(An address delivered at the funeral service for Rev. Theodore L. Gardiner in Plainfield, N. J., July 6, 1938)
It is with a deep sense of humility and inadequacy to the demands of this hour that I present the following outline of the life and work of Doctor Gardiner. However competent one were for such a task, the brief period of time necessarily allotted to such an address on an occasion like this, makes it imperative that none but the outstanding features of a long, fruitful life be treated here. I first knew him nearly sixty years ago, but my personal acquaintance with him was little more than passing until he became editor of the Sabbath Recorder; since then it has been an intimate acquaintance, and it is with that period of his life and that phase of his work that I am attempting to treat specifically, also, of that feature of it which he himself seemed to regard as most important.
Theodore Livingston Gardiner was born, April 15, 1844, on a farm at Little Genesee, N. Y., as I understand. Save that his early life was spent on his father's farm, time allotted here will not permit further mention of it.
According to the records, he matriculated in Alfred University in the academic year, 1866-67, along with G. M. Cottrell and B. F. Rogers, both of whom were to become fellow workers in a common field of humanitarian labor in the years to come.
In 1874 he graduated in a class made up almost wholly of men who, like himself, had dedicated their lives to the Christian ministry. These were George J. Crandall, D. K. Davis, John L. Huffman, B. F. Rogers, Horace Stillman, and O. D. Sherman. These have all preceded Doctor Gardiner to the Land of Rest. One of the other two was Alpheus B. Kenyon, who, too, has gone on before.
Soon after graduation, Doctor Gardiner became pastor of the church at Greenmanville, Conn. Here he remained four years, when he resigned to become pastor of the church at Shiloh, N. J. After a service of ten years at Shiloh, he accepted a call to go become pastor of the church at Salem, W. Va. At the close of two years there, when Salem College stood at the parting of the ways, he reluctantly consented to become its president, and entered upon the duties of that office in September, 1892. Here he remained until 1906, when he resigned and accepted the call of the church at North Loup, Neb., to become its pastor. A year later, he became editor of the Sabbath Recorder, and removed to Plainfield, N. J. The first issue of the Recorder to bear his name as editor was that of September 16, 1907; and the last to carry his name in that capacity was that of April 20, 1931, though his resignation took effect five days earlier, or on April 15, the eighty-seventh anniversary of his birth. When he retired, he was made editor emeritus, and thus the Recorder has carried his name ever since. Such, most briefly, is an outline of the life and work of him whose memory we are hear today to honor.
His years in pastoral work were years of growth and fruitful effort. His four years at Greenmanville were unique, but pleasant and profitable, withal. The church was established and supported by George Greenman and his brothers for the men who were employed in their shops, and for their families. Aside from his experience as pastor of a church so situated, he became acquainted with the Greenman brothers as he could not have known them otherwise. They were sturdy, strong characters, and influential in our denominational activities. For well nigh a generation George Greenman was president of our Missionary Society.
Doctor Gardiner's life at Shiloh, Salem, and North Loup were such as he might have found in any of our churches situated as these, with the usual individual varying conditions. He left a definite impress on each of the churches he served. Even in the very short time that he was at North Loup he endeared himself to this people to such an extent that they were willing to let him leave them only because they felt that the need of his service as editor of the Sabbath Recorder was an imperative need, and a need much greater than that of any one church. While pastor of the church at Shiloh he wrote a history of that church, which became a valuable source book of information in preparation for Shiloh's celebration a year ago. He performed a similar service for the Salem Church, while pastor there. The Latter history was published in pamphlet form; but the former appeared only in the pages of the Sabbath Recorder, in 1899-91.
His work as president of Salem College was momentous. He found it bankrupt financially, and its trustees and faculty in the depths of a slough of dependency. But he entered upon his new duties with vigor, inspired his trustees and faculty with courage and a new hope and left the college fourteen years later in a condition all ready to enter upon the era of development which it enjoyed at the hands of Dr. Charles B. Clark. But the record of that period of Doctor Gardiner's life doubtless has been fully treated by an abler hand and voice than mine at a service similar to this held at Lost Creek, yesterday. ...
