed before it became apparent that the parish house,\nthough not an old building, was literally worn out and was entirely\ninadequate for such an extensive work. In 1907 Mr. Nelson announced the\ngift of a new parish house from Mrs. Thomas J. Emery, a devoted member\nof the church. So munificent a gift had rarely been equaled anywhere.\nThe six-story building, complete in every detail, was not finished until\n1909. In it are club rooms, a large auditorium, a gymnasium, locker\nrooms, and bowling alleys. At the corner next to the church rises a\nbeautiful clock tower which before the day of skyscrapers could be seen\nfrom distant parts of the city, and which has been sketched by many\nartists. Under the impetus of this gift the parish took on increased\nvigor and extended the work into new fields. A Baby Clinic set up by the\nVisiting Nurses' Association provided one more opportunity for service;\nin 1910 the problem of crowded conditions in the nearby Guilford School\nwas solved by the use of Christ Church parish house for Kindergarten\nand Domestic Science classes. It was a long list of services which gave\nChrist Church and Mr. Nelson a far reaching reputation for efficient and\nintelligent social service.\n\n  In the Parish House we meet each other, not as having the same\n  point of view, the same opportunities, but as having a common\n  humanity infinitely various in thought, in faith, in desire. Each\n  may learn from each, and grow in breadth and depth, and the\n  knowledge of God through his brother. It is in recognition of\n  this that we have a free church and free parish house. No\n  distinction of wealth may mar the worship in the one; no\n  distinction of faith may hinder the service in the other.[7]\n\nThe passing years brought fresh opportunities which were seized upon\nwith tireless energy by this far-seeing rector. In August, 1917 came the\nopportunity to establish a Red Cross unit which through day and evening\ngroups enlisted the woman power of the parish. At the close of the war,\nMr. Nelson envisioned the continuance of this work on a scale far\nexceeding the conventional idea of church missionary work. Tactfully\novercoming certain prejudices and narrow points of view, he again\nsecured the enthusiastic support of the same group of women. This unit\nbecame one of the largest and most diligent organizations in the parish,\ncontinuing the indispensable Red Cross work, and enlisting larger\nnumbers in the special program of the Woman's Auxiliary as it is\nconducted in Episcopal parishes throughout the country.\n\nIn 1913 and again in 1937, floods devastated the Ohio River valley. Mr.\nNelson quickly organized his parish to do its share in caring for the\nrefugees. Committees fed, clothed, and entertained one hundred and fifty\npeople on the first occasion, and two hundred on the second. Experienced\ndieticians planned and supervised the meals, a trained nurse was kept on\nconstant duty, and doctors gave medical service and examinations. But\nChrist Church did more than provide physical care; it knew the moral\nand spiritual needs of the homeless, and each day, through the\ncooperation of the government agencies (especially in 1937), city\norganizations, and individuals, it provided two hours of entertainment\nfor them. Every night Mr. Nelson conducted family prayers, and won the\nundying gratitude of the refugees by his friendliness and personal\ninterest in their present comfort and future needs. His reputation\ntravelled from New England to California, and checks poured in from all\nover the country for this work. The atmosphere of helpfulness in Christ\nChurch was his creation, and many volunteers in this emergency were not\nof the parish at all. One mother and daughter engaged in this relief\nwork found the associations so delightful that the mother remarked to\nHoward Bacon, the superintendent of the parish house, \"My daughter wants\nto join this place; it is the swellest club in the city!\" Another\ninstance revealing the sort of spirit which pervaded the parish house\nand filled the people of Christ Church was the serving of dinners to the\nAmerican Legion during their convention because colored Legionnaires at\nthat time were not allowed in Cincinnati hotels.\n\nThe fact that the people in the immediate vicinity were coming to Christ\nChurch and using its privileges in such great measure, calling upon the\nclergy for their services, and joining in the work was immensely\nsatisfying to Mr. Nelson, for this kind of thing was the fruitage of\nmany years of earnest labor, and amply justified his conception of the\nfunction of the church and parish house as a community center. The\nrector always held that the work of the parish organizations should be a\nresult of inspiration from worship and sermons, something first-hand and\nimmediate, so that the impetus of the services would not be lost. In\n1912, to mention only one year, there were more than two hundred\nvolunteer workers. In addition, his people were serving in numerous\norganizations throughout the community, such as the Juvenile Protective\nAssociation, the Bureau of Municipal Research, the Hospital Services,\nthe Consumers' League, the Anti-Tuberculosis Society, the Playgrounds,\nFresh Air Society, and Tenement House Reform. Moreover, there was the\ninspiring fact that the parish house had become a civic center, and by\nchanneling the idealism and energy of a group of young men, of whom\nHenry Bentley of City Charter Committee fame was one, the Church created\ncomradeship and generated faith in Christian principles which led later\nto far-reaching usefulness throughout the city.\n\nNo account of Mr. Nelson's work could possibly be complete without\nrecording the place in it of his chief assistant, Howard N. Bacon, who\nhas been superintendent of the parish house for thirty-eight years.\nHoward Bacon came to Cincinnati at the age of twenty-two with the\npurpose of pursuing a business career. Through Dr. McKinnon of Kansas\nCity, Mr. Nelson learned of Bacon's marked abilities in church and\nsocial service lines. They had dinner together, and Mr. Nelson outlined\nthe plans for the new parish house. Though a relative had advised Bacon\n\"to cut-out the soul-saving business,\" the avenues of service under\nFrank Nelson's leadership impelled him to abandon his planned career. No\nagreement was made about salary until much later when Mr. Nelson said,\n\"We cannot give you much. Will you come for a hundred dollars a month\nand live in the parish house?\" At the annual meeting of the church on\nEaster Monday, 1908, the rector made the announcement: \"I am very glad\nto be able to tell you that Mr. Howard N. Bacon has joined the staff,\ngiving up a very promising business future to devote his life to work\namong boys and young men. He will have charge of the camp, and manage\nthe parish house as well as working in the Sunday School.\" It is not the\nslightest exaggeration to say that no appointment to the staff of Christ\nChurch was ever more momentous and fruitful. He served Mr. Nelson\nthirty-one years, though many other attractive positions were offered\nhim. Upon him Mr. Nelson leaned as on no other. Through the years he has\nperformed the larger part of a clergyman's office, and though not\nordained is often called \"Reverend.\" He took over the multitudinous\ndetails of a highly organized parish as did or could no other assistant\nor paid parish worker; consequently, Mr. Nelson was able to devote his\ntime to many civic enterprises, and to play a vital role in the national\nlife of the Episcopal Church. To have rendered such a service means\nthat he is completely self-effacing and richly merited Mr. Nelson's\ntribute: \"I would not know how to get on without him.\"\n\nThe phenomenal development of the parish house as a community center\nkept pace with the striking growth of the church. During Mr. Nelson's\nrectorship the communicant list of the parish expanded from 599 in 1900\nto 2089 in 1939; the number of contributors to the budget from 200 to\n1002; the parish and missionary budgets from $15,103.00 in 1900 to\n$77,493.00 in 1927, to cite a high year; the Endowment Fund from\n$11,770.00 in 1900 to $531,384.00 in 1939. In a way it seemed as if Mr.\nNelson had only to walk down Fourth Street and the money met him! In any\ncase, in the prosperous years it flowed in steadily from a people given\nto generosity. One morning he met a parishioner who had been abroad\nduring the past year, and the man asked Mr. Nelson to accompany him to\nhis bank. Taking the rector to his safety deposit box, he handed over a\nthousand dollar bond saying, \"I haven't done anything for Christ Church\nin a long time.\" One Sunday morning in the course of the notices (with\nhim, announcements were really an art) Mr. Nelson spoke of his friend,\nDr. Paul Wakefield, who had been left stranded in China during the\nCommunist uprising of 1927, and from whom he had just received a letter.\nThe special offering that morning, together with contributions sent in\nover the week, amounted to five hundred dollars.\n\nIn the course of the great forty years of Mr. Nelson's ministry, a long\nseries of extraordinary gifts was made, including the parish house\nalready mentioned, memorial windows, an altar, an organ, and numberless\nothers, all indicative of the liberality of the people. These gifts were\ngrandly climaxed by the erection of a chapel to commemorate the\nCentennial of Christ Church. It was designed to express the beauty,\nmystery, and nobility of the Christian faith, and to provide for the\nmany services for which the large church was unsuited. The Chapel was\nlargely a thank-offering on the part of parishioners and many others who\nhad found in Christ Church a spiritual home for which they were\nprofoundly grateful. Another remarkable aspect of this gift was its\nconception in the uncertain days of 1917.\n\nAs the years brought the ever-changing conditions of city life, and as\ncivic institutions, social agencies, and the public schools afforded\ngymnasiums, swimming pools, playgrounds, and social centers such as were\nscarcely known in the first decades of Mr. Nelson's ministry, he\ncontinued to believe in the religious motive which Christ Church gave to\nall these recreational and social activities. To the end of his days he\nheld that religious faith gives to social work an enthusiasm, a personal\nfervor, and a genuineness without which the one thing needful is\nlacking. He led his people to see in the drinking fountain outside the\nparish house a symbol of the Church's undying service to the world of\nmen. The fact that passers-by, whether on foot or in pleasure car or\ntruck, stopped to quaff of its ice-cold water was to him an expression\nof man's eternal need for the water of life, a need which, please God,\nwould always be met by a church whose gospel resides in the nether\nsprings of God's loving purpose for the children of men.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[4] Frank H. Nelson.\n\n[5] Frank H. Nelson, _Centennial Address_, May 17, 1917.\n\n[6] Frank H. Nelson, _Year Books_, 1902 and 1903.\n\n[7] Mr. Nelson's report, _Year Book_, 1908.\n\n\n\n\n  _The Shepherd\n  Among His\n  Flock_\n\n\n  \"_And he shall stand and feed his flock in the\n  strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the\n  name of the Lord his God: and they shall\n  abide ... and this man shall be our peace._\"\n\n  --_Micah 5:4_\n\n\n  3\n\n\nA Cincinnati taxi-cab driver said to me, \"Frank Nelson was sure a real\nman. If you had a million dollars, you got a fifteen minute funeral\nservice; if you had twenty-five cents, you got a fifteen minute service.\nHe was just as concerned over the family with two rooms as the one with\ntwenty.\" This man had lived all his life in the Queen City, and had\ndriven Mr. Nelson to innumerable services as far back as the days of\nhorse-cabs, and though he was not aware of the restraint and brevity of\nthe Prayer Book Service, he unwittingly put his finger on the very pulse\nof Mr. Nelson's ministry.\n\nIn all relationships with people, Frank Nelson possessed the true\ninstinct of the pastor because he was moved by the zest and pity of\nhuman life as well as by an eager willingness to spend himself. He\ninvariably had the right word for the occasion, and responded with a\nfinely balanced emotion to each individual situation. His discerning\nsense of the human element in life's experiences was matchless. He spoke\nhumorously when lightness and gaiety were in order, and seriously when\nthe word of faith was needed. There is much to be learned from his\napproach. Called one day to a humble dwelling on Mt. Adams where a\nmother was hysterical because her boy had just undergone an emergency\noperation, Mr. Nelson tore a button from his coat before entering the\nroom, and said in an off-hand manner, \"Oh! this has just come off! Will\nyou sew it on?\"\n\nIn a surpassingly unselfish fashion he thought of himself as the head of\nthe Christ Church family, and it mattered not at all to him whether\npeople who needed him were on the church register or were connected only\nthrough a parish house organization. When told of someone's illness,\nthough the patient had membership in another church yet belonged to the\nMen's Club for instance, he would say, \"Oh! I must go to see him.\" The\nagent for an Industrial Insurance Company tells of calling in a home\nwhere the policy was about to lapse. The woman said, \"I will see Mr.\nNelson. Will you come back at five o'clock?\" When he returned, she had\nthe money.\n\nIn these tragic years of World War II we have learned that time is of\nthe essence, and Frank Nelson exemplified this principle in an\nextraordinary manner. Through all his years of service he seemed to have\na special sense of timeliness. He acted when one should act but does not\nalways do so. He was what a minister should be yet is not always. He was\nthere when needed, not when it suited his convenience. Immediacy again\nand again opened an opportunity that otherwise would have been lost and\nwith it the possibilities for widening his circle of usefulness. An\nout-of-town friend telegraphed requesting Mr. Nelson to call on a\ncertain man in a hospital, a stranger to Mr. Nelson, and he went at\nonce. On another occasion a new member of the choir who had been in\nCincinnati only a few weeks was suddenly taken ill. The doctors at the\nhospital were some time in deciding to operate, and called the girl's\nroommate. Although not knowing Mr. Nelson, she phoned him of her\nfriend's serious condition, and he went immediately to her bedside.\nThough the operation was not until midnight, he stayed with her through\nthe hours of waiting, joked to keep up her courage, and saw her through\nthe ordeal and was there when she came out of the anesthetic. It turned\nout that the young lady was the daughter of a Methodist Bishop, and one\ncan imagine her parents' gratitude when they learned over the phone that\nMr. Nelson was with her. It was the sort of thing he loved to do, and\npeople could not say enough of his help during such times of stress.\nThere was a peculiar radiancy to his ministry which issued from this\nalacrity, the special glow that surrounds all lives that are nobly\nunselfish. He never spared himself, not even in his later years when\nillness had laid its relentless hand upon him who had always been robust\nand free of physical infirmities.\n\nIn a parish as diverse as that of Christ Church, there were unnumbered\nhappenings of a tragic-comic nature, and they all bespoke his special\nplace in the hearts of his people. Howard Bacon was once closeted in the\nparish house office on a certain winter's night with a man who became\ndefinitely and increasingly insane. Greatly alarmed, he succeeded in\nlocating Mr. Nelson, who arrived in evening clothes; together they got\nthe man into a car and drove him out to the distant suburb of College\nHill. On the way they were stalled by a flat tire, and Mr. Nelson\ninsisted on Mr. Bacon's staying in the car while he himself put on the\nspare. In the midst of all this, the poor man's mind apparently cleared\nbriefly for he asked, \"Do all great men come way out here to do things\nlike this?\" In another instance a choir soloist developed melancholia\nand refused to eat, and Mr. Nelson often fed her because she would eat\nfor him. Nothing was too trivial to be encompassed by his great heart.\nEveryone, and sometimes it appeared as if everything, that was clothed\nwith any need was his responsibility and called out his limitless\nsympathy. A friend jested that even the dog fights required his presence\nand the remark seemed to carry a kernel of truth! Once he prayed with a\npoor, broken-hearted woman who had lost her dearest possession, a pet\ncanary bird, and again he sat down and talked as one sportsman to\nanother with a friend who had lost a polo game. To this clergyman these\nwere the peculiar privileges of his position, and never duties. Parents,\nwith a true instinct for loving a man who was really good, wanted him to\nbaptize their children, for in laying his hand upon the infant he was\nalso laying his hand upon their hearts, and this act was the genuine\nblessing of a father-in-God, the shepherd calling his own by name.\n\nThere came to me the following letter from a parishioner whose first\nchild lived only a few hours:\n\n  The one thing I wanted to do was to receive the Holy Communion.\n  My husband called the Parish House and left word. We expected his\n  assistant or possibly the deaconess, and you can imagine how\n  honored and comforted we felt when Mr. Nelson came himself. It\n  was indeed comforting to know that such a busy person could take\n  time for one of the most humble of his church. We shall never\n  forget the talk we had with him in the hospital before receiving\n  the Holy Communion. He asked all about our little boy, and told\n  us always to speak of him by name and think of him alive with the\n  Father. Mr. Nelson told us of a baby sister of his who died, and\n  how he felt about her. He said he always visited that tiny grave\n  when he went home. He really stands in our hearts.\n\nThe strength of the Lord dwelt in his heart else he never could have\ngiven himself so indefatigably to the demands of a great city parish.\nThere were no barriers of access to him. Until 1919 he did not have a\nprivate secretary, preferring to answer personally all his mail in long\nhand, and the only times he allowed himself to be out of reach of the\ntelephone were during Holy Week and possibly on Saturdays. Everyone who\ncame to the office was able to see him without any formality. I remember\nshowing him an article in a church paper on the misuse of the title\n\"Reverend,\" and suggesting that it might be well to print it in the\nSunday leaflet. He was amused and only said, \"What does it matter what\nwe are called as long as they _call_ us.\" This intense desire to give of\nhimself lay back of his disappointment when friends and parishioners\nfailed to communicate with him because they hesitated to trouble so busy\na man. Former Mayor Russell Wilson remarked that \"Frank Nelson was the\nspiritual advisor to many men whom you would not think of as having\nspiritual advisors.\" The downright sincerity of the man and his\n\"at-homeness\" with human beings of all kinds made it natural for men to\ntalk with him.\n\nThere was, however, more in his personality than mere sociability and a\ngenial manner, because an indefinable power or strength went forth from\nhim. It was in his ministry to the sick that people felt especially a\ncertain grace in his faith. He carried about with him \"the medicine of a\nmerry heart,\" and patients wanted to see him. He was a door through\nwhich a person passed to a deeper consciousness of the mystery and\ngreatness of life and the infinities which brood over it. Therefore, his\nministry to the sick commended itself to an unusual degree. One of the\nleading surgeons of Cincinnati, Dr. J. Louis Ransohoff, declared it his\nfirm conviction that Frank Nelson gave a patient a double chance. Few\nministers are welcomed by the medical profession in as intimate a role\nas this pastor took upon himself. Well known in Cincinnati is the story\nof his entering a Roman Catholic Hospital to be greeted by the Mother\nSuperior with a hearty \"Good-morning, Father Nelson,\" and the Jewish\nsurgeon, \"Good-morning, Rabbi Nelson,\" while the parishioner-patient\nsaid, \"Good-morning, Mr. Nelson.\" His presence calmed panic-stricken\npatients, and if he had sought to carry further along this line, there\nare those who felt that he could easily have established a clinic or\nhealing class. Of no end are those who maintained that they could not\nhave undergone an operation without his standing beside them. Because he\ncared he often came out haggard and worn. Such incidents are revealing\nexamples of the acceptance on the part of a large portion of the entire\ncity of the ministry of one who was utterly sincere, utterly genuine.\nThose who follow the same calling must with pride point to him as\nsuperbly a man of God.\n\nFrank Nelson was held in the highest respect by the medical profession\nbecause physicians generally felt, in the words of Dr. Ransohoff, that\n\"his life had a spiritual significance; there was no cant, only\nhumility.\" Sometimes he walked to the operating room beside a fearful\npatient, and one man later said, \"Something came through him to me. The\nfear was gone.\" He often went with parishioners to a doctor's office,\nand sent hundreds of others giving them an infinite amount of time and\nthought. Because of Frank Nelson the name \"Christ Church\" was an open\nsesame for all the little-known workers and assistants on the staff of\nthe church. For these countless favors he frequently expressed publicly\nhis gratitude saying, \"We very often have need of the help of lawyers,\ndoctors and nurses. And we never appeal in vain. Without thought of any\nreturn the doctors and lawyers of the city, the hospitals, and the\nVisiting Nurses' Association give us quick response of their very best.\"\n\nThose who worked with him have unforgettable memories of the way in\nwhich he visited the poorest tenements, always with the same courtesy\nand unconsciousness of environment that he showed to wealthy\nparishioners. Whether East Hill or Mt. Adams they were his people, and\neach received the kind of attention, the friendship, the grave dignity\nand consideration that each most wanted. When it was a Communion\nService for the sick in a poor section of the city, he had a deeply\nsympathetic approach. Usually he himself would clear a little table in\nthe dingy room, and when he had placed the fair linen and the silver\nvessels where the sick person could watch him and had donned his\nvestments, the place was transformed. As he commenced the beautiful\nliturgy, read only as the Rector could read it, there was in the humble\nroom a Presence for which he was the channel.\n\nIn his reading of the Burial Office, there was a play of light and shade\nupon this man of God who, like Moses, \"wist not that his face shone.\"\nThe majestic notes of faith and assurance which reverberate in the words\nof this service were, on his lips and in his sympathetic and superb\nreading, like the overtones and rich harmonies of an organ. There was no\nformalism nor coldness, no hesitancy to plumb the stark reality of the\noccasion, but only the vibrant convictions of his own great faith in the\ngoodness of God. Few can fail to recall the clarity and feeling with\nwhich he read St. Paul's immortal passage in 1st Corinthians, nor ever\nforget the prayer he invariably used in this service, \"We seem to give\nhim back to Thee, dear God.\"\n\nFrank Nelson made Christ Church known throughout the city, and on\noccasions of trouble and stress, as just mentioned, people other than\nthose in his flock turned to him naturally and wistfully. Their desires\nwere not always consistent with the customs of the Episcopal Church. In\none such instance a widow requested a eulogy, but Mr. Nelson told her\nthat it was not the procedure of his church and, furthermore, he would\nnot know what to say. Not abashed in the slightest, she replied, \"Oh,\nthat doesn't matter. Just give the address you made at the Mabley-Carew\nDepartment Store dinner!\" However, he did read a poem, and in trying to\nexpress her sincere appreciation the widow somewhat astounded him by\nsaying, \"Why, that was enough to make Bob stand up in his coffin.\"\n\nHe knew what was in the human heart, and realized the craving for\nunderstanding in times of despair and sorrow. Somehow he managed to do\nand say the right thing. At one time the mother of a parishioner had\ndied in a distant state, and when the family arrived in Cincinnati, he\nwas at the railroad station at seven o'clock in the morning to meet them\nand accompanied the coffin from the baggage car to the hearse. So simple\nan act bespeaks the innate dignity and simplicity of the man. It was his\ncustom at the cemetery to walk with the chief mourner, and by such\nlittle kindnesses and numberless other courtesies he endeared himself to\neach generation in his long ministry. A parishioner whose mother died\nlate one Good Friday evening remembers that despite the heavy tax of the\nday Mr. Nelson came to her house shortly before ten o'clock, and, though\nno lights were on, rang the bell, calling, \"I want to talk with you.\" By\nhis coming, a sleepless night was shorn of its dread and vastness, and\nconfidence and serenity took their place. At another time when a family\nreceived the fearful word from Washington that a son had been killed in\nthe Argonne, Mr. Nelson though confined to his bed with illness went at\nonce to call in the home. On the day of the funeral, before going to the\nchurch, he read the identical service in that suburban home for the\ninvalid mother. As many people in Boston have said that until Phillips\nBrooks came to them in their sorrow they never knew what Isaiah meant in\nhis words, \"And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime\nfrom the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from rain,\"\nso Christ Church people found in Frank Nelson a stronghold in time of\ntrouble.\n\nThere are many incidents that illustrate the ideals of this incomparable\npastor. For instance, the Council of Churches had two social workers in\nthe Juvenile Court, one of whom was a parishioner, young and beautiful.\nMr. Nelson did not really want her to do such work, but her parents\nthought her trained and equipped for it. In his solicitude he went to\nthe Executive Secretary and asked, \"Do you have staff meetings? I want\nyou to have her there in your office. Give her the knowledge that she is\ndealing with the abnormal, and that not all life is perversion.\" The\nwelfare of each individual in his church was his personal concern.\n\nHe exercised this same solicitude for us young clergymen, some fourteen\nin number, who were his assistants and to whom he gave a tutelage and\nfriendship that continued long after our apprenticeship was ended. He\nwas an exacting teacher and beyond us, but like all others who labored\nin his parish, we felt a special joy and pride in working under him. It\nwas a tremendous strain to keep up with him, and his own daily stint of\nwork often put us to shame; in the fullness of his powers he made as\nmany as thirty calls a week. One was never through, one could never do\nenough, and when tempted to let down, there was felt, even when not\nheard, that imperious voice, \"Go on! Don't be easy on yourself.\" His own\nshepherding exemplified his belief that in the ministry honor for one's\nself is nothing, humanity everything. No task, even scrubbing floors,\nwas too menial or too hard to be beneath the position of him who is\nGod's servant. When the problems and the pressure of work in such a\nlarge institution weighed upon us, and their full scope inevitably was\nrevealed at staff meetings, it was then as we were on our knees that his\ninformal, absolutely real prayers lifted and strengthened us. Yes, on\nsome rare occasions in his tower study we were on the Mount and gained\nfleeting glimpses of the City of God.\n\nIt was difficult at times for those of lesser faith not to be appalled\nby the awful waste and stupidity of human life such as any great city\nunbares. But the Rector used the many instances to illustrate the\nrequirements of wide sympathy, and to teach us to reverence the\nqualities of personality even when we could not fathom the reasons for\napparent foolishness. He would say things like this: \"Never forget that\nthe development of our free will is what God wants. Love may make\nmistakes, but they are not failures. There are times when one's own life\nis of very little importance compared with the need for sacrifice.\" The\nassistants, the deaconesses, and parish visitors had, in addition to a\ntraining in modern social methods, the supreme advantage of religious\ndirection. His guidance issued from his own example and experience.\n\nDeaconess Margaret Lloyd writes:\n\n  It seemed in those early years as though all our parish poor\n  lived on the top floors of tenements, and I often thought that\n  climbing the famous penitents' stairway in Rome would have been\n  an easy climb compared with the ascent of Mt. Adams! It was\n  climbed almost daily by some member of the staff, and very\n  frequently by the Rector. It was not only the climb, but the\n  drab, dreary houses of the period. For those were the days of\n  heavy, soft coal smoke, of a yellow, unpurified water supply, and\n  a lack of adequate housing or health laws. The consequences were\n  that a large parish like ours always had typhoid or T. B. folk\n  needing material help as well as sympathy and compassion. The\n  annals of such a parish always contain numberless \"human interest\n  stories.\" There was a very large family which never was able to\n  provide shoes or to have quite enough clothing for six children.\n  We suspected that, despite all efforts, sufficient food was\n  lacking, and especially at those times when the head of the\n  family was on one of his happy-go-lucky sprees. Everyone on the\n  staff felt a sense of relief when this bibulous father died for\n  there was enough insurance money not only to bury him, but to\n  leave funds to tide the family over the next few months, and\n  until the mother and her two eldest children had found jobs.\n  Imagine our feelings when, in less than two weeks after the\n  funeral, the widow appeared at the parish house! She had come to\n  ask Christ Church for a little help until she had work. \"But what\n  has become of your insurance money, surely you have not used it\n  all up so soon?\" \"Oh! yes we have, deaconess! You see we always\n  craved gold band rings for the children, and I always doted on\n  having a pink enamel bed.\" It was really true! The bed that they\n  had longed for stood in their shabby front room, pink enamel,\n  gold curlicue trimmings and all! Its enormous expanse was covered\n  with tawdry silk pillows and silk spread, and it stood out, the\n  one glorious object in the whole tenement. Also the children with\n  the utmost pride showed their gold band rings which according to\n  the custom of those days each wore on the \"wedding finger\"; even\n  the five year old displayed his golden trophy. Mr. Nelson did his\n  best to modify the protests of his outraged staff. Finally we did\n  see at least something of his point of view, that to the family\n  these symbols of respectability meant what a Persian rug would\n  have meant in a more sophisticated family. For these friends of\n  ours had \"arrived,\" socially speaking, via the pink enamel bed,\n  and their admiring neighbors could never again refer to them as\n  \"poor white trash.\" It takes a long, long time to change ideas,\n  but the Rector's respect for human personality (foolishness and\n  stupidity notwithstanding) and his method of patience, tact, and\n  a sense of humor did change many of us. And a controlled sense of\n  humor has a marvelous effect at times. There was the instance\n  when the Rector went to conduct a funeral service on Mt. Adams.\n  It was a very hot day, the little rooms were crowded, and family\n  and neighbors were close to the coffin. Mr. Nelson put on his\n  vestments in the stuffy kitchen. He had begun the majestic words\n  of the service when there strolled into the room the small boy of\n  the family nonchalantly carrying a very large slice of\n  watermelon! He found a spot on the floor at the foot of the\n  coffin, and proceeded to eat the juicy treat. The Rector\n  continued with the service, and the mourners gave him absorbed\n  attention until the last prayer. No incongruity could possibly\n  change the beauty and dignity of that service as conducted by our\n  Rector.\n\nFrank Nelson was shepherd to all. To be sure, there were complaints that\nhe did not call in every home, and to some who did not have the\nopportunity to experience at first-hand his sympathy and concern, he\nseemed aloof. But when a need arose he met it; and as years were added\nto years he won the confidence of all types of people. To the rich he\nsaid, \"Your money is the smallest gift you can offer. Yes, Christ Church\nneeds money, but it needs you yourself far more.\" He said to the poor,\n\"You are splendid in the way you are helping us. The parish could not\nget along without such workers as you. Keep it up!\" In the warm climate\nof his enthusiasm and appreciation, young and old, rich and poor\ndiscovered within themselves an undreamed-of capacity to respond to his\nfaith and to his demands for service. In turn he was generous in\ngratitude. At the time of his twenty-fifth anniversary he wrote the\nfollowing acknowledgment to a parishioner who had written to him of all\nthat Christ Church and his ministry meant:\n\n  Thank you indeed, and thank you still more for these seventeen\n  years of most extraordinary service, and personal loyalty and\n  friendship. I can never tell you how much I have appreciated\n  them, and do appreciate them. I know I have made life harder for\n  you--both in the work I have put on you--and by the way I have\n  often left you to carry the burden unaided. But I know too that\n  the Spirit has carried you on and filled you with new visions and\n  powers of life. And that makes all the rest worth while. I am so\n  glad that you are coming up to us at Cranberry. I know you will\n  love its loveliness, and in its quiet and the sweep of sea and\n  sky, you will find refreshment and renewed strength. And then we\n  can talk not of plans and work, but what lies beneath them, faith\n  and God and the abundant life.\n\nAs his forty years' ministry came to a close, there was throughout the\nentire city a growing crescendo of acclaim, which found fervent\nexpression in words like these: \"He was our best friend for years.\"\nDeeper than the affection which drew forth such recognition was his\nprofound faith in the Father-God of all mankind. It was Frank Nelson's\nlimitless trust in his Heavenly Father that gave him his strength and\ninfluence. Many an evening on his way home he went into his church or\nchapel to pray, and lay before God the problems and griefs of his people\nwhich he carried in his great heart.\n\n    \"Therefore to thee it was given\n    Many to save with thyself;\n    And, at the end of the day,\n    O faithful shepherd! to come,\n    Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.\"[8]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[8] _Rugby Chapel_ by Matthew Arnold. Macmillan Co. Used by permission.\n\n\n\n\n  _The Spokesman\n  of the City's\n  Conscience_\n\n\n  \"_He so stirred the very soul of our responsibility\n  for social living that we felt he had\n  come to break the old city's sleep of habit or\n  despair._\"\n\n  --_Miss Edith Campbell_\n\n\n  4\n\n\nFrank Nelson loved the city, and was moved by its swift, tumultuous\nlife; hence, he was able to stir it. No mere reformer or \"up-lifter\" who\nsees only ugliness and sordidness can effect very far-reaching changes,\nand retain his faith. Mr. Nelson succeeded in both. He came to\nCincinnati under the high compulsion of a mission, and relinquished his\nwork on the same high plane of faith and vision. To have retained such\nconviction over a period of forty years in the sort of work which was\nhis testifies to a quality of realism that is at once impressive and\nauthoritative. He knew the vice and corruption that lurked the streets,\nand yet he reiterated to the end that \"there is a glory in the city seen\nin the faces of men and women, boys and girls, which is the immortal\nsoul growing clean, and entering into paradise.\" Something of that glory\nhe created. Christ Church is located in Ward Six, formerly Ward Eight,\nand there also Mr. Nelson had his residence at 311 Pike Street. One of\nthe boys who grew up in the district and is now a successful business\nman declares that this ward would be entirely different today if it had\nnot been for Frank Nelson and the work carried on in Christ Church. But\nthis clergyman's work and influence spread far outside his parish and\nbeyond his ward.\n\nBy many Catholics, Jews, and Protestants Frank Nelson was acknowledged\nas \"the flaming sword of the Charter Movement\"; the man who so\ninterpreted the Community Chest that \"he made it a platform upon which\nevery man could stand\"; and in the minds of some of them he so\no'er-leaped sectarian differences that they considered him their\nminister. His was a position as unique as it was remarkable considering\nthe fact that he held no title or high-ranking office such as Bishop.\nThis minister quickened the conscience of Cincinnati, and brought into\nfull bloom vague, half-formed ideals. Many looked upon him as the\nspokesman of the city's conscience.\n\nMr. Nelson did not grow up in an age of radical and revolutionary\neconomic and social programs. He was not a student of such\nphilosophies, yet he had in his heart that particular treasure, namely\nan affection for people, for the fortunate and no less for the poor and\nthe dispossessed. Without this love for the common man, these\nphilosophies are never translated into the natural order of things nor\never become more than intellectual pronouncements. He was neither a\nmystic nor a reformer, but a citizen who was deeply cognizant of\nreligious faith as laying upon him and upon everyone a compulsive\nservice. This mighty conviction he expressed in varying ways as we shall\nsee, but never in more arresting words than in a sermon which he\npreached on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of\nThe Covenant from the text, \"Ye shall not see my face except your\nbrother be with you.\" Though delivered in 1916, this sermon was recalled\ntwenty-three years later on the occasion of Mr. Nelson's retirement as a\nconsummate expression of his faith and convictions, namely that we are\nnot isolated individuals each to be saved by means of self-centered\npiety, but only through practicing religion in fellowship with one\nanother.\n\nA study of his annual reports indicates that from his St. George's days\nhe was dominated by the vision of the Church as having a mission to the\ncity. As early as 1903 he outlined the conditions that confront\nChristian people, and the relation of the Church to them:\n\n  The city of today is the point of concentration of the forces\n  that are making the character, and determining the standards of\n  our time. So complex is our modern civilization that it is not\n  possible to separate the individual in our estimation of his\n  standards and character from the conditions by which he is\n  surrounded, and in which he lives. For they vitally influence his\n  point of view, his ideals, his efforts to attain them. A boy who\n  grows up in an atmosphere of openly accepted corruption will\n  inevitably lack sensitiveness of moral perception. Our young men\n  and women, our boys and girls are subjected to a moral pressure\n  that is extremely difficult to resist. What is the duty of the\n  Church? The moral welfare of these young people is its intimate\n  concern. It may, and it must, bring to bear a counter pressure of\n  high individual moral standards and ideals. It may, and it must,\n  hold up before them faith in purity and honesty, and persuade\n  them to receive it. But that is not enough. It must utter its\n  word of protest against the rule of the Boss, not because it\n  wishes to enter the arena of politics, not because it differs\n  from him on political questions, not even because he is the\n  denial of democracy, but because he maintains his power of\n  corrupting manhood and womanhood by protecting and fostering vice\n  in order that they may be his allies. It must utter its protest\n  against the dictum, \"Whatever pays is right,\" not because it\n  wishes to dictate business methods, or to set itself up as an\n  authority on economics, but because it finds this corruption in\n  business demoralizing to standards and character. It must utter\n  its protest against overcrowded and unsanitary tenement houses,\n  not because it considers its function to be the censorship of\n  buildings, but because such conditions breed immorality among the\n  boys and girls. The individual message alone is made ineffective\n  by the constant pressure of these conditions. To make that\n  message effective, the conditions must be changed. And it is\n  peculiarly the work of a church, situated as is Christ Church, to\n  say and do what it can to make them intolerable to the conscience\n  of a Christian city. I have said all this because I want you to\n  see clearly the place in the pulpit and church of such preaching\n  and work as we have tried to give and do. We must go forward with\n  increasing energy and purpose, and that whether the results seem\n  great or small. We may, and must, at least sow the seed in the\n  faith that God will inevitably bring it to the harvest.\n\nAgain and again he thundered, \"The conditions must be made intolerable\nto the conscience of a Christian city,\" and the spirit of the times\nrolled back the sterile answer, \"It can't be done in Cincinnati.\" But he\nshook himself like a lion and took up the battle.\n\nThe fight for honest municipal government in Cincinnati was a mighty one\nand the story of it is fairly well known, but a few pertinent facts are\nessential as a background to Mr. Nelson's part in it. For more than\nthirty years George B. Cox controlled the city by all the devices known\nto the wily, astute politician. Few presumed to run for any office on\nthe Republican ticket without his approval. Unburdened by shame, he\ndeclared, \"I am the Boss of Cincinnati ... I've got the best system of\ngovernment in this country. If I didn't think my system was the best, I\nwould consider that I was a failure in life.\" He openly derided\nreformers. Lincoln Steffens had surveyed and written up the city as he\nhad many others and declared it under the dominance of \"the most vicious\npolitical gang in any city.\" Few inroads were made on Cox's preserves\nuntil after his death in 1916. At the close of World War I, the city\nbegan to reap the bitterest and most evil results of its contentment\nwith benevolent despotism, and in 1922 found itself verging on\nbankruptcy. Aroused citizens were determined not only that Cincinnati\nshould have an efficient, economical government but also that its\nreputation as a sink of iniquity should be erased.\n\nWhen the Republican organization perceived that an investigation was\ninescapable, it determined to name the investigators! The Republican\nExecutive and Advisory Committee appointed a survey committee to devise\na plan to solve the city's and county's most pressing administrative and\nfinancial problems. A distinguished group was selected; among the\nmembers were Frank H. Nelson, George H. Warrington, Charles P. Taft, and\nother eminent citizens some twenty-one in number. This committee engaged\nDr. Lent D. Upson of the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Research, who\nwith a large staff of specialists proceeded to turn the city and county\ngovernments inside out. The Upson Report furnished the ammunition for\nwhat turned out to be nothing short of a revolution.\n\nA City Charter Committee had been organized which, after the Upson\nCommittee reported, proposed an amendment to the city's home rule\ncharter embodying the city manager plan of municipal government and a\nsmall council of nine elected at large by proportional representation.\nIn the fall of 1924 the critical issue was submitted to the electorate,\nand a significant victory won. \"This new movement, its representatives\nyouthful, clear-eyed, energetic and determined, took its place in the\nbooks of our history as the first reform enterprise of any permanence\nin a great city of the United States.\"[9] In this crusade of civic\nwarriors Frank Nelson ranked as \"a flaming sword,\" to use the colorful\nphrase of his friend Mr. Ralph Holterhoff. He was a constant worker in\nplanting the first seeds of the moral rightness of the cause, the\ncrusader whose faith clarified the fundamental religious background\ninherent in good government. During the initial campaign of 1924, Mr.\nNelson, preaching this gospel from his pulpit, carried his parish with\nhim into the righteous cause, and he literally toured the city wards as\nwell. When the City Charter Committee was given permanent form,\nfollowing the sweeping victory of November 1924, it is significant that\nthe organization meeting was held in the Parish House of Christ Church.\nAmong the speakers were Mr. Nelson, Charles P. Taft, John R. Schindel,\nand Henry Bentley, who was known as \"the Commander of the legions that\ngave a city a new body and a new soul,\" all of them leaders in the\ncampaign, and members and vestrymen of Christ Church. Another\nparishioner, Ralph Holterhoff, was, almost single-handed, responsible\nfor financing the Committee's work for its next fifteen years.\n\nRepeatedly throughout successive years Mr. Nelson spoke at Charter\nrallies, giving a series of remarkably effective addresses which\nassisted immeasurably in sustaining the zest and interest of citizens in\nthe reform ideal. As Mr. Murray Seasongood has said, \"The technique of\ngood local government has been developed by study, but the will to bring\nabout good local government has not been infused into the residents of\nour cities.\" Toward that will and fusion in the city of Cincinnati, men\nare agreed that Frank Nelson's moral and spiritual contribution was\nenormous. Leaders declare that in routing the forces of corrupt\ngovernment from their strongholds, his was the most powerful voice\nraised in the city. His trenchant words, his statesmanlike ability\nspurred the lagging energies and fired men's spirits to greater effort;\nhe gave the necessary courage and drive and inspiration to carry through\nand maintain the reform movement. \"It is the man of ideals and faith,\"\nFrank Nelson reiterated, \"who has more courage than any politician. We\nshall set our faces steadfastly to the victory not only for good\ngovernment and efficiency, but for the morality and the righteousness\nand the power of faith in this community.\" In the opinion of Mr. Ralph\nHolterhoff, the treasurer of the City Charter organization, Mr. Nelson,\nby his extensive contacts with all classes of citizens, radiating not\nonly through his parish but throughout the entire fabric of Cincinnati's\neconomic and social life, aroused the people with more success than any\nother individual. He literally mustered thousands of recruits who became\nzealous apostles and voters for the cause, although many had not voted\nfor years because they felt nothing could be done about the existing\nevils. During the recurring campaigns for councilmen, Mr. Nelson was at\nthe beck and call of the organization, giving extravagantly of his time\nand vitality at many rallies, particularly at the opening meeting of\ncampaigns, where he either was the keynote speaker or took such part as\nexpressed the religious convictions that lay behind the movement.\n\"Hearing him,\" wrote Alfred Segal, a newspaper columnist, \"people felt\nthat good government was more than a matter of efficiency and economy.\nIt had to do with civic self-respect and social morale and bright\nideals.\"\n\nBecause the issue was clearly moral, this minister did not hesitate to\nuse his pulpit and his parish organization to further the cause. It is a\ntribute to his church that he met with only minor criticism. He carried\nhis people with him because he enabled them to perceive the relationship\nbetween religion and politics. Of course he met with criticism from\nthose who felt that a clergyman should remain aloof from politics, yet\nat the same time he was genuinely admired and respected by those who did\nnot agree with him. Several of his bitterest political critics, such as,\nfor example, James Garfield Stewart, and Doc Hagen, a ward politician,\nwere not lacking in keen appreciation of his position. And on other\ncivic issues where he made no concealment of his opinions he was,\naccording to Herbert Bigelow, the minister of The People's Church and a\nformer city councilman, \"never a trimmer, and those who have seen him in\ntight places never saw him crawl.\"\n\nThough the Cincinnati Community Chest is not in politics, it has\ndefinitely influenced the course of good government because of the\ncharacter of the people who carry on the work of the numerous social\nagencies which it comprises. In 1913, these agencies were organized into\na Council, and Frank Nelson's vision, enthusiasm and tireless efforts\nwere determining factors in welding together the diverse religious and\nracial groups engaged in social service throughout the city. Through\nthis Council, multiple activities were coordinated, and Jewish,\nCatholic, and Protestant welfare agencies were kindled with new spirit\nand power which resulted in greater efficiency and an increased\nopportunity for reaching larger numbers of people. As a consequence, the\nmajority of the social welfare enterprises were able to make a united\nfinancial appeal, and since 1919 have continued together without a break\nin the ranks. Charles P. Taft says of the Cincinnati Community Chest:\n\n  The executive direction and social vision of C. M. Bookman, and\n  the spiritual leadership of Reverend Frank H. Nelson have given\n  to the campaign and year-round organizations of volunteers a most\n  distinctive quality. It is not that we raise each year an amount\n  greater per capita than most other cities, although we do that;\n  but it seems to one attending our gatherings that all the men and\n  women of good will in our community have come together and that\n  their spirits are welded together in a great cause, the education\n  of the whole city to the highest standards of health, character,\n  and welfare.[10]\n\nThe welding together was again the work of many civic-minded men and\nwomen, and Frank Nelson was the fire which fused the different parts\ninto a unity. \"He made the Community Chest a platform upon which every\nman could stand,\" says C. M. Bookman, the Executive Secretary. His work\nin the formative years of the Council, particularly in the raising of\nfunds for the first three years, was of untold value. As the Council\nachieved coherence and a consciousness of its identity, he went on to\nthe larger work of conveying to the city the idea that in this cause the\npeople of Cincinnati could be supremely united, above politics, and\nbeyond racial and religious prejudices. It was his ability to interpret\nthe spiritual basis of this work that made it a common platform. As a\nresult, contributors felt their gifts to have a downright significance.\n\"It is,\" he said, \"God's way of making cities good in spite of\nthemselves.\"\n\nFrank Nelson believed so thoroughly in the work of the social agencies\nthat the financial drives became a crusade, an adventure in human\nrelationships. He took off his coat, so to speak, and plunged into the\ndrives as one of the solicitors. The calls assigned him were the general\nrun as well as the difficult cases. He canvassed people of modest means\nwhom he didn't know as well as the large donors. As the calling was done\nby two men soliciting together, he often found himself teamed with a man\nwhose occupation contrasted sharply with his own, once being paired with\na distiller! In the personal interviews his was not the milk and honey\napproach, and he often became quite indignant if some did not give\naccording to their means. On one occasion he called with Mr. William J.\nShroder on a man who headed a large corporation but who refused to give\ncommensurately, using as an excuse the fact that the directors were\naway. Mr. Nelson's feelings blazed forth and he blurted out, \"You run\nthis corporation, and you can do as you please,\" and with that he strode\nout of the room leaving his calmer friend to secure a gift of $500.00.\nSham irritated him beyond measure. Again, at headquarters one day\nMaurice Pollak was holding forth in vivid language on the subject of\npeople who refused to contribute, and he did not notice Mr. Nelson\ncoming in behind him. When he suddenly stopped in some embarrassment,\nMr. Nelson exclaimed, \"Go ahead, Maurice, you are saying just what I\nfeel but can't express so well.\" As he was a man of intense fervor, it\nis probable that he was better at interpreting the inner significance of\nthe cause than in soliciting contributions. In 1922 he was elected the\nGeneral Chairman of the drive, and from 1916 to 1939 was a director of\nthe Chest.\n\nAs the years went by, Mr. Nelson became something of an \"institution\" in\nCincinnati, and his popularity made him \"fashionable\" to the\nsuperficial-minded. Yet there was something decidedly spontaneous in the\nacclaim with which he was once greeted by over one thousand canvassers\nat a campaign dinner in the suburban city of Norwood. To a man the great\naudience rose when he stood to speak, and applauded with genuine emotion\nthis Christian minister who represented Cincinnati as they wanted it to\nbe. Always sensitive to the reactions of a throng, he poured forth such\nutterance as made them see the Community Chest as a great moral force,\nnot as just a financial campaign. Their consciences were quickened by\nhis graphic portrayal of their desires for righteousness and decency and\nfair opportunity.\n\nHe was always one of the speakers held in reserve for the crucial last\ndays of the campaigns, and at the large daily luncheons held in the\nHotel Gibson for the canvassers he was at his best. The following\nsentences from a newspaper report of one such address are typical:\n\n  You know what this Community Chest has done for this great city,\n  how it has been, as the old seer said long ago, the river of\n  life, flowing through the streets of the city, keeping it clean,\n  refreshing it, strengthening it, heartening it, so that the tree\n  of life, bearing all manner of fruits, through all the year,\n  could grow upon its brink and spread forth its branches to\n  shelter and give new vigor and hope to the inhabitants of the\n  city. That river of life which we call social service is more\n  vital, more important and more needed for the steady maintenance\n  of the morale, well-being, and good life of the whole community\n  than the Ohio River is, believe me.\n\nBy the power of simple, forceful speech, strengthened by his great love\nfor people and his belief in them, he enabled Cincinnati to see beyond\nthe horizon, to dream dreams; and by his uncommon labor some of these\ndreams became actualities. He looked at the city's welfare from the\nreligious viewpoint, and in so doing commended religion to the\nreligiously indifferent. He saw the practical value of spiritual things\nand the spiritual value of practical things. When, for example, he\naddressed the National Conference for Social Workers at Denver in 1925\nand propounded the theme of Immortality, the audience was at first\naghast, and then enthralled. He maintained that they had nothing to work\nfor unless it was for eternity; that their business was concerned with\nsouls, and that the souls of the feeble-minded were as much heirs of\nimmortality as those of others more fortunate, and that no man has the\nright to condemn or stand in judgment. It was a bold speech to such an\naudience, and held their rapt attention; it was perhaps the more\nstimulating because it had been preceded by the scholarly and very\nformal address of the president of the conference. It was this occasion\nthat produced a choice story which Mr. Nelson loved to tell on himself.\nAt the close of the long evening two men were overheard commenting on\nthe speeches. One of them remarked, \"The first man was over my head, and\nthe second just plumb crazy.\"\n\nHe not only made the Community Chest common ground for all, but he also\nenabled the churches to see it as their work, calling the social service\norganizations \"sub-committees of the Church, doing for the churches the\nwork that the churches want done and would have to do themselves if it\nwere not for the Chest.\"\n\nFrank Nelson's influence on the civic and political life of Cincinnati\ncannot be measured, but its power was evident and was revealed time and\nagain through the contacts he had with civic leaders. A Roman Catholic\npriest said that many politicians went secretly to Mr. Nelson before\nexpressing themselves on certain civic matters or endorsing certain\nprojects. If some considered him officious, they could not have known\nhis humility, much less his consuming passion for human beings. When he\naddressed public gatherings, one could gauge his power by watching the\naudience; as the sincerity of the man made his words convincing, even\ncynical faces \"broke up,\" and the light shed by his stirring eloquence\noften brought tears.\n\nAmong the many tributes paid at the time of Mr. Nelson's death, was one\ngiven by the Reverend Jesse Halsey, the beloved former minister of the\nSeventh Presbyterian Church, who culled the phrase \"An Unmitered\nBishop,\" a title which is signally descriptive of the man by reason of\nthe many civic causes to which he was spiritual advisor, and thus a\nfather-in-God to diverse groups scattered over the seven hills and in\nthe \"bottoms.\" He actively furthered many humanitarian causes: the\nJuvenile Protective Association, the Anti-Tuberculosis League, the\nBranch Hospital, the Community Chest, the Council of Social Agencies,\nthe Helen S. Trounstine Foundation, the Hospital Social Service, St.\nMichael's Convalescent Home, and many others. Now that he is gone, the\nlong list of social enterprises ceases to be a mere string of activities\nand becomes a roll of drums.[11] His whole life seems to exemplify the\nwords of the philosopher Bacon: \"The nobler a soul is, the more objects\nof compassion it hath.\" His spirit breathed out upon men, and in his\nlifetime the city felt its beauty and greatness, drawing from his\nconstancy the courage to endure. He protested impatiently against the\nnonsense often bandied about concerning the alleged immorality of city\nfolk compared with country folk, and cited confuting evidence out of his\npastoral experience to prove his conviction saying, \"Heroes of these\ndays are the poor people who live in our big cities.\"\n\nOne of the heroines of Cincinnati, though not one of the poor, was Helen\nS. Trounstine, a remarkable young woman of Jewish faith, who was\nresponsible for making Mr. Nelson the first president of the Juvenile\nProtective Association. She was a pioneer in social service work, but\nher career was tragically cut short when she died at the early age of\ntwenty-six. At her memorial service held in Christ Church Parish House\nJanuary 21, 1917, Mr. Nelson made the principal address and some of his\nwords indirectly reveal much of himself:\n\n  I remember the organization of the Juvenile Protective\n  Association; I first met her then. I had never known her before\n  and I said to myself: \"Here is another person with an enthusiasm\n  come to complicate my life.\" I tried to get out of it, but\n  because I wanted to help little children (I built this parish\n  house for the young people, making my people support it for their\n  sake), and she knew it, with infinite patience and constant humor\n  and courtesy she kept forcing me, until gradually she landed me\n  in the Presidency of the Juvenile Protective Association, utterly\n  ignorant of what I was to do or what was to be done. And with the\n  same humor and patience she went ahead and did the work and made\n  me and the board responsible for it--made us stand behind her,\n  until at last we were ashamed that our consciences were so dull\n  and poor that we had not seen it long ago. And then we set out to\n  do something.\n\nAccording to the opinion of Miss Edith Campbell, who was thoroughly\nacquainted with his social work, though not a member of Christ Church,\nFrank Nelson's \"doing\" resulted in legislation for the Court of Domestic\nRelations which was to be in the future a real guardian for unfortunate\nchildren. His relationship with the Juvenile Protective Association is\nbut another instance of the ways in which he not only ministered to the\ncity and awoke its conscience, but also helped to foster understanding\nbetween church people and social workers. Possibly in no other city are\nthere such close ties between churches and social agencies, and this\nrelationship was Frank Nelson's achievement. He often attended the\nsocial workers' meetings of the Monday Evening Club; the conference of\nCharities and Philanthropies found a welcome center in his parish house.\nThus he wove a pattern for social service that came to fruition in\nmunicipal and state laws, the kind of laws which give such work\npermanence and effectiveness.\n\nFrank Nelson was a chivalrous individual who labored for what he thought\nwas right; he championed numerous causes when many people were\nmarshalled on the other side. It is in keeping with his character that\nhe took a pronounced part in the creation of understanding and the\nremoval of prejudices among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Years\nbefore the National Conference of Jews and Christians was organized, he\npracticed the principles of the inter-faith movement. At one time after\npresiding at a mass meeting in Music Hall held to protest the\npersecution of Jewish people in Europe, he wrote his friend, Dr. J.\nLouis Ransohoff: \"I realize how dreadfully you must feel, and I would\nlike to tell you that no matter how badly you feel as a Jew, I feel\nworse as a Christian because in the beginning Jews were persecuted in\nthe name of Christ.\" On more than one occasion he preached in the Isaac\nM. Wise synagogue for his friend, Rabbi James G. Heller. In one such\ninstance he spoke on his concept of the spiritual life, considering the\ngreat thing in man to be his soul, and pointing out that the journey is\nsuperior to the road in the realization of man's destiny. His candor won\nhim the respect and admiration of many in all faiths, for they knew that\nhe honored their opinions. No more dramatic incident illustrates his\nspirit than the one occurring in the inter-faith meeting at the Rockdale\nTemple Annex when he confessed his faith. Dr. Heller says there had been\na great palaver of generalities by the two preceding speakers, and Mr.\nNelson commenced his address by bluntly asking the audience if they\nwanted him to speak as he saw the truth, and they roared back, \"Yes!\"\nThereupon he launched forth with the ringing declaration, \"Let us be\nhonest! I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!\" He then proceeded to say\nthat he would like all Jews to become Christians just as he knew the\nJews and Roman Catholics desired universal allegiance to their faiths.\nWith one or two exceptions, not a soul in that great audience resented\nhis frankness. His ministry was that of one who lived day by day a life\nof good-will rather than of one who merely talked about it.\n\nSome men considered that he reflected too much surprise at the degree\nof harmony already existing among the faiths, and that his expressions\nof pleasure at finding such unanimity thus raised doubts as to its\nreality. However, in his broad spirit and totally Christ-fashioned\npersonality, he himself was at home with men of all faiths. In 1939, Mr.\nWilliam J. Shroder, as Chairman of the Community Chest campaign, chose\nfor the year's theme or slogan \"The Unity of Religion and Democracy.\" So\nexcellent a \"sermon\" did he preach on numerous occasions that Mr. Nelson\njestingly told his friend that he must stay out of his parish!\n\nOn the rare occasions when Jews change their religion, they usually do\nso because of marriage. One such instance is of special interest. The\ndaughter of a leading Jewish citizen married a Gentile, and since her\nrabbi would not perform the ceremony they turned to Frank Nelson,\nadmiring as they did his faith and works. In a large sense he was rabbi\nand minister to all sorts and conditions of people. Dean Friedlander of\nthe University Medical School, as he lay dying, said to a friend, \"I\nhave told my students how to treat the dying, but it is different when\nit comes to yourself. Frank Nelson has given me a hand.\" Again, another\nfriend in his trouble found such sane religious counsel that, although a\ndevout member of his synagogue, he declared, \"It took a Christian\nminister to bring out my soul.\" He never hesitated to disagree or argue\nwith his best friends, always maintaining that \"works without faith\" are\nnot sufficient. Thus all who knew him welcomed him, and in their need\nturned to him with affection, confident of his understanding.\n\nMr. Nelson was one of the three founders of the Council of Protestant\nChurches. No small detail was above him, and with Jesse Halsey he\nrummaged through second-hand stores for furniture for the first office.\nWith the ministers of other churches he worked in closest cooperation,\nand together they fought the Cox Gang, supported the Social Agencies,\nand many other activities to which the civic-minded and church-minded in\nCincinnati gave unstintingly of their devotion. The Reverend John F.\nHerget, the distinguished former minister of another downtown church,\nthe Ninth Street Baptist, says, \"For twenty-five years we labored\ntogether and the passing years only added to my confidence in his\nintellectual and spiritual integrity. He was a real friend, and when my\nonly son died, he was the first minister in Cincinnati to step through\nmy doorway. I can never forget it. Do you wonder that I loved him and\ncherish his memory? We were very different in many ways but those\ndifferences never deprived us of mutual respect and deep affection.\"\nWithout a doubt, ministers of all Protestant churches regarded him as\nthe foremost clergyman in the city.\n\nIn 1901 Mr. Nelson was elected to membership in the Clergy Club of\nCincinnati, an organization which is composed of many of the leading\nProtestant ministers. On the occasion of the club's twenty-fifth\nanniversary in 1919, Dr. Dwight M. Pratt, then of the Walnut Hills\nCongregational Church, wrote a witty and apt characterization of each\nmember. The following is his superb sketch of Mr. Nelson:\n\n  NELSON: The Apollo of the Club, equally recognized as such\n  whether in ecclesiastical robes and millinery or in outing\n  negligee; the physical having its counterpart in athletic\n  qualities of mind and heart; a broad-minded, tolerant Churchman,\n  incapable of surrendering to the artificial in form and ceremony\n  or to the pretentious in self-constituted human authority, even\n  when sanctified by tradition and usage, and aware of its historic\n  affinities to Rome. Fundamentally spiritual in his conceptions of\n  the Church and of the Kingdom; quickly alert to elements in\n  religion that are born of the flesh and vitiated by human pride;\n  unsurpassed in the Club for his exalted conception of historic\n  Christianity and of the glory and prestige of a spirit-filled and\n  spirit-guided church, having a vision of church unity impossible\n  of realization under the assumption and the exclusiveness of\n  Episcopacy; a genial democrat in spite of aristocratic training\n  and environment; intimately acquainted with the trend and quality\n  of modern critical scholarship, and in sympathetic touch with the\n  social movements of the day, in the church and outside of it; too\n  thorough and vital, however, to make the mistake, more common in\n  his church than any other, of substituting social Christianity\n  for evangelistic, thus making the care, culture and comfort of\n  the outer man more important than his spiritual redemption; a\n  student of men and books; an observant traveller, a recent and\n  scholarly resident of the ancient metropolis of the world:[12] a\n  keen interpreter of the movements of history, ancient and modern;\n  endowed as a preacher with homiletic skill and the spiritual art\n  of making life seem large and the Kingdom of God the one supreme\n  reality for man; and all this in spite of the fact that he is far\n  from being Puritan; never showing the marks of an ascetic nor any\n  tendency or inclination to self-martyrdom; as much in need of\n  reform in some things as the time honored secretary of the Club;\n  popular with men because in so many respects like them; popular\n  also as a public speaker and on occasions where grace of speech\n  and manner constitute an essential factor in the program; a\n  conspicuous personality in a pageant, having the note of\n  sincerity, sympathy and appeal that commands assemblies; a man\n  whose promotion will always be in spite of high-churchmen and the\n  favorites of Bishops; a man indispensable to the breadth and\n  representative character of the Club.\n\nThere remains one other activity to be mentioned in Mr. Nelson's\ncity-wide ministry. In 1930 Mayor Murray Seasongood appointed him to the\nBoard of Directors of the University of Cincinnati, a board commonly\nknown as the Trustees. It was a distinguished appointment,\ncharacteristic of Mayor Seasongood's primary emphasis on the welfare of\nthe city, and indicative of the confidence placed by intellectual and\ncivic leaders in Mr. Nelson's judgment and ability. The Board was made\nup of eight business men and lawyers and concerned itself mainly with\nthe financial problems of the University. Mr. Nelson's approach was to\nthe human element in each situation with which this Board had to deal.\nHe served in this capacity for eight years, and became \"an acute,\npiercing trustee.\" The University Medical School has oversight of the\nCincinnati General Hospital, and Mr. Nelson was troubled by the large\nnumber of cases of tuberculosis among members of the staff and the\nnurses and interns. The hours were long, the pay poor, and living\nconditions deplorable. He was very active in his support of the efforts\nby the authorities to bring about improvement in these conditions.\n\nHe was chairman of the committee which interviewed candidates for the\noffice of Dean of Woman, since many on the Board did not feel qualified\nto make such a selection. During the depression in the thirties when\nreduction of salaries and of department personnel became necessary, Mr.\nNelson was instrumental in securing fair treatment for the individual\nteacher. He would ask if the teacher whose salary reduction was under\nconsideration had a family and how many children. His colleagues\nconsidered him a very important agent in preserving morale during these\ndifficult years, and the President and deans frequently sought his\ncounsel.\n\nHe was a firm believer in academic freedom. When the Engineering College\narranged lectures for business men, he gave the plan his hearty support,\nand occasionally came under fire because of certain radical speakers. He\nwas frequently the choice of the University as its representative on\npublic occasions in the city. At the Commencement of 1924, the\nUniversity of Cincinnati bestowed upon Mr. Nelson the honorary degree of\nDoctor of Laws, \"as one who has ever striven to advance the government\nof the mind and spirit, and who by his own severe self-discipline and\ntrue humility has taught all of us to subdue ourselves to the\nimperishable laws of reason and faith.\"\n\nWhen one considers the recognition which the entire city whole-heartedly\nand unreservedly accorded Mr. Nelson, it is a sorry commentary on the\ninfluence of politics that upon the expiration of his second term as a\ntrustee of the University the new Republican Mayor, James Garfield\nStewart, failed to reappoint him. He was deeply hurt, but there was\nsatisfaction in the realization that it was because of his continued\ndenunciation of party politics that the reappointment did not go\nthrough. He was a clergyman who never curried favor nor withheld opinion\nwhen forthrightness was the moral requisite. The people knew where he\nstood, and no office could silence him. To behave as a citizen is \"to\nconduct oneself as pledged to some law of life.\" His faithful obedience\nwas recognized on many occasions and in numerous ways. One such\nrecognition was his place in a group of fifteen leading citizens\nselected by four Cincinnatians chosen at random by \"_The Cincinnati\nPost_.\" He was described as \"having given vision and voice to public\nservice, and in the art of human relations a leader in many fields for\nmany people.\"\n\nFew public testimonials have awakened so spontaneous a response as that\ntendered Mr. Nelson on December 3, 1923, in honor of his twenty-five\nyears of service to church and city. Originating among his own\nparishioners, the plan quickly developed into a city-wide observance.\nThe committee on arrangements was expanded, and included the Reverend\nDoctor Francis J. Finn, Rabbi David Philipson, the Reverend John F.\nHerget, and the Right Reverend Boyd Vincent, as well as a large number\nof prominent laity outside Christ Church. When the evening arrived, one\nthousand one hundred people from all paths of life sat down to dinner in\nthe Hotel Gibson. The President of the University, Dr. Frederick C.\nHicks, presided. The Mayor, then George P. Carrell, cut short a vacation\nin order to be present and speak for the city, Mr. George D. Crabbs\nrepresented the Social Agencies, Dr. William S. Rainsford came on from\nNew York to join in the acclaim. Mayor Carrell voiced a perfect tribute\nwhen he spoke of Mr. Nelson in these simple words: \"Here is a true man.\nHe loves his fellows. He does not recognize creed or color. Cincinnati\nis proud of him. Cincinnati loves him.\" At the conclusion of the\nspeeches, Mr. Nelson, visibly affected, rose to speak. The tumultuous\napplause lasted five minutes. With characteristic humility he expressed\nhis thanks, and then drew the attention of the audience to the central\ntheme of any true public servant's work, namely, that \"Faith creates;\ncynicism destroys.\" This enthusiastic testimonial was a moving\ndemonstration of the place Frank Nelson filled in the hearts of his\nfellow-citizens, an exception to the rule that a prophet is without\nhonor in his own city. There were two interesting side-lights to the\noccasion. On the morning of the dinner the Reverend Francis J. Finn, a\nparticular friend, and the pastor of St. Francis Xavier's Roman\nCatholic Church, offered up the Holy Sacrifice with his Protestant\nfriend as his special intention; and in the evening there stood among\nthe waiters, but not of them, Detroit Williams, the colored sexton of\nChrist Church, who could not have been present but for Mr. Nelson's\nskillful arrangement.\n\nSuch was the spirit of Cincinnati's great Christian citizen. His\nhumanity was all inclusive, his spirit discerning, and the city claimed\nhim as its own, for he gave voice to its conscience and helped it find\nits soul.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[9] _City Management_ Charles P. Taft, p. 108 Farrar and Rineheart,\n1933. Used by permission. Other statements on the Charter Movement are\nbased upon the report of the Consultant Service of the National\nMunicipal League entitled _The Government of Cincinnati, 1924-1944_.\n\n[10] _City Management_ C. P. Taft, p. 30. Farrar and Rineheart. Used\nwith permission.\n\n[11] Adaptation of a thought expressed by Alexander Woollcott in _While\nRome Burns_, p. 7.\n\n[12] Mr. Nelson twice spent a year in Rome on leave of absence.\n\n\n\n\n  _They Came\n  To Be In\n  His Presence_\n\n\n  _In This Church\n  The Reverend Frank Howard Nelson, D.D.\n  Preached The Gospel of Christ\n  for Forty Years\n\n  1899-1939_\n\n\n  \"_I thank my God upon every remembrance\n  of you._\"\n\n  --_Memorial Plaque at Entrance\n  to Christ Church._\n\n\n  5\n\n\n\"You can't change me, old man. I am the last of the black Protestants.\"\nIn this whimsical way Frank Nelson spoke of himself one day in\nconversation with a friend on some point of ritual. It is abundantly\nevident that he was in no way a bigoted churchman, and with all his\nfine, broad sympathies he stood forth as a Protestant. He represented\nthat aspect of the Catholic-Protestant structure of the Episcopal\nChurch, he conducted the services in Christ Church from that angle, his\npreaching reflected it, and the absence of the clerical collar\nemphasized it. There is a measure of truth in his droll description of\nhimself.\n\nIn the first decades of this century Mr. Nelson was one of a group of\nbroad-churchmen whose influence was just beginning to be felt.\nTheologically he was a liberal with reservations, and stood in what is\nnow called \"Central Anglicanism\" in the sense of \"essential orthodoxy,\ncontinuity, and breadth and liberality within limits, checked by the\nprinciple of discipline, and an outlook, above all, theocentric;\nfidelity to Christianity as the religion of the Incarnation, and of the\nChurch viewed as Christ's mystical body.\"[13]\n\nThe truth is that he was different from certain brands of so-called\nliberals. Like many of them he was an individualist but not, as in the\npopular conception of that word, an eccentric. His individualism resided\nin his strong personality, whole and complete rather than partial. He\nhad an immense scorn of the petty narrow-minded points of view. He said,\n\"There is no one so narrow as the broad-minded liberal! Look out! Be\nsure that you do not develop a closed mind toward the other man's point\nof view!\" Frank Nelson stood in the stream of the best traditions of\nhistoric Anglicanism. He had, for instance, a tremendous feeling of\nreverence for the Altar and the appointments for the celebration of the\nHoly Communion; and his manner of conducting the Lord's Supper brought\nthat service very close to the most sensitive of worshipers. On the\nfirst Sunday of each month the Holy Communion was celebrated at eight\nand at eleven A.M., and he made it the chief factor in building\nup the younger members of the parish into the Church. Usually Christ\nChurch was crowded for the first as well as the later service, and it\nwas immensely impressive to contemplate the congregation that came at\nthe early hour of eight o'clock from all parts of the city and from\ndistant suburbs. There is communicated serenity as well as reverence in\nthe stately, liturgical service, but that feeling-tone is dependent on\nthe minister conducting it. Mr. Nelson was a medium for the\ncommunication of the very spirit of Christ in that service. The ancient,\nfamiliar words were given a fresh beauty by his manner and his natural,\nvirile voice. His methods reflected certain qualities of his character.\nIt was his custom to read the service up through the Sanctus from the\nnorth end of the Altar, moving to the center for the remainder, and at\nthe moment of the consecration of the Bread and Wine to turn halfway\naround so that the congregation could see the blessing of the Elements.\nIt was in part an observance of the Apostolic custom of the minister's\nstanding behind the Altar and facing the congregation, and one which he\nhad learned from his days at St. George's under Dr. Rainsford.\n\nIn a time of much disparagement, Frank Nelson and his parish upheld the\nfair reputation of the Church. Bishop Hobson says, \"Many a minister and\nmany a church have taken heart and courage because of his ministry.\"\nBecause he was unafraid to experiment and venture on fresh approaches to\nold problems, he risked misunderstanding and criticism. He had a marked\nsense of the dignity of his office, and all who worked on the staff of\nChrist Church were aware that he was the rector, a czar if you will, but\none with a gloved hand. He ran the parish, but not for his own sake nor\nfrom delight in power. As a matter of fact, he distrusted power,\nparticularly when wielded by small men in the office of Bishop, and\nbecause of that distrust, and because of the democratic nature of the\ngovernment of the Episcopal Church, he held the leadership of rectors\nto be equal in value to that of the Episcopate.\n\nIn the management of the parish, he was \"a man set under authority.\" He\nexpected hard work of those to whom he delegated responsibility. Though\nhe occasionally interfered, he invariably backed up his leaders even\nwhen they were in the wrong. He did not hesitate to criticize: a\nretiring choir-master said to his successor, \"He is a tyrant, and you\nwon't last three months.\" After eighteen years, he is still there! There\nwere those who sometimes found Mr. Nelson abrupt, but as they came to\nunderstand his temperament and to appreciate his insistence that things\nshould be run decently and in order, they were the very ones who would\nhave stood on their heads for him because his nature inspired endless\ndevotion. It is easy to lose sight of human values in a large\ninstitution, but he was the kind of person who was quick to apologize\nfor any rudeness, and if the instance had to do with some fine point of\nprocedure, he would grin and say, \"But I was right!\"--and he was. A\nunique thing about his rectorship was his willingness to take the blame\nupon himself when something went wrong. He felt he was at fault for not\nhaving given his subordinates the right training. The conception he held\nof his office of rector impelled him to give each year a comprehensive\nreport of his parish work along with an audited financial accounting of\nall monies that he had handled personally.\n\nIn the services of Christ Church, Frank Nelson's individuality found\ncomplete expression. The Prayer Book offices were marked by an absence\nof ceremonial, but filled with a profound simplicity and a noble\ndignity. People coming from other parishes and accustomed to\nconsiderable ritual and better architecture (Christ Church has been\nlikened to a Moorish mosque!) learned that such externals occupy in\nreality a subordinate position in the Christian life, as the rector's\nmanner and forceful preaching lifted them to the plane of spirit-filled\nworship. He was concerned not with the creation of an atmosphere in\nwhich to bathe with satisfaction one's feelings about God but with the\nliving message of the Gospel. One came at last to love the old church\nbuilding because there the spirit was fed, the mind enlightened, and the\nwill impelled to action.\n\nPeople came to be in his presence. They found a new, bright sense of the\nglory of religious faith; they felt how precious is the least of the\nhuman vessels into which God pours His Spirit. The man in himself\ncommunicated a personality so wholly infused with the grace of the Lord\nJesus that his hearers were stirred to action, which result stems from\nthe authentic note in preaching. \"Effective preaching can only mean\neffective in the sense of doing God's work.\"[14] Frank Nelson did God's\nwork. He stirred people to do God's work. The atmosphere of conviction\ngenerated by the preacher is due to his whole personality rather than to\nhis words; hence the impact made upon his hearers at the moment of his\nspeaking is never conveyed through the printed page. Its influence,\nhowever, continues in their lives, and measured by this standard Frank\nNelson was a powerful and effective preacher. The gift of swift,\nmagnetic, eloquent speech was his. Words with the quality and vigor of\nintuitive imagination poured out of him. Yet preaching was never easy\nfor him, and as it was dominated by his characteristic intensity and\nfervor, he was nervous beforehand and exhausted afterward. His emotional\nrange sometimes led him off the main thread of a discourse; at times he\nranted; and more than once preached an entirely different sermon from\nthe one outlined in his written notes. His preaching was \"feeling warmed\nup to vision,\" and the word of God passed through him to men. He\nbelieved tremendously in preaching; there were few services in Christ\nChurch at which he did not preach,[15] but he was not a so-called\npopular preacher; crowds did not constantly fill the pews. To some his\ndriving power was wearing, and even some of his admirers would exclaim,\n\"Oh, I do wish Mr. Nelson would not tear his throat so when he\npreaches.\" But his very force of delivery, and his vehemence were a part\nof the man, and he no more could have preached in another manner than\nhave changed his stature.\n\nBut these characteristics had compensations or off-setting factors.\nAfter Mr. Nelson's exchange with the rector of St. Paul's Church, Rome,\nItaly in 1912, a certain dowager commented, \"Mr. Lowrie's sermons made\nme feel comfortable, but Mr. Nelson makes me feel a miserable sinner!\" A\nnewcomer, on his first Sunday in Cincinnati, went to Christ Church\nintending to \"sample\" several churches before casting his lot with one.\nThe choir came in, followed by a young, boyish-looking clergyman whom\nthe man presumed to be the assistant. During the sermon Mr. Nelson\ncontinually entangled himself in his stole and gave the impression of\none so inextricably caught up in his message that he was a part of it,\nstole and all! The newcomer was Frederick C. Hicks, later the President\nof the University of Cincinnati. He did not go elsewhere but continued\nat Christ Church and eventually became a vestryman.\n\nMr. Nelson did not talk in an amiable sort of way about the Christian\nvirtues; his sermons, thank God, were not colorless essays on the\ndoctrine of God, and the Church. He preached with abandon, and there\nissued forth a fiery stream of conviction that stabbed his hearers into\nlife. Within those in whom the seed found good soil there was\nreproduced his hunger for righteousness, his integrity of character.\nWhat we heard from the pulpit of Christ Church was the product of\nhard-won battles, the forthrightness of a man stirred by his struggle to\nlive as a follower of Jesus Christ. He was no respecter of persons but\nof personality, saying \"We don't dare to be Christians.\" Some said Frank\nNelson did not preach doctrinal sermons, but if not, then church\ndoctrine needs another name, for this man preached the Christian faith,\npouring it forth in great bucketfuls. If after hearing him one didn't\nknow something about the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, then there\nis no such thing as doctrine.\n\nThe rector was sensitive about his failure to attract larger\ncongregations, and deprecated his ability as a speaker. He was forever\nsaying that he could not preach, and that he preached too long, but\njested that he was too old to change! Once in the midst of an\nafter-dinner speech, he paused to make an aside to his friend, J.\nHollister Lynch, \"Am I talking too long?\" \"Yes,\" whispered Dr. Lynch,\nbut he kept right on! Cincinnati is not a church-going city like\nPittsburgh, for instance, but, as one witty observer has remarked,\n\"Cincinnati has fewer moral lapses!\" In making judgments on this point,\none should take into consideration the fact that there was a large Roman\nCatholic constituency, and that the predominant German population of\nCincinnati which came in such large numbers during the middle of the\nnineteenth century, was definitely anti-religious. Christ Church,\nmoreover, is a downtown church, and the greater number of the\ncommunicants live in suburbs. His parish took him for granted as was\ninevitable over a forty-year period, but when we recall his multiple\ncivic associations, and the fact that whenever he spoke there was a\nreligious foundation to his address and in his presence, we perceive\nthat Mr. Nelson's preaching reached far beyond the bounds of Christ\nChurch.\n\nThe sermons of Frank Nelson were pervaded with a fine ethical\nperception. He was in the succession of the ancient Hebrew prophets in\ntheir profound love of justice and concern for humanity. He had a keen,\nquick feeling for spiritual values, and succeeded in relating them in\nvital fashion to the throbbing stress of daily living. Beyond his\npiercing eloquence, captivating as it most certainly was, was the\ncompelling fact that in his interpretation of the religious significance\nof human experience he stood forth like a pine tree towering above\nscraggly growth. No one can ever forget that tall, dynamic figure in the\nspacious pulpit of Christ Church preaching the Word of God with gripping\npower. It was not merely the power of virility and eloquence, but the\npower of grasp, of comprehension, the ability to communicate truth and\nmake it come alive, and cry out for expression in the hearts and lives\nof his hearers. We felt the majesty of the human spirit, the impatience\nof sure faith with the rags and blemishes of doubt and cynicism. \"Like\nrain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth,\" Frank Nelson\npoured out his soul, and revealed the grand proportions of human\ndestiny.\n\nIn his beautiful address at the Helen S. Trounstine Memorial Service, a\nportion of which follows, we find one of the best examples of Mr.\nNelson's ability to interpret human experience, as well as of his\nintuitive understanding of another's travail of soul:\n\n  And then her courage. There are the lesser courages and the\n  greater. There are many who dare face danger and undertake hard\n  tasks, and face ridicule and failure. It is a fine and a true\n  courage and I do not underrate it. Helen Trounstine had it and\n  had it to the full. She tackled hard tasks; she faced some men\n  whose interests she opposed. She fought out her fights against\n  all comers, and never flinched. She would go into the court or\n  into the saloon or dance hall, the places of commercial\n  recreation, and fight her fight with all, for what she believed\n  to be right; and she won most of the time. It was a noble thing\n  to see that delicate woman unafraid before the problems and evils\n  of the world.\n\n  Yet that was not the finest courage she had. That other finer\n  courage is the one that I would emphasize. It was given her to\n  reconcile a spirit filled with high ideals and great desires,\n  with a body weak, often bent and torn with pain, unsuited to the\n  tasks she longed to do, until at last she was stricken with utter\n  helplessness waiting for the end. For only a few brief years was\n  her body adequate, even a little, to her will. And instead of\n  bending before that limitation and saying that she could do\n  nothing because of it, instead of growing bitter with resentment\n  at a fate that had so burdened her, she but grappled with it the\n  more determinedly. With utter courage of heart and mind, she\n  fought her inner fight and won the victory of cheer and energy\n  and peace. With no excuse and no complaints, and no relaxing of\n  her will before the limitations of her strength, she lived and\n  loved and served as if she had the health she longed for. The\n  limitations of her stricken body meant the giving up of many dear\n  desires, of hopes that would have made life sweet and joyous, of\n  work she yearned to undertake.\n\n  Any of you who have had much to do with one stricken with a sore\n  disease, who knows he never can be well again, know that it is\n  not the sickness, the physical weakness and pain that make the\n  problem and the tragedy. It is the reconciling of the will to\n  surrender life's hopes and the readjustment of the life to the\n  conditions that have got to be, that nothing can change. That was\n  Helen Trounstine's problem and her tragedy. She sat down with her\n  fate and fought that fight and won it. It must have meant many\n  hours of untold darkness and suffering and bitter questioning and\n  struggle. But of such hours she gave us no outward sign. At least\n  I saw none in the years I knew her, except that finest one of\n  all, the victory of her soul in the glad and joyous doing of what\n  remained within her power.\n\nIt is not surprising that his addresses on Good Friday and his sermons\non Easter Day were more nearly adequate to those great days than is\ncommonly the case. He cared for these days tremendously, and never\nceased to be heartened by the throngs that crowded the old church,\nfilled up the chancel, and stood in the vestibule through the Three\nHours on Good Friday. It seemed as if the whole city was aroused as\npeople from offices and factories, and from the outlying districts came\nto these special services year after year during his long rectorship. It\nstirs the imagination to think of that gathering, the rich and the poor,\nthe highly-cultivated, and the meekly endowed, shop girls and clerks,\nthe faithful and those groping for faith, all drawn by the mysterious\nfire kindled by this man of God. There was a concentrated intensity to\nhis preaching on these occasions, for he saw clearly and felt deeply the\ntragedies of life. In that vibrant voice and in his passionate concern\nfor the soul of men, there burned a white-souled homage to God, and a\nfaith and love that spoke to each one's condition. Out of his long\nbrooding over the darkly colored stream of history, and the chequered\nprogress of Christianity of which his daily contact with the city's life\nas well as his study gave him profound knowledge, there came forth\n\"great out-bursts of unshakable certainty which stand up like Alpine\npeaks in the spiritual landscape of humanity.\" The integrity of the man\nalong with the power and dramatic quality of his speech was unveiled for\nall the world to see. One recalls in this particular a certain Good\nFriday after World War I when he took up Sarah Bernhardt's ghastly\nreversal of the First Word from the Cross, \"Father, do _not_ forgive\nthem for they _know_ what they do,\" and with terrific intensity\nliterally shouted, \"That is a lie straight from hell.\"\n\nHis preaching always illumined a fine feeling for the mastery of\nlanguage, and those who heard him over the span of the years were\nconscious that in his Good Friday addresses he employed plain,\nAnglo-Saxon words, fundamental, strong words that lent a cumulative\neffect to his speech. Because of his modesty he never consented to the\npublication of any of his Good Friday addresses, which is lamentable for\nwithout a doubt they represent his best preaching. A full, stenographic\nreport, however, was made of his last addresses in 1939, and certain\nparagraphs from the Third Word may well be quoted. This Word from the\nCross, \"When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by\nwhom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then\nsaith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!\", was greatly loved by his\npeople because he gave to it an interpretation that was entirely\noriginal:\n\n  As those of you who have been here on other Good Fridays know, I\n  give that my own interpretation. Some say that I am wrong: that\n  when Jesus Christ said \"Woman, behold thy son,\" He meant He was\n  directing her attention to His friend, St. John, who would be a\n  son to her now that He was going away. Perhaps. But I like to\n  think the other way: that He was revealing to that mother of His\n  the thing that should justify her motherhood, and her faith, and\n  her love. He was saying, as it seems to me, things like this:\n\n  \"Behold, your Son, bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh. Known\n  and yet unknown. The Son whom the angel announced to you long ago\n  among the Judean hills. The things that you have treasured and\n  pondered in your heart must be brought out now to allow God to\n  open to you their hidden meaning. For I am your Son, your\n  first-born. In these years of wonder and strangeness I have not\n  forgotten the love and care and protection given me. Through you\n  I grew up in the knowledge of the Scriptures and the love of\n  God's House. No, I have not forgotten those years in the\n  carpenter's shop in Nazareth, and the laboring for daily bread.\n  Neither was it easy to break away, and leave home, but God called\n  me, and deep down in your heart you were glad that God chose\n  me--it was the confirmation of all that the angels had whispered\n  in your heart. You were proud of me, sure that God had somewhat\n  in store for me that had never been known in the world, never\n  known to the mothers of other sons. And then murmurs came to you\n  of opposition, of the hostility of men high up in the synagogues,\n  weird reports of my deeds, and strange teachings, and finally all\n  that I said and did seemed to go against the authority and\n  sanctions of your religion, and you were fearful of my mind. And\n  now I have come to this disgraceful end. This cross is the\n  fruitage of those thirty years spent with you and in the\n  fulfilling of God's pleasure. This fruitage of the Cross is not\n  the fruitage that God gives to the sons of evil as seems to be\n  the just fruitage of these thieves crucified beside me. In\n  reality this Cross is the crown of my life, and some day the\n  world will see it, and take Me unto itself, and the Cross will\n  have become a throne.\"\n\n  It is the word of justification and comfort that Jesus gives the\n  broken-hearted Mary. It is the word of God to woman. \"Now we see\n  through a glass darkly, but then face to face.\" In Jesus, the son\n  of Mary, we see what the world will be like 'when the years have\n  died away.'\n\nIt was on these special occasions that he so frequently was inspired.\nEaster Day, for instance, with its many services and huge congregations\nstimulated him to the utmost, and to many of us it seemed as if we stood\nin one of the vestibules of immortality, certainly in the temple of this\nman's faith. He preached at both the eight and the eleven o'clock\nservices, and each time with undiminished vigor and clarity of thought.\nIn the interim, he personally greeted all the parishioners who remained\nafter the first service for breakfast in the parish house.\n\nFrank Nelson loved the ministry, and his convictions glowed and radiated\npervasively. Innumerable scenes flood the memory, and I recall an\nordinary Sunday which included the early celebration of the Holy\nCommunion at eight forty-five A.M.; an address to his Chapel\nClass at nine forty-five; and a sermon at eleven o'clock; in addition to\nall these he went, in the afternoon, to a labor union memorial service.\nThere he repeated the morning's sermon from the text, \"The last enemy\nthat shall be destroyed is death.\" It was the fruit of all his ministry\nto the bereaved, and of his penetrating, sympathetic insight into the\nloneliness and devastation of death's inroads. As he brought the\nChristian faith to bear upon the problem, he imparted by clarity of\nthought and eloquence of words as well as by accent and genuineness of\nemotion that certitude which is possible only for one who himself\npossesses that which he proclaims. This sermon was a notable example of\nPhillips Brooks' definition of preaching, \"Truth conveyed through\npersonality.\" The few notes here included give only a glimmer of the\nrange of his thought, and do not adequately convey the personal factor\nwhich made one want to rise up and call him blessed:\n\n  Men have ever striven to conquer death, and never succeeded.\n  Christ too died and though He rose from the dead, He did not\n  return to this life and take up its habits and tasks again. St.\n  Paul was not thinking of overcoming death in this way, but rather\n  of the new consciousness and gift of power that Christ has given\n  men. Christianity is a conquering power. Faces what appears to\n  be the impossible, what experience declares to be impossible, but\n  does so with the word that \"all things are subject to Christ.\"\n  \"We see not yet all things put under him--but we see Jesus.\"\n  There is nothing that may not become subject to the spirit of man\n  through Christ.\n\n  Christ facing human problems: the fear of God's wrath,\n  superstitions arising from doubt of God's moral goodness,\n  sickness, sorrow, hopelessness, sin, worldliness, bitterness of\n  spirit and mind, suffering, and at last conquering death as an\n  enemy by His resurrection.\n\n  Death's mastery over us is not a physical thing. It is its power\n  over our spirits, its apparent defeat of hope, of work begun, of\n  love entered into, of faith laid hold upon, and the bitterness\n  that is the fruit of that defeat. Through Christ the power of\n  achievement was strengthened, and released by death. We resent\n  death perhaps--reason for shrinking is that so impersonal and\n  physical a process should be able to overcome a spiritual\n  consciousness and experience. We resent always the victory of a\n  lower over a higher order. (Feb. 28, 1926)\n\nFrank Nelson combined a happy idealism with common sense, and when the\noccasion moved him to inspired utterance, he drew upon the deep wells of\nhis being, and spoke without effort as waters flow from a fountain. This\nquality characterized many of his speeches, such as the one in Music\nHall after the Armistice of 1918 which he himself considered his best,\nand those at Masonic gatherings when men flocked to drink in his words\nand to be in his presence. He overshadowed other speakers, and what\nHenry Ward Beecher said of another is doubtless applicable to Mr.\nNelson: \"When he speaks first, I do not care to follow him, and if I\nspeak first, then when he gets up I wish I had not spoken at all.\"\n\nThe worth of so much preaching troubled him at times, and he too had his\ndarker moments. Sometimes he paced up and down Howard Bacon's study\nnever saying a word, or perhaps bursting out in boyish petulance, \"When\nI am down, the parish is down. Why can't they stay up?\" At a staff\nmeeting one morning he told the incident of an organization that had\nrequested him to address them, and when he asked on what subject, the\nreply was \"Oh! just talk!\" He passed this off as a sort of reflection on\nhis fluency of words.\n\nPreaching was desperate business to him because \"the burden of the Word\nof the Lord\" lay upon him, and if he rose to great heights, he also was\ndashed down to the depths. To preach for forty years from the same\npulpit is an exacting task, and the net result of such an experience is\nno better summed up than in the remark of a humble parishioner by whose\nhouse he was walking one morning with Frederick C. Hicks. It was Monday,\nand the woman was hanging out her wash. Mr. Nelson said, \"Let's stop and\nask her what she remembers of my sermon.\" The good soul was non-plussed,\nand could not recall even his text. And then with a leap of inspired\ninsight she said, \"But Mr. Nelson, this cloth is whiter every time I\npour water over it.\" Perhaps this is the lasting effect on every humble\nsoul who patiently waits as God communicates His truth in earthen\nvessels.\n\nPeople came to be in Frank Nelson's presence. He never let them down. He\nhad said of William S. Rainsford's preaching: We came here as church\npeople, professing the faith, and as \"we sat before him we saw poured\nforth the reality of the thing we had professed to believe in ... He\ntook us to whom religion was a profession, and made it a passion.\"\nChrist Church people find these words set up poignant echoes of a day\nwhen they sat before Frank Nelson and heard the living Word of God.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[13] _Central Anglicanism_, Charles W. Lowry, Jr. _The Witness_ May 27,\n1943. Used by permission.\n\n[14] _The Servant of The Word_, Farmer p. 6, Charles Scribner's Sons.\nUsed by permission.\n\n[15] Farmer in his brilliant book, _The Servant of the Word_, makes this\nilluminating comment on preaching:\n\n\"The wisdom of the reformers appears in always associating the speaking\nof the word with the other sacraments, and the protestant habit, which\nis sometimes derided, of always having an address at every meeting is\nseen to have sound reason behind it. It is part of our whole\nunderstanding and valuation of the person and the personal way in which\nGod deals with him. I want the thrusting intrusiveness, the\ninterjection, of another's serious speech. I believe there can be no\nsubstitute for the sermon.\" _Ibid_ pp. 80-81.\n\n\n\n\n  _Beyond\n  Cincinnati_\n\n\n  _\"He was easily the prince of us all in diocese\n  and national church.\"_\n\n  --_ZeBarney Phillips_\n\n\n  6\n\n\nThe diocese of southern Ohio, of which Christ Church is a part, was\nvastly strengthened by the leadership of Frank Nelson. In the earlier\nyears of his rectorship he had had little time for diocesan affairs, not\nthat he was indifferent, but he was essentially the kind of person who\ndid one thing at a time, and never allowed himself to be diverted from\nthe immediate task. Moreover, because he was impelled by burning\nconvictions to express freely his pronounced views, he was considered\nradical, and was misunderstood and disliked by many churchmen. The\ndiocese of those earlier years was conservative and static, and politics\nthen played a more weighty part than now. A clerical friend in speaking\nof Mr. Nelson candidly stated, \"I had to grow into friendship with him.\nIn those early days I had a sort of prejudice against him as a militant\nopponent of things, but I soon saw my mistake and recognized that he was\nof nobler cast.\" He never sought position, and never until 1916, with\none exception, was he elected a deputy to the General Convention, which\nis the highest body of authority in the Episcopal Church. Even when the\nConvention met in Cincinnati in 1910 and Christ Church was the host to\nnumerous services and meetings, he had no vote. Until 1916 he had\nrepresented his diocese at the General Convention only in 1904; he was\ndefeated for re-election in 1907 because he had defended Dr. Algernon\nCrapsey in a once famous heresy trial.\n\nHis larger interest in the diocese probably had its beginning when in\n1908 as a member of the Social Service Commission he visited the Hocking\nValley, and was shocked by the abominable living conditions of the\nminers and the almost intolerable injustice of their economic\ncircumstances. His interest, thus fired, increased with the years until\nhe came to be depended upon in every sphere of diocesan life, serving on\nthe Standing Committee, the Bishop and Chapter, the Board of Strategy\nand Finance, and in practically every other committee and department of\nimportance. He was most insistent on maintaining the missionary program,\nwhich he held to be the very heart-beat of the life of the Church. Even\nduring depressions, Christ Church never lowered its missionary giving\nof $24,000, and one year voted $3000.00 from its parish budget to make\nup a deficit in the missionary budget because as he said \"We have failed\nto educate the people.\" His thorough knowledge and good judgment were of\ninfinite value to a succession of bishops. On the occasion of Mr.\nNelson's Fortieth Anniversary, the present Bishop, Henry Wise Hobson\nsaid, \"In all parts of the Diocese I have heard clergy and lay people\nsay such words as these: 'The spirit of honesty, courage, fellowship,\nand service which has grown up in the life of our Diocese is primarily\nthe result of the influence of Frank Nelson, whose own spirit has been a\ncontagious force in our midst.'\" Others who have observed the remarkable\ngrowth and increasing strength of this Diocese say that its present\nvitality has been generated, not by numbers, nor by wealth, but by the\npassionate spirit of certain recognizable characters of whom Frank\nNelson was easily the leader. During Bishop Reese's long illness, Mr.\nNelson largely conducted the business of the Diocese, and for a man with\nsuch positive convictions, he was extremely fair in presiding at the\nConvention. He leaned over backward to be just, and did not silence even\nthose who brought up petty reasons for disagreement on the subjects\nunder debate.\n\nWhen in 1929 the illness of Bishop Reese necessitated his resignation,\nthe Diocese spontaneously turned to Frank Nelson as his successor. There\nis a certain piquancy in the contemplation of the change that by this\ntime had come over the Diocese. A man who at one time had been\ndistrusted, and branded as radical if not reckless, had so won the\nrespect and affection of his associates that they desired to express\ntheir trust and belief in him by electing him to the highest office of\nhis Church. Reverend Sidney E. Sweet, now Dean of Christ Church\nCathedral, St. Louis, nominated Mr. Nelson at the Convention saying, \"He\nis a man whose intellectual and spiritual gifts rank him with the finest\nin the Church throughout the United States. It will make the Diocese of\nSouthern Ohio proud to present the name of Dr. Nelson to the House of\nBishops as the representative of this Diocese.\" Another discerning\nfriend, Alfred Segal of _The Cincinnati Post_, put the case\ndramatically when he wrote in his column: \"The other day Rev. Frank\nNelson stood on the threshold of ecclesiastical glory. He needed but to\ntake one step and he would have been on his way to the eminence of\nBishop. But he turned away, though many welcoming hands beckoned him.\"\n\nIn declining the nomination, Mr. Nelson said that his decision came as a\nresult of consultation with friends whose opinions he valued, and from\nhis own best judgment which counselled against his acceptance. He felt\nthat it was desirable to elect a man with no local associations, and his\nown long ties with the diocese made him an unsuitable candidate. He had\nconfided in friends his lack of diocesan consciousness, and confessed a\nreluctance to assume at his age another kind of work. Furthermore, the\nparish of Christ Church and the city were by now so deeply embedded in\nhis very soul that even a change, if not a severance, of such ties was\nunthinkable. He put forward the name of Dr. Howard Chandler Robbins, who\nlater refused the election. The selection of Dr. Robbins, important as\nit was, nonetheless seemed secondary to the insistent attempts of\nleaders to place this humble servant in the office of Bishop. Upon Mr.\nNelson's entry into the luncheon hall after the convention, he was\ngreeted by a tremendous ovation. He was a strong man among strong men.\nThe following letter from the late Right Reverend William Lawrence of\nMassachusetts did not dissuade him from his firm decision:\n\n\n  November 22, 1929\n\n  My dear Frank:\n\n  You well know that it is my rule not to \"butt in,\" but as a\n  Pullman conductor once told me, \"there ain't no use in having\n  rules that you can't break when you have to.\"\n\n  I believe that you respect my judgment; my judgment is that you\n  are the one man who has the qualifications to be Bishop of\n  Southern Ohio. I know your loyalty to your parish and your humble\n  estimate of yourself. But the Diocese and the opportunity which\n  the Church will give you as Bishop are greater than your parish.\n  Think of Trinity, Boston, at Brooks' election and its result\n  today. Spaulding of Utah brought into the House of Bishops a\n  breeze of fresh air, a new life and courage which abide there\n  still--You will do the same.\n\n  Think of the cheer that your election will bring to Vincent,\n  Reese, and the whole Diocese.\n\n  Let them have your name and your life. I never wrote such a\n  letter before and no one knows that I am doing it now.\n\n  Yours affectionately,\n\n  William Lawrence.\n\n\n\n\n\nAt the succeeding convention another concerted effort was made to induce\nMr. Nelson to become Bishop. It was refreshing to find the office\nseeking the man, especially a man who had never sought for himself\npositions of prestige, a man never found in the society of office\nseekers. Although he was gratefully aware of the well-meaning intentions\nof his friends, and felt in the proposed honor the warmth of their\npersonal affection, he did not want it said that he had permitted the\nelection and then declined it. In as tactful a manner as possible he\nlabored to prevent the Committee on Nominations from presenting his\nname. During a stormy session of the Committee a movement was under way\nto over-ride Mr. Nelson's wishes and present his name as the nominee of\nthe Committee anyway. At this juncture Dr. Hicks, his close friend and a\nVestryman of Christ Church, rose and protested with considerable\nindignation, \"Gentlemen, this means you simply do not know Frank\nNelson.\" The debate went on, but Mr. Nelson remained firm, saying on the\nConvention floor, \"I _may_ not be Bishop of Southern Ohio,\" and he used\nthe word _may_ in the ancient sense of having \"power to prevent.\" \"I\ncherish the tribute, but I tell you without recourse to thought or\nprayer that I cannot do it.\" Finally, the Convention proceeded to the\nhappy election of Henry Wise Hobson, and the Diocese of Southern Ohio\nremembers with gratitude that it owes Bishop Hobson to Frank Nelson.\n\nFrom 1916 until his death, Mr. Nelson was a deputy to the triennial\nmeetings of every General Convention, and became the principal\nspokesman in the House of Deputies. This body is not always as decorous\nand staid in its deliberations as the House of Bishops, but Mr. Nelson\nat all times commanded a respectful hearing among the deputies. He came\nto be one of the leaders who, as a veteran church-paper correspondent\nput it, \"could read the signs of the times.\" His opinions carried\nenormous weight though not habitually swaying votes.\n\nIn Diocesan circles as well as in Christ Church, he was absolutely\nfearless in utterance, and was among those who were eager for the\nEpiscopal Church to make large ventures of faith. Like Bishop Brent, he\ncommanded a vision and a breadth of spirit which were incomprehensible\nto those who could not conceive of a universal Christianity free of\nsectarian doctrines and dogmas. In this respect he reflected and\nperpetuated the greatness of Phillips Brooks who thus stated his\nposition: \"I cannot live truly with the men of my own church unless I\nalso have a consciousness of common life with all Christian believers,\nwith all religious men, with all mankind.\" As a natural consequence of\nsuch conviction, Mr. Nelson was insistent that the Episcopal Church\nbecome a constituent member of the Federal Council of Churches, and\nlived to see accomplished that small but significant step towards\ncooperation among the churches.\n\nIn the debates that occurred in various years on such subjects as the\nproposal to eliminate the word \"Protestant\" from the official name of\nthe Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and on\nthe status of the Presiding Bishop, he was very firm but kindly and\ntactful in setting forth the Protestant emphasis in the\nCatholic-Protestant fabric of his church. He argued that the word\n\"Protestant\" in the title is there to protect the right of every sort of\nchurchman. His candor was disarming, and he could get away with such\nunvarnished statements as this: \"As you know I am a Protestant of the\nProtestants. I do not belong to the Catholic party in the Episcopal\nChurch. I belong to the Protestant party. I believe in Protestantism; I\ndo not believe in Catholicism, I never have, and please God, I never\nwill. I believe in Protestantism; but I believe more, and deeper, and\nfurther and broader, and higher in manhood and womanhood. I can see a\nvision of God in the man and in the woman, in the Catholic as well as in\nthe Protestant, in the Jew, in the atheist, as well as in the\nEpiscopalian.\"[16] He was alert to any move that threatened the\ndemocratic basis of the Episcopal Church and diminished the power of the\nclergy and the laity, holding in the instance of the Presiding Bishop's\nstatus that the proposal for something similar to an archbishopric would\nintroduce a monarchical form of government into a church whose\ngovernment closely resembles that of the United States.\n\nAt those conventions when the Prayer Book was under revision, Mr.\nNelson's spiritual discernment, large-heartedness, and wise judgment\nwere an important supplement to the work of the liturgical authorities.\nOne of the really notable speeches of any General Convention was his\nplea for the church to place the emphasis in the Baptismal Service where\nthe Apostles did, namely, on discipleship rather than on Creed. \"The\nCreed ought to be on the Altar, not at the door of the Church,\" he said.\n\"I want the Creed in the service, and I believe it will receive more\nemphasis than before if it is inserted where I have proposed to place\nit.[17] The important thing required of Christians is to follow Christ.\nIt is harder to follow Christ than to accept a creed, and God forbid\nthat I should make membership in the Church easier than Christ made it.\"\nHis earnestness and deep religious feeling made a profound impression,\nbut there were those who saw in the proposal an opening wedge for the\nsubordination of the creeds, and timidity and caution overcame the surge\nof approbation which followed immediately on his speech.\n\nCommencing in 1925 and continuing until his death, Mr. Nelson served on\nthe Joint Commission on Holy Matrimony, which dealt with the highly\ncontroversial issue of divorce. In upholding the high standards embraced\nin the canons of the Church, he supported that section of the\nCommission which sought to take into account the far-reaching human\nfactors involved in marriage and divorce. He was absolutely convinced\nthat the Church was not approaching the problem in the right way. To him\nit was not an ecclesiastical problem but a definitely human affair. He\nsaid he preferred to submit a delicate, ethical problem to a human\nbishop rather than to the arbitrary operation of a rule. He maintained,\n\"Divorce is now on a legalistic basis. That was not the way of our Lord,\nand the Commission desires to lift it out of the legal atmosphere into\nthe sphere of the fellowship of the Gospel.\" Towards this end the\nCommission had (in 1931) drawn up a proposed canon which was the result\nof six years' study on the part of an extremely able group of clergymen\nand laymen. Among the latter were some of the great lawyers of America,\nsuch as George W. Wickersham, Roland Morris, and Professor Joseph Beale\nof the Harvard Law School. This Commission proposed that \"any person to\nwhom a divorce from a former marriage has been granted for any cause by\na civil court may apply to his Bishop to marry another person.\" In other\nwords the Commission was endeavoring to have the matter decided not by\nsome hard and fast rule which was bound to do many injustices to\nindividuals, but by a more general principle to be interpreted by the\nBishop or Marital Court. The proposal was defeated, but in the battle\nwhich ensued and has not ceased \"Frank Nelson,\" says Bishop William\nScarlett of Missouri, \"was a leading figure. He was trying to see this\nwhole matter through what he believed to be the mind of Christ, and to\nact and legislate accordingly.\"\n\nAt the Church Congress in Richmond, Virginia, in 1926 in a paper on\n_What Is Loyal Churchmanship?_ he boldly stated:\n\n  Even when it comes to the canon in regard to remarriage of\n  divorced persons, when I find in my conscience, standing before\n  God in the presence of Christ, as I try to do, that a man and a\n  woman have a right to be remarried, I will remarry them and take\n  the consequences. I do not mean that I would go about seeking\n  ways of disobeying the Church. I am putting extreme cases. Of\n  course I do not mean that.... My first loyalty, my highest\n  loyalty is to the Spirit and to the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ\n  as God gives me grace to see it.... The human soul is more sacred\n  than constitution or canons. Canons and forms of worship are used\n  to illuminate and guide men's minds and souls to Christ, not to\n  dominate them or compel them to conform to this or that.[18]\n\nIn a few exceptional instances he remarried divorced persons. He held\nthe present canon of the church to be utterly ridiculous in permitting\nreinstatement to communicant status following remarriage after divorce:\n\"If one commits so grave a sin as to demand excommunication, how can one\nbe reinstated while continuing to live in that sin? It is absurd on the\nface of it.\"[19]\n\nThere were those who sneered at his position, saying it was\nindividualistic and amounted to the setting up of oneself against the\nlaw of the church, yet he of all people was most conscious of the sin of\npride and excessive individualism. At his last Convention in 1937, he\nreemphasized the point that the object of rewriting the marriage canon\nwas not to liberalize divorce and remarriage: \"We have been trying to\ninterpret the mind of our Lord. We have presumed to separate men from\nthe love of God by excommunication. This Commission is trying to set\nfree to a higher plane this tremendous question which is facing us, to\nlift this tremendous relationship from regulation to the life of the\nspirit. We want this church to face reality.\" Nevertheless, the\nCommission marched from one defeat to another, but it still marches!\nThere was passed in 1931 one constructive piece of legislation bearing\non instruction in Christian marriage which was enacted largely through\nthe extremely forceful defense of Frank Nelson.\n\nThe same human touch which guided all his thought and effort was\napparent in his work on another Commission, namely, the Budget and\nProgram. He usually was chosen to present the report in the House of\nDeputies, and it was always a masterly presentation. Like Gladstone, he\nhad the faculty of making people like figures, because he set them forth\nin terms of human values or in what the newspaper writer calls\n\"human-interest\" stories. This same humanness was delightfully manifest\non occasions when friends endeavoured to make him the presiding officer\nor President of the House of Deputies. He would never consent, and\nhumorously said that if he became an official, he would have to attend\nall the extra meetings and couldn't play golf!\n\nIn 1937 the General Convention met in Cincinnati. Though far from well\nand worn out after the usual strenuous year in his parish, Mr. Nelson\ngave up a large part of his vacation to assist in the arduous\npreparations always entailed by such affairs. At the opening service in\nthe University Stadium he was selected by the Presiding Bishop to read\none of the Lessons, the deserved recognition of his place in diocese and\nnational church.\n\nIn the extensive work of forwarding the policies set up by the General\nConventions he was called upon, as one of the representative rectors, to\nspeak in many parts of the country. He was foremost in commending the\nNation-Wide-Campaign or budget plan of operation instituted in 1919, as\na means of re-awakening the church to a sense of national\nresponsibility. Despite heavy work in parish and city he never spared\nhimself, and willingly put his services at the command of the Presiding\nBishop. Only eight months before his death, he spent an entire week in\nthe Diocese of Massachusetts speaking two and three times a day to\ngroups of vestrymen on the forward work of the church.\n\nWhen General Convention met in Kansas City in 1940, the first meeting\nafter Mr. Nelson's death, the President of the House of Deputies, the\nlate ZeBarney Phillips, said at the opening session:\n\n  Later on we shall have the regular memorial to all members of the\n  Convention who have died during the triennium, but as the\n  Convention opens without them I cannot refrain from paying\n  tribute to some of those whom we loved best and best remember.\n  First you will all agree is Frank Nelson who was the outstanding\n  member of this House at Cincinnati. His genuine Christian\n  devotion, his courtesy, his fairness and his gentleness can never\n  be forgotten. Let me tell you one little thing that shows his\n  character. You all know his type of churchmanship, and yet, for\n  the sake of others he placed candles on his altar for the\n  corporate communion. It was a little thing but it was so like\n  Frank Nelson.[20]\n\nWhether in parish, city, or the whole Episcopal Church, his work was\naffected by a mighty vision of the Kingdom of God on earth which set him\napart as an unusual servant who humbly read the scroll of life as it is\nunrolled to the children of men. He passed on to others the torch of\nfaith which lights the path to the City of God.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[16] Address at the Centennial of Christ Church, 1917. He spoke in this\nvein at Conventions though I cannot locate exact statements in official\nrecords.\n\n[17] Mr. Nelson's proposal placed the Creed immediately after the\nLesson.\n\n[18] _The Church and Truth_, p. 138, Macmillan Co. 1924. Used by\npermission.\n\n[19] Letter to the author, September 12, 1932.\n\n[20] Letter to Mrs. Nelson from Mr. Richard Inglis of Cleveland.\n\n\n\n\n  _The Mystery of\n  Personality_\n\n\n  \"_There is not one of us but in some measure\n  is in his debt._\"\n\n  --_The Cincinnati Enquirer_\n\n\n  7\n\n\n\"All the hold those people have on God is me. It is terrible. It bothers\nme. They love me but they don't come to church.\" Mr. Nelson confided in\nthis vein one night to his intimate friend, Jesse Halsey, into whose\nstudy he had stopped on his way home from a call in a distant suburb.\nWhile it was inevitable that some people should use him as a crutch or\nshould let him do their climbing for them, the truth of the matter is\nthat he was a chosen channel for the communication of the Divine Spirit\nto earth-bound men. Because he was genuinely humble, he was troubled\nabout those people who could approach God only through him. If they\nlittle sensed that what they loved in him was God, they nevertheless\nwere compelled by their limitations to think of God in terms of Frank\nNelson.\n\nHe was only a voice in the successive generations of men whom God has\nsent to minister unto this world, but men loved the voice and though it\nis now no longer heard, the mystery and wonder of his personality still\nremain. The happy blend of the spiritual and the human in his nature had\na profound influence upon those who knew him. Though poor, faltering\nwords may suggest the salient outlines of his character, the richness\nand singularity of it defy complete expression.\n\nMr. Nelson's rare gifts of mind and spirit were enhanced by a robust\nphysique. He was tall, well-proportioned, and in his last twenty years\ntook on an almost majestic bearing which gave him a distinguished\nappearance in any company. In his manner there was that graciousness\nwhich men call charm or presence. Those who associated with him, whether\nrich or poor, talented or commonplace, felt his friendliness. He was at\nhome with all kinds of people, and though born on the sunny side of the\nstreet, and by birth and breeding an aristocrat, he became one of the\nmost democratic of men. Because of his greatness some approached him\nhesitatingly, but they went away remembering only his kindness of heart.\nHe never stood on his dignity in that sense which conveys condescension.\nHis gay, infectious laughter which so often filled a room put people\nimmediately at ease, and yet he never belittled his calling nor lowered\nhimself to meet men.\n\nThere was a look of keenness in his eyes that sometimes pierced one\nthrough and through, but always there shone forth faith and sympathy and\nunderstanding. It was the warmth of his humanity that drew people, and\nconsciously or unconsciously gave them confidence and a stronger\nreadiness to meet life. Bishop Edward L. Parsons of California writes,\n\"When with him you felt as if you were entirely safe. You knew that his\njudgment would be sound. You knew that he was too big to be dominated by\npersonal considerations.\"\n\nThe same warmth expressed itself in his appreciation of other men's\nopinions, and because he was decisive in outlook and views, he found\npleasure and stimulus in the spirited exchange of ideas and in sprightly\nrepartee. In the Episcopal Church there is an amazing diversity of\nthought on ecclesiastical matters. Frank Nelson, for instance,\nrepresented one conviction, and the Right Reverend Spence Burton, now\nLord Bishop of Nassau, quite another. \"We were the best of friends,\"\nwrites Bishop Burton, who is a Cincinnatian by birth, \"and we often\ndisagreed but got on happily together because I think that\ntemperamentally we were somewhat alike--what might vulgarly be known as\nwhole-hoggers. In that way we understood each other and did not annoy\neach other nearly so much as if we had had the idea that we could have\nonly as much affection for each other as we had agreement with one\nanother.\" The admiration and affection which Mr. Nelson elicited was\npointedly demonstrated at his funeral. Bishop Burton sat in the chancel\nalongside the Reverend Jesse Halsey, the Presbyterian minister. Dr.\nHalsey said: \"Bishop Burton, perfect gentleman that he is, not once\ncrossed himself in deference to Frank's (to him, atrocious) low church\nprejudices!\" Frank Nelson was like that. Respect for him sometimes came\ngrudgingly, but it came because there was no personal animosity in the\nman. He was honored because he was a moral and a spiritual force with\nwhich to be reckoned.\n\nHis election to the Commercial Club of Cincinnati in 1923 is another\nindication of his democratic and appealing character. This club is one\nof the city's most exclusive, its membership being comprised entirely of\nbusiness executives, captains of industry, and a small sprinkling of\nprofessional men. The constitution of the club allows for three honorary\nmembers, and at the time of Mr. Nelson's election, the only honorary\nmember was William Howard Taft. An extract from the Club's minutes\nreads:\n\n  Believing that it would be a merited recognition of one of our\n  most worthy citizens, won by his unselfish zeal for the cause of\n  humanity, and as a leader for higher ideals in our civic life,\n  your Executive Committee unanimously recommend the election of\n  Rev. Frank H. Nelson to be an honorary member of the Commercial\n  Club.\n\nEach year at the Club's Christmas dinner, Mr. Nelson invariably gave an\naddress on some contemporary significance of Christmas. His message was\ndeeply impressive to this inner circle of representative citizens, for\nhe was one with them in spirit, even as he was one with the humblest of\nhis parish. In turn, such associations gave him courage and reenforced\nhis will to persist in a difficult calling, as the following lines\npenned to a club member reveal:\n\n  I wonder if you and a few men who are like you in real\n  understanding and real goodness, realize what your confidence and\n  friendship do for a minister? It isn't easy for us to keep our\n  faith in what is right and just and true, when successful men\n  tell us we don't know what we are talking about--that our faith\n  is plain foolishness in the face of realities.\n\nHe entered into the Club's frolics with huge enjoyment, and on one\noccasion took part in a pageant, dressed in the vestments of a mediaeval\nbishop. During an outing in the South, the Club attended a religious\nservice, and while in the church Mr. Walter Draper had his pocket\npicked. After the service, in some excitement he freely expressed his\nindignation, continuing at great length until Mr. Nelson gleefully\nreturned the filched article!\n\nOut of his warmth of human feeling there came a real capacity for\nenjoying simple, ordinary things. If he was stirred by the tragedy and\nthe immemorial pain of humanity, he was also moved by the elemental ties\nof family and friendship, and by all the simplicity that lends them zest\nand joy. He loved anniversaries, and was deeply appreciative of the\ninnumerable remembrances he received on those occasions. Christmas\nparties in his home were a particular delight to friends and to those\nmembers of the staff fortunate enough to enjoy the hospitality of Mr.\nand Mrs. Nelson. He was child-like at heart, and those close to him were\nwarmed by his gaiety and thoughtfulness. He had a feeling for music and\nwhen he led the carol rehearsals in the parish house hall before\nChristmas and Easter, the boys and girls responded whole-heartedly. He\ntook charge in a firm manner; in fact no bronco was ever more\ncompetently restrained than his youngsters. The chorus of boys and girls\nsang softly or loudly at his will, and enjoyed it, and when he left the\nplatform, they did not growl an adieu, they applauded!\n\nMr. Nelson's interest in people, and the work he accomplished had for a\nbackground the sort of home environment which enhanced his capacity. In\n1907 he was married to Miss Mary Eaton, the daughter of William Oriel\nEaton, a Cincinnati artist of distinction. Their adopted daughter, Ruth,\nwas an unending delight to him, and he lived to officiate at her\nmarriage, and to become a happy grandfather. Mrs. Nelson's admirable\narrangements of the household left him free of the many details that\nmight hamper a man in public office. He did not have to worry about\nbringing home unexpected guests, and when he was not at home Mrs. Nelson\ncarried on in a loyal manner expressive of his interest in people. At\none time before the Travelers' Aid Society was organized, a mother and\ntwo children arrived at the railroad station in some sort of pressing\ndifficulty. Not knowing where to go, the mother inquired of the\ntelephone operator, who suggested \"Rev. Nelson.\" The woman in her\ndistress went to the rector's home on Pike Street. Mr. Nelson was out of\nthe city, but in characteristic fashion, his wife took them in and kept\nthem overnight. Mrs. Nelson's interest and work in the parish,\nparticularly with the young candidates for the Girls' Friendly Society,\nwas of a notable quality, and her fine understanding of their problems\nwas not only an important factor in the effectiveness of that\norganization, but also happily supplemented her husband's unceasing\nlabors.\n\nFrank Nelson was continually sensitive to his good fortune in possessing\nadequate means, in contrast to the deprivation and financial\ndifficulties of many others. He was incapable of concealment and there\nwas a refreshing frankness to his acknowledgment one Sunday morning\nwhen, speaking on the parish budget, he facetiously told his\ncongregation that his salary was too large but he did not have the moral\ncourage to refuse it! He was also fortunate in many other ways, such as\nbeing free from illness the larger part of his life, and from personal\nbereavements, for his parents lived to a ripe age. His gift of\nimagination in dealing with many problems not experienced by him\npersonally was, therefore, the more unusual. \"Genius is the power of\ngetting knowledge with the least possible experience, and one of the\ngreatest differences between men is in the amount of experience they\nneed of anything in order to understand it.\"[21]\n\nThe even tenor of his lot in life did not produce in him\nself-satisfaction and complacency, but often did make him uneasy. He had\ninherited his father's sternness of conscience and moral fibre. At one\ntime when a parishioner sold a piece of property and asked Mr. Nelson to\nuse the money to buy his first car, he was sorely perplexed as to the\nappropriateness of accepting such a gift and allowing himself the luxury\nof an automobile. He wondered what some of the people in his parish\nwould think. When calling in the \"Bottoms,\" he often wore an old, blue\nserge suit. He was acutely aware that his salary came in part from many\nwho had little, and to the end of his days his conscience troubled him\nabout this, wanting as he did to share the life of the least of his\npeople.\n\nFrank Nelson was a singularly modest person. In the early years of his\nministry one did not hear much about what he was doing. Everywhere\npeople talked of Stein's distinguished preaching, and not much was said\nabout Mr. Nelson's talents. He belittled his own abilities, and imagined\nthat things which were difficult for him came easily to other people. He\nnot only deprecated his skill in preaching, but thought he had no\ncapacity for meeting intellectuals on their own ground. It cannot be\nsaid that he had an inferiority complex for that implies weakness, and\nin Frank Nelson power and gentleness were happily and usefully joined.\nThe honor and acclaim that came to him from church and city never\nimpressed him unduly; in fact, he was saddened by them because they\nrepresented a seeming success which in comparison with the great ideals\nof the Christian ministry approximates failure. \"So likewise ye, when ye\nshall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are\nunprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do.\"\n\nHis exceptional sense of reality and proportion, which is the very\nessence of humility, made him a forceful leader and at the same time\ncongenial company. Because he was completely sincere and unaffected, his\nfriends felt no self-consciousness in the presence of \"the cloth.\" They\nin turn could be candid with him. This fact was once amusingly\ndemonstrated when the music at Christ Church was not at its customary\nhigh standard, and Mr. Nelson, happening to meet a parishioner who had\nnot been in church for some time, asked her why, and enjoyed a good\nchuckle over her reply: \"Oh! I am tired of hearing the choir bawl and\nyou bawl!\" There was always a lively give and take in his friendships.\nOn one occasion at the close of an inter-faith meeting, he was chided by\na Roman Catholic friend about his poor speech. Admitting that he had\ncome unprepared, Mr. Nelson without the slightest sign of resentment\noffered to drive his friend home, and they had a good two hour talk in\nfront of the Roman Cathedral.\n\nThe range of his friendships was extraordinary for he possessed the\ncapacity to kindle admiration and affection. Many a man found him a\nrefreshing tonic, and would say, \"I felt better for contact with him.\"\nHe was a frequent participant at the Round Table discussions in the\nUniversity Club, and delighted in the exchange of thought that came from\nall sorts. At the time of the death of his friend, Father Finn, the\nPastor of St. Xavier's Church, which is in the vicinity of Christ\nChurch, Mr. Nelson attended the Requiem Mass, and afterwards was\nobserved standing by the hearse, head uncovered and tears in his eyes,\nfor they had been the best of friends. A great personality is more than\nwhat he says, and many times brushes aside the trammels of the popular\nconception of the institution which he represents. Frank Nelson had a\nwell-nigh perfect concept of what it means to be a Christian; and,\ntherefore, in his wide range of friendship among all faiths and those of\nno faith, he carried himself without the faintest hint of disloyalty to\nthe Episcopal Church. As he was never colorless, men knew where he\nstood, and though sometimes disagreeing with him, friends and critics\nalike recognized his genuine goodness and knew his motives to be without\nguile. He would say, \"Always believe a person right until proved\notherwise. Take people at face value. I am a fool, but that is the only\nway to begin.\" Such were the tenets of his quiet pugnacity of faith in\nhuman beings. It is no wonder that a working-man called him, \"The\ngreatest Christian in shoe-leather I ever met; a Christian capitalist\nworthy of anyone's emulation\"; or that his faithful colored sexton, who\nwaited on him, shined his shoes, and served him devotedly to the end of\nhis days, should say, \"We were pals. He was always tops with me.\"\n\nMr. Nelson was often the one called upon when grace of speech, dignity\nof manner and discriminating taste were required. At a community mass\nmeeting in Music Hall in 1927, he was chosen to introduce the speaker of\nthe evening, Miss Maude Royden, the noted English preacher. He\naccompanied Miss Royden to the center of the platform with all the\ncourtliness of a true gentleman, and with that deference due a\ngentlewoman and an eminent personage. His introduction was an instance\nof his singular felicity of expression and his ability to state in\nchoice language the sentiments prompted by the event of the moment. Such\nwas Mr. Nelson's gift for being master of every occasion. Sitting in\nthe back row of the immense hall which was crowded to the doors, I felt\nthat the audience quickly sensed the fitness of the presence on the same\nplatform of two such estimable representatives of the Christian Church.\n\nTo illustrate further his command of language and his absolute candor,\nthere is an incident which also neatly tested his tact and truthfulness.\nOne sultry evening in Holy Week, when a long-winded clergyman was\npreaching, it appeared to me that the rector dozed. I wondered what he\ncould honestly say to the man. After the service when we were in the\nsacristy, he put his arm around the preacher's shoulders, and said, \"Old\nman, you set me to thinking!\" His tact was never failing, though often\nits diplomatic flavor could be more than faintly sensed!\n\nAccompanying his humility of spirit there was in his nature and his\nopinions an air of authority wholly unecclesiastical, purely personal,\nbut immensely impressive. It came in part from his particular type of\nintellect. He had an assimilative mind, which enabled him, for example,\nto acquire rapidly the gist of a book, and to state succinctly and\nclearly a point which he was desirous of making. His was an intuitive\nknowledge rather than a scientific. It was not the kind of knowledge of\nwhich the dogmatists speak and in which they alone can believe. Mr.\nNelson's knowledge was the sort which sees into the life of things and\nof men. His intellectual powers were richly developed by his parish work\nand heavy responsibilities, and by his reflection upon all kinds of\nexperiences and his understanding insight into other people's problems.\nA forty years' ministry combined with such a type of mind gave him, for\none thing, a rather fine grasp of medical science. He knew its\nprinciples, and was able to simplify and help at times when technical\nterms leave the layman baffled and vague. Because of this special kind\nof mind and the sweep of his experience, his general effect on people\nwas sometimes overwhelming. To illustrate a minor angle, he was not\nadept in leading discussions; he could not draw out a group because he\nhad pretty thoroughly covered the subject himself, and the impact of\nhis personality was a bit overpowering.\n\nBut above all, the authority one felt most in his personality was that\nwhich came as a result of his being Christ-fashioned. He of all men\npossessed the kind of nature which cannot live without God. There was\nwithin him a spontaneity that was entirely himself, impossible of\nduplication, totally socialized. He was not a mystic and maintained that\nhe was puzzled by their writings. He admitted that the prayer-life was\ndifficult for him, that he could not meditate or think about God for\nlong periods. His was not the ascetic or contemplative nature; he did\nnot live in reflective calm. In the whirlpool of human relations he was\nan explorer, a bold adventurer bringing people into the presence of God;\nand what does it matter whether one prays in words or acts? He\nexemplified in his life one definition among many, namely, \"To labor is\nto pray.\" The weight of people's needs pressed down upon him so\nrelentlessly that he was driven to do something about them. His was the\ntemperament which animates an ancient prayer, \"Lord, I am so busy this\nday, if I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me.\" We are disposed to have\nour tight little crystallizations of what prayer should or should not\nbe. Frank Nelson was impatient of such, for he ventured upon a scale\nmore broad than that envisioned by the average parson or layman. There\nare no theological concepts which fit him.\n\nMr. Nelson had a natural talent for enjoying people, which implemented\nall his work, but for a man in his position such a gift has its price:\neither one wears himself out or neglects his major task and so spreads\nhimself thin. He chose the first course, and as we contemplate this\nrecord of vast accomplishment who are we to say that he did not choose\nwisely? He was a very busy man, and went about doing good, not just\ndoing. His description of Helen Trounstine's life of activity is\napplicable to his own:\n\n  It was not restlessness, the hurrying on from one thing to\n  another, just to be busy. It was the true energy of full-hearted\n  and full-minded interest in life, and all that it holds; the\n  passion to learn that she might teach; to enjoy that she might\n  give joy; to rest that she might have strength to do her work; to\n  serve because men need her service. It was energy of mind and\n  heart so full of the vision of the greatness of life and the\n  opportunity of living, that she could not waste time except as it\n  ministered to the part she was to play.\n\nMr. Nelson did not scatter his interests indiscriminately but\nconcentrated his efforts in the fields where he was most competent:\nsocial problems and the relation of the Church to the most concrete\nactivities of human life. All these fitted into his prime purpose.\n\nThe vision which governed his days was strengthened every year in the\nlong vacations that he took at his summer home in Cranberry Isles,\nMaine. There beside the sea he dreamed long dreams, and drank in the\nsalty air which brought indispensable relaxation, and mental and\nspiritual refreshment. In his small cabin on a point of land overlooking\nthe limitless ocean, he could be very much alone. Something of that\nsetting and its influence is conveyed in a letter to the Reverend\nTheodore Sedgwick, a life-long friend, which discloses Mr. Nelson in a\nreflective mood:\n\n\n  Sept. 6, 1928\n\n  Dear Ted:\n\n  Many, many thanks for your intensely interesting letter, and its\n  review of Julian Huxley's book. Such a view of life and religion\n  does make one stop and think--and hesitate. It is the terribly\n  earnest spiritual problem that we face today in the ministry. It\n  is the sort of thing I had in mind, in suggesting the subject of\n  \"God\" for the next Swansea Conference. For we have got to face\n  the issue with eyes open, minds familiar with the biologist's\n  point of view. The old affirmations of formal theology are not\n  adequate to meet the issue. And yet in those affirmations I am\n  sure lies the truth--that God lives, God our Father--conscious of\n  Himself and of us--a person in a very real sense--from Whom we\n  derive personality--from Whom we came--and to Whom we go. If\n  mankind loses that, \"his arms _do_ clasp the air\" and he drowns\n  in the infinity of time and space and his own nothingness. We\n  have from Christ the truth and somehow we must learn it with a\n  new understanding--or rather with _the_ new understanding that\n  modern science and modern reverent scientific thought have given\n  us. I am sitting at my desk in my cabin at sunset. The day has\n  been cool and grey--a heavy curtain of cloud over the sky--But\n  now--that curtain is thinning and through the break in the\n  west--the whole glory of the sun has colored sky and sea with a\n  golden light beyond description for exquisite beauty. The gulls\n  are winging their way across the sea to a distant island where\n  they rest and go back to each night. As I sit and look, my whole\n  spirit is moved by the beauty and the evening quiet. There is\n  infinity here--of space and imagination. Yet--the gulls--I think,\n  are unconscious of all that--but I am moved by it and keenly\n  conscious of it. It is not just biology--or I would be as the\n  gulls--and I am not. And men are not. They want God--behind the\n  glory--God clothed with the glory--adequate to the glory--that\n  their own imagination and hunger and aspiration may be\n  justified--That is what Christ has given us to preach and it is\n  the truth. Now the gold has turned to a flaming red--thrilling\n  almost to the point of pain. One must believe--and then face the\n  chill grey of the coming night with the memory of it to lighten\n  and interpret it.\n\n  We go a week from tomorrow, back to work, to the men and women\n  who have so bravely gone on working through long, hot summer days\n  in the streets and factories and tenements of the city. And in\n  that bravery and drudgery, there is the same flaming glory of\n  God. It isn't just biology--it is the spirit of God, making the\n  physical the dwelling place of God and glorifying it with His\n  presence.\n\nFrank Nelson had an almost Elizabethan zest for thought and action, and\neven at Cranberry he entered enthusiastically into the local life. He\npreached at least once every summer in the Congregational Church, and in\nthat church today are numerous memorials to him: a silver alms bason,\nthe Service Book of the Congregational Church beautifully bound in red\nmorocco, a United States flag, and several pictures. Each year at Easter\nthere is a large cross of geraniums in the church, and after the service\nthe flowers are distributed among the families on the island with a\ncard saying, \"Given in memory of Frank Howard Nelson with the Easter\nmessage of Christ's Resurrection.\" When he left Cranberry the last time,\nall the public school children were dismissed to wave their goodbyes.\nHis unaffected interest in the affairs of the community expressed itself\nin practical ways, and his unassuming and simple manner gave little\ninkling that he was a foremost citizen of Cincinnati.\n\n\"There is nothing comparable,\" says Coventry Patmore, \"for moral force\nto the charm of truly noble manners.\" Frank Nelson's manner was not only\nthe result of a choice family inheritance, but also the rich fruitage of\na lifetime of faithful obedience to a consuming passion and vision. He\nwas a life-giving river flowing in a parched land. In him the ancient\nprophet's words found a fresh fulfillment: \"Everything shall live\nwhithersoever the river cometh.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[21] R. L. Nettleship _Lectures on the Republic of Plato_, p. 129,\npublished by Macmillan Co. Used with permission.\n\n\n\n\n  _Last\n  Years_\n\n\n  _Then of those shadows, which one made descent\n  Beside me I knew not; but Life ere long\n  Came on me in the public ways, and bent\n  Eyes deeper than of old; Death met I too\n  And saw the dawn glow through._\n\n  --_Anon_\n\n\n  8\n\n\nFrank Nelson never became an old man. Toward the end of his life his\nbody could not fulfill the demands of his spirit, and he was not able to\nundertake as much nor see as many people as he wished, but he never\nneglected any responsibility. At times he could not keep going and had\nto stop on the street to rest because too much exertion caused pain, but\nhe would not spare himself nor did he ever complain. He was a happy\nsoldier who smiled through his closing years.\n\nIn 1931-1932 he suffered from a blocking off of the blood vessels that\ndrain the leg, a condition which has very serious possibilities. He\nweighed these possibilities, says Dr. Richard S. Austin, but like most\npatients he figured there was always the chance that he might not have\nto pay the price. He was like the physician who when told to practice\nwhat he preached replied, \"Did you ever know a sign-post to walk down\nthe road?\" He bore his illness with fortitude, concealing from his\nfamily and friends the vexation that he felt as the activities which\nwere life itself to him were curtailed more and more. When entering the\nchurch in procession with the choir, he would never use a cane though he\nwas often suffering acutely, but squaring himself, and throwing back his\nshoulders, he would march resolutely on. As he crossed the chancel to\nenter his pulpit, something of his old vigor was apparent, and as he\npreached, his voice was strong and clear. If he was less animated, he\nwas no less intense, no less the tremendously invigorating preacher. One\nday in the parish house Canon Symons met him carrying a heavy bag. He\nwas about to leave for one of his frequent periods in the hospital, and\nCanon Symons remonstrated with him and tried to take his bag, but Mr.\nNelson refused, saying, \"No, I won't. I would rather drop in my tracks\nthan to save myself and spend endless days in hospitals.\"\n\nAt the Annual Meeting of the Parish on April 10, 1939, Mr. Nelson\npresented his resignation, \"not because I want to quit, but I am\nconcerned that this parish should not weaken. This church is facing, as\nevery church is facing, a new day; and it needs the leadership of\nyounger and stronger men.\" It was accepted with marked reluctance to\ntake effect when his successor should be chosen and had arrived. On May\n21st the parish and many of his friends outside Christ Church celebrated\nhis forty years' ministry in the one church and city, and there was a\nsingular out-pouring of people.\n\nAt the conclusion of the observance he wrote a friend:\n\n  Though it was not so stated in the bond, it saved me from a\n  farewell celebration. I preached at all three services, and it\n  saved me the embarrassment of listening to eulogies, and saved\n  others from having to deliver them! But everyone was fine about\n  it. They decorated the Altar with gorgeous red roses, and me with\n  my red Seminary hood (He wore his Doctor's hood rarely and always\n  looked rather sheepish when asking his secretary to take it out\n  of the safe!), and we had the two choirs at eleven o'clock, and\n  lovely music at all the services. So the day went well, and we're\n  all glad it is well over.\n\nIn a letter to another friend he said:\n\n  It wasn't easy to speak and to face the services, and that they\n  meant the real end of my rectorship, my active ministry. There\n  were dear friends and very loyal parishioners there. And I think\n  you know my love for Christ Church and for Cincinnati, and my\n  inexpressible appreciation of all that this church and city have\n  given me. It is terribly hard to try to realize that after this\n  summer I shall no longer be rector of Christ Church--and all that\n  that has meant and means--and in very deep gratitude I saw the\n  many, and my mind and heart were very full. Indeed I hope I shall\n  not \"retire\" from the friendships, and from the life of the\n  people and city. Thank you more than I can say for what only you\n  could so write. I have had a very rare opportunity, and very\n  privileged forty years, and I hope the coming years--or weeks or\n  months, whatever God wills--will bring in their own way the same\n  high things and find me worthy of them, and chief of them, worthy\n  of your friendship and faith.\n\n\n\n\nHe had given the church and city a lifetime of service, loyalty, and\nlove, and the place he held in the affections of his people had been\nabundantly made known to him.\n\nIn July before the last Sunday he was scheduled to preach, he was\nstricken by a heart attack, and so his ministry came to a close without\nfurther sadness of farewell. He spent a few weeks in the hospital, and\nimproved sufficiently to journey to his beloved Cranberry Isles\naccompanied by his wife and daughter. But a doctor, knowing what others\ndid not realize, broke down and wept when Mr. Nelson left the hospital.\nHis friends and he himself felt confident that a protracted rest would\ndo the work of healing. In August he sustained another and a more severe\nattack, and as the chilling, autumn winds blew in from the Atlantic they\nbrought him to the Phillips House in Boston. He saw no one at first, but\nthen he grew restless, and the doctor permitted visitors. There were\nmany, and as he was making no progress, he was moved to the old family\nhome in North Marshfield, near Cape Cod. There as a boy he had roamed\nthe spacious, rambling house and the bright fields, and there his\nparents had lived the last twenty-five years of their lives. The lovely,\nold home with its atmosphere of peace brought back many tender memories.\nIn the absolute quiet of these surroundings which he loved, he lingered\nsome two weeks. With another attack he lapsed into unconsciousness, and\nhis boyhood friend, the late Dean Philemon F. Sturges of Boston, came\ndown to be with the family. On the morning of October 31st as the end\napproached, Dean Sturges knelt beside him and in the dear familiar words\nof the Prayer Book said, \"Lift up your hearts,\" and the family bravely\nresponded, \"We lift them up unto the Lord.\" The Dean continued, \"It is\nvery meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and\n_in all places_, give thanks unto Thee, O Lord.\" It was meet and right\nthat Frank Nelson should depart this life on such a note of\nthanksgiving.\n\nAt the burial in Cincinnati, November Third, the parish, life-long\nfriends, and representatives of the city thronged Christ Church not to\nsay \"Farewell,\" but \"Hail!\", for as Alfred Segal grandly put it, \"He was\nlike one going away to gather in his victory.\" For a night and a day\npreceding the service, his body lay in the beautiful chapel of his own\ncreation, and great numbers of men, women and children of all faiths\ncame to pay a final tribute. The burial service was the same as he\nhimself had always used, only read now by his successor, and the Bishop\nof the Diocese. To his friends and beloved people it all seemed passing\nstrange if not unreal. Frail beings that we are, we had never sensed\nmore than a vague possibility that his ministry would one day terminate.\nIt was not past human knowing, of course, but it was beyond the grasp of\nhuman imagining that the day would come when Frank Nelson would no\nlonger walk the city's streets, no longer hurry to the distant suburbs.\nWe felt this way because in an unusual sense men loved this servant of\nthe servants of God in Cincinnati who had dwelt among them for forty\nyears. Yet the great congregation rose above human grief and surmounted\nthe consciousness of personal loss in the tremendous note of triumph and\nthankfulness that prevailed throughout the simple service from its\nopening sentences, \"I am the resurrection and the life,\" to the Bishop's\nfinal words of commitment, \"Unto God's gracious mercy and protection.\"\nThey sang only hymns of victory, hymns that he especially loved and\nwhich were expressive of his faith and spirit: John Bunyan's \"He who\nwould valiant be,\" and \"There is a wideness in God's mercy.\" The\nrecessional moved to the church door to the triumphant words \"For all\nthe saints who from their labors rest,\" set to the stirring tune of R.\nVaughan Williams. Thus in the simplicity and dignity of the things said\nand done there that afternoon did the passing of this noble minister\nsymbolize the destiny of all mankind.\n\nThey took him to beautiful Spring Grove Cemetery and laid him beneath a\nmajestic sycamore tree whose spreading branches seemed to represent the\nout-reach of his life. Years ago at his behest Christ Church had been\ngiven a plot of ground for the poor, the friendless, and the forgotten\nof men, \"God's Acre.\" There, by his express wishes, Frank Nelson lies\namong the least of his flock, the faithful shepherd who called his own\nby name. Then every man \"went away again unto his own home.\"\n\n\n\n\n  _The\n  Afterglow_\n\n\n  9\n\n\nIt is now more than five years since Mr. Nelson's death, and today the\nold church in the hands of his successor, Nelson M. Burroughs, whose\nfirst name singularly suggests a prolongation of the Nelson dynasty, and\nwhose spirit and abilities are a worthy continuation of an unusual\nrectorship, is still animated by Frank Nelson's vision, his joy in\nservice. His ideals live today in the parish of Christ Church, which has\nnot failed him but carries out that which he committed unto them in his\nfarewell address:\n\n  The Church is the important thing to all of us. We need the\n  Church, for faith, for courage, for guidance. The Diocese needs\n  this Parish--its loyalty--its support--its fellowship--as we need\n  the Diocese. The City needs this Church. You will never forget,\n  will you, the Vision, and the power that came with it, that Mr.\n  Stein gave us forty years ago, viz;--that the Church is the Body\n  of Christ, not a club, to minister, and not to be ministered to.\n  The people all about us, the whole city, are our concern, to\n  bring them the Gospel of Christ. So, I pray God you will go\n  forward into the new day with high faith and enthusiasm. You have\n  a mission from God.\n\nThe mission goes on in the spirit of readiness to embark on great\nventures, and of youth not knowing defeat, for on Easter Day, 1941 the\nauthorities of Christ Church announced it as their purpose to erect a\nglorious new building on the site of the present edifice as the only\nadequate memorial to Frank Nelson. As in the dark days of 1917 the\nparish audaciously built the Centennial Chapel, so the tragic repetition\nof world war sees in the present rector and people no diminishing of\nthat daring and firmness of vision. This plan is, as Mr. Nelson would\nhave it, not for his own glory, but for the larger range of the Church\nin the service of the city. He had said, \"This is the work of those who\nwill come after me.\"\n\nChrist Church will one day be clothed in garments of new beauty because\nFrank Nelson preached the Gospel that is the hope of a better democracy.\nThe grandeur of his accomplishment impels men to undertake this task;\nand thus it is a living fact that his vision is still an influence in\nthe city, and is the choice heritage of an unnumbered host.\n\nIf because of human frailty we think of heaven as rest, his spirit\ncorrects us. If in our partial understanding he seems to deserve release\nfrom labor, yet for the very reason that he \"wrought with tireless hand\nthrough crowded days,\"[22] we know in our moments of vision that for so\nknightly a spirit the only possible reward is authority over ten cities.\n\nFrom that kingdom of the spirit, he speaks to us across the abyss of\ntime, and nowhere is his voice stronger, his thought clearer than in the\nfirst chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians. Here, forever sealed in\nthe enduring words of Saint Paul, is the heart of Frank Nelson's\nministry, a ministry valiant and without blemish:\n\n  I thank my God upon every remembrance of you ... for your\n  fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; being\n  confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good\n  work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[22] Inscription on a tablet in the chapel of Phillips Exeter Academy,\nExeter, N. H.\n\n\n\n\n    +-------------------------------------------------------+\n    | Transcriber's Note:                                   |\n    |                                                       |\n    | Research has shown that the copyright on              |\n    | this book was not renewed.                            |\n    |                                                       |\n    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:           |\n    |                                                       |\n    | Page  ix  incalcuable changed to incalculable         |\n    | Page   9  incalcuable changed to incalculable         |\n    | Page   9  interne changed to intern                   |\n    | Page  23  enternal changed to eternal                 |\n    | Page  25  Legionaires changed to Legionnaires         |\n    | Page  35  unconsciouness changed to unconsciousness   |\n    | Page  40  nothwithstanding changed to notwithstanding |\n    | Page  47  immeasureably changed to immeasurably       |\n    | Page  49  Farrer changed to Farrar                    |\n    | Page  58  self-martydom changed to self-martyrdom     |\n    | Page  58  internes changed to interns                 |\n    | Page  59  Gareld changed to Garfield                  |\n    +-------------------------------------------------------+","title":"Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":35978}