This eminent servant of Christ and His Church went in
and out before the people of Georgia and Florida for many
years illustrating, and illuminating the gospel he so effectively and eloquently preached.
Never of robust constitution, the labors of the itinerant
ministry often seemed to threaten his life, but amid the
vicissitudes of his condition he remained devoted to the work
he had from his youth accepted as his mission. After a
restfu1l period as a superanuated preacher, which his enfeebled
state demanded, he was made effective at the Conference of
1871. From that day be zealously met the duties of his
ministry until failing health and the accession of infirmities,
in 1892, announced that the eloquent minister and devoted
pastor could serve no longer amid the clash and strenuous
endeavor of the battle field, and with chastened, resigned spirit he accepted a place on the Roll of Honor
among the "Old Guard," to be thenceforth held in perpetual
remembrance by his brethren, for the life he had illumined
and the trophies he bad won for the kingdom of our Lord.
One who knew him long and well and loved him truly, thus
speaks of him: "Dr. Blake was naturally of a quick temperament
but patiently educated himself into due self-government.
Beginning before manhood to train himself to implicit obedience to the commands of the Master, and the
sacred duties of the pastorate, as a pattern of holy living,
a leader of sinners out of depravity into the way of righteousness, and a teacher of the profound philosophy of an inner spiritual and outer active life of godliness, he disclosed the
devouteoss and humility that led him to measure his position,
and enabled him to line up his high responsibilities with the
life of the sanctuary. During this long and varied church
work, his humility of spirit and just estimuate of a preacher's
life and responsibilities were often made observable to intimate friends.
He never rose from his seat to the sacred desk
without showing a disturbance of his physical nature, but the
trained habit, self-mastery and intense absorption in the subject he was opening dispelled confusion,
and he advanced to an impressive calmness of aspect and resonance of voice in
mystic harmony with his exalted thought."
A great man is God's best gift to men, and if today we
look back upon this man, it is not that we may glorify
him or raise him to a false eminence, hut that we may
glorify God in him. Not to recognize God's gift in manhood is to be unworthy the bounty of the grace of God, it were as easy to blot, out from a landscape a mountain that
rears its snowy crest beyond the cloud, as to forget or
ignore the presence of great men in God's earth and in
Christ's Church.
Again, we quote from an appreciative tribute to the memory of our brother: "In the pulpit he rarely failed to absorb the attention and sway the intelligent reason, or uplilt faith,
or brush away despondency, or open the fountain of emotion, or stir to penitence and conviction. He possessed the electrical power to bring himself and his hearers into full
sympathy, and thus produce unusual redults. This power often
displayed itself in a procession of 'thoughts that breathed
and words that burned,' opening floods of joyful tears or
irrepressible shouts of gladness. This magnetic gift in him was
closely joined to an indescribable simplicity of movement, aspect, thought, language and tone, that shot over the nerves of his hearers like the vibratory motion of eleotricity, too strong
or too sweet to offer any resistance. Not want of alertness of
thought or delivery, but an obstructive form of disease,
made his utterance at first unnecessarily slow, but the intruder soon relinquished the field."
Married, in his twenty-fourth year of age, to an ideal
woman, his home life was sweet and beautiful. As a husband be was attentive, considerate, sympathetic and devoted to his wife. As a father he was firm, yet kind, thoughtful of
his children, and, planning for their highest interests, theyˇ
recognized in him a nobility of soul they longed they might
possess. His life was aa inspiration to them, and they realized that, as Enoch walked with God, their father enjoyed like blessed experience and companionship.
The strifes and frets of theological neophytes disturbed
him not; his faith in God and his assurance that Christ was
a perfect Saviour, inspired him in his ministry to preach a
whole gospel. He honored the Holy 8pirit in His divine offices, and amid the restlessness of these unhappy times, his soul was kept in perfect peace because it was stayed on
God. He insisted with the might or an irresistible logic ˇ
that the doctrines or the church, in relation to the cardinal
experiences of salvation on the part of the personal believer,
did not need meretricious deflnitions or extraneous aids.
And so, repentance, regeneration, the witness of the Holy
Spirit, and constant growth into the image of Christ, were
the themes upon which he expatiated with thrilling voice
and kindling eye and gold-tipped winged eloquence.
And today we recall the life-work of our venerable and
glorified brother. We would not shut ont from our mental
vision his personality. By so much as he made the world
brighter, God's thought clearer, man's duty simpler, life's
sufferings easier to be borne, in that measure. he was an incarnation of God's helpful love. And we think of him today, and we glorify God for him, and we pray that the apostolic and saintly succession of God's great and gifted song may never cease until this groaning earth has passed through
its travail and discipline, and is merged in the shadowless
light of the love of God.
"Placid completeness; life without a fall
From faith or highest aim, truth's breachless wall.
Surely if any life can bear the touch,
His wil1 say 'Here' at the last trumpet's call."
Edwin L. T. Blake was born in St. Marys, Georgia, June
6, 1823, was converted at home through the instrumentality
of his pious parents and his beloved little sister in Nassau
County, Florida, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church
in June 1835.
He was licensed to preach at Newnansville, Alachua county,ˇ
Florida, November 21, 1842, received on trial in the Georgia
Conference, at Savannah, Georgia, in January 1843, received
into full connection at the first session of the Florida Conference in Tallahassee, and ordained a deacon by Bishop Soule, February 9, 1845, and was ordained elder by Bishop
Capers, at Quincy, Florida, February 14, 1841.
He was married to Mary A. Myers, January 11, 1848, and
died at Ocala, February 9, 1897.
In 1851 he was left without an appoinyment on account of
ill health.
Ia 1852, l853 and 1854 he was designated by the Bishop
"Agent of the American Bible Society for Florida and
Southern Georgia."
In 1855 be was superanuated and continued in that relation
till January 1871, when he resumed the pastoral work.
The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred
on him by Emory College in 1871.
He was elected a member of three general Conferences, viz. :
those of 1850, 1870 and 1818. The first and last he attended.
In 1856 he was a member of the "Commitiee on Itinerancy,"
in 1878 of the "Committtee on Episcopacy." In 1870 the 111ness of his wife prevented his attendance.
While always profoundly grateful for any expression of
confidence and good will on the part of his brethren, he never
directly, nor indirectly, sought honors or prolerments of any
kind. He was not present at the Conference in Tampa which
elected him to the General Conference of 1878.
A phrenologist advised him, in 1846, when he was twenty-three years old, to cultivate what he called the organ of "love of approbation." Said he: "You care too little of
what other people think of you!" Perhaps he was right.
At any rate, he never consicously tried to be popuiar, but
simply endeavored to do his duty as he saw fit.
For the Committee: R. L. Honiker, Chairman
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