e coming night with the memory of it to lighten
and interpret it.

We go a week from tomorrow, back to work, to the men and women
who have so bravely gone on working through long, hot summer days
in the streets and factories and tenements of the city. And in
that bravery and drudgery, there is the same flaming glory of
God. It isn't just biology--it is the spirit of God, making the
physical the dwelling place of God and glorifying it with His
presence.

Frank Nelson had an almost Elizabethan zest for thought and action, and
even at Cranberry he entered enthusiastically into the local life. He
preached at least once every summer in the Congregational Church, and in
that church today are numerous memorials to him: a silver alms bason,
the Service Book of the Congregational Church beautifully bound in red
morocco, a United States flag, and several pictures. Each year at Easter
there is a large cross of geraniums in the church, and after the service
the flowers are distributed among the families on the island with a
card saying, "Given in memory of Frank Howard Nelson with the Easter
message of Christ's Resurrection." When he left Cranberry the last time,
all the public school children were dismissed to wave their goodbyes.
His unaffected interest in the affairs of the community expressed itself
in practical ways, and his unassuming and simple manner gave little
inkling that he was a foremost citizen of Cincinnati.

"There is nothing comparable," says Coventry Patmore, "for moral force
to the charm of truly noble manners." Frank Nelson's manner was not only
the result of a choice family inheritance, but also the rich fruitage of
a lifetime of faithful obedience to a consuming passion and vision. He
was a life-giving river flowing in a parched land. In him the ancient
prophet's words found a fresh fulfillment: "Everything shall live
whithersoever the river cometh."

FOOTNOTES:

[21] R. L. Nettleship _Lectures on the Republic of Plato_, p. 129,
published by Macmillan Co. Used with permission.

_Last
Years_

_Then of those shadows, which one made descent
Beside me I knew not; but Life ere long
Came on me in the public ways, and bent
Eyes deeper than of old; Death met I too
And saw the dawn glow through._

--_Anon_

8

Frank Nelson never became an old man. Toward the end of his life his
body could not fulfill the demands of his spirit, and he was not able to
underta