He knew what was in the human heart, and realized the craving for
understanding in times of despair and sorrow. Somehow he managed to do
and say the right thing. At one time the mother of a parishioner had
died in a distant state, and when the family arrived in Cincinnati, he
was at the railroad station at seven o'clock in the morning to meet them
and accompanied the coffin from the baggage car to the hearse. So simple
an act bespeaks the innate dignity and simplicity of the man. It was his
custom at the cemetery to walk with the chief mourner, and by such
little kindnesses and numberless other courtesies he endeared himself to
each generation in his long ministry. A parishioner whose mother died
late one Good Friday evening remembers that despite the heavy tax of the
day Mr. Nelson came to her house shortly before ten o'clock, and, though
no lights were on, rang the bell, calling, "I want to talk with you." By
his coming, a sleepless night was shorn of its dread and vastness, and
confidence and serenity took their place. At another time when a family
received the fearful word from Washington that a son had been killed in
the Argonne, Mr. Nelson though confined to his bed with illness went at
once to call in the home. On the day of the funeral, before going to the
church, he read the identical service in that suburban home for the
invalid mother. As many people in Boston have said that until Phillips
Brooks came to them in their sorrow they never knew what Isaiah meant in
his words, "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime
from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from rain,"
so Christ Church people found in Frank Nelson a stronghold in time of
trouble.

There are many incidents that illustrate the ideals of this incomparable
pastor. For instance, the Council of Churches had two social workers in
the Juvenile Court, one of whom was a parishioner, young and beautiful.
Mr. Nelson did not really want her to do such work, but her parents
thought her trained and equipped for it. In his solicitude he went to
the Executive Secretary and asked, "Do you have staff meetings? I want
you to have her there in your office. Give her the knowledge that she is
dealing with the abnormal, and that not all life is perversion." The
welfare of each individual in his church was his personal concern.

He exercised this same solicitude for us young clergymen, some fourteen
in number, who were his assistants