Gerrit Smith by J. H. W.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 15, 1875

Gerrit Smith

By J. H. W.

GERRIT SMITH died in New York, of apoplexy, Dec. 28, aged 77 years. He was too well known to the American people to need any special sketch of his life. He fell heir to an immense landed estate, much of which he gave away to the poor. He was identified with the cause of reform, especially that of antislavery. In early years he was a Presbyterian. He kept the seventh-day Sabbath because, as he once said, in answer to a question, “I read in my Bible that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and I could find no other.”

Some years ago he was nominated on the temperance ticket for Governor of New York. In canvassing the State he was received with many expressions of kindness by the spiritualists and other self-styled reformers. The vote for him was comparatively small, which soured his mind somewhat against those Christians who voted with their parties, and he published a lengthy article in the N. Y. Tribune looking strongly toward liberalism or free-thinking. This brought out an able reply from his old associate in reform, William Goodale. And this was the only public occasion in Mr. Smith’s life on which feeling seemed to overbalance a just regard for principle.

As a practical philanthropist he stood almost unrivaled. The destitute never appealed to him in vain.

With commendable good sense his family with a great abundance of this world’s goods, disregarding the prevailing custom of display at funerals, had him buried in a plain walnut coffin without any ornamentation. J. H. W.